ridiculous me

Here’s a story that will make you chuckle at me as I realize it’s sort of a silly thing that would only happen to me. But as the saying goes, there’s no need to cry over spilled milk and I’m just going to laugh at myself too.

As I may have mentioned, I offered to make a dessert for a St. Patty’s day dinner. Of course, I don’t decide to make some quick and simple, I found something that would be a real treat. Flipping through Martha Stewart, there just happened to be the perfect St. Patty’s dessert, a pistachio lime tart. Not only did it look amazing, it was something that you have to prepare ahead of time by a few days.

So I set out to the store and picked up all the ingredients and made the crust on tuesday night. Wednesday, I started the prep on the lime curd as I realized that the recipe needed 6 tablespoons of lime zest and two cups of lime juice (from about 12 limes). So tediously I zested the limes. Fortunately, we just did a juicer story for the June issue and I was able to borrow one of the handheld juicers for my limes. The next step involved whisking 20 egg yolks... yes, it called for 20, I did a double take too. So patiently I separated the yolks from the whites without any broken shell bits. Along with two cups of sugar, these ingredients where all whisked together and set in a bowl over simmering water to thicken for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Things were going well and it really smelled great. I blending in the butter and just need to pour the curd through a sieve into a bowl set in a cold water bath to then eventually be refrigerated over night.

I should remind you all that my kitchen is very tiny. which also means my counter space is very limited. I have a small little table and there are times when I get in one of my big baking/cooking moments that I use any surface possible, even the chairs. Well, I thought I had everything set up pretty well for all these steps, but just as I was about to pour the curd through the sieve, I managed to drop the bowl. Yes, you may imagine, lime curd went splattering everywhere and I was sad to see my favorite mixing bowl in pieces. I spent a moment, in disbelief as I tried to calculate how much time I had already invested into this curd that now completely covered my kitchen floor.... yes, I literally can say completely covered as that’s how small my kitchen is. Knowing there was no way to save anything, I got out the paper towels and began to clean things up. The whole time I was debating what I should do about the dessert. Do I just say forget it and make something that would be quick and simple? I already had the dough for the crust mixed together and had the ricotta and mascarpone cheeses purchased, Could I do something with these without the lime curd?

As you can imagine, it took awhile to clean things up, there were splatters of curd on three of the four walls. Again, I was glad during this whole time I was just able to smile at my silliness, because only I would first of all set out to make a time intensive dessert as such and then manage to spill it all. I guess I did find it all to be a bit humbling and right away I knew this was going to make a good story for my blog. I will have to admit though, for some reason while I was thinking about it in my mind, I found it to be a bit more wittier than what I’ve described now. Maybe it was the shock of it all that had me chuckling at myself through it all.

I do believe you’ll get a kick out of this, and will probably put in perspective just how much curd was split. Just as I finished wiping up the floor, my landlord came knocking on my door. He asked if I was making a lemon pie. I first thought it was because he could smell it. He lives in the basement just below my unit (luckily he only stays there a few nights out of the month). Well, it so happened he had to ask because the curd some how was seeping through the floor and he couldn’t figure out what this yellow substance was coming from his ceiling. Yes, I was pretty embarrassed and explain my story with complete apologies. He didn’t really mind and was relieved to know what it was. I will have to say I am a bit concerned as to where and how the curd could managed to seep through the floor though.

After all this was said and done, I knew that I had to finish what I started. It was pretty late, but the grocery store was still open, so I ran out and picked up 15 more limes and a dozen eggs and began the process all over again. So I did lose some sleep over the whole situation, but all is good. The curd is setting up in the fridge as I type this post and I just pulled the crust out of the oven and am waiting for it to cool before I start preparing the cheese filling.