“Just because things hadn’t gone the way I had planned didn’t necessarily mean they had gone wrong.”
― Ann Patchett
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Posts Tagged ‘#365Ways2021’
Projects In Progress
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, design, inspiration, quotes, Thoughts, writing on August 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »
High Time for Pie Time
Posted in Food and..., tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, #dangIlovemesomepie, creativity, food, lemon, lemon meringue pie, pie, recipes, triangulation, yay on August 22, 2021| 1 Comment »
Mr Man requested lemon meringue pie the other day. Do I have a recipe for it? I do, that’s not the problem. The problem is that I have too many recipes, taking many paths to the same destination.
And so I set out to make the pie, but also to reduce the stack of notes, hand-written adaptations, and other modifications into the One.
Here’s a snapshot of just some of the recipe pile:*
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So here we have it, the One Pie To Rule Them All (if you like lemon, that is).
The recipe looks a bit complicated but it’s really just a quick crumb crust, a batch of lemon curd, and whipped egg whites.
This works for me, and uses ingredients I can easily access. (I also do things like ignore milliliters and weigh everything in grams.) If you aren’t as into tangy citrus or can’t find Biscoff, modify at will!
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Lemon Meringue Pie
Ingredients
Crust
- 250g Biscoff or graham cracker crumbs
- 57g butter, melted
* If using graham crackers, you can boost the flavor by adding a bit of cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom and a pinch of salt.
Filling
- zest of one lemon, chopped v. fine (optional)
- juice of ~6 lemons, 200g
- 50g water
- 25g cornstarch
- 175g superfine or caster sugar
- 3 egg yolks
- 25g butter
Meringue
- 4 egg whites
- 112g superfine or caster sugar
- 1/4 t. cream of tartar
Directions
Crust
- preheat oven to 350F
- crush Biscoff into fine crumbs with food processor or rolling pin
- mix in melted butter
- press into 9” pie plate (the bottom of a cup measure works well)
- bake for ~18 minutes, remove and lower oven to 325F
Filling
- mix lemon zest, juice, water and cornstarch until smooth
- stir sugar and egg yolks together in a non-reactive pan, place over medium-low heat and add cornstarch mixture and butter
- stir frequently until it just simmers and thickens like custard, about 5 minutes for me (taste and add another teaspoon+ of sugar if you fear the tang)
- pour into crust and top with meringue
Meringue
- combine sugar and cream of tartar in a small bowl
- in a larger bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks
- add sugar mixture one tablespoon or so at a time, whipping between, until stiff and shiny
- spoon or pipe over filling, touching meringue to crust edges to prevent shrinkage
- bake 15 minutes until golden
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Bonus: Lemon Syrup
Because I had organic lemons, I was also able to use the peels for this lemon syrup:
Stop Throwing Lemon Rinds Away! Make This No-Cook Syrup Instead
I let it steep for about four hours. I don’t have a great citrus press so I strained the peels, then put them in a plastic bag and used a rolling pin to extract the rest of the juice. The result is sweet with a touch of bitterness to ground the flavor, and perfect with seltzer and fresh mint on a hot afternoon.
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* I have attributions for some of these recipes but not all. That can happen when I’m away from home and trying to put together a recipe for the in-laws on the fly, with a kitchen and equipment not my own. Thanks for ideas for what to do (and not do) go out to Stella Parks, Mark Bittman, Alton Brown, and many bakers and commenters online.
Books Neverending
Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, Applescript, creativity, Fiction, fun, inspiration, libraries, Thoughts, Writers on August 21, 2021| 1 Comment »
In my roles as a writer and as a person, I read a lot. Some books I purchase, but many I access through my local library. How great is that?*
So I just spent a non-zero amount of time writing a little AppleScript to automagically run a search in any of the four area library systems that share e-book resources.
Was it necessary? No. I could click through my library portal and into each separate library system for every book I want to check, one stodgy button at a time. Ho hum.
Does this script save time and my wrists and open up new worlds of possibilities?
Yes.
Was it fun to make?
Also yes:)
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* I love books, and I’m lucky enough to live in a society that supports public libraries. In fact, I made a modest donation to my local library the other day, and hope it helps bring just a little more literacy and knowledge and enjoyment to my city.
Coffee Ice Cream
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, custom fooding, ice cream, recipes, summer on August 20, 2021| 1 Comment »
I’ve loved coffee ice cream since before I drank coffee, but it’s one of those flavors that doesn’t appeal to everyone. We don’t buy a lot of ice cream and when we do, something like vanilla is more flexible.*
I’m still experimenting with our borrowed Kitchenaid ice cream maker and coffee sounded good. I modified Mark Bittman’s egg-free recipe again, and it worked for me. Perfect for a hot and sticky summer day!
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Coffee Ice Cream
Makes ~1 quart
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 C. milk (2% worked)
- 1 C. heavy cream (35%)
- 1/2 C. coffee
- 1/2 C. sugar
- 2 T. cornstarch
- 1/4 t. salt
- 1/2 t. vanilla extract
Instructions
1. Stir the cornstarch with 2 T. of the milk make a smooth slurry.
2. Put the remaining milk, cream, coffee, sugar, and salt in a medium saucepan and whisk to combine. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until the mixture nearly comes to a simmer. Whisk in the cornstarch slurry and vanilla and continue to stir until the mixture thickens a bit, 2 or 3 minutes.
3. Strain the mixture into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate until completely cool, at least 2 hours and preferably overnight. Transfer to an ice cream maker and churn according to the manufacturer’s directions.
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* Alone, with pie, with grape juice, with orange concentrate and chocolate shavings, with caramel, with peanut butter and chocolate, with bananas and pecans, with pomegranate seeds, with lemon curd, with… you get the idea.
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The Devil’s Crutch
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, drabble, Drabble Dabble Do, family, Fiction, ghost stories, inspiration, the past, writing on August 19, 2021| Leave a Comment »
My father is going through old boxes of photographs and other memorabilia and sent me a story, one of my first, called “The Devil’s Crutch.” I couldn’t write or (as you’ll see) grasp the intricacies of grammar, geography, or complete sentences, but I dictated it to my mother.
First we have the story from when I was, what, maybe three years old? I‘ve changed since then (I can even hold a pen all by myself!), but I tried to understand at least a little of what might have been going through my head that day. Then for fun, I turned it into a drabble.
(My father seemed particularly taken by the word “smitchey.” I no longer know what it means but I kept it.)
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The Devil’s Crutch
Once upon a time there was a old, old house up in the south pole. There in the house there is a little room in the playroom and in the room there was a lot of dust. In the room there was a lot of dolls. The dolls didn’t have dust on them because a little smitchey girl had been playing with them. The house was haunted. And this couple moved in the haunted house and every night a ghost came out at twelve o’clock and every night when the ghost came out the couple woke up and saw the ghost and the ghost disappeared whenever the couple saw the ghost. The ghost disappeared. One night the father and the mother was sleeping on the sofa and the devil’s came instead of the ghost. And the owner of the crutch came to the house with the crutch and the owner of the crutch was the devil.
The End
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Once there was a haunted old house way up in the South Pole. It had a playroom of dusty dolls, a grandfather clock and a crutch like bleached bone.
A family with a smitchey little girl arrived. Every midnight the towering clock cried out. Even when the mother stopped the pendulum, and the father hid the key.
The girl saw a little ghost waving from inside the clock.
She slept huddled under the playroom table. The dolls said it was safer that way.
One night the clock stayed silent and the ghost hid.
And the owner came for his crutch.
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A Silver Lining
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, family, home, Thoughts, weather on August 18, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Thanks to the dynamics of heat, humidity, and Tropical Storm Fred muscling his way up the East Coast, most of my family members down South were under a tornado warning today.
My father texted to say that they were in the basement because tornado. Cue a round of frantic texting to make sure my hard-of-hearing mother had, in fact, heard the warning. Half an hour later the danger had passed and thankfully, everyone was ok.
Those of you living in places like Tornado Alley, the Caribbean, tsunami-prone coastal region, anywhere currently under a fire warning or similar hot spot may not be impressed, but this is one of the first times my family has had to head to the basement for safety, hunkering down like Neolithic ancestors in caves. I doubt it will be the last. Extreme weather and other such events are on the rise. That’s the bad news.
The good news is that unlike our ancestors, we have first responders, health care workers, disaster preparedness centers, and we can see it coming.
- Plan Ahead for Disasters | Ready.gov
- Prepare! Don’t Let Severe Weather Take You by Surprise
- Preparing for dealing with extreme weather – Canada.ca
Stay safe! I’m off to back up my hard drive. And to celebrate with homemade pizza and ice cream, because who doesn’t appreciate a silver lining?
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How to Win in Twelve Parsecs or Less
Posted in Entertainment, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, inspiration, movies, sff, storytelling, writing on August 17, 2021| 1 Comment »
Does everything have to be perfect in order for a story to work? Nope.
Here’s the script and breakdown for Star Wars:
Star Wars: A New Hope Script — Screenplay Analysis and PDF Download
par·sec| ˈpärsek | (abbreviation pc) noun
a unit of distance used in astronomy, equal to about 3.26 light years (3.086 × 1013 kilometers). One parsec corresponds to the distance at which the mean radius of the earth’s orbit subtends an angle of one second of arc.
A parsec is a measurement of distance, not time. Twelve of those do not a winning Kessel Run make, but, as millions of fans (and yes, dollars) attest, no one cares. The story works.
These are the things I think about when I’m stuck on a plot point, or deep in historical or technical weeds.
Just keep going.
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Monarch Joe
Posted in Likes, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, bees, butterflies, home, inspiration, pollinators, Thoughts on August 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The Joe Pye Weed is in full bloom and buzzing with big bees, small bees and not-bees, and look who stopped by!
I only wish we had the space and sun for a dozen more of these plants, plus scads of milkweed for this monarch and all of its friends. Until then, I’ll do what I can with what I have.
Cliché? Yes, but still a pretty good motto!
What to Write About
Posted in Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, clarion, creativity, Fiction, genre fiction, OWW, sff, Writers, writing, writing advice on August 15, 2021| 1 Comment »
Here’s a brief piece by Kate Wilhelm of Clarion Workshop fame, on writing and what to avoid. A little harsh? Possibly. But it still looks like good advice.
One year Damon and I arrived to teach the last two weeks of the six-week Clarion Writers Workshop with a list of stories we forbade the students to pursue. We explained each item on the list and said don’t do it again.
— OWW SF, F, & H Tips and Advice: Kate Wilhelm
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She Who Seeds the Stars
Posted in Other, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, Affinity Photo, creativity, learning, sff on August 14, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Today, more adventures with photo composites. A few simple experiments to learn where all the tools are and how to use them:
And then a more complicated example:
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