Hello Earth #26

Hello Earth, dear Earth —

Here I am once more, on a dingy wet morning outside, cosily en-caved in here. I'm still in pyjamas, late in the morning. I think I’ll make this steadily-drizzling Sunday a stay-in-jarmies day. I've been playing with lipstick, a new tube in my favourite colour (I ran out of the old one quick). Odd, to be in my jarmies (+ cardigan and ugg boot slippers) with no make-up and bed hair, sporting lippy. But no-one is likely to see. And if they do — well, the bed hair looks surprisingly good today, curly all over. I wanted to try what this paint-on lippy felt like without the accompanying gloss. It felt tacky, so the gloss is now on too. (Well, no sense wiping the lippy off instead; this one's hard to remove, designed to last all day.)

Earth, you can tell I’m feeling relaxed and silly, positively frivolous. All the serious stuff about life in general is still going on, out there beyond the cave walls, but for today it can stay there. Sometimes a woman needs to be a girl.

Leaning in, I contemplate what other pleasantly shallow things I might do today (having already spent much of the morning playing on Instagram). I might make fudge. (My online poet friend Bev sent me the very easy – even for me – recipe and I’ve now got the ingredients.) I’ll definitely read some more of a romantic comedy series I’m devouring. (Julia Kent, laugh-out-loud funny). I might find something pleasantly mindless on telly. (No, NOT reality TV! How anyone can watch that.... Much too mindless even for me, even in ‘day off’ mode.)

Listing gratitudes, I admit I am sometimes selfishly grateful for First World problems like what to watch on TV. I’m grateful today for the rain; and that it’s Sunday, when it’s legit to tell the world to go away if we feel like it ... those of us who have that luxury. And there! I’ve switched the mood. It’s not for long we can ignore the wider reality, or tell ourselves we’re unconnected to it.
   A car on the street sounds as if it’s right on my front veranda as someone unseen opens and shuts the door, starts up and drives away. Another reminder that we are all more closely connected than we think. I know by the sound which house it was parked outside, and so I have an idea what the driver might look like, and I know that driver is a guest, not family. (Family cars are parked in the garage, not on the street.) All this I know by hearing alone ... no, not alone, combined with memory.

Offering up these speculations, I choose to abandon them. Instead I think about making that fudge.

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Bev's fudge recipe

The fudge, which Bev and I have both written of a few times now, turned out excellent! Here, with her permission, is Bev's recipe:

"I use Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk, one 14 oz can.  You may not have that brand available in Oz.   I prefer milk chocolate chips, some people prefer semi-sweet.   I have tried one of each (12 oz package), and I have tried one of chocolate and one of peanut butter chips.  The recipe is very forgiving.  Usually I add some walnut pieces, but that's optional. It's such a quick and easy recipe.  I've used tons of it for Christmas gifts.

I put the milk in a microwavable bowl, stir in the morsels, and nuke it for 1-2 minutes (depends on microwave) until chips have melted, stir in 1 tsp of vanilla and pour in 8x8 dish.  Chill until set. (Some people also stir in 1/3 cup butter, but I feel it's rich enough without)."

[In Australia, I did have to use a different brand of condensed milk approximately the same size, and needed two choc chip packets as ours are smaller. Also, lacking an 8x8 dish, I used a rectangular pan of similar size.  First time around I didn't think to line it with baking paper so had to tip it upside down and run hot water over it to get the fudge out! I have now made this fudge with dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. The white choc gives a softer texture. Although dark is my favourite in every other circumstance, not here: milk choc seems to taste more fudgy somehow. But they're all yummy. I agree with Bev about the butter: it's already rich enough!]

Sharing all this with Writers' Pantry #32 at Poets and Storytellers United.