Our story opens with an almost-full pan of deliciously decadent german chocolate brownies tucked in my fridge at 7:00pm. When the neighbor boy who had joined us for dinner noticed this bad toxic burning smell in our house. Everyone goes searching for the source room to room to room -decides its coming from the basement. No visible flame, fire, or source, but terrible smell & some smoke. Slightly nervous kids all take off outside into the rain afraid the house my suddenly combust, and begin running wildly in the yard. i calmly call the non-emergency fire number and tell them it's not a real fire but something is up and how would they feel abotu comign tot take a look. The fire dept comes, full truck and sirens (any excuse to use them in a small sleepy new england town), and the police too. Smart daddy-o and firefighters standing around in the basement trying to solve the mystery. Serious detective work, thermal imaging - much theorizing. Enough for a science crime show-- final determination rain leaking in through a vent makes it into the water heater picking up material along the way that made it highly conductive. Totally burning out wires inside the hot water heater!! (theory proven- the copper wires are no longer existent—totally evaporated!) Playing the genteel, charming hostess to my small town fire dept. (there should after all be refreshments even in times of fire crisis) meant pulling out my fresh pan of high octane gourmet brownies as a polite offering of love for my local community fire and police personnel, the remainder were then spotted by neighbor children who had turned out to play on the truck and promptly descended on the pan like vultures to carrion flesh--declaring "Mrs Graff these are the best brownies EVER!" As the trucks left the kids turned to a then led to a fantastic game of capture the flag in the yard in the rain, and we grown ups caught up with the various neighbors. As the night settles—I smartly relax in a bath with the remaining hot water, not sure when we’ll have more of that—and ponder the the remains of the day-- one small bit of brownie left in the pan, a pile of wet clothes, a stack of dishes (from finely chopping chocolate, gently whisking in eggs and sugar, carefully boiling the heavy cream, gently roasting pecans all afternoon), a house that reeks of burnt wires & a dead hot water heater! That my friends is the adventuresome tale of the german chocolate brownies -- I have been dreaming about making for 3 months!)Thursday, June 10, 2010
so about those German chocolate brownies…
Our story opens with an almost-full pan of deliciously decadent german chocolate brownies tucked in my fridge at 7:00pm. When the neighbor boy who had joined us for dinner noticed this bad toxic burning smell in our house. Everyone goes searching for the source room to room to room -decides its coming from the basement. No visible flame, fire, or source, but terrible smell & some smoke. Slightly nervous kids all take off outside into the rain afraid the house my suddenly combust, and begin running wildly in the yard. i calmly call the non-emergency fire number and tell them it's not a real fire but something is up and how would they feel abotu comign tot take a look. The fire dept comes, full truck and sirens (any excuse to use them in a small sleepy new england town), and the police too. Smart daddy-o and firefighters standing around in the basement trying to solve the mystery. Serious detective work, thermal imaging - much theorizing. Enough for a science crime show-- final determination rain leaking in through a vent makes it into the water heater picking up material along the way that made it highly conductive. Totally burning out wires inside the hot water heater!! (theory proven- the copper wires are no longer existent—totally evaporated!) Playing the genteel, charming hostess to my small town fire dept. (there should after all be refreshments even in times of fire crisis) meant pulling out my fresh pan of high octane gourmet brownies as a polite offering of love for my local community fire and police personnel, the remainder were then spotted by neighbor children who had turned out to play on the truck and promptly descended on the pan like vultures to carrion flesh--declaring "Mrs Graff these are the best brownies EVER!" As the trucks left the kids turned to a then led to a fantastic game of capture the flag in the yard in the rain, and we grown ups caught up with the various neighbors. As the night settles—I smartly relax in a bath with the remaining hot water, not sure when we’ll have more of that—and ponder the the remains of the day-- one small bit of brownie left in the pan, a pile of wet clothes, a stack of dishes (from finely chopping chocolate, gently whisking in eggs and sugar, carefully boiling the heavy cream, gently roasting pecans all afternoon), a house that reeks of burnt wires & a dead hot water heater! That my friends is the adventuresome tale of the german chocolate brownies -- I have been dreaming about making for 3 months!)
Friday, June 04, 2010
so if we’re not friends on facebook…
Well this is what you are missing…actually I thought it would be funny to pull highlights for last months status updates (because i have been to busy to blog these small tidbits give a great rehash of the month)… i know i could tweet but brevity is not my strong suit—i need the full range of generous 420 characters that FB provides…so here are this months highlights:
for thousands of years,millions of stubborn 2 yr olds have tried to tell their moms they know a better way to put on the underwear...but in the end they all break down and put one leg in each hole and realize backwards and inside out is less comfortable...so learn from history -- son! also putting your legs through the... sleeves of a moroccan soccer jersey does not make it into shorts! 5-22-2010
think i must be losing my sense of empathy and compassion--it is strangely enjoyable to feed bugs to my sons venus flytrap and watch them clamp shut on their prey 5-20-2010
crafting 5" mini 3-D yoda out of cake and fondant-- this better win me mom of the year!because mini yoda-eyelids could only = mother love or else mental instability! 5-18-2010
conversation of the week--my 4 yo: "Mom, if you wanted to talk in Jordan you should just get a C3PO. He knows all the languages!"
me: "Oh great idea son, I'll should pick one up before my next trip :)-- and it would be really cool have to have in the playroom." (obviously 3 months after my trip my lacking arabic skills ...are still troubling my young child -- but gold star for a very creative solution) 5-14-2010
husband is so blinded by love he agreed to reupholster 2 chairs for me (so either after 11 yrs I have still got it-- (or he's more of a sucker than I thought-- poor guy with pliers pulling out hundreds upon hundreds of staples) but happy to report first chair is now half done! 5-13-2010
so my husband just said - "how come there are so many hospital shows and no shows about engineers..." My answer-- "because honey... it's too hot... a bunch of guys laying out PCBs and checking tolerances, modelling things at their computers, & sitting in project meetings- I don't think the public is ready for that kin...d of excitement yet- maybe in a few years..." 5-7-2010
kids if you are going to stamp all over your bodies with my self-inking date stamper- you really should at least set the date right... credit to my 2 year for thinking to stamp his belly and soles of his feet and to my 4 year old for stamping his own forehead! 5-5-2010
has finally gotten smart and remembered to look out the window to be sure there was no wind before putting on a skirt this morning...5-3-2010
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