Orchids

We made what has become our monthly trip to Biltmore this weekend. The Sehorns from OK were in town so it made a nice destination since the weather on the mountain was, well, let's just say less than ideal. We'll also say that I'm concerned about the budding plants in my garden as they may get a bit of frost bite. Not exactly May weather here from what I understand. We managed to tour the entire house which was a lot of fun and went a lot quicker without the gazillion people there. Since it is in the middle of the "Biltmore Blooms" festival we expected it to be crowded, but it really wasn't crowded at all. We say a ton of orchids in the winter solarium in the house and then also in the conservatory. Here are some of the pictures from the conservatory.

A also managed to use a public toilet for the first time. This isn't big news, but is exciting because it was our huge hurdle to getting her completely potty trained. She wouldn't go on a public toilet that didn't have her seat to save her life. So much so that both Chris and I have contemplated making a portable, disposable small seat that would fit kind of like seat covers do, but would have enough support that a small child could sit on it and use the toilet.

Chris has some great pictures because his grandma gave A a sucker the size of her face. Grandma originally wanted to get A a sucker that had a diameter larger than A's torso, but we talked her down to the small one. A knew exactly what to do with it, and since it was mainly sugar it just started falling a part. We will have to finish it sometime when we can hose A off with the garden hose. Though right now we can simply stick her outside and she'll get a good dose of water. We have some localized flooding and thankfully our basement isn't yet. We have had lights flicker, it is mainly just rain, rain, and more rain, no thunder or anything crazy.

Anyway, it has been a fun exhausting weekend here. I hope everything is going well where you are.

Unrecognized USB device

For a long time A has liked plugging things into the computer and daily waits for us to let her do it herself. She is big into doing things herself these days. The first time she plugged something into Chris' computer she put one end of the cable in her mouth and became, "an unrecognized USB device" according to the computer. Now she is typing! She also has the remnants of our frozen yogurt trip on her face. :)

This past Friday A's school had a Family Fun Day. I got to go and slide on a big blow up slide with her. She apparently helped her friend get over being scared to go through the bouncy castle. The teacher keeps commenting on how little A is, but fearless. We are aware of the fearlessness, we kind of wish she'd at least develop a healthy fear of gravity. She managed to roll out of her bed this week actually.

Yes, I'm rather tired, but wanted to put something up for you to see. Our weeks have been good, we had a lot of sun this past week, and it will be mirrored with a lot of rain this coming week. The mountains are finally starting to turn green up here.

Laughing at a 2 year old

A has been a pill since about 20 minutes outside of town on the way home tonight. She has been yelling, screaming, basically being a 2 year old since then. She normally gets better when we get home, but that didn't work. She wanted to be "held" and didn't like the fact that she was in a car seat. She keeps going on and on about something, but won't tell us or show us. Currently she is working on thrashing about on the floor.

Chris just asked her, "What crawled into your diaper?"
She responded with, "Me."

You can't beat comedic timing like that.

Kitchen Experiments -- Key Lime Meringue

So we had some key limes to use. A lot of key limes in fact. Enough key limes that when juiced made over 1/3 C of juice. So what to do with key lime juice became the question. I  decided to make a key lime meringue. I essentially took an Alton Brown lemon meringue pie (found here) and modified it a bit. The biggest modification was substituting key lime juice for the lemon juice. I noted the modifications with italics. (Yes, I believe I can modify something that even the great Alton Brown puts down as a recipe.)

Ingredients
Lemon Filling:

4 egg yolks (reserve whites for meringue)
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 1/2 cups water 

1 1/3 cups sugar -- I used half regular sugar, half vanilla sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup key lime juice + a splash of lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon finely grated key lime zest

1/2 TBS vanilla
1 (9-inch) pre-baked pie shell -- I used a basic pie crust recipe that had no foods I couldn't eat
1 recipe Meringue, recipe follows

Directions

 

Adjust the oven rack to the middle position. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Whisk egg yolks in medium size mixing bowl and set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine water, sugar, and salt. Whisk to combine. Turn heat on medium and, stirring frequently, bring mixture to a boil. Slowly add in the cornstarch at this point. Boil for 1 minute, or until clear. Remove from heat and gradually, 1 whisk-full at a time, add hot mixture to egg yolks and stir until you have added at least half of the mixture.

Return egg mixture to saucepan, turn heat down to low and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 more minute. Remove from heat and gently stir in butter, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell and top with meringue while filling is still hot. Make sure meringue completely covers filling and that it goes right up to the edge of the crust. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until meringue is golden. Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack. Make sure pie is cooled completely before slicing. Refrigerate before slicing to ensure it is cool through.

 

Meringue

4 egg whites
1 pinch cream of tartar I didn't add any since I didn't have any
2 tablespoons vanilla sugar

Place egg whites and cream of tartar in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Beat egg whites until soft peaks form and then gradually add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form, approximately 1 to 2 minutes. Use to top key lime filling.

 

The meringue is nothing special but the vanilla sugar makes it taste a bit calmer with the tartness of the key limes. Beware this much key lime is eye popping tart.

Chris really likes it and I really like it. It would work well with the lemon filling as well. I think I would make the same modifications to the lemon pie (vanilla and such) as I did to the key lime pie. Chris thinks it is better than lemon meringue, though that may be what happens next week as we have a bunch of lemons that need to be used soon. :) I will probably make some lemon poppyseed muffins and then a lemon meringue pie. 

 

This was my second attempt at a meringue ever and my first attempt at a meringue at altitude. It didn't rise as much as I would have liked, but we will see if it gets better with the lemon meringue. I knew I couldn't do it last week because of all the rain, so it was nice to get the drier weather the past couple of days.

 

We originally thought of making a traditional key lime pie, but since cheesecakes at altitude are practically impossible we opted to try something completely new. As with most of our kitchen experiments it turned out well. Even scrapping the pan for the filling was tasty stuff. 

 

Okay, after writing this I suppose I need to go get a piece of pie.

April Showers

April showers will hopefully bring lots of good herbs and vegetables for us in our garden. We have a few things sprouting so hopefully they will grow, grow, grow and we will have some fresh herbs and vegetables in our garden this year. It helps that all week it rained. It rained and rained and rained in fact. I feel really bad for my friends and family west of us (which is most of the US if I'm honest) are still in drought conditions, though they are getting some of the wet weather a few days before we do. :)

I like the rain because otherwise we are all having a terrible time with allergies. It helps keep the air cleaner as the trees are spitting pollen like their lives depend on it. It will stop raining by around 10 am and by the time I drive home there is a nice green layer of pollen on my car, that's how much stuff is sprouting here.

We have started giving A some daily anti-histamine as everyone at daycare is saying how much her nose just runs and runs (nothing but clear) when they go outside. Since she will be 2 next month, we've decided to give her the "half-dose" and see how that treats her. She seemed to do okay with it today, so that's a good sign for us. The doctors won't say she has allergies since she isn't two and it is supposed to take 2 years for them to develop. However, since Chris and I both have really bad allergies it makes sense that they have been passed down to her. I just wonder how soon we can give her allergy shots.

This week was otherwise uneventful for the most part. We went to work, made dinner, went to bed, did it all again the next day. Chris is on a more normal work schedule for the next several weeks so he will be getting home around five and able to see us more in the evenings. :) Unfortunately, I have been told that we are working the next several Saturdays. I got Friday afternoon off as a "reward" but then was told we would be working Saturdays for the for see able future that were required. I told them it won't be happening. We do have several things happening in May -- a family visit, a 2 year b'day party, and then a Memorial Day trip to VA planned with our Memorial Day pals. I wonder how many others will also put their foot down. I understand a lot of the politics/financial stuff behind what is going on and the fact that the company needs to make money. However, it is happening at the expense of the employees and I wouldn't be surprised if people start leaving the company. It is bad enough that a pregnant lady at work had to get a doctor's note to only work 8 hour days, five days a week, and has specific requirements set up by her doctor for how many hours she can be on her feet at a time. Moral is super low at work which makes it that much more difficult to get there.

Anyway, we've experimented in the kitchen some and I want to write that post up, see you then!

Car Crash

Well this week started with A crashing a car at school. It was one of those little tikes police car jobs. She was trying to get out of it, but managed to topple out of it with it falling around her. She banged up her right eye pretty good, but in true form it is almost gone. It was rather cute when I walked into the play area and asked her what happened. "I crash," she responded. 

Then Tuesday we forgot the diaper bag. Chris saved the day and brought it to her. He then got to stay in her class for a while and meet everyone. When I picked her up that day all the staff was talking about how they got to meet A's daddy. Wednesday, one of her teachers even mentioned it when I picked her up saying, "When he left, I saw a side to A that I didn't know existed," since A had a breakdown when Chris left on Tuesday. 

After that the week seemed to fly by. Chris did check-out for most of the classes so he will get a more normal schedule now. He survived he second semester teaching. We survived our FDA audit. We actually passed without any major citations. This is a rare occurrence, so that means the FDA will be contacting us to make drugs when necessary. This week our water system is going to be down, so hopefully we can catch up on paper work.

Spring has Sprung!

Well, we finally got some spring weather. It was cold and snowy through Thursday (yes, we got snow on Thursday :)), but this weekend has been fantastic. We spent most of yesterday outside clearing an area for a garden. We want to do some herbs and a few vegetables. We just had to clear an area that might get enough sun during the day. We think we've found an area, so hopefully it will work. We have some herbs in window boxes along our driveway, but will put a few more in the garden area. Chris managed to hack his way through a fair amount of trees. We also discovered why nothing would grow in that area of the yard -- it was overgrown with roots. After we turned it once we rooted it. We will turn it again next Saturday and root some more, then hopefully plant as we have to start from seed. :) A really liked helping to play in the dirt. A played in the dirt so much that she went to bed at 730 and woke up at 830 this morning. She did get up at 630, shut our door, and went to stand at the fridge since she was apparently thirsty, but then went back to sleep.

She also liked it when the puppy from down the road came and played with her. The puppy, Daphne, has a broken electric fence so wonders to our house a lot. Daphne will play fetch incessantly. She is some kind of bird dog and will just go. She will also play catch, with thrilled A. Daphne showed up as we were trying to console A since we wanted her to leave her Star Wars puppy inside. We then tempted A to forget about the puppy inside since there was a real puppy to play with outside. One really cool thing was that Daphne actually belongs to the mother of one of the couples from church. The male is over tech stuff so he and Chris work together for church stuff a lot. They also have 2 girls, one a little older than A, and one a little younger than A. If you remember the veggietale post from a few weeks back, it is the little girl in the picture with A.

Since we didn't get fun pictures this weekend since our hands were covered in dirt, here are some from last week's trip to Build-A-Bear.

Getting ready to stuff their new best friends

Hugging their new best friends

Ready to leave with new friends in boxes. They didn't stay in the box very long though...