my january daring baking

I LOVE lemon meringue pie. It's absolutely KILLNG me that I haven't eaten it yet, but I'm waiting for MT to get home.

I didn't like making the crust at all - - i'm not used to using butter in my pie crust, and mixing it in the food processor didn't work the way i thought it would (the Barefoot Contessa makes it look so easy). Still, I'm thinking it's going to taste great - - i hope the butter gives it a nuttiness that a Crisco crust doesn'thave.

The lemon curd i DID taste, and HO-Doggie, is that stuff good. I've never had vanilla in a lemon curd before, and man am i nuts abou tit. This is DEFINITELY going to be my new curd recipe!

I've seen some great things trolling the other bakers blogs and I'm geeked to give them a try!

the approach

my birthday is coming.
it's a "nine"
which is right on par with the "fives" for bad birthdays.
unlike most of the rest of the world, i embrace the decades, as they have always felt, to me, like a fresh start on a new chapter.

i came across this song in my iTunes and it made me smile. i think i have the lyrics right.
it's taking myself too seriously, of course, but isn't that what approaching birthdays are for?

The Darkest Star

oh you sad one
playing the angel
isn't so easy where you're from

oh you wild one
devil's companion
you won't stay satisfied for long

i don't want you to change anything you do
i don't want you to be someone else for me

oh you dark one
eternal and silent
caught in the spider's web you've spun

oh you blind one
gentle and kind one
seeing the world as a loaded gun

i don't want you to change anything you do
i don't want you to be someone else for me

stay as you are
the darkest star
shining for me
majestically

~ depeche mode

and a li'ol of the Mr. Todd dunnit hurt much neevah...

oh yeah - - and we saw Sweeney Todd the demon barber of Fleet Street on Sunday to boot.

And oh, but doesn't a little Johnny Depp (and a dash of Alan Rickman) do a girl's heart a world of good?

I'm ridiculously drunk on blinkety blink blink....

nothing's broken but can't be fixed...

i have been BLUE lately.

just miserable unhappy sad and down.

i've been blaming it on post-holiday-stress-disorder

i've been blaming it on the weather

i've been ridiculous

no one and nothing to blame it on but me

God love him, my husband bought me the Marie Antoinette soundtrack.

There are songs in here that - for a wild-child of the 80's - are an actual balm for the soul.

(yes, for me - the AntGirl - Kings of the Wild Frontier is the number one among these)

In the hour that it took me to drive to work, listening all the way I could feel the blues peeling off me like layers of onion skin.

Am i 100% happy and full of teen-aged bliss?

Hell no.

But I have a new (royal family) outlook on how to get there.

And it involves a little bit of flirting with the world

and a LOT of AntMusic!

Look out world...