Magic Jewball

I really wanted to make this post “I can’t believe the break is over” in its entirety but that seemed more like a tweet or a Facebook status. Those things have really stolen the thunder from short blog posts, I tell you what. Anyway, I like my job very much but I like doing nothing better. This is why I could never be president.

I did just want to share this fun recipe I made for Thanksgiving because it is really, really excellent, and next year, when people Google for “Thanksgiving cookie,” this is what I want them to find. Because I have been searching for a proper cookie for Thanksgiving for years and there just isn’t one. Someone at our meal always makes a pie, so pie is out. Then someone makes something chocolate, like a cake or a mousse our a torte, so nothing like that either. That leaves me the cookie or bar and I have never found anything right…. until this year.

It’s the Pumpkin Whoopie Pie! And it turned out awesome. I actually combined two recipes because I liked the cookie part from one and the filling had to be non-dairy so I took it from another. This is where I’d put a great picture but I didn’t take a great picture, just a bad picture. But go to these pages and find delicious looking pictures. They were a big hit and people have already asked me to make them again. According to Niece2, they smell like “pancakes and waffles and everything good.”

Here’s the cookie part, and I’d really like to make it with its original filling, maple cream cheese, at a later date.
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple-Cream Cheese Filling

And here’s the filling I did use: maple marshmallow.
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies with Maple-Marshmallow Cream Filling

When I make the other version, I’ll let you know! Yes, we’d all like a taste test but I have to work. And fit into my pants.

Happy baking!

Oh hey, what’s up with you? I really have nothing. Allow me to demonstrate.

1. I got re-elected to the co-op board. As we have discussed, this is not a good thing. Especially because this year, two people who are suing each other are also on the board. The first meeting of the year was exactly the disaster you are picturing. The managing agent actually walked out of the meeting. The president told me he’s had it and next year, I should be president. The only prudent solution, I think, is to move to the suburbs. Can I live with you?

2. The holidays are coming! This means one thing for me: seasonal candy, cookies, and drinks! I already had some peppermint bark. Also, a pumpkin pie Clif bar. For the nutrition, naturally.

3. Why is it that they release all the cool phones when your contract is about 6-8 months from being done? By that time, T-Mobile will probably be out of business, so I don’t know what I’m waiting for. Oh right, I can’t bring myself to pay $500 for a phone. In the meantime, my iPod has a battery which lasts an hour and is utterly out of space. I should wait for the new phone instead, shouldn’t I? Sigh.

4. Jorge Posada. Sigh again. Why must we get old? On the plus side, there are finally dates for pitchers & catchers to report. Without baseball, and with tennis sporadic, I am stuck watching reruns of Friends in the evening. I think this is why my health has been so bad lately. It has been suggested that I have whooping cough by some and this is not implausible.

5. Pious B and I are looking to travel to Europe (UK? Italy?) for Jesus’ birthday and attached break. The fares are miserable! Goyim, don’t you want to stay home by the hearth with your families? I have seen this on a million TV specials! It has to be true.

6. It’s a gorgeous day today. Before I knew this, I planned to go to Ikea. Am I mad? Yes, surely. If I make it out alive, I am getting a seasonal beverage, I don’t care if it’s 65 degrees.

Have a nice month! I’m pretty sure that’ll be the next time I post.

It’s “it’s been 20 years since 1991” month on JBall as in life and to celebrate, title comes from a song on Pearl Jam’s Ten, an album I wore out in my flannel days. Did you see Pearl Jam’s 20? Oh, please do. Great documentary, great band, a reminder that we’re the first mammals to wear pants.

Pearl Jam – Oceans

Just a quick note after seeing two nights of Matthew Sweet playing my favorite album of all time.

There is something weird about seeing a show at a winery/restaurant. It just isn’t very…. rock & roll. Everyone’s sitting down at tables. There’s no pushing to the front of the crowd or dancing. It’s all… adults. I mean, well yes, it would be all adults anyway. How many 23 year olds want to see a twenty year old album played in its entirety? Someone called out the first night, “you got me through college, Matthew!” Despite not seeing him, I am pretty, pretty, pretty sure that person did not graduate in this century. (Matthew’s response: “Happy to be of service! I couldn’t even get myself through college.”) But still.

In the beginning, I wondered if this was a better way to see a show, sitting down with friends and sipping beverages brought to one’s table. But in the end, despite how much I hate standing for hours and trying to see over the heads of many tall people, I don’t think so. You just want to move, you know? You can’t feel music the same way sitting down, crammed up against a table, sorry.

This is not to say I did not enjoy both shows, because they were glorious. But I think I will have a new appreciation for looking at the back of some guy’s head and breathing in the fumes of sketchy substances next time I’m at Irving Plaza. Rock & roll, man!