Category Archives: Greg’s fantasy world

Chocolate malt ball cake

Posted on May 11, 2011 by | Comments Off

I threw together a quick little raspberry cake on Greg’s birthday before he headed off to work, and we all sat down for a piece after breakfast. Because I had to work Monday, I knew breakfast was our only time together that day. This was a borderline coffee cake, so it didn’t seem completely unreasonable to have it at 9 a.m.

Though the cake was wonderfully moist, it could not suffice for a birthday cake — only one layer and no frosting — and when I stumbled upon a friend’s photo of a chocolate malt ball cake, I knew that Greg had to have that for his birthday. Or maybe it was the six months’ pregnant lady who had to have it. I can’t be sure.

So back into the kitchen I went yesterday, barefoot and pregnant and armed with obscene amounts of chocolate and butter. I found the cake recipe from Food and Wine Magazine. I cut this recipe in half because as you can see, the original frosting recipe calls for a pound of butter. If you have any concern for your heart, you will run away screaming now.

Still here? I baked it in two pans instead of three. Despite all the malt in the cake, it doesn’t taste particularly malty or noteworthy, but the frosting, oh my. In the future, I would probably just make a yellow cake and use this frosting. Or maybe just buy a pack of graham crackers and make this frosting. With Whoppers on top, of course.

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Posted in Desserts, Food, Greg's fantasy world, Recipes

Priorities straight

Posted on January 2, 2011 by | 1 Comment

Last year, Greg and I became a bit obsessed with “Top Gear,” a British program about really expensive cars. Greg has never had much interest in cars, or maybe I should say he’s had no interest in cars. When I married him, his only transportation was a $10 bicycle he had bought at a university sale. I don’t think he could tell a Toyota Corolla from a Mercedes McLaren.

But that has changed. On our way to brunch today, we passed an Audi R8, which is a beautiful sports car that costs over six figures. I think Greg drooled a little bit, but maybe he was just hungry.

“Someday,” I said. Which is to say, someday when we’re old we’ll blow the inheritance on one of those. “But I don’t know that I could buy one,” I said. “Just think of how many poor people you could help with that kind of money.”

“But think of how many people at Audi you could help by buying one of those,” Greg said.

Yes, let us not neglect the poor German engineers.

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Posted in Conversations, Greg's fantasy world

Protecting the little woman

Posted on October 3, 2010 by | 1 Comment

When I opened the dryer Friday to pull out some laundry, a scorpion fell to the floor. Egads! It looked dead, but when it comes to scorpions, I need to be 100 percent sure. Not having a sledge hammer handy, I grabbed one of Greg’s shoes and smashed it. Yes, very dead.

Where had it come from? The load of laundry had Greg’s tae kwon do uniforms and a blanket of Abe’s. Was it hiding in the clothes the whole time? Did I have a scorpion infestation in my laundry room?

That night, I told Greg about the scorpion.

“Oh, yes,” he said, with not even a touch of surprise. It was as though I had told him that George Washington was the first U.S. president.

A SCORPION IN OUR DRYER. Why wasn’t he shocked? And fearful? And running from the house?

“I got stung Sunday. Or was it Monday?” he said.

“You got stung? Why didn’t you tell me you got stung?” I asked.

“Twice!” he said.

“Twice?” I asked. “What happened?”

Greg said that when he had changed from jeans into a pair of shorts (a pair of shorts he left lying on the floor, of course), he felt something bite or sting his leg. He hit the spot and felt another sting. Eleanor was waiting on him, and I was at work, so he just changed out of those shorts and went on his way. He didn’t even know what had stung him, only that it hurt a lot.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I said.

“Because I didn’t want you to worry,” he said.

Right. Better to have Eleanor and I unknowingly traipse around the house with scorpions. And this forces me to wonder what else Greg might be hiding from me. Rattlesnake in the back yard? Wolf spider in the closet? So good of my husband to prevent me from worrying.

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Posted in Greg's fantasy world