I intended for tonight to be another trip to Annie's Test Kitchen. It shall not be. I did run some experiments, but I don't think I'm ready for a detailed write up of tonight's, um, lasagna soup. I tried to wing it with lasagna that used thick slices of zucchini instead of noodles. Perhaps reading a few tips online first would have been advised. Not everything was a failure, mind you. I made my own delicious meat sauce, because it's fun, easy, and I can control ingredients that way. The combination of cheeses (cottage, mozzarella, and parmesan), sauce, and vegetables that I chose made for a terrific flavor. But without pasta in the middle to absorb the water that came out of the zucchini, it was soup. I had it in a bowl, with a spoon. If not for the curds of cottage cheese, I probably could have used a straw for the "broth." I had such high hopes, up until the point it came out of the oven. It was beautiful, until I cut into it. This needs a lot more work before it's ready for a full write up.
I thought I really had something interesting today. We were at a department store that I assumed was an authorized dealer of Pandora charms (although I don't see their name on the list found on the Pandora Facebook page, which is disconcerting). I found a treble clef charm that was sitting upside down in the display case. I kept looking at it, thinking it looked weird beyond the fact that it was upside down. I asked the lady to let me see it, and I realized that the clef was backwards. I tried showing the saleslady, but for several minutes no matter how I turned it the right way, and then showed her a picture on my phone of what a treble clef actually looks like, she couldn't understand what I was telling her. Every time she said, "You mean it goes like this?" and she turned it upside down again. No, lady. Not upside down in your display case. The bead itself looked reversed. I started thinking, this thing is actually sculpted backwards, and the manufacturer didn't catch it. I decided to gamble, and I bought it. I figured that one of two conditions existed. Either it was a mistake and would be a rare and valuable collector's item, or it was a pretty fake. I started having dreams of finding my own little Inverted Jenny (the rare stamp with the upside down airplane on it). I told myself that no matter what, I had two of my favorite things: something unique and a great story. There was a third possibility that I never considered. The woman at the jewelry counter, who obviously could not read music to save her own life, had placed the charm on the little satin cushion backwards, and the design was two-faced, one correct and one reversed. I never turned it over while it was on the display cushion, and I didn't open the box until tonight, when I pulled it out to photograph. I don't know how disappointed I am, though. I don't have something super rare, but I did manage to get another pretty bead for the bracelet. And still, I do have a great story, as long as I'm willing to be the butt of a joke. It is an acceptable silver lining.
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