RoundAbout San Diego

My co-worker Elizabeth passed along this easy recipe for key lime pie saying how delicious it is. Misuk has already made it so I thought I should give it a try. However, I didn't have any key limes so I used regular limes. Also, because I didn't want to waste the egg whites I made a meringue topping for it.

Key Lime Pie



Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

Filling
Four egg yolks
1/2 cup Key Lime Juice (or regular lime juice)
One 14 oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
One Graham cracker crust

Meringue
4 egg whites
pinch of cream of tartar
6 Tbsp sugar

In a mixer, beat egg yolks on high speed until thick and light in color. Add condensed milk. Mix on low speed. Add half the lime juice, cream of tartar, then the remaining lime juice. Mix until blended.

Pour into prepared crust and bake until set, about 10-15 minutes, or until the center is firm and dry to the touch. Refrigerate.

For the meringue preheat oven to 500 degrees. Whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until peaks start to form. Start adding sugar a little at a time and continue whisking until stiff. Spread on pie and put in oven for a few minutes until golden brown.

Serve with fresh whipped cream on each slice if meringue not being used.

Thank you Elizabeth for such a great recipe.

I forgot to mention last week that we started working with a Home Expo designer on our master bathroom. Last week we had our first meeting with Jennifer and went over all our likes and dislikes such as do we like a brightly lit bathroom (Alex yes, me no), what sort of colors do we like, do we need a lot of storage, etc. She walked us around the showroom and we had to point out products that appealed to us.

Today she came out to the house to look at the room and measure it all out. She went over some ideas she had and different options that we should start thinking about. When we next see her she will have drawn up a design that we can then tweak to suit our needs and from there we will need to start picking out specific items we like.

I've never worked with a designer before and I'm very excited at the thought of a well planned bathroom.

Made these tasty little morsels for our happy hour today. There was no recipe so the amounts are approximates.

Tofu Bites with Dipping Sauce



1 block firm tofu
1/4 cup corn starch
1/2 to 1 tsp ground ginger
2-3 Tbsp vegetable oil
3 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar

Cut tofu into 1/2" slices and place in a single layer on a few sheets of paper towel. Add a few more sheets on top, and pressing occasionally, try to get all the excess moisture out.

Mix corn starch and ginger in bowl. Cube tofu and dip in corn starch mixture. Fry on all sides until golden brown and crisp and serve with dipping sauce of soy sauce and rice wine vinegar.

Hamish and Falcon reside at the home of Janet and Klaus. Falcon was adopted from an older lady who thought he was too big and Hamish just wondered in one day and made himself at home.

Falcon and I are quite close when I visit



He will occasionally follow me around he yard and as you can see he's quite a large dog but very loving



Hamish usually keeps his distance but every now and again he graces me with his company. He loves to climb in the most unexpected places - can you see his head poking up from the top of the bush?



And Klaus had to rescue him this time from the trellis

My ex-coworker, Gerald(ine) (he/she wants to remain anonymous because there's a possibility we'll think he/she's a little obsessed with pets) sent me these photos of his/her pets. Gerald(ine) and his/her husband/wife are the ultimate pet lovers - they will take in any strays and help find them homes. I will add the names of the cats and dogs as they come in.

Alex did some more electrical work today, taking advantage of being down to the studs in the bathroom. He rewired the hallway lights and did a few adjustments in the hallway bathroom. While he was doing this I put together the sink cabinet from IKEA but when trying it out in the bathroom was a little worried that it was too big



We're going to go through with the plan and hope it all pulls together at the end. I think once the floor and bathtub surround is tiled and the walls painted it will be OK.

We were up at the crack of dawn, or sometime after. Ann and Diana showed up at 8am to help us take all our construction trash to the dump.



We could always have a sit down if we got tired



The trailer was filled and ready to go to the dump within 1/2 an hour



It took two loads and we were left with this empty and freshly swept parking spot



In return for all their help I prepared a brunch of Potato and Boursin Frittata with sausages followed by fruit salad and creme fraiche. Delish!

For happy hour later in the day, Alex and I had home-grown tomatoes from Ann and Diana's yard with fresh mozzarello and bread with oil and vinegar for dipping



We are exhausted but pleased with all our work today.

A few of you have been complaining that I'm not keeping the blog up to date and you're wondering about the remodel. Well, here are days 6 and 7 of the never ending project. Day 6 was plumbing stuff, most of which was completed under the house. No pictures for Day 6.

On to Day 7. While I was at work last week Alex and Diana put down the plywood to cover the sub floor. Here Alex is carefully cutting the plywood for the floor to fit as closely as possible to our slightly curved bathtub. Argh! What a mess on our patio!



He loves all the toys we've been buying insisting that each and every one has a specific job to do in all our upcoming projects and not just the current one. After Alex finished cutting the board he then had to fit it as tightly as possible next to the tub



With Diana's help the bathroom is coming along quite nicely.