I can’t quite imagine what it must have been like when my mom lived in Paris in the 80s. Phone calls were made from a shared phone you had to reserve and were so expensive that you hardly said hello before you had to say goodbye. My experience staying in touch with my parents has been easy by comparison: my dad tends to be signed into GChat most of the time, and recently my mom has been appearing as well, which means that, occasionally, we have conversations like this:
me: i spent the whole day in the library lol
mama: sorry!!! how is the paper coming??
me: meh
gross
mama: ohhhh! why
me: it’s too haarrdddd
mama: no it’s not. you are tough. i made you that way!!!
me: i know.
but it’s tough to be so tough.
mama: exxxxhausting!!!
There’s really only one person in the world you can whine to so unabashedly, and that’s your mother. That being said, I’m sharing my weakest moments with the Internet for a reason: life is tough. I didn’t expect it to get this tough; I already felt like an adult three or four years ago and distinctly remember thinking, “This isn’t that hard…” But I was proven wrong, I suppose, because it is. At least right now. It’s tough, and I’m doing everything I can just to keep afloat.
I’ve had to make a lot of tough choices and cut out a lot of things that I love doing. I can’t remember the last time I just chilled with a friend, or even on my own. The Country Boy convinced me to relax for all of about four hours yesterday, which culminated in blind panic when I realized that I had wasted four hours that could have been used to be productive catching up on the second half of this season of Grey’s Anatomy.
Regular readers of this blog, if there are any of you still out there, will attest to the recent spottiness of posts, and I honestly wish I could say it was going to get better relatively soon, but I have a thesis to write and work to do and an apartment to clean and other things I can’t remember… but don’t worry, they’re in my color-coded to do spreadsheet. Yes, I have a to do spreadsheet.
Even tough people need a break every once in awhile. It might be small, but it’ll do for now. This lime curd isn’t tough. It’s actually rather easy. It’s a nice surprise to have hanging around your fridge for a particularly difficult evening. And, even for TCB, who doesn’t like lemons or limes, it made a lovely component in a lime and raspberry tart. Which, for the record, would definitely be something my mom would love.
She’s not here right now, but she’s always around… and she definitely raised me to be tough. Yes, sometimes it’s exhausting, but I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, and until then, I can take comfort in little things.
Lime Curd
1/2 cup sugar
zest and juice from about 2 limes (enough for 1/3 cup juice)
1 pinch salt
4 egg yolks
5 Tbsp. butter
Whisk together the first four ingredients in a saucepan. Begin to heat over a low flame, whisking all the time. Heat until the mixture thickens enough to coat the whisk. Slowly whisk in the butter, 1/2 Tbsp. at a time. Pour into a jar and keep in the fridge.
Lime Curd and Raspberry Jam Tart (makes 4 tartelettes)
1 egg, separated
40 g. Â (3 Tbsp.) Â butter
80 g. (1/3 cup) sugar
80 g. (2/3 cup) flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. jam
4 Tbsp. curd
Prepare the dough. Separate the egg yolks from the whites. Cut the butter into cubes. In a large bowl, beat together the yolks and half the sugar, until the mixture becomes pale and foamy.
Add the butter and mix until well combined. Sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and work in with your fingertips until you have a uniform dough. Form a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Keep in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350 degrees F).
Butter four small ramekins. Remove the dough from the fridge and cut into four equal pieces. Roll each one out and place it in the ramekin: it should be large enough to come up to the edges. Spread curd into the bottom of each tart. Dollop the jam on top and use a fork to slightly marble the two together.
Prepare the meringue: beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Add the rest of the sugar, gently folding to incorporate. Gently spoon into a pastry bag or a plastic sandwich bag with one corner cut off. Add the topping to each tart shell.
Bake for about 30 minutes, until the dough is cooked through and the meringue is browned on top. Allow to cool at least 30 minutes before serving, or risk burning your guests with hot jam.
I remember the last time you just chilled with a friend – it was back when there was still snow on the ground!
Good luck with the thesis and the spreadsheet. Would love to see you sometime this month!
We chilled together. Which was probably around the last time that I got to really chill out, too. Have you noticed that I’M not writing much, either? Life is so damn busy. I mean, I’m writing this comment from work, for goodness sake. I’m wondering if there will actually be an end in sight, or if I’ll just get so darn used to all this busy busy busy that I’ll forget what it feels like to be relaxed…. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to tough it out, too.
I know how you feel. I have spreadsheets for many things and I have multiple calendars depending on what I am scheduling. I have to schedule my time with people and my time for myself. Regular readers you do have & no one judges for intermittent posts I am sure. Sometimes I think it is only your posts that get me through the tough days. Keep on keeping on. That light is there.
Hi!! Don´t worry you have readers, like me. I´m always around but never comment (sorry!! I like when people comment in blog too). Live is like that, we have to work a lot and in mean while do whatever we love . Your recipe sounds delicious, I think I´ll do tomorrow. Xo
If I ever have a stove again, I think even I could make this recipe. Looks perfect for summer! When you get past all this and look back you’ll be super proud you survived. You probably won’t even realize how hard it really is until it’s over. Keep your chin up!