Evangeline's Pralines & Cream Praline Cream Liqueur
A springtime coffee chat
If you are inclined to put something festive in your coffee, this praline cream liqueur is very delicious. It’s Louisiana’s answer to Bailey’s Irish Cream, and maybe it’s just me, but I love the idea of food cultures talking to each other. Fusion is one of the great gifts of travel and being inspired by local cuisine. Nutty and sweet, with the sharp burn of alcohol, Evangeline’s Pralines and Cream reminds me a little bit of egg nog, which is my second favorite winter holiday drink (the first being peppermint mocha). Because it’s so strong, a splash into my mug of coffee is just right for me. I’ve always enjoyed alcohol as an exploration in flavor, so this liqueur was a fun discovery at our local liquor store.
Onto the updates! March was a wild ride for me, as you’ll see below.
I got a job!
After ten years of freelancing, I am officially a W2 employee, albeit a part-time/on-call employee.
I was hired as a Biomedical Editor by GDIT for the biomedical research arm of their business. It will be my first time working for a large corporation. When I was job-hunting, I had a single objective: find a job that had hours to match my son’s school schedule. What that translated to was a job that was either part-time and/or flexible. For me, it was interesting to be approached about different positions, because it started to clarify what was truly important to me. My non-negotiables became flexible hours and editing or writing work that would allow me to build my resume. I was willing to negotiate on hourly wage and location; as long as the job allowed for some work-at-home days, I was willing to take a hybrid role. I feel incredibly fortunate to have found a job that is flexible, fully remote, and pays a decent hourly wage doing work that sounds interesting to me.
We discovered a new favorite dessert
On a recent trip to Book People, I spied a new cookbook and I was immediately taken by the title and a single, spectacular dessert recipe. The book is Broke Vegan by Saskia Sidey, and I could hardly have found it at a better time, given our chronic underemployment.
Inside, the single recipe that sold me on this book was Peanut Butter Millionaire’s Shortbread. I adapted it to use dairy butter in place of vegan margarine and coconut oil; that’s really a concession to my lack of organization, not an objection to vegan baking supplies. In any case, this recipe features a homemade crust of oats and almonds ground to a flour and combined with maple syrup and butter. On top of the crust, we layer a peanut butter filling and finally, a chocolatey topcoat from melted chocolate chips. My son calls them Chocolate Tops and sweetly asks me to make a new batch while he is in school. They’re so good, like a grown-up peanut butter cup (though Sammy reminds me that he, who is not a grown-up, can eat them too!). I love the texture that the crust adds, a nubbly contrast to the richness of the filling.
I organized my cookbooks…
…and I cooked a lot!
Paul brought up the idea of spring cleaning, and it lit a fire under me to finally deal with my cookbooks, scattered in piles and on shelves all around my house. I was frustrated any time I wanted a particular recipe because I could never remember where any of my books were, despite having a designated space for my cookbooks.
This is nearly all of them; I do have my Crescent Dragonwagon books on a shelf in my bedroom. I love having them alphabetized and near the kitchen; I feel like I have an abundance of choice now, especially with my newer books standing tall and proud among the older gems of my collection. I didn’t quite realize, for example, that I have three Nigella Lawson books and three Mark Bittman books. They’ve never lived together on one shelf!
As a mom, I do make large amounts of boxed mac ‘n’ cheese for my kid because he loves it (and frankly, so do we)1. But I still love to cook new recipes and from scratch when possible. My cookbooks inspire and delight me.
I resisted buying any new lip products
It has been a real challenge to stay within my beauty budget constraints. I may even be giving myself too much credit, as I went over my quarterly budget by $44 when I had to replace my facial day and night creams. In any case, I am trying, and it’s been hard.
In particular, I have been incredibly tempted by all the new lip product releases. Summer Friday Lip Butter, YSL Candy Glaze, Hourglass Volumizing Glossy Balm, NYX Fat Oil Slick Click Vegan Lip Balm…they all sound so tempting! I love a glossy lip and I feel like I can never have too many.
But you know…I have plenty of lip glosses and lip oils. I did replace my Maybelline Lifter Gloss in Stone, a sanctioned replacement under my beauty budget rules. The Sephora spring sale is rapidly approaching, and while I may allow myself to buy a new lip product, I’d be wise to remember: I have enough. My life will not be improved at all if I spend $20-40 on a lip balm.
This too shall pass
I’ve tried to be upbeat in this coffee chat, but the flip side is that March has been a hard month for me. I was a solo parent for a week while my partner was out of town; during that week, our sleep schedules were totally messed up because of Daylight Savings Time and my son came down with a nasty illness in the middle of the week. Fortunately, I had my mother-in-law to help (I truly won the lottery when it comes to in-laws!), but it was still scary and exhausting to take care of my sick son. He’s better now, thankfully.
I also had a lot of errands and tasks to do to complete the hiring process with GDIT. I had to be drug-tested twice, because I failed the first test (due to an overly dilute sample!). I had to produce a small pile of paperwork to demonstrate the validity of multiple jobs listed on my resume. And I had to drive across town to verify my identity for the I-9 form. It added up to a lot of tasks, and I was nervous about effing up on any of those required items.
I’ve always been bad about being able to see past short-term hardship and appreciate a long-term vision. But this month, I found myself able to peek around the corner, to see that these hiring errands would come to an end, that Sammy would recover from illness, that time spent shelving my cookbooks would make future cooking that much easier. I started to feel that yes, this too shall pass. This thing that I must do? I’ll do it and then I’ll forget what all the fuss was about.
Maybe. I’m tired and over budget, which reminds me that I am definitely using my beauty budget as a carrot to reward myself with pretty things, even during these uncertain times. I bought 11 candles between January 1 and March 11. Candles—the only unrestricted category in my beauty spending this year. I have enjoyed every last one of them that I purchased, and at least five are still in use. While I don’t regret buying these candles, I also recognize that I was buying them to cheer myself up. Just like I bought the praline cream liqueur to cheer myself up.
Big picture: I did what I needed to do. And this month, I’ll take that as a win.
We like Annie’s Organic Shells & Real Aged Cheddar. I always make a double batch with the optional butter, and it’s delicious. Pro tip: whisk together the milk, melted butter, and powdered cheese in a small pan so that it’s nice and smooth because pouring it on the hot pasta.