Take 2

I tried my pizza again tonight. I think I learned from my mistakes, because it turned out beautiful:

Unfortunately, I then made muffins and left the sugar out. Maybe I'll try those again tomorrow, too. Second time's the charm?

Smoke gets in your eyes

Tonight, I tried a new recipe for a skillet pizza for two. I was pretty excited and it was turning out to be a lot easier than I expected (although, lots of dish washing). I did make the mistake of putting in too much oil--teaspoon, tablespoon, so close--but figured it wasn't that big of a deal.

So, I get to the point in the recipe where you cook the pizza on the stove, just til the crust starts puffing up, because then you throw it in the oven. And, I figured I had a minute or two (or five?) and dashed into my room to take care of something. Where I got distracted. And, either I was distracted longer than I thought or it really doesn't take that long for the crust to start puffing up, or more likely both of those things, because when I came out my house was full of smoke

and the bottom of the crust looked like this:

Distractions are the number one cause of kitchen accidents in my world. 

The bad news:
My smoke alarm didn't go off. Do I even have one? Because it seriously should have gone off. I couldn't even see across the kitchen there was so much smoke.
Everything in the house, including me, is going to be permeated with the smell of smoke. And I have to be to work at 7:30 tomorrow and really don't want to wash my hair. So, I either go to work smelling like a bonfire (there are worse things, but it's not ideal), or I have to get up and do the full deal shower.
I'm clearly not eating pizza for lunch tomorrow. Although, I was able to scrape the top layer off. But it's mostly cheese and a thin layer of crust, thinner than thin crust crust. So I could eat it, but do I want to?
I had also contemplated making a cake to take to work, but that isn't going to happen. It would taste like campfire.
I am sitting in my house with the windows open and the AC fan running, and it is 38 degrees outside.
It sort of warped the skillet I cooked it in.

The good news:
I have enough ingredients to try it again, and since I doubled the sauce recipe (because seriously, what am I going to do with half a can of diced tomatoes?), half the work is over!
I don't have to make a cake tonight. Which is great, because I am tired of doing dishes.
I can eat sort-of pizza for lunch tomorrow.
A quick jiggery doo and the skillet is more or less back in shape. And it wasn't even hard to clean.
The house didn't catch on fire.
The smoke is mostly gone, so I can turn off the AC and close the windows soon. And it isn't even that cold.
No one really gets close enough to smell my hair at work anyway. It would be weird if they did. So maybe I can get away with not washing and styling it. Fingers crossed.

Fruit Basket

Last night, I ate a grapefruit. The beautiful thing about grapefruit is you kind of expect it to taste sour and weird, so you're never disappointed. Not like oranges, where you can definitely tell when you've got a bad one. I've had better luck with clementines than oranges, but this year I bought a bag and it wasn't so great, so I gave up. 

Apples are another reliable fruit. Pick a good variety and you're probably going to have a good experience. And there are so many varieties that you can just stick with reliable old apples and still not get bored.

Bananas are pretty straightforward, too. The biggest problem there is that they ripen too fast, and who has time to go to the grocery store twice a week to buy bananas? This is another advantage of the apple - longevity.

Grapes are great, but I can never get through an entire bag and they don't sell them unbagged so I can choose how many I want. Cherries are the same way. 

Peaches and nectarines are great, too, if you can find a good one and time it right so you get it when it is the right ripeness. That's my problem. I buy them but they aren't ripe yet and somehow I never hit the window for ripeness. They go from rock hard to mush with no in-between. Pears are easier but can still be problematic. I think with peaches and pairs, I'm also at a disadvantage. I remember the good old days of canning season as a kid, with boxes of fruit in the basement, when you could always find a ripe juicy peach or pear. Nothing has been able to live up to the memory.

I could live off of watermelon all summer long. My only complaint with watermelon is there isn't enough center, which is the best part. 

Fresh pineapple is always a delight and I can count on getting 1 or 2 as a Christmas present every time I visit my sister's family for the holiday. It's good that they help me eat it, because too much pineapple will singe your taste buds, which is a real shame. 

I've never really jumped on board the mango and papaya trains. My first experience with mangoes was in the Dominican Republic, and it was just a little too early in the season. All I remember was eating a very 'hairy' mango (really, the fruit was just fibrous). Did NOT love that. I've since had some good mango and no longer outright reject it, but I'm still cautious. In my life, I've only ever had one bite of papaya that actually tasted good, so it's still on my blacklist. 

I've always preferred dried plums and apricots to fresh, for no reason that I can explain. It really doesn't make any sense, but there it is. I think maybe they aren't juicy and/or tangy enough for my liking. Drying them brings out the tangyness, though, which I love.

I've only ever had passion fruit as a juice, or more recently a gelatto. It is divine!!! One of my great loves from the Dominican Republic.

If we're talking berries, I like the flavor of raspberries best, but strawberries are great, too, and much easier to eat. Raspberries have that seed issue. I never really got blueberries until I tried them in Michigan. Who knew they actually had flavor? Still not my greatest love, but good blueberries are pretty tasty. 

And what is the point of all of this? Well, there isn't one, really, except that I ate a grapefruit. But, if you ever need an ice breaker, you can start with "Are you a fruit or veggie person?" and then move on to "which fruits?" It beats talking about politics. 

The Lethargy of February

Is it just me, or is this year sapping everyone else's energy? Maybe it is just that it's February.

I feel a bit bad for February. It's really not a bad month. It's short and sweet, and you can see it gradually staying lighter longer. It should be very hopeful.

But then it does things like throw 3 days in the 50s and 60s and then drop down to the high 20s. We've lost interest in the newness of the year that January offers, it's not quite the edge of spring, and if you live in a snow climate, it's that time of year when the snow has lost its white beauty and turned into a physical representation of pollution. (Unless we get lucky enough to get a fresh layer of snow).

Even the major holidays are a little melancholy. Groundhog's day? Meh. President's Day? I think most of us will just want to cry. Valentine's Day? Hopefully that's a great day for someone, but when you are buying yourself chocolates, it's less of a thrill.

Still, it's not the only month with rotten weather and boring holidays. I mean, have you lived through August? Hot, zero holidays (although in my family, there are lots of birthdays), and the dread of starting school (not an issue for us real world folks, where summer vacation doesn't exist).

And February in the Southern hemisphere is probably really awesome. Also, lots of places have spring break in February*. I discovered Doctor Strange becomes available for purchase in February, and there are two new books coming out, so I get to look forward to that. I finished one of my projects (built and stained a nightstand. Long live Ikea). I actually get President's day off. If you don't like Valentine's day, you can celebrate Ferris Wheel day instead. (Sounds way more fun). And, even though it seems like the year is flying, there are still 322 days left.

Still. It's February, and I'm just tired. I need a vacation.

Would you rather

This week I finally got the permanent crown on the tooth that broke in mid-December. In the process of getting the tooth fixed, I had a root canal and we all know the reputation of root canals: horrible.

But it actually wasn't so bad. In fact I can think of a lot of things that are worse than root canals. For example, I would rather have a root canal than:

-A pulled hamstring. Those things are miserable.
-Be searching for a job. Root canals are less stressful, faster, and easier on the soul.
-Engage in some kinds of public speaking. Like presenting at an academic conference you've never attended.
-Move. Not the excitement of a new place. I'm talking about the actual packing up and loading a van and dealing with all the paperwork.
-Vote. Especially in national elections. Especially the 2016 election. Honestly, I'd rather have multiple root canals than live through another 2016-esque campaign.
-Sit through some of my grad school classes. I think averaging the cost, the root canal is probably cheaper, too.
-Write a manual. Ugh. Manuals require so much brain power. Root canals only require opening wide.
-Jury duty. I don't know this one from personal experience, but I have a strong feeling I'd rather have a root canal.
-Play a piano solo in front of an audience. I think this one is really a coin toss, but in some ways, the root canal is way less terrifying.

Yeah, so the root canal wasn't that bad. Not that I want to sign up for them on a regular basis, but there are definitely worse things in life.