pop tarts gone terribly right!

I found a recipe on the Food Network site for homemade toaster pastries that didn't look all that great because whoever created it used shortenning.  Who eats that crap, anyway?  But I liked the idea and came up with a similar recipe made with good old fashioned butter that turned out quite delicious.  So I decided to share it with you.  I'm so very nice, aren't I?

My 5 year old daughter was in charge of taking pictures and she didn't do too bad.  She probably took 4 dozen as she filled up what was left of my SD card, so I had a lot to choose from.

I decided upon strawberry and chocolate toaster pastries and not to toot my own horn, but they're pretty darn good.  (Who am I kidding? I love to toot my own horn; isn't that what blogging is all about?)

Here's the basic recipe:

Pastry dough
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 c. (1 stick) of cold butter
3/4 c. milk
1 egg plus 2 tbsp. water (whisked together)

In a food processor, pulse together flour, baking powder, salt and butter until butter is incorporated into pea-size and smaller chunks.  Pour into a mixing bowl and add milk.  Stir with a spatula to incorporate.  When it becomes a dough consistency, turn out onto a floured surface.  Roll dough to 1/8 inch or less.  Cut into rectangles measuring 4" by 5".  Add 1-2 tablespoons of preserves, jam or other desired filling to half of the pastry rectangles, spreading to about an inch from the edges.  Brush edges with egg wash and top with another rectangle of dough, making sure to gently press air from the pocket.  Use a fork to seal the edges.  Gently press the top of the pastry to make sure the filling is evenly spread.  Prick the tops with the fork and place on an un-greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 F for about 20 minutes.  They aren't supposed to be brown at all, but I found that the pastry was a little flakier and had a more buttery flavor if they are very slightly golden.

Store them in a ziplock for a few days or in the freezer for up to a month.

 

 

this is one of the fillings I used.  YUM!

Hot out of the oven!

This is the other filling...DOUBLE YUM!

Chocolate Filling:
1 bag of Guittard semi sweet chocolate chips
approx. 1/4 c. heavy cream

Melt chocolate in a double boiler.  Add cream and stir until shiny and smooth.  You're looking for a little thicker than a fondue consistency.  Allow to cool to room temperature before filling pastries.

Optional Icing Glaze (but don't add this unless you're using a toaster oven or until after you've toasted them in a regular toaster or you'll have a mess!):
1 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp. milk or cream
1/2 tsp. pure vanilla

I made my icing pink and added red and pink sprinkles.  As I was doing this I thought how cute these would be made into heart shapes for Valentine's day.  I think I might have to make a yummy, flaky, chocolate-filled, heart-shaped breakfast in a few weeks.  YUM!

Llama Llama Red Pajama

I have the exciting privilege to be a part of the world premier of the stage musical Llama Llama Red Pajama at Stages Theatre Company.  It's a clever adaptation of Dewdney's adorable childrens book that follows the plight of 6 individual baby llamas and their adventures in bedtime drama.  Each mama llama is trying to get chores done and relax a little while her baby llama doesn't want to go to sleep.

The show opened on January 13, 2012 and runs for 5 weeks.  If you are local and interested in attending, you can find information on the Stages Theater's website here.  I would say that it's geared towards children under age 8, but there's enough action and humor in it to keep most kids and adults interested too.  And if you're a mom, you can identify with a lot of it...just like in the book!

So for openning night, I made a little treat for the cast party.  This one has a special place in my heart because I get to be a part of the production.

There are 6 baby llamas and 6 mama llamas in the show and each has it's own distinct personality and interests.

There are 6 baby llama in red pajamas...

one baby llama who loves to read.

 

a tap dancing llama

a drama llama actress

a golfing baby llama

a soccer llama

a llama magician 

and their mamas...a gardener, a yoga instructor, a clean freak, a dancer, a trumpet player and a very pregnant llama mama.

We had a great opening and are looking forward to a very fun run!  Come out to see this book on stage!

Llama Llama Red Pajama

by Anna Dewdney

Stages Theatre Company

Adaptation written by Jennifer Kirkeby

Music by Shirley Mier

Directed by Sandy Boren-Barrett

LIKE STAGES THEATRE on FACEBOOK!

a tractor and a drunk cow

I've often given my friend Shanna crap because she doesn't say "no."  She emails me and complains about the stressful situations she's gotten into because she won't turn clients away.  Not to worry, she dishes it back to me.  She's much busier than I am with her cake making business, but she's been doing it longer.  She's my inspiration, my cookbook and my mentor, via Facebook.  She's really quite amazing.  It's not that I look for opportunities to outshine her (OK, yes I do), but for some reason I take on projects to which I should be saying "no."

Now that the cake turned out to my liking, I can openly admit that I should have said, "I don't have a clue how to do that, so go somewhere else" to my last client who wanted a copy of a Cletrac Crawler tractor for her father's birthday cake.  But I'm too proud to say "I can't."  Instead I said, "Sure! I can do that for you!"

I emailed Shanna for support, "A TRACTOR CAKE? WHAT DID I JUST AGREE TO?!!"  She was very sweet and supported and started by advising me to join the Can't Say No Anonymous support group and ended with a sarcastic "good luck."  I think I could actually hear her snickering under her breath in the email.  I took it as a challenge.

So, I got a little information and a picture or two from my very sweet client and went to work.  She said that "Rug" is a rather simple farmer who loves his tractor, his black Angus cows and his beer.  He also loves grilling - and it made me want to grill up a big juicy Porterhouse.

Here's the cake, complete with strategically placed mud and a lager-drinking Angus (betcha can't say that fast 10 times) I have to admit, this was a very fun cake to make and I'm pretty darn impressed with myself, if I do say so...and I do.

Let the being impressed with me commence.

from trash to laundry

I found a project idea on Pinterest and decided to give it a go, but I wanted mine to be better.  Of course, I want mine to be better.  My theme song is "Anything you can do, I can do better."  Not because I really can, but it motivates me.  Ok, yes, I CAN do anything better...at least in my head.

I bought a couple wicker laundry hampers a few years ago and they lasted about 2 years...but I've been using them for about 4.  The sticks keep breaking off and coming loose and I think the lid of the one I've been using most only covers about 3/4 of the top now as it continues to un-weave itself.

The project involves painting a basic galvanized trash can and put a fabric collar around it.  Of course, I didn't want just a collar around the outside, I wanted a full fabric liner that I could remove to wash and that would protect the laundry from any rough edges that may be lingering in the metal can.  So that's what I did.

I measured around the top and bottom of the can to get the dimensions of the liner.  There are two seams lengthwise.  I traced around the bottom of the can for the bottom of the liner.  For the decorative collar, I measured twice the length I wanted to fold over plus a few extra inches for the inside.  It's self lined and I added a band of elastic around the under side of collar.  The collar is also a couple extra inches in width to make sure it fit around the outside.

I decided to not do a tutorial, simply because it takes too long.  And if you sew regularly, you'll be able to figure it out.  If you don't sew, you won't attempt it anyway, so there you go.

Spray painting in the winter is a bit of a challenge, but I got it done in two coats with two cans.  I did it in my garage, much to my man's dismay as I left an aqua blue dust covering the garage and most of it's contents.

So there it is.  More projects to come.  I've got a busy January and you'll be hearing all about it.

Puppy Love

As much as I don't understand the desire to have a dog in the house to chew up designer shoes and shed fur all over, I can appreciate the love that a puppy brings to the world.  I'm pretty sure that unless my health dictated it, I would never choose to get one because I have enough to feed and clean up after in my world and I don't like having extra responsibilities.  Why do I have children if I don't want responsibility, you ask?  Well, they eventually grow up, leave the house and then take care of me.  My oldest daughter can't get enough of dogs.  She loves them.  I don't get it.  I hope she brings home grand babies some day instead of grand-puppies.

My dearest friend lost her best canine buddy a few months ago.  She was very sad at the loss of this little Yorkie who had seen my friend through the most difficult years of her life.  She has mourned the loss of her little friend and I'm sure that never a day goes by when she doesn't remember the love that little Kalie gave her.  She said to me recently that dogs are very therapeutic for her, and I believe her.  She is a dog person through and through.

That said, my dear friend has a new arrival, and my daughters and I got to go to our first ever doggie shower to welcome Lulu Cupcake, one of the cutest little German Yorkies I've ever seen.  I got to make the cupcakes for the party (as seen above).

I wanted to make her something extra special, so I did some reasearch and came up with a recipe for doggie biscuits.  Ever wonder what do do with the 10 pounds of leftover turkey from Thanksgiving dinner?  Well, I've got an idea for you.

Turkey Bacon Treats
2 c flour (whole wheat or white)
3 c oatmeal (blended into a coarse flour)
1 tps. baking powder
1 egg
1 c. chicken broth
1 tsp. flax seed oil or fish oil (or olive oil, if you don't have this on hand)
2 c. finely shredded cooked turkey or chicken  (I used a food processor to chop mine up into small bits.)
1/4 c. bacon bits
1/4 tsp. garlic powder (opt. to keep the fleas away)

Flour surface and roll out dough into about 1/4" thick sheet. Cut out desired shapes and place on cookie sheet.  They don't puff much in the oven, so they can be fairly close to each other.  Bake on an ungreased cookie sheet at 350F for 30 minutes until golden, turning after about 20 minutes.  After 30 minutes or so, take out of the oven and brush each treat with a mixture of 1 egg white and 3 tbsp. water.  Return to oven for 3 minutes.  Turn and brush the other side and bake for another 3 minutes.  Cool completely before serving and refrigerate or freeze to maintain freshness.

And there you have it, for all my dog loving friends and family (whom I don't understand).  Love you, Lulu!

for Kalie, Shiloh and Cadi.

going around and around and around and...

The Roundabout.  In my humble opinion, it's a stupid invention.  And it's not because of the reason Wikipedia suggests: that I'm not familiar with how they work and I'm not used to them.  I'm a pretty smart girl.  I get the rules of the road.  I learn pretty fast what a road sign says.  I still think it's a stupid invention.

I had my first experience with it several years ago in while my husband and I toured southern France with my parents.  The vacation was lovely, but the roundabouts were everywhere and my husband, the designated driver, took them at warp speeds.  We couldn't read the signs fast enough, so we'd go around and around and around and around.  I remember one specific time, there were 4 exits and on every sign, 4 towns were listed.  It was night time and 4 of us were trying to scroll through French town names while getting dizzy speeding by.  I don't know how many times we went around that stupid roundabout, but it was no less than 6 by the time we actually found the right exit.  By the time we found it, we were all laughing so hard that we had tears in our eyes.  It was reminiscent of a Lampoon's vacation.

I've heard nightmare stories about drivers getting stuck in "traffic circles" during Boston's rush hour traffic. I realize that these circles have different rules than roundabouts, but, they're all just as annoying to me.  For all these years, I've been thankful that I live in the midwest, where common sense in road construction prevails...until recently.

 <insert doomsday soundclip here>

For some reason, Minnesota has decided with urban sprawl or suburban decline or whatever the current trend is right now, that it wants to start adding in roundabouts at random spots in the Twin Cities.  I first noticed it in Edina near the upity mall.  "Typical!" I thought.  "Of all places, in the Midwest, Edina would want to give off a European pretense."  The weird part about these particular roundaobuts is that they were randomly installed in an otherwise thru road that had no exits besides a minor turn off for the back entrance to the mall.  In my opinion, they were simply installed to slow traffic down on a road that isn't particularly pedestrian heavy.  Dumb.

I was really not all that disgusted because I don't really shop down there too much.  I just thought it was worth a giant eye roll and a big pathetic sigh.

However, I've now read in my local city's quarterly report that they're putting one in near me (thankfully not on a road I have to readily travel), and now I'm annoyed.  It's at a major road intersection and it's going to be a major pain.  To top it off the article is talking up how great they are for traffic and pedestrian safety.  Yeah,  yeah, blah blah blah.  It's funny, because I don't know a lot of people who generally walk across highways in the middle of nowhere.  Check the safety reports for cyclists, shall we?  They tend to get hit a lot more in roundabouts than a typical intersection.

There's my soapbox sermon for the day.  Roundabouts are stupid.

dressing up my fireplace

Last year, I added a mantle to one side of my 3-sided fireplace.  It was a blank canvas of brick and I was tired of not having anywhere to hang my stockings.  It's pretty basic, just a 2x8 and a couple of brackets from Anthropologie.  The entire project cost me about $80 ($50 for the brackets, $10 for the wood, $20 for the paint).  Not bad for a new fireplace mantle, but I was ticked off that I had to buy new brackets.  When we moved from our old place, I brought with me some nearly identical brackets I had purchased 10 years ago for half the price.  I searched high and low and could not find the box that had yet to be unpacked, and I was annoyed that I had to buy more...and that the price had doubled.

Oh, wait.  I lied.  I also spent $80 on a hammer drill that we had to buy to get the screws into the brick to hold the brackets to the wall.  My husband went through about 5 drill bits and 45 minutes he'll never get back to try to drill pilot holes into the brick and only got about 1/4" deep into one hole before he gave up and bought a hammer drill.  Then it took him all of 10 minutes.

Well, a year and a storage room cleaning later, I finally found the box and the brackets, and so I've decided to add a mantle to the other side of my fireplace...facing the "sitting room" that is used for the office and temporary home of my industrial sewing machine.

Here's my quick and relatively ambiguous "how-to."

Make sure you check the safety regulations for mantles.  There are specific codes for how deep and how far above the fireplace a mantle should be.  I used this reference guide on which there is a simple diagram on page 195.

Step one: Purchase brackets...pretty ones.

Step two: Measure desired length of finished mantle and depth of brackets.

Step three: Pick out wood.  Use planed for a crisper, more modern look or do what we did and use basic lumber.  Please make sure the wood you choose is not warped in any way. Cut it to the right size or have the lumber store cut it for you.

Step four: Prep and paint the wood panel.  I sanded and filled any holes and knots with wood filler.  I used oil based primer and then semigloss latex paint.

Step five: Measure and place the brackets so they are level and evenly spaced from the edges of board and walls.  Use a laser level to make sure your brackets are set so that the mantle will be level.  Be sure to level vertically too.

Step six: Mark where your screw holes will go with a pencil and use a hammer drill to make pilot holes.  Attach your brackets with masonry screws.  If your wall is drywall instead of brick or stone, you can use a regular drill and drywall anchors if needed.

Step seven: If your brackets have little knobs on them to hold your wood in place like mine did, mark where they go and drill small holes to house the knobs. Make sure the space between the board and the wall is even on both sides.

Step eight: put board in place.

Step nine: paint the screws so they blend in.