(no subject)

Dear Cooking-Related Reality TV Contestants,

Just as Project Runway hopefuls should try out at least one unconventional materials challenge before they go on the show, so too should you practice. But for you, the most important thing to practice is cooking a tough braising piece of meet (like, say, beef chuck) in half an hour. Because you will be expected to do it. No point acting surprised.

(You will also be expected to cook under extreme time pressure, but you do know that much already, right? Right?)

Also, if you can avoid saying, "Go big or go home," that would be great, thanks!

C

PS: If you say, "I don't ever lose!" or anything of that ilk, I suspect you want me to think, "Wow, you must be awesome at everything and fiercely competitive!" But what I actually think is, "Wow, you must not ever try anything difficult!" Just FYI. Also, in my experience, people who say, "I'm not here to make friends, I'm here to win," actually wind up doing neither.

(no subject)

Starting assumptions: werewolves are humans who assume wolf shape either at will or when provoked by a stimulus (such as the full moon). That nature is contagious, usually spread by bite.

(That is: if your werewolves don't really turn into wolves, or spread via some mechanism that's not contagious, this question is irrelevant.)

Has anyone read any werewolf stories where the contagion-via-bite is true even if they bite something other than a human? That is, where a werewolf who bites a horse might create a horsewolf that shifts into a wolf at the full moon, or where a werewolf that bites a deer creates a deerwolf, or etc.?

Alternately, any stories where there's an explicit explanation for why that doesn't happen (as opposed to just assuming from the start that the only species susceptible to the contagion is humans)?

EDIT: Of course, as deer and horses presumably can't carry silver weapons or whatever else one does to avoid werewolves if one is a human, this might result in there being a ton of horsewolves and deerwolves and whatever, any animal large enough to survive a werewolf bite, roaming around. Which would make an interesting story, I think: a world in which any animal might theoretically turn into a contagious wolf monster by night, in which humans survive in isolated enclaves with rigorously-protected livestock...

...sort of like in JRPGs, in fact, where dangerous beasts lurk to destroy you as soon as you leave town.

onigiri

I'm thinking that it'd be nice to pack a lunch and go eat at the lake tomorrow, so I'm thinking of making onigiri (rice balls). They're pretty easy, quick, a good use of random filling ingredients, transportable, and a bit more interesting than sandwiches (which we love, but eat at least a couple of times a week).

For fillings, I was thinking:

* fish, either tuna or smoked salmon
* ume (pickled plum)
* pickled ginger
* leftover konbu-mushroom relish
* bonito flakes, wakame and soy sauce

What's your favorite onigiri filling? Or, if you're not familiar with onigiri, what would you put in a rice ball?