bottoms made out of springs

For the last two days trampolinists have been competing at the Olympics. One of my great uncles was a tumbler (a form of gymnastics) in the 1930s. Shortly after the modern trampoline was invented by George Nissen and Larry Griswold in 1936 my uncle became one of the world's first trampoline athletes. Tragically, he was killed in a trampoline accident while still at university.


The sport has come a long way since the 30s. Witness this amazing trampoline double act from 1950:


(the Schaller Brothers perform on Cavalcade of Stars)

If you're interested in the history of Olympic sports this clip of gymnasts performing in the 1936 Berlin Games is also striking:

a lifetime of Olympic summers

The first summer Olympics held in my lifetime were the 1980 Moscow Games. My parents, both American, lived in England in the late 1970s and traveled to the then USSR where they picked up souvenirs, not knowing then the United States would boycott the Games. As a child I had this poster of Mishka the Moscow Olympics mascot on my wall and a little Mishka pin to wear.

Mishka, designed in 1977 by the Russian children's book illustrator Victor Chizhikov, was the first ever Olympic mascot. Here's some footage of Mishka in action at the 1980 Olympic ceremonies:



I'm off to watch the opening ceremonies. Well done London!!

Key Lime Pie!

from the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery, 1966

The only sensible thing to do after stumbling upon a bag of Key limes in the grocery store is to bake pie! We used a recipe from the 1966 edition of the Woman's Day Encyclopedia of Cookery - Vol. 7, which, while having a comprehensive section on cooking with limes, also contains a section entitled "A Kidney Tour of Europe." Good heavens.

This Key lime pie recipe is not to be confused with more common Florida lime pie recipes, which are sweeter and call for heavy cream and often green food coloring. We used a traditional pastry crust but you could also use a graham cracker/digestive biscuit crumb crust.

Key limes: tricky little bastards

Key limes are tricky to juice. We went through four different types of juicers before deciding our old fashioned glass juicer worked best. Patience and a certain degree of manual dexterity are a plus.

Ingredients:

(for the filling)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch/corn flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup cold water
1 1/2 cups hot water
6 tablespoons fresh lime juice (juice of approx. 10 Key limes)
3 egg yolks, beaten (reserve whites)
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon grated lime
zest

9" (23cm) pie crust, blind baked and cooled (or a graham cracker/digestive biscuit crust)

(for the meringue topping)
3 egg whites
6 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt

lime wedges to garnish

Preheat oven to 300° Fahrenheit/ 150° Celsius/ Gas Mark  2.

To make the filling, combine first 4 ingredients in a saucepan. Mix well. Add hot water and cook over low to medium heat, stirring constantly, until very thick. Stir in fresh lime juice. Return to heat and cook til thickened. Beat small amounts of the hot mixture into the beaten egg yolks, stirring constantly, til the yolks are warm but not cooked. Return egg mixture to pan and cook for 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Add butter and lime zest. Mix. Allow to cool. Pour into cold pastry shell. 

To make the meringue, beat the egg whites til stiff but not dry. Beat in remaining sugar and salt gradually, beating til blended. Spread over the top of pie (a table knife works well) and shape peaks with the back of a spoon. Bake for 20 minutes.

Serve cold; garnish with lime wedges.

Meringue you could ski down!

This was my first meringue, and I'm pretty excited about it. It's deceptively easy. Now I want to make a meringue Matterhorn!

Smith's PIE, indeed!

I love the mix of tart and sweet... perfect for hot weather. I'm pretty sure it's calling my name for breakfast.

“We must have a pie. Stress cannot exist in the presence of a pie.” 

~ David Mamet

Blog of the living dead...

It lives!!

After a lengthy hiatus 'The Day After Tuesday' is back in the land of the living. Normal transmissions will resume shortly. Over and out.

Merry Christmas!

Family Christmas cards from 1920, 1938 and 1921. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

A handmade Christmas card from my Great Aunt Minnie circa 1983. Feel free to print him (or her) out and color her in as Aunt Minnie suggests if you need something to do while sipping eggnog.

Blue Christmas

Hello all. Bit of a blue Christmas here. I realized I've been avoiding all the things I miss because thinking about them makes me feel like something very large and heavy is sitting on my heart. It's a bit of a backwards way to manage, I suppose. I miss my little attic and so many things it's hard to count. To all the far away people I've been missing (you know who you are) I send very much love and a promise to not be so quiet. Happy Christmas!