Just a wee favor

No, I am not asking you all to do me a favor.

I just wanted to show off the sample for the wedding favors I am making for my uncle's wedding.

I got a Halloween-themed version of this from the Stampin' Up demonstrator, Iris, at last Sunday's stamping.

I thought it would be a great party favor, so I offered to make them.

So simple, so easy, so chocolatey. Yes, those are full-size chocolate bars.

(The image is from PaperTreyInk)

I couldn't resist

I had leftovers of the stuff needed to make the little apple tarts, so I decided to make one for dessert last night.

I got it all ready to go and put it in the fridge to bake after I had dinner.

But after dinner, I was too full for dessert.

So I left it in the fridge overnight. It was all assembled, but unbaked.

I decided to bake it this morning and have it for breakfast.

I mean, it DOES have fruit in it.

Of course the ice cream was a bit much for breakfast.

But it did give me a chance to take a photo of it.

And I got to test the idea of making them ahead of time and leaving them in the fridge until needed.

It works fine.

It might be too early in my day for this, but...

Sona tagged me with The Pharyngula mutating genre meme.

I have had limited caffeine so far this morning, so bear with me.

Here is how it goes:
There are a set of questions below that are all of the form, “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.
Copy the questions, and before answering them, you may modify them in a limited way, carrying out no more than two of these operations: You can leave them exactly as is. You can delete any one question. You can mutate either the genre, medium, or subgenre of any one question.
For instance, you could change “The best time travel novel in SF/Fantasy is…” to “The best time travel novel in Westerns is…”, or “The best time travel movie in SF/Fantasy is…”, or “The best romance novel in SF/Fantasy is…”.
You can add a completely new question of your choice to the end of the list, as long as it is still in the form “The best [subgenre] [medium] in [genre] is…”.
You must have at least one question in your set, or you’ve gone extinct, and you must be able to answer it yourself, or you’re not viable.
Then answer your possibly mutant set of questions. Please do include a link back to the blog you got them from, to simplify tracing the ancestry, and include these instructions. Finally, pass it along to any number of your fellow bloggers. Remember, though, your success as a Darwinian replicator is going to be measured by the propagation of your variants, which is going to be a function of both the interest your well-honed questions generate and the number of successful attempts at reproducing them.

Here is Sona's version of the questions:
The best supernatural novel in SF/Fantasy is: On A Pale Horse by Piers Anthony

The best anime movie in scientific dystopias is: Ghost In The Shell

The best breakup song in pop is: Don’t Speak by No Doubt

The best alt-country album in rock music is: Eye To The Telescope by KT Tunstall

Here are mine. I am going with a chick theme (man this is tough):

I am deleting the first question and will replace it with something else.

1.) The best female author in the humor section is: Lauri Notaro

2.) The best chick-kicks-ass movie in scientific dystopias is: Aliens

3.) The best PRE-breakup song in pop is: I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again by Eva Cassidy

4.) The best chick album in rock music is: Little Earthquakes by Tori Amos


To keep the meme alive, I'm passing it along to:

Reese of It's Not Random, It's My Brain
Susan of Random Madness in Torrance
Rachel of Passengers on a Unicycle

Oh and I really don't know how these get passed along. So I am just going to leave it here and if they read this and want to do it, great.

If not, I will not feel slighted if they choose to ignore it.

Let's make George an Internet sensation!!!

My cat wants to be a star.
Really.
He has star quality.
You know how people say someone has "it?"
George has "it."
OK, by it I mean he has a big fat belly and no fear of heights.
But c'mon... who can resists a 23-pound cat chasing his tail at the top of a ladder.
That is comic genius.
Head on over to YouTube to watch it.
Let's bump up fat boy's page views.
I mean, he's a cat. What else does he have in his life besides a bowl of kibble and a couple stuffed toys?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOLG9YhJwzE#GU5U2spHI_4

I have no future writing cookbooks

I haven't ever really written a recipe.

More like I just try to explain what I put in a dish and rough ideas of how much and how long it cooks for.

And that is pretty much what you get here. This is basically how I made the individual apple galettes for my stamping group Sunday. These were a big hit:

Quick apple galette

makes 12 (4 from each pastry sheet; about 1/2 an apple per tart)

2 packages frozen puff pastry

6-8 apples (I used fuji)

2-3 tablespoons brown sugar

white sugar

hazelnuts (I didn't measure. I got two small bags of chopped nuts from the baking aisle.)

1 lemon or 2-3 tablespoons lemon juice

1/4 cup rum (whiskey, bourbon, etc. will do)

flour for dusting rolling pin, dough

1 egg

water

preheat oven to 400 degrees

-thaw the pastry per package instructions

-while pastry thaws, peel apples and remove cores

-cut apples into quarters and then cut into slices (about 1/8 inch thick)

-put apples in a non-reactive bowl with juice from 1 lemon

-add brown sugar

-add rum

-toss the apples and liquid until sugar has dissolved; set aside

-finely chop nuts; set aside

-once pastry is thawed, remove three sheets (usually there are 2 sheets per box)

-unfold each sheet and roll each out to about 1/8 inch thickness

-cut each sheet into 4 pieces

-spread about 1-2 tbsp nuts on center of pastry, leaving pastry bare about 1-inch all around

-layer apple slices over nuts

-fold up edges of pastry all around and press to seal

-repeat with all pastry pieces and arrange tarts on baking sheets about an inch apart

-beat egg with a little water to make egg wash

-brush egg wash on edges of pastry

-sprinkle with white sugar (brown sugar would work, too)

-bake 15-20 minutes or until pastry turns golden brown and puffy

I served these with vanilla ice cream because I ran out of time to make the almond whipped cream.

Also, I made these up a couple hours ahead of time and baked them just before I needed them.

I am not sure how long they can sit without baking. Maybe overnight? Maybe just a few hours.

The lemon juice is in there to keep the raw apples from browning, but I don't know how effective it is after more than a few hours.

Anyway... These are actually very easy. You can also just make one big galette out of one sheet of pastry. The photo is of the Martha Stewart plum galette that I have made in the past. It gives you an idea of how the dessert will look.

OK. I hope that wasn't too confusing. Bon apetit!