It was Stephen's birthday last week, so we have a lot of leftover cupcakes sitting around the house now. Why doesn't Betty Crocker make half-batches of cake mix? You can't help but make two dozen. I've been eating them for breakfast and for dessert, but we've still got about 10 left in the fridge. It's funny how breakfast and dessert foods are so similar--not bacon and eggs, I know, but danishes and donuts would feel just as right after dinner as they do first thing in the morning. Moreso, even. Or they should, but people would probably think it wrong to serve muffins for dessert. But what is the Muffin, after all, if not Cupcake's unadorned cousin with pretensions of nutritiousness?
Sometimes I try to imagine what visitors who have never experienced American/Western cuisine find strange about our food. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches probably seem kind of gross. (Peanuts processed into a fatty spread? Combined with gelatinous berry goo? Sandwiched between slices of bread? Yum.) And cereal with milk. ("It's like a soup, served cold. With two ingredients--milk and bits of dry cooked grains.") And hot dogs. Even we don't like to think too much about hot dogs.
Anyway, so now Stephen's a year older, and we've got all these cupcakes in the fridge. Our Fair City received a blast of frigid arctic air this weekend, but the radiators are keeping drafts at bay, and the garden center down the street is selling Christmas trees. Midnight Madness is this Thursday. Oh, and I bought pickling supplies! So I'm planning to make some homemade pickles today. Those will go nicely with the cupcakes, I'm sure.
