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Big Wally is no more. Let us all observe a moment of silence.
A few weeks ago I came into the lady bathroom to find a leak on the floor underneath him. Mrguy put him out of his misery and escorted him to the trash can. He had a good run, Big Wally, and there's only so long (40 years or so) that you can keep a corrosive substance in a can under pressure.
He has been replaced, not in our hearts but on the shelf by Free Expression Paint (red).
Our pie-liking friend brought us flowers for Catmother's Day.
For my very own sweet mama's day I am staying home and letting the "good daughter" handle. Mom's not entirely in love with this plan, but as I explained yesterday I am letting bigsis do the sexy stuff (and she's also taking one for the team by escorting her to the doctor tomorrow).
I observed mama's day yesterday. Youngest neph and I had lunch with the mama, then I did a service call with AAA to get her battery jumped and drove around for an hour to get it juiced up. I went out to the airport, then through some sketchy neighborhoods by the cemetery then back to her place. I considered reprogramming all of her radio stations to NPR while I was at the controls, but I gave her a mix of NPR, her usual republican radio and the spanish rock station, which was playing some seriously groovy tunes. Too bad I couldn't actually take the mama out for the drive, but she had a hot date with her physical therapist. As I left she could barely keep her eyes open and neither could I :)
Mrguy and I woke up this morning with the realization that we are not 25 any more. After yesterday with the mama and a gig with our Hawaiian band the night before, we are pooped. I am still in my jammies at 5:45pm and...why bother?
The evening will see us eating turnips. It's turnipzeit! Like spargelzeit but a lot less tasty. I have some simmering in dashi, and I'm substituting turnips for green beans in an udon salad, and hopefully that will be the last of the turnips from our recent veggie box. Maybe I'll smother some under the beurre blanc I made last night (beginner's luck -- it was fabulous).
Oh, and there's rhubarb, Man, I love the rhubarbses. Plain, stewed with lots of sugar.
I have a friend who stopped eating sugar but enjoys dessert. He mostly does without rather than tripping on it. But he really enjoys dessert so when we come over I try to make some.
Yesterday I was with the mama and bigsis for bigsis' birthday. This involved going to the mama's, helping her get ready for her physical therapist, hanging out, getting her ready to come to my house, reminding her many times that Mother's Day is next week, listening to her complain about all kinds of things (while trying to counter with the "glass is half full" version of whatever she just said). Then hanging out with sis and then doing the other mama stuff in reverse when I took her home. Whew!
While I was at mom's I noticed a handy hoard of apples, some quite wizened. I took them home with me and fed them to my people today. This allowed me to play in the kitchen for the first time in weeks and use favorite implements, all for the greater good.
First, my apple peeler that the big guy (mrguy's dad) bought me. It has officially given up the ghost on this final pie, but after 22 years I'm ok with it. I spent some of the baking time ordering a new peeler online.
In the background you will see the sweetener I used. I do not believe in agave sweetener. I think it's bogus and that creating it is probably a worse use of environmental resources than producing cane sugar, but this pie is about love, and not the environment, so I used it to make our friend happy.
Here are the OXO canisters that I bought recently. If you don't have any...they're the best. The guys at work use them for storing coffee grounds, and they're an extremely satisfying object to use. They're airtight and with a small nudge that circle in the top pops up to become a handle. Having a clear container allows me to admire my flour shovel. It's the little things that make me happy, people!
Yes, you'll notice the prepared pie crust in the background. mrsguy doesn't have time for crust and if you have a problem with that she has a problem with you.
I don't really traffic in cinnamon, so I dug out some coriander from the spice drawer. One of my favorite things about the kitchen. Those big sacks in the photo are smoked paprika. We bought some in Hungary and have been strung out on it and I panicked when we were running low but found the exact same kind on Amazon. There is no smoked paprika in the recipe, but I did plump some green raisins and throw those in.
Eventually there was pie, and it made our hosts and their parents happy. I left the rest of the pie with them, and our host promised to eat some for breakfast which, frankly, is a pretty amazing time for pie (also a great time for cold lasagne, cold pizza and leftover twice-baked potatoes.
Playing in the kitchen. Such a happy girl.
