Pick-A-Day

March 2009
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Stupid Me.

Yesterday my American-German PseudoWife came and spent the night at my apartment.

This was the second time she’d spent the night at my apartment—she was my first houseguest last week, even before the Regensbloggers, who stayed with me over the weekend.

Amusingly the pattern of care sort of inverted itself from last week to this week. Last week my PseudoWife was feeling a bit under the weather and I ended up taking care of her. This week I was the one being taken care of, after I burned my thumb.

The afternoon had started out well—we had hit up the grocery store where we purchased the ingredients for homemade chili and to make cutout cookies. Back at the apartment we started out my mixing the dough to make cutout cookies—which we stuck in the fridge, and then started making the chili.

Really, none of this was dangerous.

We left the chili to simmer, the dough to chill, and plopped ourselves down to watch TV. Once the dough was chilled, we stopped the TV and started making cutout cookies.

Tastes better than it looks.

Tastes better than it looks.

This was something I’d been meaning to do for a long time, but I have been too suspicious of my one cookie cutter to actually make the cookies. It’s an intricate cookie cutter in the shape the Brandenburg Gate—complete with legs and an outline of the statue on the top—lots of tight corners and edges.

However, over the weekend when I was out with Cathy and Cliff, we’d stopped in a kitchen supplies shop in Erfurt where I picked up a second cookie cutter—a boy symbol that had fewer intricate edges—really it only had that center hole to poke out (which we eventually referred to as a period, and baked as such).

As I suspected, the Brandenburger Tor was a bitch to work with. Even if we could get the top to come out ok, the legs of the tower got stuck in the cutter, or detached themselves from the rest of the gate completely.

After filling the first cookie sheet, we popped them in the oven and kept cutting.

A bit later, I looked in the oven, grabbed a pot holder and reached into the oven. For some unknown reason the potholder communicated the heat right through it—even though it’s a trusted and thick potholder. And stupidly, I tried it twice.

Unfortunately I don’t have any aloe or other burn treatments at home—so I ended up holding bottles of chilled white wine, in rotation, until the throbbing ceased. As bottles warmed, I would return them to the fridge, and grab another. I really tried not to whine as I looked like a wino with bottles of wine in my hand all night.

Thankfully my PseudoWife was there to take care of me—finishing the cookies, stirring the chili, serving me chili, and doing the dishes.

I sat on the couch embarrassed.

Although I’d much rather not have burned my thumb, I am relieved that I burned the right side of my right thumb—so at least I am able to type with my hand—on a computer keyboard, really only the left side of my right thumb touches the keyboard. On my iPhone the only part of my right thumb that I use is the tip. That leaves the blisters on my thumb from encountering any unnecessary pressure.

And on the cookie front, let me assure you that AllRecipes.com’s Cut-Out Cookies Made with Oat Flour is excellent—I didn’t have oat flour, so I took my oatmeal and, with clean hands, I smashed it with my hands for a few minutes until all the flakes had vanished. It might not have been as fine as if I had used a blender, but since I don’t have a blender, it had to do. The resulting cookies were quite hearty with a pleasing flavor and excellent texture.

1 comment to Stupid Me.