Finds in the Freezer

For Christmas at my grandmother's, my aunt sent us dessert we had never heard of- canneles, a French pastry/dessert. No one, other than myself, much appreciated them at the time (I think we dried them out in the oven), and my grandmother insisted I take a half dozen home- not something I had to be persuaded to do. I rediscovered them in the freezer last night, so I defrosted then heated one in the microwave. I broke through the chewy exterior into the soft, moist center, and thus began my love affair.

Tartelette has a delicious post on her blog concerning canneles. There are at least two French bakeries here in Baltimore that I must check for canneles once my frozen supply runs out.

Lovely, moist canneles

Must call my grandmother and share the discovery!

Warmth on a Budget

As with so many other things, the price of electricity is beyond the desired scope of a girl on a budget. I do all the things I can to keep it down- all CFL lights, no plugged gadgets or appliances, plastic on the windows, heat on low or not at all. Even though I hail from the north and consider myself fairly cold-hardy (ok, who am I kidding, I'm always cold), it gets rough when the temperature is in the 20s and my apartment is only slightly warmer than that, with big old drafty 7' windows.

What to do? I take advantage of my cat as a living heater (this is the first year she has ever slept on my lap.


I have also broken out the wool poncho given to me by my parents' neighbor back in PA, similar to below:


And now I will drink some hot tea and look out the window at the snow...

Local Discovery

One of the great incidental accompaniments to having company is the things they bring with them. I had a friend over for dinner last night (for which I made some great but simple peanut noodles) who brought with him a bottle of wine from Boordy Vineyards, a local winery just north of Baltimore. A good, but not great, bottle of Cabernet- due to the fact that this part of the country is not especially known for producing stellar reds. Regardless, the vineyard is back on my list of places to visit this spring or summer and when I can buy wine again I will be doing my best to put my money in the local economy and support those enterprises. Plus, they have great sketched labels...

Anxiety in the Extreme

My optimism into this foray has been somewhat lacking of late, due to A) the discovery of round 3 of car maintenance and B) tax filing. In Round 1, it was divulged that there is a crack in the exhaust manifold, which basically removes fumes from the engine via the catalytic converter. According to Honda, they must replace the entire system, which will cost upwards of another grand. I almost choked when they told me this. However, according to an auto-proficient coworker, he can replace only the manifold for about $300 in parts and a case of beer. That is definitely worth a trip up I-83 into PA for him to do the work. All I can say at the moment, is that he'd better be able to do it, because I am one more piece of bad news away from just forgetting the car and doing metro with the 6 mile-a-day walk.

Silly me thought that I may get some return on my taxes to help out with all of this, but as is my current fate, I owe the State of Maryland some $175. Seriously?!?

Lessons/positive spin? Getting to know my coworker better (honestly kinda thought him a bit of a redneck- but then again, I am a closet redneck at heart!) and, uh....learning to file my taxes?

Hopefully will have more coming positives!

Impetus

I had to part with nearly $1300 yesterday for the first round of car maintenance. While I was expecting it (granted, for only about a week and a half), the act was still not a particularly pleasant one. Quite the opposite, actually, and thus the impetus for my goal of fiscal responsibility. Certainly the greatest amount of money I have ever spent at one time, and one that is more than I receive in a single paycheck. So now I am left with half my rent for the month and about $36 in cash.

Perhaps the most frustrating part is that there is nothing visibly changed about my car! When I bought it last year with 90,000 miles there was no major maintenance done to it- which I didn't know until about 2 weeks ago- and, as I was buying my first car on my own, didn't know to ask. Fortunately there is nothing majorly wrong with it, just time to replace the timing belt, drive belts, brake pads, brake rotors, flush the brake fluid. Fortunate, but frustrating that I have spent all this money and can't see or feel a difference!

I have until March or so to save up an equal amount to replace the exhaust manifold, flush the transmission fluid, the power steering fluid, 120K service......yikes! Too much car detail that I never really cared to know!

The Fledgling

So, art thou feahered, art thou flown,
Thou naked thing?—and canst alone
Upon the unsolid summer air
Sustain thyself, and prosper there?
Shall no more with anxious note
Advise thee through the happy day,
Thrusting the worm into thy throat,
Bearing thine excrement away?
Alas, I think I see thee yet,
Perched on the windy parapet,
Defer thy flight a moment still
To clean thy wing with careful bill.
And thou are feathered, thou art flown;
And hast a project of thine own.

-Edna St. Vincent Millay