Weekend accomplishments, Easter edition
Friday morning I had to take my car back to the VW repair place in Lafayette, after calling first to make sure they were open. (We've always had Good Friday off at work, it's not unusual for local small businesses to be closed that day.) They'd already had it most of the week; I don't want to get into the details, which are boring, but it's a problem I've had before. They did a minor repair but said I probably needed a larger one and the problem may not have been resolved. Long story short, it wasn't, I took it back to get the part they wanted to replace. I really hope that's fixed it, because I am out of disposable income for this pay period!
Complicating all that is it's a small family business and someone had died, and they kept closing early to go to the funeral home in Lake Charles. Was this person the Pope? I'm not trying to be a dick, but the funeral was Wednesday, I don't know why they kept having to go back to the funeral home.
Anyway, so they had my car all day but I had shit to do, so I told Mom I was using the Rav 4 and I didn't want a lecture because she still drives it, and at this point I am a 1,000% better driver than she is. First I had her stop for kolaches on the way back from the garage. I folded a load of towels that were in the dryer, put on a load of clothes, and vacuumed the living room rugs. No one's cleaned the inside of the Rav 4 since the last time I did it in October, so I took it to the carwash first. I used 2 cleaning sponges and the vacuum; it looks much better but there's like a base layer of grime that's going to need professional detailing to eradicate.
I went to Rouse's, and when I got back I did a load of sheets and then washed my bathrobe and the wash cloths I use to take my make-up off at night. And I baked a batch of dog treats for Penny. By then it was getting late in the afternoon and I'd resigned myself to not getting my car back until Monday or Tuesday, and I'd settled down to read for a bit--I'd just finished Marguerite Duras' The Easy Life and started Ethan Chatagnier's Singer Distance--when they called and said it was ready.
That seemed like more than enough for one day, so when I got home I poured myself a large glass of wine, put on Sun Ra's Arkestra, and read until supper. Afterwards I watched Alex Jones vs. the Truth; they were never in focus but I could pick out Dan and Jordan from Knowledge Fight in the background of some of the Texas trial scenes (Dan's beard made him easy to spot). It was a good documentary, if more for normies than for someone like me, who already knows way too much about this asshole.
And I finished a tiny painting of the night sky with the Milky Way for the other locket.
I really like this one. The other one I may change eventually, but this one I think I'll keep. At least until I spill soup on it or something, at which point I'll just make another one. Other than the size, it's a very simple painting.
Saturday I made cherry crescent rolls for breakfast, which I had planned to make on Sunday. But then I thought, I'm making a cake, and there's potatoes and rolls with dinner... I better spread the carbs out a little more. I picked up the stuffed duck at Hebert's in Maurice, and baked my cake layers. I had got catfish on sale at Rouse's, and David pan-fried them in browned butter and made cornbread. I took Penny for a walk to enjoy what is probably going to be the last of the pleasant weather, then decided to watch The Jinx for the hundredth time. Partly because I still felt kind of mentally fried and that's comfort food television for me, but also because the 2nd series is starting in a few weeks. Can't imagine how they're going to wring any tension out of that, seeing as how Durst was in jail from 5 days after the original series ended until his death, but I didn't really follow the trial that closely so who knows.
Too bad Jeanine Pirro turned out to be such a wacko, I really liked her in The Jinx. She was right about Bob Durst and nothing else, ever!
Before bed I finished Singer Distance, which I really liked. It was on the face of it science fiction, but also took place in an alternate universe where Mars had intelligent life, but also it was kind of a mystery, and ultimately it was really just about people. The next book in my queue involves a murdered child and I wasn't really feeling up for that, so I decided to read Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem for the thousandth time.
Sunday I made eggs and toast, changed the bed sheets, and read for a couple of hours. I finished Slouching Towards Bethlehem and decided fuck it, might as well read The White Album again, too. (This is like when I swear I'm just going to read The Big Sleep or The Lady in the Lake, and I wind up reading every Marlowe novel.) I made deviled eggs in the early afternoon, I found an interesting recipe that used butter as well as mayo as the base. I have tried every trick known to man over the years for cleanly peeling a dozen hardboiled eggs, and the only one that works is: buy an instant pot. The shells just fall off. It's the only thing I ever use it for, although David has some good recipes for it.
I did some dinner prep and frosted my cake and got the duck in the oven around 3:45. It needed 2 hours to roast, and then I needed the oven for an extra 20 minutes for the potatoes. I kind of fucked up though, I assumed it was boneless and it was not. Which I didn't realize until I took it out of the oven, because it was kind of flattened out in the vacuum sealed bag, but it plumped up as it roasted. By then of course it was too late to find a YouTube video about how to carve a duck, so I just kind of hacked off the drumsticks for the 'rents and hacked some off the side for David and I. It still tasted great!
In my defense: the stuffed chickens we frequently buy at Hebert's are deboned. The stuffed turkey we got last Thanksgiving at Hebert's was deboned (except for the wings). The stuffed duck that was part of the turducken we got at Hebert's one Christmas (never again, that is a nightmare that should not exist) was deboned.
The cake I decided on was the Midnight Mallowmalt cake from Baking Yesteryear that contains melted marshmallows, malted milk powder, and sour cream, giving it a very unique flavor profile.
I took Dylan Hollis' permission to make the anachronistic vanilla buttercream frosting for it, instead of the period-specific boiled frosting. I just didn't want to deal with boiling sugar on top of everything else, which makes me nervous at the best of times. And I opted to leave the sides naked, partly because I just like the way layer cakes look when you can see the layers--Milk Bar never frosts the sides, either!--and also because I knew it would be very sweet.
I had to buy a 40 ounce can of malted milk powder and only needed a quarter cup, so I should research dessert recipes that use it. (I know you can make milkshakes with it.)
Complicating all that is it's a small family business and someone had died, and they kept closing early to go to the funeral home in Lake Charles. Was this person the Pope? I'm not trying to be a dick, but the funeral was Wednesday, I don't know why they kept having to go back to the funeral home.
Anyway, so they had my car all day but I had shit to do, so I told Mom I was using the Rav 4 and I didn't want a lecture because she still drives it, and at this point I am a 1,000% better driver than she is. First I had her stop for kolaches on the way back from the garage. I folded a load of towels that were in the dryer, put on a load of clothes, and vacuumed the living room rugs. No one's cleaned the inside of the Rav 4 since the last time I did it in October, so I took it to the carwash first. I used 2 cleaning sponges and the vacuum; it looks much better but there's like a base layer of grime that's going to need professional detailing to eradicate.
I went to Rouse's, and when I got back I did a load of sheets and then washed my bathrobe and the wash cloths I use to take my make-up off at night. And I baked a batch of dog treats for Penny. By then it was getting late in the afternoon and I'd resigned myself to not getting my car back until Monday or Tuesday, and I'd settled down to read for a bit--I'd just finished Marguerite Duras' The Easy Life and started Ethan Chatagnier's Singer Distance--when they called and said it was ready.
That seemed like more than enough for one day, so when I got home I poured myself a large glass of wine, put on Sun Ra's Arkestra, and read until supper. Afterwards I watched Alex Jones vs. the Truth; they were never in focus but I could pick out Dan and Jordan from Knowledge Fight in the background of some of the Texas trial scenes (Dan's beard made him easy to spot). It was a good documentary, if more for normies than for someone like me, who already knows way too much about this asshole.
And I finished a tiny painting of the night sky with the Milky Way for the other locket.
I really like this one. The other one I may change eventually, but this one I think I'll keep. At least until I spill soup on it or something, at which point I'll just make another one. Other than the size, it's a very simple painting.
Saturday I made cherry crescent rolls for breakfast, which I had planned to make on Sunday. But then I thought, I'm making a cake, and there's potatoes and rolls with dinner... I better spread the carbs out a little more. I picked up the stuffed duck at Hebert's in Maurice, and baked my cake layers. I had got catfish on sale at Rouse's, and David pan-fried them in browned butter and made cornbread. I took Penny for a walk to enjoy what is probably going to be the last of the pleasant weather, then decided to watch The Jinx for the hundredth time. Partly because I still felt kind of mentally fried and that's comfort food television for me, but also because the 2nd series is starting in a few weeks. Can't imagine how they're going to wring any tension out of that, seeing as how Durst was in jail from 5 days after the original series ended until his death, but I didn't really follow the trial that closely so who knows.
Too bad Jeanine Pirro turned out to be such a wacko, I really liked her in The Jinx. She was right about Bob Durst and nothing else, ever!
Before bed I finished Singer Distance, which I really liked. It was on the face of it science fiction, but also took place in an alternate universe where Mars had intelligent life, but also it was kind of a mystery, and ultimately it was really just about people. The next book in my queue involves a murdered child and I wasn't really feeling up for that, so I decided to read Joan Didion's Slouching Towards Bethlehem for the thousandth time.
Sunday I made eggs and toast, changed the bed sheets, and read for a couple of hours. I finished Slouching Towards Bethlehem and decided fuck it, might as well read The White Album again, too. (This is like when I swear I'm just going to read The Big Sleep or The Lady in the Lake, and I wind up reading every Marlowe novel.) I made deviled eggs in the early afternoon, I found an interesting recipe that used butter as well as mayo as the base. I have tried every trick known to man over the years for cleanly peeling a dozen hardboiled eggs, and the only one that works is: buy an instant pot. The shells just fall off. It's the only thing I ever use it for, although David has some good recipes for it.
I did some dinner prep and frosted my cake and got the duck in the oven around 3:45. It needed 2 hours to roast, and then I needed the oven for an extra 20 minutes for the potatoes. I kind of fucked up though, I assumed it was boneless and it was not. Which I didn't realize until I took it out of the oven, because it was kind of flattened out in the vacuum sealed bag, but it plumped up as it roasted. By then of course it was too late to find a YouTube video about how to carve a duck, so I just kind of hacked off the drumsticks for the 'rents and hacked some off the side for David and I. It still tasted great!
In my defense: the stuffed chickens we frequently buy at Hebert's are deboned. The stuffed turkey we got last Thanksgiving at Hebert's was deboned (except for the wings). The stuffed duck that was part of the turducken we got at Hebert's one Christmas (never again, that is a nightmare that should not exist) was deboned.
The cake I decided on was the Midnight Mallowmalt cake from Baking Yesteryear that contains melted marshmallows, malted milk powder, and sour cream, giving it a very unique flavor profile.
I took Dylan Hollis' permission to make the anachronistic vanilla buttercream frosting for it, instead of the period-specific boiled frosting. I just didn't want to deal with boiling sugar on top of everything else, which makes me nervous at the best of times. And I opted to leave the sides naked, partly because I just like the way layer cakes look when you can see the layers--Milk Bar never frosts the sides, either!--and also because I knew it would be very sweet.
I had to buy a 40 ounce can of malted milk powder and only needed a quarter cup, so I should research dessert recipes that use it. (I know you can make milkshakes with it.)