Yes!

Blame It On The Lemon Curd: Musing On The Interconnectedness Of Then & Now

/ Ally Bean / 267 Comments

Streetlight on Snowy Day [image created using Waterlogue App]

The Then Part

I DECIDED TO RETURN to writing this personal blog last week while I was making Lemon Curd on a cold snowy day.

No joke

I was using a double boiler, stirring the sugar, egg, butter, and lemon juice that join forces, over heat, to become Lemon Curd. It’s a slow process, that requires nothing more than patience and the ability to keep stirring the ingredients to combine in such a way as to “coat the back of the spoon.”

Standing there at the stove my mind wandered and I remembered who taught me how to make Lemon Curd.

Liz, an acquaintance who’d grown up in Australia, clued me in about how easy and economical it is to make. I met her decades ago when we were citizen volunteers working on a committee to put together a yearlong celebration of our town’s bicentennial.

• 🍋 •

SHE AND I HAD the honor of finding out how much the local country club &/or restaurants would charge for hosting a fundraising that was to be an afternoon tea. We ended up with this assignment because were the only two people on the committee who had been to an afternoon tea in England.

Uh huh

Well, in the process of talking with various establishments we learned that most people in this small town didn’t know what Lemon Curd was. This was something we felt should be at an afternoon tea: me because while studying at the University of Exeter for a term I’d had it at afternoon teas, Liz because it was a normal part of her Australian childhood afternoon teas.

Thus we found ourselves explaining, multiple times, that Lemon Curd isn’t cottage cheese embedded in lemon Jell-O, instead it’s a creamy lemony spread for toast or scones eaten in lieu of raspberry jam or apple butter or grape jelly.

In the end the head chef at the local country club allowed Liz and I into his kitchen so that she could teach him how to make Lemon Curd— which she did. And because of his willingness to learn how to make it the event was held at the country club to rave reviews.

Huzzah!

But most importantly from my point of view, I learned how easy it is to make Lemon Curd. The recipe for which is at the bottom of this post, should you be interested.

The Now Part

YOU MIGHT BE WONDERING, how did this memory prompt me to get back to writing this personal blog?

You see, while stirring the lemon curd, in an unexpected introspective minute, I realized a few things about myself and how this personal blog fits into my current life:

  1. I am grateful and amazed by how lives intertwine and how positive influences can guide you forever.
  2. I am at my best when I’m looking for and acknowledging how interconnected we are, in real life + online.
  3. I am happy and contented when I have a place, like this blog, to share stories + research + insights from my life.
  4. I am peaceful when I let easy things be easy, like writing a blog post about whatever interests me in the moment.

And with that, I’m back to blogging here for a while longer. I’m ready to connect [interconnect?] with gentle readers + kind lurkers and shall do so in this moment by sincerely asking the most obvious question ever asked:

WHAT’S NEW WITH YOU?

• 🍋 •

LEMON CURD

1/2 Cup lemon juice

1/2 Cup sugar

3 eggs, lightly beaten

6 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

In a blender, combine juice and sugar blending on high for about 15 seconds. Then add eggs and blend for another 15 seconds. With the blades running, slowly pour in the melted butter and blend for 30 seconds.

Pour the mixture into a double boiler saucepan and bring to a low boil over medium heat. This may take several minutes. Stir frequently.

As soon as the mixture reaches a boil, lower the heat to just above low and stir constantly for 2-3 minutes until the mixture resembles a shiny pudding. It should coat the back of your spoon. 

Pour into ramekins or a bowl. Let cool a little before serving.

Keeps in the refrigerator for up to two weeks. Freezes well.

Home Sweet Home: Do You Know Where You Belong?

/ Ally Bean / 181 Comments

The Tale [Or Tail] Of An Unexpected Visitor

I wanted to sweep leaves off our deck, it being autumn and all, so I’d opened one of the French doors between our dining room and screened-in porch, leaving it open behind me, then I stepped outside into the screened-in porch.

I had a sense of purpose.

These are the steps that Cookie walked up.

Next I opened the door from the screened-in porch to the deck propping the door to the deck open. I began sweeping the leaves off the deck, attentive to what I was doing, when something from the yard, that had climbed up the stairs to our deck, dashed past me.

Like a black and white canine thunderbolt. 

This is the deck that Cookie ran across going through the screen door that was open at the time into the screened-in porch.

I pivoted quickly to see Cookie, our neighbor’s Dalmatian-Great Dane mix, go running across our deck into our screened-in porch through the door I’d propped open.

Never expecting an uninvited visitor.

These are the French doors that Cookie walked through from the screened-in porch into our dining room.

Then faster than you can say “Jack be nimble, Jack be quick” while still standing on the deck I looked through the sliding door that leads from the deck into the kitchen or vice versa. This is when I saw Cookie, the happy-go-lucky goofball, inside our house looking out at me.

Through a locked door.

This is the spot in our kitchen where Cookie stopped moving, choosing instead to stare outside at me still on the deck.

So I ran across the deck into the screened-in porch, through the dining room, around the corner into the kitchen where Cookie was patiently waiting for me to feed her. Or so I assume.

What did I do?

This is Drags pretending to be Cookie so that you can get the idea of what I saw inside my house, on the other side of the locked door, while still standing outside on the deck.

Welp, I conned her out of our kitchen through the foyer toward the front door by shouting “WALKIES” and she fell for it by following me. I opened our front door, she stepped out, and I instructed her to “go home” while pointing in the direction of her house. And with that, slightly confused but obedient, Cookie trotted off.

To her home sweet home.

Deciding Where You Belong

I stumbled across the OECD Better Life Index. The index is a simple little online gadget that allows you to determine which country would best suit your personality.

Apparently I belong in Norway.

It’s easy to determine where you belong by following the link provided above. You’ll be asked to slide some doodads around to indicate how important 11 variables are to you. Then *voilà* you’ll learn which countries are where you’d find other people vibing with your values.

Your soulmates, I guess.

Questions Of The Day

Have you had a neighbor’s dog come for an unannounced visit? If so, how’d that go? What boss move did you do to get said dog to go home?

Upon opening a door to go outside do you immediately shut it behind you— or are you lax about shutting it sometimes?

If you tried the Better Life Index, which countries do you belong in?

Do you feel Drags needs to be featured here more often? I admit I’ve drifted away from using him, but doesn’t he just make you smile?

• 🐲 •

 

Hello Cool Kids: A Test About Blues + A Conversation About A Paradox

/ Ally Bean / 229 Comments

A TEST

Neato!

Immediately above you see my results from a simple little online test called Is My Blue Your Blue? What I learned is that I see more blue than most people and consider turquoise to be green.

There are, of course, no right or wrong answers to this test, but there is something to be gleaned from realizing how one person sees color is not necessarily how you see color.

Kind of trippy‽

A CONVERSATION

Groovy!

While reading something on Threads I saw the above quote that is attributed to Widdershins Smith.

Mentioned in passing it wasn’t the point of conversation, but the idea of a Geezer’s Paradox stuck with me. I turned the quote into the little gem you see here figuring that we, my little blue birds of happiness, could discuss it.

Upon reading the quote I nodded my head in agreement but also felt that, while possibly being old enough to be of geezer age, I might not be a geezer because of my gender. I asked Zen-Den, a confirmed male geezer, what he thought and he suggested that BIDDY might be the female equivalent to GEEZER.

Sure, sure, could be.

So I decided to ask ye olde Google how to define ‘geezer’ and stumbled over this interesting article in Psychology Today that discusses exactly what  Z-D and I were talking about: What’s the Feminine Form of “Geezer”?

Hint: The answer has to do with the use of non-gendered language in modern society and your own personal opinion about how word meanings should, or should not, change.

Regardless of whether you prefer GEEZER or BIDDY, the point I’m taking away from this quote and brief research project is that once you stop caring about cool, it finds you.

And how cool is that‽

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

If you took the test about the color BLUE, what do think? Have you ever considered the idea that everyone sees color differently, sometimes very differently?

What’s your opinion about the word GEEZER versus the word BIDDY? Do you relate to either or neither? 

What do you think makes a person COOL? Is it an attitude or is it something more? Is being cool one of your goals?

The One About Saying Goodbye To Icky August, Hello To Wonderful September

/ Ally Bean / 221 Comments

Once upon a time we had a cat who was told to not get up on the kitchen table. He did not listen.

May I be honest here? I’m not meant to live in super hot temperatures and this past August we had some super hot days, like ones with a daytime high of 104ºF.

Not. A. Fan.

Despite being inside in air conditioning where you might think I’d ignore my aversion to high temperatures, I did not. I could look through a window and see how hot it was outside. This made me feel tired and irritable, bereft of my usual “alacrity of spirit” as Willy Shakes* would say.

Who can make plans, go on adventures, flourish, when walking to the mailbox zaps what little energy you have managed to gin up for the day?

However last week September arrived bringing with it daytime temps near 80ºF which I find enjoyable, invigorating even.

l feel alive again.

• • •

Of course this pleasant change in temperatures and the subsequent realization of my renewed spirit comes with its own subtext. In the dog days of summer it’s easy to put off making any decisions, too hot to think straight, right?

However with this cooler weather my excuse for not doing much of anything is over. As you can imagine I’m ready to do the things that will entertain and motivate me during my favorite season of the year.

Autumn.

Thus I ask you, my little caramel apples of inspiration, what are you thinking about doing this fall? Do you have specific plans or do you have general guidelines about autumnal activities or are you going to wing it?

I’d love to know what’s up with you regarding the next few [what I believe to be] glorious months. Will you be organized? Will you be boisterous? Will you be rebellious?

Tell all in the comments below.

And this cat whilst on the forbidden kitchen table made a point of deconstructing any bouquet of flowers he found there.

* The full quote is: “So, I am satisfied. Give me a bowl of wine. I have not that alacrity of spirit Nor cheer of mind that I was wont to have.” It is from Richard III – Act 5, scene 3 BUT I am sad to say that unlike Richard III no one brought me a bowl of wine. Good help is soooo difficult to find these days.