Ailsa has given us the theme of Art this week. Click the blue link to see her lovely shots of the mosaics leading up to Penn Station.
Earlier on in the year I was in Las Vegas, which is basically a giant modern art gallery! My favourite hotel was the Bellagio.
Bellagio ceiling
The ceiling is amazing. I’ve enlarged this photo and it’s going to be framed in our living room, so it will become art in our home too! More shots from the Vegas trip can be seen here and the posts around it.
This week’s photo theme is Fleeting Moment. Here’s a shot from New Year’s Eve. The fleeting moment of a sparkler at midnight.
Happy New Year
I’d like to say a huge THANK YOU to Campanulla Della Anna for nominating me for the Versatile Blogger Award. Check out her lovely blog.
Well, I’ve mentioned that the weather has been bad here. So, when it didn’t rain for a little bit over the weekend, I decided to take some shots of what’s left in the garden!
Pansy
Pansy
Pansy
pink
pink and white
strawberry
And some more courgette flowers seeing as they proved so popular!
courgette
courgette
Flowers aren’t doing so well this year, so this is what’s left. However, my parents’ garden is doing much better!
blue
fuschia
My Mum even suggested that I put the fuschia in a blog post!
Yesterday it rained…and rained…and rained some more. So, as they say when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Well, I didn’t have lemons, but I had limes, so I’m changing it to when life gives you limes, make mojitos! But, seeing as it was early, I settled on key lime pie. 
Obviously not being in Florida my access to limes is whatever there is in the shop, which I’m pretty sure aren’t key limes, so please, no comments about it not being proper key lime pie. I looked up loads of recipes, but because I don’t like following recipes, I decided to take different parts from different ones and add in a little bit of my own ideas. It’s a mix of The Food Network (US and UK), Oprah, BBC recipes and some blogs I read. Here’s the recipe, photos and result of yesterday’s work with some tips on what I’ll do differently next time!
Recipe
Step 1: The base.
180g digestive biscuits
50g brown sugar
110g butter
Biscuits
Crush the biscuits. I put them in a plastic bag and bashed them with a saucepan! Add the sugar and melted butter and mix together.
Base mix
Grease the tin (9″) and spread the mixture.
Ready for the oven.
Bake in the oven 180 degrees C for 8 mins.
Step 2: The filling
1 tin of condensed milk (357g/14oz it was the only size available, so I’m guessing it’s a standard size)
4 egg yolks (keep the egg whites)
4 limes
Limey!
Juice the limes and zest the biggest one!
Use this much juice
Zesty!
Eggy!
Separate the eggs and put the whites in the fridge.
At this point it was 20 mins so take the base out of the oven to cool down.
Add the condensed milk and egg yolks and mix together. Add the lime juice in stages, mixing as you go. Add in some lime zest. Keep some for later.
Pour the mix onto the base.
Ready to bake
Put it in the oven at 180 degrees C for 15 mins. Let it cool and put it in the fridge for an hour.
Use this time to do the dishes and other kitchen related jobs and chat on Facebook!
Step 3: Meringue
4 egg whites
6 tablespoons of caster sugar
pinch of baking powder
zest
Mix the dry ingredients together.
Add them to the eggs and whisk for a while.
Give your arm a break by giving them to someone else to whisk for a while.
Whisking
Whisk again and stare at the ceiling making a mental note that an electric whisker is next on the shopping list.
Finally, when the mixture goes into the stiff peaks you’ve been striving for, spread it on the pie and bake it for 30 mins.
The pie is ready to go
You can bake it for 12 mins, but I like to be sure with eggs, so I left it in for 30.
Looking good
When it looks like this, take it out of the oven! Put it in the fridge and wait. Don’t touch it like I did. Just leave it for 2 hours.
Use this time to clear up the big mess you’ve made and make dinner/order and eat pizza!
Then it’s ready to go.
Don’t mind if I do!
Now for some tips and what I’ll do differently next time.
The base is VERY sweet, so next time I’ll leave out the brown sugar and add 2/3 more biscuits. I also think the meringue make it very sweet, so maybe I’ll just do the pie without it next time. And, I’ll definitely leave it cool for 2 hours, so that I don’t mess up the 1st slice.
There you go. Follow my recipe if you want to, or follow one online if you like to be sure when you’re baking!
Ailsa’s travel theme this week is Parks. Click the blue link to see her lovely photos.
This shot was taken in December 2010 along the Charles River Reservation. There was A LOT of snow, which I’d never experienced before, so I took a lot of photos that trip!
Charles River
