Saturday, January 31, 2009

lemon meringue pies

I love lemon desserts. They're so fresh and tart and yummy. Two weeks ago, my mom and I were on a kick for lemon meringue pie. We had frozen store-bought crusts in the freezer, so the hard part was taken care of. All I needed to do was to make the lemon curd-like filling and the merengue. We got the recipe from America's Test Kitchen (it's free to sign up...the only drawback is the multitudinous emails you receive...I still highly recommend membership! All of the recipes that they have aired on television are free!) and it turned out great. It took me all day to make, however. Okay, maybe "all day" is an overstatement. A full 2 1/2-3 hours, though. But boy, was it worth it! Here's some proof:

















I made a double batch in order to have two pies. =D
I meant to take more pictures after we sliced the pie, but that didn't end up happening. Oh well. It was yummy! You'll just have to take my word for it, or drop by and let me know ahead of time. I'd love to make one and share it with you!


Wednesday, January 28, 2009

New van!

Yep! We bought a new van a few days ago. I can't write much now, but it is a 2004 Toyota Sienna(SP?). It is so nice to have a car! It is a very pretty, sort of brownish-gray--I'll try to post pictures later. Thanks for praying!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

It's not over yet...

Last week, we went to Cambridge to stay with some friends to escape the chaos of our ceilings being ripped out. The girls and I stayed until Saturday when my dad picked us up. My mom and Keith stayed until Thursday afternoon, and then Keith stayed with some other friends until Saturday night while my mom stayed home. Well, shortly after my Dad returned from picking Keith up, he was surrounded by three of his daughters all talking at once (that often happens in our family) trying to tell him that someone had crashed into our car. Yes. Our beautiful mini-van. She has gone, after nearly one year of faithful service, to the big lot of pavement up in the sky. We will miss her.
What happened was that a lady had left her van running, unlocked, while she went into her work building. Some guy stole the van, and the lady called the police. Anyway, the officers started following him (he was going way over the speed limit, which is not the smartest thing to do in Minnesota in the winter) and I guess he lost control. He came through our yard, hit our tree, went out of the yard, pushed (crashed) our car across the street, skidded, and hit our poor baby again. He totaled her.
One of my first reactions was gratefulness that my dad and brother were inside the house and safe. Had they been two minutes later, they could easily have been seriously hurt or killed. God spared them. It was not their time to go.
Please pray that we can find a new car quickly. Also that my dad will not be stressed out in trying to do so. The Lord has sustained him so far, and he has succeeded in maintaining a cheerful attitude throughout all this hardship by God's grace. Thanks.