Friday, August 19, 2011

Happy Friday!

I can't believe the week has already come to an end! It's not that I don't look forward to the weekend, it's just where did all that time go? I think my one too many extracurricular activities has gotten me into a routine that makes the week fly by with a blink of an eye. I didn't really have any real cooking adventures this week as I decided I would try Taco Tuesdsay in the OC. We went to Taco Mesa in the City of Orange. While I was excited to see that they had quite a selection of $1 tacos, I was a little disappointed as they over saturated their meet in sodium and grease. Le sigh. I shall find a good taco place soon!

Here's to the weekend!
- Seeing my familia
- Planning my Big Bear and Oregon trip (only 20 some days left till we go)
- Resting it up!

Hope you have a fabulous one ;).

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Summer fruit lovin'

Last summer, I went on quite a strawberry kick after we went strawberry picking. This year is no different. Instead of picking them from the patch, I bought the four pound box at Costco. Note to self, one should never buy food/fruits at Costco for a household of two. With this box, I made a few strawberry banana smoothies, ate a ton of them as a lunch snack and kept thinking of ways to incorporate them into a baked good. I was planning on making jam but decided that it would be of great use on a fruit tart. I was researching the variety of recipes there are on the web and came across Paula Deen's recipe. While I was ready to make her recipe, I found that I didn't have enough time or the energy to gather some of the items she requested (about ten sticks of butter and a can of limeade). Instead, I went my own way on this recipe. That is quite the leap for me as I don't usually like to stray from recipes. I get anxiety as I fear that it might come as a huge goop of something people don't want to eat. That would be a shame to toss away something that could have been edible. On to my version of the fruit tart (with bits and pieces of ideas from other sites):

Ingredients:
- Fresh fruits (kiwi, strawberries, nectarines, plums, blueberries and more)
- Apricot jam
- Frozen pie crust
- Cream cheese
- Sugar

Directions:
1. Prepare the pie crust as directed on the box.
2. Allow the pie crust to cool after baking. As it cools off, cut round fruits into slices and place them on the side.
3. Take about 1/2 cup of cream cheese and mix in 3 tbsp of sugar. Keep stirring until the sugar is mixed in really well.
4. Spread the cream cheese mixture on the pie crust.
5. Arrange the fruit on top of the cream cheese mixture as you like it.
6. Take about 1/4 cup of apricot jam and half 1/4 cup of water and simmer it on medium low until the jam starts to become liquidy. If the jam is still separated from the water, take a spoon and whisk the water and jam together until it combines. Once it's well mixed, take a brush and brush the jam mixture on top over the fruit. Voila! Enjoy :)

Other accomplishments this weekend:

I made a birthday banner that I can use year round for everybody's birthday. I had a blast going to Jo-Anns to pick out the fabric though it was quite a difficult choice to make.


Being put to use outside at the bbq birthday party we hosted!

I went to a really great flea market in town to see some furniture that could country-fy my home to change it from the modern home it is today. I was so glad that I didn't carry more than 20 dollars in cash or else I would have gone home with more than I could handle. What I had in mind was a wagon for my garden, a pitcher to hold my fresh cut flowers and new vintage type furniture. I went home with a great wooden red wagon (to be pictured later), a pitcher and a picnic suitcase. All of these great finds added up to $12! Woo hoo!

Pitcher in use :D with my to be made table runner underneath it.

Here's to more crafty weekends to come!



Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Holy smokes...

It's been about 8 months since I last posted. I'm quite disappointed in myself for not following through with my goal of blogging at least once a month. Well it's time to move on. No time to dwell. There's plenty of time for me to start blogging again and I'll start with today. I've been pretty busy this summer - moving into a new place/city, taking the time to make it a home, finding ways to make new friends and starting a new job. Now that I've taken care of a majority of these tasks, I can start focusing on taking pictures of my dishes, posting my recipes and writing about my other interests. I've become quite interested in sewing, reading more blogs, gardening, building and decorating. Hopefully, you'll start to see some posts about the small projects I'm working on. I'm so fixated on food that it's time to start releasing that energy/motivation to other areas such as crafting which I haven't shared much of on this blog. Here's a preview of one of the projects I'm going to start working on:

I'm going to make you proud Martha Stewart!