Emchap's Shit from the Internet 01/29/20 🍠
I spent part of the last weekend in Joshua Tree, which was (once LA traffic escape velocity was reached to actually begin the trip) lovely. The park looks like what I imagine Mars does, and I saw approximately 8 million stars while standing out in the desert at night. (I heard the same number of coyotes, too, which was both cool and ominous.)
I wound up staying in a $60 a night motel, because I enjoy sort of run-down Americana, and it absolutely delivered. It has discomfitingly plush carpet in a weird brown color, and several heaters that guests were warned not to use via label maker labels, and water pressure that I would describe as "trying its best." The back yard was full of a set of dry fountains that had been filled with approximately 57 cement figurines of animals (and one sculpture made out of a tree stump smoking a cigarette) arranged together, with color-changing lights that cycled through in the evening. In the morning I poked my head out and learned that we were next to an abandoned lot that housed a feral cat colony.
My traveling companion described it as the motel that kids would go to after prom to lose their virginities if their parents were townies rather than wealthy LA expats, and it was not not that.
That said, aside from the water pressure issue and the fact that I did not have the 14 pillows my heart desires, it was a perfectly nice place to sleep, and it was cheap and near the park, which is all I wanted. It was also five minutes from a place where I had a truly beautiful breakfast and a gift shop where I finally gave in to LA's whole Deal and bought a reusable straw to toss in my bag so I can stop being enraged by paper straws dissolving in my iced coffees.
It was a lovely trip, and I hope to go back.
Shit to read
The past is metal as hell.
I thought this was a really kind look at the ways in which loneliness can gnaw at you.
A great spite piece.
I love the BA Test Kitchen but this article on their failures around race is super not wrong.
This article about the pre-Raphaelites became obsessed with wombats brought me just complete delight this week. Look at all the shitty drawings of Australian wildlife! It's great.
Shit to eat
Spend 40 minutes trying to find the family cookbook PDF that you have saved on your Google Drive somewhere, but fail to remember its name. Eventually hunt it down from a Facebook message from your dad from several months ago. Make a note to change the name to something memorable and copy it to your Drive, knowing full well you will once again fail to do that.
Recipe and some quick metric conversion googling in hand, set out to do your best.
Mix together half a cup of water, half a stick of butter, 48 g of Crisco, and 20 g of cocoa powder in a saucepan. Heat it to a boil.
In a bowl, mix together 125 g flour, 200 g sugar, and 6 g salt.
Pour the chocolate shortening boil mixture over the dry ingredients and stir everything up.
Add an egg, a quarter cup buttermilk, a half teaspoon of baking soda, and a teaspoon of vanilla.
Stir stir stir.
Pour into an 8" round pan that's either greased or—if you're trying to be impressive—got one of those parchment circles in it.
Bake at 400 for 20-25 minutes.
Put your favorite icing on it once it's cooled, and if you don't want to do that, mix half a stick of butter, 3 tablespoons milk, and 8 oz powdered sugar together over heat until it looks like icing. Add some vanilla and some toasted nuts, if you want.
Pour the icing over the cake (easier if both are warm, though you run the risk of tearing the cake up) and have yourself a lovely rest of the afternoon.
Shit to listen to
Shit to buy
I enjoy this risograph.
I want to cover my house in fake terrazzo.
Also obsessed with these fake tiles.