Spoiler alert: The galette is actually in the over right now as I am typing this and OH does it ever smell applicious! Concentrate! Focus!
written by Heather Zubiate Today ended up being cloudy, and it's a Saturday. Well you know what that means right? It's a baking day - oh yah baby! But what to bake? The choices are endless...the sky's the limit...you get the picture. But there is a limiting factor to what I can bake, since I'm not the only one who will be consuming the fresh baked good - - rats! So I need to bake something everyone in the Zubiate clan will enjoy. And that means apple pie! Mmmm, on second thought, today I'll be making a galette. It's the same thing really, except it's more rustic. That means it's easier and I'm all for easier. No, really I am. Besides, I have an abundance of apples in the fridge and some in a bowl from our little Dorset trees. Spoiler alert: The galette is actually in the over right now as I am typing this and OH does it ever smell applicious! Concentrate! Focus! First, I make the pastry so it can chill in the fridge while I whip out the filling. The pastry is simple enough, it's mostly butter with a little lard. Yes. I said LARD. I don't want to hear it, ya know why? Because it has been recently found out that saturated fats, like lard and butter, are not as bad for our heart health as once believed. The evil culprit to all kinds of cardiac issues is inflammation, which is brought on by highly processed foods, refined sugar, and even sodium. On a side note, I wonder what happens to the chloride, ya know? Table salt is sodium chloride, right? So what does the body do with the chloride part? Anyway, this is proof positive that Mary Cooper was right when she told the TBBT gang that doctors don't know what is good or bad for you. My opinion is that if God made it to be eaten, then it's good for you. God didn't make highly processed or hydrogenated anything, mankind does that stuff. So now I don't feel one bit of guilt making and consuming a good butter/lard pastry! Thanks Dr. Lundell (and others) for having the guts to come clean. I can just hear my mother say, "I knew it!" The filling is straight forward and easy to do, heck you can get you kids to help. Butter knives are sharp enough to cut apples into slices (adult supervision required) and it's a good way for your children to start honing their knife skills. Ha ha! Then I get out the pastry from the fridge and start rolling it out. I keep the center of the dough a bit thicker than the edges, which will be pleat folded up onto the apples. The thicker center of the crust allows for structural integrity when it comes time to serve, and the folded edges will not be so thick. I put the pasty into a pie pan rather than onto parchment and a cookie sheet. It's just my preference. I also put the pie plate onto a dark cookie sheet to catch any potential spillage, and to help brown the bottom crust. I then mix together the spices, sugars, and cornstarch in a small bowl and dump them over the apples, give it a couple of folding turns and then dump the sugary apples into the waiting blanket of pastry. After I evenly distribute the mound, I start gently folding up the dough. Once that is done, then I brush on some more cholesterol and saturated fat in the form of heavy whipping cream. If you want to use milk or an egg wash, be my guest. You can sprinkle sugar onto the edge, but this time I omitted that step - - trying to limit circulatory system inflammation, and every little bit helps! Then I place it into a preheated 400 degree oven on the center rack position for 3o minutes...then I check it. If it's getting too brown I lower the oven temp to 375. If all is well I leave the temp alone and check it 15 min. later and make adjustments. Most of the time, the 400 degrees is fine for the whole hour of baking. And then when the timer finally sounds, this is what you get! Isn't it lovely hmmmm? Smells fantastic too. It will be VERY hard to wait until after dinner to dig into it too. I serve it with some more cholesterol in the form of vanilla ice cream or real whipped cream, since the fake stuff causes... you guessed it-- INFLAMMATION! And we don't want that do we? Here's to your health!
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Written by Heather Zubiate Father's Day is coming up dear reader. As many of you know, it is VERY hard to find dad the perfect gift under $100. How many ties, or soaps on a rope can one man receive as a father? A few days ago, my sister said that mom's are more sentimental and easier to please than men are. She reasoned that a mom would be thrilled to get a bunch of flowers, it doesn't have to be her favorite flower. Would it do to give a man just any piece of sporting equipment? Not likely. Not that many guys like ALL sports but only a select few. Let's face it, men like things that have big price tags. Cars, boats, good tickets to sporting events, tools, T.V.'s or the latest electronic gadget. But is that really true? I like to think that the classic Cosby Show Father's Day episode goes a long way in dispelling the assumption, that expensive gifts are better than ones from the heart. And so, on that note, here is what I came up with for my eldest son to give his dad. Do you see this pile of lumber? It was fashioned into an early Father's Day gift for my husband, by me and our son, Timothy. Yes I know, it's more construction, which I HATE! But love can make us do crazy things, right? Anyway, can you guess what we are going to build? No huh? Feast your eyes upon my awesome plans. As you can see from this detailed drawing, I have one year of drafting classes and several years of art instruction under my tool belt. Still can't tell what it is huh? Okay then I'll tell you. It's a gardening bench! Since my man loves to garden, I thought it would be nice to make him something that contributes to his favorite hobby. Well, that and to have a place to put all of his gardening stuff. Stuff that is usually laying around the patio, garage, and yard in a disorganized fashion, which simply drives me crazy! (Deep breath) Whew...I'm okay now. Where was I? Oh yeah, the garden-ing bench. As for location, I decided the best place for his gardening bench was under the shelter of our back patio. It's outside (not in our cluttered garage) but also out of the sun. This project was kicked off by laying a brick foundation in the basket weave pattern, because as you can see, we have a dirt patch between our back patio and the house. "Why?" is beyond me. Did the builders, or previous owners conceive this to be a good place for a planting bed? Well, it's not. Since it's a covered patio, that means hardly anything grows here. It's just an annoying patch of dirt. After we finished the brick foundation, it looked so good that I've since decided to con-tinue my paving efforts, that way we will gain more usable porch floor area. But that's a project and post for another day. Tim and I only had to cut a few bricks to fit, which was a blessing because the brick set we have doesn't do it's job very well. I think only one brick actually was trimmed successfully without breaking in half. Not wanting to waste any bricks, I simply put the broken bricks toward the back, near the house. We then filled in the cracks with paver locking sand. Now the bricks look like they've been there for years! This little pocket drill jig sure has come in handy for our construction projects lately. In a mere 7 hours (fraught with all kinds of frustration), this random pile of lumber turned into this.... Not bad if I do say so myself. The slats cut into the removable top (thanks to my son's patience) hide a soil bin underneath. That way my man can slop potting soil directly onto the bench and have it go into the bin underneath, or he can remove the top completely and scoop soil from it. Men like gadgets that come with options, right? Now all of his gardening pots, tools, seeds and soil are kept neatly in one place. No more tripping over bags of soil, mulch, or stray pots! No more garden tool scavenger hunts, well that's if we learn to put them back where they belong - right here! I would've included more construction pictures, but I was busy constructing - - sorry. I would've posted a picture of my husband's reaction too, but he's camera shy. So, you'll just have to believe me when I say that he loved it! Even though the materials for this project added up to a tidy sum, what matters most is that my son and I made it with our own two hands, and it was from the heart. And it will keep on giving for many years to come with all the screws we put into the thing!
Happy Father's Day my love, you're simply the best! Written by Heather Zubiate After 12 or so years, we finally decided we needed a new sofa! Our old sofa (when it was new) was upholstered with a nice soft and durable dark green chenille. But as with all things in this world that are subjected to the relentless rigors of entropy, it was starting to show it's age big time! The four back pillows, once plump, resembled shriveled raisins. The chenille was worn and rubbed off in the most used spots like the arms and cushions. And the inevitable fabric tears were really making it look shabby and not so chic. While teething, Kyle gnawed on the back of the sofa, so I covered the area with a blanket we were given. I wish I had thought of putting the blanket there before Kyle nearly gnawed the fabric down to the wood! Anyway, when we got cats, they decided Old Green would make a great scratching post and secret lair! They clawed off the fabric underneath it, and some of the stuffing as well. And as the boys got older, they naturally used Old Green's ample arms for extra seating. And Tim used it as a second bed. Yes, Old Green served our family well, but it was finally time to throw out the old, and bring in the new! Ta-da!!!! And here she is! Adelaide! Isn't she just beautiful? After months of searching the inter-net and visiting many furniture showrooms, I found this beauty at Living Spaces. What's not to love? She has a sleek straight and pillowless tufted back with thin gracefully cur-ved arms. And even better, she has one long seamless cushion! Let's not forget her eye catching color - RED! Kyle insisted on getting a red sofa. Please understand that Kyle is not a shrinking violet when it comes to color. He wanted to paint his room in a dark Kelly green. Robert and I opted for a softer sage green, and it looks great. Then Kyle demanded that we paint his closet doors purple and his room's door orange. As an artist, I can see that he understands the concept of grouping the secondary colors (green, orange, and purple) together from the color wheel, but that doesn't mean they should all be in the same room. At the same time. At least not in the way he wants. Anyway, I agreed with Kyle about the sofa color, it had to be RED! Sorry for the super bright background of our large window, considering it is north facing, we still get a LOT of light from it! This shot is still bright even though our cream color curtains are drawn over the window. No one is allowed to eat on this sofa, and so far, that rule has stuck. Originally, I had set out to find a sofa that was not as long, so my son Timothy didn't use it as a second bed, but as it turns out, Adelaide's seating capacity is much longer than Old Green! So I inadvertently made Timothy VERY happy too.
See what a good mom I am? Anyway, while at Living Spaces, at the last minute, we splurged and got my husband his much coveted recliner. He really enjoys falling asleep in it after spending a long day on his feet, under the relentless So.Cal sun. Really, anyone who sits in it enjoys its soft cushiony comfort. Truth be told, I don't care for the sloppy pillowy recliner look, but this one isn't too sloppy, or pillowy. It's definitely a earthy brown, which suits my husband's preferred drab color palate, and fortunately, our decor. We simply couldn't afford any of the beautifully tailored recliners from La-z-boy, so we cooperated and got this one. It makes him happy, which makes me happy. Anyway, I hope to keep Adelaide looking her best for as long as I can, and I am so happy we got her. She really is quite a stunner, and quite comfy now that she's been broken in a bit. Thanks Tim! |
Hello!Welcome to my blog, dear reader. My name is Heather, and I am a full time housewife and mom living in Whittier Ca. with my wonderful husband of 26 years, and our two sons. I welcome you and hope you enjoy reading what is on my mind. Subscribe to
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