Yesterday was an all-around bust.
We had to have the septic tank pumped AGAIN - third time in a month - because of all the rain we had over the weekend. The pumper guy is feeling sorry for us, charging us less and less each time, bless his heart.
I went to work for a little while yesterday morning. Didn't stay long, as there was nothing much to do, and I'd left The Grandson home alone. I stopped at a grocery store on the way home to pick up some cream of chicken soup for a casserole I intended to make for dinner, and while wandering the baking aisle, I spied some yeast packets on the shelf. The Grandson had asked about making bread, and I thought this would be a good way to occupy our time, so I picked up a packet.
We started the bread not long after I got home. To my utter shock, it rose (I've never had much luck with yeast bread). We punched it down, put it in loaf pans, and let it rise again. When I moved the pans to put them in the oven to bake, the bread collapsed. I re-checked the recipe. We'd left out the salt, which I subsequently learned helps to keep the bread from collapsing. We ate it anyway.
While the bread was baking, I started the casserole. I'd planned to put the cream of chicken soup in it, but made the mistake of googling recipes and chose one I'd never made. It did not call for cream of chicken soup, but it looked good. And the final casserole did look good. But it tasted . . . blah. We ate it anyway.
I scorched the green beans that I'd intended to serve as a side-dish. We ate them anyway.
After dinner, I stirred up a chess pie. Hadn't made one in years. It came out of the oven about 10 o'clock last night, and I left it on the counter to cool. This morning, I cut into it. The top had a nice crust on it, just as I'd remembered, but when I stuck the knife in it, it gushed liquid. It's in the oven again. It has already cooked an extra 20 minutes and is still liquid. I've set the timer for 20 minutes more.
Between the kitchen duties, I spent time on the porch, watching the birds. The wrens that have nested in the birdhouse beside the porch have been acting strangely. Last week, I believed the female wren to be sitting on eggs, for the male wren was bringing her bugs and worms. Over the weekend, we saw both birds adding material to the nest. There'd been a cold snap over the weekend, and we thought perhaps the birds were adding insulation. But that did not seem right, if the female had already laid eggs. Then yesterday, I saw what I believe was a brown-headed cowbird. We have been hearing a strange "bloop-BLOOP" noise that sounds like water dripping into a puddle. I had just googled "animals that make sounds like water dropping" when a large bird that I had never seen came flapping around the porch. It landed on the statue that sits below the birdhouse, and I got a good look at him. Big old dark thing, with a dark brown head. It acted like it wanted to go into the wren house, but there was a wren in it, working on the nest. After a minute, it flew away, and I continued googling the "bloop-BLOOP" sound. I do believe that the big bird that landed on the statue was a brown-headed cowbird. It apparently has a habit of laying eggs in other birds' nests for other birds to hatch. I wonder if it has been in the wrens' nest?
I just took the chess pie out of the oven. It has baked for an additional 40 minutes and is STILL liquid. Maybe it'll set up as it cools. If not, we'll eat it, anyway. I'll just serve it with a straws instead of forks.
But for the pandemic, we would have gone to a Willie Nelson concert last night. How cool would that have been - a Willie Nelson concert on 4/20?
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