No. No. That Just Ain't Right.

What caused the mess you see above? Chocolate pudding.

Here's how it went down: For Iain's birthday I made apple cake. Charles went out for apples (a little detail I'd forgotten) and picked up some heavy cream because we were low on ice cream. So I used half of it to whip and eat with the cake. But that left half a pint of heavy cream.

I've been buying eggs at the Farmer's Market, and now that Iain is one he can eat eggs. So with cream and eggs in the house...some kind of custard seemed obvious. Then Charles said, "You could make pudding." and I said, "Iain hasn't had chocolate yet." and Charles said, "What kind of mother are you?"

Finding a recipe proved annoying. So I just made it up. I heated the cream plus a cup and a half of whole milk. I whisked 3 egg yolks in a bowl. I added half a cup of sugar to the cream, and a plop of vanilla extract. Then I slowly whisked a ladle-full of hot dairy into the yolks, bringing them up to temp, and then added that back to the pot of hot creamy milkyness. Stir, stir, stir. When it started to get thick (after like 5 minutes), I added one chopped up bar of Very Dark Chocolate (Scharffenberger 60%). Stir, stir, stir. I decanted it into little cups for Iain and into two wine glasses for us.

Then came dinner. Iain was fussy. We later learned he had reason to be fussy (in his pants). Still, when I presented him with chocolate pudding, lovingly made (using every implement in the kitchen and resulting in the mess you see above) I did not expect this reaction: frown. Wait a second. Suddenly shake head as if something truly nasty and surprising has assaulted your taste buds. Turn away in disgust and push hands toward Mommy. "No more!" was the clear message. This head-shaking, frowning rejection occurred several times. After the second time, Iain started reaching into his mouth and taking the pudding out (sort of) and then wiping it on himself, the high-chair, and the dining room table.

He had to be stripped:
Then bathed. Then to bed. And Mommy sat there thinking, "Seriously?"