just a little thing i do

So who's interested to see me bake these cupcakes for September 24th? And who'd help Sylar us eat them?

Picked up some sunflower seed butter at TJ's last visit, to see what I could come up with using it as a substitution. It's been burning a hole in the pantry for almost a week now, and today I finally cracked it open. Smells like sunflower seeds, tastes like not-quite peanut butter. Add some toast and boysenberry jam and I'm in nostalgia heaven. Wow. Frakkin' awesome. I can't wait to try cookies with this stuff.

So I've been reading a lot lately, which used not to be news. One day at work I opened my backpack to look for something, don't remember what, and found the books andrea_wot had loaned me: His Majesty's Dragon and Throne of Jade, by Naomi Novik. Me being bored and it being lunchtime, I picked up HMD, the firstish chapter of which I'd read online the weekend before. My entire week after that was filled with dragon. Even over the breakfast table. I may have to buy these, both to boost sales and to feel less like an idiot for picking up Black Powder War when it comes out because I won't want to wait for someone else to get through it first.

This past weekend, I attended a two-day seminar (Friday and Saturday, ugh) in the interest of passing a very nasty test for the advancement of my career prospects. (Not the GRE, the self-insurance administrator exam.) It was in Buena Park, and as we had no idea how long it would take to get there in morning traffic, we left earlier than the norm. At the last minute, I decided to bring a book, and tossed a too-long-borrowed one, Sunshine by Robin McKinley, in my crochet bag. I don't remember when I started it, but it must not have been on Friday or I'd have been reading it in the car on Saturday morning, which I wasn't. It turned out to be another put-the-book-DOWN-Katherine situation, which I should have remembered from every other experience I've had with the fabulous Ms McKinley, but it's been way too long. I finished the book last night and am now determined to bake cinnamon rolls this weekend. Not as big as my head though.

Tonight, we watched X-Men, the first one. Neither Blockbuster in town had the second; we're contemplating buying both just to be able to see them before the weekend and not look like idiots for only owning one of the three. And damned if I didn't sit there with a goofy gobsmacked look on my face during the last sequence. ( Read Sunshine, see the movie, then click here. Preferably in that order, if you're starting from scratch. ) Not what anyone would consider cut-and-dried, but my flashes of thematic connection rarely are. Suffice it to say I'm very happy I never got around to returning sekl's book, and probably won't be getting a chance to anytime soonish, so that K can read it too.

[Poll #660982]

Things I need to do before Wednesday:
*Bake and decorate yet more gingerbread and sugar cookies
*Make wassail and figure out how to heat it at work
*Modify a Frappuccino bottle to look like a milk bottle
*Construct a cardboard chimney/fireplace and cover it with brick-printed paper, with an optional fake fire inside
*Transport all of the above to work, in pieces if necessary
*Come up with presents, both obligatory and voluntary, for people at work
*Convince co-worker not to add a reindeer to the scene we're attempting to construct
*Bake something (probably sweet-potato pie) for grazing buffet scheduled for Wednesday

Things I need to do before Sunday (and possibly before Saturday):
*Bake multiple kinds of cookies for gift purposes
*Compound multiple kinds of candies for same
*Pack all of above, attractively if possible
*Come up with non-carb, non-gift-card gift for parents
*Wrap all presents
*Arrange for present transfer to friends
*Make dinner rolls and possibly dessert, all of which will be maligned whether my father eats any or not, and none of which will be judged comparable to 1) Marie Callender's no-sugar apple pie and/or 2) my sister's inevitable box-mix fancy-pan bundt cake

Things I did tonight:
*Made gingerbread, sugar, and vanilla ravioli cookie doughs
*Made soda bread so K won't starve tomorrow morning
*Got my reg keys for Avernum 3 & 4, and played 1 1/2 hours of A3 (saying things like, "Dude, leave us alone, our mage can kick your ass"--archery is the bomb in that one.)

Tomorrow should be interesting. With a capital frell.

1. Came down with evilnastybad sore throat on the 10th-11th. Broke out in rash like the one from the July 4 epizudic on Sunday night (11th) and treated same as previously directed. Rash spread to areas previously unaffected and sore throat continued unabated through the 13th. Visited doctor on the 14th at which time sore throat magically resolved into mild cough and tooth-aching left-sided sinus pressure. Diagnosed with This Season's Virus and sent home.

2. Coughing fits began the night of the 14th. The kind that wake you up from NyQuil sleep and make it impossible to catch a breath. Abs began to hurt inside 24 hours. Throat muscles followed the day after.

3. Left eye began to water and redden on the 15th. Woke up with eye glued shut on the 16th and visited doctor. Vitals taken by same nurse from 14th. Diagnosed with backup of congestion and viral spread into left eye and ear, prescribed OTC nasal spray. Hate nasal spray. Took DayQuil. K and I are now competing for meds. My pillow is now toxic. Hands not yet chapped from excessive washing.

4. B5 viewing set for 6 pm Friday 16th.
5:05 - supervisor brings by pile of documents and stays for job-related chat.
5:10 - receive on-the-way call from K.
5:20 - chat finishes and I place order for K's dinner.
5:25 - I complete frantic shutdown of computer systems and start walk to La Salsa.
5:30 - K reaches La Salsa and retrieves dinner.
5:35 - I arrive at Starbucks and place order for green tea and orange tea.
5:40 - we depart Starbucks with two cups of boiling water.
5:45 - we call friends in warning of lateness.
5:50 - we remember why we take side streets to go home, and discover that starting at rice end of burrito while driving = bad.
6:05 - we reach home to find guests on patio.
6:30-10:30 - left eye unpleasantness peaks. This coincides with watching 4 eps of B5.

5. Audit at work beginning the 21st. 21 files in need of attention and no time during work to provide it. B5 in evening on 16th, class enabling me to keep job on 19th, family night and/or pillage and/or prep for Lost party on 20th. Work building open 8 am-1 pm on weekends. Wake up 6 am Saturday, arrive at 8:15 and work until 2:15. 14 files down, 7 to go.

6. Tori concert 7:30 pm on 17th. Preparations taken with DayQuil, etc. do not prevent 10-minute coughing fit lasting through one favorite of mine and one of K's. Cold damp air outdoors at the Greek is not friend to nasopharynx. K does better which really burns me as I am the one with supposedly normal respiratory tract.

7. Wake up 8 am Sunday, arrive at work 10 am, work until 2:30. Files all pretty. Lunch at Finbar's. Oasis of contentment.

8. K's turn to suffer as we hit Container Store, Party City, TJ's, and Stater Brothers for ingredients for Cake of Piratey Goodness. Ears assaulted by Celine Dion song in line at SBros.

9. Had pirate time while softening butter for cake. Got to play stand-in for MIA groom in triple wedding taking place 24th. Stayed on much too long and did not start cake until 8 pm.

10. Cake did not want to assemble nor stay assembled. Attacked cake with toothpicks and skewers to hold it in treasure-chest shape. Refrigerator accepted cake and the gigantic platter it rode in on. And the peasants rejoice.

11. No coughing fits during last 3 hours of cake, nor during 15 minutes of brain-racking in attempt to post benign, coherent piratey blog entry on Ramblings. Therefore, per 2:30 am logic, attempted sleep sans NyQuil. Had 1/2 hour of exhaustion-induced half-dreams, half-hallucinations and woke up coughing. Thereafter woke up every 20-30 min to cough. Marveled, upon getting up at alarm time, that K had allowed me to live through the night.

12. Looked in mirror this morning and both eyes were identical shade of pink. Too exhausted to do anything but stare.

13. Have coughed all day due to not wanting to OD on dextromethorphan. Will have killer 6-pack if I keep this up.

14. Eyes itchy like allergies tonight. Damn flowering Delvians.

I grew up with an electric range, which meant I never understood what was so great about pilot lights or what Sylvia Plath thought she was going to accomplish. I also never understood why it was reiterated in so many kids' books that even touching the stove when it was off was a no-no on the level of trying to bathe a crotchety and undeclawed cat by oneself. After all, it wasn't hot unless it was turned on, and you could see the burners glowing (I was a tall kid) or the oven light on to warn you away. Simple logic.

So my first gas stove, in the apartment before this one, was a real eye-opener. No more storage of potholders in the unplugged electric skillet atop the turned-off range. No more ability to clean the entire stove top without watching 409 boil away before getting any use out of it. On the other hand, it was great for towel-free drying of cookie sheets and cake pans whose outside surfaces had rusted, and softening butter was a breeze. I've gotten more cocky as time has progressed, putting all sorts of stuff to dry on the stove top--metal, glass, ceramic, even some tough plastic put places there aren't pilot lights.

Well, I've gotten my come-uppance. Making pizza on Sunday night, with the oven at 450, I forgot that I had set my beloved white plastic mixing bowl at the back of the stove to dry. One cookie sheet knocked it back against the splashboard (or whatever you call the lip at the back of a stove that sometimes holds controls--ours doesn't), and I didn't bother to move it until quite a bit later. This morning, I noticed that one of the rubber grip rings around the bottom of the bowl had split. On further inspection, one side of the bowl bottom, rings included, was lightly charred. The split ring was actually split in two places and indented in a melty line, and there are hairline cracks in the bowl itself where the char is. Apparently the splash gets as hot as a pilot cover or worse; wish I'd known that before.

I'd keep using the bowl, but I'm more afraid of getting bacterial colonies in the cracks or toxins in the food than I am of losing a few grains of flour. Adding insult to injury is the fact that the manufacturer seems to have quit making mixing bowls, or at least bowls of this type. So for large mixing bowls, it's currently down to my huuuuge Tupperware, my glass bowl I'm afraid to break, and the metal bowl for the mixer. And if I want a replacement, I'm going to have to (gag) shop for it. Ah well. The glass one is at least big enough to use the new pastry blender with (it needs a lot of room). And Christmas, as my mom used to say this time of year, is coming. Though I think I may hurry it along a bit this time.

Well, the dessert question is getting attacked from both sides. My sister is making lemon cake, carrot cake, and chocolate cake; I'm taking the angel food, red apple cake, and snowball/Mexican wedding cookies. People are going to roll out of that house, I swear. Nobody will be able to say that Grandma didn't cultivate culinary skills in her female descendants.

The other fun with this setup is that, by Friday, I'll have baked/cooked something every other night this week. Pie early Monday, zucchini Monday night, scones last night, German chocolate cake tonight (work birthday tomorrow--I'm getting free pizza lunch out of the deal), and the extravaganza tomorrow. I'm thinking I should do the apple cake tonight, as it's easy and keeps well. Just chop apples, dump ingredients, stir, glop, bake. I don't even chop up the walnuts, just sort of mush the bag they come in. Nobody seems to have a problem with it. And hey, I can take the can of whipped cream we haven't found a good use for since buying it.