welcome to my brain stains

Ponderings of a part-time prose poet.

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Madison Brown

Madison Brown has 132 books on Goodreads, and is currently reading The Break by Katherena Vermette

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Bibliomania: A Reader's Quest

As a self-identified bibliomaniac (I collect more books than I'll ever need...or read). There's a comfort to their company. Shelves lined with colorful titles with entire worlds between those covers. An author labored (to some degree, all do--I think) to create that work. Whether it's added to an already substantial author's catalog or a debut--regardless of genre, length, wordsmithing, or popularity--someone(s) worked incredibly hard to bring those pages together, in that state, for our pleasure!

Does that mean I need to own every book that piques my interest from a review or deep corner of the internet? No. Do I feel inclined to seek out every text that excites me so I may have those sweet tales at the tips of my fingers in a library that rivals Belle's!? Absolutely!!!

So in lies the purpose of this post, not only is this my declaration of intrapersonal bibliomania, this is me taking accountability and my future endeavor promise. Not only do I want to read more of these books but, at the core of this, I want to write more. I plan to write about everything, anything! Whatever tickles my brain pickle, I suppose.

Best writing advice I've since got is: You have to write more to write better. Same with reading. Practice writing. Practice reading. Any time. All the time. Now. Then. It's healthy to stop and touch the pages, savor the words, flip the page. These books were meant to be read!

Alright then! What's first?

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"Until the men made a fit place for the women? Well! they may have quite a wait" said Ebor Dendep

The Word for World is Forest, Ursula K. Le Guin

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To read narrowly and shallowly is to read from a place of ignorance, and women writers can't fix that ignorance no matter what kind of books we write or how those books are marketed.

Bad Feminist, Roxane Gay

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My very first attempt at a loaf of whole wheat bread. Recipe here.

I’ve insisted I can replace the store bought stuff so here we are! I hope it tastes as good as it looks! Yum

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To be a good daughter you just accept the acts of your parents, however ludicrous you might think them; the critical comments, however unsolicited and insensitive; the demands, however maddening; and the emphatic declarations, however contradictory. You do everything in your power to fulfill their wishes, however senseless they sound, and you never question a parent. It is the duty of a good daughter to provide for her parents with a home if they need it. Look after their needs and desires. Never protest. Don't complain. Just eat the tortillas and run.

Ana Castillo, Peel my Love like an Onion

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Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes! 🧁

RECIPE HERE

I forgot the word cupcake and asked Matt what a cake muffin was called LOL

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Recipe HERE.

It’s phenomenal. Taste absolute delicious. I also used the same source for my buttermilk (milk+vinegar) and cake flour (all-purpose flour+cornstarch) substitutes. My two cake pans are different sizes 😆 rookie mistake. And I was too quick on the frosting but I’m content with the results, too bad we can’t share.

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"¡Seras payaso, pero a mi no me entretienes!" You may be a clown, but you don't entertain me!

So Far From God, Ana Castillo 

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Finished my very first cake from scratch.

Vanilla cake recipe found here. I used milk with 5 teaspoons lemon juice in substitute for buttermilk.

And here is the recipe for the chocolate frosting.

It was well worth it 😋

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“I am a writer. Imagining what someone would say or do comes to me as naturally as breathing.”

Joan Didion, The Year of Magical Thinking

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This is a vegetarian take on meatball subs. 

I was quite pleased with my first time attempt at a baguette from scratch. I’m fairly impressed with the growth of my baking abilities. Baguettes tend to have more salt than other bread so this was a welcome new challenge. 

We took some liberties with the recipe (found here) which is poetically named Quinoa Tifah from the Bushwick Grill Club. 

My changes: 

I accidentally used a whole onion instead of scallions.

I used frozen cauliflower I had thawed and then grated. It wasn’t the easiest so I would recommend fresh cauliflower. 

I didn’t have red quinoa. I used a 20min qionioa I already had in the pantry. I think this in combination with the above changes caused my “meatball” mixture to soften and contain more liquid so my “meatballs” lacked integrity in their shape. 

Overall, the cheese and marinara were the most delicious and the baguette was crunchy and misshapen but the quinoa “meatballs” were surprisingly tasty. We had quite a few leftover so we’re still scheming ways to repurpose them. 

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Our Super Bowl spread!!!!

Featuring:

A layered bean, rice, and corn dip. Topped with sour cream.

A slow cooker Queso dip with chips. Recipe

And my proudest dish: potato puff pastries made with homemade puff pastry dough and filled with bacon mashed potatoes in this recipe.

And later we’ll have Zucchini Nuggets.

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My favorite. Crunchy Peanut Butter Cookies 

Here’s the Recipe

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For I wanted to immerse my readers in an epoch in the life of the Dominican Republic that I believe can only finally be understood by fiction, only finally redeemed by the imagination. A novel is not, after all, a historical document, but a way to travel through the human heart.

Julia Alvarez, In the Time of the Butterflies 

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Homemade Pizza 🍕

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Banana nut bread