Today in Mommyland…
Made breaded buffalo tofu sticks (with homemade panko!) for lunch today to use up some leftover tofu before it passed its best-by date. They weren’t bad! Normally, when we want crispy buffalo tofu, it involves lots of corn starch and oil to fry it in (it does turn out lovely crisp, and it works great in sauces like General Tso’s, but it’s pretty hands-on intensive), so this was relatively easy and less greasy, as it’s baked instead. The breadcrumbs were decidedly too large, but probably only needed to be a smidge smaller to get a decent full crusting, and to get them really crispy on the outside, I had to cook them post-saucing for easily 20+ extra minutes. But if you keep an eye on them, it does turn out rather well, and they hold their crispiness better than the cornstarch ones do.
Also, Goldbug is going to be one hell of a poker player someday, because he’s tricked me into thinking he’s poopy like…five times today, and then the one time I was pretty sure he WASN’T…he was… Tricksy baby!
Today in Writerland…
Got a brief chunk of time this AM when Goldbug fell asleep after breakfast and actually stayed asleep after I moved him from me to his chair. (I know I’ve heard that now apparently you’re not supposed to let them sleep in a reclining position, a.k.a. a chair or a carseat because HAHAHAHA, parents are screwed, but I literally sit next to him and watch him #creepy #neuroticmomma to make sure he’s breathing.) Managed to nail down another 1,200 words of actually decent draft, which officially catches me up to what I removed the day before yesterday, so feeling good about finally moving in a forward direction again, rather than retracing steps.
I also got to check off sending a stalled submission back out again, which feels great. I’ve got four at various venues waiting on decisions/shortlisted, but in lieu of any of those moving, having something out again feels good. Though can I just say, I am JONESING to get cracking on some new short fiction? Before all this lockdown stuff (and, you know, infant), I had a list going of things I both wanted to finish writing and that needed editing, and I haven’t had any chance at all to tackle any of those, which is frustrating (though given the current circumstances, I’m not beating myself up about it). Still, with the novel starting to take shape, at least I’m working on SOMETHING. I believe it was Ursula K. LeGuin (possibly in A Question of Balance by Judith Pierce Rosenberg, which if you’re an artist and a mom (or a full-time dad) I highly recommend in regards to art and parenting) who said she worked better on novels when her children were young, because longer works can be better interrupted and not lose your forward momentum, compared to short stories, which are so concise and focused you have to kind of nail them down swiftly. Anyway, that’s seemingly proving true with Goldbug around, these days.
Maggie Slater 