Duchess Potato Chicken Mushroom Pie

Jul. 16th, 2025 06:00 am
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Posted by Nagi

Duchess potato chicken mushroom pie

I want to rave about the rich, savoury filling of this Chicken Mushroom Pie, but all anyone can talk about is the Duchess Potato topping…..😅 Fluffy and buttery inside with crispy parmesan crusted ridges, I want to pick them off one by one and eat them all by myself!

Duchess potato chicken mushroom pie

A chicken mushroom pie like no other!

This is a pie with a lid like no other. We are talking fluffy, buttery swirls of mashed potato piped into mounds – Duchess Potato style – drizzled with butter and baked until golden, crusted with parmesan.

The peaks and ridges are crispy, the inside is fluffy and creamy, and the underside soaks up the rich sauce of the pie filling underneath. It’s basically a fancy potato crown for your pie……

Sorry puff pastry! You’ve been dethroned!

Duchess potato chicken mushroom pie

As for what’s underneath? A rich pie filling with big juicy bites of chicken and mushroom with a deeply savoury dark brown sauce that tastes like you’ve been slow cooking for hours rather than 15 minutes.

It’s definitely a cut above your regular chicken pie. In fact, it was originally christened an Extra Good Chicken Mushroom Pie (go on, have a giggle and mock my lack of creative writing skills!). I had planned to tell you the little extra things I do to make it extra good: Guinness beer for instant depth in the sauce (think – Guinness Stew!), searing chicken pieces whole rather than chopped for better colour (which equals flavour), and using beef rather than chicken stock for a darker, deeper flavoured sauce.

Little things – but they make such a difference!

Duchess potato chicken mushroom pie

PS You’ll feel like you’re decorating a cake when you pipe the mash. It’s oddly satisfying / amusing.

Ingredients for Duchess Potato Chicken Mushroom Pie

If you make the mistake of adding up the total butter in the recipe (I am not going to do the maths for you), just a reminder that we’re making an extra good pie here. 🥰 If you really want need to cut back (doctor’s orders are just about the only acceptable reason), you can use oil spray instead of butter to sear the chicken and spritz the surface of the potato, and skip the second dab of butter in the mushrooms.

Just don’t skip the butter to make the roux, else you risk lumpy sauce. 🙂

1. CHICKEN FOR THE PIE

I prefer to use chicken thighs rather than breast, for juicier bites of chicken. Though, this is still very nice made with breast (it won’t overcook), I just think it’s better with thigh.

2. PIE FILLING SAUCE AND OTHER STUFF

Here’s what you need for the other pie add-ins and the sauce:

  • Guinness beer – This is the secret ingredient that makes Irish Beef Stew one of the greatest in the world, giving the sauce a rich, dark brown colour and beautiful depth of flavour. It doesn’t taste beery at all because the alcohol is cooked out. Cans here in Australia are 470ml (16oz) so you’ll get two batches of this pie plus a few swigs for yourself out of a can (freeze leftover beer, it’s fine to use flat in cooking).

    See FAQ for gluten-free option making this with wine instead of beer.

  • Beef stock – The other liquid for the sauce. Beef rather than chicken stock (the usual choice when cooking with chicken), for a darker brown sauce with deeper flavour.

  • Bacon – Thick cut streaky works best so you end up with nice pieces throughout the stew. The finely cut slices (which tend to be the more artisan style bacon) will work but they are a bit too delicate for a stew situation – they curl and break.

  • Mushrooms – This is the main vegetable in this pie so we’re using a good amount, 500g/1lb in total. I love the pops of juiciness they bring into the filling, and how they are a sponge for sauce. Substitute with carrots, celery and peas (pie favourites!)

  • Garlic and onion – Flavour base for the sauce. I like to cut the onion larger than usual – either 2.5cm/1″ squares or thick wedges – I just think it looks nicer in the sauce than having a gazillion tiny little diced pieces.

  • Thyme – Classic herb choice for this sauce, also used in Guinness Stew.

  • Flour – Thickens the sauce. Just regular plain/all-purpose flour. See FAQ for gluten-free option.

  • Tomato paste – Just 1 tablespoon thickens the sauce slightly and adds a touch of acidity to cut through the savouriness of the sauce. It was a late addition, and it’s definitely a more balanced sauce with it.

  • Butter – For cooking the mushrooms, chicken and making the roux (each cooked separately in this extra good pie recipe 🙂 ). You can cut down if using other vegetables than don’t absorb oil (like carrots) and use oil spray instead for browning the chicken. But you need the butter for the roux (ie the step when you mix flour in) as you need a minimum amount of fat else you’ll end up with a lumpy gravy.

3. DUCHESS POTATO TOPPING

And lastly, here’s what you need for the Duchess potatoes lid for this magnificent pie! Potatoes, butter and milk for the creamy mash, then parmesan (store bought grated works best) and extra butter for drizzling for the topping.

Mashed Potato topping for Cottage Pie
  • Potatoes – Starchy potatoes, rather than waxy, are best, so the inside of the duchess potato swirls are fluffy inside with a light crust on the surface. Australia – Sebago are ideal (those dirt brushed potatoes we get “everywhere”). US – Russet, and UK – King Edward or Maris Piper are perfect. Or any other starchy potatoes – Dutch creams, King Edwards or red delight.

  • Parmesan – Newsflash! Store bought grated parmesan (the sandy type) works better here as it seems to nestle in the crevices better than finely grating your own. I find that grating my own is so light, like delicate snow flakes, you can end up with a layer that sits on top of the ridges of the swirls which bakes up like a thin parmesan crisp rather than melting inside the ridges. (Am I really still writing about this? BUT THESE LITTLE DETAILS MATTER TO ME! #ThatCrazyHomeCook 😅)


How to make Duchess Potato Chicken Mushroom Pie

The order of cooking really matters here. Sear the chicken first and you’ll end up with a burnt pan before you even start the sauce. Cook mushrooms with the onion and they just go watery without browning. And if you don’t reduce the Guinness before adding flour, the sauce tastes too beery because we’re not slow cooking for hours like we do Irish Guinness Stew.

So no, it’s not a quick throw-it-all-in-and-go recipe. But if you want a really good chicken pie, you’ve got one right here. 🙂

1. Filling

Use a large, deep, non stick pan. Mine is 30cm/12″ wide – this one (shop around, I got mine for around $80, and no, that’s not an affiliate link!).

  1. Garlic butter mushrooms first – Melt butter on high heat, add mushrooms and stir for 3 minutes until lightly coloured but still firm – they will finish cooking in the sauce. Add a bit more butter, melt, toss to coat, then add garlic, salt and pepper. Cook 20 seconds until garlic is golden, then transfer to a bowl, scraping out all the garlic bits (or they’ll burn).

    💡Adding the butter at the end is my trick for getting that rich buttery flavour on mushrooms without needing loads of butter at the start. Mushrooms are sponges for fat!

  2. Golden seared chicken – Season with salt and pepper then sear until nicely golden on both sides (~2 minutes). The chicken should still be raw inside – we finish cooking it through later. Once cool, cut into large 2.5cm/1″ pieces (I do this while the sauce is simmering).

    💡Searing whole gives better colour and flavour than chopped – both on the chicken and in the sauce (thanks to all those golden pan bits – fond!).

  1. Bacon and onion – Lower the heat slightly so golden bits stuck on the base of the pan don’t burn. Give the bacon a head start – cook for 20 seconds, then add the onion and cook until it’s starting to soften (~ 2 minutes). Add garlic and cook for another 20 seconds until golden.

  2. Deglaze with Guinness – Add the beer, turn heat up to high and simmer rapidly while you scrape the base of the pan to loosen any bits stuck on it. Simmer until reduced by about 75% – this will cook out the alcohol and beeriness, leaving behind rich savoury flavour that makes the sauce so special!

  1. Roux – Add butter and let it melt, then sprinkle the flour across the surface and mix it in. It will look like thoroughly unappetising sludge – have faith! 🙂

  2. Beef stock – While stirring the sludge in the pan, pour in half the beef stock, then keep mixing until the sludge dissolves – the liquid will become a very thick gravy.

  1. Sauce thickness – Here’s how it looks at this stage. Very thick!

  2. Simmer mushrooms – Then pour the remaining beef stock in, plus the water, tomato paste, salt and pepper. Stir to combine (it should be quite thin and watery) then add the mushrooms. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes. During this time, the mushrooms will cook and the liquid will reduce and thicken into a gravy.

  1. Add chicken – Once the sauce has thickened, add the chopped chicken and any accumulated chicken juices.

  2. Thicken – Simmer for another 2 minutes until the gravy thickens slightly but remains saucy. However thick or saucy it is now is how it will be inside the pie once baked. Goal thickness – when you drag a spoon across the base of the pan, the path should briefly hold before the liquid flows back over it (like pictured above).

PIPING THE DUCHESS POTATO TOPPING

  1. Fill pan – Pour the filling into a 6 – 8 cup / 1.5 – 2 litre pan. You could put it in individual heatproof pie dishes or ramekins. Smooth the surface to create a flat bed for the Duchess Potatoes.

  2. Pipe mashed potato topping – Fill a piping bag fitted with a star tip with hot creamy mashed potato, then pipe mounds across the surface in any pattern you want. My swirls have a ~ 4cm/1.6″ base and are about 4cm / 1.4″ tall.

  1. Little blobs – Use the remaining mash to pipe little swirls or blobs to fill gaps. I do this randomly – neatness isn’t the goal, I love the rustic, uneven look. Plus, everybody loves Duchess Potatoes, so squeeze in as many as you can!

  2. Drizzle and sprinkle – Drizzle the butter all over, then sprinkle with parmesan.

BAKING

  1. Bake for 30 minutes until the potatoes are tinged with gold and lightly crispy, and it’s bubbling around the edges. Note to self: If your pan is rather full (like mine), put a tray on the floor of the oven to catch drips!

  2. Rest for 5 minutes, just to let it stabilise a bit before serving (if you serve it straight out of the oven, it’s a bit of sloppy mess!). And if you’re feeling really fancy, sprinkle with a pinch of parsley for a dusting of green freshness.

HOW GOOD DOES THAT LOOK!!! And just wait until you taste it!

Duchess potato chicken mushroom pie

Duchess potato chicken mushroom pie

Use a large spatula or serving spoon so you can get a good amount of pie filling and potato topping together when serving. The Duchess Potatoes actually holds together quite well when scooped out.

Now. It’s time for you to come clean.

Be honest.

You want to pick off all the Duchess Potatoes and run away with them too, right? 😈 Don’t leave me hanging! – Nagi x

Duchess Potato Chicken Mushroom Pie


Watch how to make it

Duchess potato chicken mushroom pie
Print

Duchess Potato Chicken Mushroom Pie

Recipe video above. I want to rave about the rich, savoury filling of this Chicken Mushroom Pie, but all anyone can talk about is the Duchess Potato topping…..😅 Fluffy and buttery inside with crispy parmesan crusted ridges, I want to pick them off one by one and eat them all by myself!
As for what's under the lid – it's a stunner. Think – Guinness Stew, but with chicken (and 2 hours faster). Guinness beer adds instant depth of flavour, and beef rather than chicken broth has a richer flavour and makes the sauce a deep brown rather than a pale beige colour. Also, searing the chicken pieces whole and cut later (better colour!) and don't skimp on butter (it's worth it!!!)
Make one big pie as I've done, or single serve size. Excellent for making ahead to bake later!
Course Mains
Cuisine Western
Keyword chicken cottage pie, chicken mushroom pie, chicken pie, potato topped chicken pie
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Servings 6
Calories 577cal
Author Nagi

Ingredients

  • 60 g / (4 tbsp) unsalted butter , approximately divided into 4 (no need to be accurate)
  • 4 garlic cloves , finely minced
  • 1 1/2 tsp cooking salt / kosher salt , divided (Note 1)
  • 1 tsp black pepper , divided

Pie filling:

  • 750 g / 1.5 lb chicken thighs , boneless skinless (Note 2)
  • 500 g/1 lb button mushrooms – very small ones whole , larger ones halved or quartered
  • 100 g / 3.5 oz thick cut streaky bacon , cut into 2.5cm/1″ squares
  • 1 1/2 onions , cut into 2cm/1″ square or thick wedges
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried thyme)
  • 1/4 cup plain flour (all-purpose flour)
  • 3/4 cup Guinness beer (Note 3)
  • 1 1/2 cups beef stock / broth , low sodium
  • 3/4 cup water
  • 1 tbsp tomato paste

Mashed potato topping:

  • 1 kg / 2 lb starchy potatoes , peeled, cut into 2.5cm / 1" cubes (Note 4)
  • 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter , cut into 1.5 cm / 1/2″ pieces
  • 1/3 cup milk , hot
  • 1/8 tsp white pepper (sub black)

Topping:

  • 30g / 2 tbsp unsalted butter , melted (or olive oil spray)
  • 2 tbsp grated parmesan , sandy store bought type works best or grate your own
  • 2 tsp finely chopped parsley for garnish , optional

Instructions

ABBREVIATED RECIPE:

  • Brown mushrooms, remove, sear chicken (aggressively!) in same pan, cut into large pieces. Sauté bacon, onion and garlic, deglaze with Guinness, make roux, add stock, simmer with mushrooms to thicken (~10 min). Add chicken towards end. Pour into a baking dish, pipe on mashed potato, finish with butter and parmesan, bake 30 min.

FULL RECIPE:

  • Garlic butter mushrooms – Melt 1/4 of the butter in a large 30 cm non stick pan over high heat. Add mushrooms, toss for 4 minutes until you get some browning on the surface. Add another 1/4 of the butter, melt, toss to coat. Add 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper and half the garlic, toss 30 seconds until garlic is golden – mushrooms will still be hard inside, they finish cooking later. Remove into bowl (make sure you scrape out all garlic bits).
  • Sear chicken – Sprinkle the chicken with 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper. In the same pan, melt another 1/4 of the butter until hot and foamy. Sear chicken 2 minutes on each side until nicely golden but inside is still raw (if they don't fit in a single layer, do in batches). Remove onto plate, once cool enough to handle cut into 2.5cm (1") pieces.
  • Bacon and onion – In the same pan, add bacon and stir for 15 seconds, then add the onion (there should be enough fat from the chicken). Cook for 2 minutes until the onion edges are golden and starting to soften. Add remaining garlic and stir 20 seconds.
  • Deglaze with Guinness – Add Guinness and let it simmer rapidly, scraping the base of the pan to loosen any golden bits into the liquid (“fond” = free flavour!), until the Guinness is reduced down by 75%.
  • Sauce – Lower heat to medium and add remaining butter. Once melted, sprinkle flour all across the surface and stir for 1 minute – it will look pasty. While stirring, pour in half the stock. Keep stirring until the flour paste dissolves into the stock, for lump-free sauce (yay!). Then add remaining stock, water, tomato paste, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp pepper, stir well.
  • Simmer – Add the mushrooms plus all mushroom juices accumulated in the bowl into the pan. Simmer for 8 to 10 minutes or until the liquid reduces down into a fairly thick gravy and the mushrooms become soft. (Meanwhile, start the mash)
  • Thicken sauce – Add the chicken (plus all juices) and simmer for another 2 to 3 minutes until the gravy is quite thick and you can draw a path on the base of the pan. (Sauce thickness now = sauce thickness once baked). Taste – add more salt if needed (I don’t).
  • Assemble – Pour into a 1.5 – 2 L (6 – 8 cup) baking pan and flatten the surface. (Note 5 for other sizes)
  • Preheat oven to 200°C / 390°F (180°C fan-forced).
  • Duchess potato topping – Pipe swirls on the surface. My swirls have a 4cm base (1.5"), then I fill gaps with small swirls/blobs – I use all the mash! Drizzle with melted butter, sprinkle with parmesan.
  • Bake for 30 minutes, rotating the pan at the 20 minute mark.
  • Serve – Rest for 10 minutes, sprinkle with parsley if using. Attack!

Mashed potato:

  • Make mash – Put the potatoes into a large pot of cold tap water. Bring to a boil over high heat then cook for 15 minutes until soft. Drain, pass through a potato ricer (smoother) or mash well with a potato masher in the now empty pot. Add butter, milk, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/8 tsp white pepper, stir through – it should be creamy but not loose (so it holds its form when piped).
  • Piping bag – Transfer mash into a piping bag fitted with a star tip.

Notes

1. Chicken breast will also work ok here though thighs are juicier. Just cut into bite size pieces and sear the outside on high, sprinkled with the salt and pepper. Remove from pan and proceed with recipe as written.
2. SaltHalve for fine table salt, increase salt 50% for flakes.
3. Guinness beer Key for rich flavour in sauce despite short simmer time, so don’t skip it! Stout is also excellent. Non alcoholic beer – haven’t tried but I know 0% beer has improved drastically in recent years, so might be worth giving it a go!
Red wine (pinot, merlot, anything dry) – use 375ml / 1 1/2 cups. Sauce colour will be more like Beef Bourguignon, slightly more elegant (French!) flavour. I liked that version too but preferred Guinness (slightly richer and bolder).
4. Potatoes – Starchy potatoes work best here for fluffy insides and crispy outsides. Other starchy potatoes that work include: Dutch creams, King Edwards or red delight. Great all rounders like golden delight, coliban and red rascal are also great.
5. Pie dish – Use any you want, I was actually so tempted to make individual pies but I can’t find my large ramekins. I dream of having copper single serving size gratin dishes. 🙂 Bake time will be the same.
Leftovers will keep for 3 to 4 days in the fridge. If making ahead intentionally – fridge or freezer – make the sauce for the filling a little looser, top with mash, butter and parmesan, fully cool uncovered. Then cover and fridge/freezer (3 months). Fully thaw then bake per recipe.
Nutrition per serving, assuming 6 servings.

Nutrition

Calories: 577cal | Carbohydrates: 43g | Protein: 36g | Fat: 29g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 9g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 176mg | Sodium: 986mg | Potassium: 1535mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 5g | Vitamin A: 633IU | Vitamin C: 15mg | Calcium: 88mg | Iron: 3mg

Life of Dozer

How did it take me 13 years to think of getting him a toddler doona to keep him warm on cold winter nights? Lightweight, breathable, and endless doona cover options!

The clouds are furry….🥰

And obviously, this is what I like to think that he’s dreaming about:

But I think we all know that this is the reality…..🤣

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Wednesday's comic

Jul. 16th, 2025 12:00 am
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https://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php?date=20250716

Once again, malicious compliance ... delightful malicious compliance!

Challenge 195: Results

Jul. 15th, 2025 10:40 pm
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Congrats everyone! 🎉🎈🏅 Thank you to all the participants and all 17 voters.
The tally when needed is in the comments of the voting post.
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Challenge 195: Mermay 2025 - Winners

1st Place


by
[personal profile] thesleepingbeauty
2nd Place


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[personal profile] tinny
3rd Place (Tie)
+ Best Composition


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[personal profile] magicrubbish
3rd Place (Tie)


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[personal profile] tinny
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Two Brief Murderbot thoughts

Jul. 15th, 2025 10:16 pm
muccamukk: Blue sky with aeroplanes trailing red, orange, yellow, green and blue smoke. Text: "Not June. Still Queer." (Misc: Still Queer)
[personal profile] muccamukk
That I haven't seen anyone else mention.

ONE.
I like that they cast an older actor. AS is closing in on 50, and it might be a Hollywood 50, but he looks like he's seen some miles along the road. It makes things hit different than if they'd cast a thirty year old who looked like they just hatched. I know they compressed the timespan in the show, but in the book it'd been something in the range of four years between when it disabled its governor module and the start of All Systems Red, plus however long it'd been enslaved before that, which it doesn't even really remember. Which I think is better represented by someone with some lines around their eyes.

TWO.
Nenya speculated about if they were going to do the later books (and I think they'll do three seasons to cover the first four novellas, combining Artificial Condition and Rogue Protocol into the second season, and then call it a day), and if so, if we'd see the ship from System Collapse. I'd been thinking that, actually, mild spoiler for System Collapse )
asakiyume: (Em reading)
[personal profile] asakiyume
Two weeks running with posting about reading on Wednesday, whohoo! ... It won't happen again for a while.


The Tail of Emily Windsnap, by Liz Kessler

I wanted to read this after [personal profile] troisoiseaux recalled loving it as a kid and enjoyed it on a reread. I was intrigued by her description of Emily’s starcrossed parents’ romance and Emily’s needing to rescue her father from mer-prison (which is only half the story; the other half is Emily discovering she turns into a mermaid in water, meeting a mergirl who can be her best friend, and learning about mer-school, etc., while meanwhile managing her mother and babysitter and the mean girl at human school).

more analysis than a slim volume should have to bear )

The tl;dr of this is that I thought it was a fun, imaginative adventure story, and I can understand why [personal profile] troisoiseaux remembers it fondly.

Tuesday, Superman, and Comics

Jul. 15th, 2025 10:13 pm
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[personal profile] littleliability
 Oy voy, today's been a ride. The entire weekend has!! My friends all went out to see the new Superman movie together, and we ended up getting lunch and then going to Books a Million so several of them could peruse whatever comics they had there. I got a few books too, which I'm really excited to start. The movie itself was also absolutely fantastic!! I went into it hoping it would be good and it blew me away. Genuinely one of the better (possibly even best...) superhero films I've seen recently. Definitely going to watch it again once it comes out of theaters, but by then school will have started up again in earnest and I'm not sure how much time I'll have for everything I plan to do.

Speaking of planning, I've finally started drafting for another fic that will, hopefully, not be as sad as my others I've written recently. I'm also hoping it's my first one in a few years that breaks 10k words, but we'll see how it goes and if the writing fairy sticks with me long enough to do it. Actually managed to write a poem again for the first time in a while yesterday, but I feel like I've gotta mess with it a bit more before posting it anywhere, if I do.

As for comics, I've finally caught up on Absolute Batman and Absolute Flash! Next up is Absolute Superman, then I'm considering Martian Manhunter. I'm excited, though, for those.

We've also discovered that Soup, our youngest kitten, has a propensity for Caprisuns to our eternal dismay.

Me-and-media update

Jul. 16th, 2025 03:16 pm
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[personal profile] china_shop
Previous poll review
In the Companions poll, the emotionally unavailable alley cat and the trivia-obsessed fennec fox came first equal with 42.1% each, followed by the stoic capybara with 35.1%. Hugs won the ticky-boxes with 66.7%, followed by frittered-away time with 38.6%. Thank you for your votes!

Reading
Audio: Martyr! by Kaveh Akbar, read by Arian Moayed. Full of cultural specificity and lots of wonderful observations about humanity in general, and art, and death. More emotion-driven and theme-driven than plotty. Beautifully written. So good!

Audio: Swordcrossed by Freya Marske, read by Omari Douglas. I just finished this, and oh my goodness, it mashed all my buttons! It's a light, secondary world, urban-historical m/m romance with guild politics and secrets, swordplay and skulduggery, and people being messed up by their rich guild-house families. I hereby declare (for myself, at least) a sub-category of enemies-to-lovers that is "playful-enemies to lovers". You know, when there are compelling reasons not to trust each other, but they like each other enough that they can't help teasing, admiring, and developing inconvenient loyalties, despite the suspicion. (There are tons of other examples, and I would like to read some more of them. In fact, the Guardian drama falls squarely in this category, as does White Collar a lot of the time.) The two leads of Swordcrossed clicked so well -- I laughed out loud at the banter, and again, often, in sheer delight.
Thoughts about depictions of falling in love in fiction.

There was one thing it did particularly well, for the main pairing, that I'm still emotionally and analytically rolling around in. I think it's quite hard to show people falling in love: I've seen it done via one character obsessing about the other's secondary sex characteristics, which I don't find convincing or interesting. Or sometimes an author has a character notice how good-looking the other is, and from that, the reader is supposed to intuit attraction and emotional curiosity/investment -- but it's never quite clear to me if the "good-lookingness" is subjective or objective, and there are plenty of objectively good-looking people that I don't want to even be in the same room as. Other times, what we're shown is physical attraction as a stand-in for emotional connection, followed by kisses and/or sex as a stand-in for a lot of things. (I've done all of these, of course; fandom is particularly rife with all of this because most of the time a fic author and their readers go into the story pre-invested in the ship.) Anyway, in Swordcrossed, Marske teased all these layers out by having the couple acknowledge their attraction and start an intense "casual" thing with an expiry date, semi-independently of catching feelings. The development of loyalties and being on the same side (in cahoots!), and the delicately depicted tenderness, understanding and mutual care were wonderful precisely because they weren't implied just by sexual attraction, and because it was the feelings, not the sex, that disrupted the characters' plans. It was delicious. (Perhaps I just need to read more fuckbuddies-to-lovers, with a side-order of people-in-denial-in-love, lol.)

tl;dr I found the "falling in love" part very satisfying, and it's making me think about how I might be able to do that better in my own writing.
In terms of the audiobook, Douglas's narration was fantastic and very hot for the sex scenes. A++++ (And for people who've already read Swordcrossed, there's an excellent 18k fanfic for a background pairing by [archiveofourown.org profile] marquis, which works as a supplement to fill in some gaps.) (How is there not more than one other fic for this book, though? I went to AO3 expecting a "Red White & Royal Blue"-sized fandom.)

Audio: I'm two chapters into Meditations for Mortals: Four weeks to enhance your limitations and make time for what counts, written and narrated by Oliver Burkeman, and approaching it, as recommended, one chapter per day for now (though I'm not sure my limitations need enhancement).

Ebook: I'm sort of dithering between The Black Cauldron and getting back to Werecockroach, and consequently not reading anything... and now I've opened The Sleepwalker's Guide to Dancing for a re-read, but not actually started that either. Also, Guardian -- we're in the home stretch.

Paper: Having reached the end of my third and last library loan renewal period, I finally sat down and read No Rules Tonight by Hyun Sook Kim and Ryan Estrada in about two and a half hours. It's a graphic novel about a university traditional-dance club going on an overnight hiking trip in 1980s Korea. The military regime is a constant looming presence, but it's gently funny and sweet as well as eye-opening. I really appreciate how this and Banned Book Club, by the same authors, depict life, friendship, and resistance under authoritarianism. Also, it made me want to try Erich Fromm's The Art of Loving, one of the banned books mentioned.

Btw, does anyone else remember [livejournal.com profile] obsessive24 and her amazing fanvids? Looks like she has a queer fantasy trilogy coming out soon.

Kdramas
I finished My Dearest Nemesis and loved it; an adorable depiction of whole-hearted fannishness and the search for love and acceptance. Am now an episode into First Night with the Duke and still in that "not yet hooked, but willing to be" state of quantum uncertainty. I've also randomly picked up my abandoned rewatch of the Cdrama noona romance, Nothing But Love. (This is a rewatch I started with my late friend J, way back when; he bounced off it because he hated all the male characters.)

Other TV
Finished Murderbot, Poker Face and Étoile, which I enjoyed in that (descending) order.
Just me grumbling about Étoile; please skip if you love it! My deep loathing of Crispin overshadowed a lot of my enjoyment; they kept making him quirky, and I was worried they might try to redeem him. And lo, by the end, Jack was turning to him for advice, wtf??? I don't super enjoy incompetent management (Jack seemed to have no idea what he was doing most of the time; who hired him?) or artistic people being assholes (Tobias, sit down and let the dancers do their jobs!). Mostly, though, my problem was Amy Sherman-Palladino's tendency to let her characters chat endlessly with no story or drive; the party episode was very rambly. I thought she'd got better with Mrs. Maisel, but this was (fittingly, I guess) more like Bunheads, just on a grander scale.

That said, I loved Mishi and Cheyenne's mother, and I liked Geneviève. Cheyenne was funny some of the time, and I enjoyed her sojourn in the cemetery with her mother (despite it literally not going anywhere), and Geneviève's advice to her about The Slip. And I liked Tobias' breakup.

tl;dr: I should have stuck with the gifset.


More Fringe with my sister. The cases of the week are more interesting than the season arc to the point that we both forgot, in a ten-minute break between episodes, that Olivia was kidnapped.

The Secret Genius of Modern Life with Hannah Fry s02e01, which was fun like always, but with disturbing "look how effective surveillance is" undertones.

And a whole bunch of Bluey, the kids' cartoon, which is omg so adorable and funny. I'm not even into kidfic, and I love it!

Guardian/Fandom
Guardian!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Also, [personal profile] mific and I are working on an intentionally Dreamwidth-specific comm for people to post or link to meta discussions about writing. Watch this space.

Audio entertainment
Writing Excuses, random episodes of Letters from an American, Midnight Burger, possibly some other things but I'm having technical problems with Pocket Casts atm. (The app controls are obscured by the phone controls, as if the app thinks my screen is bigger than it is; anyone else having this problem?)

Films
Jurassic World: Rebirth -- this was such silly fun. I'm pretty sure the bad guy was built from a template, but the dinosaurs were wonderful. Favourite part:
spoiler the dozing T-rex -- so tense, yet so funny.


Writing/making things
The glittering ice sculpture of my oomph has become a puddle. Anyway, this was my entry for the Science round of [community profile] fan_flashworks:
Title: Winging It (600 words) [General Audiences]
Fandom: 镇魂 | Guardian (TV 2018)
Characters: Ya Qing, Lin Jing, Zhao Yunlan, Zhu Hong, Original Yashou character, Da Qing
Additional Tags: Post-Canon, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Yashou Renewal, Education, A New Era for the SID, Kidfic, Drabble Sequence
Summary: The Crows need a science tutor.

Life/health/mental state things
The weeks are flicking past at a frightening rate. I'm constantly in a state of "is this just my baseline sore throat, or am I coming down with something?" Note to self: that online Harvard course you signed up for? Do it.

Cats
Cure for ongoing minor cat health niggles: book a vet appointment for later in the week. Within two days she was fine, and I cancelled the appointment.

Korean
I randomly listened to a TTMIK episode (the texting vs phonecalls one) and understood maybe 10% of it? That's not nothing. (Aside: Hyunwoo's theory of why young people take phonecalls on speaker is that the young people were all on FaceTime as babies, so they didn't acquire the "hold phone to ear" habit. I was pleased with myself for catching that, then realised he'd reiterated it in English. ;-p)

Food
My sister brought me a packet of Selena Gomez Oreos, for the laughs; I'm pretty sure those were my first oreos ever. (Selena is mildly cinnamon-flavoured, if you were wondering.) | I made lemon honey last week (10/7/25); I always go through a few rounds of buying lemons and not getting started before they go a bit squishy, but in the end, it never takes as long to make as I think it will. | Also made enchiladas, including the sauce, and a no-recipe beef casserole. Yesterday I made pumpkin and kumara soup. I have plans to try lemon chicken (via [personal profile] autodach) and to make no-recipe risotto this week. It's hard to fathom that a few years ago I rarely cooked.

Good things
Sunshine! Audiobooks with great narrators. Kids' cartoons. Ginger in everything. Fandom and Guardian. Writing (*presses face against the shop window*). Washing on the line. Dreamwidth.

Poll #33363 Retribution
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 11


The best revenge

View Answers

is living well
6 (54.5%)

is sweet
0 (0.0%)

is served cold
3 (27.3%)

requires two graves
3 (27.3%)

leaves everybody blind
1 (9.1%)

other
0 (0.0%)

ticky-box full of writing theory
5 (45.5%)

ticky-box full of brain being empty, but not in a meditation way
4 (36.4%)

ticky-box full of dabbling your toes in a tray of soft, cool, shimmery sand
4 (36.4%)

ticky-box full of the ancient language of shadows and flight
6 (54.5%)

ticky-box full of hugs
7 (63.6%)

1 new pinch hit

Jul. 15th, 2025 09:35 pm
longficmod: Photo of a woman tying a running shoe (Default)
[personal profile] longficmod posting in [community profile] fandom5k
The last pinch hit was claimed, and we have a new one available!

Anyone who isn't signed up but is only pinch hitting can leave prompts at our treats for pinch hitters post! This is a great place to look if you're interested in creating treats.

This pinch hit is due 25 July at 23:59 US Eastern time, one day before our new reveals date.

If you can claim this pinch hit, please comment with your AO3 name. All comments are screened.

PDPH 14 - Code Vein (Video Game), 神さまのいない日曜日 | Kamisama no Inai Nichiyoubi | Sunday Without God (Anime & Manga), Octopath Traveler II (Video Game), 刀使ノ巫女 | Toji no Miko | Katana Maidens (Anime), よるのないくに | Yoru no Nai Kuni | Nights of Azure (Video Games), Xenoblade Chronicles (Video Game) )

Challenge 196: green

Jul. 16th, 2025 06:58 am
magicrubbish: AHS Delicate (AHS Delicate)
[personal profile] magicrubbish posting in [community profile] iconthat
 Vu66xt2w o




Agatha all along.

Url - https://images2.imgbox.com/84/6e/vU66XT2W_o.png

Next color - Cyan

(no subject)

Jul. 15th, 2025 08:39 pm
shadaras: A phoenix with wings fully outspread, holidng a rose and an arrow in its talons. (Default)
[personal profile] shadaras
Mmm an assortment of thoughts from the last like... week or two...


1.
KPop Demon Hunters (an animated netflix movie) was better than I had any expectation it would be, by which I mostly mean it made me cry. Lots of fun, solid music, you do not actually need to know much about kpop beyond "it has idol culture" in order to enjoy it.

2.
I have a mosquito bite on my left arm right under where my watch sits and it only itches when I forget it's there and start itching it by accident. If I remember it's there I can ignore it and it doesn't itch.

3.
At weapons class this past weekend, it was just me and sensei, and then nobody showed up for test prep so we just... kept going. xD It was fun! It's... weird, sort of, how much better I perform the kata we're working on than sensei does? Some of it is that she spends more time watching and teaching than practicing, but some of it is that this kata requires aggression and intent, which sensei just... doesn't want to focus on in her practice right now? idk.

She told me, at the end, that I'm a good teacher and that she looks forward to whenever I decide I'm gonna start taking on a teaching slot at the dojo instead of simply being a substitute.

4.
Sometimes (most of the time) I forget that I get migraines and then I get hit by one and am like "why does the world suck?" and then go "ohhhhh" when I figure it out. This is not helped by how, right now, it's hot out and the physical experience of migraines, dehydration, and overheating are all... okay not precisely the same but highly overlapping insofar as how I experience them.

5.
I have successfully begun incepting myself into plotting out an origfic novel while [personal profile] hafnia goes "oh good it's your turn :3" at me. Probably this will time out for me wanting to start actually writing it in like two months. xD

6.
[community profile] battleshipex has begun in earnest and, uh, the team I'm on is just going "WOW YES CREATE EVERYTHING YAY" and charging forth with zero strategy beyond the love of MAKING STUFF. I enjoy this deeply and also this is the first year of battleship where work has made me busy enough to not be able to throw myself in full-force. I'm still playing, still making stuff, but way slower. <3 That's fine, I'm having fun, and it's kind of nice to not be so completely consumed.

7.
For my birthday last week, my dojomates threw me around an appropriate number of times. (Birthday throws are: a minimum of your age, plus however many it takes to get to a number evenly divisible by the people present to throw you.) This meant I went hard enough and fast enough that I was, at the end, like "ah, yes, I can still drive myself to the edge of an asthma attack if I try". Good to know. Also good to know that I can push exactly to the edge without going over!

8.
At work today it was the rare day when I was in a QUIET area and working ALONE and so could actually listen to podcasts??? wild. very different vibe than listening to music that I only half-hear over noise!

misc.

Jul. 15th, 2025 08:55 pm
aethel: (holmes window [by cimorene])
[personal profile] aethel
1. The Fulbright grant awards were tampered with this year, and 11 out of 12 board members resigned in protest.

2. I watched a South Korean film called Aloners yesterday, mainly because I was scrolling through a list of films distributed through Film Movement, and it looked interesting. It was. I cried.

3. I'm still reading Station Eleven, but it keeps jumping back and forth in time, and some segments give me a creeping sense of dread.

4. I finished watching season two of Severance (?!?) and started on Murderbot. So far I'm entertained.
rocky41_7: (Default)
[personal profile] rocky41_7 posting in [community profile] booknook
Title: The Once and Future Witches
Author: Alix Harrow
Genre: Fantasy/historical fiction

On Monday I finished The Once and Future Witches by Alix Harrow, about a trio of sisters in the American city of "New Salem" in Massachusetts in 1893 who take it upon themselves to revive witches' magic.
 
The Once and Future Witches dovetails historically with the movement for women's suffrage, creating some parallels between seeking the right to the vote and seeking the right to practice magic. I would have liked to have seen this carried more through the latter half of the novel, but I suppose I can see why it wasn't, particularly given it would be another nearly thirty years before the passage of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote. The suffragettes played a long game. 
 
The core focus of the novel is sisterhood, both blood and otherwise. Harrow presents a beautifully wounded and layered portrait of siblinghood in the relationship between the three protagonists: Bella, the oldest; Agnes, the middle child; and Juniper, the youngest. Raised without a mother (she passed birthing Juniper) under the thumb of their abusive and alcoholic father in rural poverty, all three girls learned early on what they would do to ensure their own survival. And while there is great love between them, there is also great hurt, and by the start of the book, the three are not on speaking terms. Harrow did a great job with the complexity here, and watching their relationships develop and begin to heal was very enjoyable. 
 

Daily Check-in

Jul. 15th, 2025 06:19 pm
starwatcher: Western windmill, clouds in background, trees around base. (Default)
[personal profile] starwatcher posting in [community profile] fandom_checkin
 
This is your check-in post for today. The poll will be open from midnight Universal or Zulu Time (8pm Eastern Time) on Tuesday, July 15, to midnight on Wednesday, July 16. (8pm Eastern Time).

Poll #33362 Daily Check-in
Open to: Access List, detailed results viewable to: Access List, participants: 22

How are you doing?

I am OK.
11 (50.0%)

I am not OK, but don't need help right now.
10 (45.5%)

I could use some help.
1 (4.5%)

How many other humans live with you?

I am living single.
8 (36.4%)

One other person.
11 (50.0%)

More than one other person.
3 (13.6%)




Please, talk about how things are going for you in the comments, ask for advice or help if you need it, or just discuss whatever you feel like.
 
zenigotchas: (japanese or broken knees)
[personal profile] zenigotchas posting in [community profile] booknook
This has been on my mind for a while since I've been slowly nibbling away at Friedrich Nietzsche's Beyond Good And Evil over the present 3 months. I'm on the last chapter and have enjoyed it way more than I expected to, even if I think a lot of his conclusions are straight up intellectually or even morally wrong, it is good to see a very different perspective from my own. It has been helping me sharpen my OWN critical thinking skills and my own personal philosophy–Being the philosophy babey that I am, I am not as familiar with the fields of philosophy or how many other good and fun books are in there, but this has been giving me an appetite for this kind of book and to keep exploring.

For those reasons I would definitely say it is worth reading, but mostly because it's so fun.

What philosophy books have YOU utterly devoured or thought were things everyone should try?

Finished Dr. Stone: Science Future

Jul. 15th, 2025 06:33 pm
fennectik: Anime (Anime)
[personal profile] fennectik posting in [community profile] anime_manga
So I caught up with Dr. Stone and made it through the first part of the Science Future ark and it was as expected, fully enjoyable and immersible. I don't think I could ever get bored of this series. Too bad the second part is yet to be available but I am willing to be patient till it is.

And Kohaku is still my favorite.

enchanted_jae: (Slash)
[personal profile] enchanted_jae posting in [community profile] anythingdrabble
Title: Hot All Over 9
Fandom: Harry Potter
Author: [personal profile] enchanted_jae
Character(s)/Pairing: Albus/Scorpius
Word Count: 100
Rating: PG
Warnings: Suggestion
Written for:
[community profile] anythingdrabble Challenge No. 398 - cliff
[community profile] hp_nextgen100 Prompt No. 330 - expression
Disclaimer: Characters are the property of JK Rowling, et al. This drabble was written for fun, not for profit.
Summary: Like flying and falling

Hot All Over 9

Challenge 196: Yellow

Jul. 16th, 2025 01:05 am
javert: regal from tales of symphonia looking to the side (tos regal look)
[personal profile] javert posting in [community profile] iconthat


Tales of Symphonia (Zelos Wilder)
https://i.imgur.com/TnmQQEs.png

Next color: Green

Profile

edenfalling: stylized black-and-white line art of a sunset over water (Default)
Elizabeth Culmer

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