Apricot Tart

I wanted to make a dessert. I did want to try something other than my usual treats. No chocolate chip cookies. No flan (I love it, no all my children do not like it so much). No lemon cake (we eat a lot of lemon baked goodies, because I love the freshness, but my children are just tired of lemon cake), And, so that left me either turning the pages of my cookbooks which is limiting but full of lovely suggestions. Or, go to Martha, who is easy to access, and with a few well thought out searches and a bit of finger pressing patience, you can have a great recipe with just a press of the print icon and you are ready to go. I wanted to try a tart. But, I wanted to keep it very easy. Nothing complicated that would make me give up all hope to try it again. Not to mention how intimidated I am by pie crusts. The best reason for my fear of making them is that I do not own a food processor which I keep hearing makes doing pie crusts completely fearless (not to sure about this though). I am a big advocate of keep it cold and use your hands; to me, by far, my best equipment.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/frank-and-jeromes-apricot-tart

This is a pretty simple recipe. The crust is delicious and the tart was pretty good.

I am very proud of my first tart making experience. I brought it to work with me. It was my last day there and the responses I received were very kind.With enthusiasm and encouragement, my fellow coworkers praised my efforts. And I was thankful. But for my own future reference, I would definitely put less applesauce on the tart or use very thick apple butter. I believe that I would prefer that texture to the sauce. But, I still think, Bravo me!

I tried no excuses

I did. But there are just things in life that can consume one's time. I have been meaning to post this a few days ago but my camera can no longer upload images for some strange reason onto my computer so I had to figure out what I could do. I almost paid for an answer online and then thought better of it. While doing my observation school hours, I heard my cooperating teacher, Mrs. Rodriguez, talk about a thumb drive and a pop went into my head that shouted "Card Reader!"  I went to Radio Shack on Saturday to pick it up (sorry Staples, you were not on the way to grocery shopping) and I finally uploaded the pictures. Excitement!
So back to no excuses. I can't do it all. I try real hard to every day. What I get done is nothing short of those precious blessings from above. Housework, family, children, work and graduate school. Know what I mean. CONSUMING. Although, I did give myself a break on April 1. I went to the Martha Stewart Stitchfest to celebrate her newest book.



It was a great night with wine and hors d'oeuvers that were so delicious. And the wonderful examples of stitch projects that are displayed beautifully throughout the book were at her offices where the Stitchfest was held.

I made acquaintances. We all stitched together!

page 150 in the book

Beautiful Singers! A glass of wine, take a sip, sew a stitch. Me and the machine (not in the pic here though, silly me) humming happily.

Martha, I couldn't snap that button fast enough. Elusive Martha.

Raffles to enter. A Singer 7470 Computerized model to win among other new models.

Stencil on fabric demo.

And me leaving full of food and wine.I had a blast!