Jeff Goldblum is very much not dead. - Mango Curd

It seems everyone has been taking a trip down memory lane for the last week or so. The death of a certain pop star may have something to do with that, strains of PYT (Pretty Young Thing), and I Wanna Rock With You ringing out from passing cars and the open doors of convenience stores in San Francisco's Mission District automatically transporting us all back to the 80's. It was not a good week to be an 80's pop culture icon, that's for sure.

But it was more than just the nostalgic throwbacks of MJ echoing down the streets. Lately so many things have that strange air of familiarity and distant memory. Friends from the past seem to be popping up right and left (we can all thank facebook for that) and it's funny how easy it is to slip right back into old friendships and patterns from your past long after the fact. I have a sneaking suspicion that it's actually a very thin veneer that separates our grown-up selves from our high school and middle school selves, and that if put in the those same classrooms today, we would be shocked by how quickly we would all revert back to our old ways.

Can you tell I skipped my high school reunion this weekend?

Ah, well. There's always 2019.

All I have to say is, I can deal with the Michael Jackson thing. I could not have also dealt with the death of Jeff Goldblum in that same day, so thank god it wasn't true! Facebook and Twitter may put you in touch with old friends, but the rumors tend to spread like wildfire. And this was never more true than on Thursday when the news about Michael Jackson hit. All of a sudden it was Jeff Goldblum, Harrison Ford, The Oxy-Clean Guy (oh wait, apparently that one is true) and as my friend Laura remarked, it was like the internet had suddenly gone all lord of the flies.

Thank god we still have Jeff Goldblum though.

You'll need a little something to serve alongside the pavlova of the previous post. I recommend this mango curd, especially if you're using kiwi on top.

Mango Curd

Adapted from smitten kitchen, in turn adapted from Bon Appetit, June 1998
Makes 1 to 1/2 cups

The first time I made this it was much too sweet for my taste, so I've cut the sugar back from 1/2 cup to 1/3 cup, and upped the lime juice by a tbsp.

1 15-ounce ripe mango, peeled, pitted, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/3 cup sugar

4 tbsp fresh lime juice

Pinch of salt

4 large egg yolks
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Blend the first 4 ingredients until smooth. You can use a hand blender, regular blender or a food processor. Add the egg yolk and puree 15 seconds more. Strain over a large metal bowl, pressing on the solids with a spatula to get as much of the juice out as possible. Discard the mango solids left in the strainer.

Set the metal bowl over a saucepan of simmering water (do not allow bottom of bowl to touch water); whisk puree until thickened for about 10 minutes. Remove from over water. Whisk in butter 1 piece at a time. Cover and refrigerate for several hours.