WEDNESDAY AND AN OVERLY LONG ONE

As mentioned before, the rain was coming down steadily when I got up. I put in a color wash, had breakfast, then started making the lemon bars for the covered dish at Dudley House. I had set out the ingredients earlier: flour, sugar, salt, the lemon juice and zest from three lemons. It's made in two stages: first the crust in a 10-inch pan, which gets baked for twenty or so, then the filling for another thirty. It's cooled, then sprinkled with powdered sugar, and cut into bars. That sounds simple, but it takes quite awhile and uses a lot of bowls, measuring cups, and measuring spoons. 

When it bakes and thoroughly cools, the idea is to cut it into bars.  However, it was still kind of sticky, and the bars wouldn't separate, so I came up with the idea of mixing the bars together and calling it "Lemon Bar Pudding." (At covered dish gatherings, I always like to put a little card in front to name my contributions.) Incredibly, my "pudding" went over big and one of the twins took home the small amount left. Which twins? These:

(I had included pictures of them on this blog before.)

The food was good, as ever, and the speaker fascinating (I can't remember her name). Thirty or so years ago, she had interviewed Miriam Knox, then in her late eighties, who had married the Dudley son, Oscar (nicknamed "Dooley") in the twenties and they had lived in the house after his parents died.* She had done her masters' thesis on the Dudley's roles in the early days of Ventura. Anyway, I enjoyed it a lot. Here's the speaker:

On display was one of the doll houses, a prize for a drawing we'll have at the Boutique next month: 

Speaking of, I'll be acting as greeter at the Boutique, about which we'll distribute around town these very attractive postcards to publicize the event: 

Attendees were also given Venture-related book marks, made by Sherri and Ken O., who are well known stamp collectors. I've been at their large, LARGE house up in the hills, which has a spectacular view of the entire area, including the magnificent Pacific. Their garage is filled with boxes, barrels, bags, and so on, all containing stamps from, I think, every place on earth. 

Anyway, it was a good meeting and I was glad Vickie could go with me--she said she enjoyed it very much. Got home about 9:15 to find the television, for some reason, isn't working. I called Yandoo Communications, but they didn't know anything, so maybe it's something I did, but the hell with it. 

Ellen called and may have to postpone coming over until tomorrow, as the contractor is starting on the work in her bedroom. That's okay if we run our errands--mostly mine--then. In the meantime, I have plenty to do at home. 

* Oh, Sister Gabriel, I know it's a run-on sentence!