Oct
11
Naptime
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The noise and chaos stops suddenly, replaced by murmured words of love and the quiet clicks of two doors shutting. It isn’t perfectly silent—someone is humming, someone is kicking their feet against the wall—but the rooms are echoey and I can hear far-off airplanes and it is different.
I type, furiously. I sit on the couch and move with the sunlight from one cushion to the next, shielding my screen from the glare.
When I’m done, if I get done, I move spacily around the house, picking things up, setting them down. I peer at myself in the mirror, pluck an errant eyebrow hair.
I think about little things that are going well: I’m on the fifth day of stopping a bad habit, the boys and I had a good school morning, I cleaned the floors yesterday and today they shine.
I think about how I still feel like I’m wearing this new life like a coat, how when someone recently asked me if I work I said “no” before correcting myself, and what the fuck is up with that?
I think, helplessly, about a day last week when Dylan was pitching an enormous howling tantrum in the car and I reached back and grabbed his leg while raising my voice at him and Riley said to me, “If you want him not to cry, you need to not hurt him, Mom,” and how despite the fact that it wasn’t exactly a fair thing to say I will still probably hear that sentence for the rest of my goddamned life.
The house is strange and poised, ready to spring back into its normal state of swirling distractions. Everything seems to hang, like a movie-effect of a life put on pause.
And then: over.
Oct
9
Halloween things to do this weekend
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Couple of blog re-runs here, but ’tis the season and all.
MAKE DELICIOUS CREAMY BUTTERNUT SQUASH SOUP
You’ll need:
• 1 squash (the original recipe called for butternut, I used acorn. You could probably use delicata, whatever), peeled, seeded and cubed*
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 cups of chicken stock (Perhaps you have a freezer full of carefully prepared servings of homeade stock, from the weekends you spend simmering giant pots of bones and vegetables. I do not, and therefore I bought a container of Wolfgang Puck’s stock-in-a-cardboard-box. Campbell’s chicken broth in a can would probably be just fine.)
• Half a cup of cream/half and half
• 1 teaspoon curry powder
• Brown sugar, some amount thereof
• Salt & pepper
• Cinnamon
* Peeling a squash is a giant pain in the ass. You could suffer through this, or roast it first in the oven and scoop out the cooked pieces, or use frozen squash pieces, or buy the pre-cut/pre-peeled stuff. Up to you.
Saute the onion and garlic long enough to get soft and translucent, but not to the point of browning. Put your squash pieces in a pan, add the onion and garlic (or take out the garlic now that the onion has soaked up the flavor), pour in your 2 cups of stock/broth and bring it to a boil.
Cook until the squash is mushy, then mash it up with a spoon. You could puree it in a blender, but this way it’s thick and goopy. Mmm…goopy.
Add the cream, curry powder, and brown sugar – I used about a tablespoon of the sugar, but the natural sweetness of the squash varies so I’d go by taste. Stir, then season with salt and pepper and just a dash of cinnamon.
Kerblam, there you have it: the most delicious soup in the world. This makes two enormous servings with a little left over. I like to toss a few bleu cheese crumbles and red pepper flakes on top of mine.
BAKE INSANELY GOOD PUMPKIN-CHOCOLATE MUFFINS
You’ll need:
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1 tbls baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/4 tsp ground allspice
• 1/8 tsp ground cloves
• 1 cup canned pumpkin (not the pumpkin pie filling stuff)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 tablespoons of molasses
• Some amount of chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 400˚ and lightly grease a 12 muffin tin (paper liners are even better).
Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and spices together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, oil, and molasses.
Pour wet ingredients into the dry and mix. Stir in your desired amount of chocolate chips (I recommend a “shitload”). Fill the muffin cups 2/3s full.
Bake 18-20 minutes, or until toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean. You should try and wait until they’re cool enough to not burn the crap out of your mouth before you devour the entire batch, but it won’t be easy.
BOO YOUR NEIGHBORS
I first learned about Boo’ing your neighbors from Melissa’s site, and this is now our second year of doing it. It’s super fun, the kids like helping out, and I love seeing the signs start showing up on people’s doors. Go ahead, start your own.
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