It's Spring! It's Easter! Happy, happy!
Happy Easter! I can't believe I forgot to say "Happy Spring" in my last entry, as much as I have been anticipating it. So a belated Happy Spring! I can feel the sap rising and the motivation rising within me!
I went to my "chiropractor plus" Friday, and after the last few Good Fridays, he checked me to see if I was okay with it being Good Friday, and I checked out totally clear. I knew I would--I could just tell--but he wanted to muscle test me about it anyway. If you haven't read the entries from Easters past, you may find the ones from 2005 and 2006 to be somewhat interesting...
Rick and I are having a peaceful weekend. The NCAA Basketball Tournament has been running in the background when it's been on. I've been particularly enjoying watching the games taking place in Raleigh at the RBC center since it's in my favorite area of Raleigh--very near where I used to live--and helps me feel a little like I'm home. UNC is playing right now and for whatever reason, CBS is choosing to show other games instead, much to our chagrin (but it IS giving me the chance to blog!). Rick is a big UNC fan, having been born on the campus, and I'm a fan by default. My family is split--one sister and her husband graduated from Duke, and the other sister graduated from UNC, as did my nephew. My other nephew and my niece graduated from Wake Forest Univ., and a lot of the family lives in Raleigh, home of NC State, so we've got the ACC basically covered. Basketball is HUGE in North Carolina.
ANYWAY, I decided to make a lemon meringue pie to celebrate the holiday, and so spent quite awhile this afternoon on that project. The recipe says it takes 30 minutes to prepare, but I must be extra slow because, including baking the crust, I spent about 2 hours on it what with the lemon zesting and egg-yolk tempering and so on. I am hopeful, but the meringue isn't very high even though I whipped it to the stiff-peak stage and even used extra egg white. It must be the altitude or something...or, perhaps, the egg whites didn't like the sugar substitutes I used. I used lo han sweetener and erythritol (my trade for the xylitol that threatened to kill Lilah) because I just don't like what sugar does to me anymore. But I bet it will be good anyway.
I was extremely touched to have received "povitica" from my dear friend, Andrena, who made the traditional yeast bread from scratch and mailed it to me from her home near New Orleans. It is, apparently, quite a production, involving rolling out vast amounts of dough, then sprinkling with chopped walnuts and other goodies, and rolling it up to fit into a loaf pan and baking. You slice it like bread and when you do, it reveals lots and lots of spiraled thin layers, like a super-fine jellyroll. Yum. It's sweet--but not very--and just plain addictive. It's an old Croatian specialty that Andrena learned from her grandmother, and I am so honored she made it for me! I froze half of it since I've been looking to stop the runaway weight gain (and have been successful lately), but the way Rick and I have been hitting on it, I may need to thaw the other half soon!
I went to my "chiropractor plus" Friday, and after the last few Good Fridays, he checked me to see if I was okay with it being Good Friday, and I checked out totally clear. I knew I would--I could just tell--but he wanted to muscle test me about it anyway. If you haven't read the entries from Easters past, you may find the ones from 2005 and 2006 to be somewhat interesting...
Rick and I are having a peaceful weekend. The NCAA Basketball Tournament has been running in the background when it's been on. I've been particularly enjoying watching the games taking place in Raleigh at the RBC center since it's in my favorite area of Raleigh--very near where I used to live--and helps me feel a little like I'm home. UNC is playing right now and for whatever reason, CBS is choosing to show other games instead, much to our chagrin (but it IS giving me the chance to blog!). Rick is a big UNC fan, having been born on the campus, and I'm a fan by default. My family is split--one sister and her husband graduated from Duke, and the other sister graduated from UNC, as did my nephew. My other nephew and my niece graduated from Wake Forest Univ., and a lot of the family lives in Raleigh, home of NC State, so we've got the ACC basically covered. Basketball is HUGE in North Carolina.
ANYWAY, I decided to make a lemon meringue pie to celebrate the holiday, and so spent quite awhile this afternoon on that project. The recipe says it takes 30 minutes to prepare, but I must be extra slow because, including baking the crust, I spent about 2 hours on it what with the lemon zesting and egg-yolk tempering and so on. I am hopeful, but the meringue isn't very high even though I whipped it to the stiff-peak stage and even used extra egg white. It must be the altitude or something...or, perhaps, the egg whites didn't like the sugar substitutes I used. I used lo han sweetener and erythritol (my trade for the xylitol that threatened to kill Lilah) because I just don't like what sugar does to me anymore. But I bet it will be good anyway.
I was extremely touched to have received "povitica" from my dear friend, Andrena, who made the traditional yeast bread from scratch and mailed it to me from her home near New Orleans. It is, apparently, quite a production, involving rolling out vast amounts of dough, then sprinkling with chopped walnuts and other goodies, and rolling it up to fit into a loaf pan and baking. You slice it like bread and when you do, it reveals lots and lots of spiraled thin layers, like a super-fine jellyroll. Yum. It's sweet--but not very--and just plain addictive. It's an old Croatian specialty that Andrena learned from her grandmother, and I am so honored she made it for me! I froze half of it since I've been looking to stop the runaway weight gain (and have been successful lately), but the way Rick and I have been hitting on it, I may need to thaw the other half soon!
Julia
OH my goodness....how are you, it has only been FOUR years! Wow. Just stumbled onto your blog and wanted to say hello.
tanja
Wow! Hi, Tanja!
I am going to be needing a new professional photo soon, so just perfect you pop back into my life!