A doughy day

Suzanne came to lunch and I made barley soup and pretzels again. Here the pretzels are, in their initial balls, formed into footballs and looking a bit like the poop of patients with severe liver disease, being dipped into lye, and finally coming out of the oven. Aren’t they beautiful? Unfortunately, they stuck to the parchment paper I baked them on, but after a while, the paper took on their character and became edible like the rice papers on those wonderful Asian botan ame candies.

I am nearing the end of organizing Tom’s finances, but it is incredibly frustrating, dealing with the banks and financial types. I dread every interaction with them. For example, Tom had an annuity, and I was trying to do whatever one does with annuities, and in order to do that, I had to fill out some forms they had sent me. One of the things the form asked was who the beneficiary was. I called to ask them who that might be, and they said they couldn’t tell me until I had filled out the form and sent it in!!!!!!! I pointed out that I couldn’t fill it out without knowing who it was, but they didn’t seem to see that this might be a problem, and just kept repeating that they couldn’t tell me till I had filled out the form. And this was nothing whatever compared with dealing with his bank! Grrrrrrr!!!

A scary afternoon

Suzanne and my auntie were coming to lunch, and I made pretzels again, this time with actual lye, which I had finally been able to purchase. The can of lye, of course, had all kinds of dire warnings, and the recipe in my Bread Bible insisted that I wear full hazmat gear when preparing them. I am a timid creature, and all this frightened me, so I had Rachael come down and stand by as moral support, which she did with her little improvised gas mask. She was a great comfort. The resultant pretzels, not pretzel shaped, but rather tiny torpedoes, were very yummy. The ones I made earlier with butter were good, but these caustic ones were way better. As you can see here, the kitties were undeterred by chemical danger, and were eager to assist in the meal preparation.