vendredi 30 janvier 2009

A glimpse of spring

Somebody gave me, as an hostess gift for our family New Year's party, an Amaryllis bulb. I thought it was a creative gift idea instead of the usual bottle or wine or box of chocolate. The flower just arrived this week. With all the snow falling on Montreal, it’s nice to have a glimpse of spring in my kitchen!

mercredi 28 janvier 2009

Opus lift - What a nice idea!


I live in Montreal. I love the city, its vibe.

Our public transport co. has issue a chip card to replace the old traditional system. The chip card is beyond ugly...

But this designer had the great idea of inviting people to “facelift” their card and posts result on this site.

I challenge everyone at my office and I plan to do mine by the end of next month. My head is bubbling with ideas already. A story to be continued!

Long vacation!


Ok, bloging is not my #1 priority, but what a long vacation it was!

I made soooooo many craft and project during this vacation that I need to make a few “How to” tutorial to share with the world!

I also did a lot of baking as this “King’s cake” (in French La galette des roi).

This is the recipe that I used for this cake. It was delicious but next year I will add pears in it!

French King’s Cake

Ingredients :

- Flaky paste
- 1 cup of almond powder
- ½ cup of confectioner sugar
- 1/2 cup of butter
- 1 tbs. of flour
- 1 tbs. of rum
- 3 small eggs
- A hard bean
- Melted butter to apply on the flaky paste along the way

Steps:

1. Mix soften butter with the sugar, the flour, the rum, the almond powder and 3 of the eggs.

2. Place 6 layer of flaky paste in the bottom of a pie mould putting some melted butter between each layers. Cut the flaky paste with a pair of scissor to make a circle a little bit wider than the mould.

3. Put the mix and the hard bean onto the flaky paste. Put 6 more layers of flaky paste on top of the mix. Put a little bit of melted butter between each layers. Cut the flaky paste with a pair of scissor to make a circle a little bit wider than the mould. Put a little bit of melted butter on the edge and seal the pie by pressing together the flaky paste to create a crust.

4. Bake into a warm oven at 400°F for 20 minutes.