Will I Get Used To It? I guess I should go to more concerts. For the first time in something like... Read>> Posted January 29, 2009
Snowed Under Well school is certainly back in session. Yesterday marked my return to classes for the... Read>> Posted January 13, 2009
Epiphany - Eureka! I'm sitting in my own house in Charlottesville VA listening to Sufjan Stevens' "Michigan" album,... Read>> Posted January 06, 2009
Thanksgiving - Darden Style I seem to be taking forever to put this B-School student in gear. To carry... Read>> Posted December 01, 2008
Ridiculous Ranking Rant Today dawned red and bright, and felt warmer than the 36 degrees my Jeep dashboard... Read>> Posted November 26, 2008
OH THE VAGARIES OF LIFE! Cooking and Dreaming and Praying The image above is a couple of beautiful brandy snaps that my wife cranked out on Sunday. Initially I was going to post about them on Monday, but I'm glad that I didn't now because so much has changed.
In fact, it really is interesting how pausing a bit before speaking (or writing in this case) can alter what you were going to write. I was going to explain, in triumphant tones, how this weekend was a culinary masterpiece. Just in the past week this house has seen smoked pork ribs, homemade potato rolls, brandy snaps, carmelized onion gravy, cornish game hen, and more. So, on the one hand we have been quite successful. On the other hand, the brandy snaps just didn't hold up well...
After piping in the vanilla custard that made them so good (especially good when served with our stovetop espresso maker) we just couldn't eat them all so we put them in a storage container in the fridge. The next day (Monday) we got them out for a snack and what did we see?!
* Pause for effect
Nothing but a goopy pile of pudding-like sauce in the bottom of a tupperware container.
It was really disappointing.
After nearly a dozen attempts at getting the shell just right -to be able to roll well, hold its shape, not stick to the pan, and be properly cooked- we learned to appreciate every last cookie... And now they had all collapsed into a pile.
We ate them anyway.
They had been transformed into a sort of crème brulée sans flame. Actually, it's sort of the opposite in that we transformed an ordinary dessert into an entirely different one with the application of cold and damp - as opposed to a blowtorch... I could wax philosophical on this strange power. But I won't.
We thought we had created an iron-strong monolith of crunchy, caramelized wafers, but were bested by a few hours in the fridge. What would I be saying/thinking if I had written my magnum opus blog post about this accomplishment? I would then have to either write a retraction or hide this fact in the annals of "things not interesting enough to commit to digital ink".
In the end I think this was a fitting testimony to the value of pausing before declaring victory. The only other lesson that could be gleaned from this episode, I suppose, is that if it's good, you should just eat it all that day...
Then all you'd have to worry about on the next day is being perceived as a glutton, or becoming overweight. But at least you wouldn't have to think about tomorrow.
In closing, I will simply say that although Thomas Jefferson certainly said: "Never put off tomorrow what you can do today", this is not a universal statement. As applied to eating it is most trustworthy. As applied to boasting - sometimes it is best to hold off.
Posted October 14, 2009 Most Humorous Posted by: Monwar Hussain One of your most humorous posts so far... especially the last paragraph... and several other sentences through-out! :) Posted 2009-10-20 22:55:53 COMMENT ON THIS POST
