October 20th, 2008
I’m not into status objects. I don’t own an iPod or a flat screen TV and I don’t shop at label stores. My major spending is on books and Subway sandwiches. But I do own two status items: Coach bags. The first was a gift from Husband and it is the nicest thing I own after my wedding rings. The second I bought for myself because I decided I needed a nice black bag, professional looking but still fun, you know? So I saved up and I bought it last year (which was not without controversy: it is the only thing I’ve bought since going vegan that has leather in it, just a small amount, but big enough to make me a hypocrite). It’s a satiny black with some silver metal bits and it looks very sharp if I do say so myself.
So the other day, I was heading out to meet Husband downtown for dinner. When the elevator stopped at my floor, there were already two people in it: an older couple, very well dressed, looking quite posh in fact. In I step, black Coach bag in hand, and proceed to do that thing you do in elevators: try to look nice but not nice enough to talk to. Fortunately this couple was the reserved sort, and they didn’t say hello to me or anything.
The elevator doors slide shut and the woman says to her husband, in an accent I believe was South African:
“Did you know, I went to Coach on Monday and would you believe it? They have black bags with silver trim!”
And the husband rolls his eyes and says, in the same accent and in a tone intended to convey maximum contempt:
“Oh GOD!”
In other news, I am in the middle of a baking disaster. I made this awesome chocolate pumpkin pie for thanksgiving, and decided this morning to try making it with a can of cherry pie filling in stead of the pumpkin. Because cherry and chocolate is wicked, yes? Anyway, as we speak, it is bubbling over in my oven, forming what is sure to be an impenetrable layer of sugary burned sludge on the bottom. I don’t know any baking science but clearly there is something about pumpkin pie filling that allows it to stay gelled which the cherry lacks. Anyone know why this is?
High school called…they’d like that couple back.
Pumpkin Pie filling has less moisture, and stands up better to heat. You need to have a top crust for cherry pie, or at least a lattice top. You may have also overfilled the pie.
Alternatively, do a chilled Chocolate / Graham crust, with a cherry pie filling. You don’t have to bake it.
~I.