Strawberry Hearts on Strawberry Tarts...

Valentine's day is long gone and february is almost over. But mom couldn't resist leaving the store without those lovely looking red strawberries. So along came the pack of strawberries with us. They spent another two days in our fridge, often taken out and admired and then kept back, wondering what to make with it. A friend was coming over to spend the day, so decided to make some strawberry tarts (Finally...!!!).

Strawberry Cream Tarts

Tart base:

1/2 cup butter softened
1/8 cup brown sugar + 1/8 cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup honey
1 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cream the butter and the sugars in a blender mix until fluffy. Add in the honey. Combine the remaining ingredients until well blended. Flatten the dough and wrap it in cling film and chill for an hour at least.
Preheat the oven to 325 F . Roll the dough to 1/8 " thickness. Use a pastry cutter to cut out dough. Press the dough gently into the tart tins, prick dough with a fork and chill for 5 minutes.
Pop into the oven for about 16-18 minutes. Cool the tart shells before removing from the tins.

Strawberry Lemon cream:

1/4 cup sugar
lemon zest - 1/2 tsp
1 egg
1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 tblsp butter

3-4 strawberries

Combine the sugar and lemon zest in a sauce pan. Whisk in the egg and lemon juice. Cook the mixture over simmering water, whisking constantly, till the mixture thickens. Take the cream off the heat and let it cool. Keep whisking else the egg will scramble. Strain this into a blender. Add in diced strawberries and butter and blend at high speed till smooth and shiny. Chill this for an hour.

Spoon the strawberry cream into the tart and top them with strawberry hearts.

Serve immediately !!!

Gita

Snow, Thrills, Addictions, Splurges and Banana Muffins!!!????

Phew! What a week it was, completely snowed in! I've never seen it snow continuously for so long and it kept piling and piling. So, the kids got an unexpected mid-winter break and the hub was working from home, which meant that every morning requests for breakfast were going to be like orders off a restaurant menu! But if you've been up till late night to watch Hannah Kearney and Alexandre Bilodeau win the thrilling moguls skiing competitions at the Olympics and the morning shows keep showing replays of it the next day, who wants to stand in the kitchen. (The hub even went to the extent of calling me an addict of the event! Did I mention snowboarding or Seth Wescott anywhere? Thats in the mix, too!)

Anyway, back to breakfast that lets you indulge in your other addictions!!!! These banana muffins are so easy to make that Nigella Lawson has the recipe under the kids section of her book "How to be a domestic goddess : Baking and the art of comfort cooking" .

Easy Banana Muffins

2 tbsp. unsalted butter

1/2 cup clear honey

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 large very ripe bananas, mashed

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 heaping tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. cinnamon (the kids don't like it, so I left that out.)

pinch of salt

muffin pans and liners

Pre-heat oven to 375 F.

Melt butter, honey and vanilla in a pan on low heat and set aside.

Sift all the dry ingredients together. Add the mashed bananas and the melted-butter mixture and stir. Don't overmix.

Place muffin liners in muffin pans and fill them about two-thirds full. Bake about 25 minutes. Leave in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool.

Our muffins don't get to cool off for so long as we like them slightly warm topped with a drizzle of chocolate glaze! Notice that the recipe calls for absolutely no sugar and very little butter? See, its okay to splurge here!

Another addiction in the making?!!!!

Mita.

Cake Take! - We are 1 today!

Oh My!! A year gone by since we started this blog! Really? We made it to our first birthday ?! I know that we've taken long breaks and vacations in between, but we've kept it going! Starting this blog has made us set aside some crafting time to keep us sane in this ever-in-a-hurry routine life. We've also got to know so many talented bloggers who have inspired us with their work. We hope to have done the same for somebody,too.

I want to thank my mom today as she is the person who got Sis and me ( and the Bro!) into crafting since we were young! A special thank you to our followers......You guys keep us motivated! Liz, Ira, Wickedly-yours, we appreciate all the comments, suggestions, pushes and pats on the backs!

So, Sis, I know you are used to sharing your birthday with the Bro (Yeah, they are twins!), but today it's Happy Birthday to Us! Let's keep it rolling!

Mita.

Check out our very first post here !