La Marzocco GS3

TIs the season for reflection. Thought I'd post a pic of the GS3, such a great machine!

Powder Puffs of Delight ( Peppermint Meringue Cookies)

New Bike - Workcycles Azor Swan

Here is my new bike. It is wonderful to ride, does great on the bit of gravel I have to go over and it's smooth on the roads. I put a Nantucket style front basket. It's going to be hard but I'm polishing up the Pashley for sale.

Butter Tart Recipe

Butter Tarts: The Canadian Baker's secret weapon!

Pastry for a double crust pie is more than enough to make 1 dozen tarts. You have a recipe you like, no?

Preheat oven to: 450 f (convection 425 f)

1 Egg beaten
2 Tbsp's buttermilk or cream or milk, WYH (whatever you have)
3/4 Cup brown sugar
1/4 Cup maple syrup (or corn syrup,golden syrup, WYH)
1/4 Cup butter - use up to 1/3 Cup butter for extra richness.
1/2 Cup raisins
1 Tsp Vanilla

Mix all ingredients together in a 2-3 quart bowl until the butter is spread out but still visible.

Place pastry in tart rings (I'll rant, I mean post on that next) or tart molds with pastry.
Fill molds almost to the top, they will bubble over a little bit.

Bake at 450/425 for 8 minutes, Reduce heat to 350 f (convection 325 f) and bake for another 15 - 20 minutes.

Let sit for a few minutes then remove them from their rings/molds or they will stick.

What a Tart!

Haven't blogged in so long it took me a while to remember my password...jeesh! Have been doing some sewing and baking, not much knitting. I seem to be in to tarts lately as you can tell by the title of today's post. Let's see... butter tarts, almond tart a la Chez Panisse (via David Lebovitz)

Butter tarts from a recipe I modified from the Five Roses Flour Cookbook......

What have I been up to lately?

Healthy Living,

The winter nights are getting shorter, so naturally one's mind starts to imagine summer nights.
In order to prepare for those nights I decided to start perfecting my Margarita's. I also found a very good deal on the Tezon Tequila at Shopper's Vineyard.

Minnie the WonderDOG

December 12 1992 -- October 24 2008

The Fountain is finished!

This is one of the fountains that we put together using pieces from the boneyard at Lucca Statuary

First Post with the Mac Mini

I finally got that Mini I'd been threatening to get. It's so nice to have a computer in the studio that is permanent. I have outfitted it quite well I think, G-Mini 500 GB HD, Agent V3 Webcam, RadioShark.... & some software, Microsoft Office 2008 Special Media Edition & Bento. I've also downloaded a few freebies through Version Tracker. So far so good. The pic is taken with the new webcam in Photo Booth (Comic layer)

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to the gregorian calendar followers. Lots of new things happening around Chez Fran!

Crafting, baking & organizing.. get out old stuff.

Also we are finally shopping for Engagement Rings. This is a daunting task. I know more about what I don't like every day. I'll post some links to rings we are considering for me next time I blog. I scrapped the Rowan sweater until I figure out the ruching deal.

Here is a bag I made for the Firefighters Ball last March. Also some Madelaines I made on New Year's day. See the irony?

Say hello to my Lil' Friends

How cute are these guys!

Grasshopper Pie

I haven't been baking or cooking as much as I would like lately. Time, budget, waistline, these are cooking killers. So I made a GRASSHOPPER PIE to get back into the swing of things. No recipe.. used an Arrowhead Mills chocolate cookie crust that was .50 at BARGAINICA. Here is what I put in the filling: 2 cups whipped cream, 2 cups Marshmallow creme, 1/4 cup creme de cacao and 1 tsp peppermint extract. I can't believe I had no creme de menthe in the house. What kind of joint doesn't have creme de menthe? Anyhow, whipped that up and put it in the crust, sprinkles some chocolate shavings on the top, stuck in the fridge and there it is.

Holiday Knitting Project

My Yarn arrived today! Yey! This should keep me busy while we drive, sit & wait throughout the upcoming HOLIDAZE. I am going to attempt to make this lovely sweater from the Rowan Calmer Collection using Rowan All Seasons Cotton in the colour - Native.

lotus flower pop-up card

Pu-erh

My favourite new tea drink is Pu-erh. Here is the Amazon.com order. I first tried the one on the right, Pu-erh ginger. I thought I would give the Tuo Cha a try and it is delicious too. I also got some from the Aberdeen Centre in Richmond that tastes much like the Tuo Cha.

Die cuts & imagination

I made this valentine for Neil. He really liked it. I did the first 2 hearts with Quickutz heart dies but the rest I had to keep drawing freehand and cutting out. I wish they sold sets of graduated sizes of one shape. I wrote them and I'm sure they are going to start doing that now. I also requested wings or feathers to make wings. We will see.

The Pieced de restitance

How is this for a beautiful Valentine's present.. Jen (daughter) made this pin in a jewelry class. I am the proud owner of her first piece!

Valentine's & Orchids

Wow, all the pretty roses in the store but who needs them when you have orchids blooming like mad at home. Neil worked on Valentine's Day so we didn't do anything special. The night before I brought home a pizza and we exchanged gifts & cards. It was cozy & nice. We'll have a great steak meal or something on the weekend and call it our Valentine's meal. I do want to talk about some new craft items that I am having lots of fun with and they are both MAKING MEMORIES brand. They make some pretty nice prodoucts. I used the MAKING MEMORIES ' TAG MAKER' to make heart shaped vellum tags and then the MAKING MEMORIES 'INSTANT SETTER' to make eyelet holes in order to sandwich the 2 together and make light covers. They turned out great. It was hard to get a night time picture but there was this almost earie glow. The light set I used was an L.E.D. set and that, combined with the vellum made them so neat.

What have I been up to lately?

Let's see, lots of knitting and sewing. I have been making a lot of the cherry stone pillows and knitting stitch markers. I made a couple of lovely FIMO BIRTHDAY CAKES for a friend's daughters birthday party at Build a Bear. Every kid's bear got a slice of cake and the birthday girl got a whole cake, actually 2 of them and a slice.

Labor of cooking weekend

This Labor Day we celebrated the labor of cooking. We made this great diner meal and some delicious cupcakes. The recipe is from the Donna Hay magazine from last month. It's really easy, just make a vanilla or white cupcake recipe but use brown sugar instead of white, then whip cream with some Butterscotch Schnapps or butterscotch flavouring then pour over a simple butter caramel. The cupcake part was a bit heavy. I need to figure out a good basic vanilla & chocolate cupcake recipe instead of following the whole recipe like this one and being unhappy with the cake portion.

The most fun this weekend turned out to be our trip to see the Yarn Harlot on Sunday at Third Place Books in Shoreline. It was worth sitting on the most uncomfortable chairs amongst the worst cackling session since Chicken Run. I will post those pic's tomorrow as well as some Houseplant pic's.