Baking and complaining

I'm sore and tired. I spent the evening baking. No, not for Thanksgiving, just to try out a few new recipes. I made Chocolate Truffle Cookies. I need to try a second (cooled off) one in order to give my official opinion. Based on the first cookie, it's just a little too much chocolate for me. I don't know where there was supposed to be cookie. The outside *looks* like a cookie but the center looks like a truffle. Oh, wait. I'm sure they could be really good with some tweaking. I was planning on making another type of cookie (wasn't sure which yet) but my husband had a particularly difficult day working on his car so I made him brownie's instead. I threw in some bits of caramel with the batter and omigod. All these years of baking and I've never put caramel in a brownie. What in the hell was I thinking? Next time I'm going to make the kind of brownie's I like (husband prefers the kind with frosting and nothing added to the batter, aside from caramel) with chocolate chips mixed in. I was going to make my cream cheese sugar cookies for Thanksgiving but it was 1am by the time I got to bed. By that time, my feet hurt, my back was killing me and my kitchen smelled. I was done. The kitchen does not smell lovely like I've been baking all night. A few days ago, I made macaroni and cheese in the oven... it made a mess... in the oven. We had forgotten it happened and husband preheated the oven for the ham when his mother was over for dinner. Stinky. And of course, I forgot to clean it between then and now... and I preheated the oven... more stinky. Hopefully it will be cooled off enough in the next hour or so and I can clean it out and avoid it happening again. It claims to be a self cleaning oven but I haven't a clue what that means or how to make it clean so I'll just use some water and a washcloth for now. I believe there is oven cleaner out there that is safe for the self cleaning ovens.

I had dinner with my mom tonight and it was the first night since the MIL was here that I was able to talk to her and tell her what had happened. It re-invigorated my anger over the situation.. as well as all the situations that have come before this one. I should point out (Beth reminded me) in my husband's defense, he usually says something to his mom, if I ask him to but it never seems to make a difference so we usually say nothing. I was telling my mom this evening that I'd really like to email her and tell her how over the line she was with her comments and how immature it is that she would USE her granddaughter in hopes of personal gain. I've never done this before. I've never said a harsh word towards her. And I'm wondering if it would at least make her think twice before she does these things. At the very least, it might make me feel better. A big issue with her is that my daughter is a quarter Mexican. My husband is half, my MIL is white as snow. For some reason, she seems to think everything we do with our daughter, should be based off the fact that she has a small amount of latino blood in her. I have no problem with Jasmine learning where she comes from and would encourage it but I'm not going to push something on her at three years of age. My MIL seems to think that Jasmine should already know where she comes from even though she's three. When she found out that my daughter doesn't like tacos, she acted like we were abusing her and forcing her NOT to like tacos. I'm sure there are plenty of people in Mexico that don't like tacos. When Jasmine was a day old, my MIL wanted to get her ears pierced and was shocked that we had no plans of EVER piercing her ears, let alone when she was still in the hospital. You know why she wanted her ears pierced? Because it's common in Mexico to have your baby's doctor pierce her ears at birth. I can't imagine having a newborn that is already pissed about being out of her warm comfy uterus, also have burning ears. She had even bought the kid earrings, she was so sure that we would just have it done. I decided a long time ago that I would not have my daughter's ears pierced until she was in double digits age wise. She needs to be old enough to care for them and old enough to know that those holes will always be there. Ha I'm sure a few of you would be shocked hearing that come from me who has had half her body pierced or tattooed. I didn't have most of that done, however, till I was older. I was thinking today, what kind of blow up will we have when Jasmine turns 15 and we don't have a quincera? In Mexico, it's a huge coming of age when a girl turns 15. They spend a year or more planning the kids party and she wears a big fancy dress, lots of people show up and really, I'm not sure what else happens other than the kids run around and the adults get trashed. Should I also start celebrating every Irish, and German (and whatever else me and my husband have mixed in our blood) tradition? I'm too busy raising her and trying to help her grow into a responsible person to worry myself with teaching about Mexican history. She lives in America, she's American, if nothing else, she should learn about that before she learns about a very small percentage of her background, in my opinion.

Now, I'm off to find out the hours of the Italian bakery downtown. I want a cake from that place and hopefully, I can get one tomorrow. Who knew that the Italians could bake as well?