Good Friday

[xifeng]

We had a cold snap; the temperature's dipped below and it's supposed to get down in the 20s tonight, and when I was in Bloomington on Wednesday, there were flurries here and there. Anyway, it was so cold last night that I couldn't sleep (and the cold doesn't ordinarily bother me), and m0mmy finally caved and turned on the heat (ordinarily St. Patrick's Day is when we turn it off); I puttered around with no heat all day, but my God my fingers hurt and this wasn't helped when I was pulling the tails off partially-still-frozen shrimp. The thrust of all this is that I made dough for hot cross buns, which has to rise, and without the heat, it was too cold for the dough to rise. There was some brief concern that I'd killed the yeast, despite taking care not to. Also I found some ginger I didn't know we'd had, so I didn't have to put on real shoes and go to the store. WIN.

And I made shrimp-and-scallop arrabbiata to have over pasta, forgetting that there was bacon in it, so Mom couldn't have any. Still, it is pretty good, though I think we can make do with one can of tomatoes next time. I wish pancetta were possible to get here, but I'm not holding my breath.

Best of all, H finally got his computer fixed and then got sidetracked, so he wrote, which delights me no end because I adore that man (whether he deserves it or not, I'll leave to everyone else). No doubt we will perpetrate some massive evil soon. Ph33r!

I was going to do the driley1 cell phone meme, but I can't think of anything more creative to do than make vague threats involving soul eating.

Comments

[forgottensanity.livejournal.com]

2 times out of 5 I kill the yeast*. I don't know why. Maybe I'm just evil like that. Or maybe it's the yeast's fault for being so killable!

[shake-the-stars.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that it's the yeast's own damn fault. You have to nurture it like some kind of beautiful special snowflake, and it can't be too hot or too cold, and you have to put in just the right amount of sugar and...Really, yeast is the Mary Sue of the baking world.