Pastry

It is my greatest weakness. Actually, any baked good is my greatest weakness. (And if it's a chocolate baked good - I'm completely powerless.)

Today we had lunch at Panera. While I wasn't looking, Scotty bought a pastry. It was small and round and had a slice of apple in the middle. It tasted caramel-y. It was very good. But in a state of high self-confidence, I told him, "I could make something even better than this." He then challenged me to try.

I didn't know exactly what the pastry was. As soon as we got home I searched online and found some recipes for similar pastries to what we had eaten, but I wasn't satisified so I took my "Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook" off the shelf. I found it! It's called a Tarte Tatin. Upon quickly scanning the ingredients, I realized I had everything I needed to bake it. So I hauled down the food processor and made the dough, which had to chill for at least an hour. A little bit of knitting and an episode of "Grey's Anatomy" later, I went back into the kitchen and finished baking my tarte tatin. It was a surprisingly easy pastry to make, and when the oven timer beeped and I turned the pan upside down on a parchment paper-covered cookie sheet I audibly gasped. It was so beauty-full, if I do say so myself. And I do say so myself! Another Martha recipe brought to perfect fulfillment. I *heart* Martha.

I tasted it. Buttery crust, tart apples and chewy caramel. Heaven.

Here's my tarte. It really is nice and round - the edges that you see are the caramel-y syrup melting onto the parchment paper.

......So my family Christmas party was wonderful, as usual! We all had a great time and we all received wonderful gifts. Some of my favorites are a large Vera Bradley bag to keep my knitting/crochet projects in, a cookbook called "Cake Batter Cookies", a set of three wooden spoons, two Golden Spiced Pear Yankee jar candles and a dozen Yankee votives, a Pancake Puff Pan (a la an infomercial I saw a few months ago), and a novel that I'm looking forward to reading, and an awesome thick fleece blanket from Kenzie, and some fleece jammies with snowflakes on them. It was a good, good Christmas, indeed!! Scotty got lots of clothes and a DVD and a Playstation 3 game. Lissy got MAJOR clothes (all SOOOO cute!) and toys. She had an absolute blast. She wore a very cute dress to Grandma's house. She's like her mama in that she doesn't wear dresses all that often, so when she does - it presents a rare and precious photo op.

And here she is today right before we left for lunch, modeling the scarf that I knitted for her. Doesn't she look warm and toasty?! I was surprised she didn't try to rip it right off, but she didn't. She kept it on and seemed proud to be wearing it!

Signing off for now. Merry Christmas Eve!