Ch-ch-ch-chia Chocolate Pudding and Some Other Stuff, Too

This week:

Well, not this week, but a couple of weeks ago (did I already tell you this story?) I woke myself up in the middle of the night laughing. I asked The Brain why we were awake and why we were laughing, and The Brain said, "We should start a Sigur Rós cover band." Which I know, hilarious, right? But I need my sleep. That stuff can wait til morning, The Brain.

But this week:

I went to the dentist to have my night guard adjusted. Damn, I hate that thing. It was pressing on one of my front teeth and causing it to ache, so the dentist had to drill out that part. After that was done, the dentist put the guard back into the water and mouthwash in a ziplock bag contraption that she had me bring it to the office in, and I, thinking that the bag was sealed, put it in my purse. I ran some errands, picked up Dave, and we went to (try to) pick up his glasses. While I was waiting with him in the optometrist's office, I kept my purse on my lap and, yes, I came home with a wet, minty-fresh crotch from the leaking ziplock.

So that was fun.

Let's see what other fun things happened this week.

We've been trying to cook more at home and eat out less, so I cooked some new things, including a fast, cheater-y version of pasta e fagioli ("pasta fazool"). On another night we had a burrata and tomato salad--trying desperately to partake of the last of the summer tomatoes. Another night we had huge breakfast burritos with hash browns and egg and some leftover green chile-cheese sauce from a green chile macaroni and cheese we made a few days before.

Mostly though, I've been craving sweets terribly. Last night I ate a small bag of chocolate covered pretzels before dinner (mozzacado sandwiches, which sound weird but are really only fresh mozzarella and avocado with tomato, red onion, basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar on sourdough bread) and a chocolate eclair for dessert. Dave and I also threw together a ch-ch-ch-chia chocolate pudding (chia seeds, milk, sugar, cocoa, instant coffee, salt) that needs to sit overnight. We'll see how that goes; I'm very sceptical about chia seeds in general and chia seed pudding more specifically.

This recent spate of cooking has been inspired by a totally random youtube find called foodwishes. The guy who runs the channel (and the accompanying website) is hilarious and I find his videos inspiring enough that I've already tried a couple of his dishes.

And aside from food, I have to say, I haven't been doing much. I did read Susannah Cahalan's book Brain on Fire: My Month of Madness, reviewed meh-ishly (accurately) in The New York Times.

Fall is pretty much on its way now, and it's almost time to rip out the mostly failure of a garden and maybe plant some fall/winter stuff. Our fat little orb weaver has disappeared (hopefully off to lay an egg sac and not because she became a bird's mid-morning snack) and I can now pick the eggplants from under her dilapidated web.

It's been awhile since we had a good studio day, but we're going tomorrow to raku some stuff. We'll see how that goes. If I get my shit together, I'll take some photos.