I don’t understand all those self-help books and articles that promote life-long learning as if it’s something special. How can someone continue living and not continue learning? Every day seems to be filled with an adventure of new things to learn. So many things. So many wonderful terrible things.
For example, I wasn’t aware that chocolate could do this:
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| It’s grainy, it won’t melt, I can’t dip things in it, and it’s LAUGHING AT ME. |
It’s called seizing, and is apparently a big problem with chocolate. This is because chocolate, unbeknownest to me, is a lot like the simple syrup mixture that I used to make at the family Dairy Queen. There are tiny dry particles flowing around in the middle of the creamy, melted cocoa-fat mixture and if water is added to the mix these dry particles start to clump together. And, also like my time at the DQ, once you get it wrong it is near impossible to fix.
This is an issue because one of the ways to make sure that you don’t burn your chocolate while heating it is to use a double boiler. And if you’re someone like me who doesn’t actually own a double boiler… and can’t find the right sized bowls or utensils, you end up putting a smaller bowl inside a large pot of boiling liquid.
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| This was a hard image to find because apparently everyone else in the world was smart enough to think of putting a larger bowl on top of the pot rather than a smaller bowl inside… |
This means that sometimes water could enter the mix when when the boil gets a little too heavy and bubbles come up over the side of the bowl. Or- being that you’re throwing together bowls and mismatched pieces of crockery together anyway- when you try to get a burning hot bowl out of a pot of boiling liquid that’s only a little larger than it.
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| Whatever you do, do not do a google image search for “burned hands.” Seriously. I needed to look at cute otters a bit just to clear my memory. |
Anyhow, water got into the mix and all of a sudden I had a thick, almost brownie batter-like mixture of dark chocolate that refused to melt no matter what I did to it. Running out of time to dip my strawberries (for that is what I was trying to accomplish) I threw the confusing mess out and raced to the store to get more supplies.
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| It’s 10:38… Red Apple closes at 11pm… to the car! Now! |
Luckily the replacement chocolate I bought melted without incident (partially because I gave up on the idea of a double boiler and just slowly heated it on low) and my strawberries were dipped without further difficulty.
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| Although I ran out of time to make them fancy. |
Other things I’ve learned:
> if you’ve spent the last couple days running up and down hills and stairs with weights in your backpack don’t go out in heels- even if you are training for the Grand Canyon
>if you’re spending the day learning and performing a flash mob breakfast is absolutely essential
>the express 550 bus to Bellevue has the best seats
>the Seattle Junior League has some pretty darn awesome people in it.
Now it’s time to pack my bags and get ready for Tucson and Mexico! I am super excited. Burritos, music, beer, old friends, family and sun- the Southwest here I come!
Hopefully my automated posts show up like they’re scheduled to do.