Earlier this afternoon I went up to the kitchen in my Mom's house to make some tea. (Teavana's Weight to Go.) I found her making deviled eggs and immediately regretted my timing. As usually happens when we are in the same room for more then 2 minutes, we started chatting and the next thing I know she asking me to make the vanilla pudding in the box on the counter. Now since she's letting Pants and I, (you'll be hearing about him a lot I'm sure) stay here rent free, I try to do the little she asks of me. Pudding was the least I could do. She was getting ready to go to my brother's townhouse for a cookout and the pudding was part of her master plan.
"How does this sound? I cut the top off the shortcake, make a tunnel for the pudding, put the top back on and cover it in berries?" She says.
I was NOT convinced of the soundness of this plan. Visions of soggy shortcake filled my head but I was game if she was! The top of the cake was also not convinced of the soundness of this plan and promptly fell apart as soon as she started cutting. The pudding tunnel was on Team Cake Top and didn't co-operate either. We ended up with a plate full of shortcake chunks.
"Make a trifle!" I say.
"What's a trifle?" she says.
Down went the shortcake. Then the pudding with cut-up strawberries mixed in. Then blueberries. More shortcake. Cool Whip topping with more strawberries and blueberries. We ended up with this:
According to Mom it's "Very Happy Birthday America! Like those flag cakes from Family Circle only ours is better. It's very modernist...like Andy Warhol!"
Improvising. When the master plan doesn't work out, what can you do with what you've got. That is my day to day right now. Taking it as it comes, using what I've got to try and make a happy life.
Maybe along the way I end up with an Andy Warhol flag cake...life could certainly be worse :)
I love this - what a great analogy! And I can totally see that whole story play out - niice!
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