Flaking paint for everyone!

Those of you who have been my apartment in the last few months might have noticed that I had some peeling paint in the living room. My mom -- who knows what she's talking about when it comes to this sort of thing -- suspects that it's water damage. Anyway, I had the superintendent come by today, and he scraped off lots of paint. Lots and lots of paint. Oddly enough, the bare, unpainted wall doesn't actually look that much worse than the paint-peeling wall.

Tomorrow morning the building manager is going to come by and take a look at the damage. Then he'll probably be sending someone over to plaster. Goodness knows when that'll be, but I'll keep you all updated.

Ah, the joys of repairs. This is definitely one of those times I'm glad I'm renting and don't need to handle this all by myself.

Edited the next morning to add: The building manager had a quick visit this morning. I showed him the damaged area, as well as some bathroom tiles that need re-grouting (there's a hole between two tiles), and asked for a screen for the living room window. He said I'm on the list now, and he'll probably get his guys in to do the work within a month or so. Yay for progress!

Adventures in cooking: Ramekin berry crumble

Oh, baby, this is a dangerous recipe. I decided I wanted a snack tonight and stumbled across this recipe by Alton Brown for "individual berry crisps." I have just two words: so. tasty.

Since I only wanted one, and my ramekins are on the small side (5-6 oz), I quartered all the recipe amounts, and I replaced the nuts with a package of plain oatmeal that seemed to be the right amount. For the "crushed cereal," I used rice krispies. The fruit in this case was frozen raspberries.

The amounts for the crisp topping, even quartered, make a lot of leftovers. I've easily got enough for two or three more of these babies, and I've got some fresh raspberries and blackberries in the fridge. All I've got to do is toss them in a bowl with some cornstarch, sugar, and a little more topping and throw it into a ramekin to be 45 minutes away (maybe less!) from culinary bliss again. Like I said, dangerous, dangerous recipe.

Next time, I'll know that it sinks down a bit when baking, so I can actually fill it over-full and not be too worried.

I ate it topped with a little vanilla ice cream... Two words. Just two words.