Flambe'

I set my mother-in-law's kitchen on fire last night. 

More on that in a minute.

Pidgeon and I had the most exhausting day yesterday and it started off with an early morning blood test at Wolfson center. The alarm went off at 7:00 a.m. and I jumped out of bed, got Pidgeon moving, and we were underway a few minutes later. Of course, they had some issues finding my veins (happens all the time) but she was quick so we were able to get in and out of there in no time. Since the workers moved our entire living/dining/kitchen into the spare bedroom, we had no place to go and eat breakfast. We decided to stop off at Aroma and eat a quick sandwhich. We had to be back at the apartment, though, to meet with the AC repair guy about the central heat/AC that went on Wednesday night. I was in pretty good spirits when we drove back, a little tired, but still in good spirits.

And then, when Pidgeon parked the car, I got out and literally stepped full on into a pile of dog shit. Pidgeon tried to warm me - yelling watch out but it was too late. I stepped and I stepped with authority, so the shit was all up in the crevices. Needless to say, I threw a bit of a fit outside the apartment and then walked shoeless upstairs. The workers ALL wanted to chat, but I was still having my fit, until the contractor took my shoe and cleaned it off for me. That made me feel a bit better, although I did spend another 30 minutes with Qtips trying to get all the crap off the shoe. I was in a lousy mood for the rest of the morning.

We left at 3:30 p.m. to get haircuts, since we are both very shaggy and dirty individuals. I haven't had a hair cut in 4 months and it was way overdue. We went to Tzvi Michaeli's on Marcus Street and he did a pretty decent job with the haircut, but with all this dry weather, I had no idea that I was going to be the poster child for Static Cling! I kid you  not, I was like the Bride of Frankenstein doing a kids school experiment. Just without the balloon. We went straight to the SuperSol in Talpiot to pick up food for Shabbos and Pidgeon was having a little too much fun with my staticky hair. If you raised a hand near my hair, the strands would just rise and levitate. It was annoying when my bangs wouldn't get off my face, but we did our shopping and raced home to pack.

We moved into Pidgeon's parents house since they are away for Shabbos, and I immediately got to cooking. Probably NOT the best of ideas since I was super tired at this point, but I wanted to get some stuff going. Pidgeon abandoned me to chill out and relax, but Pidgeon's cousin came over so I had someone to talk to. 

And that's when I set the pan on fire. I still have NO idea how the whole thing happened but one minute, I am sauteing potatoes in the pan and then next it's going all flambe' on me. Fortunately, I was very calm, and just took the pan off the fire. It quickly went out with a few shakes. I mean, I have my mother-in-law issues just like everyone else, but I certainly didn't want to burn her kitchen down. Pidgeon's cousin promised to keep the incident a secret, so that's a relief, and I was able to continue cooking food for Shabbos.

I thought we were going to be a lot more people, so I ended up overcooking today. I'm still in the kitchen, been here since 10:00 a.m., and I am finally almost done. The shnitzel is baking nicely, the roasted vegetables are cooling and the onion soup for tonight is still bubbling. Pidgeon left to do some work, so I'm alone in the house, and it's really weird cooking in my in-laws kitchen. It's just this entirely unfamiliar experience, complete with cooking utensils I'm not used to handling and a gas range as opposed to my great electric unit at home. 

BTW - it looks like this Professor strike is finally over and for the first time in 7 months, I'm going to be back in school this week! Too bad I'm really not looking forward to it, especially since the house is in shambled. 

And, it looks like this cold snap won't be breaking anytime soon and my skin is about to flake off. It's so dry the everything is in need of moisture. I'm just hoping my nose doesn't start bleeding in the middle of the night, we're sleeping on white sheets!

Wishing everyone a very good, and warm, Shabbos!