Cat on a Bookshelf

Sometime before I moved into this apartment I started a needlepoint and had another one in reserve.That poor thing sat through a lot of years and got very dingy. So I decided to give it a quick burial and start the new one. This is a cat lying on a bookshelf. After two days and buying a new pair of up close glasses, this is what I have - part of a book, part of a shelf and a little tiny bit of cat. It was pretty funny. I couldn't even thread the needle while wearing my other glasses. It's fun to watch this thing change slowly. I'll keep you updated. I have a feeling that I'll be reading even more books. Little Dorrit has been hanging on my iPod for a while. Love this Dickens fellow, but he was paid by the page. Lots of characters, lots of plot. Some of the plot was relevant to today. Like how much nicer it is not to always be chasing a buck. How the best thing you can do is care about other people. And how you can't trust bankers to always do the right thing. The Dorrits were thrown into a poor house at the beginning of the book. Another character finds himself in there at the end of the book. This was really good. The reader was fabulous. One character cannot control her words, they just flow from her in some sort of mind dump. He did that so well. When she comes into a room, you know you're in trouble. What I like is how Amy just listens and pulls out the thought. That must have taken a lot of patience and practice. Those are, by the way, both P words that make your mouth look lovely when you say them. Just ask Mrs. General.

Not so good were the cupcakes I made today. I was making a brownie cupcake from Epicurious. Some of the comments were about how oily the recipe was. Others loved it. And now I understand how all of that happened. You are supposed to use chocolate chips and unsweetened chocolate. I decided to just use bittersweet. Didn't read the directions carefully enough so I melted all that chocolate. I should have melted 1/2 cup of the chips and saved the other 3/4 cup to fold in later. Oops. So all those people who were complaining about puddles of oil in the cupcake pan should have read the recipe better.

On the other hand, the Bailey's Mint Chocolate Chip cupcakes turned out pretty good. I did what someone else did - I used mini chocolate chips and folded some into the frosting. I made large ones for Adrian's game group on Sunday and little ones for me to taste and to send the rest to the Monday game group. These must be guys who will eat anything because they are getting the oily brownie cakes. Viva young men's stomachs.

As always, LIG. Happy New Year.