What We've Been Up To - FOOD!
On Saturday we had Matt's family (his parents, grandparents, and his grandma's sister and her husband) over to dinner. Matt and I spent the morning cleaning feverishly (gram's sister is known for white glove inspections). We managed to get the whole downstairs cleaned as well as all of my fall decor pulled out.
I also managed to bake! A pear tart and molten chocolate lava cakes: YUM!!!! The pear tart was delicious! There's a tree behind my massage therapist's office, they were just falling from the branches, and she said I could pick whatever I wanted...so I did! I didn't follow a recipe, but here is an approximation of what I did.
Pear Tart
For the filling:
On Saturday we had Matt's family (his parents, grandparents, and his grandma's sister and her husband) over to dinner. Matt and I spent the morning cleaning feverishly (gram's sister is known for white glove inspections). We managed to get the whole downstairs cleaned as well as all of my fall decor pulled out.
I also managed to bake! A pear tart and molten chocolate lava cakes: YUM!!!! The pear tart was delicious! There's a tree behind my massage therapist's office, they were just falling from the branches, and she said I could pick whatever I wanted...so I did! I didn't follow a recipe, but here is an approximation of what I did.
Pear Tart
For the filling:
Peel enough pears to fill a pie pan, halve them long-wise and use a melon baller to remove the seeds.
Brown about a 1/4cup butter in a pan, along with a 1/2 cup brown sugar.
Place pears in butter and sugar cooking until tender and majority of sugar and butter has cooked down.
For the crust:
Take a large pie pan and pour approximately 2 cups of flour in, 1 tbsp sugar, and a 1/3 cup vegetable oil. Mix all ingredients until you have something the consistancy of dough and enough to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. (you can keep adding more flour and oil until you have enough).
For the topping:
Melt approximately 1/4 cup of butter, add sugar until you have a dry-ish, crumbly mixture.
Pour the still hot pears and butter into the pie pan. Sprinkly top with butter-sugar mixture. Bake in oven at 375* until edges of crust are golden and pears are cooked through. Serve with fresh whipped cream! Enjoy!
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On Tuesday night I really wanted French Onion Soup (which Matt makes wonderfully!). We compromised: If I peeled the 3lbs of onions and baked the bread he would make the soup! So that's dinner tonight: Fresh bread, French Onion Soup, salad, and goat cheese: YUM!
I was a crying wreck by the time Matt got home to make the soup: To the point that the dogs would not leave my side and proceeded to jump up on my leg every time I sniffled!
I'm bad. I never follow a recipe for my bread.
This is basically: 3-4 cups flour. 1 packet of yeast (or 1tbs). 1 tsp of sugar. 1 tsp of kosher salt.
Bread is actually really easy to make...a lot easier than most people would believe. I put all of the ingredients in the bread machine, set it to dough, and came back, when it beeped, to perfectly risen dough.
I oiled the pan I was using (a baguette pan), cut my dough in half, stretched it to approximately how long it was needed...then I did something different. I filled a bowl with warm water and a heaping dollop of kosher salt (that's all we use in our house). I placed each one of the baguettes in
the water for a few seconds, making sure the whole thing was coated, plopped them in the pan, let them rise for 10 minutes more, then in the oven they went.
Brown about a 1/4cup butter in a pan, along with a 1/2 cup brown sugar.
Place pears in butter and sugar cooking until tender and majority of sugar and butter has cooked down.
For the crust:
Take a large pie pan and pour approximately 2 cups of flour in, 1 tbsp sugar, and a 1/3 cup vegetable oil. Mix all ingredients until you have something the consistancy of dough and enough to cover the bottom and sides of the pan. (you can keep adding more flour and oil until you have enough).
For the topping:
Melt approximately 1/4 cup of butter, add sugar until you have a dry-ish, crumbly mixture.
Pour the still hot pears and butter into the pie pan. Sprinkly top with butter-sugar mixture. Bake in oven at 375* until edges of crust are golden and pears are cooked through. Serve with fresh whipped cream! Enjoy!
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
On Tuesday night I really wanted French Onion Soup (which Matt makes wonderfully!). We compromised: If I peeled the 3lbs of onions and baked the bread he would make the soup! So that's dinner tonight: Fresh bread, French Onion Soup, salad, and goat cheese: YUM!
I was a crying wreck by the time Matt got home to make the soup: To the point that the dogs would not leave my side and proceeded to jump up on my leg every time I sniffled!
I'm bad. I never follow a recipe for my bread.
This is basically: 3-4 cups flour. 1 packet of yeast (or 1tbs). 1 tsp of sugar. 1 tsp of kosher salt.Bread is actually really easy to make...a lot easier than most people would believe. I put all of the ingredients in the bread machine, set it to dough, and came back, when it beeped, to perfectly risen dough.
I oiled the pan I was using (a baguette pan), cut my dough in half, stretched it to approximately how long it was needed...then I did something different. I filled a bowl with warm water and a heaping dollop of kosher salt (that's all we use in our house). I placed each one of the baguettes in
the water for a few seconds, making sure the whole thing was coated, plopped them in the pan, let them rise for 10 minutes more, then in the oven they went.The water bath makes the crust very crisp and crusty...delicious!
Dinner was delicious!
Dinner was delicious!
2 comments:
Oh my word... a food blog! LOL. It looks good.
And I just wanted you to know that I am keeping you guys in my thoughts and prayers.
FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD! I'm drooling!
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