The Scientific Explanation

Brian and I spent some quality time together a couple of nights ago…cooking. I was making a creamy butter sauce for my bread pudding and he was practicing alchemy. I’m not kidding. He was turning pennies to gold (or at least making them look gold) to give away to little kids as Christmas gifts. The conversation went something like this.

B: Hey, I think your butter is scorching.
C: That brown stuff is the vanilla I just added to it.
B: Oh.
C: You just deface U.S. currency and I’ll take care of the butter sauce.
B: It might not be smart to have your food too close to this.
C: If it’s dangerous where are your safety goggles?
One minute later.
C: Can you put 2 tablespoons of sugar in here for me while I stir?
B: I thought I was supposed to just cook my sodium hydroxide while you cook the
hydrogenated vegetable fat.
A few minutes later, after the butter sauce was done.
B: Drop a few more pennies in.
C: Oww! It splashed on me.
B: Is it chemically burning you?
C: A little.
B: Well go wash it off!
C: I told you we needed safety equipment.
A few minutes later, after the burning had subsided.
C: Wow, it doesn’t take them long to turn once they get on the hot plate.
B: I won’t even offer the scientific explanation since I know you won’t appreciate it.
C: Well that’s a first, but thank you.
A few minutes later, after the scientific explanation.
C: I’m going to write about this in my blog.
B: You’ll have the ATF down on us.

It just struck me that ours may be the only house in America where this conversation took place on Christmas Eve. Ahh, life with a science nerd.