Catching up
I feel like I'm not posting much fic just now - it's all going on behind the scenes as I start shaking out my ficathons for autumn and try quite hard to persuade myself not to try writing proper poetry for one of them. But I want to... but it's hard... See? Am torn.
I've posted a couple of old fics to comms, if you've missed them: my second set of Bloody Awful Poetry (Giles, Tara, Anya, Xander, Willow, Buffy, post season 4), and an old Oz/Willow double drabble to say farewell to my favourite werewolf.
Two other random things: if you're a reader of curiouswombat, you may have noted that yesterday's word was 'Psychopomp', which was new to me and very pleasing. In return, I suggest today's should be "cephalophore", just because.
A cephalophore is a martyr saint who is depicted carrying his/her head, having been beheaded. There are some famous ones, like St Denis, of Paris, but as I learned during my cathedral tours in May, there are dozens of others, very often exceedingly local saints. Such as St Charon, who is depicted in the stained glass at Chartres Cathedral.
They often look quite perky, considering the head-under-arm situation, which may be part of the reason why cephalophores turn up in art so much. But it's also an exceedingly handy legend to have if you are in charge of a local saint cult. Your average cephalophore doesn't just wander around with his/her head - no, they head determinedly for a local vantage point, declare (headlessly) that this is where they wish to be buried, lay their head down on the spot and thereby found a local holy centre. On which someone will build a chapel, which will become a church, which (they hope) will become a great pilgrimage centre. And no one can shift the saint to a more prominent church, because that's where the saint chose to be buried. It's the perfect cult basis if you're a bit chippy and don't want the local bishop to snaffle your top relics. Which is why the greatest Gothic church in Paris isn't in Paris at all, but at St Denis, where said saint left his head.
Thank you. That's been in my brain since May, and it seemed worth sharing.
NB: Do not confuse with cephalophage ("eater of heads/brains"). That would be a zombie, which is quite different.
Secondly, more Mexican recipe book scrumptiousness for those following the correspondence course. No pics, it was too delicious to leave it to cool while I found the camera!
This is really a tomato stew, which you add cooked chicken to - a fine recipe for leftovers.
Chop and sweat an onion (size depends on how much tomato you're using), adding crushed cloves of garlic, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper about five minutes before it's soft. Then add a tin of tomatoes (or two, if you want a recipe for serving 4 generously). Mix in a tablespoon of chipotles en adobo (this will be pretty spicy for one tin of tomatoes, medium for two - adjust according to taste). Add 2 fresh bay leaves, and a generous pinch each of allspice and cinnamon. Simmer for at least 15 minutes, more if possible. Kept overnight, it becomes even better.
Stir in shredded cooked chicken and serve in tortillas with any of the following extras: guacamole, sour cream, coriander, grated strong cheese. Plus some green leafy stuff would be sensible.
It's the spice blend of allspice and cinnamon that makes this for me; the chilli is good, but the richness of the spicing is better. I tried a whole variety of the extras above, and I'd recommend either guacamole or sour cream at least for contrast, but any combination was pretty good. Mmmm, spicy.
I've posted a couple of old fics to comms, if you've missed them: my second set of Bloody Awful Poetry (Giles, Tara, Anya, Xander, Willow, Buffy, post season 4), and an old Oz/Willow double drabble to say farewell to my favourite werewolf.
Two other random things: if you're a reader of curiouswombat, you may have noted that yesterday's word was 'Psychopomp', which was new to me and very pleasing. In return, I suggest today's should be "cephalophore", just because.
A cephalophore is a martyr saint who is depicted carrying his/her head, having been beheaded. There are some famous ones, like St Denis, of Paris, but as I learned during my cathedral tours in May, there are dozens of others, very often exceedingly local saints. Such as St Charon, who is depicted in the stained glass at Chartres Cathedral.
They often look quite perky, considering the head-under-arm situation, which may be part of the reason why cephalophores turn up in art so much. But it's also an exceedingly handy legend to have if you are in charge of a local saint cult. Your average cephalophore doesn't just wander around with his/her head - no, they head determinedly for a local vantage point, declare (headlessly) that this is where they wish to be buried, lay their head down on the spot and thereby found a local holy centre. On which someone will build a chapel, which will become a church, which (they hope) will become a great pilgrimage centre. And no one can shift the saint to a more prominent church, because that's where the saint chose to be buried. It's the perfect cult basis if you're a bit chippy and don't want the local bishop to snaffle your top relics. Which is why the greatest Gothic church in Paris isn't in Paris at all, but at St Denis, where said saint left his head.
Thank you. That's been in my brain since May, and it seemed worth sharing.
NB: Do not confuse with cephalophage ("eater of heads/brains"). That would be a zombie, which is quite different.
Secondly, more Mexican recipe book scrumptiousness for those following the correspondence course. No pics, it was too delicious to leave it to cool while I found the camera!
This is really a tomato stew, which you add cooked chicken to - a fine recipe for leftovers.
Chop and sweat an onion (size depends on how much tomato you're using), adding crushed cloves of garlic, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper about five minutes before it's soft. Then add a tin of tomatoes (or two, if you want a recipe for serving 4 generously). Mix in a tablespoon of chipotles en adobo (this will be pretty spicy for one tin of tomatoes, medium for two - adjust according to taste). Add 2 fresh bay leaves, and a generous pinch each of allspice and cinnamon. Simmer for at least 15 minutes, more if possible. Kept overnight, it becomes even better.
Stir in shredded cooked chicken and serve in tortillas with any of the following extras: guacamole, sour cream, coriander, grated strong cheese. Plus some green leafy stuff would be sensible.
It's the spice blend of allspice and cinnamon that makes this for me; the chilli is good, but the richness of the spicing is better. I tried a whole variety of the extras above, and I'd recommend either guacamole or sour cream at least for contrast, but any combination was pretty good. Mmmm, spicy.