Short and stairs.

I made meringues yesterday. Or as the recipe called them, French meringue cookies. They are meringues, I don’t need all those extra words. I made 32 decent sized ‘cookies’ and I think we have about 8 left. I sent 5 downstairs today with Jake and they were apparently very well received, even by Barb and Russ (and it always feels extra good when people that own a restaurant like stuff I make) so that’s awesome. So flippin simple – egg whites (leftover from thanksgiving pie, the whole reason I decided to make these), a lot of sugar, and a splash of vanilla extract. They are all lightly brown and taste like slightly roasted sugar but in the most perfect way. It is a good thing I’ve already brushed my teeth for the night or I would go eat more… I’ve had 5 this evening.

2 nights ago I made a vegetarian chili with quinoa in it. It is so good. I feel like it was better the first day but it was still pretty awesome today. I kinda filled the apartment with smoke, but it gave the chili a sort of bbq taste to it, what with the slightly blackened onions (and then the slightly blackened veggies… oops). So good, and it balances out the sweetness of the meringue so it works well!

I made Ash a little "cubby" type place thing out of the alphabet puzzle piece mat she has. She is going to be so excited when she sees it tomorrow. There was a crappier version built earlier today but she started destroying it so I gave up. Pity we only had 36 squares, I could have made a much more elaborate and awesome play space if I had more pieces.

Ashley is starting to learn about Christmas. So far she knows it as when she is getting a hat. We are looking for a fedora for her, so she can be like MJ. Every time we watch a live performance of Billie Jean, she tells me she NEEDS a hat, MJ has a hat, she needs a hat. Now she says "Ashley NEEDS hat… kissmas" so she is ok with waiting.

My nails have been halloweeny for the past week but I removed the pretty today. Have to do something different, I like having pretty nails and Ash is good at playing by herself so I have a bit more time these days.

I have more to say but the baby won’t go to sleep again without me by her side and I had to escape, leaving her crying, just so I can attempt to post this. Yargh. I would have waited more but it was getting too close to bedtime and therefore I was at risk of Jake just turning the computer off without checking to see if I had posted this entry… I know I have more to say but I can’t think while listening to tears.