Sunday, November 7, 2010

Pear and Apricot tart


I have looked for a good Pear tart for a while and this might just be the ONE.


Ingredients*

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan*
1/2 cup raw almonds*
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar*
1 large egg*
1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract*
1 cup all-purpose flour, spooned and leveled*
1/2 teaspoon baking powder*
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt*
2 pears (such as Bosc or Bartlett)—peeled, quartered, and cored*
1/2 cup dried apricots, halved*
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice*
1/4 cup apricot preserves

Directions

1. Heat oven to 350° F. Butter a 9-inch removable-bottom fluted tart pan.
2. In a food processor, process the almonds and ½ cup of the sugar until finely ground. Add the butter, egg, and almond extract and process until smooth. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt and pulse a few times just to combine (the dough will be soft).
3. Spread the dough in the bottom of the prepared pan.
4. In a small bowl, toss the pears and apricots with the lemon juice and the remaining tablespoon of sugar. Arrange the pears in the dough. Scatter the apricots over the dough, pressing them in gently.
5. Bake until the pears are tender and the center is firm, 50 to 55 minutes (cover the edges with foil if they brown too quickly).
6. In a small bowl, combine the preserves and 1 tablespoon water. Brush over the warm tart. Let cool in the pan before unmolding.
Photo and recipe found at this site :

Sunday, September 26, 2010

She'll grow into her wings

Digital Collage, just finished yesterday

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Boys With Attitude

In preparing for Halloween. I have created a serie of collages titled "Boys With Attitude"


Image of the chimney sweeps was found on the Library of Congress Media file.

The young "newsie" also comes from the Library of Congress, in the Child Labor section

This imperious looking child was a freebie from Mrs Inman (Flickr)


And the grumpy boy is also a Mrs Inman'special.
tah, tah for now.


Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Colors on the Water (Free to use)

Looking at the water is for me an endless source of fascination, how the objects get reflected and the colors become fractured into many facets flowing into one another. I had myself a merry time creating these backgrounds/textures . Feel FREE to use them for backgrounds or textures.




Now, go do something creative.
Toodles



Monday, August 2, 2010

FREE for your enjoyement

With summer ebbing (somewhat), I already miss the carefree days at the beach, so I found a collection of ladies happily enjoying the sunshine.

She is the epitome of bathing beauty, I think: great legs, darling, frilly swimsuit, and adorable little shoes; she make me want to return to the BEACH.

Now for a snarky moment : While modesty is a very good thing, for the camera, what about all those guys, in the background and the hundreds of windows from the sky scrappers? I'm just saying... She is really cute though.

Okay this is not very beachy, but I simply could not let the Big Hair slide by.
Those pix were gleaned from the fab site VINTPIX : http://www.vintpix.com/
Thousand of pictures free for the picking.
TTFN


Saturday, May 8, 2010

Won't you come and see my garden?

My garden is just gorgeous this time of year, and I absolutly love it. I have magnificent irises .

Mon jardin est si beau en avril et may, j'ai des iris superbes.












And some wild flower that just decided to grow here, and I don't know what it is but I like the happy yellow flowers anyway ( I just have to cut off the spent flowers so it doesn't reseed itself, one never knows with those volunteers:)

Et puis ya cette plante sauvage qui s'est installee sans permission, mais j'aime bien ses jolie fleurs jaunes. (sauf qu'il faudra que je retire les graines pour qu'elle ne se reseme pas, ces fleurs sauvages sont souvent trop envahissantes)



And then my favorite pink rose. Oh she is so gorgeous, and the fragrance is amazing!!
Et enfin, il y a ma rose rose, reine du jardin. Elle est si belle et elle a un parfum incroyable!!



Y'all enjoy our beautiful spring.
Je souhaite a tous et toutes un bon printemps

Monday, April 26, 2010

New Digital collage in Photoshop

This morning, before breakfast I put this collage together to try out my new Photoshop (words cannot express how much I love this thing.)
I like this captain, got him from the Library of Congress photo files, great ressource, and the gorgeous parrot was borrowed from The Graphic Fairy (thank you Karen.)

Toodles
Ce matin, avant le petit dejeuner, j'ai fait ce collage digital pour essayer mon nouveau PhotoShop
(j'adore ce programme) L'image du capitaine vient de la Librairie du Congres, et le perroquet a ete emprunte de chez "The Graphic Fairy".
Baille baille