In other news, I need a new box of tissues. Holy flaming scoville units. I will never put two of those peppers into a single bowl of soup again no matter how much I love spicy food.

Also featured in tonight's dinner: raw sweet corn. On a scale from "mmm" to "would trade future rights to hypothetical firstborn child for please sir may I have some more," this was a "between a lifetime supply of this and lifetime supply of chocolate, I'd choose the former," which is high, high praise from me (I am a chocolate fiend).

Another highlight of the day was my first German longsword lesson (thanks, Seth!) where I learned that if he had a sword and I had a sword and I moved my sword in the direction of his sword for any vaguely not-quite-friendly reason, I would soon be disassembled in a pool of blood (read: dead and in pieces). Swords are awesome!

Last but not least, I have (1) stamps and (2) envelopes, so if you want a letter and live not-in-Boston*, send me your address and I'll write you. (If you live in Boston and want a letter, let me know and we can make arrangements such that I can hand-deliver it. Come on. Face-to-face contact. It's good stuff too.) I blame Greg Marra for this, by the way.

*or surrounding towns, the metro area, you know what I mean. Boston-ish.
This morning, after dumping the leftover HOT HOT HOT! soup into the rice cooker (habanero butternut rice with sweet corn and peppers?) and blending two bananas with some milk, peanut butter, and raspberry preserves for breakfast, I cracked open the "Blue Strawberry Cookbook" that Leonard had given me and Chris for our housewarming. (Thank you, Leonard! And thank you, Sumana, for the face paint!)

Leonard hard warned me that the book was written in 1976 when people had a different idea of what constituted health food. He suggested, in particular, to reduce the butter. Drastically. But I love butter. So I randomly opened the cookbook and started to read. Here are the first sentences (or first portion thereof) of the recipes on those two facing pages.

  1. Melt half a stick of butter and thicken with two tablespoons of flour.
  2. In a blender mix half a stick of melted butter, two tablespoons of flour, a tablespoon of moist chicken base...
  3. In a saucepan slowly bring to a simmer the following: half a stick of butter...
  4. Mix in a blender half a stick of melted butter....
  5. In the bottom of a saucepan melt one stick of butter, then add about four shallots, sliced thin...
  6. In the blender puree one melted stick of butter...

I tried again. This one ended up at "Pork in Grand Marnier Sauce," and the first words there were "To half a stick of butter in a saucepan, add..." The next was "Ham in Raspberries and Grand Marnier," and it began "Score the fatty part of the ham," and the next paragraph began "Into a saucepan put one melted stick of butter..."

I think... I will reduce the butter.