Strawberries, downfall

Tuesday night, on a whim, I made a strawberry tart. That is just what I do. Forgoing making dinner (I had some grocery store veggie sushi), I whipped up some pastry cream, made a pastry shell, and cut up a lot of berries. I guess the occasion was that the strawberries were buy-one-get-one-free, and I had a new tart pan with a slick removable bottom. The results, below, don't betray the fact that the cream soon went from solid-ish to relentlessly soupy:


The day's other events included lunch at a new Belgian restaurant (bread with good crust!) and my bonking my head on my mat/the floor at yoga while attempting "eight-limb staff pose." I think this photo of the pose, demonstrated by someone who apparently used to teach at my studio, will explain my face-floor collision:

VE Day blender blunders, etc.

I had off from work yesterday for VE Day, and instead of updating from the comfort my bedroom or a nearby café (in true blogger style), I opted for laptop avoidance and laziness.

Highlights include sleeping late (duh); making a smoothie and fixing blender leak that left OJ all over counter, drawers, and floor; cleaning the kitchen in the wake of aforementioned smoothie problems; getting lunch somewhere other than the embassy caf (Teaism); paying a fortune to get a print framed; and engaging in a TVfest over Dogfish Head.

As great as it was to have the day off, it was mildly disorienting being put out of my routine like that. I'm taking a half day today (comp time for doing last weekend's Open House) to slouch around the house and make a lemon meringue pie for my parents' visit. I'll be going all out making a mother's day dinner.

Hallo!

Welcome to my first solo adventure in blogging. The goal here will be to spout off about handmade things, be they crafts or pies. On the left, that's a key lime pie I made about two weeks ago, in anticipation of warmer weather.

I will try my best to remain focused, but my mind tends to wander. I imagine there will be more than a few digressions about working among Frenchies, watching TV (model shows, 30 Rock) and attempting to have plants grow/thrive. FYI: So far I've succeeded in germinating some Nemophila, which, despite having a name that makes me think of corpse lovers and blood diseases, is a charming little flowering plant. For now it's like an inch tall.