Apple Florets

These are a perfect dessert for a dinner party.  1) They are adorable and 2) You can make them ahead of time and they will heat while you are eating your meal!  I adapted this recipe from a few different recipes to come up with this individual apple pie/tart.

Crust
2 c flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 ½ sticks cold butter and cubed
1 tbsp vinegar
1 egg
½ c ice cold water

Filling
5 granny smith apples
¼ c lemon juice
1 c water
3 tbsp Penzeys baking spice 
1/3 c sugar
1 tbsp flour

butter for greasing pan

6 tbsp butter, softened
1 egg
splash of milk

Sift flour salt and sugar together in a medium bowl.  Add cold, cubed butter and combine with a pastry blender or fork.

Blend until the mixture becomes course crumbs.  Wisk vinegar, egg, and cold water.  Add to butter mixture.  Knead until it becomes a dough, and form it into a ball.

Cover with plastic and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Mix the lemon juice and water in a medium bowl.  Peal the apples and place in lemon water immediately after they are pealed.  Slice the apples and put them back in the lemon water. 

Strain the lemon water out, rinse out the bowl, and put the apple slices back in the bowl.  Toss with baking spice, sugar, and flour.

Quarter the dough and roll out a 3 foot section of plastic wrap.  Flatten the dough in the middle of one ½ of the plastic wrap.  Fold the plastic wrap over and roll out an 8 inch circle of dough.  Repeat for each quarter of dough.

Place the rolled out pieces of dough in the freezer for 3 minutes.  Butter individual dishes, tart pans, or a baking sheet…depending on what you want to use.

Form the rolled out dough into the dishes/tart pans or lay on a baking sheet.  Add the filling.

Fold the dough over the filling.  Divide the remaining butter into four and spread over the filling.  Wisk the egg and splash of milk, and brush over the dough.

Once you serve dinner, pop these in a preheated 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes or until the dough is nicely browned.  Serve with vanilla bean or cinnamon ice cream and enjoy!!

***The amazing photos are courtesy of my friend Beth.  For more information about Beth's photography, you can contact her at beth.ellen.23@gmail.com.

Bye Bye Hair!

My hair was getting SUPER long, so I decided to donate it to Locks of Love.  This was the third time I was able to donate.  It isn't that I am overly generous or anything. Basically I am too lazy/cheap to get frequent hair cuts, and next thing I know it is over a foot long.  When it is that long, it is hot and annoying and not convenient...so I was thrilled to chop it off.  Here's the new look...

I’m spending more time with the fax machine than my husband...AKA we’re buying a house…

We have an accepted offer, a completed inspection, and boxes ready to move.  There’s just one last pesky little thing…the loan.  We’ve been preapproved and have filled out all of the paperwork, but I am still spending almost every day faxing.  I think I’ve faxed our full filing cabinet in triplicate.  They keep asking for more bank statements and pay stubs…next they’ll want me to fax them a kidney!

I have a strong desire to do this to the fax machine at work…

Hopefully the faxing will be over soon, and we should be homeowners by the end of the month!

A Window to the World

My new job is very busy but super great.  One of the best things about it is that I have a HUGE window in my cube.  At my last job, I was in such a large cube farm that I was no where near an exterior wall never-the-less a window.  I used a background on my gmail account to alert me to when it was raining/snowing/dark out...depressing huh?

Now I have a glorious GLORIOUS window!!!  Here is a picture...

I have a little African violet that I am currently killing.  I don't do well with flowering plants...by not well, I mean I slowly kill them.  I'm surprised that there isn't a picture of me at Wal-Mart with the caption, "do not sell flowering plants to this woman...she is a murderer."

Anyway, I have a great view of this empty field which you think would be boring...but you would be wrong.  Here is a list of the things that have happened in the field.

1) The grass was really long (over a foot).  They mowed it one day, raked it around another day, then raked it into rows the next day, and finally baled it...with a tractor!  I don't know how anybody did work that day.  Unfortunately I wasn't around when they collected the bales...knew I shouldn't have left that night.

2) The day after the long grass was mowed, a hawk came by and snatched up all of the confused critters in the field...score for me and the hawk...not so much for the critters.

3) Many people in cars stop while they talk on their cell phones (people here actually stop driving for a phone call here...weird).

4) And today...TODAY!...a guy came and flew his remote controlled helicopter.  He had come by once before, but the helicopter crashed in the middle of the field and he carried it away all sad.  Today he flew that thing for a full 1/2 hour.  Not only that, but he had to change his shirt in order to operate the helicopter and then changed it back when he was done.  He has a special shirt for operating a remote controlled helicopter...who does that??...that guy I guess.

I'll keep you updated...cause this is bound to only get better from here...

Background Change

As you can see I've updated the background a bit.  Let me know if you love it or hate it!  So far I'm liking it...but like everything in life, it is bound to piss me off eventually.

Love,
AM

Top 10 Reasons You Know You Live in Wisconsin

10 - When you put on your turn signal, people let you in the lane.

9 - When the cable guy speaks English and calls if he is going to be late.

8 - When you ride a motorcycle, drivers give you extra room as opposed to joining you in your lane.

7 - When the high temp for the day is in the upper 80s, it is considered a heat wave.

6 - When there are fields of corn growing within the city limits.

5 - When you get a hand written note from the woman at the bank who signed you up for your new accounts.

4 - When rush hour actually only lasts an hour.

3 - When you can go to the DMV, be told with a smile that you are missing a piece of documentation, go home, and get back to the front of the line in a 1/2 hour.

2 - When drinking, eating fried foods, and laying around aren't vices, they are hobbies fit for competition.

and the number 1 way you know you live in Wisconsin...

1 - When you buy a 6-pack of beer, the grocery store gives you a brick of cheese for free.

Three Men and a Tool Box...and other new apartment woes

So far we are really enjoying Madison, our new apartment, and the cool, Wisconsin summer.  However, there are a few things about our apartment that have been getting on our nerves...

1) We're not quite sure what the kids upstairs are doing, but we think it is some variant on sumo wrestling combined with American Gladiators combined with some plyometrics training combined with practicing for next year's running of the bulls festivities.  They run and jump around all day and into the night.  We're trying to figure out a neighborly way to tell them to shut the hell up, but as you can see, that's not going well.

2) Although all of the children that we've met in the complex (and there are a lot of them) are very nice, they play outside all day (not a bad thing)...and bounce balls into cars...ugh.  We've already noticed a couple of dents.  The complex is working on getting the parents to...I don't know...parent them, but until then...dents...ugh.

3) BUZZ...so in our old place, we had a key pad to enter a password to get into the building...now there's a buzzer.  We're getting buzzed...a lot...and not by friends stopping by to say hi...just random people trying to get in the building.  Last night there was almost an hour of buzzing...at 3am...brilliant.  It finally stopped, but when I left for work this morning there were three men and a tool box sleeping in the hallway...WTF?!?!