Diving Into Domesticity

Yesterday I baked my first angel food cake – a chocolate chip one with gloppy icing. Come to find out, angel food cakes are not as easy to make as, say, brownies from a box. This is mainly because you have to beat the egg whites for about 100 minutes in order to get them to peak and become fluffy. Never have I wished so urgently for a KitchenAid mixer as I did while standing there with a weak bicep, holding my hand mixer for eons upon eons. At about minute eighteen, I decided the eggs were frothy enough—peaks or no peaks.

The cake turned out pretty well actually, not as light and spongy as the ones you get from the Kroger bakery, but definitely tasty.






After a sample slice each (for J and me) to make sure the cake was up to par, I covered the rest in a glass dome to await my friend Lisa’s arrival. She just returned from a two-month honeymoon in and around Germany. The cake was my attempt at a welcome home. We sat on the sofa with Chinese take-out and caught up on all her adventures in Munich, Switzerland, and Prague, and my adventures in napping and eating large quantities of frozen yogurt the entire time she was away.

I must say, I am really enjoying my foray into the hidden corners of my domestic self. Besides the cake, I am discovering that I might really love the idea of sewing something. I have clicked through hundreds of vintage fabric samples on Ebay in search of an alluring swatch--to make what out of, I have no idea, but my pin cushions are ready and waiting.

This is different than the time that I discovered a new love of shoes; this goes much deeper. I feel as if I must create.

Between watering the plants incessantly, Jeremy has been creating too---putting lyrics into his magic red notebook, and filling the house with piano sounds, which I love. We are in a good place…staying inside, out of the way of August, and learning what it means to be inspired again.