fat little weirdo

the fat little weirdo returned with a VENGEANCE on tuesday night. i didn't think i was going to be hungry after scarfing mad pizza and cake at lunch - i figured i would only nibble on some fruit or something. but apparently the fat little weirdo had other ideas in mind.

i microwaved a bag of light popcorn and started shoveling handfuls into my mouth. then i took five hotdogs from the mennonites (no nitrates!) and boiled them and ate them sans bun. the dotytron was strangely immune to my "dinner" of choice. instead he studiously tried to ignore me as i stood behind him in an oversize, dirty breakcore t-shirt, with a plate of hot dogs, spearing one up and dipping it's snappy, taut end in ketchup before taking giant bites and asking through noisy, snuffly chews, "you sure you don't want some of this?" for some reason he finds it distracting when i do that.


last night i made us a quickie dinner of pan fried paneer on top of a warm chickpea salad consisting of some of T's preserved chilies, onions, garlic, and chopped zucchini blossoms. i scooped this warm mixture on top of some baby spinach and squeezed half a lemon over and sprinkled it with sea salt. then i topped it with the fried paneer.

for dessert i was really craving a pudding cake. i LOVE pudding cakes of all stripes and persuasions. chocolate pudding cakes, pouding chomeur, strawberry rhubarb, etc etc. blueberry pudding cake is one of my all-time favorites though. it's the best of both worlds - warm, ultra-blueberry compote on the bottom cradling a tender, light as air quick-bread cake with a crusty top and chewy-browned edges, a perfect foil for a scoop or two of vanilla ice cream. the best thing about pudding cakes is that by and large, they come together in less than 15 minutes. 15 minutes of active time for a warm, homey, old-timey dessert? yessum!

i worked really really really hard today. one of those days where i was juggling a million different tasks and phone calls and memos at once. i barely got up to pee and didn't eat a thing all day except 2 tim horton's cookies. after work we went to pick up our grillz. the dotytron's fit amazing but mine didn't turn out and i have to get remolded. it's very demoralizing. what if mine's not done in time?!?? what's wrong with my teefs?

then we got the dotytron some flip flops and hit up chipotle for dinner. the barbacoa at chipotle is a wonderful thing. so good! we were going to try to be thrifty and split a burrito but i was so demoralized by my grill not fitting that i ate the whole thing. plus i was probably suffering from low blood sugar from not having had a chance to eat all day and getting up at 6am for a run.

now i'm recording a billion takes for the performance cd. singing is hard. it's hard in a lot of ways. first you have to be in tune. this is HARD. then you have to project. this is also hard. then you also have to EMOTE THE FEELINGS IN THE SONG. this is very hard. in combination with all the other stuff it's damn near impossible. especially if you, like me, are tone deaf. here's my tip: REVERB IS YOUR FRIEND.

tomorrow is a BUCKSHOT day. we have our purchaser's visit to the house, which means we have like, 6 different contractors coming through to give us quotes. then we have to go to the bank and like, take out every dime we've ever had in our lives. here's my tip: 3.7% FIXED INTEREST IS YOUR FRIEND. then i have to get my mold done for my teeth and come home and get my hair cut and then have the kdubsguelph crew over to do backup vocals and gossip. i'm exhausted and stressed just thinking about it.

here's the recipe for the blueberry pudding cake:

fin.

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blueberry pudding cake
serves 4-6, from gourmet magazine, july 2005

1/3 cup plus 1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon cornstarch
10 oz blueberries (2 cups)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 3/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup whole milk
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly

- butter a 9" square baking pan (i use a 9" round casserole dish with 3" high sides)
- preheat oven to 375F
- stir together 1/3 c. sugar with water, lemon juice, cornstarch and blueberries in a saucepan. bring to a simmer. simmer 3 minutes, set aside.
- stir together flour, baking powder and salt. whisk together milk, egg, and butter.
- stir liquid ingredients into dry ingredients. spread into prepared pan.
- carefully pour blueberry mixture over cake mixture (blueberries will sink. this will look wet).
- bake for 30-45 minutes until top spring backs when touched and is golden brown.
- serve warm with vanilla ice cream.