A tale of treachery, daring do's and deluged dont's. (AKA, "A very wet Monday...")

Also subtitled:  "The One Where I Try To Use As Many Cliché's As Possible."




Once upon a time, on a cold winter Monday Food Fest, a girl set out to make some soup.  Everything went well enough, aside from the total underestimation of time and effort and burns, and her family feasted on soup, homemade bread, and greek dip.  Even the kids enjoyed it.  Little did they know, that a surprise awaited them.  An unpleasant surprise.  An unpleasant and WET surprise... Completely unsuspecting, the little family settled in for dessert in the living room.  The girl’s mom (who was always pretty awesome like this) had started a load of dishes and was wiping the counters while the girl cut and served.  Suddenly, the sound of gushing water trickled into her ear, and as the meaning of the sound registered, she and her mother - at the same moment - turned to the dishwasher (the only watery item in the vicinity) to witness it draining it’s hot, wet load onto the floor.  As the girl collected every clean towel in the house, her husband bolted to the basement, to ensure no water damage seeped through.  Alas, it was too late.  The deluge had proceeded down the pipes and soaked through the floor, raining torrentially upon various sundry items - including sentimental artwork from husband’s past, a vast collective library and, sadly, the girl’s son’s Christmas present.  

Determined to reign triumphant over the ugly dishwasher beast, husband and mom set out to trample the foe.  They scooped standing water out, picked through debris clogging the drain and sallied forth until the last bit of water innocently trickled away they way it was supposed to go.  With hope in their hearts, the little family once again settled in for dessert, starting the dishwasher once more in an effort to tackle that other emissary - “The dirty kitchen.”

Time passed slowly.  They waited with bated breath.  As bated as their breath could be while cramming their mouths with yummy bars.  And then it happened.  The dishwasher drained.  All eyes turned to lock on the monster.  All seemed well.  Husband rushed to the basement to double check, and came back with glowing reports.  The enemy was vanquished!

Or was it?  


After a brief pause, the dishwasher began a SECOND round of draining (unusual?  Yes...), but instead of emptying through the sink, deposited the entirety of it’s watery depths onto the already soaked towels in the kitchen.  As the girl collected all of the remaining towels in the house (which were dirty, yes, since all the clean ones had perished) Husband ran for the stairs once again.  

The girl slowly joined her husband in the basement to assess the casualties.  Soggy carpet, drenched book shelf, splattered Christmas present, mushy artwork, steady stream and slow leak, lay before her.  


The horror!  The horror!

Dishwasher 1, Hero 0.

She vowed a silent vow that this would not be the end of the story.  No.  She refused to be beaten.  A speedy retreat to the safety of hand-washing was necessary, but the dreaded and monstrous dishwasher dragon would be beaten - once and for all - of that she was certain.  He may have won the battle, but the war was not over.  She would bide her time.  She would use elbow grease and sponges for now, but in the end, victory would be hers.  Just as soon as Husband could be convinced to upgrade to a shiny new model.

The end.

Exciting, right?  Unfortunately not fiction, though.  So you will forgive me if I leave you with a list of recipes that are truly delicious which you should definitely try AND some pictures... won’t you?

before all the excitement started...

Baked Potato Soup  (from Andrea Meyers: Cooking, gardening and four hungry guys)

Buttermilk White Bread  (from cookingbread.com)

Greek Dip  (from Everywhere Orange)

Sour Cream Apple Bars  (from Kara's Creations)

mr’s favorite part was the Greek Dip (I think because of his new love affair with calamata olives), dad’s favorite was the soup, and mom said she couldn’t decided, she loved it all which is the problem.  Hm.  I enjoyed the soup a lot, and really liked the dessert - although if I make it again I will add MORE apple.  BUT truly, I was just super proud of the bread.  Made by hand, nice and golden, moist and soft, crunchy crust, and it actually tasted good.  And it was my first attempt at homemade bread.  I especially liked beating it up.  I’m going to make it more often.

The true star of the night, however, was this guy:

no, not mini - I know she’s not a guy.  I’m talking about that silly bee pillow.  She got it for her birthday from Oma and Opa and she is OBSESSED.