Wednesday, Mar 25th, 2009 Categories: 2009, topten
Sometimes, a man just need clean pans. After spending the last 3 years above a mostly unvented cooktop, my pans were coated with a nice thick layer of grease and grime. They were just plain nasty, and I should be ashamed of myself for letting them get that bad. Over the past week, I scrubbed a pan or two a day with some Bar Keeper’s Friend and now they once again look like new. Never again. Hopefully actually having a hood will help matters.
The Lovely Tess’s favorite new activity is helping me take the dog outside to take care of business. She insists on holding the poop bag, sticking her hand inside, and picking up dirt and leaves with it, while saying “poooooop”. Yes, we train them young around here.
One of these days I’ll need to get a new ice cream maker, and if I happen to have a spare $35k and a ready supply of liquid nitrogen, I’ll get one of these. Holy crap.
Continuing with the kitchen theme this week, we’ve decided to phase out using our non-stick pans and replace them with cast iron pans. There’s been lots of talk about how bad non-stick pans are, from the manufacturing process to the fumes and chemicals that they give off when heated. Not to mention them flaking off from too much abuse, which of course, will end up in your scrambled eggs. I like knowing that the cast iron pans will outlive me and will only get better with use. And as an added bonus, you get a free workout when using them since they weigh about 20 pounds apiece.
We went out for dim sum on Sunday with some friends, which really is one of my favorite ways to eat. A little bit of a lot of things, many in dumpling form, and many containing pork. We ordered something on the menu called “Magical Vegetable Cake” that was neither vegetables nor cake. Turns out it was Kao Fu, or wheat gluten. Whatever it was, the Lovely Tess could not shove it in her face fast enough. We’ll be ordering that one again.
Our friends invited us to the Classic Cartoon Festival on Saturday, where classic Warner Bros. Cartoons are played on a big screen set up in Symphony Hall, interspersed with live musical performances. I’m guessing it’s one of the few days out of the year you can see screaming kids running around symphony hall with their pants falling down. The Cartoons were pretty good too.
I’ve officially made my last pizza in my old oven. We’ve shared some good times, but the time has come to say goodbye. Needless to say, the last year or so has seen some rocky times with us, but I will bid you a not-so-fond farewell. Bring on the new oven!
We finally figured out what “no no ga coco” means. It means “No, no thank you.” It’s what they teach at school when another kid is doing something that you don’t like. We discovered that because when the Lovely Tess says “I love you”, it comes out as “I love coco”. Then again, maybe she just loves cocoa.
I am currently enjoying my last day of vacation for the week. No we didn’t go anywhere, and we really haven’t done much. And that, my friends, is what I love about a vacation. I still have five more vacation days to use before the end of April, and I plan to spend it doing exactly this.
An update on the kitchen: contractor has been found, range hood has been purchased, and as of today, the range has been ordered. Thanks to some great connections, a shiny new BlueStar will soon be gracing our kitchen. This is the last range that I plan on buying for a very long time. I can’t frigging wait.
The other highlight of my week thus far: The other night, I made some Whole Foods Brownie Mix brownies, and the directions said to mix the butter with the eggs and water, and then add in the dry mix. So I whisk the softened butter with the eggs and water for a while, and it’s just all lumpy and I can’t figure out how this is supposed to work. So the Lovely Suse walks over, sees what I’m doing, and she tells me that I’m a big dummy and that I needed to melt the butter first. Ok, she didn’t actually call me a dummy, but she gets such pleasure out of seeing me screw up in the kitchen. But it doesn’t say that you’re supposed to melt the butter! So I did the obvious thing. First, I threw out the butter and eggs and started again and made the brownies with the melted butter. Next, I sent a tweet to @wholefoods asking about the directions, and a little while later, they sent a message back to me telling me that I was indeed NOT a dummy and that the directions were wrong. And they were going to change the package. Complete and total vindication! By the way, the brownies are deeeeelicious. Highly recommended.
The amount of cheerios and crackers and animal crackers that permeated every inch of my car was just out of control. The Lovely Tess dumps cups of them all over the place on purpose, just for fun. I don’t even know how to get into some of the crevices, but I had to spend some serious time with a vacuum to even make a dent in the mess. It’s still a disaster, though.
I spent last weekend working on a eight hour final. Now that is a fun way to spend a Friday and a Saturday. And believe me, I needed all eight hours. Well, that’s one more set of classes down, and I don’t want to think about how many I have to go. I just like knowing that a year from now, I’ll have a whole lot more free time on my hands.
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