Onyx Storm, Bread, and a Cookbook

A Sunday roundup

Jan 26, 2025

I’ve significantly decreased my social media usage this week - I login to FB once a day to zip through my Memories and delete cringeworthy shit (including, but not limited to, posts from 2008, flexies, and meal prep posts) and I run through IG stories once, and then I’m done. I’m sick of the barrage of information, the mental gymnastics it takes to go from seeing something horrific to someone’s pancakes for breakfast. My screen time this week was less than 2 hours a day! I have more to say on this topic, but I’m still gathering my thoughts - a longer post dedicated to this will be coming.

Will my Substack have some organization to it at some point? Probably, but right now I’m going to write when I feel like it and not hold myself to a tight schedule. Let’s get to it, shall we?

Onyx Storm

The third book in the Fourth Wing series came out this past week. (If you haven’t read this series its basically: magic, war, sex, dragons. Thats about what I remembered from the first two books, and I just read them last year.) I decided to buy this one because I had some no-rush digital rewards in my Amazon account to use up, but typically I would throw a book like this on to my Libby holds list and read it when it became available.

Ultimately, this book was fine. I texted Katrina about it, saying that I felt like my brain was broken because I didn’t know what the hell was going on for the first half (?) of the book, and I read a recap of the first two before I started! There are so many characters and places, and not a lot of lead-up to which is what - every time she’d say “We have to get the blah blah from the meep meep” I’d think “what or who the hell is that?!” There was one spot where she did actually describe a place as “such and such, this country’s capital, located in the north” which was very helpful! I think homegirl is being rushed to finish this series and she needs a real editor to read it before it goes to print. Diana Gabaldon gave us book 9 of Outlander in 2021 and has basically said “you’ll get the last book when I’m good and ready” - I realize these are two very different series and Outlander has a lot more historical research that goes into it, but the public’s Veruca Salt-ish “I want it now!” demand of Fourth Wing is doing a disservice to the series.

All of that said, I did end up enjoying the book in the end and I will read the rest of the series, but it will be on whatever timeline my library gets it to me.

Bread

I am doing a No/Low Buy 2025, and January so far has been relatively successful - I’ll be doing a monthly recap of this project. I’ve been thinking about getting a bread machine, because my mom has one and the making of the bread is very easy, plus I like the idea of knowing exactly what ingredients are in it (and also, the cost of groceries are not going down, regardless of what The Orange One promised on the campaign trail!) We are in the process of cleaning out my grandparents house, and I had called dibs on the one in the basement but when I looked at it, it was beyond saving so I did purchase my own.

Anyway, bread! I made my first loaf yesterday, just basic white bread, and its delicious. My first attempt was too dry - I didn’t pay close enough attention to the directions and just let it do its thing, but really you should be checking it during the first knead cycle and adding a little water if needed. So first attempt was a bust, but second attempt came out great! I went with the smallest loaf recipe, since this was a test and its just me eating it, but I think I’ll bump it up a size for the next one.

Cookbook Rec

I historically am not a cookbook user. I will google a recipe, if I like it I’ll add it to a recipe card, and then I will hyper-fixate on that meal until I am sick of it. (I have a box of recipe cards in my kitchen - I find its easier than going back and forth to my phone/tablet when I’m making something.) But my aunt got my sister and I copies of this cookbook for Christmas, and I am really enjoying it! I make a point to get ingredients for 1-2 meals per week, and its been fun to share with our family group chat which ones we all are making and liked, or made and will never make again. And the recipes truly are simple, not like when you look up a “simple ______ recipe” and it has 48 ingredients.