Celebrating Birthdays :: Lemon Meringue Pie Recipe

We've gotten to celebrate two birthdays very recently, together as a family. Joey turned 26 this year while he was offshore. His mother and grandmother have been visiting with us this last week and a half so we celebrated together when Joey got home from being offshore. Joey and I have been celebrating birthdays with each other for the last 9 years and oh how special that is to me.  

Pamela's gluten free vanilla cake mix, flavored with lemon essential oil and vanilla bean. Filled with raspberry "compote" and topped with vanilla bean "7 minute" frosting. Naturally colored sprinkles on top.

Homemade organic peanut butter ice cream on the side.  

Today is Joey's grandma's 79th birthday. And I love that we get to celebrate together before they head home tomorrow. She requested enchiladas and a lemon meringue pie for her birthday meal. So that she shall have, besides, try arguing with her, I dare you. ;) 

Here's my recipe for a lemon meringue pie. 

::Lemon Meringue Pie::

1- 9 inch pie crust {Use this recipe}

For filling: 

1 cup local honey

1/2 tbsp agar agar powder*

1 1/3 cups water

A pinch of Himalayan pink salt

6 egg yolks (save whites for meringue)

1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2-3 large lemons) 

2 tbsp unsalted butter

Zest from one large lemon (approximately 1 1/2 heaping tbsp) 

2 drops of lemon essential oil

For meringue: 

6 room temperature egg whites

1/4 tsp agar agar powder

1 tbsp vanilla extract

1/4 cup local honey

To make the filling: 

Combine the water, the honey, the salt, and the agar agar powder in a medium size non reactive pot. Whisk occasionally while bringing to a simmer over medium low heat. Simmer a couple minutes to allow mixture to thicken. Slowly temper your egg yolks with some of the hot honey mixture. (While whisking constantly, slowly pour a bit of the hot mixture into the eggs. You do not want to make scrambled eggs so please, go slow. Continue doing this till you've added about 1 cup of the hot mixture to the yolks.) When done tempering your egg yolks, slowly combine this back into the simmering liquid. Add the zest, lemon juice, butter and essential oil. Whisk until smooth. Pour filling into your cooked pie crust and let sit while you make the meringue.

To make the meringue: 

Add the agar agar powder into the egg whites and start whisking on medium high speed on your stand mixture or with a handheld electric beater with the whisk attachment. (You can do this all by hand but oi.) Whisk until soft peaks begin to form. Add the vanilla and honey. Continue beating the whites until hard peaks form. (When you pull the {off} whisk out of the egg whites they will stay standing up without falling over.) Top your pie with the meringue so that it covers the filling and pie crust completely.

Cut a thin slice of lemon and then cut a slit in the slice, from the middle out to the edge. Twist and put on top of meringue to garnish.  

Bake at 350℉ for 20 minutes, till the meringue is a nice golden brown.  

Let cool to room temperature and then place in the fridge to chill for a couple hours before serving. 

*Revision: The pie I made today set up, hard. It set up like no other lemon meringue pie has set up before. It was really dense jello. I revised the amount of agar agar powder to reflect a much more reasonable amount. This should mean your pie should be nice and creamy. Not the weird thing we just ate. I shall test it out again soon and make any further revisions if needed.*

A hint: You can also use the filling basically as a lemon curd. You're welcome. 

I can't wait to dig into this yummy pie tonight! I made far too many of these last year while using up the last of our lemons from our tree.

Enjoy! 

Only love, 

Katelyn

Thrashing About

A dear soul and (online-hopefully someday soon-in person) friend of mine just published a book, Thrashing About With God. I received my copy, that I pre-ordered about a month ago, last week. I haven't finished reading it yet but it sure is holy and sacred. Her open and raw account of her thrashing is humbling. Even as a gal that has found her roots, again, deeply embedded in something other than her Christian upbringing, I recommend this book. There is a lesson to learn no matter your beliefs and practices. I am somewhere in the fourth chapter and find myself nodding while reading, in affirmation, because I too understand.

So here's to you, Mandy on this sacred night of your official book release. I am celebrating with you with a glass of wine and a candle lit.  

And I bought an extra copy to giveaway to one of YOU. Enter below. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Only love,

Katelyn

P.S. Look for a blog post from me on Mandy's blog, (scheduled for) October 11th. I am so honored and so humbled she asked me to share my thrashing about. 

Autumn Autumn

It's the most magical time of the year. Yep. Autumn. This is the time I feel most at home in myself, in the earth. I feel super connected and ready to weave magic endlessly this year as we go into the darkness. I've got a lot of shadow work to deal with and I'm ready to take it head on.  

I hope you all made the leap into autumn seamlessly. And happy spring to those of you in the southern hemisphere. We had a Mabon party, that I was lucky enough to be able to celebrate with my dear friends Laura and James Mazurek of Roots and Feathers and Skyline Fever. They took a trip for their six year wedding anniversary and we were blessed to be a stop on their journey. I wish they would buy the house a couple doors down from us and move in. I always miss them as soon as they are out of my sight.

We also decorated a scarecrow on the autumnal equinox to stand guard in our yard, protector of our home. Leena named her Echo.

I also redid all my altars to reflect this magical time. 

Hopefully the weather will start cooling off soon, because I am ready to live in these boots I recently bought myself.

What do you love about autumn the most? I'd have to say pumpkin flavored everything and layering my clothing. 

Blessed be, loves. 

Katelyn

Fae:: A giveaway

Skipping through the woods. Leaves rustling. Trees creaking. A faint whispering from the wind. It calls to me. It says, "Dance." The fae folk peek out cautiously, at this clumsy giant, dancing in their woods. Slowly one by one, they realize that this clumsy giant is just one of them. Someone who communes with mama earth. One that sees her blessings and honors her spirit. And so, together they dance. And they call her one of them.

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Enter below to win a 5x7 print of my photo: Fae. 

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Go dance with the faeries. 

Katelyn

In the cosmos.

My head has been all over the place lately. Dreaming up my future, while living in the present. And it seems that the universe is telling me to really dig in my heels and get my hands dirty in the earth. And there are a few things that have been feeling "off." One of them being my shop and the products in it. What I am hearing loud and clear is to close my shop for a month or so. Regroup. Rebuild. Put out offerings that are truly from my soul. I opened it with some herbal products and bath items. And that was thrilling and exciting. But even from the beginning, I knew this was just a jumping off point. I didn't want to stay "stuck" in the bath and body category. And that's just where I ended up. Stuck.

So over the next month (or two) I will be building a product line I'm truly inspired by. The idea behind my shop has always been to make magic. Items to really infuse your lives, your spaces with magic. To build ritual and a daily practice with spirit.  

I'll be taking my lead by whatever comes to me from the cosmos. Revamping. And paying attention to being fully present with spirit in my own life. I need to get back to being honest with myself and creating that ritual again in my own life that has been set to the side when I took my trip to Washington back at the beginning of August.  

Katelyn

**The winner of last week's giveaway print has been announced here, on the rafflecopter widget. 

Earning Trust

Our hens, when we first got them, wanted absolutely nothing to do with us. Not so much anymore. It's very humbling to have a chicken walk up to you to have you pick her up and to let you pet them. 

People really don't give chickens enough credit. They are generally looked at as "dumb" animals but they are really spectacularly smart and very honored in certain cultures. Yes, I have turned into the crazy chicken lady.

Growing up my grandpa had some in his suburban backyard. I loved them. They would never let me pick them up though. My father once came home when I was around 13, after telling me he had a surprise for me earlier that day, and began constructing a coop for some gals for me. That didn't last long, having those chickens, because of neighbors complaining about them but I loved it while it lasted.

It feels like home, having these gals. Watching them have a dynamic relationship with each other and seeing the little "pack" forming with one definite leader. It's been soothing to have them. And I dearly appreciate the nutrient dense eggs they allow us to have each day. 

Have you hugged a chicken today? It's good medicine. I promise. Just, mind the beak. 

Katelyn

Saving. Being saved.

The other night Joey and I were sitting, watching the kiddos play when we heard the whining of this little guy. For a bit we didn't know where it was coming from. After a few minutes I noticed Tesla was playing with something and I went over to check. I found this little guy, scared and trying to escape. I scooped him up to watch over him. Putting his picture on Instagram I was convinced he was a baby squirrel from comments people left after asking if it was a mouse or a rat. I took him inside and made him a little warm bed in a shoe box and set off to put the kids to bed.

After they were all asleep, I found some information on emergency care for a baby squirrel and the number to a local wild life rehabilitation center. I called her and set it up to bring him in in the morning because the really sad part about cats catching wildlife is they have a very toxic bacteria in their mouths for other animals. So it was a wait and see if he makes it through the night kind of deal. In the morning he was still very much alive but a bit chilled. I put a jar of hot water, wrapped in a rag into his box and he went and snuggled right up to it.

We headed off to the center and the owner chuckled a bit and told me he was indeed not a squirrel but a rat. But no matter what he would be cared for and released back into the wild. I have a special place in my heart for rats. After dropping him off, and being gifted with a gorgeous feather we found in the road of the rehab center, we set off to Petco to fill our morning with more cute little rodents.

This experience reminded me that I have a very deep, soul-stirring connection with wildlife. I've had dreams here and there of owning a rehabilitation center for all types of animals. This has fueled me to really look into becoming a wildlife rehabilitator. 

When looking at rat medicine the end paragraph in Animal Speak by Ted Andrews reads: "If the rat has shown up as a totem, you may find yourself getting more restless. It may indicate a time to be more shrewd in all of your dealings. Are you not handling the pests in your life properly? Do you need to become more adaptable? It may even reflect a time to more aggressively pursue endeavors for success. The behavior of the rat when you see it will help you to determine the kind of energy it specifically brings to you. 

I believe you were telling me, little one, it's time to thrive. Noted. 

Katelyn

Unremarkable.

Yes. In this instance I am more than happy to be called unremarkable. The vertigo has subsided and I am keeping an eye out for it to check for other problems but, to not have brain damage, that is a huge weight off my shoulders. Thank you all who reached out to me and to those that lifted me up into the light behind the scenes. I felt the love and comfort of you all surrounding me. <3

Katelyn

Spinning

I found myself clutching the handle in the shower. Holding on as the water spun around me. As the walls danced and my eyes could not focus. I was unaware that the shower I just stepped into was a roller coaster and if you know me, you know I am not a big fan of the metal behemoths. Vertigo and I, we are doing a dance. A dizzying, had one to many drinks, kind of dance.

My husband got home from being offshore today and as I showed him the essential oil routine I was wanting to try, he told me he would also perform the Epley maneuver on me to try to get all my crystals back in place.  After he finished and read more about Vertigo in his book, he remembered that on the 5th of this month I hit my head with a trunk door, hard. I was afraid of the damage I may had done and struggled for about a week after with my speech. Not enough for those around me to really notice, but I also wasn't around those that talk to me on a regular basis during that time. After the slurred speech subsided, I forgot all about the trunk door incident.

But here I am again, worried about what is going on just under the surface. With memories of a car accident, caused from an undetected brain bleed, that caused a seizure in the man driving the van I was in home from a summer church camp and stories of a friend's father going weeks with an undetected brain bleed. Reading that vertigo related to a head trauma can show up anywhere from immediately after to one year after the fact doesn't help my paranoia a stinkin' bit. On Monday I will be heading into an urgent care to start the process of getting my brain checked out.

And I'm fucking scared.  

I could use some serious ass kicking juju right now, okay? I'd appreciate any prayers, good energies, lit candles, all of it. Anything you've got. Throw some my way, pretty please. 

Katelyn

Cake for Fae

Yesterday was Thursday, so naturally that meant we needed to celebrate with cake. We made a gluten free chocolate cake with Paula Dean's 7 minute frosting (totally worth the sugar rush!). You can't have a celebration cake without frosting. I'm standing by that.

Leena suggested we put a piece of cake out for the faeries. With sticky fingers and small sugar rushes, chocolatey faces and giving hearts, we set up a little cake party for the faerie community. Adorned with flowers. Leena wrapped up a little fabric for you, Tinkerbell, for you to make a dress for yourself and a note that reads, "Faeries, I hope you love your cake. Love, Leena" Dancing into the night, under the starry sky and the waning moon, there were some fluttery fae enjoying their cake.

Along with the ants. 

And Penelope hides it well that she was hyped up on sugar, right?

Katelyn