|
navigation
current
archives
links page
profile
|
|
Cakey Valentine�s Day
February 14, 2008
Right before yesterday�s meltdown, I had whipped up a cake and put it into the oven. Right after I got done posting, Spouse called. When I (like an idiot) told him I had a cake in the oven, he got all happy and wanted to know what kind. When I explained that it was a pineapple upside-down cake for the foodie day at work, the disappointment was pretty obvious. So obvious that I nearly turned around and baked another cake for him. Unfortunately, the only mix on the shelf was a butter recipe, and I had just used the last stick for the work cake.
Then, when he called me at his usual time today, he laid out quite a web of hints that for me.
So guess what�s in the oven right now?
Believe me, the last thing I wanted to do yesterday--or today--was come home from work and go into Susie Homemaker mode. But frankly, it�s easier to bake the fucking cakes than listen to my husband or my co-workers bitch. Or my boss get down on me for not being a team player.
Oh, I shouldn�t be so pissy. In all fairness, the pineapple jobby was a tremendous hit with the office crowd. They scarfed all but three pieces of a 13x9 cake. And it isn�t that hard to make one. I think those damn butter-recipe mixes are more work, considering I don�t have a stand mixer, and and four and a half solid minutes of running the little hand mixer is a pain. And at least I like pineapple cake! The one I�m making for Spouse, I won�t touch. I don�t like the crumb, I don�t like the taste, and I don�t like having to make them. That kind is entirely his thing.
In fact, boxed mix cakes with canned frosting are really more his thing than mine. They always taste a little like chemicals to me, and if I�m going to take the trouble to bake, I figure it�s not that much harder to do it from scratch . But it all goes back to having a mom who couldn�t really cook, I think. If you grow up with your mom feeding you Chunky Soup over minute rice, or Betty Crocker cakes, and calling it cooking, well�that�s your comfort food. He�s made tremendous strides as a foodie over the years, but that is always going to be there for him. He�s not like his brother P, who was cursed with a good palate and learned to cook at an early age out of self-defense.
I didn�t get anything for Valentine�s day--unless you count the pretty rose my friend at work gave me this morning. She got them for everyone on the team, because she�s sweet and really into all holidays.
Or I suppose I could count the DVD (the Colin Firth rom-com �Hope Springs�) I bought myself when I ordered Spouse�s Valentine�s gift.
But nothing, not even a card, from Spouse. He has never liked Valentine�s Day. Funny, though, how he always expects me to remember it, and is sure to tell me what he�d like. This year, he got two more movies for his Steve McQueen collection; �The War Lover� and �The Reivers�. And, of course, he�s getting a cake.
And a card. They had a lunchtime workshop at work yesterday and today; you could come in and they had all kinds of craft supplies for making your own valentines. So I popped in today and put together a silly little thing with lace doilies and rubber stamps and crayons and rhinestones, just for fun. He probably won�t appreciate it, but I enjoyed creating something.
Reading: Lisa Gardner�s �Alone�. Still. Hey--I get about 15 minutes a day to read.
Surfing: Free Rice . Fun, edumuhcational, and do-goody, all rolled into one.
Listening: Steely Dan�s �Two Against Nature�.
At Random: click here
|
|
|