Keto Meringues

So weird having a blog that patiently waits for me and doesn't pressure me into writing!

Blogging to log this somewhat momentous occasion- I baked!

I've been doing fake keto for a little over a year now. I always just sort of scroll through Instagram, and I landed on this image from Smitten Kitchen:

It seemed simple enough, and I've always liked meringues. It rained here in Busan yesterday (so cold still, gah!), so today, I made these meringues with some changes to make them keto:

Keto Meringues
egg whites 2
salt 1/4 tsp
True Lemon 1 packet (used instead of cream of tartar)
stevia to taste
xanthan gum 1/8 tsp
walnuts 20 g chopped
sugar-free dark chocolate chips 50 g

Whip egg whites, then add stevia and True Lemon and whip some more.

Add xantham gum and whip until medium peaks form (Deb says to whip to soft peaks, but she's using real sugar and I'm using fake sugar, so I did medium-- really, they were almost stiff peaks).

Fold in walnuts and dark chocolate, spoon onto parchment paper, and bake at 150 degrees Celsius for 25 minutes. I flipped the baking sheet after 15 minutes because my wee oven heats really lopsidedly.

They were really good! And yes, I ate every single one. No shame.

(I actually used two packets of True Lemon in mine, and they were too lemon-y, so for future reference, one packet is enough.)

Pretty dang keto, too!

I used much less chocolate than Deb did, and I don't regret it at all. The meringues were very squishy on the inside but crackly and crisp on the outside.

I want to get into blogging again, since I'm not working, but we'll see....

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Grammar!

From this link, the most difficult English grammar conundrums:

I or Me after a preposition and another person
The rule: Use “Me.”
Incorrect version: “She went to the store with Sally and I.”
Correct version: She went to the store with Sally and me.
Incorrect version: “Between you and I…”
Correct version: “Between you and me…”
“I tell people to imagine the sentence with only one person because that usually makes the pronoun choice clear,” says Mignon Fogarty, creator and host of the Grammar Girl podcast on the Quick and Dirty Tips network. So think of it this way: You wouldn’t say, “She went to the store with I,” right? “Adding Sally doesn’t change anything,” Fogarty says.

Effect versus Affect 
The rule: Effect is usually a noun, while affect is typically an verb.
Incorrect version: “The book really effected me.”
Correct version: “The book really affected me.”
Incorrect version: “The book had an affect on me.”
Correct version: “The book had an effect on me.”
“Mixing up ‘affect’ and ‘effect’ is one of the most common errors because not only do they sound alike, but they also have similar meanings,” Fogarty says. There are exceptions (such as “to effect change” or “a baffled affect”), but most of the time affect is a verb and effect is a noun, says Mary Norris, a page OK’er at The New Yorker magazine and the author of Between You and Me: Confessions of a Comma Queen.

Further versus Farther 
The rule: Farther refers to an actual distance, while further should be used for a figurative distance.
Incorrect version: “Macy’s is further away than Nordstrom.”
Correct version: “Macy’s is farther away than Nordstrom.”
“The traditional American thinking is that "farther" is for physical distance (e.g., "Macy's is farther than Nordstrom") and "further" is for figurative distance (e.g., "Don't bother me about this further"),” Fogarty says, “but in British English, people use the two more interchangeably, so that may be a reason that American speakers have trouble remembering the difference.
[The only one of these rules that I have some issues with is this one! I don't know why, but further and farther are just too similar for me.]

Lie versus Lay 
The rule: People lie, things lay.
Incorrect version: “I’m going to lay down for a few minutes.”
Correct version: “I’m going to lie down for a few minutes.”
“You lay an object somewhere, and you lie if you're taking action on your own,” Fogarty says. “I suspect people get confused because of the children's prayer "Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep."

Impact as a verb 
The rule: Impact is a noun, not a verb.
Incorrect version: “The story really impacted me.”
Correct version: “The story really influenced me.”
“Eek, screech, agh! Even educated people now use ‘impact,’ as a verb. I’m a purist,” Norris says. “Impact should stay a noun unless you are talking about having an impacted wisdom tooth.” She suggests saying “influence” instead. Fogarty says she suspects the root of the issue might come back to number two—people don’t know whether to use affect or effect, so they (incorrectly) use impact instead. Her fix: “You'll almost always have a stronger sentence if you explain how it affected you instead: ‘The story changed the way I think about seahorses,’ or ‘The story made me stop what I was doing and call my mother to tell her I love her.’”

Fewer versus Less Than 
The rule: Use fewer for countable items (with some exceptions).
Incorrect version: “There are less than three pieces of pizza left.”
Correct version: “There are fewer than three pieces of pizza left.”
“Typically, ‘fewer’ is for things you can count, and ‘less’ is for things you can't count, but time, money, and distance are exceptions to the rule,” Fogarty says.


There you have it, grammar issues for Americans!

We're in the middle of a move that isn't going well (the new place, which is in the same building as our current place, is going through a bit of a remodel that's taking longer than anticipated!) and the weather is still frigidly cold, so trying to get through this winter. Spring is just around the corner ... I think ... even though it rained all day today and will rain pretty much all day tomorrow. Sigh.

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Summer Vacation! Jeju, Day 3

I really miss our summer vacation! It feels like it's been ages now, though that's mostly because the husband has been away for a shoot on-and-off for the past few weeks, so I've been alone and doing nothing but thinking about the fun we had during this vacation. Hee.

It's also been raining quite a lot in Busan lately, which is lovely (and makes me sad for L.A. with its lack of rain! Go to L.A., rain!) but also doesn't make me want to go anywhere, since I don't have a car. Thankfully, the gym is on the second floor of our apartment, so I don't have to go outdoors!

Here's Day 3 from Jeju!

We got up and took a ferry to U-Do (which I would have spelled Oo-Do, but whatever, Koreans), which is a small island off the much larger island that is Jeju-Do (Do means island, can you tell?? And it's pronounced "dough," not "do," which I think is so confusing!). There were either a ton of people on U-Do or the island was so tiny that the amount of people seemed staggering. Either way, lots of people and cloudy weather for the day! (Aww, the husband is carrying my bag for me in the photo above~ I love it when he does sweet things like that!)

Aww, they think they're beautiful! Honestly, I didn't think the island itself was beautiful ... it was just a teeny little island- so tiny that we rounded it in less than an hour on this little beauty:

That's right, we rented a little tricycle clown car! It was so cute! ... But it really didn't go very fast at all. Haha! It was fun, though, sitting in this teensy little car and vrooming around the island. We literally took the one "highway" (really, it was a road) around the island and did a loop and that that it.

Peanut ice-cream is really popular on U-Do, so of course we had it! Along with another popular U-Do (and Jeju-Do, for that matter) beverage, tangerine-ade. I love how Koreans add "ade" to anything and everything! All they do, really, is add carbonated water to syrup or concentrate. This ade was pretty good, though. And the ice cream! It was really good. I love peanuts, though, so of course I loved it!

We stopped pretty frequently as we saw things that we wanted to take pictures of, like this pretty cliff with ocean view. It was a cloudy day all day long with some sprinkling here and there, so the sky's not very picturesque, but it was still a lovely view!

Another mango juice place! This one was Rich Mango, I believe, which I thought was really similar to Mango Ray (which we had on our first night!), but slightly richer and with slightly more mango flavor. I love mangoes!

Then we took the ferry back to Jeju and went to Aqua Planet, the first aquarium I've been to in Korea that doesn't make me feel bad for the animals in it. It's really big and spacious, including the huge tanks for the fishies and sharkies and manta rays (I love mantas!).

Obligatory selfie at the selfie mirror inside the water tunnel. I loved the water tunnel! I've been to one before (I don't remember where, though ... Monterey Bay, maybe?) but I will always love water tunnels! We look tired because we were tired. It had been a long day full of exploring and traveling.

Sunset with wind turbines ... pretty! There are a lot of wind turbines in Jeju, but not that many on mainland Korea. Why is that?? 

Dinner was the delicious black pig of Jeju again, of course. I really didn't used to like this pork belly cut at all, because I don't like fat on my meat, but I've learned to love it while living in Korea.

Our room, panorama'ed!

Our room, panorama'ed from the other side!

The cutest little (huge!) ray there ever was at Aqua Planet. Aww, ray, why you so cute??

The seasons have definitely changed here in Korea. It's autumn now! And not that that's a bad thing, but it's really making me so tired. Yawn...

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