Wednesday began early. Fred was on top of me howling at 4:30. I got up and 5:00 fed the pets and went back to bed, not to sleep, but to enjoy the morning warm and cozy. I could tell it was overcast by the lack of light coming in my open window.
I got up at 6:00 and got immediately to doing chores, and then, at 9:15, we left to meet our friends to walk out dogs. It was beautiful out, warm but not hot, and with the Ocean Spray blooming right now, the forest smells like a courtesan’s boudoir (not that I have any experience with one; I’ve just a vivid imagination).
After our walk, we went shopping and then came home for lunch. After lunch, I cleaned up the kitchen and thoroughly cleaned all the implements that I’d be using to make meringue. I got very busy making a lemon/mint rolled meringue cake for Colleen next door to thank her for shoveling paths in the snow for me back in January.
It's a hard and time consuming ‘cake’ to make. It’s barely a cake. I make a big flat and thick sheet of meringue on a cookie sheet. When it’s baked and cooled, I flip it and cover the side that was on the pan with a mixture of cream cheese, sugar, diced mint, corn starch and whipping cream. Then I pipe lemon curd generously across it and then I roll the whole thing up in parchment paper and I put it in the fridge to set.
It was my second meringue roll cake, and this one was better than my first try in some ways, and not as great in others. But I know it will taste good and Colleen and her friend, Lynn, went ape shit over the cake when they saw it. I whipped up some whipping cream to which I added yellow food colouring, and I put 8 golden yellow buds of cream on the top of the cake, and into each one I inserted tiny mint leaves from the very top of the plant.
Then Her Highness and I went to walk the trail in the Elder Cedar reserve. It’s lovely and cool inside the park and it only takes about 40 minutes to walk the circuit. Then we came home for dinner and a movie after I walked the cake over to Colleen.
It took me three hours to make the cake. I was pooped, but duty called. Sheba and I went for our afternoon walk, and I have to say, these trails are magical, especially at this time of year. Your cares disappear somehow. I suppose it doesn’t work for everyone, but it does fore me. I see so many things. I am the one always pointing things out to our group. And I never brag. Right now, there are these beautiful little ground-cover plants blooming. Their blooms are little delicate bells hanging down. They are tiny. I want to dig some up and hope that they will grow in my garden.
It's probably illegal but I like living on the edge, baby!
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