Tuesday, September 18, 2007

the cupcake factory

So last night B did NOT remember our anniversary- until he saw the dinner table and then he was like, "Oh? Oh! Happy Anniversary, ma cherie!" When I accused him of having forgotten, he said that he hadn't forgotten; he remembered when he saw the table. OK, I don't know what planet he comes from where that would count as remembering but I was too tired to care. I had started baking cupcakes with my little "helper" getting in the middle of everything and was dead on my feet. Actually, that's not fair. All she really wanted to do was steal spoonfuls of butter. Trying to stay between 500 grams of butter and a whiley toddler was harder than you might imagine. Oddly enough, after probably a half cup of straight butter, she didn't have much of an appetite for dinner (Veal and Chestnut Ragout from epicurious.com, one of favorite fall recipes) so atleast we got to eat en tete à tete.

So there we were, glass of wine in hand, the candlelight flickering, and I decided to offer B a 'Get out of jail free' card. I told him to give us a toast, warning him that it better be good. This is what he came up with "To 12- no 10- uh, no! 8? no, 12 happy years of marriage. And to you- you look so much better than before."

Oh la la la la la la, as the French say.

First of all, we have only been married for 8 years. And secondly, after 8 years of marriage you think that he would know better than to try and compliment his wife by telling her how awful she used to look. Good lord, he makes it sound like the best think I ever did for him was picking up the phone and calling a plastic surgeon.

Lucky for him, I was too tired to fight. But apparently, he had had a long day as well (his immediate excuse for his poor performance) and bailed out of Ella's bedtime routine as well. And than the guy had the nerve to try and get romantic once I went to bed. Talk about a blind optimist.

The only thing he got 100% right was raving about my cupcakes. I made plain vanilla cake, with fresh rasperry compote filling and chocolate ganache frosting. He loved them. I took a few to playgroup today and the mommies loved them too. And then, since I had half of the frosting left, I whipped up another batch for tonight, minus the filling. Personally, I have come to the decision that an un-filled cupcake is a bit of a disappointment so I will not repeat the mistake of leaving them plain. Photos and recipe details to come, but too tired to download them tonight. Anyways, I expect that this will be the first of many cupcake postings. Its turning into my new hobby and if things work out, possibly a new career trajectory. I think that if I can't find a job in the corporate world, than being the Cupcake Queen of Paris wouldn't be a bad second choice.

1 comment:

The Late Bloomer said...

Great to see you back in the blogosphere again! Sounds like you're doing well. I totally understand about the French men thing -- my boyfriend always manages to turn things around and make ME feel guilty when he has actually done something pretty awful, like scheduling something on his own on a day that we were supposed to spend together. Well, I don't want to exaggerate, but it all adds up, eventually... I'm always making excuses for him, and I love him dearly, but he drives me crazy sometimes!

Oh, and I have to admit that the curiosity is killing me: what kind of surgery did you have done? You look beautiful in your photos! (and of course I understand if you don't want to answer here... but I just had to ask!)