Hibby Jibbies

Today we received in the mail a package from Amazon.  It was a cast iron skillet we ordered at the beginning of the week, using a gift card we got for our birthdays – so thank you to all the contributors, it is the perfect gift.  This isn’t any skillet, it is actually THE skillet recommended by America’s test kitchen (making it a certified skillet, I guess).

Promptly, we used it to make corn bread.  When I actually came to make the bread – after being in the gym for an hour and going to school for a meeting with one of my professors, I was so hungry I didn’t really think too much – I took a recipe intended to be made in a pan and made it as though it was a similar recipe that is intended to actually be made in a skillet.  It still came out tasty, but a little flat since the skillet recipe calls for both baking soda & powder while the pan recipe calls for baking powder only.

To make it a square lunch, we had it with some fresh vegetables and some leftover Bolognese, which here sort of stood in for chili.   Yum.

Now the title of this post actually relates to the other thing I wanted to share with you.  It actually could not be further away from food.  I will warn you that it’s a bit gross so proceed at your own risk.  The events described below happened before lunchtime, but for obvious reasons I am writing them only after discussing lunch. 

So it was a very nice day today, very sunny and all.  I walked out of the house to go to the gym, and saw a little earth warm on the path.  I smiled to myself and thought “oh, look at that, spring is here”.  I continued walking down the hill towards the gym.  For context I will add at this stage that ever since my little fall in December, I gotten back to my habit from when I was a teenager of walking with my eyes looking at the ground.  So as I walk I keep seeing more and more of these squirmy things, some alive, most dead, some squirming only with half a body.  It sent shivers up my spine, at first I just took larger steps to avoid stepping on them, but then there were more and more, at one point I found myself running on tip toe thinking to myself that if I can’t avoid stepping on them, at least I’ll do it quickly and not look.  I can only imagine the grossed out look that was on my face.  When I got to the gym I felt like I had to wipe my shoes.  Yuck.