My Good Week

A little list of things that made me smile this week:

- The return of my bestest best friend to SW Missouri. YES.

- Chocolate Peanut Butter Fondue at the Mud Lounge. That stuff's just...whoa. I mean...we're talking third date stuff right there. Or Girls' Night Out stuff. Okay, that sounded weird. I'm just saying, that stuff is really really good.

- Visiting Bolivar and reminding oneself just how soon one will be living there again. Say what you will, call me crazy, but I love that town. It is where the people dearest to me are - outside of my family - with only one, maybe two exceptions, and somehow it just seems to be better for my spiritual well-being. It's almost as though I like myself better when I'm in BoMo.

- Standing/walking in the rain.

- LIGHTNING. Lightning is kind of my "God thing." I don't know if that makes any sense, but there's nothing reminds me of the Father's power and artistry and love for me quite like an evening lightning display.

- Birthday Night! No, not mine. Sorry. See, every third Wednesday of the month at choir rehearsal, two or three people will bring yummy goodies in honor of that month's birthdays for everyone to enjoy after singing our hearts out. My dear friend, Marie, and I took charge this month. Praise for her pizza bread (as usual), my hummus, and our RAINBOW CAKE (see previous entry) abounded.

- Talking three different times in one day with a guy you really really like. Yeah...

- Sassy. She's the new Pomeranian puppy my aunt and uncle brought home a week ago. Granted, I prefer big dog breeds over the small ones, but all dogs are small when they're puppies, and what human being with a heart doesn't appreciate puppies on principle? Plus, she's just the funnest little ball of fluff.

- Taking care of SEVEN 4-6-yr-olds by oneself and NOT experiencing the urge to scream or curl up into the fetal position. Those kids were amazing today. Good times were had.

Stuff to Impress Your Friends (no, seriously)

I would like to enlighten you all concerning one of the greater discoveries of my life to date: Rainbow Cake.

This baby is a work of ART, and there really are no skills necessary. Just knowing how to follow directions on a cake mix box and combining that knowledge with a little patience can yield a true thing of beauty. And I'm going to explain so that you can scamper off and create your own confectionery masterpiece.

You start with any cake batter, so long as it's white or cream-colored. We've used Betty Crocker's French Vanilla both times making this and we like the results. Anyway, you prepare your cake batter however it tells you to on the back of the box (or in the recipe if you prefer to make your cakes from scratch), and then you divide your batter into portions. Each portion will become a different color. Clearly, you can have as many portions as you'd like, but we like six.

Here is where the patience comes in, but not for the last time. Each portion is going to be dyed a different color. And if you've never used food coloring before, trust me when I advise you to START SMALL. Start out with, say, four or five drops of color in each bowl, mix the color in, and then add a couple more drops here and there as you see fit. I am fond of bold colors, and as such have used more food coloring than is probably healthy (doesn't the red kind cause cancer or something?). In case you haven't figured out yet, this cake is so much more fun to make with other people.

So you get your oven and baking pan ready according to whatever instructions you are following (we use a 9x13 dish) and pour each color in one at a time, in whatever order you fancy. It will look something like this when you've poured everything:



You can't actually tell, but there IS a difference between the orange and the pink there on top. Anywoot, you bake, you cool, you frost (this is where the patience comes back - frost SLOWLY or you're going to destroy the surface of your cake), and you get something that looks scarily similar to this:



You will feel like the coolest kid in the whole class with this cake. No lie.

"Bret! It's 1986 David Bowie from the movie 'Labyrinth!'"

There's this thing that's happening in my world right now which has never happened before, and it's a little bit frightening.

I call it "reciprocation." And it is awesome...but frightening.

Now, I'm trying not to gush here. I feel like I'd have to make fun of myself immediately thereafter if I did (plus I find it can make for obnoxious reading). It's just not the sort of thing I've ever had to deal with, this reciprocation, and I don't know how to handle it. I mean, if this kid is half the romantic I suspect he might be, he'll have to be awfully patient with me, because I can already tell I'm not going to be very good at this game, and that's the gospel truth. I have missed my cue on so many occasions because I've either been too stupid at the time to catch the hint or I honestly had no clue how to respond and found myself semi-paralyzed by the situation. As such, I've come to realize that he has probably been more perplexed at times over the nature of my interest than I ever was over the nature of his. And I've had my share of perplexion.

But dear, sweet Auntie Josephine, I like this boy. Is that gushing? Would it be gushing to say that all of the 190 or so miles that exist between Springfield and St. Louis piss me off? That I don't feel deserving of all this goodness?

Maybe just a little. But what's a girl if she can't gush every now and then?

Things I've Learned - Food & Cooking

An interesting development has...um...developed over the past couple years: I really like to cook.

I wouldn't call it a passion. Heavens, no. Sometimes I'm just too lazy. But a couple of days a week at least finds me doing more than just throwing together a sandwich or tapping into the frozen foods section of my aunt and uncle's garage. And I'm having fun with it.

Now, I am certainly not a natural. There has been lots of trial and error and sometimes things just bomb. I wish I could mean that literally, but alas, there have been no explosions to date. Still, I've played around. I've discovered stuff that doesn't work and I've discovered stuff that blows my mind. It's been super fun. And so, I thought I would present you with a few things I have learned about food and cooking. You may very well know all this stuff already. Consider it more of a recitation than an imparting of advice. Let's all celebrate - Erica's not a food idiot anymore.


Things I've Learned:

- Do not dare use fruit that may not be ripe, and I mean that. Mangoes especially, speaking from very recent experience. (Gooseberries are the only exception I can think of, as they are only used before they turn ripe, but there may be more.)

- Plain rice is kinda tasty. Yeah ok, look at me like I'm insane. Whatever man, I'm serious. And maybe it's the varieties I've been using. But befriending the Chinese community has taught me to appreciate rice for what it is. I ordered a general chicken rice bowl the other day and my jaw almost dropped in horror watching the bucket of sauce the girl unloaded on it.

- If you don't like something, look for a different way to cook it. Even the texture of a food can change depending on preparation. There are so many foods (not just vegetables) that I hated growing up because my parents only cooked them the same way. I won't lie - I'm still waiting to appreciate bell peppers in any capacity. But you shoulda been there the day I discovered grilled asparagus wrapped in bacon.

- Grilling anything that holds its shape is probably a good idea. Just don't ask me about methods. I actually have very little experience in this area.

- You CAN have too much sauce. You CAN have too much gravy. HOWEVER, I have yet to experience "too much cheese."

- When cooking pasta, "not enough" is always better than "too much." Always. Neither, of course, can beat "just right."

- Dull knives are super obnoxious. Seriously. They take the joy out of life, the universe, and everything.

- Stir-frying is one of the quickest and killerest ways to cook. Especially if you have a good sauce. For example, you can take basic teriyaki sauce (I make my own; it's so effing simple) and add stuff like minced garlic or minced ginger or crushed red pepper or ALL of those things. Or something completely different. Teriyaki is BOSS when it comes to experimenting.

- Experimenting is always good. It's how you learn.

- Food really does seem to taste better if it looks pretty. It's not a sham. Crappy-looking food can be amazing, don't get me wrong, but I get more excited about eating something if I've managed to make it look good. The more colors, the better.

- When trying something new (which should be done often), start small until you're familiar with its effects. Perfect example - wasabi. Oh holy Moses. That s***'s dangerous.

- Do NOT try to create any dish that uses raw fish if you live in a landlocked area, UNLESS you are willing to pony up some serious cash. Carpaccio, tartare, sashimi, tataki, etc., only work if you're using super-fresh fish, and that's hard to come by in the American Midwest (freshwater fish are almost never used for these dishes for safety reasons). Sushi made with thawed frozen salmon fillets from Walmart is pretty disgusting. Just trust me on this one. Find a sushi recipe that does not require raw fish, or else simply leave it to the people at the restaurants.