Mini Adventures, Part 2

Here are a few more little stories of life these days.

Birthday Adventures

For my birthday, what I wanted was cake and games with friends one night and dinner at a restaurant the next.

That's basically what I got, but sandwiched between when I first voiced my desires and when they actually occurred was a whole slew of things. Graduation was that same weekend, and that both brought friends to town and cut down on available babysitters. I tried to take initiative in planning a potluck a different day and temporarily found myself in charge of a ward party on my birthday. It got canceled, but the potluck moved around a few times and ended up on my birthday, which also made babysitters hard. Graduation also affected where we got to go to dinner, though Kevin decided to call just in case, so we made it into the Chop House. With cross-country party planning and attempt after attempt to get someone to watch our kids while we went to Chop House, I spent a good chunk of the week frazzled. Why was this so hard? Even my tradition of vacuuming the car at the church the day before my birthday didn't quite go as planned since there were people with chainsaws cutting down branches of a nearby tree, and tree debris blew into the car until I realized what was happening.


Then there was the cake. I decided to make the same cake I had made two years earlier. I remembered there was something I would have changed about it, but I figured that that was because I had used cocoa powder and butter instead of baking chocolate. I compared it with other brownie torte recipes and decided to stick with the recipe as written. I couldn't make up my mind as to which sort of filling I wanted, so I decided to make chocolate, strawberry, and vanilla fillings.

Neapolitan cake

I also couldn't decide what sort of candy I wanted on the top.

As I took my first bite of the cake, it was a bit drier than I anticipated. "I may as well have made straight brownies instead of going to all the work to make this brownie torte," I thought. Then I remembered that I had uttered those exact words two years ago. Why had I made the same mediocre cake twice??? Oh well. It aged well, and it was still delicious with ice cream.

And I got more than enough cake the next few days. On my actual birthday I went to Joseph's friend's birthday party and got a slice of Batman cake. Then I went to another of Joseph's friend's birthday parties and got some blueberry ice cream. And then the next day we went to another party where we made Claude Shannon birthday cake. (I was done with cake by that point. It was just a box cake anyway, nothing special except the entropy equation.)

I fixed the minus sign, Dad

Pizza Adventures

I still haven't figured out how to make pizza. I have tried and tried and tried and Kevin almost always says it's fine, but I always find something wrong -- it's too bready or too thin or too soft. And always, always, it's too floppy. I want pizza with a firm enough crust on the bottom that you can hold it without flopping down.

I've asked several friends what their secret is, and the answer is always the same -- slide the pizza directly onto the hot pizza stone. I always resisted, but this time I was willing to give it a shot. I made the pizza on the underside of a skillet over a generous layer of cornmeal. Once it was made, I carefully began to slide it onto the pizza stone. But despite all the cornmeal, some of the pizza was sticking to the pan, so I had to grab a spatula to pry it off. Carefully, carefully, carefully . . .and then half the pizza landed pepperoni side down on the pizza stone.

I immediately began scooping the cheese and pepperoni out from under the crust as best I could and then decided there was nothing more I could do over a 500 degree oven. It sort of looked like a reverse calzone being folded like that.

When it was done, I was almost tempted to take a picture of it. But I was so disappointed I couldn't even do that, even though it was pretty funny. The cheese and the sauce had mixed together in a strange way that made it seem like there wasn't any cheese. And all the pepperoni had somehow combined in stacks so that you got pieces with no pepperoni or pieces with three on top of each other (but you didn't think to separate them until it was too late).

But. The crust was not floppy. It was almost perfect, even though it was folded on top of itself. So I guess it was a success.

Chores

I'm going to end this with a real success. At least, I feel like this was a real success. The other day I decided to sweep the porch. Then later that day (or another day soon after) Joseph and I weeded our little garden, and his friends came by. They liked the idea of weeding, so they got to work. The only tricky part was catching them before they picked actual plants.

Then Tuesday afternoon, Joseph invited a friend P. over. While he was coming in, another friend J. walked from his house across the sidewalk and invited himself over to play too. When they had been downstairs for a few minutes, I got a knock on our door from a few other friends -- F. L., and S. (brothers of E.D. and J.L.).

L told me, "I've got a huge, long list of chores I need to get done while my mom is napping. Can Joseph come help?" I suggested the idea, and all the boys came running up to go do his chores. I don't think the chores lasted too long because when I checked out the window a minute later they were all at the sandbox.

The next hour or so was a blur of me trying to get Matthew down for a nap (it never worked . . . he slept a grand total of 30 minutes that day, same as today), watching those 6 boys run in and out of my house (although S. was inclined to stay and play when everyone else had left), listening to them play with cars, feeding them popcorn, and then finally eagerly handing off the responsibility of keeping an eye on Joseph and P. when P.'s mom came and offered to do so. I then tried to make pita bread one-handed, since that's the only way Matthew could handle. (I guess we could add those to my latest cooking "triumphs"  . . . first time I made them that they didn't puff up.)

So, crazy, chaotic afternoon. Where is the success story? Well, when I was letting the pita bread rise, I  went outside and asked my friend if L. ever finished his chores. It turns out he hadn't had any chores and had made the whole thing up. He was running by at the time so she asked him what chores he had done.

"We weeded our plants and swept the front porch."

Guys. I was a good example in the world! (I mean, he was the one who thought of it, but I will gladly take the credit for planting the idea in his head.)

Cakes and pizzas and little boys. Life is basically one long birthday party and I wouldn't have it any other way.