Wednesday, January 13, 2010

In Which I Kill Fish And Share Recipes (Unrelated Events)

Item the first: My kids have been begging for a fish tank for over a year. We finally broke down and got a 10-gallon setup despite my feeling that fish are pointless and hateful pets. So today, we merrily (some of us, anyway) trooped off to the Aquarium Depot where we obtained two balloon mollies and two spotted platies. By 6:00 they were happily swimming about. AlmondGirl named them Snow White, Belle, Jasmine, and Danielle.

At 6:15 my dad stopped by and noticed the filter wasn't pumping very well.

At 6:16 the filter ejected a mangled but twitching balloon molly.

Which the children watched in horrified fascination.

Which I scooped into a plastic bag, took outside, and killed to end its suffering.

AlmondGirl played a dirge for the dead fish (Danielle) on the piano while AlmondBoy wandered about saying how sad all the other fish must be.

Turns out the filter was missing some kind of piece it needed, which my dad and I MacGyvered from a piece of mesh onion bag and a rubber band. So I'll need to go get that tomorrow and a replacement molly and...just...ARGH.

Item the second: The food consumed during this tragedy was tasty. I was going to take pictures, but what with the impromptu mercy killing I didn't get around to it.

Anyway, my friend Annelise shared with me the Cooking Light recipes for Pulled Pork Barbecue Sandwiches and Tangy Apple Slaw. We ate them on Trader Joe's whole wheat hamburger buns and found them quite delicious. I do prefer a more vinegary sauce, however, and made one on the side of brown sugar, cider vinegar, and corn-syrup-free ketchup. I liked it better than the one in the recipe. The kids both loved the sandwiches, but AlmondGirl didn't care for the slaw. AlmondBoy ate two helpings of it. I did too. Mr. Marzipan isn't home yet, but I believe he will be a fan of the leftovers.

Dessert was Cooking Light's Strawberry Buttermilk Gelato. It is scrumptious.

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