When we first woke up Sunday morning we were happy to see that we only got a few inches of snow during the night, as opposed to the 6 to 8" or snow/freezing rain/rain. I'd say at best we got 4 inches of light, fluffy pretty snow. Then, as hubby snow-blowed the driveway, something caught his eye. Or should I say, the absence of something caught his eye...
I was reminded of a line from "A Christmas Story":
" My father wove a tapestry of obscenity that as far as we know is still hanging over ..."
In this case, my driveway! Someone had rubbed the number off my husband's license plate....No, that's not it. Actually, some LOSER SCUMBAG stole the tailgate off my husband's pick up truck Saturday night! And the man was none too pleased about it. Police were called, report filled out, neighbors popped over to offer their sympathy and possible leads (yes, leads. These morons apparently forgot to don their invisibility cloaks) and little by little, my dear husband's blood pressure began to descend into something vaguely resembling normalcy. He later recalled hearing a conversation that occurred that very day, where someone commented "Hey! There's a black F-350!" as if they were scouting around, looking for parts. Cops know about it, and if per chance you are lost and found your way here, your boss knows about it, too. You can run, but you cannot hide....
Well, it's really hubby that you should be worried about, because to cheer myself up (and to celebrate the fact that we had recently removed the $3,000 worth of firefighting gear that had been in the bed of the truck, and stowed it in a safe, secure, secret location) I treated myself to a couple of these yummy treats...
Espresso Biscotti, from my friend JM over on Grouprecipes.
Yummy, espresso-flavored biscotti, dipped in chocolate. Just what I needed as a little pick-me-up! I told myself I would bring these into the office Monday...oops. I forgot. Maybe Tuesday...ok, Wednesday. If there are any left.
To further comfort myself, I channeled that calm, soothing, foodie soul, Ina Garten and made this yummy fruit crumble, not crisp. Ina calls them crumbles...but they're the same thing as crisps. I needed to channel Ina because after the theft of a beloved tailgate and a dose of espresso with a third cup of coffee, my only other alternative was to channel that Billy Mays dude who does the OxyClean commercials....I like Ina better.
So this is what I was working on...Blueberry-Pear Crumble
Pear, blueberries topped with an oat and almond brown sugar crust. All good, except I used steel cut oats, and I'm not sure if it's because I'm just not used to them or maybe they need more cooking time, but they are a little too hard for this. Maybe I just need to acquire a taste for them. And even though I used a minimal amount of sugar, this is still quite sweet. Maybe I can get away with using even less.
So, I'm tweaking this one and hopefully by the time we have a new tailgate, I'll have a new recipe to share! Meanwhile, go make those biscotti and be on the lookout for a black Ford F-350 tailgate! :)
