Art in My World

I have used this company for several years to create my photo books. Just love the way my prints turn out. But why I am sharing this video: for all those young artists out there just getting out of college or soon to be...this is a wonderful idea for creating a working space for artist. I have a dream for downtown Baton Rouge. There must be some neat old building space that can be used for this purpose. Just a thought...  

Fruit Tart My niece inspired this fruit tart experiment. Years ago I bought a tart pan in hopes of making a few tarts for the family, but it has been sitting underneath my cabinet collecting dust and grease until yesterday. If my niece can create a tempting tart why not her aunt. The custard of this tart was also made without milk, I used canned coconut milk instead. My son was skeptical at first, but he gave it the thumbs up and said it tasted great, not coconut flavor at all, just a nice creamy vanilla flavor. Below is the original recipe presented by Joy of Cooking and I will also give how I tweaked it.  Pastry Cream 1 ¼ cups of milk (whole or 2%) (I used coconut milk in a can) ½ vanilla bean, or 1 tsp of vanilla extract (I used a whole vanilla bean) 3 large egg yolks (I used 4 large egg yolks) ¼ cup granulated   sugar  (I used 1/3 cup) 2 tablespoons all purpose flour 2 tablespoons of corn flour 1 tablespoon of liqueur (I used brandy) ...

Kombucha Flavors As the summer came on and the berries, fruit and herbs were in abundance, it was time to try some new flavors of kombucha. For the past several years my mint patch has grown and provides me with enough to create teas, and other drinks, along with jellies too. A friend of mine said that her family enjoyed mint kombucha so since I had lots of growing....it is now one of my favorites. To make a nice minty flavor, I put in about 1/4 cups of crushed mint leaves. The next favorite flavor of my son is strawberry: I put in about 1/4 cup of crushed strawberries per bottle. This summer I finally was able to plant some blueberry bushes. These berries are full of anti-oxidants and leave these goodies in the kombucha. When the peaches came in they also went into the kombucha along with some pineapple sage. All so healthy and good!