Morning After

The morning after a big thunderstorm always looks different than other mornings. Our alley is covered in water - probably only a couple of inches, but it looks like a brown, mini-Mississippi River out there.

A busy evening with Baby A left no time really for chopping things to make soup, so I opted for something a little easier and made rumaki. I can only eat rumaki when Pablo is out because he really doesn't like chicken livers. I trimmed liver and mixed up the marinade while baby's noodles were cooking and assembled and broiled after bedtime. In between noodles and bedtime there was much tickling and reading - I Spy Little Bunnies is the favorite of the moment - and a good long walk around the block. She is really getting into the walking thing.

My dinner was almost spoiled by the discovery that we were out of toothpicks. I couldn't run out to the store because the baby was asleep already and I am not one of those moms who think "everything will be ok because I'll only be gone for twenty minutes." I felt silly asking a neighbor for fifteen toothpicks. What would they think of me? I got over it and called, but no one was home. It took a while for me to come up with a back up plan (we had no wooden skewers either), but then I remembered the grill skewers. And I couldn't find those either. What had Pablo been up to while I was out east? Joined a scary shish kebab cult and turned all my poky wooden sticks into an altar somewhere? I finally found them in the utensil drawer where they had been made to fit by neatly bending them into L-shapes. Kind of defeats the purpose of having extra-long grill skewers. They worked anyhow and dinner was indeed saved.

There was not much time left after all of this for reading (or tidying up the living room either!), but I managed to sneak in the end of Swallowdale by Arthur Ransome. It was joyful and fun. It was late then, but I couldn't resist the next book in the pile - The Remains of the Day. Am I the only person on the planet who hasn't read this already? It begins quietly and almost sadly and am looking forward to getting deeper into it.

The menu today - because I know where the grill is anyhow - pork ribs with Alton Brown's marvelous dry rub, green salad, and there will be chili to make for tomorrow or my tomatoes will explode on the counter.