APRICOT HAND PIES-FAIL!

So, I came across this recipe for apricot hand pies.  I love hand pies and wanted to try these because I needed to use up 20 pounds of fruit they look amazing.  So, I prepared the filling like so:

Wash the fruit and remove the pits:

Cut each half into quarters and place in bowl:

Add lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon.  Then stir it up and place in refrigerator:

That part all went fine.  Then I made the pastry which is a very delicate pastry made with butter.  Here is what I did:

Place dry ingredients in food processor.

Cut cold butter into cubes and add it to flour mixture, processing about 10 second until it resembles coarse meal.

With processor running add ice water until dough comes together:

I thought my pastry looked great but when I went to roll it out and make the pies it did not work so well.  I discovered the recipe I used had several flaws (no cooking temp, double the yield the dough actually produced, no amount of flour to be added to fruit, too thick of specification for rolling the dough).  I followed the recipe and made up my own parts for the things that were missing or obviously wrong.  I was pretty bummed when my hand pies looked like this because the dough was far too crumbly and delicate:

I tried doing some non-folded over double pies but they still didn’t look too great:

I brushed them with cream and sprinkled them with raw sugar.  I baked them at 375 till they were golden brown.  They actually tasted pretty good.  My husband suggested putting some of the extra filling into some crescent rolls.  So, I tried that but my rolls were old and falling apart and this is how crappy THEY looked:

No one liked the crescent roll ones.  The crust on the pastry ones was very buttery…tasted like a not sweet shortbread cookie.  Which made me think that a shortbread cookie hand pie would be SUPER yummy because there is quite a bit of tartness to the fruit filling when you are suing fresh fruit.

Here are the baked pies:

SO, it majorly bums me out when recipes don’t turn out right.  I will never use a delicate crust like this for hand pies again.  I think I might have to try a sweetened pie crust or a cookie type crust next time…if I ever get up the courage to try again, that is!

APRICOT HAND PIES-FAIL!

So, I came across this recipe for apricot hand pies.  I love hand pies and wanted to try these because I needed to use up 20 pounds of fruit they look amazing.  So, I prepared the filling like so:

Wash the fruit and remove the pits:

Cut each half into quarters and place in bowl:

Add lemon juice, sugar, and cinnamon.  Then stir it up and place in refrigerator:

That part all went fine.  Then I made the pastry which is a very delicate pastry made with butter.  Here is what I did:

Place dry ingredients in food processor.

Cut cold butter into cubes and add it to flour mixture, processing about 10 second until it resembles coarse meal.

With processor running add ice water until dough comes together:

I thought my pastry looked great but when I went to roll it out and make the pies it did not work so well.  I discovered the recipe I used had several flaws (no cooking temp, double the yield the dough actually produced, no amount of flour to be added to fruit, too thick of specification for rolling the dough).  I followed the recipe and made up my own parts for the things that were missing or obviously wrong.  I was pretty bummed when my hand pies looked like this because the dough was far too crumbly and delicate:

I tried doing some non-folded over double pies but they still didn’t look too great:

I brushed them with cream and sprinkled them with raw sugar.  I baked them at 375 till they were golden brown.  They actually tasted pretty good.  My husband suggested putting some of the extra filling into some crescent rolls.  So, I tried that but my rolls were old and falling apart and this is how crappy THEY looked:

No one liked the crescent roll ones.  The crust on the pastry ones was very buttery…tasted like a not sweet shortbread cookie.  Which made me think that a shortbread cookie hand pie would be SUPER yummy because there is quite a bit of tartness to the fruit filling when you are suing fresh fruit.

Here are the baked pies:

SO, it majorly bums me out when recipes don’t turn out right.  I will never use a delicate crust like this for hand pies again.  I think I might have to try a sweetened pie crust or a cookie type crust next time…if I ever get up the courage to try again, that is!

BEST. SUMMER. EVER. {Paper Craft}

We have a wall in our stairwell.  Years ago we followed a tradition of my husband’s family and created a picture wall on that blank space.  The picture wall was just hundreds of snapshots stapled to the wall so that they overlapped.  There were a few enlargements as well.  We would put up pictures of our friends and family and cute shots of our kid or pictures of memorable events.  It was fun.  But I got tired of it having no rhyme or reason.

So, I decided the pictures needed a frame to go in.  So, down came the pictures.  I got some molding to make a frame, but was too afraid to attempt it on my own.  So, maybe a year later my younger sister Jennifer, who is very handy and knows how to build things, came into town and helped me get the frame up.  After that I just needed to fill the nail holes and paint it and then re-hang the pictures.  Well, 4 or 5 years later I still haven’t gotten it done!  This is the story of my life.  We lived without a sink in our downstairs bathroom for about 4 years because it took me that long to complete the project of a vessel sink made from a bowl on a little antique dresser.

Anyway, since I never painted the frame and put the pictures back up, this space has been used for some different things.  Currently, it is housing our SUMMER TO-DO LIST, which is the main topic of this post!  Here it is!

I cut 12x12 paper (this is from Wal-Mart) into quarters so I had 6x6 squares.  Then I made 4x4 squares with the activities printed in them.  I used 8 different fonts.  I attached the white squares to the scrapbook paper squares with double stick tape.  Originally I was going to do a banner with these, but I got a little carried away and made close to 80 squares!  So, the banner would have been longer than my house!  So, instead, I used sticky tack to put these up in my frame.  They make it look must more cheerful!  Don’t mind the old paint.  There is also a hole one of my precious boys kicked in the wall when he was mad!  Aren’t kids so fun???!!!

Now, I want you to know this is not perfect.  Nothing I do ever is!  Do they fit in the frame perfectly??  NO.  Are the squares perfectly square?  NO.  Did my printer cut off the border on some of the squares?  YES.  Do I dislike one of the fonts I chose?  YES.  But, since I am fighting perfectionism I just let all of these things be.  It doesn’t change the fact that we are going to have a super fun summer!  My kids are VERY excited about all these activities.  I am hoping it keeps them from being complete couch potatoes this summer.  But, I must admit I am worried I will not be able to keep up with this plan!!!

For those who might like to see my list more clearly, here it is!  ALSO, we will be needing friends to accompany us in some of these activities.  So I hope some of my Vegas friends will let me know what they would like to do with us!

BEST. SUMMER. EVER. {Paper Craft}

We have a wall in our stairwell.  Years ago we followed a tradition of my husband’s family and created a picture wall on that blank space.  The picture wall was just hundreds of snapshots stapled to the wall so that they overlapped.  There were a few enlargements as well.  We would put up pictures of our friends and family and cute shots of our kid or pictures of memorable events.  It was fun.  But I got tired of it having no rhyme or reason.

So, I decided the pictures needed a frame to go in.  So, down came the pictures.  I got some molding to make a frame, but was too afraid to attempt it on my own.  So, maybe a year later my younger sister Jennifer, who is very handy and knows how to build things, came into town and helped me get the frame up.  After that I just needed to fill the nail holes and paint it and then re-hang the pictures.  Well, 4 or 5 years later I still haven’t gotten it done!  This is the story of my life.  We lived without a sink in our downstairs bathroom for about 4 years because it took me that long to complete the project of a vessel sink made from a bowl on a little antique dresser.

Anyway, since I never painted the frame and put the pictures back up, this space has been used for some different things.  Currently, it is housing our SUMMER TO-DO LIST, which is the main topic of this post!  Here it is!

I cut 12x12 paper (this is from Wal-Mart) into quarters so I had 6x6 squares.  Then I made 4x4 squares with the activities printed in them.  I used 8 different fonts.  I attached the white squares to the scrapbook paper squares with double stick tape.  Originally I was going to do a banner with these, but I got a little carried away and made close to 80 squares!  So, the banner would have been longer than my house!  So, instead, I used sticky tack to put these up in my frame.  They make it look must more cheerful!  Don’t mind the old paint.  There is also a hole one of my precious boys kicked in the wall when he was mad!  Aren’t kids so fun???!!!

Now, I want you to know this is not perfect.  Nothing I do ever is!  Do they fit in the frame perfectly??  NO.  Are the squares perfectly square?  NO.  Did my printer cut off the border on some of the squares?  YES.  Do I dislike one of the fonts I chose?  YES.  But, since I am fighting perfectionism I just let all of these things be.  It doesn’t change the fact that we are going to have a super fun summer!  My kids are VERY excited about all these activities.  I am hoping it keeps them from being complete couch potatoes this summer.  But, I must admit I am worried I will not be able to keep up with this plan!!!

For those who might like to see my list more clearly, here it is!  ALSO, we will be needing friends to accompany us in some of these activities.  So I hope some of my Vegas friends will let me know what they would like to do with us!