Mom is Just a Nickname

I forgot about Paella!!!! What I was thinking??? I wonder what else I’ve forgotten as I went through the alphabet.

Especially in the cold winter months in the Great White North (as I fondly call anything North of Florida), there isn’t much better than having a pot of stew simmering on the stove all day and a loaf of bread baking in the oven. The savory smells delight your senses, and the warmth from the oven wrap around you like a cozy blanket.

It’s been pretty cool down here in Florida, lately, so I have been making more soups, stews and bread. I even tried to make my own sourdough starter, but honestly, it scared me. For one thing, it wasn’t warm enough anywhere in the house to convince it to ‘ferment’ properly. I searched and searched for a spot with some warmth, but even the top of my refrigerator was cool to the touch! I finally gave up and dumped the smelly concoction out. I’ll try again in the summer, when the house is on the warm side, I told Toph.

I’ve had real San Francisco Sourdough once, when my parents brought it back from a trip to California. It is, hands down, the best sourdough I have ever had! Sure, places around here make sourdough, but it is NOTHING compared to the the bread from San Francisco. Toph was telling J about how there’s some special bacteria or organism in the air there that gives it that famous tang.

Although the versions around here don’t compare to that San Fran bread, some of them get awfully close. Certainly close enough to appease my appetite. If I feel like making bread at home, I’ll stick with any of the other recipes I’ve got that don’t involve milk and yogurt fermenting in a warm place!

I know this alphabet thing worked well for awhile, but I’m ready to get to the end and be done. Is that terrible? It’s nice to do it, nice idea and all of that, but I think when I started I had no idea what I was commiting myself to. 26 days of ready made posts, it seems like. That’s like having a whole month of dinners stashed in the freezer. You pull one out, nuke it and eat the slightly freezer burned meal before you. It’s kind of stale, still half frozen in the center, but you eat it any way because it’s what you had planned, it’s what was ready. It’s not really good, but it gets the job done.

That is about how I’ve felt about these alphabet posts some days. They either reduce me to tears from the memories called up or they bore me to tears because I can’t think of anything poignant to write. Guess which kind of day today is?

I thought about writing about rice…I do cook a fair amount with rice. I don’t really have any memories, funny or touching or otherwise, attached to rice though. It’s a utilitarian meal element, nothing too fun is done with it most days. I do love rice pudding, but I’m the only one in the house that likes it. I take it with no raisins but lots of chocolate!

I thought maybe rhubarb? Well, I don’t really like rhubarb, but I remember my dad grew it at one point and my mom made a rhubarb pie. She often made (makes?) him rhubarb pie at Thanksgiving time. He’s the only one who eats it. Well, my grandmother would eat it when she was with us for Thanksgiving. His mom loved rhubarb too. When I moved to Ohio, I discovered there was such a thing as rhubarb-strawberry pie. It was very red and pink and not at all appealling to me.

What about raisins? Yeah, what about them? I don’t like them. I keep trying them, year after year, but I just can’t enjoy their texture or taste. Craisins I like, though….you know, ‘raisins’ made out of cranberries. Those are good. I like those mixed in with my granola (along with chocolate).

Well, I guess I’ll toss the remains of this freezer-burned post out to the winds and see what happens. Hopefully tomorrow ‘S’ will inspire me more.

Jillian was jealous of the attention he was getting.

The cake masterpiece was made by Toph: chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, as requested by the Birthday Boy.

He loved hearing us sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him, and he blew his candles out with enthusiasm. I’m, honestly, just glad he didn’t spit on the cake. He had been practicing how he would blow out candles earlier in the day and there was some spit involved. *shudder*

MMM….that was a yummy cake!

Happy Birthday, X!