A little of this, a little of that

One day late birthday greetings to mistressofrohan! (if memory serves) I hope you had a wonderful Christmas Day birthday with your family. Here chez moi, we aren't opening our gifts until after dinner tonight when one of my stepsisters and her husband come to visit. So I still don't know what all I have hiding under the tree, though euclase, I have yet to thank you publicly for the absolutely gorgeous drawing of Ralph Fiennes as Onegin. It's stunning, and I'll need to find an appropriate frame for it.

I went to a dance workout class this morning at 9:00 while my mom and grandfather (92) did their own workouts. I'm going back at 5:30 for a first-time-offered kickboxing class. Considering that I have a lot of anger to work through, I'm looking forward to it. The classes are also helping me burn off some of yesterday's food. You guys know I'm not a foodie, but I do have one dish inherited from shelliz14's mother- the whole family are great cooks. I made this yesterday morning as part of our breakfast. This is what I affectionately consider a 2-quart heart attack. The recipe is below, so now you can't tell me I never gave you guys anything!

Baked Garlic Cheese Grits

4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup Martha White Quick Grits
2 cups (8 oz.) grated sharp cheddar cheese
1 roll (6 oz) garlic cheese (this is found, in the southern U.S., anyway, as a Kraft cheese product. It's literally a small roll of garlic cheese. It's excellent. The rest of you may need to do this alternate version if you can't find it) or an 8 oz jar of Cheese Whiz with garlic powder added to recipe as desired
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tablespoon worchestershire sauce
paprika

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 2 quart baking dish. Bring water and salt to boil in a large saucepan. Slowly stir in grits. Cover, reduce heat and cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in cheeses andn butter until melted. Add eggs and worchestershire sauce, blend well. Pour into prepared dish. Sprinkle with paprika as desired. Bake 40-45 minutes or until set. Cool 10 minutes before serving.

It is so decadently delicious. I told my stepdad that I thought I'd made it for him before. He looked at me with this expression of absolute bliss and said, "No- I would've remembered." LOL.

Last but not least, my mind is turning back to these couple of academic fanfiction papers I'd like to write, so I'm probably going to post some questions about crossovers similar to what I posited a little while ago and try to get it picked up by the daily snitch and/or another group that fungus_files told me about. Otherwise I'll go looking for feedback at Sugar Quill since I'm an author over there now, and it is a pretty big archive. I suppose fictionalley would be another good place to go, and I need to do some research into seeing if there are any HP crossover-exclusive archives. But anyway, if you see a public post that looks familiar, that's why- I'm looking for a wide cross-section of feedback about crossovers.

Still working on the remaining giftfics, too! And I may just curl up and read this afternoon. Or knit. Or nap. I hope you're all having a really good day.

Oh! And a last thing, since I now have some Boromir fans on my flist, while not directly related, I recently rediscovered a picture of me in what I considered to be my Finduilas of dol Amroth costume, and I put it in TORn's first costume contest, complete with accompanying banner and 'portraits' of my boys. So here's a pic!

Christmas giftfic #6- for eldritchhobbit

Part of the 12 days of Christmas, this story is for eldritchhobbit. Her request was this:

There's also another thing, a gap filler, I've entertained fantasies about, while I'm on a roll with The Half-Blood Prince. (And no, I'm not asking for two fics - I'm just rambling to someone I know will understand, or at least tolerate me. *g*) It's on page 503. Dumbledore to Harry re: the destruction of Marvolo's ring: "Had it not been...for Professor Snape's timely action when I returned to Hogwarts, desperately injured, I might not have lived to tell the tale." Geez, I'd love to know what that scene looked like, how Snape interacted with a desperately wounded Dumbledore when there was no audience, just the two of them. Of course you know I think Dumbledore's trust in Snape will ultimately be justified, but even not knowing for certain, Snape must've shown Dumbledore some side of himself few see... and a wounded and vulnerable Dumbledore would be a fascinating heartbreak, don't you think?

With no further ado, here is your story- I hope that you find it's worth the wait. Story and icon are dedicated to you, my dear friend and confidant. ♥

Title: Ever More Tightly Bound
Fandom: HP
Rating: General- Drama and angst. (hello, it is for eldritchhobbit, after all! Angst! Angst!)
Summary: Gapfiller for Half-Blood Prince, visiting a scene Dumbledore mentions in 'Horcruxes' about Snape taking care of him when he returns to Hogwarts after destroying Marvolo's ring.

My deep-seated gratitude to llembas, snottygrrl and fungus_files who all gave me betas in well under 24-hours. You're amazing.

( Ever More Tightly Bound )