Wednesday, October 19, 2005

Decaffeinated coffee is kind of like kissing your sister. ~Bob Irwin

I baked two pumpkin pies on Monday. I admit I used store-bought crusts (I just had a baby, people!) but I bought Marie Callender’s crusts which are really the only store-bought crusts that are any good. Tender and flaky. Except where I filled the pies up too much and the filling slopped over the crusts on the way to the basement to bake them and those parts got a little toasty (don’t ask about the basement stove, either…sigh…) And I had leftover pumpkin filling so I poured it in Pyrex bowls and baked them in a pan of water a la bread pudding. Pumpkin custard! This made Simon “Mr. I don’t-like-the-crust” very happy. My saintly next-door neighbor gave me the recipe (she actually said, “I use the recipe on the Libby’s pumpkin can label.”) and I only called her like sixteen times to ask her questions because I, I am a pumpkin pie moron. These are my first ever real true baked pumpkin pies. My mom used to make something called pumpkin chiffon pie – delicious but not traditional. If I say so myself, they turned out rather well and I had a large piece of pie for breakfast this morning. What? It’s got carotene and vitamins A and E!

By the way, I have an ethical dilemma – if said neighbor offers to walk Simon to preschool along with her daughter so I do not have to waker James up and cart him the half-a-block to the school, but then James wakes up as soon as Si is out the door, is it bad form to then pack up the awake baby and walk up the street to the coffee shop? (What, you thought it was going to be a question of life and death? With my life? Ha. Don’t you know me by now?)

I love the way James raises both hands in the air like he’s riding the roller coaster. “Whoohoo! Whee! This carseat ride is amazing! Aaaaaahhhhhh!”

And the other morning I woke up and looked at the little old toothless man lying in bed next to me. It was the strangest most disorienting feeling. My babies tend to look like little wizened old sages, not plump pretty babies, so this is something I am sort of used to, but really, he was trying to poop and was all red in the face and wrinkled-brow and he looked like a little grumpy, crotchety old fart.

Don’t you hate when you get the confirmation words wrong? I always feel like a moron when that happens. But sometimes I can’t tell the Vs from the Us, and the Rs look like they’re As…or I am indeed a moron. Or a spammer.

Holy crap, Halloween is two weeks away. I better get cracking on those costumes. Simon wants to be a rainbow-colored whale, when he doesn’t want to be a ghost (please, please pick the ghost!!). Jude wants to be a dolphin mailbox. Would I be a bad mom if I just made them wear their Dalmatian costumes from last year?

11 comments:

Gina said...

* There is a recipe in the new Penzey's catalog for Apple/Pumpkin Pie that looks very interesting.

* How would one make a whale costume?

* Teddy is going as a mailbox this year. He and his dad have spent the last few Sundays working on it, and I have high hopes for greatness. I'll post a picture.

* You should absolutely head for the coffee shop when James wakes up. If James remains asleep, however, you should go back to bed.

* I often screw up my word verification too. Sometimes you just can't tell what the letters are.

BabelBabe said...

no idea about the whale costume. i am screwed. i am not even thining about the damn dolphin mailbox : )

Sarah Louise said...

I have often eaten pumpkin pie for breakfast. Do you have any left?

I don't even have the energy for any more words...except the word verif...

which is psaluplr. Right. It's a psalm about healing lupus?

Joke said...

I say you make pumpkin creme brulee.

-J.

Katy said...

yes, you are a bad mother if you make them go as dalmations from last year. However, if you can find a way for them to decide to be dalmations again (or tie-dye the costumes and be rainbow dogs), then you're all good.

mmm... pumpkin pie... I just discovered that I liked pumpkin pie 2 Thanksgivings ago... I was missing out.

What's up with the mailbox costumes? Is there a cartoon about a mailbox or something?

Gina said...

I don't think there's a cartoon about a mailbox (although there *is* a Mailbox on Blue's Clues [or at least there used to be]). Teddy's costumes are typically based on things that can be fashioned out of cardboard boxes-- he was a fireplace last year and a traffic light the year before--and this year it's a mailbox.

BabelBabe said...

while we were at the beach i was out for a walk and saw out of the corner of my eye this --what looked like a -- dolphin statue/fountain. But I really had to pee so I walke dhome and when we were driving around that night, just looking at houses and things, I was trying to find it to show the boys. Turned out to be a *mailbox* and everyone else thought it was lame. Jude still taunts me with "Dolphin mailbox!" and laughs maniacally. so that's why he wants to be a dolphin mailbox for Halloween...

Anonymous said...

Having been a guest at your house for Thanksgiving dinner, I remember being horrified and confused by the presence of rice instead of stuffing and no-bake pumpkin pie - thus I salute you. (Well we were both young and it was really good - but still) Glad to hear you're using the oven.

Caro said...

If you buy a cup of coffee for your neighbor that would take care of any guilt you have.

Pumpkin custard sounds delicious!

A was truly the least attractive baby I had. She looked like a little old man with a blotchy face.

I think they're cute when they're trying so hard to poop that they're grunting. They are so un-selfconscious (however you spell it) that they are glorious!

Suse said...

I would love a recipe for real American pumpkin pie. (We don't have that here, but I ate it in the US once and loved it). What sort of pumpkin do you use?

Oh and your word verification today is gofuxxw. Which seems a bit rude.

Anonymous said...

You are reminding me how happy I am that my girls are in college and I no longer have to stress about the annual Halloween costume crisis.