Monday, April 5, 2010

Happy Easter

Happy Easter/Resurrection Sunday!

It's been a good holiday.  Last week I sent out Easter cards, and everyone received them.  I got to talk to all my card recipients, and I was thanked by all of them.  The highlight of the evening was having a nice talk with my parents.

As for earlier this week, I received my anniversary handbag in the mail.  I had gotten it off e-bay, and while it didn't seem so much in the picture, it seems that the bag was either well-loved, or not loved at all.  It was a little disappointing, but also inspiring--I have another project!  I did some research on automotive leather products, and eventually ordered two products by Leatherique--the Rejuvenator Oil and Pristine Clean.  Eventually I hope to post "before/during/after" photos.

I felt a little silly, because the leather cleaning products cost as much as the handbag, more if you count the shipping.  Did I really just double the price of my handbag?  Eventually I came to the conclusion that it's a separate project.  I wouldn't have problems with wearing the new handbag as is.  I've got other handbags that could use a little cleaning.  Plus, I have leather gloves that could use some TLC before I put them away for the summer.

And gloves!  I've taken out my unlined leather gloves for spring.  And now that it's after Easter, I can bring out the white ones and the pastels.  I'll wear them over my freshly cleaned rings.

I've been eating out of boxes, bags, and cans, it seems, for a while.  I started cooking again.  Yesterday, I made a flourless chocolate cake.  The recipe was from the Whole Foods website.  I bought a springform pan specially for the occasion.

I used Hershey's Special Dark chocolate chips, as well as their Special Dark cocoa powder.  I only used 1 cup of sugar, instead of the 1 and 1/4 cup in the recipe.  Also, I partly used liquid egg whites--I had the equivalent of 3 eggs worth of liquid whites in my refrigerator.  I thought I had enough for the entire recipe, but then my carton was empty, and I had to run to the store to buy (regular) eggs to finish the mix.  Luckily, the store had them in stock.  (I have been to a store where the eggs sold out on the evening before Easter.) I guess that's the danger of using liquid eggs.

Here it is 1) right out of the oven, 2) with the glaze on top, and 3) with a slice removed.  And yes, the cake deflated a little when it cooled.



The cake was brownie-like.  It was dense and moist, and the texture was somewhat crumbly in the mouth.  The inside of my refrigerator now smells like chocolate cake.  

The penny remains.

3 comments:

Nojh said...

I have wondered about that. How do you wear rings and bracelets with gloves? I think in the past it didn't matter but these days gloves are not standardly fashionable wear, they're utility wear, so wearing jewelry on top of gloves is odd, right?

Teashell said...

Nojh: I'm not sure what the rules were for rings back in the day, maybe a question for an SCA-er/re-enactor? I know that bracelets are definitely worn over gloves. Most of the time, gloves are short, so it's not an issue.

I wear my rings underneath my gloves, as I take my gloves off once I go inside a building, and this makes removal/replacement much easier. This sometimes means turning a ring sideways, so that the stone fits in the crease between the fingers, rather than sticking straight up.

I guess that if you were planning on keeping your gloves on the entire time, such as the opera, it would be fine to wear rings over.

Nojh said...

I remember stumbling upon a Victorian etiquette guide that said that women were supposed to wear gloves during a meal with one sole exception which was breaking bread. Literally. Since bread held a religious/Christian significance because it was supposed to come from god, you were to break your pieces of bread from the full loaf with your bare hands.

Given some of the more decadent fashions of the time, especially for women, bet this led to a lot of men serving women food (bread at least), since their social etiquette did not allow them to actually touch the food with their gloves on, and taking off rings and bracelets and gloves of longer length than wrist would have been a hindrance.