My life right now and mini-catering side job

The past entire week has been pretty intense, both physically and emotionally.  Last week on Thursday, we took my father to the doctor.  He developed jaundice and was feeling very sick.  Upon seeing him, the doctor immediately referred him to an internal medicine clinic, where he went through a series of tests.

Their finding--a cancerous mass in his bile duct.  He's been scheduled for a consultation for a surgery and a possible chemo.  I'm just afraid that this rather harsh treatment of surgery + chemo combo will kill him faster than the cancer will.

But before any treatment can begin, we gotta load him up with protein to help his body prepare for the surgery.  He will need the extra strength.

So that's my life right now.  As for my passion...it's still going strong :)

A church friend asked me to make some fruit tartlets for her party--she'll pay me of course.  It was quite funny, the way she asked...

Friend: "Could you make some of those cute mini dessert thingies you brought to church that one time??"

Me: "....uh...Which 'dessert thingies' are you talking about?" (Note: I bring desserts/goodies every Sunday)

Friend: "You know...it was like, cream cheese filling except they weren't cream cheese and they were in like, graham cracker crumb cups, and some fruit on top?  I love those and I get them all the time at a pastry shop but yours taste so much better."

Me: "OK.  What are they called at the shop?"

Friend: "Oh, I don't know.  I love them but I don't know what they're called."

Me: "....(you get them all the time but have no idea what they're called??) Are they like cheesecakes?"

Friend: "No, they weren't cheesecakes.  They were like, creamy filling in a graham cracker cup-thingies."

Me: "...OK, sounds like you're talking about fruit tartlets."

Friend: "OH is that what they're called??  Yes, I would love to have some for my party!"

So she ordered half a dozen fruit tartlets and half a dozen lemon meringue tartlets.  By this time, I'm used to making them, so it was a breeze.

 And I got to practice making Italian meringue.  My method produces a fairly dense meringue, quite similar to Swiss meringue.  I'm starting to think it may be too dense, so I'll try the other method to see if that'll produce fluffier meringue.

I ended up lots of leftover meringue, so I made some extra lemon meringue tartlets for my parents.

I'm definitely glad they (especially Dad) got at least some of their appetite back.  They ate these without a problem and thought they were very good.  I used a lemon cremeux instead of lemon curd.  Lemon cremeux has a higher ratio of lemon juice and much lower sugar content, making them quite tangy.  The very tart filling paired very well with the sweet meringue and balanced by the buttery crust.

By the way...notice that I do not use graham cracker in my tart crust.  And I fill the fruit tartlets with vanilla pastry cream...not cream cheese. 

Which makes me wonder--can she not taste the difference between a pate sucree shell and graham cracker crust??  Seriously???