Meringue

Who said making meringue is difficult?

My mother.

I’ve always heard that fluffy egg whites and meringue are impossible culinary tasks and I did believe it until now.

I’ve accomplished a beautiful meringue and I’m almost as proud as when I learned to drive a few years ago.

You can’t do it manually unless you’re a superhero. I had to go and get the mixer that my mother in law gave me two years ago and was forgotten at the back of a cupboard, because who has time for frills, right?

Until you REALLY want to make a beautiful cake.

Separate whites from yolks carefully (they say if the tiniest bit of yolk goes into the whites, the process will fail)

The whites, a small amount of a white viscous substance, by the magic of the mixer, will grow and grow into a lovely airy white cloud full of little bubbles first and, eventually, into a big creamy thick white velvety sweet marvel (don’t forget to add sugar).

Magic!



I have meringue! I have Dulce de leche! I have a Brownie base: 
I have a cake that makes everybody happy! Especially Mica.













































On a later entry I’ll tell you many things about Dulce de Leche

To balance all this sugar frenzy, I've made some millet and corn “samosas” and a delicious (but not very photogenic) cauliflower, lentil, spinach curry. So good that I plan to make it once a week durning winter.

And these, once a week as well

Winter Peak

Winter Peak in the Southern Hemisphere. Dark and Cold.
I'm allowing myself to sleep more, rest more and do a little less than usual.
From the outside I still look very busy, even doing less! Life is so full!

Another doll. This turns out very beautiful. It's not that I made her specially beautiful. It's her that turned out this way. All her merit!

There are so many downloads in this doll! I can't articulate them as well as I wished.

But I'll try.

She reminds me that in each human body there are priceless jewels. That each one of us is already rich beyond measure.

By turning inwardly with relaxation and attention we can activate our bodies, physical and energetic and create bliss. Our glands can be activated to secrete all the natural pharmacy that our bodies are designed to produce. We don't need any drugs or any money to enjoy these treasures. Just some guidance and daily cultivation. As you would cultivate your garden, as you cultivate your job and as you cultivate your relationships.

The wonderful elixir that our bodies can produce when you provide the right conditions brings us great wellbeing, physical and emotional, and deep fulfilment. And a sense of purpose in life. 

This wellbeing spreads over our loved ones and people in general. We find an endless source of richness within and we feel like sharing it. The more I share it the more I have. It's a win win practice.

This treasure is available for all of us as our birthright and nothing and nobody can take it away from us. And it increases with time and cultivation, meaning that even when you get older, together with the unavoidable wrinkles and white hair, comes a development of our ability to be present and fulfilled in our own self and our own body.

And you ALREADY have it! :)

Enjoy!

Two signs

I slept for eleven hours and the next day I went ahead and separated whites from yolks and made my first Lemon Pie. With meringue and all.

Two signs that the devil might have possessed me! :)

Blackout

Fathers Day. We woke up early to a complete power outage. 

The batteries in my phone almost dead too. We soon learn it’s the entire region blackout: the entire country plus other neighbour countries.

We have no water either and it feels apocalyptic. No electricity, water, phone, aghhh.

Pablo brings lots of bottled water. Outside is gray and very dark and its been for several days now.

A couple hours pass and since we don’t know if its the Apocalypse or just a false alarm Math studying must continue. It must be done consistently and daily or else.

There’s a pattern in which he complaints for 15 minutes and solves the problems for the next 15 minutes. We’d be doing much faster without the complaints :)

What a day!

As a therapeutic measure I make several new earrings creations to keep my spirits up. It helps a little

Another little "medicine" to cheer me up today….

The Kermess

An unedited view of the gorgeous tree from my bedroom window.  Nice and loaded!

The kids tried a local version of mille feuille, with dulce de leche. They loved it and asked me to try it at home. I did it, with store bought disks and it was both delicious and a bit clumsy and messy. There's room for improvement! I'll try a new better version of this one. I know how.

And spongey chocolate cake to cheer up my home math student. (I hope the course finishes soon before I get too fat!)

My own earring collection keeps growing and the stand looks nice and loaded as well, with recent additions that please me a lot.

And here comes the kermess story: When I was a little girl about 5 or 6 years old, my auntie and uncle took me to this kermess style fair. They were a young couple and had no kids of their own yet.

There were several games at the fair. You played, and if you won you picked the prizes. My uncle played and won one after the other and they let me pick the prizes. There were toys, nice dolls and big teddy bears. All I wanted were plastic shiny rings. One after the other. Only rings. My uncle was a bit irritated but my auntie convinced him to let me go with it. :)

I thought about this story many times in my adult life and it always brings a smile to my face. My great love for jewelry has been there since so early! No wonders I ended up making jewelry for a living.

June

How come it's already June? How come almost half a year went by so fast?
It's almost winter. Not very cold here. Very enjoyable.
Time to cook. I'm surprised at how much I desire to cook these days. There're times when I feel lazy even to peel an onion, and other times, like now, when pie crust from scratch is the normal!

And while food is in the oven I work and I paint and make dolls. My studio is in the kitchen :)
All the energetic anatomy that I've studied over years is poured into a doll in a poetic way. There's so much richness in one single human body! The entire Universe is already within every one of us. It's all there!  Let's use our lifetime to learn how to enjoy our treasures!

Winter brings its gifts and one of the biggest is this yellow treasure.

I'm doing all I can to reproduce the lemon tree and take a healthy productive "son" with me when we move shortly. Two things are worth mentioning on this front. One: my "Stouty" one grown from seed is looking like it's the one I'm going to plant in the new backyard. The only thing I need now is to make sure it's grafted so there will be lemons. Grafts didn't seem to have taken so far, but I notice this one is still green! Maybe now that I've transplanted this little tree into a much bigger pot the graft will finally take. Hope!

And there's another experiment I'm trying, something I've just recently learnt: it's called "Air layering" or "Root ball" and it's basically peeling a branch and surrounding it with dirt so it'll grow roots (in the tree). After a few months, when roots grow, you cut the branch and plant it. This way you don't have to worry about grafting. I did what I could and it will be a miracle if it works but let's give it a try!

Math continues in marathon fashion! Home lessons everyday fueled by cake, dulce de leche and many other flour and sugar variations.