Unbirthday
So, today I'm just another 32 year old. Milestone passed. Back to studying for the GRE and doing laundry. Which isn't so bad really.
But first... must take a minute to wax rhapsodic on my birthday dinner. Because, well, I love food, and I especially love to talk about it. I'm one of those folks that reads cookbooks, and for me imagining the recipe is almost as good as eating it. I said almost. Anyway, we didn't go out for my birthday dinner, because we never do, because there are no good restaurants less than an hour away, and the ones an hour away aren't that good. Oh, yeah, and I'm really lazy, and would rather eat cozily at home than get in the car and ride endlessly through the Minnesota countryside to get to a restaurant that has like one vegetarian dish (alfredo pasta, usually). So anyway, I made the dinner and J made the dessert, which is a switch from our usual and one that I think we should seriously consider making permanent, as you will see.
For dinner, I made: Vegetarian chili (with a little bittersweet chocolate... mmm), and cheddar chive scones. Nothing fancy, but I was in the mood for chili, birthday be damned. It was delish, although the chili was so rich. There was just a little chocolate in it, an ounce and a half, like you could smell it more than taste it, but still very rich. J pointed out that some ancho chile would be the perfect complement to it, so next time that gets added to the recipe.
For dessert he made: Poached pears with port wine syrup and ginger marscapone cream. This is why I think he should become the permanent dessert maker. Because my apple crisp is damn good, but poached pears?! You should know about me: I usually don't care for cooked fruit, the skins of cherries or apples floating around in there, and for some reason warm seems to make it worse. I'm very selective of my pies. But poached pears, which I'd never had before, seem more like candy than fruit. And they get a thumbs up for texture, which I'm very fussy about. My eating likes and dislikes have more to do with texture than taste. For example, bananas. Just the sound of someone near me eating a banana will literally send a shiver down my spine. Ick.
But here I am off-topic. What was the topic again? Oh yes, the return, or the resumption (is that a word?) of normalcy. Which doesn't actually differ that much from my birthday day. I'm still at home, the car is still at the shop, I'm still alone for the day. But something is different. I don't have that me-day feeling. Although I am still feeling me-day enough that I used a bit of leftover whipping cream in my coffee this morning instead of skim. So decadent.
But Kaplan's is calling my name, and I doubt I'll be feeling very me-day with a hefty dose of algebra under my belt. The trade off, I've already decided, is an afternoon to work on my latest story. And maybe a nice hike, since time is limited before people start stalking around in the woods with guns. After that point, I tend to stick to my own road. I could wear orange, I guess, but last I heard, that color still wasn't bulletproof.
But first... must take a minute to wax rhapsodic on my birthday dinner. Because, well, I love food, and I especially love to talk about it. I'm one of those folks that reads cookbooks, and for me imagining the recipe is almost as good as eating it. I said almost. Anyway, we didn't go out for my birthday dinner, because we never do, because there are no good restaurants less than an hour away, and the ones an hour away aren't that good. Oh, yeah, and I'm really lazy, and would rather eat cozily at home than get in the car and ride endlessly through the Minnesota countryside to get to a restaurant that has like one vegetarian dish (alfredo pasta, usually). So anyway, I made the dinner and J made the dessert, which is a switch from our usual and one that I think we should seriously consider making permanent, as you will see.
For dinner, I made: Vegetarian chili (with a little bittersweet chocolate... mmm), and cheddar chive scones. Nothing fancy, but I was in the mood for chili, birthday be damned. It was delish, although the chili was so rich. There was just a little chocolate in it, an ounce and a half, like you could smell it more than taste it, but still very rich. J pointed out that some ancho chile would be the perfect complement to it, so next time that gets added to the recipe.
For dessert he made: Poached pears with port wine syrup and ginger marscapone cream. This is why I think he should become the permanent dessert maker. Because my apple crisp is damn good, but poached pears?! You should know about me: I usually don't care for cooked fruit, the skins of cherries or apples floating around in there, and for some reason warm seems to make it worse. I'm very selective of my pies. But poached pears, which I'd never had before, seem more like candy than fruit. And they get a thumbs up for texture, which I'm very fussy about. My eating likes and dislikes have more to do with texture than taste. For example, bananas. Just the sound of someone near me eating a banana will literally send a shiver down my spine. Ick.
But here I am off-topic. What was the topic again? Oh yes, the return, or the resumption (is that a word?) of normalcy. Which doesn't actually differ that much from my birthday day. I'm still at home, the car is still at the shop, I'm still alone for the day. But something is different. I don't have that me-day feeling. Although I am still feeling me-day enough that I used a bit of leftover whipping cream in my coffee this morning instead of skim. So decadent.
But Kaplan's is calling my name, and I doubt I'll be feeling very me-day with a hefty dose of algebra under my belt. The trade off, I've already decided, is an afternoon to work on my latest story. And maybe a nice hike, since time is limited before people start stalking around in the woods with guns. After that point, I tend to stick to my own road. I could wear orange, I guess, but last I heard, that color still wasn't bulletproof.
Labels: toad lake life
posted by erin | 10:50 AM
4 Comments:
Chili and chocolate is born to go together. It's a secret ingrediant in some of my dishes (So are anchovies) people have NO idea either ingrediant is included and I usually don't tell them, either!
Oh the GREs... I haven't actually taken them (yet), but I found studying for the math to be so much fun! Really, I'm completely serious. I'm geeky like that. The english? Not so much. Who knew that there were so many synomyms and cognates? What exactely is a cognate?
actually, i sort of agree with you, doug. and i'm an english geek. but the math is fun - like solving puzzles - once i get over the story problem panic that sets in whenever i see "a train is traveling at 90 miles per hour..."
You just have to eliminate the pointless details.
"The train is travelling at 90 mph and Aunt Rhody is in the bathroom. Sarah has just eaten a cookie when she spots another train 8.6 miles away, travelling at 55mph. The leaves are a golden crimson colour, falling gently into the brook below through the thick steam from the train which has only 30 gallons of fuel left. At this rate, when will the first train reach Albany just in time for the fall fair?"
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