!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

EVA IS BEING BORN RIGHT NOW!!!!!!!!!

My brother called my mom last night and they're at the hospital and Cristine's water broke.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Mom's email was timed 2:15 AM, which was nearly 7 hours ago, so she might already be here!

ETA (10:50 AM): Mom just called. No word yet. And she's about to leave for work and cannot be reached by telephone once she's there, so she's upset because she has to wait until she gets off work before she hears the news. She says that she'll be the last to know that she's finally a grandmother, but I told her that's not true...I'll be the last to know, because I'm positive nobody will call me with the news before she finds out.

Since I've lived in Germany, I've been the last to know EVERYTHING, unless the big news happens to be mine.

Resourcefulness

When one has many pantry items that need using up and very few cooking/baking utensils, one finds ways to use what one has available.

Case in point: I am making brownies. From scratch.

I have unsweetened chocolate squares, flour, sugar, vanilla, etc. etc. that need using up. I have 2 baking pans (an 8-inch square and a 2 quart casserole).

So I found a recipe with the ingredients I have on hand. Unfortunately, the only stick of margarine I had was light, which isn't recommended for baking. So it could very well ruin the brownies. We shall see.

But I melted the margarine and the chocolate in a saucepan. I mixed the rest of the ingredients in the 2 quart casserole, since I no longer have mixing bowls. I sprayed the 8-inch pan with cooking spray and floured it.

Once they come out of the oven and are cooled, I'll use a tea diffuser to dust the brownies with powdered sugar, since I don't have a sifter.

I need to plate the brownies, since I need the pan for making dinner tonight (the menu tonight is chicken fingers, which will be coated in a mixture of Shake N Bake, chili powder, and garlic powder, barbecue sauce for dipping, mashed potatoes made with evaporated milk, and corn...all stuff I need to use up).

I still have chocolate, flour, sugar, etc. left over. At some point, I will have to throw it out because I can't possibly use it all before we leave. I'm just trying to waste as little as possible.

Now, my next goal is to find a recipe for gingerbread using ingredients I already have. I'm trying to use up some molasses. That, I will freeze and take to book club later in the month. I'll probably have to get one of those foil pans to bake with, though.

***

Still on baby watch...probably will be until I get a phone call tonight. After all, my brother isn't anywhere at the moment where he has email access, and I'm sure emailing is the furthest thing from his mind.

And that dinging sound would be my brownies...and yeah, they're still a bit mushy.

Anyway...Really? Seattle isn't even in the top 5? Shocking!

...Yet, there is hope for the Emerald City:
Seattle took the top spot in just caffeinated coffee consumption. Nearly 60 percent of residents in the city said coffee would be the most difficult caffeine product to give up.