Monday, November 28, 2011

Key Lime Custard Tart…

 
 
How was your Thanksgiving? I felt it was too fast all the buildup and then it was here and now gone. I was overwhelmed with the amount of work I had from school and the commitment to make a big thanksgiving lunch. Yes, we are big on Thanksgiving lunch partially because Panduka work to retail and he needs to get to work so lunch work great for us. This year I baked a turkey. I know I did not post any meal plans beforehand. I did the things as I went along the planning well that’s me.

However I was very good at panning the desserts for Thanks giving because it was my favorite part of the whole meal. Here it is how it goes…

Pumpkin Pie
Key Lime Custard Tart
&
Two Layer Pumpkin Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting

Here is my recipe for the Key Lime Custard Tart; my son was practically the guardian angel of this tart. He said he LOVED it and I believe him because did not get to try it.

Crust
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter cut into small cubes
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1 ½ cups all purpose flour plus extra for dusting

Custard Filling
6 large eggs
1/3 cup heavy (whipping cream)
1 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoon freshly grated lime zest
2/3 cup fresh lime juice

1-2 limes cut into paper thin rounds for decoration
confectioner’s sugar for dusting

To make the crust I used the food processor, first add all your dry ingredients and lime zest pulse it few times. Add the cubed butter and pulse it until it is coarse grain. Do not over pulse it key to perfect dough scrape it out make it into a disc and refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes.

Transfer the dough into lightly floured surface dust the top of the dough and the rolling pin and roll it into a 12-inch round about 1/8 thick. Transfer the dough into a 10-inch fluted tart pan key here is roll it on to your rolling pin this will make the transfer much easier. Line the dough with foil and place pie weights and bake it for 20 minutes 350 F. Carefully remove the foil and bake it for another 5 minutes until the crust is dry not moist. Reduce the temperature to 300F.

To make the filling, in a large bowl whisk the eggs add cream, granulated sugar, lime zest, and lime juice. Whisk until well combined. Carefully fill the tart shell. Bake the tart for about 30 minutes. Turn the oven off and without opening the door; leave the tart undisturbed for 30 minutes longer. Refrigerate until well chilled, for at least 2 hours. Before serving arrange the lime slices around the tart edge and dust the top of the tart with confectioner’s sugar. Slice it into wedges and serve.

Quote of the day “Stop an argument in your mind before opening your mouth”

Enjoy!



Friday, November 25, 2011

I am Thankful…

I am thankful for my healthy children and husband
I am thankful for the fall weather
I am thankful I can rake the leaves and make a colorful pile
I am thankful I can find new in old
I am thankful I can enjoy every bit of FALL…

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family…

Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Pillow Cases with fun Fabric…

This is a very soft, fun, and a unique fabric. I was eyeing this for couple of months and wanted to get hold of it and I finally did. I made these pillow covers to Nicolette’s pillow cover collection we have been working.

Nicolette loves her plush toys comparing to her brother. She actually holds them, walk around with them, and sometimes forget them.

I knew she is going to LOVE her pillow covers because this fabric mimics her plush toys. Apparently she did. This could be a lovely B’day gift to an older kid/toddler with a plush toy perhaps with a book would be ideal to make the bedtime tale sounds FUNNY, COZY, and SNUGGLY.

Quote of the Day “console a crying baby”

Enjoy!


Thursday, November 17, 2011

Dear Bloggers I am very Thankful to all of you…

 
 
I was so happy and thrilled to read all your comments. I am in the process of visiting all of your wonderful blogs. I am even so grateful some of you chose to follow my blog this means a lot to me. I have to admit SITS DAY was a wonderful day to celebrate a blog author and I am very thankful to all the SITS STAFF for doing fantastic and a superb job!
As some of you who knows me I am in school the finals are around the corner and the papers are due on due dates.

Fall is closing in I have to soon stop working in the yard. This is going to be hard for me. I have been to nurseries to find deals some of them are so great I cannot make up mind. Keeping a tight tab on the weather so I won’t miss a warm day to plant the final bulbs and the knock out roses I bought. Most of them were 50% to 75% off. I needed color in between my evergreen trees.

Well finally I am done working in our yard sometimes I am afraid to say this because I know me which is scary. I am ready to take rest and enjoy winter see the changes… get in tune with nature.

Little Nicolette has been a great helper stacking up the empty pots, digging, mulching, and planting bulbs. I am sure she will be very excited to see her hard work with spring blossoms.
My point is with all these I still wanted to thank you all for your encouraging comments. I LOVED it very much… So I will be visiting you all… Thank you again for all the support and the encouragement you all offered me yesterday!

Quote of the Day “Choose one fun thing to looforward each day"

Enjoy!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Hello today is MY SITS DAY…

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Hello everyone I want to extend a warm welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for visiting my blog it means a lot to me… So make you self comfortable… My blog is about myself and projects I do with my kids… I do enjoy living in New England even though it is bit colder here than in VA.

I have to write this story when I went to the US Embassy in Sri Lanka about 13 years ago. My visa officer asked me do you know how cold Minneapolis, Minnesota in winter? My answer to that question was I think I am going to find out by myself… she laughed… I was 24 newly married came to US as a Montessori Teacher to work in a school in Minnesota. Since then I have travelled a bit in US including the mid-west and little bit in GB. I grew up in Sri Lanka some of you might known it as Ceylon. You can clearly see I love traveling… other than all my crazy interests…

At Present I am staying at home and going to school… and promoting my fun little business…
I want to take this opportunity to give a big thank you to SITS for making a wonderful, strong, community for all the bloggers. It is a wonderful community for bloggers to connect with other bloggers.
Same note a big thank you goes to CK from bedtimetales…. for introducing me to SITS…

Once again thank you all for visiting my blog I will let you continue browsing to find more about me and my interests…

Quote of the day “never stop to trying to improve yourself”

Enjoy!

Monday, November 14, 2011

First Frost comes to us with Relocation…

 
We had our first frost… it’s been super cold this couple of mornings. We have been really busy with school projects, homework, BSA, and Library time for little Nicolette.

Anyways with all these it was time to relocate our evergreens from east side of the garden to Westside of the garden. The local landscaping guys did a great job.

Now all we can do is hope that they will survive this hard winter. I have finished planting our yellow and white garden. I loved how our butterfly bush greets us in the morning next to the fire hydrant with the daylilies when we step out from our house.

Oh! I forgot to mention that I got so lucky and one of the great gardeners in our neighborhood gave us whole bunch of daylilies. They are all in the ground nothing no more planting for us till SPRING and this time I mean it.

Quote of the day “use every moment skillfully”

Enjoy!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Planting Garlic… because simply now is the time…

 
 
 
I enjoy reading art of doing stuff… she has a great humor but she does the work with all the details you can think and imagine of. The person behind this beautiful creative blog is Karen who lives in Canada. Yesterday she literary kick me out of my bed with my little one to plant garlic and we did!

As you know I take any excuse to plant in my yard we were happy and lucky we did have some garlic in the refrigerator.

I know they are not organic or from the farmers market. They were the garlic from the regular grocery store. Little Nicolette was watching me what I am doing separating all the garlic and placing them in the cereal bowl.

We took them outside and decided to plant them among the bulbs and the perennials who know who will get lucky the bulbs, perennials, or the garlic we are to find out this spring.

Since she has the practice planting bulbs we decided to dig the ground to make some holes mine are not pretty as Karen but you get the idea. Fun part of this project is this could be a kid friendly activity to talk about many aspects of planting.

We did not see any worms but I do know I have ton in my garden… my question is do they smell garlic?

Quote of the Day “be a beginner"

Enjoy!

Monday, November 7, 2011

Happy Cake...

 
I struggle with little Nicolette on Friday’s she has got into this routine to bake with me on Friday’s. Part that I struggle really is making healthy choices for myself and my family.

Well Nicolette thinks we have to bake every Friday I love it after a crazy week of school and other work. Baking is definitely a very productive way to unwind. I find baking sometimes could be therapeutic depending how your little one wants to help during the whole baking process.

I remember the very first time we baked together when Panduka came home Nicolette was quiet happy to show off the cake and enjoy it with the whole family.

Yes, she is learning the values of enjoying and sharing food with family. This act brings everyone together at the table, unwind, look upon the day we spent, and perhaps to create memories.

Well, here is a recipe I found from here that we love very much, I learned how to make the ribbons needs more practice, cake was delicious. I am looking ways to make changes small changes in food we share at our table, which we have come together to love & be thankful…

Quote of the Day “Live like a child"

Enjoy!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Clorox's Bleach Messy Moment in Life

I received information about Clorox’s Bleach It Away campaign and am sharing my messy moment for the chance to win prizes from The SITS Girls. To learn more about the messy moment program, check out www.BleachItAway.com. Sharing your story on the Clorox fan page gets you entered for the chance to win $25,000 and daily prizes, and you can grab a coupon for Clorox® Regular Bleach.

This was a very awkward moment to me. This happed long time ago my son was a toddler we were not ready to potty train him. However I was a tutor at this time and had a student coming in for tuition just before bedtime for him. I am done with his dinner and giving him a bath so I can get him to bed.

I was working in a very tight schedule by myself. After I laid his PJ’s on the bed I hurried to the tub to pick up his toys… After picking up few I stumble upon his poop and very sweetly he is using his toddler language to pick clean up his bath toys…

Yes, it was a CLOROX TTIME… I ended up starting my tuition session late but everything else was cleaned THANKS to CLOROX…

Quote of the Day "indulge in joy"

Enjoy!