Happy Friday!

Happy Friday! I'm just recovering from being pretty sick the last couple of days. I caught whatever sore throat/fever/achy/ear/head thing that's going around. I actually slept 16 hours between Wed. evening and Thursday afternoon. Dang. And last night I went to bed at 9pm. I feel fairly normal today thanks to all the sleep (and lots of hugs from the boy.)

Tomorrow morning the girls are meeting up early to go out of town for an antique fair. I'm hoping I can come home with a purse and some jewelry.

Happy Friday!

Carmelized Onion Tart

It's SO GOOD.

We went to brunch at a friend's house this weekend and brought this and a couple of other little things. The tart is very easy to make and OMG it's good. Everything at our brunch was delicious. Our hosts even made a fun punch of honey water, champagne, and rum (very good and refreshing.)

We went out the night before and I woke up early to get everything made for our brunch. It wasn't easy getting out of bed early but it was rather strange/amusing to carmelize onions at 9am while someone is passed out twenty feet away from you sleeping on your couch (you're not going to sleep through that one!).

Carmelized Onion Tart with Apples, recipe from Real Simple Magazine

2 tablespoons olive oil

• 2 medium onions, sliced
• 2 Gala apples, cut into small pieces
• salt and black pepper
• 2 sheets frozen puff pastry (from a 17.3-ounce package), thawed
• 1/2 cup creme fraiche or sour cream (go for the creme fraiche!)

Directions

1. Heat oven to 400º F. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and golden brown, 12-15 minutes. Stir in the apples, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper and cook until just tender, 2 minutes.
2. Place each sheet of pastry on a parchment-lined baking sheet and prick all over with a fork. Spread with the crème fraîche, leaving a ½-inch border. Top with the onion mixture and bake until the pastry is crisp and browned, 30 to 35 minutes. Cut into pieces before serving.

Recipe taken from Real Simple.

Friday!

So yesterday was an interesting day. The day started off like the previous two days: every 20 minutes I would refresh the Austin City Limits music festival website, because at random on one day between Tuesday-Friday they would post a limited sale of their "souvenir tickets" for ACL 2012. They are only $50 opposed to the usual $185. Well yesterday it happened and I totally missed it. I had checked about 10 minutes before and when I looked several minutes later, it had already happened and it had sold out. Apparently the tickets sold out in three minutes! And guess what? Eric got two!!!!!!! He caught it and actually got through. My day was totally made (very few people win these!) Their website says about the souvenir tickets: "Get one and you should buy a lottery ticket that day!", that's how lucky it is.

And in the evening I was invited to get a drink with Meg and Stephanie. I ended up declining because I still had a stack of exams to grade. So I stayed at work after my evening class grading exams and came home and graded more....only to find out later that they saw Elijah Wood and Dominic Monaghan at the bar they went to. WTF !! I guess you can't win it all in one day.

No big plans tonight except cleaning our place. But I'm a little interested in going to the area where the film festival is happening in Austin.

Anywho, HAPPY FRIDAY!

terrible blogmaster

I missed a Happy Friday. I could have made an awesome one for ACL. sigh. I'm sorry I haven't blogged in while. I was swamped making preparations for ACL, having a couple friends in town, and going to ACL. Normal life will resume soon.

Happy Friday!

The boy and I are going to two of my university's soccer games tonight. I have a ton of soccer players this semester and I've become really fond of them. I announced that I was coming to the women's and men's games tonight and they freaked out. Cute.

Butterscotch Macadamia Nut Cookies

Last night seemed like the appropriate time to bust my (non-intentional) non-baking streak. I had half a bag of butterscotch chips in the freezer, some macadamia nuts, and no chocolate chips. A small bag of macadamia nuts from Central Market's bulk section ended up being $4.00 and I couldn't decide if it felt like wasting them to put them in a cookie..but I have no regrets. They're delicious.

I still haven't finished the purse I started. I can't get the purse frame onto the top ledge (hard to explain, but one of these.) I quit working on the purse and starting knitting a scarf. And like most weeks of the past month, I've been watching lots of Mad Men.

Butterscotch Macadamia Nut Cookies

1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 1/2 cup quick oats
7/8 cup unbleached white flour
7/8 cup toasted macadamia nuts
1 cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 375F. Toast the macadamia nuts. Beat the butter, salt, sugar, baking soda and vanilla extract. Beat in the eggs and then the flour. Add oats, nuts and butterscotch chips. Drop onto an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes. Let cool on a cooling rack.

happy (girl's night out) friday!

Girl's night out tonight!

homemade items in action

I think classes are beginning to settle (i.e. I'll have more time to make stuff.) Last night I began working on a new purse, but finishing it is throwing me for a loop. I'll post the purse as soon as it's finished.

In the meantime, here a couple of old items I made and am documented wearing:

soft cover-up original post

spotted last year during SXSW and featured on The Style Co-op (Photos above and below compliments of The Style Co-op)

My post about making the flower hairpiece and their post featuring it.