I made chocolate pudding
Not from a box. From scratch, with beautiful ingredients.
From a Mark Bittman recipe.
I know a lot of you like him - and he did start the whole no-knead bread thing, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Middle has taken to traveling to the city with his girlfriend on Saturday mornings.
She has an art class at a university and he walks around while she's there and then they spend some time ambling around together when she gets out. Except she's not really his girlfriend because they "don't believe in labels."
Can you hear me laughing? Because I AM LAUGHING.
Tonight he takes her to her junior prom.
Did I already tell you about her Super Sweet Sixteen? Yep, like the television show.
God.
I'm watching Semi-Homemade With Sandra Lee and she's going to show us how to make a cappuchini, which she tells us is a cappuccino with alcohol in it. Her hair is, frankly, bizarre looking, like she didn't brush it after she took out the hot rollers.
The weekend holds nothing special, although K has promised to make pork and hominy stew which is INCREDIBLE.
Oldest was supposed to visit but got trapped in the typhoon and had to turn around and go back to where he is a Manny. This involved several very frantic phone calls whilst he was lost in the upper suburbs as police had directed him around the flood damage. He had his two young charges in his jalopy and fearing the lostness and the undependability of the vehicle he just FREAKED THE F OUT (Yes, I am starting to make up words.), while on the phone with K, or me. So, yeah, that was kind of unsettling. But very true to form for Oldest.
So, let's just recap, shall we?
K and I spend nearly four hours staving off floods in our house by cleverly running hoses from OUTDOORS to the indoor main drain for the sewer line. Soaked to the skin, we syphoned, cleared lines and stood in mud in pouring rain, brilliantly diverting the standing muddy water.
We completely disassembled Middle's drum set, in the basement, as water was starting to seep through the foundation of our house just near it.
While this all worked like a charm, I will point out that cheesecloth is not an effective tool in keeping one's hose from clogging with yard waste such as mud, small rocks, or leaves. Also, using one's shop-vac to start syphons is pure GENIUS. Feel free to email me if you are ever in this situation and need more details.
But enough about the water.
In the meantime, K was waiting for phone calls approving a series of edits made to some commercials he's doing for his spring clients. I know I've mentioned them before, they are the ones who invite us to that gala? Well, these clients, while wonderful, are very hands on. Every tiny detail of their commercials must be run past them and they make changes in minute details right up until the spots are submitted for air. So, a lot of calls and emails and rushing cuts over to them for approval, which can be unnerving. Couple this with the fact that his translator (the spots must be written in Spanish too) was scheduled to leave for two weeks (read: MUST BE TRANSLATED AND RECORDED PRONTO) and he was on pins and needles waiting for final script approvals for most of the day.
Then we offered to follow Oldest to his destination with our large, dependable (HA) car so he didn't have to fret. So we were waiting to hear if he wanted us to do that.
Combine all this with the depositing and withdrawing of the other two at the schools, the mountain of laundry we make, and NOT KNOWING if the house would flood, if Oldest was okay (mark my words, I think this is the beginning of the end of his tenure in the northern burb), all the while shooting emails back and forth with Middle's guidance counselor (he is probably not attending a different school next year) and somewhat frantic phone calls from K's mom about another family member, and we had a really intense day.
Now Sandra Lee is busy doing something with store bought pie crust and an upside down muffin tin. Oh no! She just said expresso! Gah. She's killing me. She put some extract of some sort into a tub of whipped topping. Ooof. I think this dessert she's making looks like vomit with cool whip. Or is it Koool Wip?
Where was I?
I made chocolate pudding.
From a Mark Bittman recipe.
I know a lot of you like him - and he did start the whole no-knead bread thing, so I thought I'd give it a try.
Middle has taken to traveling to the city with his girlfriend on Saturday mornings.
She has an art class at a university and he walks around while she's there and then they spend some time ambling around together when she gets out. Except she's not really his girlfriend because they "don't believe in labels."
Can you hear me laughing? Because I AM LAUGHING.
Tonight he takes her to her junior prom.
Did I already tell you about her Super Sweet Sixteen? Yep, like the television show.
God.
I'm watching Semi-Homemade With Sandra Lee and she's going to show us how to make a cappuchini, which she tells us is a cappuccino with alcohol in it. Her hair is, frankly, bizarre looking, like she didn't brush it after she took out the hot rollers.
The weekend holds nothing special, although K has promised to make pork and hominy stew which is INCREDIBLE.
Oldest was supposed to visit but got trapped in the typhoon and had to turn around and go back to where he is a Manny. This involved several very frantic phone calls whilst he was lost in the upper suburbs as police had directed him around the flood damage. He had his two young charges in his jalopy and fearing the lostness and the undependability of the vehicle he just FREAKED THE F OUT (Yes, I am starting to make up words.), while on the phone with K, or me. So, yeah, that was kind of unsettling. But very true to form for Oldest.
So, let's just recap, shall we?
K and I spend nearly four hours staving off floods in our house by cleverly running hoses from OUTDOORS to the indoor main drain for the sewer line. Soaked to the skin, we syphoned, cleared lines and stood in mud in pouring rain, brilliantly diverting the standing muddy water.
We completely disassembled Middle's drum set, in the basement, as water was starting to seep through the foundation of our house just near it.
While this all worked like a charm, I will point out that cheesecloth is not an effective tool in keeping one's hose from clogging with yard waste such as mud, small rocks, or leaves. Also, using one's shop-vac to start syphons is pure GENIUS. Feel free to email me if you are ever in this situation and need more details.
But enough about the water.
In the meantime, K was waiting for phone calls approving a series of edits made to some commercials he's doing for his spring clients. I know I've mentioned them before, they are the ones who invite us to that gala? Well, these clients, while wonderful, are very hands on. Every tiny detail of their commercials must be run past them and they make changes in minute details right up until the spots are submitted for air. So, a lot of calls and emails and rushing cuts over to them for approval, which can be unnerving. Couple this with the fact that his translator (the spots must be written in Spanish too) was scheduled to leave for two weeks (read: MUST BE TRANSLATED AND RECORDED PRONTO) and he was on pins and needles waiting for final script approvals for most of the day.
Then we offered to follow Oldest to his destination with our large, dependable (HA) car so he didn't have to fret. So we were waiting to hear if he wanted us to do that.
Combine all this with the depositing and withdrawing of the other two at the schools, the mountain of laundry we make, and NOT KNOWING if the house would flood, if Oldest was okay (mark my words, I think this is the beginning of the end of his tenure in the northern burb), all the while shooting emails back and forth with Middle's guidance counselor (he is probably not attending a different school next year) and somewhat frantic phone calls from K's mom about another family member, and we had a really intense day.
Now Sandra Lee is busy doing something with store bought pie crust and an upside down muffin tin. Oh no! She just said expresso! Gah. She's killing me. She put some extract of some sort into a tub of whipped topping. Ooof. I think this dessert she's making looks like vomit with cool whip. Or is it Koool Wip?
Where was I?
I made chocolate pudding.
Comments
Hope Oldest is okay and that the water soon stops. It's snowing here again today so all that slush and mush is frozen. Lovely.
Good luck to K and with all the others
Mmmm chocolate pudding from scratch that sounds yummy!
Oldest is not allowed to end his sojourn in the burbs until after my weekend with you : )because where oh where would I sleep?