Understanding the Assignment

Daily writing prompt

Share a story about someone who had a positive impact on your life.

A little post-Mother’s Day story about one of the other mothers I’ve had in my life.

Mrs. Gelena Carter Fisk, my fourth grade teacher, gave me a pair of knives at the bridal shower my childhood church held to celebrate my first wedding.

She didn’t want a penny in exchange. Mom was concerned that I didn’t offer her one anyway, never mind that we were standing in a church fellowship hall, and if there was going to be an Old World superstition that could get into the building after me past my grandfather’s ghost (he had died across the street five years prior), we really would need the Good Lord to step in and break it up.

I wasn’t the target. Mrs. Fisk was side-eyeing my ex when she handed me the box and announced what it contained.

Not long after, he decided to use the paring knife as a screwdriver. The tip slipped and snapped: I don’t know if he got cut when it broke, because he didn’t let me see him do it.

I took the carving knife with me when I left. Even after thirty-two years, it’s still super-sharp, though I haven’t done anything to it but make sure I handwash it instead of throwing it into the dishwasher.

I should say we, because my husband now also uses it routinely. Oh, he did wait until after we had our son, and when he uses it, it’s usually to slice something he’s baked from scratch.

Thanks, Mrs. Fisk. Happy Belated Mother’s Day!

The butchered cake behind the knife is my Mother's Day cake, a chocolate raspberry with dark chocolate ganache. It's the second round of my husband's experimentation with amping the protein and reducing the sugar in our baked goods.

Unpredicted Predicable Explosions

Last week’s prediction was off by a day: the loaf of basic white sandwich bread didn’t last until Friday. I said “No problem! I’ve got this! I now know what I was doing wrong,” followed all the same steps, and wound up with a mixing bowl full of raw dough that stubbornly refused to rise after 180 minutes.

Correction: I followed all the same steps but one. Instead of using a random packet of active dry yeast that I found hanging out at the back of the spice drawer, I used active dry yeast from the bulk lot I’ve had stashed in a jar in the freezer since 2020. The yeast bloomed like it was supposed to (but no more than that) and gave up the ghost while rising.

I gave up hope for that yeast’s still being good or at least inconsistent on the side of evil and found another packet of yeast in the spice drawer. This batch bloomed vigorously. I had a very puffy first rise, and during the second rise, the dough spilled out of the pan. The loaf that resulted was very short, because the rise was so vigorous it ejected a lot of the volume. It looked like a bomb hit it.

Speaking of explosions, I finally lost it at my in-laws.

Continue reading →

Penguins III: Snow Day

Happy post-Super Bowl week, if you’re on the Philly side of Pennsylvania. We are not, and are celebrating about as much as we intend to celebrate Valentine’s Day, which is … not really. I think I have chili mac planned for dinner that night¹. We have zero incentive to go out, even if we are no longer snowed in that day, unless that’s the only decent window for getting to a grocery store before we are snowed in again.

The most romantic gift I can think of right now² would be a new snowblower to replace the one that died during the last snowstorm or a new vacuum cleaner to replace the one I killed last week.

Speaking of a total lack of ambition, not that I was, but I decided to update the old page about the penguins and put it back up on this blog. I have gotten questions about them lately from folks who aren’t already in on that inside joke, so yeah, it was time? Maybe? Anyway, it’s here if you don’t want to click the link at the top of the blog.

And speaking of ongoing inside jokes about my being the last to join new social media platforms, I’m finally on Bluesky. You can find me there at shainorton.bsky.social.

I suspect either my husband or I (or both of us) will want to bake something, though, even if I just wind up making more bread instead of waiting for the weekend. My last loaf of basic sandwich bread, unlike all of the others I baked in 2024 and January 2025, was not cursed! It came out great! It will probably be gone before Friday! ↩︎
Within reason, with minimum planning required. Unreasonable things that require planning are way too much of a stretch for February. Ask me how I know … or better yet, don’t. We also have our wedding anniversary this month, which we’ll probably hold off on celebrating until summer, or maybe early fall. ↩︎