Pear Frangipane

This is a recipe for a pear tart that is pure HEAVEN!
It is simple, has few ingredients and fast!

Using your food processor makes it go really quick.

Pastry
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp. cold butter cut into pieces
2 tbsp. ice water

In a food processor bowl combine, flour and salt. Pulse to mix. Add butter and pulse until it resembles coarse meal. Add ice water and pulse until a ball of dough nearly forms. Gather into a ball and wrap in plastic, chill 1 hr. (less if flattened)

Preheat oven to 375*F
Roll out dough and place into a 9" tart pan, pressing dough up the sides.  Bake 20 minutes, let cool.

Frangipane
6 tbsp. butter
 2/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup ground almonds
2 tsp. flour
1 tsp. cornstarch
1 egg
1 egg white
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. almond extract
3 soft, ripe pears, (peeled, cut into halves lengthwise, and cored)

In food processor bowl combine butter and sugar, process til smooth. Add almonds, flour, cornstarch, pulse to combine.   Next add egg and egg white along with the extracts. Pulse until well blended. Spread frangipane in cooled crust, slice pears and nestle into the frangipane and spread the pears out. but do not separate them.bake 40 minutes or until the frangipane is set, and golden brown.

Easy project makes a great gift!

LOVE, that is it.
ok, well maybe a camera and some kids and some frames. And in about 2-3 hrs you can have a timeless gift ready to go.
 First I printed out some letters on cardstock. I used the letters L-O-V-E. I printed them using the Georgia font, at a 700pt.  They turned out great.

Next I had the grand kids line up and I took the pictures out side in the freezing cold. I had each kid hold each one of the letters. And I took multiple photos, just to make sure I got great ones I could use. So that would mean a minimum of 16, but in reality I took about 120 pics in 10 minutes. (Why was our photo shoot so short? Because it was about 20 degrees outside and we were FREEZING! And Ice crystals were starting to fall out of the sky.)

Then I went in and cropped and edited them. I wanted black and white photos so it was really easy to do. Next I uploaded to Costco.com and had 8x10's printed out. I picked them up added some cute frames and voila! Beautiful, meaningful gift. I was so happy with the way they turned out.

This is an awful picture of the finished product. They look so cute and this photo does not do them justice. 

So, to see the photos how they really appear see them below. 

I was really close to the kids and tried to take shots that were from the waist to the top of the head or a little higher.  Also I wanted to get their personalities to shine through the photos. I did not care if their eyes were not wide open, if they were having a genuine laugh going on.  I was teasing and snapping photos and making the kids laugh as fast as I could. 

 I also looked for interesting backgrounds, knowing we were going to do the photos in black and white, I wanted some visual interest.  Texture!

I think this is a project anyone can do if you have the time to plan ahead and have a few hours. 

       IT!

17 years!

Can it be 17 years have gone by?
17 years with my best friend!
17 years of love and joy!
17 years of wedded bliss to my wonderful husband!

Happy Anniversary Justin! I love you, more each day!

Wow, it has been a slow few months on the blog front!

So much to do and so little time to do it.... that has been my motto lately. Our homeschool year has me busy! I don't seem to be able to keep up with the laundry much less the blog. I am going to make a concentrated effort to do the pictures of the month starting in January. I have missed doing that series this year!

Tomorrow I am going to share a project that I created for my mother in law for her birthday. I got the idea from Pinterest. However I did not know how easy it would be. I am thrilled with it and can't wait to share it.

I also want to share a few recipes, the ones that are easy for this time of year.  But that will have to be in the next few days. Tonight I am exhausted!

Zac Thomas Images

Everyone has that person in their lives, the one with an amazing talent, the talent you wish you had. Well Zac Thomas is that person for me. His images are amazing!!!!  He has a giant camera and takes awesome photos with it. But the images I am talking about today are from his iPhone. You can check out his website here.
Check it out just in time for Christmas.  I know you are going to find an image for that person who just has everything, or that person who is so hard to buy for.   Or maybe you will find one for yourself. So go on and check out his site, and tell him I sent ya!

Plus he is hosting a contest here.  You really do want to check this one out I Promise!!!

let's be honest here....

Lately I have been trying to be more conscious of  not being so judgmental. It is something that

I struggle with.  I have tried to ask myself, How can you help instead of judging, and if you can't then just don't think about it at all, Or pray for this situation or individual.  Sometimes it is so difficult to do that. 

Well  for the last 3 days, I have been judging the gentleman in the photo below. I don't know how he can just sit there in his hoodie all day. Every time I look out side, he is sitting there just doing nothing. Probably smoking, wasting his time and money instead of supporting his baby.  

Ugh!!! It has me frustrated!!! 

Today I walked outside and just watched for a minute. And what I saw was ugly. He was not there anymore, or rather he was. But he wasn't what he seemed.  

Yep, just take a closer look and you will see it too.

I realized that the "Man" I had been judging so harshly the last 3 days was in fact not even a man but a seat out of a car.  The Ugly part comes when I realize how "quick to judge",  I can be sometimes. I wasted precious energy and resources on my judgmental attitude of this neighbor.  How do I feel about the whole situation? Ridiculous! to be sure.  Confused... I could have prayed for this individual but in the end I would have been praying for an empty chair.  I need to pray for my own eyes, to see things the way Christ would.

P.S. I am also making an appointment with the optometrist  ASAP!

have you seen fish face?

Recently I discovered Pintrest, and I am addicted!

I don't know why it took so long to discover, but I am happy that it finally happened. 

If you don't know what Pinterest is you MUST go check it out. 

While browsing the boards on Pinterest, I came across a photo I just could not stop staring at. 

Check it out. 

(I tried really hard to find a credit for this photo, I found it on pinterest and followed it to a few other websites but could never find the owner, my leads stopped at Tumblr.)

Isn't that photo fun?

It just so happened that while pulling all of the harvest/ halloween type decorations out. My daughter also found the makeup. 

So 

We decided to try it out.  Please keep in mind that I am in no way, shape, or form, an artist.  We did what we could for fun, and we liked the out come. 

 Here is our version.

  We had a lot of fun making goofy fish faces! 

Next time I will try harder to make it look like a fish.