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Good morning party people!

So, the baked french toast? Not actually that great. It may have been due to my using tart pans instead of ramekins, and possibly slightly less egg mixture than needed, but I found it kind of chewy and gross. The recipe's pretty simple -- a layer of cubed day-old bread, a layer of cubed cream cheese, another layer of bread, topped with a mixture of equal parts egg and milk with a dash of maple syrup thrown in. I added a little bit of cinnamon too, because hello bland much. Steep overnight in the fridge and bake at 350 for 30 minutes. The cream cheese doesn't quite melt, and gives it a sort of gummy texture that I didn't care for. Well, you win some, you lose some.

The chicken pies are in the oven as we speak -- cooked minced bacon, sautee'd shallots, walnuts, cooked ground chicken, and enough alfredo sauce (it was the only cream sauce I had) to make it stick together. There might be too many flavours in there, but I'm hoping the chicken mellows out the alfredo a little. Soon as the laundry's done they'll come out of the oven, and then I get to put the game hen in to brine.

I might not have enough of an attention span for lemon curd today, I think.

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Pies are out! Those cooked faster than I thought. I'm still not quite pleased with them -- the alfredo sauce was a trifle too much, I was right. I miss the crunch and sweet of apple, which I didn't put in this time, and I think perhaps diced portobello might be preferable to ground chicken. Still, eminently edible. So, notes for next time: No sauce, mushrooms for chicken, re-add the apple.

Also, I didn't mention that I watched the first two episodes of the Ouran dub at funimation last night. I have to say I love the English theme song. The theme in the original Japanese is one of the few J-pop songs I really like despite not being able to understand the words, so having an English version, despite a slightly skewed translation, is lovely.

I find I don't mind the dub as much as many people seem to -- the first episode is not very good, until about halfway through, but after that Haruhi stops sounding like an amateur books-on-tape reader and I don't mind Tamaki at all. They definitely hit their stride more in the second episode, and I love the voice actor they have for Kyouya, especially that "Who is 'mother'?" "From our relative ranks, I'm guessing it's me." exchange.

Mostly, though, it just reminded me of how utterly charming I find Ouran on the whole.

*adds the dub to his Christmas list*

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Delicious chicken? U CAN HAS.

I brined the game hen, brushed it with peanut oil and Rudy's turkey rub, roasted it at a slightly higher temp (365F, think my oven may run cool), and didn't fuck around with potatoes this time. OM NOM NOM NOM. I carved it up properly too.

After uh. Eating all the crunchy skin off the top. It's the best part!

But the important thing is, it's carved and ready for chicken sandwiches this week. And the carcass is in the freezer waiting to be converted into chicken broth. And I will not have to live on take-away this week.

And I have a headache and am going to go die now. Scuse me.

HEY! HANDS OFF MY CHICKEN.

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The headache is gone, thank Christ. Not before Mum called, but I think I managed to remain polite.

I also got an email this evening that I'm nominated for a fic award. Those are always interesting to me because it's never the stories that I myself would choose as my best work -- it's always some random one-off or a story I really think I could have done better, with the benefit of a little experience and some coaching on commas. If I were pointing up my own work for awards in the Whoniverse, I'd definitely put In Another Life at the top of the list, and it's not down for anything. Funny old world.

And no, I'm not linking anyone to the awards page, because with my readership that's just gross unfairness. *grins* As I'm not well-known on the comms or in the forums it's much more likely that we'll all get a fair shake when it comes voting time if we're being judged purely on the reading.

It occurs to me I've been cooking and consequently eating salty foods all weekend. There's not a sweet to be had in the house. This may call for drastic measures (read: breaking out the cake mix and reminding myself to put "electric mixer" on the Christmas wish list as well, as I butcher the frosting).

I hung posters today too. The Singing Butler is now over my bed, and my theatre posters are all up on one wall in the living room. To be honest I don't think I've ever had such a nice bedroom as the one I have now; certainly I've never had one so tidy.

Dear Santa, for Christmas I would like cartoons and kitchen implements. And a hammer. Yrs, Sam.