Not Your Average Tart

You know how you wake up some mornings and you seem destined to have a bad day? Like when you start your car and as you pull out of your driveway you have 35 miles until empty, which should be plenty of gas to get you to the gas station or maybe even work. But when you get to the end of the street and you look down you now only have 8 miles to empty! Yeah that happened to me. And if that's not bad enough when I finally did make it to the gas station (barely) my debit card refused to work. Oh not a problem, I thought, I will just grab the credit card....oh wait Joel (my husband) still has it. Well I never carry cash and the sign in the window clearly stated "NO CHECKS". So at this point I had 2 miles until empty and I was actually considering walking the twenty miles to work, but something random and ironic happened that changed my whole day. Running On Empty played on the radio. Not only did this song sum up my morning and give me something to sing along to, but it also gave me just enough motivation to think I could make the trip back home to get the credit card and attempt the drive back to the gas station. I don't know how, but a miracle occured and I made it. Thankfully the rest of the day wasn't so bad either.... so here is to you Jackson Browne! Too bad that song didn't fix my debit card when it didn't work at the Mexican restaurant later that day. Sheesh.
I am thinking maybe I would have felt better if I started my day off with one of these chocolaty squares of awesomeness. All I have to say is I will never look at a boxed toaster pastry the same way again. I had some leftover dough from my Peach Tart and added melted chocolate. You could always make your own pie dough and fill with fruit preserves (or even better Nutella) but I just used what was handy. And in this case handy was also tasty.

Homemade Pop-Tarts

• Pie Crust (refrigerated or homemade)
• Jam, Preserves, Melted Chocolate Chips, Nutella (its your choice!)
• 1 egg mixed with 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees

Unroll one of the pie crusts and square the edges. Cut into rectangles. Place 1 tsp of filling in the center of a rectangle and top with another piece of crust. Make sure to leave space around the edges.
Crimp all four edges using fork. Repeat until all of the pie crust is used. (you can shape the trimmings into a square so you wont waste any dough) Brush egg wash over top and edges of tart
Bake the pop-tarts for about 8-10 minutes or until slightly brown. Once cool top with chocolate or glaze.

Enjoy!

Right before baking

Finished Product

Yum!

Listening To:

Phoenix-Lisztomania
Pixies-Where Is My Mind?
Sia-Breathe Me
Silversun Pickups-Panic Switch

The Peachy Life

One of the main reasons I decided to start this blog because I really felt like I was blowing up my social networking site with pictures of my food. I thought to myself..."Self, why not put all of your recipes and adventures in one neat little package?" So here it is. :)
This last week at work was probably one of the most stressful weeks I have been through in a long time. It was a very wise move on my part to decide a week or two ago to take Friday off. This gave me time to go look for some furniture that I have been needing for a long time. Namely a bookshelf. Between my cookbooks and my favorite first editions my dad sends me, my home has turned into a library. Well a library with no bookshelves, just books stacked everywhere. You may wonder why I need a day off for this. Let me explain a little bit the area I live in. I live in BFE there is nothing around us. The closest drugstore or grocery store is twenty minutes away. So for furniture we were looking at about forty-five minute to an hour drive. And sadly my search turned up nothing but my intense yearning for a HUGE flat screen. But according to my husband, "We just aren't in the market for a TV." Thank goodness he keeps me grounded.
But on this trip I was inspired by some beautiful peaches at the grocery store. I decided that these beautiful fragrant orbs would be the star in my next creation. And let me tell you I did not make a mistake. This Open-Face Peach Tart was delicious and soooo easy! Make it...I dare you!

Open-Faced Peach Tart
Adapted from Sunny Anderson's Open-Faced Plum Tart

6 ripe peaches peeled and sliced
1/4 cup peach preserves
1 (9 inch) refrigerated pie crust
1 egg plus 1 tablespoon water whisked for egg wash
1/4 cup pure cane sugar (plain granulated is ok too)
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp honey

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Remove pie crust from refrigerator 10 minutes before using to soften slightly. Line a baking sheet with parchment. Unfold pie crust onto baking sheet. Spread peach preserves on crust leaving a 2-inch border around the edges. Toss sliced peaches with sugar, cinnamon and honey. Spread peaches on top of the jam. Fold edges over leaving the center exposed and press slightly to seal. Brush outside of the pie dough with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake until dough is cooked through and golden, about 35 minutes.

Serve warm with ice cream.




Listening To: Live, Airborne Toxic Event, Bush