Separation Anxiety

The title of this blog has a double meaning. First, referring to using my adorable egg separator for the first time, and second, to the anxiety my parent's dog experienced when he was left with us for a short visit. These two events just happened to coincide.

Making my first Lemon Meringue pie required separating egg whites and yolks and beating the whites into submission. The picture at the right is a handmade ceramic piece made just for such an occasion. I bought it at a summer street fair. You crack the egg and empty all the contents into the top, and then tip it forward until the whites ooze out of the mouth while the yolk stays inside. It's both amusing and effective. The whole pie process went well until we sliced into the pie after it had chilled for several hours. In my head it was going to look like a Wayne Thiebaud painting, but in reality it puddled. I don't know what went wrong - I'll have to check with a grandmother for that. The filling did have a great flavor.

And then there was the dog...my parents are going to be leaving their beloved pet with us for a weekend so we thought it would be good to do a shorter test run today. Their dog is much like ours, maybe a bit spoiled and used to quite a bit of attention. He whined and barked at first, but eventually settled down. Our dog was amazingly calm. When I sat down after making the pie, I had one dog on my lap, one dog at my feet, and our cat looking at all of us in disgust.