Books And Other Things I Like

Theoretically a book blog, but mostly plants and *aesthetic* and whatever else catches my eye.

[colorel11]

© Adrian Szatewicz

[locusimperium]

[swan-archive]

locusimperium:

A few years ago, when I was living in the housing co-op and looking for a quick cookie recipe, I came across a blog post for something called “Norwegian Christmas butter squares.” I’d never found anything like it before: it created rich, buttery and chewy cookies, like a vastly superior version of the holiday sugar cookies I’d eaten growing up. About a year ago I went looking for the recipe again, and failed to find it. The blog had been taken down, and it sent me into momentary panic. 

Luckily, I remembered enough to find it on the Wayback Machine, and quickly copied it into a file that I’ve saved ever since. I probably make these cookies about once a month, and they last about five days around my voracious husband - they’re fantastic with a cup of bitter coffee or tea. I’m skeptical that there is something distinctively Norwegian about these cookies, but they do seem like the perfect thing to eat on a cold day. 

Norwegian Christmas Butter Squares

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 egg 1 cup sugar 2 cups flour 1 tsp vanilla ½ tsp salt Turbinado/ Raw Sugar for dusting

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Chill a 9x13″ baking pan in the freezer. Do not grease the pan.

Using a mixer, blend the butter, egg, sugar, and salt together until it is creamy.  Add the flour and vanilla and mix using your hands until the mixture holds together in large clumps. If it seems overly soft, add a little extra flour. 

Using your hands, press the dough out onto the chilled and ungreased baking sheet until it is even and ¼ inch thick.  Dust the top of the cookies evenly with raw sugar.

Bake at 400 degrees until the edges turn a golden brown, about 12-15 minutes. Remove from the oven. Let cool for about five minutes before cutting the cooked dough into squares. Remove the squares from the warm pan using a spatula.

[brawltogethernow]

So I tried this recipe.

And it is GREAT.

It basically makes the platonic ideal of commercial sugar cookies, only in bar form. When I give them to people (which I do a lot, because this is one of those simple recipes where the results seem very impressive), I just tell them they’re sugar cookie bars.

[davetheshady]

Life hack: add white chocolate chips and sea salt

[mxxnlit-witch]

I made these today for the equinox with sea salt caramel chips and they are simply amazing. Let’s see how long they last with six people in the house!

[christinaseas]

i want to try these

[slugbo]

@cyber-moth

[bears--bears--bears]

Photos by Josef Gelernter

[la-reine326]

Classic Novels as John Mulaney Quotes

Brave New World: I’ll keep all my emotions right here and then one day I’ll die.

Little Women: Which is funny because I’m probably gay based on the way I’ve walked and talked for 28 years

The Great Gatsby: I had to stop drinking because I would black out and ruin parties

Frankenstein: I also don’t want me to be doing what I’m doing

Lord of the Flies: Thirteen year olds are the meanest people in the world

To Kill a Mockingbird: I’ve never talked to my dad about that, but I figured I would tell all of you

The Picture of Dorian Gray: Was there ever a ghost mother? Or was the dead victorian girl me all along?

Animal Farm: He’s allowed to do that? It feels like he shouldn’t be allowed to do that.

[witchyautumns]

💕 sierramtn 💕

[bibliophilebeyondbelief]

Hey, I too impulse bought this pretty little volume while waiting in line for a chai at a Barnes and Noble Starbucks!

[heartshapedwhirl]

[books-and-cookies]

i’m curious: have you ever thrown a book at a wall / the floor / into oncoming traffic because you got super annoyed? or did anything similar out of anger or rage because the story didn’t go your way?

[words-and-pages]

A couple of times I’ve finished books that I feel have wasted my time as a reader (bad endings, pretentious authors, that kind of thing) and straight up yeeted them across my room.

[bibliophilebeyondbelief]

Sophomore year of high school, we had to read a Tale of Two Cities over Christmas break. We had absolutely no support and I hadn’t read anything near that complicated before. So eventually I got super frustrated and chucked the book at my wall. I haven’t attempted Dickens since. (Also in all my schooling that is still the only assigned reading I haven’t been able to finish. College prof wants me to read the entire History of the Franks by Gregory of Tours in three days? Fine, will do. But one more convoluted word of Dickens? No thank you.)

[nevver]

Road to ruin

[smilecapsules-deactivated202106]

endless gifs of fleabag (3/?)

[shakespearenews]

A sheep in the role of Cordelia in “King Lear With Sheep.”Credit” Nick Morris.

Source: ‘King Lear With Sheep.’ Yes, Sheep.

[stitchingsanity]

[jeansbookshelf-deactivated20250]

I got 60 out of 1000 😂

1000 Books You May Have Actually Read

Based on the number of ratings each book has on Goodreads. And if you haven't read them, maybe you can use for a literature bucket list.

[vladtheunfollower]

“Everything changes, nothing is lost” (2014) by land artist Katie Griesar #womensart

[spacedgrl420]

[rosettes]

A man feeding swans and ducks from a snowy river bank in Krakow

[acrylickat-blog]

the contrast is insane

[gauzythreads]

relevant to my interests

[lorelaigilmoure]

#poetic cinema

[dankmemes]

[the-thrill-be-damned-deactivate]

today in “things i’m disproportionately emotional about”:

it’s facial reconstructions of prehistoric humans!!

like, look at this part-homo sapiens, part-neandertal man from well over 30,000 years ago:

doesn’t he just look like a dude you’d wanna hang out with? like he probably washes dishes in the kitchen with you, and has excellent weed

what a charming fellow. what stories he probably has to tell. i’d definitely go shoot the shit with him on Contemplation Rock after i’d finished my day’s work carving a bone flute for the autumn hunting ceremony, or whatever

people have been people ever since people first became people, i tell you what

they all had lives and histories and families and friends and dumb gossip and games they played and total bullshit in which they believed wholeheartedly

they all argued about the nature of the world, and of themselves

they all sang songs

they all drew pictures

they all buried their dead in graves, and they buried their dead in graves well before they did a lot of that other stuff. they buried their dead with flowers, with panther claws, with the bones of animals they’d killed, with the bones of family members who had died at the same time or earlier. they buried their dead with their arms folded across their chests

they fell in love

they took care of their old and their sick and their disabled, even when it cost them

they made new things, and worried about what the new things meant for people everywhere, as a whole

[creekfiend]

Oh I like him he looks like he would appreciate my jokes

[systlin]

This dude would have great stories at a get-together and would bring some really great homemade dip. 

[hungry-hungry-hobbit]

I feel like he really digs Lo-Fi Music

[kaijutegu]

This guy was sculpted by Alfons and Adrie Kennis, and their Neanderthal reconstructions are all delightful. 

I love the kid in the last picture a lot- they look like a kid, just a little kid who’s done some mischief and is trying not to laugh about it.

I also adore their Lucy- they’ve struck a wonderful balance between the falling angel and the rising ape.

And their Turkana boy- there’s something precious and wistful in those eyes. 

But my favorite has got to be their reconstruction of H. floresiensis.

Just look at her. That’s a face of someone who’s lived and seen a lot, but also a face that’s known love and joy and laughter. That’s a face with a soul. 

[cricketcat9]

They are all beautiful

What an amazing work, Kennis & Kennis! 

[jeza-red]

why… why is Lucy looking at me like she’s my granny?…

[kaijutegu]

she is your granny.