the waste of a perfectly good bottle of wine and other things

Maxwell had his final play performance for this season.

He had two parts in short play called "the grouch" adapted from a Greek folktale that I can't remember the name of.
He played the best friend of the protagonist, and also his mother.

He was not delighted to play an old woman in an evening gown & wig, but he did a good job.
The score was glam/disco inspired, hence the wacky make-up and glitter.

He is glad that play is behind him.

It was not the one we signed up for. I had gotten him the comedy workshop for his birthday, but there weren't enough students, so it was cancelled and this playlab was offered in it's place.

Had I know how lame it was I might have passed, but in the past he has always really enjoyed the playlabs, so it goes.

Don't worry, no one was murdered.

The cat threw a bottle of red wine off of the top of the fridge, about 20 minutes before Mark's father, his partner, Mark's sister and Mark's mother were to arrive for dinner.

I was stressed out to say the least, but managed to get the wine and the glass cleaned up and no one was the wiser.

The thing that was worse (can you imagine?) was that after cleaning up that mess, I went into the playroom to get a child chair, and when I picked up the chair, a teeny, tiny mouse was there.

It proceeded to sort of shamble across the room in a daze, with kitty in chase.
Kitty brought it in and was just sitting there watching it, when I interrupted her fun.

UGH.

It was a really sweet little mouse.
A very lovely little Beatrix Potterish mouse.

Boy did I feel like a heal for egging kitty onto the hunt.

Kill! Kill!

This is the cake Maxwell and I made together for the family gathering.

He was very proud of the cake, although he was most proud of learning to make deviled eggs!

You would have thought I had introduced him to caviar the way he went on and on.

Good!
one more thing to add to the very limited list of things he will eat.

Those are Mark's relatives in the background oblivious to the mouse massacre and the red wine incident that took place only an hour before!
I always wind up serving them dinner in the kitchen, and I wonder if they feel offended by never getting into the dining room- hmmm, note to self, next year move into the dinning room.



Today Rolf's did childcare for Maxwell for us.
They went to Sauvie Island and waded in the river and picked strawberries.
I made Rolf this tart to show my gratitude.
I also did his laundry.

Good childcare is hard to come by!
The little painting in the background is oil on linen. It is called "heidi's dream" by my friend Joyce, she usually does large abstract pieces, but I like this one because it is tiny and it involved textiles.
I also like the sewing work she did. I had no idea she could sew so nicely. I like to make dramatic sweets and place them in front of this painting.

bake a pie crust in a fluted tart pan.
I make mine out of butter and flour and nuts, nothing else. I just kneed it until it is the right consistency and then I press it, like playdough, into the pan, I never roll it out, rolling it out can make it tough, and I like a very flaky crust.

When you make your basic crust, add in some almond meal, or ground walnuts.

allow the crust to cool.

make a pastry cream. (double if you want to make this in parfait glasses, without a crust)
3 large egg yolks
1/4-1/2 cup sugar
1 T butter
1 t vanilla
1/4 flour

cream together.

heat 1 cup cream or milk, to warm,

add 1/2 to the sugar mixture and whisk constantly.

then add the sugar mix to the milk on the stove and heat up while you are constantly whisking.
I mean DON'T stop at all, keep whisking and whisking!
don't let it boil, but get close. your cream should be really thick.
pull it off the heat.
Once, about 20 years ago, I burned this cream.
Rolf loved it and has been badgering me to make it again, forever, but who can willfully burn something? Not me. We still call it "burnt cream".

spread it into your tart add berries, chill. works well with peaches or plums