(written 12.06.05, 11:31am): Evidently there are monthly (and annual) train passes. This is good. They’re expensive, considerably more expensive than the Caltrain equivilant for distance (at least the Caltrain equivilant five years ago, which was the last time I used Caltrain regularly), but they’re about half the cost of paying daily, so that’s good. It may curtail my plans to go into Dublin a couple times a week down to just once, but that’ll probably be okay.
more behind the cut…
Working on my first loaf of unmeasured bread. It certainly looks and feels like bread dough, so I’m not too worried, but I’ll let you know how it turns out. :) I may, if I am flush from success, give chocolate chip cookies a whirl, too. :)
But not until I’ve gotten more writing done. I’ve done a few hundred words this morning, then stopped to go to the store with Ted, as I didn’t want him to have to lug six bags worth of groceries home alone. Then I made bread and now I’m writing a journal entry. My, how easy it is to procrastinate. :)
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES! Ye gods! It’s very difficult to find semi-sweet chocolate chips here (they call semi-sweet chocolate ‘plain’ chocolate here), and when you do, it’s in 6 oz bags that cost … crap, I’ve forgotten the HTML for a Euro symbol. They cost E1.70! That’s two dollars! For six ounces of chocolate chips! Ye gods!
Know what the other Christmas-critical thing we can’t find here is? Crisco. They’ve got solid vegetable-oil stuff, but it’s nothing at all like Crisco and the pie crust it makes isn’t as tender (although mind you, Mom’s crust was still considerably more brilliant than anything one could get at a store). Would anybody with a Costco’s card like to send me a care package of Nestle’s chocolate chips and Crisco? I’ll repay you, of course. Email me at open at mizkit dot com or catie at cemurphy dot net if you’re that good-hearted a soul. :)
Ok, I better really get to work now. :)
Let’s see… € (€) or € (€) for a Euro symbol? They both work for me on Firefox 1.5, Windows XP.
Anyway, is it the chips or the chocolate that’s so expensive? Smash bars and make chocolate chunk cookies instead, if the chips are the expensive part.
I’m you’re boy. Send me shipping information and quantities desired.
Start making yourself a list of other stuff you can’t find there (or that is obscenely expensive) and I’ll bring you a care duffle when I come to visit this winter/spring.
I tend towards the ‘smash your own chocolate’ style of baking myself. While they’ve recently started selling chocolate chips in the stores here, they are ridiculously expensive, comparatively. And its all going to melt, anyhow :)
Baking margarine: I recommend Stork for baking. Comes in a silver paper packet.
Chocolate chips: get a (oh heck, staafmixer, um, those blenders on sticks that are pretty cheap) and buy Green & Black’s cooking chocolate for the best experience ever!
Want a recipe for mincemeat?
Baking margarine is not like Crisco, though. We’ve found it here, and it’s just not the same creature. At all. :)
Mincemeat recipe! Sure!
Here you are!