Sometimes the job calls for a bit more…

Posted: November 11, 2019 | Author: dievca | Filed under: Musings, Vintage | Tags: BDSM, D/s, dievca, Honor, Life, Love, Military Service, Normandy, submissive, Thank you, Veterans Day | Leave a comment

American Soldiers with Girl and Puppy in Colleville-sur-Mer, Normandy France 1944 (Getty Images)

Thank You.

An odd post…..

Posted: November 5, 2019 | Author: dievca | Filed under: Discussion, Neighborhood Anecdotes (NYC) | Tags: D/s, Death, dievca, Life, Love, Mass Cards, Relationships, Religion, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, sympathy | 1 Comment

The WSJ: Saint Patrick’s Cathedral NYC

dievca hasn’t gone to Mass in a long while. she’s no longer a practicing Catholic. The drift happened many years ago and started with an unwelcoming Diocese and misuse of funds from a family Parish.

Oddly, Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC is welcoming enough to allow anyone to offer up a Mass. One does not need to be a Parishioner of the Church. A Mass card can be sent as an acknowledgment of passing by anyone of any Religion or Church. A chance to have a devout group add their prayers to dievca’s more secular wishes.

It’s pretty much the first time since dievca’s Theology courses in College, the Catholic Church has shown her a form of tolerance and inclusiveness. Granted a donation is involved – but whatever works.

The Gentleman at the Parish House now knows dievca’s face and name, she’s been in 11 times this year. Family members, friends, friend’s family members have passed and dievca had a Mass said and sent a Saint Patrick’s Cathedral Mass Card.

What to Say When Someone Dies

When in doubt, reach out
Show up in person
Send a Sympathy Card
Consider sending a gift
Anticipate their needs
Don’t try to “fix” their grief
Don’t avoid saying the deceased person’s name
Keep checking in
Don’t worry about getting it 100% right

(click here for more information)

The Mass has been celebrated in the Cathedral for 140 years. Today at St. Patrick’s Cathedral the Mass is celebrated seven times each weekday and eleven times on Holy Days.
It is a time-honored Catholic tradition to have Masses said in honor of a particular person and to provide Mass Cards to comfort relatives, friends and loved ones.

Mass Requests

Because we take so seriously the need to match every Mass request to an actual Mass time and date, Mass requests must be done in person at the Parish House during regular business hours.

Announced Masses:
You can request an announced Mass to be said for a living or deceased family member, friend or loved one by coming in person to the Parish House located at 14 East 51st Street and completing a request form.

The suggested offering is $20 for each Mass.

Unannounced Masses:
You can also request an unannounced Mass to be said for a living or deceased family member, friend or loved one by coming in person to the Parish House located at 14 East 51st Street and completing a request form.

The suggested offering is $10 for each Mass.
This gift helps to cover the extraordinarily high costs of maintaining St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Traveling with a Foodie

Posted: November 2, 2019 | Author: dievca | Filed under: Entertainment, Relationships | Tags: BDSM, D/s, dievca, Food, Foodies, friendship, Life, lisbon, Love, Pastéis de Belém, submissive, travel | 1 Comment

Traveling with a “foodie” can be a complete challenge.

Every meal analyzed, every type of food must be explored, on a mission to find certain foods or tools to make the local foods. Insistence upon their way for all food choices – even snacks. FOMO – food-wise.
It gets old, but one tends to go with the flow if said one has no real food-driven desires – only insisting that the complaints of an unchosen meal be limited before the said person goes meltdown on the foodie’s a**.

dievca is not the foodie.

she did not insist that they take a 45+ minute tram to Jerónimos Monastery for an egg custard tart. Packed in like a sardine with people yelling a conversation over her head.
No – that was the foodie who insisted that Pastéis de Belém was reputed to have the best tarts in Lisbon – fresh from the oven… which entailed another 1-hour wait in chaos for the treat to arrive.

The egg custard tarts are not one of dievca’s favorites, but the foodie was in HEAVEN!
So much, in fact, a quest was commenced to scour the city for places to buy the tart tins for the egg custards to be made at home.

An Australian Food blog saved the day, giving three locations to buy the tart tins in Lisbon — one shop was relatively nearby. Then the damn foodie was miffed that the price went up to a Euro for each tin when the 4-year-old blog post said 83 cents per tin….eyeroll.
dievca did send the blogger a message, thanking her for the help.

Anyways, back in Belém, after eating the tarts it was found that the monastery was packed with Asian tourists and the line to wait was insane. The crew just wandered the surrounding park, river walk, and hopped a packed bus back to Lisbon. It was faster than the tram and offered the bonus of watching a European street busker hit on an All-American slice of sunshine~

So, that long intro explains why dievca’s eye was caught with this
NYT Article: The Chocolate Cake that Saved My Vacation

dievca wasn’t too interested in the egg custard tarts – but she could have really gone into a “foodie mode” for Chocolate Cake. Plus, she had great empathy for the writer’s experiences on the #28 Tram after her own tram ride.
BTW, dievca took that #28 tram to transverse Lisbon, but she started before 8 am on a Sunday — no one was on it.

Here’s what dievca wants to make:

Lisbon Chocolate Cake

DORIE GREENSPAN

YIELD: One 9-inch cake (about 10 servings)
TIME: About 1 hour, plus cooling

Lisbon Chocolate Cake

Sarah Anne Ward for The New York Times. Food stylist: Maggie Ruggiero. Prop stylist: Amy Elise Wilson.

On my first day in Lisbon, I became a statistic: I lost all my credit cards to a talented thief on the No. 28 tram. After “the incident,” I wanted to leave Lisbon, but instead, my husband Michael and I decided to tackle our must-taste list. It was on our last day in Lisbon that we tasted the cake at Landeau Chocolate. It was intense, but not overwhelming; truly chocolate, but somehow each layer’s chocolateness was different. I returned home and made this cake, my version of the cake that cured my pickpocket blues. It’s a dense-but-not-heavy, brownie-like cake topped with a whipped chocolate ganache (think: mousse) and a substantial dusting of cocoa. Because this cake is completely about chocolate, choose one you love.

INGREDIENTS

FOR THE CAKE:

½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick), cut into chunks, plus more for greasing the pan
⅓ cup/30 grams unsweetened cocoa powder
1 ½ tablespoons cornstarch
¼ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
5 ounces/140 grams dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup/100 grams granulated sugar
3 large eggs, chilled

FOR THE GANACHE:

1 ¾ cups/420 milliliters heavy cream
6 ounces/170 grams semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

FOR THE TOPPING:

- 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

PREPARATION

Make the cake: Center a rack in the oven, and heat oven to 325 degrees. Butter a 9-inch cake pan, line with parchment paper and butter the paper.
Sift together the cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk to blend.
Put the 1/2 cup butter in a large heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Scatter dark chocolate on top, and heat, stirring often, until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Remove the bowl from the pan, and stir in the sugar. One by one, energetically stir in the eggs, beating for 1 minute after the last egg is added. The mixture will look like pudding. Stir in the dry ingredients. Scrape the mixture into the cake pan, and give the pan a couple of good raps against the counter to settle the batter.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean (or with only a tiny streak of chocolate). Transfer to a rack, cool for 5 minutes, then unmold the cake. Peel off the paper, invert the cake and cool to room temperature. Wash and dry the cake pan.
Make the ganache: Pour 1 1/4 cups cream into a small saucepan; refrigerate the rest. Scald the cream over medium heat, turn off the heat and stir in the semisweet or bittersweet chocolate until fully incorporated. Transfer to a heatproof bowl. Refrigerate the ganache for 10 minutes, whisk it, then refrigerate again for 10 minutes. Repeat chilling and whisking steps until the ganache is thick enough to make tracks when you stir, 50 to 60 minutes.
Cut two 3-by-16-inch pieces of parchment or foil, and crisscross them in the cake pan. Carefully return the cake to the pan.
Whip the remaining 1/2 cup cream until it holds medium peaks.
Using a whisk, gently beat the ganache until it’s soft and spreadable. With a spatula, fold in the whipped cream. Spread over the cake, and refrigerate for 2 hours (or cover and keep for up to 2 days). The cake is best served cool or at room temperature, so take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before serving.
To finish, put the cocoa powder in a fine-mesh strainer, and shake it over the top of the cake. Run a table knife along the sides of the pan. Using the parchment or foil handles, carefully lift the cake out of the pan and onto a serving plate. Discard the strips. Cut the cake using a long knife that has been run under hot water and wiped dry between each cut.

after game analysis

Posted: November 1, 2019 | Author: dievca | Filed under: Analysis, Entertainment | Tags: BDSM, candy, D/s, dievca, Halloween, Life, Love, Shopping, submissive | Leave a comment

Just so you are ready for next year~

Love or Hate?

Posted: October 30, 2019 | Author: dievca | Filed under: Entertainment, Home and Garden | Tags: BDSM, bondage, Candy Corn, D/s, dievca, Halloween, Kink, Life, Love, Shopping, submissive | Leave a comment

It’s One of the Healthier Candies

While it’s traditionally made with honey and corn syrup and contains roughly 28 grams of sugar per serving, Candy Corn is fat-free and only 140 calories per handful. So enjoy the stuff in good health (if you can stomach it).

National Candy Corn Day is observed annually on October 30th.

As you can see from the photo above, dievca loves candy corn – but only at Halloween. she does not like the candy pumpkins and swears that the white part tastes different than the rest of the corn…