use real butter

Yesterday was such a teaser. Today the temps were down (a little) and the winds were up and snow is in the forecast. Not that I’m complaining, because I am a ski whore… just that the muddy melting of spring felt nice. Trust me – I am definitely torn up about leaving during the month of March because March is when you get those amazing springtime dumps. Then again, I’d be off my rocker to turn down a chance to see amazing rock formations in The Middle of Bloody Australia, cook and dine with Kell and Chef Jerad in Sydney, and to tramp, paddle, and play in New Zealand. There are far worse choices to make in life (elections come to mind), so I’ll shut up now.

The US postal service gets a big fat Effingham F. My dad sent me a priority package last Wednesday which only just arrived today – 9 days later. We go through this with the post office every damn year. My mom thinks to make this special vegetable dish: 10 ingredient lucky vegetables, which you eat for good luck at the start of the Chinese New Year. And every year it arrives too late and the food poisoning potential is very high, but my superstitious Chinese upbringing makes me nervous for fear that if I don’t eat it, I’m screwed. The dish translates into “as you wish”. I tasted some and it was slightly sour. But it’s made with some pickled vegetables – so I’m not sure if it’s supposed to be that way or not. My mom would never overnight anything. She stresses about the vegetables calling me every day to see if it has arrived. And so, it stresses me out. Then when it arrives, I’m stressed some more. I’m just going to make it myself from now on since I have achieved Chinese Cooking Competency. She called this afternoon and said to just stir-fry it on high heat for several minutes.

**Jump for more butter**

Most of the desserts I like to make involve eggs. Well, they either involve whole eggs or egg yolks. Like soufflé uses yolks and whites separately, as does key lime pie, chocolate mousse, and chocolate cream cake. Then there are those that are heavy on yolks like crème brûlée, tiramisu, flan, cheesecake, and pastry cream. I hate to throw out good egg whites, but the only desserts I know of that use egg whites exclusively are meringues, angel food cake, and macaroons.

The tiramisu I made earlier this week required 8 egg yolks, which left me with 8 egg whites. I’ve been plagued with the fear of attempting meringues at elevation because I still don’t know what flops and what doesn’t compared to sea level. However, consultation with Donna Hay’s pavlova recipe and comparison to a high altitude cookbook recipe for meringues lead me to a successful experiment today. I opted for individual pavlovas because they take less time to cook and because I had no idea how many I’d produce (8 egg whites produce an assload of mini pavlovas).

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While Jeremy was volunteering at the observatory on campus tonight, I finally did something with the granny smith apples I had accumulated. My intent was to try a classic apple tart tatin recipe, but I didn’t want to deal with the skillet or making the pâte brisée (the crust) this evening. Maybe later when I have more energy and time.

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