Shopping: We needed to pick up a few things after breakfast, so I took my husband to the HMart in Wheaton near Nick's. He had never been there before. The HMart on a Sunday morning was busier than I have ever seen it before, just wall-to-wall people. But my husband was thrilled by the crazy diversity of the shoppers (and, of course, the diversity of food that reflects the shoppers). Then, to accompany your shopping for octopus, kimchi, Salvadorean-style tortillas, and house slippers, there was a soundtrack of American country music and a general atmosphere of camaraderie. He loved it. I didn't expect him to love it. Purchases: two quarts of Chobani yogurt, one vanilla and one strawberry (my husband is on heavy-duty antibiotics), toilet paper, Pepperidge Farms whole wheat bread, mugwort injulmi, kim-bab, cage-free brown eggs, Goya decaf coffee, $36.
When I was a kid, my mom often left me with a short list of chores to do while she was away at work,"empty the dishwasher" being the most frequent. In the summertime, there was a close second in terms of my level of resentment. This was anything having to do with green beans: picking them, washing them, "snapping" them. The garden seemed to produce an infinite number of green beans. My mom thought I should be perfectly happy to sit in front of the TV and snap beans, but I was not perfectly happy. I hated snapping beans, and, to be honest, I still do. While I tend these days to leave them whole, the little poky ends have to be pinched or sliced off, and there is always what feels like a mountain of them.
Dessert: my husband requested a banana-Nilla wafer pie as his January pie-of-the month. I used Whole Foods brand vanilla wafers instead of the Nabisco kind, and made my own vanilla pudding and cream as the linked recipe indicates. I will say the vanilla pudding used by this recipe is probably the easiest, most foolproof pudding I have ever made-- I'm thickening-impaired-- and I will likely save the link to use again for other applications. Also, as a crustless pie that only requires 1) making pudding, 2) whipping cream, and 3) layering, this is one of the easiest "pies" I have encountered. All this is to say, if you like that sort of thing, there is no reason not to make this dessert. It's not really my style, but I had to admit that I liked it too. Husband and daughter both had seconds but I restrained myself.
