Show And Tell

Strawberry-Rhubarbara Tarts

1)  I was making a Strawberry-Rhubarbara ("When Plain Strawberry-Rhubarb Just Won't Do!") Pie this week, and had leftovers.  So I decided to freeze little mini-pies in these muffin tins to bake later.



I'd love to tell you how awesome they are but -- having never-before made them -- I've no idea how they'll turn out. 

But let's just assume they'll be awesome.

2)  That's my new watch.  I've tried making about 4 incarnations of that band, only to have each be either too big for my freaky child-like wrist or -- more usually -- crack and break on the VERY LAST STEP of its creation.

I also have the problem of the watch popping out of the band, so I tried to make this band extra thick and sturdy.  Pretty, right?

I love the watch, and I love wearing it.  There's just one teeny, tiny problem: it's made of cocobola wood which -- as it turns out -- is slightly toxic.  I wore the watch for two weeks straight with no problems, but I neglected to take it off one morning during my ass-kicking Bootcamp class.  Oddly-enough, the combination of toxic wood rubbing against moist, vulnerable wrist-skin caused A Reaction:

that goes allll the way around my freaky child-like wrist

I'm not willing to give up on the watch yet.  My brilliant solution has been to superglue a piece of felt to the inside of the band:

precision-cut!

Unfortunately, since
  a)  my wrist is still slightly-swollen from the rash and
  b)  the felt adds just enough width to make the band more snug
the jury is still out on whether or not I can fix the watch enough to wear it without looking like I have leprosy.

Because that's how a leproser's wrist looks like, right?

(And because "leproser" is obviously a word).

my latest craft, which I hope to have done in time to impress the ex-in-laws on Thanksgiving

3)  Oh, boy: you are going to die when you see what I'm obsessively working on right now.  Above is a little preview.  For now, I will tell you only that it involves 2 wine barrel rings, 18 baby food jars, and 34 YARDS of ty-wire, meticulously twisted into an artistically decorative manner by Yours Truly.

4)  And finally, just to be obnoxious, I have to tell you about tonight's dinner: White Bean, Kale and Italian Sausage Soup, the recipe for which I copied pretty closely from this site.

I was pretty excited to try the recipe, since it's the entire reason I harvested, processed, and froze approximately a ton of kale this summer.

And I really think it turned out pretty well.  Of course, Bee and I are snitty at each other now (yes, "snitty" is a word [just like "leproser"]) because we got into an argument over the fact that I was using canned beans.

May I just say again: if someone offers to make dinner, is it really so hard to just shut up and let them make it the way they want to try to make it?  I mean, just let them TRY it their way first? 

Huh?

Really?

Is that just SOOOO HARD??!!!

So.  I am proud to reiterate that the soup -- with canned beans  -- was pretty tasty. 

(But then again, what do I know about good taste: I've been pretending to eat basically broccoli and chicken all week, so a creamy sausage soup that actually tastes like crap would still taste good to me.)

(And, that's right: I'm only pretending to eat well this week: I'll eat the broccoli and chicken all day, then get too bored to make it again for dinner . . . so I'll just eat a few handfuls of chocolate chips instead. 

Oh, yeah: I'm healthy.)

Anyway, for those of you who know Bee (like, say, you happen to have his e-mail or are related to him by blood), I'd appreciate it if you forget to mention the above snitty-rant the next time you call him for your weekly chat.  He thinks I only complain about him on my blog, which I don't think is fair, seeing as how he never even reads it.  (For proof that I write nice things, just check out the "Love Boat" Post Category listed at the bottom of the blog.) 

And OK, sure, it's more fun to expose all the negative parts to our relationship in a public forum than it is to sing about how much I love him.

Even though I do.

I really do!  I love my husband!  He's the best husband, and a great father, and a caring friend!  And I don't mind putting it in print.

Of course, now you still can't tell him I said that, since he'll then feel the need to check this blog post to see what exactly I said, and that means he'll read the snitty-rant, too.

So, basically, I've screwed myself over again.

Sigh.



(. . .  By the way: I totally know that it's "leper".)

(But I'm keeping "snitty-rant".)