Recipe: Peach Custard Pie

As the endless summer continues, I've been logging in more hours in the kitchen, this time with a Peach Custard Pie. I spotted it in a fancy magazine and it looked absolutely divine. Having received rave reviews, to quote my uncle "this is excellent ah", I have, in all my goodness, decided to share le recipe. It is a slightly sketch recipe though, because of  my many kitchen failures, the worst is not being able to follow a recipe. So I pull up about 3 recipes and mix and match. While this has served me well so far, I fear that somewhere down the line it might get ugly. More importantly, it doesn't really make for exact measurements so proceed with caution.

I started out with the pastry dough. Being of a finicky nature, I thought the dough in the original recipe looked far too complicated so I used a basic pie crust recipe. To this I added ground pecans as per original recipe, and lots of butter because I like butter. I chilled the dough for a bit til I worked on the custard mix and then rolled it out and popped it in the pie dish. Hold your tongue, I'm still working on my decorative skills. 

For the filling I started out with 3 or 4 peaches, peeled and sliced. They were unbearably sour so I tossed them in sugar.  I'm not sure if we get peaches in Sri Lanka, so the canned variety should work just as well, and they come pre-sweetened so no fuss. Even though I didn't do this, I think adding some nutmeg and cinnamon would give it a nice extra flavour

I then layered the peaches over the pie crust. This is when it starts looking quite scrumptious.

For the custard filling I mixed up milk, sugar, Greek yogurt, flour, eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, crushed pecans and corn starch, and poured it over the peaches.

Bake for 30 minutes, cool and sprinkle with pecans. The recipe calls for more baking but my crust was getting decidedly crispy so I nixed that. Serve with homemade vanilla ice cream. Bon appetit! 

The Non-Birthday

As with all best laid plans, even when the plan is to not have a plan at all, my non-birthday turned out to be pretty decent. I was not allowed to lie in bed and mope, as previously planned, but was woken up for a surprise skype call with my cousins and baby nephew, who was crawling and smiling and just being all round adorable. Then, after opening my two whole presents, I headed out to the beach to hang out with some old uni friends. The water was way too cold to swim, so we just lounged around lathered in sunscreen (what's with people going to the beach at noon?!), watching white people turn pink and then headed in doors for some beers and the oddest feast of idli, sambar, watermelon and cherries. And of course there was the usual round of do-you-remembers, which was mostly a rehashing of all the times we got drunk and acted stupid. Good times.

 my ghetto fabulous birthday candle

Towards evening I headed out to the city to meet my friend U, and we took a stroll around midtown Manhattan, had some pizza and I headed home. Here's a tip: always make sure your phone is charged and/or you memorise important numbers when going out. What you really don't want is to be stranded at a train station at midnight with a dead phone, 2 quarters and not know anyone's phone number by heart.

The best part of my birthday was the end though. After getting into bed, I checked my email and wasn't I pleasantly surprised to find that a song that's been in my head for days now had been personalized and delivered right to my inbox. Thanks G, I love it

All in all, not too bad a birthday. I've never been the type to enjoy extravagant birthday parties and as I grow older I find that a quiet evening with close friends fits the bill better than anything else. Besides, there was only one person I really wanted to spend that day with, and that was sadly impossible. I know I wrote a bratty post previously, which I've been tempted to take down many times but will leave up there for the heck of it. Truth is, I'm still in that new resolutions phase of a new year, where I'm all ok this year I will think positively, be proactive aaand lose 10 pounds. Why just today I made a peach pie and applied for 2 jobs. I give it about a week before I'm back under my covers writing bad poetry and wishing for life to cut me some slack.

New Day

every morning
with the sun
rises
new hope
that sets with the eve

waiting
hoping
for a message, a sign
that never comes

hope
in the face of reality
the bastion of fools
the island of the optimist
that solitary rock in a stormy sea

maybe tomorrow will be better

The Blues

When I first started this blog, I never intended for it to turn into a journal of sorts,  but somewhere along the way it has become one. I don't regularly read previous posts but it's nice to know that they're there, a timeline of sorts that  I can refer back to. I haven't written much this year, mostly because so much has happened that I can't write about, and the things I want to write about turn out so depressing and whiney that I want to spare my blog and its few readers from the utter boredom of it all. So I file it away as mediocre poetry or by quoting appropriate song lyrics on twitter. You're welcome.

I think the good thing about being a June baby is that it breaks your year down into 6 month periods. So every June 26th and December 31st, I get to re-evaluate my life and where I'm going. But all my bouts of reflection these days invariably end in tears. The past 6 months have been so unbelievably shite, and considering how it's not gonna get better anytime soon, I've decided to erase this year from my memory. Dramatic? Maybe. But it's my party and I'm fucking well gonna cry if I want to. So, in keeping with the non-birthday theme, I will shut off my phone for the day, remove my birthday from my facebook profile (because everyone knows nobody remembers til they see the fb reminder), stay away from my email and the internet in general and stay in bed and watch tv all day. Anyone who manages to permeate the non-birthday bubble will only be met with a frosty 'it's not my birthday', so do not bother.

You know that saying about a door closing and another one opening? Who's the idiot optimist who came up with that one? Let me tell you, when a door closes it just closes. Nothing opens unless you open it. Come next week maybe I'll dust myself off and start afresh, but till then, I have 6 days to wallow over the could-have-beens and the maybes. I plan to make good use of them.

Crush

The way I listen to music tends to be a little unorthodox. I rarely listen to the radio, so I almost always go by recommendations and am woefully behind on current music. My go-to songs are always old favorites, which is why you will find old Boyz II Men, Bryan Adams and yes, even N'Sync songs popping up on my iPod. When I get my teeth into a song that particularly catches my attention I download the entire album, get all the lyrics and listen to it on loop for days. These days it's mostly been woefully depressing songs that have been doing the rounds, so when Sach sent me the link to Dave Matthew's Crush as done with Time Reynolds, it was a refreshing break from the moping. 


In its characteristic way, DMB has turned out yet another unusual and completely breathtaking love song. The chorus in particular is haunting. People just don't write lyrics like this anymore. 

Crazy how it feels tonight.

Crazy how you make it all alright love

Crush me with the things you do

And I do for you anything too 

Sitting smoking feeling high

And in this moment it feels so right

Lovely lady

I am at your feet

God I want you so badly

And I wonder this

Could tomorrow be

So wondrous as you there sleeping

Let's go drive 'till morning comes

And watch the sunrise to fill our souls up

Drink some wine 'till we get drunk

It's crazy I'm thinking

Just knowing that the world is round

And here I'm dancing on the ground

Am I right side up or upside down

And is this real or am I dreaming

Lovely lady

Let me drink you please

I won't spill a drop, no, I promise you

Lying under this spell you cast on me

With each moment

The more I want you

Come on you know you crush me

Baby

It's crazy, I'm thinking
Just knowing thats you're around
And here I'll be dancing on the ground
Am I right side up or upside down?
To each other we'll be facing
By love, by love,
We'll beat back the pain we've found
You know I mean to tell you
All the things I've been thinking
Deep inside my head.
With each moment the more I love you..

Regrets

if
there
are
regrets to be had
you
might
say
wanting more is mine

but then again
how could it be?

Recipe: Gingerbeer

Burdened with ample time on my hands, I have turned to that dreaded of all spaces, the kitchen. And I find myself quite enjoying it. I'm not a good cook, I'll tell you right off, because I can never follow the recipe; it bores me. Curries and assorted baked goods are hereby off my repertoire. What I am good at is desserts of the non-baked variety. And, as it turns out, beverages. And today I shall let you in on my aunt's gingerbeer recipe. In keeping with copyright laws though, I shall tell you what to add but not how much. Fear not, everything is to taste.

You will need ginger, sugar, lemon and water.

Start of with the ginger. Lots of it. Clean it and grind it to a paste in le blender. Add lemon juice, liberally.

Boil lots of water. Add ginger paste and sugar into the water and let it sit for 24-36 hours.

Strain and bottle. Add a few raisins to each bottle, I don't know why, just do it.

Refrigerate. Mix with club soda when serving.  

Mine tasted slightly too strong when I first strained it but I think it needs to sit for a bit, so it's waiting shadily in the fridge for the moment of truth.

(not) a game of cards (re-post)

you laid your cards on the table
and I had to choose
a most difficult choice
an impossible one.
diamonds I spurned;
all that glittered held no glamour for me.
and it wasn't the club,
to deal a swift blow,
to leave us battered and scarred.
the spade too I rejected,
for I was not yet ready to bury what we had
we were not past tense yet.
and so I chose hearts as my trump
yours and mine.
perhaps I will win this round.

And I was wrong.
I lose again.

New game.

My Life According to Incubus

 Idea stolen from Vindi, mostly because I'm bored.

Using only song names from one artist, cleverly answer these questions. Try not to repeat a song title. Repost as “My Life According to (band name)”

Pick Your Artist:  Incubus
Are you a female or male? Southern Girl
Describe yourself: Zee Deveel
How do you feel: Punch Drunk
Describe where you currently live: Sick Sad Little World
If you could go anywhere, where would you go? Mexico
Your favourite form of transportation: Drive
Your best friend is: Beware! Criminal
Your favourite colour is: A Certain Shade of Green
What’s the weather like: The Warmth
Favourite time of day:  11 am
If your life was a TV show, what would it be called: Monuments and Melodies
What is life to you: Made for TV Movie 
Your current relationship: Are You In
Breaking up: Neither of Us Can See
Looking for: New Skin
Wouldn’t mind: Psychopsilocybin
Your fear: You Will be a Hot Dancer
What is the best advice you have to give: Make Yourself
If you could change your name, you would change it to: Anna-Molly
Thought for the Day: Wish You Were Here
How I would like to die: Sink Beneath the Line
My motto: Look Alive