when butter has fully melted in the skillet

well, we bought the prawn a car.

of course, he is too young to drive, as he is still in utero (and no, that's not the name of a new yaris-type smart car, i mean, he is in my actual uterus, an idea which, frankly, is more surreal than the idea of him actually piloting a car, if you ask me.) but anyway, the car that i was driving up until the night before last night is pretty scrunchy and has only 2 doors and i would probably need a shoe horn to get him in and out of the backseat there, so we got a new car. it's really neat. i am not in the business of endorsing any makes of cars here at tinyengine, so i won't tell you what we got or what we are selling, unless you want to buy a silver automatic 2-door european sporty-type car, in which case, i will be happy to discuss price with you.

in the meantime, i'll tell you that we went to a scorching hot dealership and i sat in the car one more time to make sure that i really really liked it. (yes, i had driven it already) and we bought it. i noticed on the dashboard display that it was 101 degrees inside the car. i was forced to drink a can of 7-up while we did the paperwork. i haven't had a can of 7-up since i had the stomach flu in 1978.

anyway, the new car is very cute and not at all the type of car that makes you feel like just because you are having a baby you are suddenly a sad, resigned, gelatinous person who must now drive a car that makes you feel like a sad, resigned, gelatinous person. but this new car is, in fact, a very nice car that makes me feel quite non-gelatinous. it also has a cd player, which i haven't had for 2 years. and back doors. oh my gosh, can i tell you how nice rear doors are when you have been driving a very small coupe-y car (with remarkably low mileage and alloy wheels) for 2 years? and soon, the prawn will ride around back there and i will get a lot of use out of those back doors. so that's the story of the great shiny new car.

now, the only thing we have to do is figure out how to prevent it from being 94 degrees tomorrow when it is only the beginning of june, which means that the rest of summer will be incandescently hot. i am going to spend my 7th, 8th and 9th month of pregnancy in the dust bowl with a calico print shift and no shoes and a dirt-caked face and nostrils. and if it weren't for our very efficient air conditioning, i would probably get so hot that the prawn would turn into a little dutch baby inside of me. (recipe follows)

but lucky for us, we have modern conveniences and while it won't be glamorous, i can have my hub of all hubble telescopes lower me into a cold bath with an advanced pulley and harness mechanism or i can accept the kind offer made by my beau-frère of all brouhaha and my soeur of all sourires to frequent their pool in my maternity swimming costume which makes me look more like a beetle than a beetle.

today at lunch i bought myself my first pair of maternity shorts. i confess they are not very becoming, but they should do the trick tomorrow.

it's going to be a scorcher.

dutch baby
(and no, we are not dutch and also, i would do this without lemon, because i don't like lemon. i would put raspberry purée or something on there. nice.)

4 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
butter
1 lemon
powdered sugar

preheat oven to 425 degrees. cut up butter into small pieces, and place in cast iron dutch oven or skillet without the lid on. place dutch oven in hot oven. prepare batter in a blender by placing eggs in and blending until foamy. add milk, flour, salt and vanilla and blend until combined. when butter has fully melted in the skillet, carefully remove hot dutch oven from oven and swirl butter to coat pan. quickly pour batter in skillet and place back in hot oven. bake for about 25 minutes, or until puffed and lightly browned. remove from oven and cut into wedges and place on serving plates. cut tablespoon pats of butter, and place a pat on each serving. cut lemon in half, and squeeze juice over wedges and sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar. serve immediately. yield: 4 servings