Pear & Raspberry Pie

The other day while reading through some of the blogfeeds that i read through my email account i stumbled across a recipe that sounded too amazing for words! I'd been talking about making pie to a few people. One in particular stated that I would never make it, as pies are far too much work. Well I proved him wrong! I made a gorgeously delicious pie!

The piecrust is a butter pastry, and the filling is absolutely to die for!  And of course... it was courtesy of Martha Stewart!

*** Pear & Raspberry Pie Recipe ***

Ingredients

Pears all cut up and ready to go

Rolling out the bottom crust

using a fork to puncture the crust, this keeps it from shrinking.

mmmm how pretty are those colours?

I used cookie cutters to cut the pastry top and overlayed heart pastry petals.

Too keep the juices from oozing, add more heart petals. I'll definitely be doing that next time.

How adorable would this be for Valentines day?!

top with a dollop of icecream and you've got a delicious dessert!

Perfection.

Baked Chicken Fingers

Well mom and I were talking about dinner options and I had a hankering for chicken fingers. Probably one of my favourite things to eat! especially with homemade honey dill sauce. mmm delicious!

So we didn't have any pre-bought chicken fingers. I suggested making some! How much better can you get than homemade chicken fingers?!  We began pulling out the supplies to make them and then realized that the breadcrumbs that we had were stale. We scrounged around in the cupboards and thought of Ricecrispies!!! yum!

3 Chicken Breasts cut into strips.

Bowl 1
1 cup flour
1 tbs salt
1 tbs pepper (or any other spice you want to use)

Bowl 2
2 eggs

Bowl 3
5 cups Rice Krispies

Bake 450F, for 15 min, then broil for 5 extra minutes to crisp them up.

All the good ingredients!

Rolling out the Rice Krispies until it was a mixture of powder and crumbly bits

Our line up

Getting ready to bake!

how yummy do THOSE look!

Chicken fingers with sweet thai chili sauce!

Rollkuchen

This is a wonderful summer treat. Many groups have different versions of the same recipe. I liken it to a fried bannick, but it's a lot lighter. We made it this past summer to go great with watermelon, or simply spread some garlic butter over top of it for a delicious bread with pasta or a meat dish.

I remember my grandma and great grandmother making these. They were also a staple at any family get together. My mom had never in her life made them herself, so she pulled out the old family recipe book and was teaching my brother how to make them. I eventually received a personal lesson as well, but here are the pictures from my brother's learning experience!

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 cup milk

Mix dry ingredients together. Add eggs, sour cream and milk; mix well. Roll out dough on floured surface to .5 cm (1/8") thickness. Cut into rectanguar pieces. Fry quickly in oil, until golden brown, turning once. Drain on paper towel.

Variation:
Cut rolled out dough in squares. Place any kind of fruit on each square, add a little sugar. Fold squares over and pinch edges together securely. Fry quickly in fat, turning once. Fry until nicely brown.

now, just a warning. These aren't very healthy!!! well okay a little healthier if you use EVOO! (Extra Virgin Olive Oil).

Mom rolling out the dough. cutting the dough and getting ready to place it in the frying pan.

My brother's job to turn the Rollkuchen. He had it timed perfectly.

Placing the fried Rollkuchen on a some paper towels to dry.

How delicious do they look? Yum!

Something a little retro

My first project. An apron.
I'll learn how to hem, gather, read a pattern, sew straight lines, or curved which was the case.

So mom took me to fabric land, humouring my newest adventure.  See i sometimes have started projects in the past and don't finish them. She has however become my crafting buddy at Christmas time and helped me get through all of my glass block projects. Yay mom!

So as I said, she humoured me and took me to Fabric land where i picked up a few apron patterns, and different styles of material. How cute is this apron pattern? I'm totally wanting to make them all! simply gorgeous!

Here i'm sewing on biased tape, i'm doing it in a 2 step process.

unroll the bias tape, sew. Re-roll the biased tape and sew a second time to give it a perfect hemline.

I also learned, that i hate having my pins on the left hand side as i'm sewing. 

Not so much fun, but as my mom says, you learn as you go!

Here I'm hemming the ties that fashion the bow at the back. how perfect is that hemline?

gotta love having the iron handy to press as you go!

Here is mom modelling for me so I can snap a few photo's of the finished apron.

while i love the look of the apron, the finished product wasn't exactly what I wanted. So i will tweak the pattern a little bit and try again. I was hoping for a little more bounce and body with it. I added some craft netting underneath the top two layers, but it just didn't give it that ooomph that i wanted it to have. 

It still is adorably sweet!

Sewing Machine

I love all things retro. I have an old soul and seem to simply connect with an era that I wasn't born in.
I watch musicals, listen to big band and the standards and i love retro furniture.
There is just something so mesmerizing about classic lines and femininity.

I bought myself a Sewing Machine. My first. Perhaps if i become more advanced, I'll be able to purchase something a little fancier. for now, this will do for my craft projects and learning on.

Singer 2932 Machine

Brand New Blog!

So the other day I decided I wanted to learn how to sew.
Growing up my mother sewed everything for us, from stuffed animals, to blankets to clothing. She made some beautiful pieces for us as children growing up, along with some exquisite items for herself. She's brilliantly talented.

I, on the other hand am a beginner. Other than home economics and wood working in junior high, and managing to make my brother a quilt out of old jeans I had lying around the house... that's been my attempt at anything even remotely considered domestic. Don't get me wrong, I can cook relatively well... but some things just seem to be a dying art form.

I think back to my grandmother, and her generation, even my mother's. They cooked, cleaned, raised children, sewed, took care of the household and the repairs that needed to be done. (except for painting boats... which is an entirely different story) They are women who are strong, who take charge, who don't necessarily need a man to do everything for them. So why should I sit back and let some of these art forms die out in and with my generation? Why has my generation become lazy, self-centred and self-obsorbed.

Working for a feminist organization for years, all I heard about was women's liberation and how we shouldn't be working for the man, we shouldn't be as domesticated. It's what women fought for.
No. Women fought for choice. For options. We obtained the right to have options.

But I don't want to sit back, when given those options, and continue going to Walmart for my consumer driven products, or M&M meats and buy my regular low fat, low carb boxed meals (which really aren't low carb or low fat when they mask it with sodium). I want to learn new things, challenge myself and my abilities. Knowing full well I may fall flat on my face.

So, with that being said, this is my homage to my great grandmother, grandmothers and mother who have worked hard all their lives.  this is my journey... my learning experience, and my creative process, whether it be crafting, sewing, baking/cooking or DIY projects around the house.

Here we go! Prepare for some great attempts and some failure, but that's all part of life!

Enjoy!