Earthquake!

I don't have a picture of this one... We just had a 5.6 earthquake centered a few miles from our home. It's too late to call you East-coasters, but if you check this, we are all fine! They aren't reporting any injuries or damage from this one, though it was pretty scary for earthquake newbies (and for the cat). We're waiting for the aftershocks now. Stacey says she's coming back East!

Behold the Scotchmallow.

Honey marshmallow + caramel + semisweet chocolate = a sweet force to be reckoned with. I grew up eating See's Candies brought by my aunt each time she visited from California, but I was not astute enough in my youth to single out the most winning confection of the box. Now I know. There is evidently a Scotchmallow bar, but research suggests that the bar, unlike the little Scotchmallow truffle thingy, is wrapped in milk chocolate, not semisweet -- a disappointment. I don't know what makes the Scotchmallow quite so good. Caramel is good. Marshmallow is good. Semisweet chocolate? Good. But somehow the Scotchmallow is more than the sum of its parts.

For those of you who don't know, See's Candies is a Bay Area institution. They are everywhere. Near our house is a See's Candies Outlet Store! As if that wasn't enough, there is a See's Candies in the office complex where I work. Oh, Mary See! Take your Scotchmallow and leave me alone!

I am not the only one to revere the Scotchmallow. I am not even the only one to blog about it! Today, I was in Williams Sonoma with my aunt, and found a cookbook (Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey: Desserts for the Serious Sweet Tooth by Jill O'Connor) that features a Scotchmallow sundae. Now I have Scotchmallow on the brain (but not in the belly). I will resist -- until Easter, anyway. I hear there is a Scotchmallow egg.

Congratulations Dad and Bernice!

I made it home to Massachusetts last weekend to attend my father's wedding to Bernice Dziejma (now Bernice King!) at the Charles River Museum of Industry in Waltham.

Bernice and my dad actually met at Waltham High School -- class of 1966! Bernice probably didn't go for my dad at the time because he was in the Chess Club.

I got to spend some QT with my oldest friend Rebecca Couture, who is having triplets this winter!

The weekend also brought QT with my family, with Lisa "I'm going to rock my exams" Lee, with a Toscanini's Microsundae, with Emily Raine and a herb omelet on her 28th birthday, and with two of the family dogs, Lucy and Oliver, who both seem to have figured out that camera flash won't hurt their eyes if they close them. I have to guess that some people are taking too many pictures of the dogs!



In one of my library classes, we recently dicussed blogs, and how one of the drawbacks is the challenge of maintenance: you start one thinking you will post all the time, and then Life sets in. Don't I know it! I've made a vow to improve the blog, but we will all have to see how that one goes.