The Best Quick Dessert

I wanted a quick and easy dessert.  The strawberries are still good and I thought about a strawberry shortcake.  But I was going to be gone most of the day with company and I had to make dinner, too.

This is what I came up with and it was SOOOO good and fast and easy.  I'm calling it Strawberry Quick Cake.  I highly recommend it

 

Strawberry Quick Cake

1 store bought Angel Food Cake
1 1/2 cups sliced strawberries
1 or 2 teaspoons Blackberry and Ginger balsamic vinegar.  I didn't measure, just drizzled
1 teaspoon Splenda
a few twists of black pepper
Best vanilla ice cream from your market

Slice the strawberries. Sprinkle them with Splenda or sugar if you don't have or don't use Splenda.  Add a few twists of fresh ground pepper.  Stir to coat.

 

Drizzle them with a bit of the balsamic vinegar.  Most places have a store that specializes in olive oils and vinegars.  That's where I got mine.  You can use a good quality PLAIN balsamic vinegar, but this was divine.  Stir again and let sit until time for dessert.

 

Place some thin slices of the Angel Food cake in a large cereal bowl.  Top with a generous scoop of ice cream.  Place the strawberries on top of the ice cream. 

 

You may wish to drizzle a bit of the balsamic vinegar left in the bowl over the ice cream and allow it to make rich, burgundy swirls in the white Angel Food cake.

 

So good.  So fast.  So, I'm going to fix it again!!

I Have Been Invaded

Don't you hate it when that happens?  Your house gets invaded by ants  You wake up one morning and there they are, on the table, on the chairs.  Everywhere you look, ants.

 

Well, in my case, I was invaded by Aunts.  And they were invited and quite welcome!  I'm not entirely sure that they were aware that this meant they were my resident guinea pigs. I had some recipes I wanted to try and they were a captive audience.  Plus, Aunt Suzy and Aunt Donna are both excellent cooks, so I could count on a true opinion.  Well, Donna might tell me it was good to be polite.  Suzy would tell me the unvarnished truth.  Suzy is polite, but don't ask her if your butt looks big in these pants unless you want her to tell you.  You ASKED!

I wanted to try an apple recipe using Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry.  I found one for individual pies and that sounded like something I could use for my B&B guests.  I added some raspberries, but they are optional.

I started out to make the whole recipe, but my invading ants, er, Aunts, brought so much food with them, that I cut the recipe in half.  I will give you the whole recipe, but my future guests will get little pies folded into triangles, because they have to have room for the rest of the breakfast.  We had scrambled eggs with Cheddar cheese and cilantro and bacon.

 

Puff  Pastry Apple Pies

1 package Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
2 Granny Smith apples
1/2 cup raspberries, optional
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons flour, plus extra for the counter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1 egg
1 Tablespoon water

 

Heat the oven to 400°.  Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper or use a Silpat to prevent the pies from sticking.  Set aside.

Mix the egg and water in a small bowl and set aside.

Peel and core the apples cut them into thin slices.  I just cut around the core, then peel.  It is faster for me.  Place them in a small bowl and mix them with the lemon juice to prevent them from turning brown. 

Lightly flour your work surface.  The puff pastry sheets are folded into thirds.  This makes it easy to cut along the folds and then cut them in thirds the other direction.  This will give you 9 squares from each puff pastry sheet.

 

Place the sugar, flour and spices in a large bowl.  Mix the apples in and stir until they are all coated with the flour mixture.  Place about 1/4 cup of apples on top of half of the squares of puff pastry, making sure to leave the edges clear.   Dot the top of the apples with a raspberry or two.  Brush around the edges with the egg wash.

 

Pick up one of the squares of pastry dough and stretch it a bit to fit over the mound of apples and so the edges match up.  Press to seal and then use a fork to make the edge pretty!

 

Place the finished miniature pies on the prepared baking sheet.  I just used half of a sheet and so I had one extra piece of puff pastry.  I placed a large spoonful of apples on this and folded it over.  This is how I would serve these little pies to guests.

 

Brush some more egg wash on the top of the pies and sprinkle them with sugar.  Or cinnamon sugar, if you wish.  Make a small L shaped cut in the top of each pie and fold back the pastry flap.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden.  Cool for about 5 minutes and then enjoy!

 

The raspberries seemed to melt into the apples and a bit of the pink raspberry juice bubbled up and out the wee flap  on top of the pies.  So yummy.

Need Some Craft Time

I have been doing a lot of things, but nothing particularly creative.  I FORCED myself to go make some cards.  I have to schedule fun time around here or I just keep plugging away at work things.

OK.  I lied.  I went crazy on the computer and ordered every library paperback that looked interesting.  And then a whole bunch came in at once.  I have 21 books checked out and 20 books in the queue.  The books can be checked out for 28 days, so while I don't really like taking a rest in the middle of the day, I have a lot of reading to accomplish and not much time.  It's a hard job.  But I am up for the task.

To be honest I can usually read a book a day. But now I HAVE to.  A former library employee can't have late books.  That's just wrong. 

 

So I made some cards.  Recently we made a trip to Michael's looking for some Fall themed items.  I found a few things and most of them were on sale.  The advantage of procrastinating. 

 

I also want to send a card to my daughter in England, thanking her for joining us on our recent trip to Cornwall.  I needed a travel theme.

OOPS.  SPOILER ALERT FOR TRISTA!

Trista can't see the card or it won't be fun for her to get one!  Speaking of which. Don't you love getting a real card.  Yes, I like email cards and just notes from friends and family, but a card is extra special.

 

I placed a bunch of items I thought would work on the table and then picked out the ones I wanted to use.  First I made the travel card.

 

For this I used some travel stamps.  I love the ones I peel off the backing and place on a clear stamping block.  These are easy to store and easy to place.  Of course, in this case, I stamped more than I needed on some card stock and cut them out.  I like to do this when I have time.  Then I save them in little Ziploc bags for days when I need a card in a hurry.  Then I can paw through what I have and throw something together.

Outside

Inside

While I was stamping, I made some that said Happy Birthday.  I like to have a bunch of those on hand for birthdays that pop up.  Thank you is also a good thing to make a bunch of extras of.  (I tried like crazy to not end that sentence with a preposition.  My internal editor does not like that sentence, but it is a good thing to do, so stop trying to figure how I could have said it better and go stamp yourself a Thank You stamp on a bunch of card stock.)

 

I also assembled some Fall leaves, rust colored paper and some 3D yellow daisies.

 

I like the finished ones.  But I don't love them.  My creative juices aren't flowing.  Maybe I should go work on the quilt I started months ago.

Gotta write that on my list.  Stop reading and cut some quilt pieces out.  I mean, cut out some pieces for the quilt.  I won't write that either.  Just QUILT.  I know what I mean.

Gift of a Lamp

My daughter's future grandmother-in-law sent an oil lamp to us as a gift.  I thought it might work in the B&B, but there is no way I want anything set on fire down there.  That is why I don't decorate with candles.  Even if you tell people they are for decoration only, they might forget and then I have a potential fire problem.

So no candles or oil lamps.

 

But I wanted to decorate the electric fireplace in the basement.  Electric because of that whole fire thing.  It gives the warmth and MOST of the ambience of a fireplace, but no one dies.  Not dying is the first rule in getting good reviews for a B&B.  Well, that and a great breakfast.

 

First I had to clean the bit of oil residue from the lamp.  I used Dawn.  If it can clean up oil soaked birds....

 

Then I had to dry the inside, but my hand and even a small rag, didn't fit.  For the last little bit I used a BBQ skewer and a tissue.

We made a trip to Michael's and then Pier One.  Finally I went to the newest store in Buchanan, KC Collections.  They had their soft opening this last weekend and we wanted to see what they had.  A new store in Buchanan is a great thing and I hope they do well.

 

I removed the wick and added some small pine cones and dried thingamabobs.  Dried miniature gourds?  Who knows.  In they went.

 

I found a crinkled, rust colored napkin and matching Fall colored napkin ring.  Pier 1 also had the cutest Owl on a Pine Cone ornament.  I didn't know what I would do with him, but he was cute.

 

K C Collections had a small wreath that I thought would work with the whole look I was going for.  You know the one, nice, but not too fussy.

 

I put them together and think I like it.  I may add a few,  a VERY few, miniature ornaments at Christmas, along with a Christmas colored napkin and ring.  But for now,  I think I'll keep it.

 


So what do you think about the owl? 

Who?

The owl.

Who?

Mountain Magic 2014

 

This past weekend was the 20th annual Mountain Magic in Fall Festival in Buchanan.  This is a Bluegrass, Antiques and Craft show and this year seemed like the biggest one yet.

 

It has been voted the Top Community Event in the Roanoke Times many times and is really fun.

 

Up until now,  Main Street through Buchanan was closed for the festival.  This year they closed parts of  Lowe Street and used the carnival grounds.  Main Street in Buchanan is a continuation of highway 11 and it is the alternate route for I-81.  When there is an accident on 81, they route everybody, big rig trucks and all, through the tiny town of Buchanan. This is not a good mix with closed streets and festival attendees.

 

In my opinion, the park is the perfect place for the festival. 

 

There was ample, close parking, the vendors were all in one location without having a long line of them, and they were able to open the buildings for the local organizations to sell or make food for their favorite charities.

 

This was also a better venue for the various musical groups.  Young and old, everyone loves the music!

 

The bandstand was perfect and there was a lot more room in front for the music lovers to set up their chairs,

 

grab some fair food and kick back.

 

There are even covered places to sit and eat.

 

It seemed to me that there were more people, but not as many antique cars as I had seen, or maybe noticed, previously.  I used to have to hike out to the end of the town for the line of antique cars and then back to get some great fair food.  That is usually my favorite part of any festival.  This time it was a short walk to al the rows of vendors.  I would anticipate even more people enjoying this new location.

 

Did you get your Buchanan Fries?  No?  Well, there's always next year

Decorating Gene

I don't have it.  The decorating gene.  I can look at something someone else did and then do that.  But I can't come up with idea on my own very easily.

 

But it is Fall and we have a whole apartment for guests and I wanted to do SOMETHING.  We have  a BUNCH of Christmas decorations, but not too many Fall decorations.  And I know it is easy to go from "That's cute" to "What was she thinking?".

I can see that my back issue is affecting my photography.  Must stand up straight.

I placed a few items around and then took pictures.  I will leave it up to you to decide.

 

Enough?  Too much??

 

I see a trip to Michael's or Pier 1 in my future.  Or not.

sigh.

Stay Off

Ordinarily you wouldn't say that to people.  It's not how you greet people.  Especially when you are in the hospitality business, like we are with the B&B.

 

 

But we are resurfacing our asphalt driveway.  They say you should do this every three years.  Seriously. Every three years.

 

The whole 1/3 of a mile drive way.  The length of a road driveway.  Gosh, you say.  That sound$ expen$ive.  Why, ye$.  It i$ expen$ive.

 

 

 

 

We are very busy almost the whole month of October.  We thought the bookings would drop off after summer, but they haven't.  And then Lee's sister and her husband are coming to visit.  We had a small window of opportunity when there were no guests and no rain, so we took it.

 

We parked the cars by the B&B entrance and locked up the pets.  There is a back driveway, so we aren't trapped up here.  But I sure hope we don't get a package for delivery.

Lee assures me there is some tape across the drive to clue anyone tempted to drive up that it is not a good idea. 

But, really?  Every THREE years.  I guess we'll wait and see, but I'm thinking five years.  Five years should be good.

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