Ooo, wow. Nora Ephron not only makes delicious movies, but she also makes delicious pies. This is the chocolate cream pie Amy Adams' character makes in the first fifteen minutes of Julie and Julia . I found this recipe and three others connected to the film on the Internet, so I think it's okay to share here. I haven't had any of the finished product yet. I put the chocolate custard into the pie crust, swooped a few pretty flourishes on the top, then mashed them down with a cover of plastic wrap. It's in the fridge to cool and congeal and will be ready for consumption in the morning. (I'll have a taste then, but I'm waiting until I have someone to eat it with before eating a whole piece.) But there were several spoons to lick after I'd finished cooking, and let me tell you ... WOW. The finished custard was a little bitter, like semi-sweet chocolate. But it'll be between a sweet graham cracker crust and whipped cream with sugar and vanilla mixed ...
I'm used to being alone. I've always liked it, even when I was a baby. I am a social animal like everyone else, but efforts to be social has usually led to me being by myself again (either excluded or overwhelmed). I've spent the last decade sitting in front of the computer, writing stories and blogging and socializing via the Internet. Not the best way to conduct my life. Then came Max, lots of dates, and having conversations with someone without our computers connecting us. It's been scary and delightful, and I've never been happier, even though I am the personification of insecurity. But I'm a little less insecure after a year of this, and acceptance from one source has given me the courage to think that maybe I don't have to be a cringing mess for the rest of my life. Not that everything's perfect. After several months of having more of a life than just LiveJournal, the solitary beast within has thrown back its head and howled, I can haz alone...
I first read this in 2017 for the PopSugar reading challenge. I needed a book with a family word in the title. I reread it in 2018. Summary from Goodreads : "A modern-day expansion of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Little Mermaid , this unforgettable debut novel weaves a spellbinding tale of magic and the power of love as a descendent of the original mermaid fights the terrible price of saving herself from a curse that has affected generations of women in her family. "Kathleen has always been dramatic. She suffers from the bizarre malady of experiencing stabbing pain in her feet. On her sixteenth birthday, she woke screaming from the sensation that her tongue had been cut out. No doctor can find a medical explanation for her pain, and even the most powerful drugs have proven useless. Only the touch of seawater can ease her pain, and just temporarily at that. "Now Kathleen is a twenty-five-year-old opera student in Boston and shows immense promise as a sopr...