(no subject)

Contemplating another ASOIAF re-read on the Kindle before book 5 finally comes out in July. I bought the e-book bundle of 1-4 earlier this year and read them all, but mainly for a basic memory refresher. Another re-read might be better at picking up various hints and foreshadowings. I must say that reading the series on the Kindle is vastly superior to paper books, since it enables an instant text search on the names of extremely minor characters who previous fleeting mention was 200 pages ago.

Also contemplating the HBO official recipe for Sansa's lemon cakes. Based on pix, they're basically sponge custards as described in the 1975 edition of The Joy of Cooking, whose recipe I might follow instead since I don't want the bother of buying buttermilk. It also gives alternate directions for a single large structure-- instead of 45 minutes in a water bath for 4 3.5" ramekins, it's 1 hour for the entire batch in a 7" diameter dish-- and notes that the spongy texture can be modified to a more meringue-like one by incorporating the sugar in a different way: instead of creaming it into the butter, fold it into the beaten egg whites before combining into the the yolk-based batter.

I see that the HBO recipe doesn't even have butter WTF. Probably a casualty of the "fat-free" craze.