Out of the office...

We're heading to Mexico for an overdue vacation! (I mean, actually overdue... we were supposed to go in May, but our companies put a travel restriction in place because of the swine flu!)

It's been busy around here, as my absence from Twitter and the like has probably shown... so I really can't wait to have some margaritas and eat guacamole on the beach! :)



Happy 4th of July, all!

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Macro Photography with Raspberries

No recipe this time, I just wanted to share some photos:) I was playing around with my macro lens and got some cool results!

With a macro lens, if you want a super close-up photo, you don't need to open up your aperture all the way to get that creamy blur (bokeh) in the background. The object is so close to the lens that the amount in focus (depth of field) is very small, even at smaller apertures.


And you can move back and use it as a regular lens, too ;)

If you want to get closeups but don't have a SLR with a macro lens, try using your camera's macro setting. It should have an icon like this: Just check your camera's manual to see how close you can get :)

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Parisian Apple Tartlet - Tuesdays with Dorie

This is, simply put, the easiest dessert that I have made so far. Plus, it is seriously delicious! Jessica of My Baking Heart really hit a home run with this TWD choice.

[Parisian apple tartlet recipe]


All you need to make this dessert (if you buy the puff pastry at the store, that is — I don't even want to contemplate making it at this point!) is a circle of puff pastry, a half of an apple, brown sugar and butter.


Sorry, Dorie... no all-butter puff pastry in the grocery store, so I made do with this.


The cutter was supposed to be 4" wide, but this one was a little smaller and it was the biggest cutter I had. Next time I'll make sure to make it a little bigger, because there wasn't quite enough pastry around the edges.



There was a little burnt sugar action since the sugar and juices ran off the side of the tartlets. Could be because my pastry was too small... or because I added too much extra sugar ;)


Well, that's it! Easiest... recipe... ever. Love. I think this blog post is causing me more effort than actually making the recipe.

Parisian Apple Tartlet

Ingredients:
1 1/8-inch-thick 4-inch circle cold puff pastry
1/2 firm sweet apple, such as a Golden Delicious or Fuji, peeled and cored
1 to 2 t light brown sugar
1 t cold butter, cut into 3 pieces

[full recipe instructions on Jessica's blog]

Nutrition Facts from NutritionData.com:
per 1 recipe
[click to show or hide]

Calories: 343
Fat: 19 g
Saturated Fat: 5 g
Cholesterol: 10 mg
Sodium: 104 mg
Carbohydrates: 41 g
Dietary Fiber: 2 g
Protein: 3 g

I honestly thought it would be healthier, but that pastry is killer! I forgot to weigh my pastry, so I used a guesstimate of 40g of baked pastry per 4" circle to calculate the calories. Might be a little less.


Thanks to Jessica for making my life easy this week :) You can get the recipe on her blog: Supplicious. The rest of the tartlets can be ogled through the TWD blogroll!


(Note: It's impossible to eat this without getting your hands dirty ;) )

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