Ahh!!!

This truly happened to me!

I was just moving it back to the fridge, and randomly thinking about the movie An Affair to Remember, and then it slipped right out of my hands.

(Enter my stomach and heart falling out if my body!)

At the moment the picture was taken, I was sobbing in frustration! And if you know me, then you know I am not an emotional person. ( Ok, so I cry in almost every movie I ever watch and book I read. I’m not heartless!!)
It was due for delivery the next morning at 8:00am and it was 1:00am at the time it was dropped.

And the lovely filling/frosting takes over an hour to set up in the fridge, not counting the actual assembly.

Now, I look at this picture and laugh! They always say you have to drop something just once to be a true baker. Well, hopefully this will be the last time this happens to me!

Has something of this terrible nature ever happened to you? Comment and let me know about how you coped.

Just come to the realization, that at some time in your baking life your little crumbs will be all over the floor!

20sb blog swap!

Today is the day!  The swap has taken place!

This has been something different and so fun.  I hope you enjoy reading my lovely partners post.

And, please go to her site so fawned for my guest post!

Hello, Little Crumbs readers! I’m so excited about today’s BIG Blog Swap, facilitated by 20 Something Bloggers!

For this round of blog swapping goodness, we’re chatting about summertime, which has me realizing that August is already ½ over and soon Autumn will be gracing us with her presence. Oh my word.

I’ve had an interesting summer… my partner & I have separated, my chickens are growing up into lovely egg-layers (I should be seeing their 1 st eggies soon!), my daughter is growing by the moment & amazes me with her 2 ½ year old wonder every single day, and less than two weeks ago I made the trip from Ontario to California, to take part in BlogHer’11 – the most insanely fabulous experience I could have ever imagined or hoped for!

Attending Blogher’11 marked my very first visit to the west coast –hailing from Peterborough, Ontario, I’ve traveled east and south, but never west. Halifax, North Carolina, Florida… all lovely, but I have to say, I really enjoyed my time in San Diego. The weather was fantastic, the people were lovely & during the conference, I got to meet my idol, Ricki Lake. How’s THAT for a bonus!

Overall, the experience was life changing and I’m so excited to put some new ideas into motion over at So Fawned.

In addition to being a blogger, I’m also a doula & prenatal educator –which means that BIRTH is basically my life, and my passion. I have recently begun teaching a new round of prenatal classes at a lovely maternity shop in our downtown area, and I’m thrilled to be doing something I truly love. How rad it is to be paid for doing something you feel so empowered by? Incredible!

Despite some of the not-so-nice parts about my summer, I have learned so much and gained a ton of insight into where I want my life to be going. Not a bad catch, at the end of it all.

I hope you’ve all had productive summers as well. Tell me, what was your favourite moment?

PS. Stop by So Fawned to say hello, or visit me on Facebook. I’m also a total Twitter addict – come follow @sofawned! Peace.

Pasta alla Formiana

I recently joined “20 something bloggers”. It’s a great community for bloggers who are just starting out, or if you’ve been doing it for years.
I’ve found some wonderful new blogs to follow, and have received some followers as well!

“20sb” is holding their ninth blog swap. This last week we were assigned our swap partners, and next Wednesday we swap.
My partner is Desiree Fawn from “so fawned” blog. Her blog is adorable, and I can’t wait for you to read what she has to say!

This dish is a little interesting, you put the un-cooked pasta in the oven, and all the moisture from the tomatoes cooks the pasta. So no cooking the past in boiling water, which will save you time.
The only thing I would change in the recipe is the amount of oregano, next time I will only add 1/8 cup.

Pasta alla Formiana

*Butter, for greasing dish
*1 (28-ounce) can crushed
tomatoes
*1 clove garlic, coarsely chopped *1 pound mezze penne or other small pasta
*1/3 cup olive oil, plus extra for drizzling
*1/4 cup dried oregano
*3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
*about 1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
*2 teaspoons kosher salt
*1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
*4 to 5 very ripe, extra-large or beefsteak tomatoes, cut into 1/2-inch thick slices

Put an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Butter an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish. Set aside.

In a food processor, blend together the crushed tomatoes and garlic. Pour into a medium bowl and add the uncooked pasta, balsamic vinegar, pepper flakes,1/3 cup olive oil, oregano, salt, and pepper. Toss until all the ingredients are coated.

Line the bottom and sides of the baking dish with tomato slices. Pour the pasta mixture into the pan and spread evenly. Arrange the remaining tomato slices in an overlapping layer on top of the pasta mixture, making sure the mixture is completely covered. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake until the tomatoes are slightly crispy and the pasta is cooked, about 1 hour. Remove from the oven and cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Silly me!!

I have been keeping some wonderful recipes from you and not even meaning to!

We have this great little group at our church, where the men and women get together once a month and hear from a foreign missionary.  In the meeting, we pray for all if our missionaries, discuss ways to help them, and whatever missionary is there with us, we get to hear how her family is serving our Lord in their chosen field.

Every month I try and find a popular dessert from that specific field, and make it for everyone at the meeting. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I can’t believe I never thought of posting about it before!!

Sometimes its very hard to find a dessert without weird, unavailable ingredients. So I try and find common ingredients and adapt to the challenge.

The Dominican Republic uses lots of bananas in their cooking and baking.  So, from my research came this delicious cookie!

 

 

 

 

 

My aunt tried the cookie and said it teased her palate, by making her want banana bread!

Banana Nut Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
6 tablespoons light brown sugar 1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 very ripe banana, slightly mashed
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped pecans

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375. Butter or line 2 baking sheets.

2. Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

3. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugars, egg, and vanilla. Add the flour mixture and stir to combine. Mix in the banana and chocolate chips until just combined.

4. Drop by the tablespoons onto the baking sheet, spacing dough an inch apart. Sprinkle pecans on top and slightly push into the cookie.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until lightly golden brown. Remove to cooling racks.

Enjoying every foreign little crumb!

Andolini’s

Last week my siblings and I went Andolini’s Pizzeria for lunch with our cousin and I thought I would a little review for ya!

To start off, it had an interesting atmosphere. I think the person who designed the room was a little schizophrenic!
They didn’t really distinguish an overall theme and for me a pizzaria needs a theme. 
Now, what I’m gonna guess they were going for is, a country (like boot-scootin boogie country)/ Italian/ industrial/ rustic vibe.
So if that makes sense to you, please explain!!
Other than the decor I really liked it!  The backs of the menus had a chart for you to write your name, date you came and reason for coming to eat their food!

I love that idea!!

The pizza was really good.
And huge!!
The picture above does not do it justice.

I can’t wait to go back and try some of the other delicious looking dishes!</p

Let me know if you like review posts like this one!

American-French Apple Tart

 

 

 

 

O’er the land of the freeeeEEEE….

And the home of the brave!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy Independence day!

Take advantage of being off work, independent and free and go make a pie.
Yep, what’s more American than Apple Tart??

( ok, so apple tart might be a little bit more french than american. but you get the picture! )

And it also helps that this little o’le blog is on a Pie/Tart series!

 

Apple Tart

FOR THE CRUST:

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/3 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour

FOR THE CREAM FILLING:

• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup sugar

• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

FOR THE TOP:

• 3 apples, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds or choppedwalnuts

 

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Make the crust: Cream the butter and sugar. Stir in the vanilla. Finally, mix in the flour to make a smooth dough. Alternately, put the butter, sugar, vanilla, and flour in the food processor and pulseto crumbs. Pour them into your pan and press into place. Press into the bottom of an 8-inch springform pan, giving it about a 1-inch rim. Bake 15 minute, or until lightly golden. Remove the tart shell from the oven.

While the crust bakes, beat together the cream cheese, sugar, eggand vanilla for the cream filling until smooth. Make the topping by tossing the apple slices with the cinnamon, sugar, and nuts.

Remove the tart shell from the oven. Spread over the cream mixture. Arrange the apple slices on top, and then scatter over the nuts. Bake until the apples are tender and golden, about 40 minutes.

 

Super Easy Lemon Pie

 

Have you ever had to audition for anything?  A school play, a dance troupe, or a choir?  Even a job interview is an audition of sorts.
Well two weeks ago I went to an audition for the Tulsa Opera, I have done it before and I have sang with them for a little over 4 years now.
It is one of the joys in my life!  I have met some fabulous people, and I just love going to every practice, costume fitting, wig fitting and performance.
Anyway, every opera season ( Tulsa does three operas a year and takes a break in the summer) the members of the chorus must audition again to make sure that our director would like us to perform with them for the next season.

 

Auditions are inevitable and  always stressful for me. I second guess myself, and normally I flub on the parts that I know the best!
But this time, my amazing voice teacher readied me for any sort of mistakes I could make. We practiced how to perform the piece and how to give the song meaning. On my last lesson before the audition I was sorta freaking out. I was forgetting my words, messing up the rhythm and just not singing my best.
So, I practiced like a mad woman!  I bugged the crap out of my family, and on the day of the audition I was ready to face them.
During the audition, I was unusually calm.
And afterward, I was comfortable with my performance. 
Now all I had to do is wait for the results. Which didn’t come for a couple if weeks!

Drum roll please!!!

I was excepted for another season, which includes 2 onstage productions and a special opening gala performance!!
I am thrilled and can’t wait to get started!

Now, if you live in Tulsa or planning a trip through here during the months of February- May, try to come see one of the shows!!

 

 

 
Don’t ya think pies and tarts just scream summer!  

 

 

Lemon Pie

 

Pie crust

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
2 1/4 sticks (18 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
4 to 6 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

Directions

1. Pulse flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor to combine. Add butter, and process until mixture resembles coarse meal, about 10 seconds. With machine running, add ice water in a slow, steady stream through the feed tube until dough just holds together (no longer than 30 seconds).

2. Divide dough in half, and shape into disks. Wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour (or up to 2 days).

Roll out pie crust and put in pie pan. Trim off excess and pricked bottom with fork.
Blind bake * your pie, then cool.

* put pie weights or dried beans in the middle to keep pie from shrinking. Bake for 7 min. Until edges are light brown. Then take out pie weights/beans and cook for 4-5 min until the bottom is slightly brown. Take out and cool.

Pie filling

1 can sweetened condensed milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice

Mix all ingredients together and add to cool pie shell.
Bake at 350 for 20 min.

Cool in fridge for at least 2 hours

Dollop with homemade whipped cream.

Enjoy!!

Who says delicious little crumbs have to take all day to make?!

Farmers market finds

The farmers market has this very unique vibe to it. 
I hate using the word vibe, but you can’t describe it any other way.
Everyone has their dog, there hip baby strollers and their re-usable, eco-friendly bags. 
By the way, I had none if those things.
And I had the biggest leather purse there, and they were all probably shooting me evil eyes under their ray-bans.

I was also surprised at how many farms are very near to me.  We bought some potatoes and green beans from Yang farm. I’ve never heard of them and the are right in town! 
They also had these snow-cones.  The syrup was made from fresh and local fruits. We tried strawberry, again from the Yang farm!

I will be checking out the Farmers Market again soon!

Easy-bake Wonders

I got mine when I was 6 and I do believe that was one of the starting points in my culinary journey.

Ok, now who really knows if that’s true or not.  But it was so much fun to play with!

My sister and I just bought my darling little cousin Isabella, an Easy-bake oven for her 6th birthday!  She just made a yellow cake with chocolate frosting, things from her kit, and pink icing and a fresh raspberry on top, which were her own  homemade touches! 

After searching a little, I discovered you can make so many things in an easy-bake. One that I found was “made from scratch” lasagna!!  Can you imagine?

Did you have one? And what masterpieces did you whip up?

Savour the all the tiny crumbs!
Even if they come out of an oven that’s soul source of power is a 100 watt light bulb!

Delicious Literature

On days when you are away from your kitchen and cannot stand it, and  you still  want some cooking inspiration, or you just want a book to fulfill both your reading and cooking passion at once. Then you must pick up some of these wonderful reads!

This one is a retelling of events that happened to a couple, who decided to buy a very old french house and remodel it into their dream home.

And at the end of every chapter she puts in some of her favorite recipes.

I really want to make her Stuffed Tomatoes and add my own spin on them!

Let me know when you finish this book, so we can all go to her house for a week-long cooking class!  Yep, she has now opened up her house On Rue Tatin for anyone to come and cook with her.

I couldn’t put these books down!

This is a trilogy that follows a girl through her life in Paris and how she finds true love.

I talked about these books in previous post, and told you how I started this series on the middle book.  Ugh… I hate doing that!!

My only critique, is the recipes she adds, all use a mix of some kind. Not very French!       tsk..tsk

This is a World War II era book, my favorite time period to read.

The girl in the book is forced  to make candy for her one of her guards without a recipe (!!!), and try to keep herself and her sister alive in a horrible concentration camp.

Now that you know some of my favorite books about cooking, I want to know yours!

Tell me about ones that I cannot live without.

Enjoy every morsel of literary crumbs your heart can take!