something new - febphotoaday

A rewind from last week:

Well ... I know this may not be new to you, but it's new to me.  I don't make much time for reading these days, but I picked up The Hunger Games on a whim about a week ago at Costco.  Good mistake? Bad mistake? I don't know. You decide.  I'm now addicted!  WHY DIDN'T I READ THESE BOOKS SOONER??!!??  Saturday evening I dragged my kids to Sam's Club to run some errands, but most importantly to find Catching Fire (book 2).  I was done with it by Monday morning.  If I didn't have obligations, I could've just sat on the couch and read it in one sitting.  Yesterday when I was at Wal-Mart, I grabbed book 3, Mockingjay.  I'm showing restraint by not sitting down to read it yet ... I'll take it to my eight-hour recording session tomorrow because I'm sitting alone, so I'll have no one to giggle and chat with during down time.

Good thing I only have one month to anticipate the new Hunger Games movie!

Chocolate Truffle Tartlets - Tuesdays with Dorie

As I'm sitting here starting this post, I just glanced at the clock and it's already 11:23pm.  Geepers.  Where does the day go?  School work with 3 kids, cleaning 3 bathrooms, grooming 4 people, lunch at Sonic, trip to a vacuum store, errands at Wal-Mart, baking tartlets, trip to Grandma & Grandpa's house, trying a new recipe for dinner which took longer than expected, trip to Walgreen's for medicine, vacuuming, some serious kitchen cleaning after all our cooking & baking, piano practicing, laundry, and the list goes on!  Let's hope I can put together a quick post for my Tuesday with Dorie baking project for this week and hit the hay soon!

I made my dough yesterday.  It felt a little dry so I added almost an extra Tablespoon of ice water.  Today when I got my dough out, it was still feeling pretty dry, so I dunked my fingertips into a cup of water to moisten things up while I was rolling out the dough.  It helped.  The dough was a bit fussy, but easy to mend & I ended up making eight 4-3/4" tart shells (I think I could've made a 9th).  I was happy with how they turned out.

The fillings was easier to put together.  I almost always use Trader Joe's chocolate, but I decided to try a different kind this time around:

I'm not gonna make a special trip to buy this chocolate again.  It almost smelled a little bit like vinegar after it was melted.  Weird.   Since I now I have two empty tart shells on my counter and I think my six filled tarts could've been more full, next time I think I'll double the filling recipe.  For add-in's, I used white chocolate chips, semi-sweet chocolate chips, Oreos (in 3 tarts), and Trader Joe's Dunkers (in the other 3 tarts).

I was happy with how the tarts tasted, but the filling was definitely better than the crust. :)  The filling reminded me a little of a very dense brownie or flour-less cake.  My family enjoyed our tarts with a little Breyers vanilla ice cream.

Happy Tuesday!

For videos & the recipe, go HERE or HERE.

a favorite photo of me - febphotoaday

april 2010

handwriting - febphotoaday

Penguin - Feb 2012

Happy Valentine's Day

I think we spent almost our entire Valentine's Day cooking & eating ... or doing something that involved food sugar!

I stayed up past midnight the night before our big love day baking a chocolate cheesecake...

For my little loves, we woke up and made an apple-cinnamon Dutch baby for breakfast.

After breakfast we hit a couple more grocery stores to get the rest of the items that we needed for our V-Day dinner.   We found some strawberries on sale, so we came home & made some of these:

Then the kiddies got busy making their valentines.  Since they don't attend a school where they get to exchange cards with their friends, valentines were made for grandparents & each other.

Hubby didn't head home from work until after 8pm and he was 45 minutes from home, so the kids ate their dinner and then I waited for Hubby to get home so that we could eat together.  We made steamed shrimp, crab legs, stir-fried asparagus, mashed potatoes & gravy, a salad (with red leaf lettuce, gala apples, & Craisins ... had to get more red on our table!), homemade sparkling-berry-lemonade, bread, and of course our chocolate covered strawberries & cheesecake for dessert.

Even though I ran my dishwasher THREE times on Tuesday and Hubby washed some dishes by hand Tuesday night, I still woke up Wednesday to an overflowing sink of dishes ....

But ... it was worth it!!  Happy Valentine's Day!!!!

heart - febphotoaday

I saw a "heart" photo online that I wanted to try & copy.  I had all my kids model.  These were my 2 favorites photos after a very quick photo shoot (we're talking 2 minutes or less ... most of that time is spent by me begging kids to cooperate) and candy bribes ... none of us had much patience for a photo shoot this morning. :)  

I think this one turned out the best ... best eyes, best lighting, etc....

But I had to include this one too cause I love his little hands up there in the picture.

blue - febphotoaday

Makes Me Happy - febphotoaday

Self Portrait - febphotoaday

Just sat at my desk and held the camera arms-length away. :)

Nutella Tartine - French Fridays with Dorie

French Fridays with Dorie brings us another fun & easy recipe this week.  I cheated a bit and only used ingredients that I had on hand, but I really enjoyed my version of Dorie's Nutella Tartine.

This was such a simple recipe that even a young child could make on their own.  I used some of my leftover homemade white bread from my Tuesdays with Dorie group and toasted it up with a little butter. (I actually don't even know where to find challah or brioche bread in my town ... if I were still in Pittsburgh I'd just run to the little local grocery store and have all kinds of choices of yummy bread!)  Dorie recommends orange marmalade on top of the toast, but I'm not a huge fan of orange marmalade, so I used some homemade strawberry jam that was in my fridge.  Then I melted some Nutella and drizzled it on top.  I also haven't had any luck finding hazelnuts in my town.  In the past I've looked at grocery stores, Wal-Mart, & Trader Joe's, but I've had no luck.  Maybe I need to make a trip to Whole Foods or Sprouts.  Anywho, since I wanted to use ingredients that I already had at home, I found some sliced almonds in my freezer and I toasted them up & sprinkled them on top of my tartine.  I have to admit that the toasty almonds were my favorite part of this dish.

Dorie says the Nutella tartine is comparable to American's milk & cookies after-school snack, so my kiddies & I enjoyed our tartines for our after-school snack one afternoon.  I highly recommend this little treat!!

P.S.  Dorie also recommends sprinkling a little fleur de sel on top, but I opted to not do that.  So far I haven't been a huge fan of desserts with fleur de sel.  I know it's popular and I spent a pretty penny to get my own bottle of this fancy salt, but it just doesn't seem to be my thing.  I've found it to be too strong when I have used it.  Any thoughts?

Sun - febphotoaday

 

Playing out in the evening sun.

White Loaves - Tuesdays with Dorie

OK.  So in a weak moment I joined another online cooking group ... baking to be exact.  I'm not having great results with most of the Baked Sunday Mornings recipes that I've tried, so I decided to jump on board with another Dorie Greenspan cookbook ... Baking with Julia.  If I understand correctly, Dorie Greenspan compiled recipes from a PBS series hosted by Julia Child where Julia welcomed a wide variety of famous chefs onto her show to share recipes & techniques.  We will be baking twice a month and our recipes include everything from breads to desserts.  Like other online cooking groups, I can not share the recipe on my blog, but I can direct you to the "hosts" for each recipe who will be allowed to share the recipe on their blog, so you can snag it there.

First up, white loaves.  I don't have a ton of experience with yeast breads, so this was a good place for me to start and I'd love to work on & improve my yeast doughs/breads this year.  With only six ingredients (all were already in my pantry or fridge), this recipe came together very quickly.  For those who are wondering, my Kitchen-Aid mixer did a lot of dancing, but it's done the same for other thick doughs.

After letting the dough rise for about an hour, I shaped it into two loaves....

After rising for another 45 minutes ... ready to go in the oven....

Right out of the oven....

While my bread was baking, the smell was KILLING me!  I had to restrain myself from pulling the bread out too early and gobbling it down!  

I did put one my loaves back into the oven (without the pan ... directly onto the oven shelf) for just a couple minutes so that the sides could brown a little more.  It browned very quickly.  Results: I think I prefer the softer, less-browned crust unless I planned to eat the bread with something that I was going to soak up like soup or spaghetti sauce.  My 9-year old liked the more brown/crispy crust better.

I better run.  My kids are anxious to sink their teeth into a slice of warm bread!

If you'd like the join our group, there is still time.  Go HERE.

If you'd like to get a copy of the cookbook that we'll be using for our Tuesday baking group, go HERE.

To get today's recipe, go HERE.

PS  After seeing a few other bakers produce some HUGE loaves of bread, I decided to try a bit larger of a bread pan than what the recipe recommends ... I used two 9-5/8" x 5-1/2" pans.  The bread still grew taller than the bread pan while baking.

Button - febphotoaday

Today's Photo Theme ... Button.

Check out other button photos HERE.

Hands - febphotoaday

Today's subject:

Hands.

Since my 9-year old hasn't been picked on yet for the week, she got to be my hand model. :)  Can't decide which one in my favorite.  Maybe the last one.  What do you think?

Cauliflower Gratin - French Fridays with Dorie

This week I chose to rewind & try a recipe that I missed ... cauliflower gratin.  We had ours for dinner with a big salad and some bread and it was well received by all.  It was more egg-y than I expected, so I thought it might be perfect for brunch or breakfast party.

I decided to make mine without the bacon, but I can see how bacon would be a very nice addition to this recipe!

Happy Friday to all!

P.S. What yummy food will you be enjoying this Super Bowl weekend?  Go Steelers!! :)

Words - febphotoaday

Every Thursday (if I haven't already done so earlier in the week), I read the words of Dorie Greenspan's cookbook, Around My French Table. 

February 2, 2012 Photo a Day: Words

Your View Today - febphotoaday

Happy February!

I saw something come up for a photo-a-day in February that caught my eye.  

I decided to give it a try.

The theme for today ... Feb 1st ... is "Your View Today".

I have lots of "views" throughout my day ...

naked bottoms,

lots of school work to grade,

my home & yard,

messes & toys scattered about,

food ... always nice to view,

ouchies,

3 clean bathrooms ... after I cleaned them, of course!,

sometimes a few tears,

& thankfully lots of sweet smiles!

I picked four of my views to share with you today.

The view from my kitchen table where I sit while I help my youngest two with their morning "pages" (school work):

A view from my back door ... I was too lazy to put shoes on.

My youngest:

My middle child ... note she just lost tooth #2 down there on the bottom!

If you'd like to try doing a photo a day, check out the list of themes for each day this month.  I'm not promising to do this every day, but I'm hoping to take more photos of every day life and use my camera more than I have the past year!

America the Beautiful - A Patriotic Literature Lesson

Today is a beautful day in Arizona.  We worked hard this morning to get all our school work done quickly so we could spend a warm, sunny afternoon at the zoo.

Our Literature lesson today (for my oldest daughter) was on patriotic songs as poetry.  The three patriotic songs we learned about were "America the Beautiful", "The Star-Spangled Banner", and "This Land is Your Land".  We talked about new vocabulary words like rampart and perilous.  We learned a little bit about the men & women who wrote the lyrics to these popular poems.  Imagery is strong in these songs and another great topic that can be covered.  States & other locations talked about in the songs can be found on a map.  And there is so much more that we could have all learned from these lyrics!

To finish off our literature lesson today, we searched youtube.com for the three patriotic songs so that we could see how various artists perform or interpret these songs.

My all-time favorite version of "America the Beautiful" is performed by Ray Charles.  It's nice to be reminded that we really do live in an amazing country & we are all SO blessed.

Broth-Braised Potatoes - French Fridays with Dorie

This week's recipe for our FFWD group was another easy, quick, most ingredients already on-hand recipe from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Around My French Table.  This week we made potatoes.  I've always been a potato girl & I enjoyed trying them made a different way.

In a large pot, I brought some broth, EVOO, water, garlic, lemon zest, a bay leaf, sage, salt, and pepper to boil.  The smell was very comforting like homemade chichen noodle soup.  The potatoes were cooked until soft in the broth.  We didn't really make a dinner that went with potatoes but just threw them on the table with the other items we were having for dinner that night so the family could try & comment on Dorie's recipe.  I think the overall concensus was that they were good, but we weren't dying to make them again ... I think due to the sage.  Our Arizona taste buds aren't used to a lot of rosemary, sage, thyme, and other flavors that the French seem to love.

Thursdays are my crazy day and I'm always looking for something easy for dinner.  Last night I had a banana, some berries, a loaf of bread, and Dories potatoes that needed to be used up, so we made some banana pancakes & french toast ... with berries on top.  Then I fried up the rest of our broth-braised potatoes.  Because there were already flavored, oiled, and seasoned, I pretty much just threw them into a skillet and let them brown.  I LOVED them like this with a little ketchup!!  The texture was great and all the flavors came together really nicely.

If you're interested in taking a peek at this recipe, someone else published it HERE.

In other cooking and food news, last weekend was my husband's birthday and he wanted pies ... cream pies.  I searched through lots of cookbooks and found two new recipes that I wanted to try.

First up was a chocolate-coconut pie  ... the crust was made of only butter and coconut!  And then the filling was a bittersweet chocolate ganache ... definitely a winner!  The only change I'd make would be to have less crust in the area of the pie pan where the bottom meets the side ... don't know if that has an official name ... and put that extra coconut around the edge of the pan for a prettier upper crust showing around the edge of the pie pan ... if that makes any sense.

Second up was a banana cream pie. The pudding had cinnamon and nutmeg which gave it some interest and the then whipped topping had just a touch of sour cream.  Lots of yummy flavors that came together nicely.  I used Dorie's sweet tart dough rather than a traditional pie crust.  I love the more cookie-like crust, but next time I think I'll try to make the crust a little thinner.

We are planning more birthday celebrations this weekend, so I need to come up with another dessert idea ... any suggestions? ideas? requests?

Sleeping Sweeties

I wasn't a very good blogger in 2011.  House-hunting, moving, lots of concerts, etc will do that to a person.  Tonight I'm going through lots of old photos & remembering events that I still haven't blogged.  I came across these photos from April 2011 ... looks like they were taken after swimming at Bushka's house.  

These two kiddies are only 10 months apart in age and they've always been sweet little friends.

Mi Familia

december 2011

turkey 4 yrs ~ peacock 5 years ~ penguin 9 years

No 1 on Billboard Charts!

This is a little late in coming, but ....

I am thrilled to announce that "Messiah in America" (www.messiahinamerica.com) has debuted at #1 on Billboard's Traditional Classical charts.  This is the CD that my organization (EVMCO) recorded this past summer in Salt Lake City.

A couple newspapers have printed articles on our accomplishments:

Mormon Choral relase debuts No. 1 on Billboard Classical Traditional chart

Mesa-based Mormon choir tops Billboard charts

"Messiah in America" is available through iTunes, Amazon or the Messiah in America website.  If you have a child between the ages of 4-18 years old who would like to participate in EVMCO, you have two more days to register them for this semester.  The theme for our next concert is Classical to Broadway.  I've already heard some little voices in my house singing Mozart, Bach, Sound of Music selections, etc.  It should be very educational and tons of fun!

Quarte-Quarts - French Fridays with Dorie

I think I'm missing my weekly night away at symphony rehearsal (we're on break right now) because by the time Thursday night hits each week, I'm feeling like I need a break or some me-time.  I actually kind of saved this recipe for Thursday night.  I knew I didn't have anything going on and that hubby & I could put the kids to bed and enjoy some fresh-out-of-the-oven cake before bed last night.

We hurried home last night specifically to watch American Idol (I used to be a big fan, but haven't watched for several years now) because it was in PITTSBURGH last night and I'm a fan of all things Pittsburgh!!  After we watched an hour of American Idol, hubby took the kids upstairs for the bedtime routine and by the time they came to find me for our nightly family prayers, my cake was done & in the oven.  So thank you to Dorie for another recipe that was quick, easy, and uses ingredients we all keep on-hand.  There were some options with the recipe ... I made mine with vanilla (probably about 2 tsp - I just poured) and I sprinkled a healthy tablespoon of brown sugar on top of the cake before it went into the oven.

Usually my oven bakes things on the quick side, but I ended up baking this cake for longer than the suggested time.  After it cooled for about 20 minutes, it came right out of the pan and Hubby & I each enjoyed a barely warm piece with sliced strawberries.

I am usually of the thinking that if cake doesn't have chocolate, it's not worth my time or the calories.  Not the case with the quarte-quarts!!!  I loved it!!!

Loved the melted, crunchy brown sugar on top.

Loved the simple yet comforting taste & texture.

Delish!  Will definitely make again to go with berries. 

Think I'll make it in a square pan next time....

One more quick story.  

The mama came down this morning to take photos of a yummy cake, and what did she find .... a little "mouse" had been into her cake!

She caught the culprit and he curled up on the counter-top to cry...

The mama felt bad for roaring like a lion at the little mouse, so she quickly grabbed one of his favorite foods out of the fridge ... strawberries.

The strawberries helped. 

The End.

Black & White Creme Brulee

After trying Dorie's recipe last week for creme brulee, I was excited to try more creme brulee recipes ... easy, yummy, and they save well in the fridge!  I came across a recipe for black & white creme brulee ... creme brulee with chocolate mousse on top.

Both the creme brulee and mouse were easy to make, but this is a project that you'll have to plan for because the creme brulee has to sit in the fridge overnight before topping it with the mousse and then the mousse sat in the fridge overnight before serving it.

My family of five enjoyed this new concoction and a lot of my extended family tried & enjoyed it as well.  I liked the idea, but I personally liked Dorie's creme brulee recipe better (this recipe had a lot more eggs ... too eggy for me) and I'm certain I've had better mousse recipes as well ... think I'll try David Lebovitz or someone else's next time.  

Instead of making 6 individual creme brulee's, I made one large one in a tart pan.  When I went to take a photo, this is what I found ....