Mark is home today, making it a four day weekend for him. It's always nice to have him to myself this much. In our effort to just get some of our normal errands done this morning, groceries and the like, we were met with absolute madness out there. This is the worst shopping day of the year apparently. Between the doomsdayers stocking up on water and duct tape combined with the nut-jobs thinking they'll get snowed in from a blizzard tonight, it is absolutely not a good idea to leave the house, the traffic at 11am this morning to shopping areas as well as the jam packed parking lots were just as bad as x-mas time mania! At least we don't have to leave again, although I did want to buy 'My big fat Greek wedding' on dvd, which I haven't seen yet, but have heard many excellent reviews for... I think we can wait until the chaos passes. In the meantime, I'm working on a new recipe from Cook's Illustrated for a home made Boston Cream Pie for a special dessert tonight. I just finished the pastry cream filling, flavored with rum and vanilla, it's actually surprisingly not very sweet... I'll make the sponge cake in an hour or so while the cream cools and I have some phenomenal semi-sweet chocolate to make the glaze... Mmmm... I've become a huge fan of Cook's Illustrated . Every recipe I have tried I've been exceptionally pleased by the results. For those not familiar with this magazine; I implore you to investigate it if you have any interest in cooking, baking, food or kitchen gadgetry. It is a magazine with zero advertisements, which is a huge plus in my book. They operate as a 'test kitchen,' sampling and testing multiple recipes for the same dish explaining along the way which methods and ingredients worked best and why. It is an excellent resource for developing techniques and building a greater understanding of cooking science and baking alchemy. Kudos out to Mark's mom who introduced us to this magazine through a gift subscription as a wedding present; which we need to renew!