Many things have happened in the last week or so. The biggest one is that Osama Bin Laden is, we are pretty sure, dead. I am one of those unfortunates who has the tendency to break out in hysterical laughter at all the wrong times, so of course I've been walking around this last 24 hours or so with "Ding Dong The Witch Is Dead" going on rapid fire loop in my brain.
There. I've said it. It's completely inappropriate...or maybe it isn't. It certainly isn't serious enough to honor all those who've died on both sides since September, 2001, but it insists on rattling around up there.
...and there it goes again...
"But we've got to verify it legally, to see
(To see?)
If she
(If she?)
Is morally, ethic'lly
Spiritually, physically
Positively, absolutely
Undeniably and reliably Dead?"
Okay. That's done now, which leads me onto the next tangent, which is that the Munchkin Coroner was, I believe, a history teacher at the first (I think) high school where my dad taught way back in the late 50s. I hear he was amazing with discipline and inspiring to my dad, who was a new, young and very impressionable music teacher. Speaking as a small person (albeit small within the norm,) I can say that we have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously by people who can physically look down at you, which is most of them. Even my kid mistakes my size for being "kind of like a child, really," which is okay, I suppose. She lets me in on what she's doing and I can fit into bouncy houses with her. I have no idea what I'd do if confronted with a class full of teenagers with attitudes, though. Meinhardt Raabe died in 1997. Evidently he also spent about 30 years doing something with the Oscar Meyer Weinermobile, teachers' salaries being what they are.
Endgames, though. I'm avoiding the topic, aren't I? Or just being cagey on-line about how I feel about politics. Yeah.
We keep getting shoved into that mindset so that we're always on edge, waiting for the next bit of the insane wartime narrative that's feeling more and more like a violent movie with way too many 3-D effects and enough hidden xenophobia that I can't watch it past the start of act 2. It's the crazy wave that's going to break, rushing us all headlong into some kind of armageddon, valhalla or convergence where the blessed few get snatched out of their cars and the rest of us get to drive their Jaguars for a while before the terrible finale (especially for Jews, so I hear). We keep waiting for the redemptive end so that the credits can roll and we can return to the happily-ever-after. Only it's actually the happily-ever-before our loss of innocence, a satisfying erasure of everything that we've done that ever had awful consequences and boy, are there many of those. Then the great director in the sky can make a new movie that we can all star in. Maybe next time it will be a romantic comedy.
Or maybe we're never at the end, just in the middle, continuing the long, strange trip, which just gets longer and stranger and more horrible in a weirdly banal sort of way as I think about things. It's not that bad, really. Life could be that odd, and everyday life is it's own kind of horror if we're not used to engaging with it. When we're too used to full immersion in media unreality we can't wrap our brains around what is really there. Which includes that if you forget to set your timer, that what's in the oven might burn.
So, if you dare, this is a great use for all those gluten-free rice bread ends that have been living in the freezer for the last six months, waiting for the finale. Here it is. (At least dinner can truly be finished with in style. Roll credits if necessary.)
Gluten/Dairy-free Bread Pudding
(based on Joy Of Cooking with many liberties taken)
Serves 8
Preheat oven to 350 F
Toast bread until dry, especially if it's icy from the freezer. Cut off any burnt parts and dice well. Soak for 15 minutes:
5 cups diced bread
in:
3 containers coconut cream (I used Wilderness Family Naturals' and can attest to it being the best tasting I've ever had. http://www.wildernessfamilynaturals.com/product/coconut-products-coconut-milk/CC250.php)
Combine/beat:
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
add:
grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon (or a whole one if they're really tiny, like the little one I got at the farmers' market on Sunday.)
1/3 cup raisins mixed with currants
Pour these ingredients over the soaked bread, stir until well-blended. Beat egg whites until stiff, then fold them gently into the mixture. Pour into a greased baking dish. Bake set in a pan of hot water for about 45 minutes.
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