Our Old People Dinner (because we don't need no stinking teeth)

Rebecca and I had to brainstorm about our awesome screenplay (science!), so Marty made us pho, which is a world wide known brain food. Oh, also it was her birthday. Happy Birthday Doctor! You have to ask him for the recipe. It was warm and salty and gingery and fragrant, everything pho is supposed to be. The brisket was melting. The noodles were glassy. Lots of umami. Which has become my least favorite word, ever since Kikkoman started sponsoring Food Network shows.



Then, for screenplay inspiration, we watched Ice Twisters, starring Duck from Mad Men. What's nice about SyFy Channel movies is the amount of yelling at the TV you can fit into a 90 minute time period. It's something all three of us appreciate. Knowing exactly the right asinine concepts to mock, and how to predict which character will be flash frozen next is an art form. We are professionals. Do not fuck with us. We know just enough science to sound like we know what we're talking about.

For dessert, I tried to make rice pudding. I mean, eventually it was made, and the end product was indeed pudding made of rice, but the process was arduous. I'm not used to making it on a stove top. My mom always baked it or made it in the crockpot. So I found a Jamie Oliver recipe that seemed simple enough. But I kept adding things to it as it went. I put 1 and 1/3 cups rice in with 2 cups milk, 2 cups vanilla soymilk, 1 cup brown sugar, a tbsp ginger, several whole cloves, and a tbsp cinnamon in a pot, and started simmering it. When it had failed to thicken appropriately after an hour of cooking, I added 1/2 cup whipped cream, 2 tbsp cream cheese, more brown sugar, a splash of maple syrup, 2 actual cinnamon sticks, more ginger, some salt, a white tube sock, a used dog toy, a thimbleful of beef stock, 3 unripe lemons, a granola bar, 5 caramel candies, one of Marty's stocking caps, a rabbit foot, 2 pieces broken china, and one large cup of unadulterated hope.

Can you tell I was drinking a little?



In the end, the cream cheese was a great idea, and it turned out really yummy. After it almost set the house on fire. We ate it warm with chopped pears. Oh pears, I will never ever ever get enough of you. For Thanksgiving, I want to try this David Leibovitz recipe for Pear Almond tart, and I'm terrified the pears will all be gone in a week when I need them. Please stay pears, stay all year round. You can live under my bed. I need you.