So the last time I posted something on this blog was back in May. I treated you to some story about how after a month of lazy bumming I will now post regularly. I obviously lied. To my defense, what has happened in the past months can only be characterized as me falling into a black hole. You know… time warp. It happens to all of us periodically. Some of us realize that they’ve been black-holed after five months and others realize this after fifty years. What happens then, you may ask. Well… Option 1: You crawl back into your black hole. Depression ensues, followed by amateur philosophizing about the nature of time and men… or Option 2: You decide to fight against the black hole. In the immortal words of Bridget Jones
, you choose vodka and Chaka Khan. Or in my case, you make French toast for breakfast. Delicious, fluffy, cinnamon-scented, black-hole-combating French Toast to be precise. The announcement that I will be making French Toast has been met with some resistance from the husband, who promptly announced that he hates French Toast and if I decide to make it after all, it should be without cinnamon because he hates cinnamon. This later got reduced to the demand of not putting cinnamon on his share (which is kind of perplexing, because after he announced that he hates French toast, I kind of assumed that he wouldn’t have any at all and the black-hole French toast will be mine and only mine). In any case, husband’s objections have been promptly ignored on both counts. I have been taught from experience that when he claims to hate innocent foods such as pancakes or lentils or French toast, it soon turns out that the opposite is the case… as evidenced by the mhmmm mhmmm sound he makes while eating. This time was no exception.
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For the past two months, I have been completely obsessed with rice pudding from the store across the street from our house. Actually, I have been also obsessed with the store itself. Not only is it right across the street, but during the week it is open till midnight and on Sundays it is open till 8pm. This is a big deal, you see, since I live in Germany, a country which is currently at war with consumerism. This is clearly demonstrated by the fact that all stores, even grocery stores, are closed on Sundays. So if you run out of butter or milk or coffee, or any necessity really, you’re in a big doodoo. I begrudgingly started accepting the doodooesque Sundays, when something wonderful happened: a store called Frischwerk opened. The opening of Frischwerk, which, I’m not sure if I already mentioned it, is right across the street from our house (!), was a big event for me. In fact, it was one of the best things to have happened to me since my arrival in this country. And then, something even better happened. I discovered their rice pudding… creamy, perfectly balanced, with a hint of cinnamon and just enough sweetness, in short, heavenly, addictive stuff that inspired me to cook something equally divine at home. Now, I often have a feeling that when I describe particular dishes on this blog, I make them sound super easy, and for the most part they are easy to cook. Sometimes, however, I tackle a dish that gives me trouble. I make it and remake it and make it again, till it looks and tastes just as I want it to. Such was the case with the deceptively simple rice pudding (how can something with only three ingredients give one so much trouble?) At first I cooked it according to the recipe in the Andalusia book, the same book I once contemplated stealing from my parents-in-law. My first reaction upon trying the pudding was: Holy cow, do these Andalusians have a sweet tooth! I tried it again with much less sugar, but then I didn’t like the consistency, as it was supposed to be finished off with whipped egg yolks (and more sugar) and it turned into a sickly sweet and weirdly sticky mess (this was even before stirring in whipped cream, as recommended). Finally, when I almost gave up on making my perfect rice pudding, I came across a rice pudding recipe in a Polish cook book that my mom gave me for Christmas. I combined it with the other recipe and what came out was pretty damn good, not quite as good as the original, but I will keep on trying.
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