My pies

We are having work done in our home. Wall paper, paint etc. The guy helping us out is really nice and he had the 'opportunity' to taste my pies, twice. Once - since I was just taking one out of the oven, and once because the poor guy did not find anything around here open for lunch so in addition to making him a sandwich I offered a piece of pie. "Your cakes are good" he said today. I wanted to say that's not real cake, they are just pies, easy to make as in 'it's a piece of pie', but I aknowledged. 

Here are the simplest recipes for some French pies (since I made 3 pies, or tartes, this week).

Apricot and/or peach pie. I bought apricots and peaches and they were really tastless. So I thought I'd make them into a pie.

I had the great idea of mixing up the two fruits, since I had them, and it was really better than using just one kind. But one would do it just as well.

-Get a flaky crust pie already made, from the grocery store. The pate feuillete.
-Layer a spoon of apricot or peach jam on the bottom of the tart, just enough to have a very very thin spread.
-Cut the fruits into slices, layer them around,
-Sprinkle with some (brown) sugar and bake.
Voila. All done.

Pear pie. We have a pear tree in the garden. So small but filled to the extreme with pears.

Same as in the pie #1 except
-Layer a spoon of (sweetened) chestnut puree instead of the jam and sprinkle with almond or hazelnut powder instead of sugar. No extra sugar needed.
-And very important, serve this one with whipped cream.
Yum, my man's favorite.

Lemon merengue pie.

A slightly bit more difficult, but worth it if you like lemony desserts.

-Get a pack of regular crakers, count about 18 and crush them.
-Add about 80grams of butter (I melt a bit in the microwave and mix it up.)
Layer this at the bottom of the pan, even if it's not easy to layer. Bake until it's crunchy, ab 15min.
-Get 3 egg-yolks and a can of condensed milk and the juice from 2 medium lemons. Mix all this up. Pour on top of the crust and top with
-The eggwhites you've beaten into a foam and mixed about 2 spoons of sugar into.
Bake until it's golden.
One of my favorites.

Yum.

Bloggers and artists - online shopping

Since (this time ) I am determined to go about my artsy stuff, I have been researching and rethinking what and how to do what I have to do. There are some awesome creators of art out there and I would like to share them and also want to mark them down in a place I can refer back to, and what better place than here.

Never met Nancy Nikko from Chicago (I say that just because she is in Chicago you know), but came across her stuff over a blog, might be The Enchanted Home.

Her shop is on Etsy and is amazing.

 

http://www.etsy.com/shop/nancynikkodesign?page=2

This is one of my favorites, a wedding wine label.

There are of course card designs, business card designs and other.

 

And since I mentioned The Enchanted Home, there are some pretty cool things for home over in her shop, like all kinds of blue and white porcelain items (as in ahem, my treasured plate collection :)) http://theenchantedhome.blogspot.fr/

A great blogger is at the Zhush, with a cute shop where you can find almost anything for a good gift. I like the travel tags among other things. 

http://thezhush.blogspot.fr/

 

 

I cannot not mention Vicky Archer at The French Essence and the book (she wrote) which made me dream about the countryside France, My French Life - below. Find lots of great French-about books over in her shop.

http://vickiarcher.com/

 

 

I will also mention My French Country Home, which I am a bit biased about since I wrote to her a few times and never heard back. But she has a nice blog about countryside France in Normandy and the very popular brocantes here in France. Sometimes, cute items in her shop.

 http://myfrenchcountryhome.blogspot.fr/

 

Almost forgot one of the most beautiful interior images filled blogs,
the South Shore Decorating Blog. Tons of great pics as Stacy likes to post even 50 favorites at a time! She has also launched her shop where, if you are States, you can find incredible pieces of lighting, furniture, rugs and such. Too bad shipping sucks here, they charge custom fees (on top of delivery of course which is already pricey)
 http://www.southshoredecoratingblog.com/



House of Turquoise is pretty nice, and who doesn't love shades of blue; turquoise in particular is one of my favorites. Just look at these amazing velvet pumpkins they spotted on the Love Feast Shop - http://shop.lovefeasttable.com/

http://www.houseofturquoise.com/




More blogs to come :)


 

 

 

 

Lisboa!

Ok, it's not in France, but it's still super cool as location! We went there for the weekend while my man had a work conference.

Once there you tend to compare with Barcelona and...well, it's not quite the same but much the same. The city looks older, even if there is definitely that party feel to it. It feels impregnated with history almost, even if I must say I do not know much of the history of Lisabon.

We got there the eve of the Lisbon fashion night and the streets were packed with people and merchants displaying their stuff on the sidewalks and boutiques, all open till midnight. We kind'a missed the stroll since we were driving around for a long time without hope of finding a parking place...that's why I say don't rent a car when you are visiting a foreign city!! just walk, take a cab, take the public transportation , I don't know, whatever. We spent so much time in traffic that by the time we stopped I was so nervous and frustrated that it almost spoiled my night.

We sat down a nice popular cafe called the Pharmacy - Pharmacia, where drinks on the menu were actually called Paracetamol, Ibuprofen and what not and the setting was like a real clinic...the outside terasse was really cool though, nice view overlooking the city.
I had an Oxy..something, in translation a cocktail made from Porto-the traditional wine which is not at all like the Porto made for US, it's much lighter and not so sweet-, fresh pear puree, cognac and brown sugar. It was amazing and the cute server gave me the recipe :)

Here is a link for the full description, although we were there at night and the feel was much cooler :)
http://www.thelisbonconnection.com/excellent-gastronomy-lisbon-restaurant-pharmacia-overlooking-thetagus-river-pharmaceutical-paraphernalia-museum-lsd-cocktail/)

The second night we ate at Cafe In, a reaaaally cool place very similar to Gibson's steak house in Chicago, except here they have all kinds of fish meat on the platter - in adition to steaks - and a real service!! I had the impression the guys were trained in America! It was amazing! I felt so pampered that I forgot it's rather normal to be served like that in a restaurant. Awesome food, if you are in Lisbon, you must eat there.

 

Here is a link and a pic, we sat by the window overlooking the Tage river and the Christo Rei statue of Jesus with the open arms over the bridge.

http://www.restaurantes-emlisboa.com/fr/restaurant/cafe-in 

 

We actually sat at the corner table next to the capitoned wall! 

 Here is Lisabon and the imposing ocean 35 min away.

 

 The tramway coming down the street, look at the cool system

 

The Tage river is at the end of the square.

 

 

 By the ocean, such a cool beach, lots of surfers and a statue of 'surfing' (like in the statue of liberty) 

 

 And back to the city before heading to the airport with a promise that we'll be back Lisboa! Definitely need more time than a 2 day weekend.