let the sun shine

Posted on Posted in projects

and in a complete reversal of events since the other day . . . SUN.
i love spring—it’s so schizophrenic, isn’t it?

our snow melted completely by saturday afternoon when temperatures hit the 50s, then it turned cold and windy again by evening. yesterday was a bit frosty and beckie said it was spitting snowflakes on her way over to visit. today, the sun is out in full glory and the air is less chilly (though not exactly warm yet).

and the day lilies are up.
have i mentioned how much i’m enjoying the sun today?

i spent the whole morning in the kitchen making a treat, because we have a birthday to celebrate in class this afternoon

i managed a nearly-perfect pie crust (at least, i can’t detect anything wrong with it). i did forget to poke holes in it, but that (surprisingly) did not result in disaster.

then i zested and juiced some lemons and gathered sugar, eggs, and cornstarch—can you guess what i’m making?

it’s a lemon meringue pie by special repeat request.
i use this recipe, but fair warning; it does have a couple of typos in the text so read the comments carefully. it’s also lacking in direction for how thick the filling needs to be before coming off the fire, so it’s always a crapshoot for me whether it will set (i’m hoping that if all of you keep your fingers crossed, it will be fine).

so why, pray tell, do i use it?? simply put, it tastes heavenly.
not too sweet, with a light, lemony tart flavor, it is spring on a plate and lord knows, we could use some of that around here . . .

points off for my meringue not being glossy—i let the beaten egg whites sit for a few minutes while i cooked the filling a little more (just to be sure) and they beaded up a bit. arghh—when will i ever learn?

if all goes well, it will be a wonderful in-class dessert, just the right thing for a late afternoon treat. on the other hand, my adventures in baking do not qualify for anyone’s list of higher achievements . . . worst case scenario: we might be eating it out of a bowl, but it’ll still taste good, heh.

and if anyone has pointers on how to tell whether a filling will set, please do enlighten me . . .

now, i’m not a cruel person and i don’t want you to feel left out, so i thought some eye candy might be in order today. and as it happens, some of that just happened to arrive on my doorstep with the mail.

godiva, anyone?

a batch of woolen rabbit oasis (which is back in stock, yay!) in chocolatey brown with plum highlights, mmmm. talk about a diet buster . . .

along with that came a couple more skeins of kim’s lucent fingering yarn in colorway lady slipper.

upon the encouragement of our ravelry group, i’m going to design and knit some matching accessories for the eliza mitts, to be released as a pattern later on. i’m thinking that a button-up neckwarmer with those pleats around the bottom would be terribly cute and a scarf in the same idea as well, with pleats on each end.

and they will make great projects to take on my travels at the end of the month.

tucked in with those is another new yarn base that kim is considering—merino/cashmere/silk with a nice perky twist, this is a lovely fingering yarn for lightweight sweaters or accessories. it’s not in her shop yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know when it is. the color—smoke covered water—however, you can see on other bases, such as lucent. isn’t it wonderful?

thank you kim for sharing it with us—we love seeing all the new stuff you’re working on.

i realized today, too that i’ve been hanging on to photos from another yarn delivery i received after i got home form albany. not that i didn’t want to share, but it’s good to space things out, so as not to overwhelm our senses.

this batch comes from karin at the periwinkle sheep; she brought cookie and i a big bag of yarn each when we visited trumpet hill at the end of our big trip.

and she has such beautiful yarn that i didn’t want it to get lost in a big yarn parade.
karin mostly dyes on fingering yarn bases, but also has a DK merino yarn and a merino/silk lace yarn as well.

here are (left to right) her watercolors II merino 2-ply, the sock dream MCN, and meriboo merino/bamboo blend.

and here we have sock dream again, this time with watercolors merino/nylon sock.

here are two more merino yarns, oh so fine! 9-ply merino and the merino DK. these are both soft and lovely for a denser, loftier fabric; nice for accessories other than socks.

and finally, my favorite thing of all, the dreamy merino/silk 4-ply. funny the color name should be called craving, because that is exactly how i feel about this yarn—it’s a base i used quite a while back for the spiraluscious neckwarmer and mitts, but have not run into since (i’m sure it’s out there; i just haven’t seen it).

it is such a smooth, shiny yarn, yet so easy to handle and with just the right hand for nicely-draped pieces. i absolutely loved knitting with it and i look forward to using it again. karin’s colorways are so attractive and well-done; they will work very well for a variety of lace pieces and socks. thank you for your generosity karin; i know we all enjoyed seeing all these beauties!

ok, time for me to go see how the pie is shaping up—wish me luck!

25 thoughts on “let the sun shine

  1. I am seriously impressed with your pie crust! Mine always manages to shrink so I can’t put so much filling in. Lemon meringue pie is one of my favourites, and yours looks yummy! I bet you brought back an empty dish! And yet more wonderful yarns – I wonder if any of these dyers are going to be part of your Knitspot Club? Here’s hoping!

  2. Oooh, Eliza accessories. Love it. The Eliza mitts are fun to knit. Love the pleating.

    And speaking of love – I do love that Lucient yarn of Kim’s. So soft. I just want to squeeze it and pet it.

    Anne, your pie looks delicious. I envy people who can bake.

    Thanks for the beautiful pictures.

  3. Looking forward to the Eliza accessories, love my mitts already! Hmmm perhaps I need to order more ladyslipper.

    The sun is shinning here too and I am inspired to make the lemon meringue for mothers day – lemon is my mums second favourite flavour (second only to chocolate!)

  4. Regarding the pie: I use my grandmother’s recipe which looks very similar to the one you use (too lazy to go upstairs and hunt it down), and it merely says “cook until thick!” No help, I’m afraid! Yes, we HAVE eaten it with a spoon, and no one seems to care! NOTHING beats the taste of homemade lemon curd in a lemon merengue pie!

    Oh yeah…the yarn is beautiful as well!

  5. Lemon Meringue pie is just the thing when spring is just around the corner! Hurray!

    If time allows, a good way to determine how much your curd will thicken is to either put a small amount in the fridge and see how much it will set up after about 30 minutes or however long it takes to chill, or take that same small amount and set it in an ice bath remembering to stir in both cases because the middle will retain heat the longest.

    I took a look at the recipe and here are my thoughts: an almost foolproof way to make this curd is to do it in a double boiler so that you can comfortably cook the eggs longer. Another quick mod is to cook everything but the cornstarch slurry (it gives one a false sense of thickness in my opinion) so that you know the eggs have properly cooked. Once the mixture is already thick on it’s own, whisk in the slurry.

  6. I highly recommend the Chez Panisse Desserts cookbook. Lemon curd is the base for the pie-I make it all the time and it is delicious.
    That Oasis is scrumptious!

  7. Oh, that Craving looks so perfect! (Love the Pi day pie!) My lemon tree is loaded and now I’m craving a good baking run to go play with it.

  8. Ooh, you’re right! I’m craving that Craving – such a gorgeous yarn and colorway (and I’m finding myself drawn to purples again, as I usually am this time of year). I finished my Monkeybread hat, btw – so gorgeous!! (Posted a pic or two – not so great, ’cause it’s hard to take pictures of your own head…) I hope the pie turned out well – it certainly looks yummy!

  9. Snow one minute, green the next. Yup. Sounds like a midwest springtime to me.

    And I have to agree – that pie crust is perfection. PERfection.

  10. Matching accessories for the eliza mitts? I admit I’ve been hoping for that. Truth be told I haven’t even knitted up the mitts yet, but I have the pattern and yarn at hand and love all the pictures of the mitts.

  11. Closer to the lake, we still have snow on the ground! We did start with about 12″ however.Friday was a snowbound day up here. I do have day lilies and other things poking up out of the ground, so Spring must be coming here too.

  12. Mmm, I haven’t made a lemon meringue pie in AGES! And I always make them from a mix too, shame on me! OK, I’m definitely trying that recipe out.

  13. We have eaten plenty of pie out of a bowl. 🙂
    But it always makes me happy when it sets up nicely. Your A.B. recipe looks similar to mine. I have been having a bit of trouble getting my cream pies to set up, so I have started using a ‘heaving’ amount of whatever cornstarch measurement they offer. I did this last time and the filling set up nicely.
    Your pie looks great.
    I recently finished a ‘year of the pie’ and share the joy and frustration with you.
    Have a great day.
    Lou

  14. Don’t know which is more yummy – pictures of the pie or the yarns! I love lemon meringue pie. And those yarns are gorgeous.

  15. Hi Anne! Hope you had luck with the pie.

    I would also like to share my recipe for lemon/lime pie. It is my staple in the winter months since it is when my Brazilian Lime tree produces an over abundance of limes in our home in Northern Colorado… The other reason I like this recipe is that it is pretty much fool proof and it only takes 4 ingredients besides a pie crust: 3 eggs sepparated, 1/2 cup lime/lemon juice, 1 can condensed milk (my favorite is La Lechera by Nestle), and 3 scant tablespoons of sugar. Prebake the crust for 10 min or until it just begins to take color. Meanwhile make the filling. Mix the condensed milk and juice, add the yolks and mix well. If you like you can add the zest of one lime/lemon.
    Remove crust from oven and pour the filling. Cook for 10-15 minutes. Whip the eggs whites until they begin to hold shape, add the sugar one tablespoon at a time. Beat until stiff and glossy peaks form. You may add a bit of zest to the whites and that will make them even glossier. Remove pie from oven and mound meringue on top. Bake until meringue in dark golden. Let cool, and if you can wait refrigerate overnight. I have eaten it just barelly cool and the filling holds.

  16. Oh dear – natural lemon meringue pie and I am on a strict eating regime to start me back to healthy eating as I’ve gained so much weight over the winter….Anne, that’s not fair to tempt me…..well actually I’m not really tempted at all…I just switch off food save for what will keep me going each day. It is a very interesting recipe….over here in the U.K. I don’t know anyone who makes it like this, not even me…we use Royal Lemon Meringue Pie filling mix….but I really must try this….would love to have a go and I find Carla’s recipe interesting too…another method…with the condensed milk I thought it might be very sweet? Possibly though the lemon counteracts the milk. Lovely yarn..mmmmm…now that is tempting.

  17. Good luck with that pie! Blue seems to be the yarn color du jour – not usually a fan of blue, but there are some lovely shades in your stash.

  18. Oh do I have a baking horror story for you.

    I made a stunningly mediocre cake the other day, which I decided to frost with your basic caramel cream frosting.

    I put the cream and butter in one pan and start caramelizing the sugar in another. I then realize that the sugar pan is too small to add the cream to, so I think “I’ll just add the sugar to the cream.” Uh, turns out chemistry dun work that way. I made a reasonable proxy for rock candy, but not exactly frosting.

    So I fish out the rock candy, get out a new pan, and start again with the sugar. Only this time, without thinking I’d used one of my boyfriend’s plastic kool-aid spoons. It turns out that the temperature you need to caramelize sugar . . . also melts those $@(*(ing spoons. There was goo everywhere.

    On attempt number three, I finally got the sugar right . . . only too much of the cream had boiled off and the frosting was like a rock. I grimly slapped it on the mediocre cake and went to bed.

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