Sparkling Wine Poached Pear, Candied Pecans and Spiced Pastry Cream Tart

This was a lovely tart. Perfect for the time of year and the flavors all worked so well together. I was very happy with the outcome!

As much as I would love to cling onto the summer's bounty, i am ready to accept that fall is here and it is now time to start baking with fall fruits and vegetables. I do love this time of year though especially because of the wild mushrooms. Within this next month we will hopefully be feasting on fresh chanterelles and boletes! I can taste the forest already!

Grilled Pizza!!

Look how good these look! I love to grill pizza. It's possibly one of my favorite dinners to make. We pretty take turns making dinner during the week but we try and keep it interesting. And no, we did not eat this all in one night. That's the thing about pizza dough, a little goes a long way! Such a cheap dinner to make! The top one is spicy Italian sausage, Gorgonzola, caramelized onions and arugula. The other one was fig jam, apples and Gorgonzola. They both were very good!

Here is also a picture of Madeline from tonight. She LOVES Patsy and Patsy is very slowly warming up to her. She was actually purring tonight when Madeline was swatting her. She will learn to love Madeline. Jerky will too. It really could be the most harmonious relationship if Jerky would just relax! She loves to feed him and he loves to eat so I know it's just a matter of time before he figures this out.Anyways, that's all I have for now. Mike is on his way out of town until Saturday night so we will be on our own for a few days. Don't know if I will get around to posting anything but I will certainly try!

Show me the money! pretty please.


My kids are trying for it again. I am happy too because I enjoy these trips as much as they do. Actually, I probably enjoy it way more. We are well on our way as far as fund raising goes but we really have a long ways to go. We need to raise at least $1100 per person and right now we only have $1800. Not bad for the first seven weeks of school but not great. I have a fabulous group of students in my advanced class this year. They all get along so well and they are a JOY to be around. They make me look forward to work which is a good thing, especially for me! Anyways, back to NYC...we have tried a few new things this year as far as raising money. We have sent out at least 20 letters to local businesses asking for help. We have not heard back from any one yet...not one. I guess the next step is to actually stop by or call them. A $20 check here and there could help out a lot! We are doing lunches, small catering jobs, you name it. We just need to find the one that is going to give us the mother load of cash. We have lots of great ideas, but none are giant money makers. We are so limited as far as food sales on campus go too because of CA's nutrition laws. Ah well, I am sure we will figure it out. BUT, if any of you have any genius ideas on really big fund raisers, PLEASE let me know! Thanks! Below is a picture from our walk tonight. It is so stinkin' cold! Brrr.....

Basically, what it comes down to, is that I just can't keep up with this. I have pictures of Madeline from everyday of school since it has started but now I am thinking that I am going to do it every Friday or something like that because it is just too much! I just gathered all of the pictures that I have taken since the last blog entry and slapped those in (not in order) and we're gonna call it good.
She was sick last week, but fine now. The picture of her in pink pants and the whale shirt is from last Wednesday when she woke up with a fever. She has been putting me through the ringer lately (at night) but is finally back to sleeping! Crazy kid.
One thing that is different since last entry is that she has turned into a total helpful little child! She picks up stuff, she takes things to her dad if I ask her, she LOVES to feed the cats. She will go and grab the cat food container out of the cabinet and then pour it (with some help) into the cat bowls...but then, she takes the container back to the cabinet and puts it away. She is a GENIUS! :)
Anyways, she is quite the helper and it's pretty cute.
Alright, talk to you later!