Artsy Witch Ideas 🎨

Gift by Zezhou Chen

Hello! I hope you are enjoying your summer. Lughnasadh is upon us, the first of the 3 harvest holidays. I usually spend this day on the countryside, hiking and enjoying the sun, but this year it is a bit different for obvious reasons! 

I know that usually it is custom to bake some bread for Lughnasadh I am a bit of a rebel so today I am offering you a really great recipe if you plan to do a picnic of a feast to celebrate this special day! I have cooked these tarts more than 3 times already and it is always a success! The recipe is a bit long, and I tried to make it as clear as possible!

Strawberry and Wine tarts

The perfect dessert for Lughnasadh

Prep time: 1 hour

Rest time: 1 hour

Cook time: 30 minutes

Yields: 6 to 8 small tarts or 1 big tart

Ingredients

- Dough

120g (1cup) plain flour

60g (1/2cup) whole meal flour

2 tbsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

100g butter

- Mascarpone Cream

250g (1 pack) mascarpone

35g (1/4 cup) powder sugar

60g (2 tbsp) heavy cream

- Strawberry and Wine syrup

500g strawberries (more or less, it’s not really precise)

55g (1/4 cup) sugar

juice of 1 lemon

A few fresh Thyme sprigs

60g (1/4 cup) port wine

Preparation

//Dough

In a bowl, mix everything until you have crumbs

Add a bit of water for the dough to keep together

Make a flat ball, wrap it and let it rest in the fridge until needed (at least an hour)

//Strawberries

Rinse and cut the strawberries in slices and put then in a bowl

Add the lemon juice, a few fresh Thyme sprigs and sugar

Let it rest in the fridge for until needed (at least 30 minutes)

//Pie crusts

Pre-heat your oven 180°/375°F

Roll out a portion of the dough about 5mm thick

Drape over a small tart tin with it and trim the excess

Put back the trim with the rest of the dough

Repeat until you don’t have any dough left

Pick the crust with a fork to keep the crust flat when baking

Bake in a hot oven for 15/20 minutes. The crust has to be light golden.

Let it cool on a tray

//Mascarpone cream

In a bowl, mix all the ingredients with a whisk or electric whisk until you have a creamy texture

Let it rest in the fridge until needed

//Wine Syrup

Stain the Strawberry juice and the Thyme in small sauce pan

Put the strawberries back in the fridge

Add the port wine in the pan, you can add more Thyme sprigs if you want a stronger flavour

Put the syrup to a boil then on medium heat until the liquid has diminished by half, or until syrupy

Remove the Thyme springs and set aside the wine syrup to cool

//Making the tart

Spread the cream

Layer with strawberry slices

Drizzle with a bit of syrup

Garnish with a few Thyme leaves

Tips

* These tarts have to be eaten the same day. I understand that the process is a bit long so you can cook the crust and whip the mascarpone the day before so you’d just have to do the strawberries, the syrup and the tarts the day where you plan to eat them

* Port substitution: You can use marsala as well, or nothing and just reduce the strawberry juice to make it a syrup

* If you choose to do a big tart, use weights when you bake the crust to keep it flat

Summer recently just started for me, it was late because of the hurricane. So this is just a little picture I drew to celebrate it.

This is beautiful

The mashup you never thought would work

Our Zim’s “thing” and why he’s the Ultimate Zim

I have talked about this a great length with many people privately since Zimvoid arc ended,

@paketdimensioncomic​ @sweetiepie08​ and @xryn-art​ 

But I don’t think I really made a whole post about it. What our Zim’s “thing” is. No, it’s not choking on styrofoam packing peanuts no matter what Zib thinks. And I can explain why really easily. 

Because this:

Is one hundred percent correct. 

Zim is really the ultimate Zim for way more reasons then he thinks. 

And it’s made even way more obvious when you reread the whole Zimvoid arc as a whole narrative.  

It’s not just because Zim was the one to completely erase the Zimvoid from his reality…

HE WAS THE ONLY ZIM WHO WAS CAPABLE OF DOING THIS.

Let’s see, what does our Zim have that the other Zims in the Zimvoid don’t?

He has a GIR. He was only able to interface with the frequency due to GIR. 

And Zim causing realities to collapse in on themselves wouldn’t have been possible at all without GIR. Zim would have honestly messed this up without him (he could have easily erased himself from existence) GIR is way more competent than he appears to be. 

Zim was able to destroy the Zimvoid because of direct assistance from GIR. 

And as we all remember: 

The zapper absolutely fried every single GIR on entry to the Zimvoid. According to Spotted Zim here, every single GIR was destroyed completely due to the zapper.

Not many people give it too much thought because before the arc was over people were predicting GIR would have a large role to play in what Zim’s “thing” is. And he does, because Zim couldn’t have taken down the entire Zimvoid without GIR.

But HOW did GIR survive? Why did GIR survive? what makes GIR so special?

D I B

If Dib did not stubbornly follow Zim blindly into the Zimvoid, GIR wouldn’t have survived.

(That and Dib keeps a close eye on GIR and slips easily into his protective big brother mode with him) 

IT’S THE REASON ALL THE OTHER GIRS perished.

ZIB EVEN SAYS AS MUCH:

Zib finds that weird and hilarious that out of all the Dibs, he’s the only one who comes, but he never really properly check what Dib’s “thing” is because it’s so obvious to him. 

But here’s the kicker about what our Zim’s “thing” is… or what Zib assumes from his thing…

He’s scanning his Memory for variations based on the timeline he came from, not the current events that are happening. 

Because as it stands….

Zim could have only destroyed the Zimvoid with GIR’s help.

GIR could have only survived with Dib’s assistance/interference… and 

Dib needed to follow Zim for this to happen. 

You know what else needed to happen?

Dib had to be there to pull Zim out of his own head and focus on the task at hand…

This sounds vaguely familiar 

So what am I getting at with all these connections? What does it all mean? Well… I have a bit of a theory, and I kinda think the Zimvoid proved it. 

There are a few things that set our Zim apart from all the other Zim and make him the Ultimate Zim..

Zim does not abide by the laws of this society very well. He does what he needs to do in the stadium, but he really is resistant to how bureaucratic the system is. Even 2k and Palindrome who do have their own resistance group, are still functioning within the rules of their society and the Elder Zim says as much. No Zim ever thinks to destroy this dimension altogether and take out all the other Zims with them. Even as a resistance group they are clearly playing by Zib’s rules.

There’s a reason that the Resistance has existed for six months and hasn’t even gotten close to beating much less confronting Number One until Dib showed up. They never really left the game and are really chasing their own tails. It’s just another way to feed into their competitive egos without directly competing in the stadium. If any of these Zim’s were as driven as OUR Zim, they would of confronted number One a very long time ago. 

Because our Zim is the most driven out of any Zim in the Zimvoid.

Zim rose in rank way faster in 24 hours than any progress that the Zim-Resisty made in six months. 

If half or even one of the Zims in the Zimvoid were as driven as our Zim, can you imagine how quickly this establishment could be abolished?! 

Every Zim has a role to fill and they will gladly fill those roles when they have a specific trait given to them… Like… THEY WILL OWN IT. IT IS WHAT DEFINES THEM AS AN INDIVIDUAL NOW.

For all these Zims in the Zimvoid…. and Carl… this defines what they are and who they are now. Every Zim takes great pride in their “Thing”  

For Zim, this is completely unacceptable. No version of Zim would just accept their role like this and he KNOWS that. It’s why he resists so hard and calls them all horrible variations of him. Zim has been fighting tooth and nail to carve his own identity and stand out as Irk’s finest invader for centuries. To get the Tallest and his people to look at him for who he is and praise him for how awesome he is. And now he’s being told that in order to be “unique” he has to “follow the crowd” You see where Zim’s whole conflict comes from here.

 This is why Zim falls to pieces when he is actually given a “Thing” and it’s the stupidest thing in the world. All these inferior Zims are the ones calling HIM the worst…. because of packing peanuts. 

The identity he’s been trying so hard to stand out isn’t important after all…. he isn’t a unique Zim, he’s the worst of the worst out of many Zims. You can see how that can easily break him and he would have stayed in his existentialism if Dib wasn’t there. 

And the thing about having a Dib in the Zimvoid….

It’s pretty obvious that not all of these Zim’s “THINGS” are exclusive. Throughout the multiverse, they don’t do the exact same things with the exact same people. Their Dibs and relationships and histories they have with Dib are extremely different. Zib didn’t take into account our Zim’s relationship with his Dib. 

And why would Zib even care about that? Since he claims that he killed his Zim. he lies about a lot of things 

To Zib, a Dib’s relationship to a Zim DOES NOT MATTER

So much so that he denies his own identity, falsifies so much information, lies to Dib’s face to make a good first impression, and above all else, never looks at any Zim’s timeline to determine what their Dib is like. He never checked to see what Dib’s thing is. He just assumed “oh you’re the only Dib who came, of course, that’s your thing” 

But he was wrong.

Really wrong about this, because Zim’s relationship to Dib is really the core factor in what sets Zim apart from the other Zims. 

Dib not only was the factor in keeping GIR alive, but was the factor in getting Zim promoted to the inner circle so quickly in the first place. 

Dib was also the factor in getting 2k and the rest of the Zim-Resisty wound up enough to actually DO something and storm the gate. Like I said, they’ve been sitting around following the rules of Zim-society as a “rebel” for like six months before Dib showed up.

Dib was able to motive the Zims into doing what they set out to do

Dib actually did a lot to boost Zim up into “Ultimate Zim” status. Wether intentional or not, and judged by 2k’s and Palindrome’s reactions to Dib throughout the arc….

I don’t think any other Zim has ever worked with a Dib before.

We get a lot of hints of this from how every Zim talks and refers to their Dib.

We never know how the Boloney effect was reversed in the show, and that’s part of the joke. But it is very clear that the Boloney effect was only reversed because Zim and Dib worked together to find a solution. THIS ZIM DID NOT WORK WITH DIB AND THIS IS WHY HE IS STILL MEAT.

And from all the context clues I showed before, it’s really clear no Zib and Dib throughout the multiverse have even worked together once, just from how all the Zims tend to regard Dib. 

And ESPECIALLY with how Zib regards HIS Zim.

It’s blatantly obvious to me that Zib has never worked together with his Zim. 

But as GIR has stated: 

If a “real” Zim has never worked with a Dib before…. This is the thing that really sets Zim apart.

Dib was the factor in keeping GIR alive.

Dib was the factor in rallying the Resistance.

Dib was the reason Zim got an audience with number One.

Dib was the one who motivated/inspired Zim to actually look deeper into the irken technology

AND DIB WAS THE REASON ZIM WAS ABLE TO DESTROY THE ZIMVOID

You can call this deep-seated denial from both of them, but they are both right in more ways then they know. 

Dib is the Ultimate Dib because Zim is the Ultimate Zim because they unintentionally, fall into teamwork roles and help each other out. They are both the “worst” because they can work together better then any other Dib and Zim in the multiverse, and that is why they are the best.

Zim was the only possible Zim in the multiverse who could actually do this. Because of Dib. 

And I really think that’s what makes him the Ultimate Zim. 

Like I really don’t doubt it. 

Gaz and Dib are Good Siblings: Yet another overly long analysis

Keep reading

“Let Only Good Energy In” Horseshoe Ward Charm

(little squeal for the first spell I have to share with Tumblr. This and all future spells of mine will be posted in the Spells page of my blog)

The thought process behind this enchantment is adding wards to an object long thought to offer protection and good luck in and of itself.

Items:

a horseshoe

a doorway to hang the horseshoe over

your magical self!

Procedure:

Think of the horseshoe as a cup, with the prongs being the mouth of the cup, kind of like a “U”

Tip the horseshoe over so that the prongs are facing down and shake the horseshoe, making as if you’re pouring something out of a cup. Here, you’re pouring the old and negative energies out, the wards that need replacing

Turning the horseshoe upright again, hold it tightly in both hands and close your eyes.

Envision good energy and the fresh wards flooding into your mouth (for some reason, I see these particular wards as fish? In my mouth? Weird, I know ^^)

Gently blow the good energy and fresh wards into the mouth of the horseshoe, as if you were filling a cup with liquid.

Being careful not to tip the horseshoe in case the wards pour out, secure the horseshoe above or near a doorway to as a protection charm!

Reasoning:

Horseshoes have long been thought to bring good luck to homes in which they’re hung. Eastern cultures were said to have hung them like crescents “C” and they offered protection against the Evil Eye. Back when they were made of iron, they were used as protection against malicious fae, evil spirits, and imps.

Note:

Refill these wards every couple of months. When you go to tip the old wards out, thank them for their protection as you release them from their enchantment.

I didn't know I needed this in my life so much

SIMPLE PLAN PLAYED WHATS NEW SCOOBY DOO AT EPCOT