torrential rain didn't prevent me from going across the street to get some groceries from star market. i was making thanksgiving flan and needed some ingredients. in my experience, the best flan is made 2 days in advance, to allow ample time for the caramelized sugar at the bottom of the ramekins to melt into the pudding layer.

before i did that though, there was the business of work, which i did just enough to prevent myself for feeling guilty that i didn't do any today. then there was the business of feeding myself. since tomorrow is trash day, i went through the fridge trying to get rid of anything that needed to be thrown away. i ended up having 6-day old clam chowder leftover from last wednesday. after heating it over the stove (authentic heating, none of that microwave heating) i covered it with a layer of oyster crackers. the chowder was awful. how i could've eaten it last week i don't understand. it was all runny and no flavor, like water added to milk. i ate the crackers and tossed the rest of the chowder.

i make my flan a few times a year (it's one of the few things i know how to make). i added a dash of cinnamon this time, trying to give it something special. after i filled 12 ramekins (using a strainer to filter out of the solid egg whites) i still had a little bit of the mixed ingredients left. i've always wondered but never confirmed until tonight: i poured the leftover into a cup and gulped it down. sure enough, it tasted just like thick delicious egg nog. flan is just basically baked egg nog! why i never tried to drink this before was i always thought it was kind of dangerous eating raw eggs (which is one of the ingredients) with the possibility of getting salmonella. but after checking out the price of egg nog at the supermarket ($4.50 for a carton), i figured i'd save more money just making my own. plus i found a way to pasteurize the milk without completely cooking it, so i can enjoy this special holiday drink with relative safety. but a cup of egg nog? 500 calories. not for the squeamish.

i bought a case of canada dry sparkling green tea ginger ale. it's even advertised with 200mg of antioxidants and contains 100% the daily recommended value of vitamin C. there's no mention of it on canada dry's website, so i wonder if it's being tested in a few select markets first. but what does it taste like? it taste exacting like carbonated ginger ale mixed with green tea. not the green tea from a teahouse but the green tea from a flavored iced tea. it's okay because it's different, but nothing particularly special.

i took the leftover rotisserie chicken from this past weekend and made some broth out of it to be combined with some rice noodle for dinner.

when my roommate came home later in the evening, he didn't ask me about the trays of flan sitting in the fridge. as of matter of fact, he seems surprisingly uncurious about many things that happen around the house. it seems like if it doesn't affect him directly then he's not interested. for instance, because i've been doing some work on the backyard door i've removed the screen door, which is just sitting in the kitchen. i figured he'd ask me about that, but it never came up in any conversations. i'm just intrigued with what sorts of weirdness i can get away with in the house before i can get a reaction out of him.

for me, wintertime means dry skin, and dry skin means moisturizers. i normally scratch my itchy legs until they bleed before resorting to some sort of skin protection but i'm trying to be proactive this season. i use a CVS intensive care lotion for most of my body, a pond facial cream for the face, and then some eucerin for the hands. eucerin is really good but it goes on sort of oily and if i put it anywhere else on my body it feels sticky. plus, i bought a big bottle of it last season and i have to figure out some way to use it up. i sometimes wonder: too many lotions? and when did my skin get so dry? maybe it's all this forced air heating that goes on in my place.