Downtown Bakery Apple Galettes

Many  varieties of fruit can be substituted for apples, such as rhubarb, berries, peaches, apricots, nectarines, pears, etc. The quantity of sugar may need to be adjusted slightly depending on the sweetness of the fruit. For very juicy fruit, a small (1 tsp) amount of flour may be duted on the bottom of the tart before the fruit is added.

Galette Dough
2 C all purpose flour
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
6 oz. cold, sweet butter
1/2 C cold water

Combine flour, sugar and salt. Cut in the butter until the mixture looks like cornmeal. Stir in the ice water until the mixture just holds together. Press into a ball, flatten and wrap in a plastic wrap, put in the refrigerator to relax the dough. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

Remove from refrigerator and divide the dough into 4 pieces. Press each piece into a small circle and roll into a 6" diameter circle, 1/8" thick. Put the pieces on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and place in the refrigerator while preparing the filling. It is important to keep the dough chilled at all times.

Galette Filling
2 lbs. tart cooking apples (5-6 large apples)
4-5 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp butter, melted

Peel, quarter a and core apples, and slice into 1/4" slices. Divide the fruit into 8 portions, approximately 3/4 cup per tart. Bring the galette dough from the refrigerator and put 1 tsp. flour and and 1 tsp sugar into the center of the dough circle, spreading to cover the entire circle. Pour your fruit into the center of the circle, leaving approx 1" uncovered dough around the edge. Put 1 Tbsp sugar and a pinch of cinnamon on top of the apples. Fold uncovered edge of pastry dough over the apples, pleating to make it fit. Brush the edge with melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool on rack.

Recipe courtesy of Kathleen Stewart, Downtown Bakery & Creamery (www.downtownbakery.net)

Smoked Whitefish Dip

1 C shredded smoked Whitefish
1 C Real Mayo
1 C Parm Cheese, divided

Mix ingredients above, keeping aside about 1/4 C of Parm Cheese. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top. Bake @ 350F for about 20 min or until bubbly and lightly browned. Serve with crackers.

Thanks for the recipe Mom! It's sooooo good!

French Toast Cupcakes with Maple Buttercream Frosting and Bacon!!!

I made these delights today for a co-worker's birthday. They were devoured!

Happy Boss's Day!

Today is Boss's day! I was greeted with flowers and a card today from Chris, one of my Industrial Designers. It was SO GREAT!

I decorated Brian's office with a "Happy Boss's Day to the Worlds BEST Boss" sign and a bunch of other festive things like tissue pom-poms. I also made Fantasy Fudge Bars and brought them to work. Then our office went out to lunch at this new place in Provo called Cubbys Chicago Beef. Delish! It's a fact, Boss's Day rocks. Happy Boss's Day to all you bosses out there!

P.S. Looks like I'll be going to China again soon. My other Boss, Carey - called with an invitation today!

Birthdays

Did you every wonder how popular your birthday is? Check out this cool infographic I found here.

My Bunco Group

This is part of the group - Angela (Witch), Lindsay (Marilyn Monroe), Me (Santa) Whitney (Saloon Girl), Dana (Pebbles from the Flintstones), Brooke (Redneck Nascar Girl), Jessie (Angry Bird) and Bonnie (St. Provo Girl).

A couple party pics. These ladies are so much fun - we really have a great group and look forward to getting together every month. We are just finishing our 3rd year of playing Bunco together! I just love these girls!

Brooke - she is so hilarous. We keep begging her to join our group permanently. She really makes bunco fun and she has a huge crush on Michael Phelps! She won the costume contest - she had us laughing all night!

Spooky Inside the House Too!

This is the other side of the front door. Birds everywhere! I hosted Bunco this month. Love Halloween themed Bunco! This year we even had a costume party.

I made this picture last year when I worked at We R Memory Keepers. Jon Garry made the frame for me out of some scrap molding he had in the garage.

 The kitchen table - loads of candies and sweets.

Death by Chocolate cupcakes filled with chocolate cream, vanilla buttercream frosting and chocolate ganache drizzle.

White chocolate covered oreo mummies.

Wyatt made these...Candy Corn ghosties made of white chocolate dipped marshmallows.

 

 

A closer look at that popcorn - OMG - my favorite, maybe because it is sweet and salty? It's coated in white chocolate and has Halloween sprinkles and Candy Corns in it!

 Jars of confectionary delights!

I had every girl fill and take home a bag of treats.

 Chocolate flavored licorice! Wow. That's a new find for me!

Witches hats made of Hershey's Kisses (caramel filled) , Buttercream Frosting and Keebler Elf Fudge Stripes Cookies. Easy to make and delish!

This is some of the decor around the house. I found a bunch of creepy photos and framed them with dollar store frames.

Some of the frames were filled with Black Widow scrapbook paper from We R Memory Keepers.

 

I thought this one had the most creep-factor - a smoking circus clown? Wow.

Handy guy Jon Garry cut the letter G out and I covered it with old dictionary paper.

Even the bathroom was creepy with a couple fantastic photos. Below is a witch that I painted a few years ago on a gourd.

 I found most of these recipes and ideas online. Everything was relatively easy to make and it sure was fun preparing for the party and decorating for Halloween!