Monday, March 1, 2010

What a weekend!

What a weekend, and no pictures to show for it, even though the photographer is back home! Useless!

So I had this great idea Friday that I could try to get all of the things done that afternoon, that I needed to have done before the Vegetarian Potluck being hosted at our house Saturday evening. So I got busy! I left work early and kicked out an hours worth of exercise at the gym. Still getting eyes drawn to my ever expanding tummy, but I guess Ill get over it. Rushed over to the grocery store and spent a small fortune on random crap. The most exciting find however, is that they have lemon curd at Kroger. This may seem like a small discovery, but I kid you not, I LOVE LEMON CURD! Its not the best brand Ive ever tasted, but in small town America and lack of time and my own chickens for the thousands of egg yolks it takes to make from scratch, one really cant be fussy. Walked the dogs when I got home and then set to cleaning. Managed to explode a Pyrex 9x13" dish in spectacular fashion (don't ask; stupidity), then had to spend an hour picking up tiny pieces of glass. Then had to sweep, vacuum and mop the kitchen floor to try and make sure I got all of the glass up. Fun! Suddenly remembered to eat, thankfully, as I was getting cranky, although there was no one there to reap the benefits of this crankiness. Made what turned out to be the most incredible cheesecake that has ever melted on my tongue! I made the base out of ginger snaps, spread lemon curd on the base (then proceeded to eat the rest of the jar) and the cheesecake itself was lemon (adjusted from recipe). Sat down, exhausted at about 1015pm to wait for my most handsome one, who rolled in at 1045pm. Both of us were exhausted but hadn't had a real conversation in weeks, so chatted a little. I asked if he was ready for a shock and moved the quilt of my tummy and stood up. He was in shock at how much one little tummy can grow in two weeks; its no longer a little tummy, that's for sure!

Saturday, even though I was exhausted and had gone to bed at midnight the night before, I still woke up with sore hips at 7am. Great. Walked the dogs with my good friend Summer and went to the Bottletree with her and her husband for late breakfast to play catch up. I had to order extra food after I had finished my Danish, as I was still hungry! Piggy! We popped over to Home Depot for some random stuff and then home to set to cleaning again. We cleaned off the beautiful deck in the hopes that some folks would take the party outside, since our house is rather small. Then my life was all encumbered by a cake. I baked a German Chocolate Cake for Danny's father. I would say overall, between Saturday and Sunday, I probably put in a good 12 hours to this cake. Baked the cake part and set it up in the pantry to deal with Sunday. Sat down at 530pm Saturday evening with my book and folks started arriving around 630pm. It was an interesting crowd. We hardly knew anyone that came, which is pretty funny! But the deck did get utilised and the fire was a great success. I had to ask some stragglers to leave at 1030pm because Danny and I had cleaned all we could clean and I was tired! Everyone left their beer, and we had brought a case of Natty Light for those mooches that didnt bring beer, but no one drank it! Now we are going to have to have a party just to get rid of the cooler of beer in the back yard!

Sunday I woke up even earlier! 6am this time; I struggled to get comfortable and finally gave in and got up at 7am. Started some bread for my lovely husband, then started some English muffins as I know he loves those too, then I began the assembly of The Cake. It needed a custard filling which I literally had to sit and stir for 45 minutes so that it didn't burn on the bottom. That then had to cool. I then made a chocolate frosting unlike any other, it then had to cool. Then a syrup. I walked the dogs while everything cooled. Proofed the various breads around the kitchen, then assembly began. It started out well, but since I had been instructed not to use coconut and pecans (main ingredients in the filling) there was nothing to grip the layers of cake, so they started to slip off. Then I broke one layer, transferring it onto the growing mountain of sugar, eggs and butter. I began to panic that after all of this effort, my cake was going to be a flop! I actually shouted at my baby for the first time. Here I was, having a cake disaster and the baby was having playtime in my abdomen, seriously poor timing. I snapped at it to calm down as Mummy was concentrating, and of course, it made no difference! It was playtime and that was that! Danny came running and had the bright idea to toothpick it together and then we stuck it in the fridge in the hopes that this 'set' the custard. Remarkably this worked! The chocolate frosting went on beautifully and I piped flowers on the top. I have to say, it was beautiful and I am so disappointed that there is no picture for you. Somewhere in there I managed to slice my thumb on the oven. Yes, you read that correctly, on the oven! It was the part where the decorative stainless steel meets the actual oven, apparently its sharp. I started yelling as I was in shock that I had just cut myself so deeply on the oven. Danny was on the phone to my mother but eventually got his arse of the couch to come help me. I ran it under cold water and announced that I was over it now, it was just the shock. Then Danny looked down and laughed, 'oh my god, look at your stomach, its huge!', so I burst out crying. Shocked, he asked me what was wrong as he thought I was over the cut, and I managed to blub out that my stomach was huge and that I just couldn't take it! He tried to rationalise that there was a baby in there, but come on, rationalising with a pregnant woman about how fat she is, seriously, you thought that would work! We finally ate breakfast just after noon, jumped in the shower and drove to Memphis to celebrate Danny's father's 52nd birthday with him. Danny made me taste the cake since I had put so much effort into it, but rather predictably for someone that does not like chocolate, I thought it was disgusting. Everyone else thought it was delicious though, thank goodness! Happy Birthday Paul!

Im exhausted.

Its actually a relief to be sitting at my desk crunching numbers with no physical activity or thought processes acting at all.

We didn't manage to grocery shop in all that fuss, so we will be eating whatever we can find in the cupboards and freezer this week! Save for the $2 pineapples they had in the Holly Springs Walmart, steal! And possibly the other three jars of lemon curd that haunt my every waking moment!

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