Free-form Apple Tartlets

First of all, thank you all so much for your encouraging comments about my photo!
I feel very loved.

I was invited to a pARTy yesterday and I made these little apple tartlets and some plum tartlets to bring along.
These are a great little dessert to make with kids.
The Elder Hug-a-Bug was very helpful with the stirring of the filling as well as the forming of the tartlets.
Also, these are a good project for people like me who don 't have very much skill with the detail work of pie-making.

To make these first cut up some fruit, sprinkle said fruit with lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon and mix, then you roll out pie crust to an eighth of an inch, cut into 4 pieces, prettily arrange the fruit in the middle of a piece and pull the dough up around the edges.
Chill the tartlets while the oven is heating up.
Then bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees, brush with egg white and sprinkle with sugar, then bake another 15 minutes.

I used an amazing pie crust from Cook's Illustrated which uses a mixture of flour, butter and shortening along with vodka and water for moisture.
Apparently the vodka inhibits the gluten production and makes the crust more tolerant of handling.
The first time I made this crust I bagged the shortening and just used Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Sticks, since it's basically margarine that tastes like butter.

I'll share photos of the project from the pARTy later today, I still have some assembly to finish.

MPR News Q

One of my photos from the fair was featured on the MPR News Q!
A few months ago they approached me, as a local photographer, to submit photos for their website.
I was surprised, but very honored.
I have submitted a few photos since then, and they chose one in May.
It's kind of awesome to see my photo up there with the amazing photos of my fellow Minnesotans.
That made my day.
I hope your Friday is just as fun!

The State Fair

It's no secret. I love going to the MN State Fair.
There are all sorts of wonderful things to do there.
Ride lots of rides, eat lots of bad-for-you-but-oh-so-tasty food, educational opportunities, cute animalswalk and walk and walk, these are just some of the things that I love about The Fair.
The best thing might just be winning a giant frog and then passing out in the car on the way home.

Breakfast of Champions

What? It's Fruit.

Australorp

Last night I finished a knitting project for myself.
I do a lot of knitting for other people, and I don't get much time to knit for me, but I worked in some time to finish this one. I think it's going to be my go-to sweater for Fall.

I guess I'm not completely finished, there are supposed to be tabs on the cuffs to keep them folded, and I think I'll tack down the placket flaps so they don't flip up, but I am really happy with the rest of it.
The only change that I made from the original patter is the pockets.
When I saw the photo in the book I thought it had really cute pleated pockets, but it turns out that they're not, the pockets in the book were just wrinkled.
Anyway, I wanted the pleats so I added some.
Now I just have to wait out these next few 90 degree days, and then the next month of Summer that we have left, until I can start wearing it.

Teaching

I just finished my 4th week-long kids camp of the Summer.
This week was sewing and I was totally inspired by my students' work ethic and creativity.
There were 6 girls in the class and by the end of the week they had finished making 11 pairs of pajama pants, one dress, one apron, many, many doll's clothes and a dress which only needed its bottom ruffle attached.
Working with these kids all Summer has been sometimes challenging but also really fun.
That said, I am looking forward to a few empty weeks before school starts.
We still haven't even started on buying our school supplies yet, I hope the stores aren't out of pencils.

Play Ball!

We spent last night at the new open-air stadium watching the Twins play baseball.I was a little worried about the 4-year-old staying up so late, but it was o.k.
There were fireworks, way too much junk food, and (I pulled a leaf from Amanda's book) lots of knitting.
The Twins won the game, we had a great time and no ketchup got on my knitting.
Another great Summer day!