Let them eat cake.
For some reason, my DVR recorded an episode of House a few weeks ago.
I’ve heard of it, but I’ve never seen it before (and frankly, I don’t know why). And now, after having watched a few episodes, I’m totally hooked.
And I want to have Hugh Laurie’s snarky, caustic little babies. But he would be way hotter if he was speaking with his British accent.
Last Friday, I was hanging out at Kay and DMX’s house for our annual Thanksgiving viewing of Planes, Trains, & Automobiles. We got invited over to DB and The Good Girl’s house across the alley for dessert, since DB’s parents were there, and The Good Girls parents were visiting from Washington, and Briton and The Bitch were over with little baby Spud. (Kay has decided their new baby should be nicknamed Spud. I think it’s the worst name ever, but it’s not going away.)I don’t deal well with parents. I’m not good at small talk, and half the time I can’t remember to turn off the cursing switch. But Kay dragged me over there anyway, luring me with pie and ice cream. (If you ever find that you need to convince me to do anything, pie and ice cream will work nicely. You can convince me to whack my own grandmother if you get the right kind.)
We were sitting in the living room talking and eating pie when DB stood up to make an announcement. He took a quilt The Good Girl’s grandmother made, and started talking about it, and its history. Then he talked about an old fleece blanket his dad had had since he was in college that he passed on to DB when he went to USC. Finally, he took another quilt TGG’s grandmother made representing three generations of women in her family. He took the blankets, and said that they represented history for both of their families, and that the next quilt they got would represent THEIR family, and then he got down on one knee and proposed. After seven (exhausting) years, he asked her to marry him.
Now. As snarky, and cranky, and bitter as I usually am, I will be the first to admit I was bawling like a holy man caught with a gram of meth and a male prostitute.
The fact that I was holding baby Spud, and he was smiling at me (shutup. It was NOT gas), and then two of my best friends got engaged, sent in me into Tears Of Joy Overdrive, revealing to everyone that underneath all my crustiness, I’m really just a sentimental old softie.
If you tell anyone, I’ll kill you.
I love to cook.
I love to cook with garlic. A lot of it.
And now I have the greatest gadget in the history of kitchen gadgetry. It’s from Williams Sonoma, and it’s called the Garlic Genius, and holy crap, it makes little perfect cubes of chopped garlic.
Observe:
It only took me ten minutes to chop an entire head of garlic.
I love it.
I need your help. I have to make dessert for a Christmas dinner party and gift exchange at Kay and DMX’s with our friends. My three choices are marbled pumpkin cheesecake with a ginger snap crust, lemon ginger poundcake with lemon glaze, and chocolate pumpkin cake with orange cream cheese frosting. I wish I could make all three, but I can’t.
I can’t decide, and I need to choose now so I can make my practice cake. Which one should I make?
16 Comments »
Comment by awittykitty
November 30, 2006 @
I pretend to be a Snarkmaster, but I cry every single freakin’ week during Extreme Makeover when somebody gets a new house. So I KNOW I’d be sobbing if I saw a marriage proposal. So I won’t tell, if you won’t.
Comment by Kungfukitten
November 30, 2006 @
Have you seen any of “Jeeves and Wooster” you get to see lots of Hugh Laurie using his regular British Accent but he’s not snarky and brooding, he’s dopey and happy go lucky and Steven Frye plays his butler. Loads of fun! I highly recommend it.
Comment by Meany
November 30, 2006 @
Okay, for me, anything with chocolate trumps anything without chocolate. So … consider my vote cast.
Also, a bunch of people I know have recommended — nay, insisted — that I get hooked on House, but I am afraid to. My obsessions are never healthy.
Comment by Anne
November 30, 2006 @
a) I sob at anything and my dear hub teases me mercilessly. I will NOT do that to you.
b) House? yum, yum, yum, etc. Hugh Laurie on ‘Inside the Actor’s Studio’ is an a excellent episode. He plays the freakin’ piano!! Oh, and one or 2 seasons of ‘The Black Adder’ he is the stupid prince. He’s not snarky, but Roland Atkins is. Trade offs.
c) I’m torn. Lemon ginger sounds amazing, but I, too, am a serious chocolate fan. Eh, do the lemon, it sounds like it would be the showstopper type.(oh, fyi…no reason at all, but my MIL made the most amazing pumpkin chiffon pie for Thanksgiving…Its light, but not fluffy, and seriously good spices. If it interests you, I have a recipe!)
Comment by albannach
November 30, 2006 @
OHMYGOSHOHMYGOSHOHMYGOSH I am SOOOOOO GLAD YOU LIKE HOUSE NOW. It is the BEST SHOW EVER. It’s so good that even though I acknowledge writing in all caps is annoying, I still do it because I CAN’T HELP MYSELF WHEN SPEAKING OF HUGH LAURIE.
Comment by Scotvalkyrie
November 30, 2006 @
I wanted to have Hugh Laurie’s babies since I was 16 years old. He’s quite good in both Peter’s Friends and Emma Thompson’s Sense and Sensibility — in fact, in the latter you can see quite a bit of the curmudgeon House in his character. I LOVE HUGH LAURIE! I love House, except when they throw diagnoses around that I KNOW are wrong.
Comment by DanjerusKurves
November 30, 2006 @
Um, ack-chu-ally, there is no such thing as a “British accent” kiddos. Great Britain is a geopolitical term that describes the island combining England, Scotland, and Wales. (The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.) Each country has its very own set of different regional and social-class accents. My accent, for example, is English — southeastern, middle-class — nowadays with subtle overtones of L.A. and very slight undertones of Houston, Texas.
Vote: garlic pie. Is that an option?
Comment by warcrygirl
November 30, 2006 @
OOOO! OOOOO! I vote for the chocolate pumpkin cake. Hell, make a chocolate pumpkin CHEESECAKE and forget the frosting. Or you could make little gingerbread men and bite their heads off.
When I was preggers with The Captain I decided to watch The Fox and The Hound with Jr (then 2). I got as far as the mother fox getting shot by the hunters and I was BAWLING!
I’m such a sap.
Comment by Tia
November 30, 2006 @
How about marbled pumpkin lemon poundcake with garlic cream cheese frosting?
Comment by Bunny828
November 30, 2006 @
I vote for the chocolate pumpkin one, but please, no garlic in it. Any chance you are posting any recipees?
Comment by sparkspark
November 30, 2006 @
I cried while watching the remake of “The Parent Trap” last night. It’s just so deeply moving. Anyway, I would make the ginger-lemon whatsit. It sounds great, and everyone will instantly love you if you do. XOXO Violet
Comment by kristen
November 30, 2006 @
And the new blanket will be knitted by Andria! 
Ahem. Comments: 1. I can’t stand House. Normally I’m right there with you when you talk about your shows and such, but I watched one show and it took him less than 15 minutes to hit on a nun in the chapel. Whatever. Hugh Laurie annoys me.
2. How much garlic are you planning to put into this dessert? (pound cake is my vote)
Comment by golfwidow
November 30, 2006 @
Can you believe that some people don’t like pumpkin? I know! Me either.
Go with the lemon.
Comment by Jen
November 30, 2006 @
You will make the chocolate pumpkin.
Hugh Laurie will be at my house for Christmas, if you’re interested. We go way back, Bertie Wooster and I do.
Why won’t you solve the Tina Mystery? Damn it.
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Comment by ashley
November 30, 2006 @
i made the same cheesecake for thanksgiving and it wasnt as amazing as the reviews on allrecipes led me to believe it would be. if you make it id say that you should add extra spices - hella bland. i vote lemon ginger poundcake, and then you tell me how that turns out.