Has it been a year already?? =)

Happy birthday my sweet friend!! Today is Ivonne's birthday.. and I wish her nothing but good luck, happiness, lots of love and friendship, good health and time spent with family for her upcoming year! You mean the world to me. =) xoxo

A Gift From a Very Special Friend and WCC No. 12!

I have been just waiting for the perfect opportunity to share with yous this: This was a completely unexpected surprise that I received in my mailbox last month, around my birthday! My dear, sweet friend, Ivonne, sent me this package of some excellent Canadian cooking magazines, two adorably printed packages of cocktail napkins and a tart (or quiche) pan! I've wanted this pan for soooooo long and she knew I wanted one and she sent me one. I didn't know what to say.. I still can't find the exact words to express how special she has made me feel and how grateful I am to her for sending such a lovely present with a special message inside the cute, glittery card. Again, Ivonne, thank you! Thank you, so much! =) And so, this perfect opportunity has arisen. The lovely Sara's WCC No. 12 - Party Foods! What better party food than a scrumptious tart, yes? There are sweet tarts and savory tarts, tarts made with mousse and tarts made with fresh berries and fruit. There are delectable tarts made of fresh veggies and tarts made of chocolate! The possibilities are endless and I think I've managed to link to most of the reasons why I've wanted a tart pan so badly! hee! With an incredible craving for asparagus this past week, I decided that I needed to find a recipe for a savory tart that featured asparagus. I searched high and low through my cookbooks to no avail and then all over the interweb until I happened upon a new site to me, Food Down Under. A pretty cool site, featuring cuisine from all over the world. Catagorized by either country or type of dish, finding tart recipes was a breeze.. finding tart recipes featuring asparagus was even easier! There were a few to choose from, but I settled upon this one. I liked the idea of a crust made from phyllo dough and the cheeses included in the ingredient list were pretty mild, so I knew the asparagus would shine through. And that it did. =) Asparagus Tart No. 182 Courtesy of Food Down Under 12 sheets phyllo pastry 2 TBS. butter 1 lb. asparagus 1/2 cup milk 1/2 cup marscarpone cheese 2 eggs 1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese 2 TBS. chives 2 TBS. parsley 1 TBS. chopped fresh tarragon 1/2 tsp salt pepper to taste 1 TBS. bread crumbs - plain or seasoned Preheat oven to 400º F. Melt the butter and lightly brush a 9 inch deep pie plate or quiche tin. Set aside. Open the phyllo pastry on a flat work surface and brush a little butter around the edges of 1 sheet, brushing a 'zigzag' of butter up and down the sheet of pastry. Place another sheet on top and butter as before. Fold these two sheets in half (so that you have a four sheet depth) then place this in the prepared tin, hanging over the edge slightly and covering part of the sides and base. Repeat with the remaining sheets of pastry, buttering and folding as before and placing in the tin until the base and sides are totally covered. Bake in the oven for 10 minutes then allow to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 350º F. Trim the asparagus so that each spear is 3 inches long then slice all the remaining offcuts of asparagus finely. Cook the asparagus spears in a pot of boiling salted water until just crisp-tender, about 4 minutes then drain well on kitchen paper. Mix together the milk, marscarpone cheese, eggs, cheese, chives, parsley, tarragon and salt in bowl then season with pepper. Add the finely sliced asparagus off-cuts and mix well. Sprinkle a tablespoon of dry breadcrumbs over the base then pour the cheese custard into the tin. Arrange the asparagus spears in a circular fashion on top of the custard, tips towards the edge and ends meeting in center. Bake until tart puffs well and the top browns, about 35 minutes. Cool slightly This tart was delicious. It was creamy and had a great crunch thanks to the crispy phyllo dough. The taste of asparagus paired beautifully with the mascarpone and parmigiano reggiano cheeses. It was very easy to make and I had it done within an hour. This tart can be served warm or at room temperature. Perfect for parties! It's quite pretty too, isn't it? :D The only thing I changed in this recipe was to roast the asparagus instead of boiling it. And the only thing I would change the next time I make the recipe is to omit the tarragon. I could do without it. Now I would like to apologize to Sara for getting this recipe in so late! She's already got the round-up posted - go check it out, the submissions are fabulous! And I'd like to once again thank my friend, Ivonne, for much more than a wonderful birthday present, but for just being my friend. =) Okay enough with the mooshiness.. I'm going to bed. :P xoxo

There is such a thing as a perfect birthday...

You guys!! You just rock! Thank you all for such lovely wishes for my birthday.. I was blown away - seriously! I really figured the day would just come and go without much notice - and I was okay with that, I mean.. more than okay. Numbers really never effected me before. My 35th was chock full of "you're getting old" jokes and ha ha aren't you funny people. NOT. But I took it all in stride and didn't put too much thought into getting older. And without going into too much detail (as it's all been talked about over and over again) about what happened in my life this past year, the numbers did start to get to me. Not so much, "Gah. I'm almost 40" ('kay well a lil "Gah!" here and a lil "Blah!" there hehe) but "WOO! Looks like I'm really gonna make it to 40!" when around this time last year, it was questionable. But did I expect all of your good wishes? Your adorable and sweet e-cards and e-mails? Your cards sent to my home?? The BEST birthday present a gal could ever ask for, nestled in my mailbox?? Hell no. THAT was all completely UNEXPECTED and it was what made my birthday one of the best and memorable I've ever had.. thank you so very, very much! *sniff* Is someone slicing onions in here again?? *sniff* My day started off with the guys at work singing happy birthday over the truck radios shortly after I got there.. that was a hoot. There's nothing like hearing that song being sung by 14 different roofers coming in over the dispatch radio. ha! And then I was serenaded by the shop guys over the P.A. system when I went out into the warehouse to tack the daily leak calls to the board. That was embarrassing as it can be heard from quite far away. lol I also received a very cute card that was signed by everyone and a triple chocolate torte that was quite beautiful and delish =) Ohhh! And one of the guys made me - HOME MADE - banana pudding. haaa!!! I gotta tell ya.. not a big banana pudding fan here. But this stuff was AMAZING. I had to have Hubbs take the dish of it home as I couldn't stop eating it and was afraid I'd eat the whole damn pan. I've asked for the recipe and will be making it and blogging about it VERY SOON. *swoon* And then I made my usual stop at home during my lunch break to let the kids out and what did I find? My mailbox stuffed with cards and a box that travelled all the way from New Zealand! I about peed! The Best Birthday Present EVER Do you see this?? It's Chocolate and Salt. Hello? Could a gal ask for anything more?? hahahahaaaa!! It reminded me of one of my favorite episodes of Cheers! when Rebecca was upset about something and she was sitting in Sam's office smoking cigarettes and eating chocolate - wishing she had a chocolate cigarette. The only thing she was missing was the salt. A girl's best friend, chocolate and salt. Oh Yeah Baby. =)) And those bars?? Yeah, they are GIGANTIC! One is called "Bittersweet Zestful Orange" *swoon* the other is "Exciting Spicy Ginger Block" which is dark chocolate with nuggets of crystallized ginger *still swooning* and finally the third is "Raspberry River" - chocolate with a "river" of raspberry inside. *faint* And that's not your ordinary box of Morton salt, my friends.. oh nooooo.. it's a big box of Maldon Sea Salt that I shall use lovingly in my cooking - I can't wait! :D Each item was wrapped up in some very pretty and funky tissue paper and a very funny birthday card featuring a not too happy bulldog was also tucked inside - all of this came from my dear, sweet friend, Morven, who I lurve so very much! Last night I was taken out to dinner by Hubbs and my Mommie where I ate good food, laughed the whole time, and while I was thanking my lucky stars for my good fortune, I was handed two envelopes. One with a gift certificate to Amazon.com (woo!) then another card with a gift certificate from a local kitchen specialty shop, that I adore, with a note from Hubbs promising to build more shelves for my new toys. I'm going to need a bigger kitchen! And finally, when we took Mom home I was presented with my favorite birthday cake that only my Mom can make.. a chocolate cake with bananas tucked in the middle, and covered in chocolate butter cream with a hint of cinnamon throughout. Yum! The best part about this year's cake was that she accidentally poured too much milk into the frosting, which made it very thin, and she didn't have enough powdered sugar to make up for it - so she basically, poured the frosting over it. Imagine a perfect 2 layer round cake sitting on a big plate with a pool of chocolate/cinnamon butter frosting pooled around the bottom. ha!! It was the best cake she's ever made - but now, maybe, you can see where I get my frosting talents from? hahahahaaaaa! :D Okay.. enough of me gushing.. you get the picture, yes? It was one of the best birthday's I've ever had and it was because of all of you beautiful people.. Thank You. Thank you. Thank you! I am one of the luckiest gals in the world to have such nice friends as all of you =) xoxo

Happy Birthday to Our Favorite Cream Puff!

Today, October 23rd, is Ivonne's birthday! Happy Birthday Sweet Cream Puff! May your birthday be full of surprises and fun! Hugs! xoxo