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Sunday, February 24, 2013

The Social Experiment

Today I did something I have never done before. I made a lemon-meringue pie. It’s not a very common thing to find here in Finland. In fact, I’ve never seen one in person. But I like lemon, I like meringue, and I like pie.

What could possibly go wrong?

Well, let me tell you what could possibly go wrong. Burnt crust all sunken in on itself, yolks in the whites, sugar all over the floor, runny filling, stiff meringue, matrimonial problems due to shouted accusations (he really did cause me to forget to pick the crust), scared cats, sour looks, tiny spoons dropped into the fluffy white never to be seen again.

And that was just the first ten minutes.

After hours of blood, sweat and tears, I finally pulled the finished creation out of the oven, thanking my lucky stars that you couldn’t see the horrible train wreck for a crust just by looking at it. Then I snapped this photo of it with my phone and posted it to Facebook with a message: “I have homemade lemon-meringue pie, I have coffee, and I am bored. Does anyone want to come over?”


I leaned back and felt good about myself.

After hours of staring at the screen, waiting for someone – anyone! – to reply to my message and say that they would love to come over, I finally gave up and ate the entire thing myself. It tasted like failure.

It's like Confucius say, “Shit happens.”


This post is part of Nicky and Mike’s 30 Minus 2 Days of Writing challenge. Today’s prompt is Confucius. Go check out We Work For Cheese for a list of the other participants. *
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36 comments:

  1. I'll bet it was yummy. Looks great, Ziva. My favourite kind of pie. I would have come over but by the time I would have arrived you could have eaten 5 pies.

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  2. Had I been on facebook at during February, I definitely would have asked to join you. But I'm so blogged down with this writing challenge, I've been horribly remiss in keeping up with my social networking obligations. Shit happens, you know.

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  3. Really, I didn't know that was attributed to him. ;) The pie looks nice, though I don't care for meringue myself. If you like lime, I have an easy recipe for you - no cooking required.

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  4. That pie looks delish! I tried to make a lemon meringue pie about two months ago and failed miserably!

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  5. Lemon meringue is not easy. A good meringue alone is not easy to make.

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  6. I think it would have been delightful to have your lemon meringue pie to go with the blintzes I made. Bliss, maybe? You should have advertised on other social networks. For then I may have seen it. Alas, I'm not sure how I would have crossed that big pond, especially carrying blintzes.

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  7. Yes, the pesky pond gets in the way of such impromptu sugar feasts. If you did come over, though, you'd better bring some of that popcorn you make, too. ;)

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  8. I've come to realize that now... But the pie was still pretty damned good, especially considering it was my first try! :)

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  9. Yours probably turned out better than mine. :D

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  10. Oh yes, that's all Confucius. Or maybe it was Forrest Gump...

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  11. Oh yes, I know all about how shit comes to happen. And this challenge is killing me, too. Is it Friday yet?

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  12. I would've baked you a new pie if you came over. :) It really was quite yummy, more lemony than I expected, which was nice.

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  13. If at first you don't succeed, try try again. -Not Confucius

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  14. Popcorn would need to be made fresh. But I can do that in pretty much any spot. ;)

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  15. Just like that famous quote by Confucious, "“Pie requires us to honour truth above our friends.”
    Or maybe the quote is about piety and not pie.

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  16. I came by but nobody answered the door! You're in apartment 2B, right?

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  17. Piety, pie - same thing. Personally, i always honour pie above my friends and truth doesn't really feature into the equation.

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  18. Hah! Definitely not Confucius. But very catchy.

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  19. Well, luckily for you, I have everything needed for popcorn making.

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  20. It may have tasted like failure - but it sure LOOKS delicious!

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  21. The thing about pie - or any other food as far as I'm concerned - is that as soon as you put it in your mouth it doesn't matter what it looked like one second before that :) That being said, you're not giving yourself due credit - it looks yummy.

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  22. I didn't see that on facebook - or I would have been at your door - fork in hand!

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  23. I would've come over, but I wouldn't have tried to mediate your dispute with M. I would've just sat back and enjoyed the show. With pie. I like pie.

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  24. Well, um, Confucius should just shut up.

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  25. *wipes meringue crumbs away from his mouth shiftily*

    It wasn't me that finished it.

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  26. You better not have, I'm planning on having the last piece for lunch.

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  27. Well, we do aim to please, a dinner and a show for the gentleman in the nice hat.

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  28. Oh you shouldn't have, we totally would have provided the fork.

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  29. Thanks, Jenny! It really was yummy, and it didn't look too bad once we cut into it, either. :)

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  30. I would have come over but I've been busy trying to pack up stuff for Harry and Zoe so we can go on our trip to Phoenix for spring training. (That's baseball.) And I'm trying to figure our what is peeling my lemons in my lemon tree. The lemons are left completely intact but without their peels. I am dismayed. There will be no lemon meringue pie around here for the week.

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  31. I'm no Confucius expert, but I'm pretty sure the expression is "meringue happens". I'm hungry.

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  32. Crap, I got it all wrong. Oh well, shit happens.

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  33. Someone's peeling your lemons on the tree? That's actually a really good practical joke. :D

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