Family time with boo boos

Just now I accidentally placed a check mark on my task list on the place that indicates I have blogged for the day, when in fact I hadn't. So, let me quickly blog.

Yesterday evening, with our family now whittled down to just Mary, Graham and me and with no parties to go to, we were quietly determined to have a proper family evening at home. It did not go off without mishaps.

First off, the spoon bread. With Graham's limited tooth capacity and also his dislike of mashed potatoes, we're a little limited in what we can feed him. I thought of spoon bread, which had been one of the many specialties of my aunt Francis, AKA The Bread Lady from the early days of the Carrboro Farmer's Market. I grabbed her cookbook from off the shelf and set to work. 

Unfortunately, when it came out of the over and I tasted it, I knew at once that something was amiss. A quick glance back at the recipe brought me to the culprit: I had put dramatically too much baking soda in it, having mistaken the quantity of sugar called for for the quantity of baking soda. It was inedible. Being greatly disappointed, after dinner I tried again, this time doubling the recipe because I wanted there to be enough for me while also leaving a bunch for Graham. This batch came out much better.

Later, we went through the old "find a movie that everyone can agree on" two-step. The first couple of movies, sourced from a NY Times 10 best of 2023 list that featured a number of holiday season releases, were not yet available for streaming or not at a reasonable price. So we tried a recent Wes Anderson release: Asteroid City. In short, it sucks. Wes Anderson has gotten too much validation from the world and descends deeper and deeper into self-indulgence, supported by A-listers such as Tom Hanks and Scarlet Johansson and many others who agree to participated. Don't waste your time.

Still, it was nice to have all of us together watching. It would have been even better if Natalie was still around, but she is off visiting friends around the lower 48 already.