Saturday, November 6, 2010

Berry and Brie Pie

If you follow me on Twitter, and you were awake around 9pm Pacific time (or 12am Eastern) you might know that I was up planning a pie.

I found frozen pie shells at Grocery Outlet for $0.79/pack of 2.  Dude.  That is cheap.  I also found little brie wheels, which I probably should have bought three or four of instead of just one.  Not sure how much it was but it was also quite cheap.  For the berries, I used the rest of a bag of frozen berries from Costco that has been in my freezer for a while.  I was on a smoothie kick for a while, but broke the blender, so was stuck with a bag of berries.  It was three types of berries: blackberries, raspberries and blueberries.  I also had some other frozen blueberries from the summer time when blueberries were cheap.

I knew I wanted to make a pie and a berry one at that, but what could I do to make it different from any old other berry pie?  I know!  Cut up the brie and pour berries over it!!  But wait, won't that look strange, a pool of berries inside a pie crust?  Yes it would... What could take this pie over the top?  Crisp topping!!  Yes!!

So armed with my idea for a crisp-topped berry-brie pie, I went forth and made it so.




This recipe is enough for two pies, one with cheese, one without.  If you want to make two with cheese, then you will need two brie wheels.

Ingredients:
about 5 or 6 oz brie cheese with the outer edge of the rind cut off.  Cut into about 8 wedges.
2 - 8 or 9" pie crusts (I used the ones that come in aluminum pie tins)
Berry Filling (see recipe)
Crisp Topping (see recipe)
Secret Stash Vanilla Salt (add about 1/2 tsp to both berry filling and crisp topping)

Berry Filling:
about 5 cups frozen berries
4 tbsp (1/4cup) cornstarch, dissolved in 1/2 cup cold water
1/3 to 1/2 cup raw sugar; or sweeten to your liking.

Crisp Topping (Courtesy of the Food Network website, recipe by Ina Garten)
***This turned out to be much too much topping, however if you were to make three pies, or a crisp the next day, you would be fine.  I would recommend using only 3/4 cup flour, as I like my crisp topping to be more oatmeal than flour, and perhaps 1/4 cup more oats.**

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
  • 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt {I used the vanilla salt mentioned earlier}
  • 1 cup oatmeal
  • 1/2 pound cold unsalted butter, diced
  • **I added about 1/2 cup raw sliced almonds because I felt the nuttiness would really complement the cheese and berries. It does!**
Preheat oven to 400 degrees, put a cookie sheet on the rack you are going to use for baking the pies, so that it can pre-heat, too.  The pie filling will overflow while baking (unless you're a perfect genius of course).  Also, the cookie sheet should be big enough to hold both pies.

Begin by putting all the berries in a saucepan and turning the heat to medium-low.  When they are all thawed and warm, stir in the sugar.  Let the sugar dissolve a bit then, slowly stir in the dissolved cornstarch liquid.  Turn the heat up to medium and boil for 1 to 3 minutes.  Remove from heat, turn off burner.   

Now, combine all the dry ingredients for the crisp topping together in a bowl and mix well.  Then, add the butter.  I mixed this all together with my hands because I feel using a spoon or mixer is just too much work.  Plus getting your hands dirty is fun! 

The cheese should already be cut up, oven and cookie sheet preheated this whole time, and crisp topping should be all ready.  Take the pie shells out of the freezer.  (I am operating under the assumption that you are using frozen shells that are already in aluminum pie-tins.)  Put the cheese slices in the bottom of one pie shell.  Pour less than half the berry mixture over the cheese slices.  The berries should NOT completely cover the cheese, the berry mixture should go about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way up the pie shell.  You will have massive cheese and berries escaping if you try to cover the cheese wedges, like I did.  Pour the rest of the berry mixture into the other pie shell.  Now, put a layer of the crisp topping on the pies and place the pies onto the cookie sheet.  

I baked mine about 15 minutes at 400 degrees F, then turned it down to 350 degrees F, leaving the oven door open for a few minutes so that it cooled down faster.  The hotter the oven, the more likely all your berries will try to escape, or you will burn the crisp topping and nuts.  Bake another 20-35 minutes, depending on how fast your crust and topping cook.  Since the berries are already ready already, the only thing you are waiting for is the cheese to melt, the pastry to cook and the crisp to be crispy!  

Good luck and let me know if you try this recipe!!  I really enjoyed it.

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Second Day on the Job EOTD

Hiii!

My second day working at the Spirit Halloween Store was today and I felt the need to do a yellow-purple-blue look.  

Sorry, no full face shots!  I wore Rocks! Candy-o on my cheeks and the discontinued and unavailable Rocks! shesaknockout lippie.  It looked really good and lasted a while!  

Aromaleigh products in the following shades with (my color descriptions in brackets):
Inner Corner/lid:  L'Orchidee Collection - Bumblebee (a sweet, light golden yellow)
Lid:  Victoria's Revenge - Mourning's Whimsy (beautiful blue based medium-dark purple with blue sparkles/interference)
Crease:  Les Papillons - Flutura's Cloud - "A brilliant blue of exceptional vibrancy and depth. Metallic heart with intense blue frost and sparks of blue, red and gold. This shade was inspired by the amazing color of the Blue Morpho Butterfly." from Aromaleigh.com (deep blue with darling sparkles.)
Highlight and blending: Rocks! WhiteWedding

Click for bigger ones!








Plus!!  I bought a costume after I got off work!! I am fairly certain it was the last one, so I tried it on, loved it and bought it.  I will try to get home photos of me rocking it later.  Yay!  

What do you think of my eye color choices today?  I think I would have liked to have used Italian Ice from Hot in the City collection instead of Bumblee. 

Thoughts on my costume?

<3carolyn

ManGlaze - Mayo - Matte White Nailpolish - Attempt #2

Hey there!

I posted on Twitter that I got my new polish in the mail from ManGlaze, Ink this week.  My order consisted of one bottle of matte white polish name Mayonaisse, or The Holy Crap!  :)

I am terribly and deeply in love with all the other products that ManGlaze has produced, most especially FuggenUgly, the original matte grey polish (although it has experienced a few formula changes since first appearance in the mid 2000's.)

Anywho.  My first impression of this polish was that it was a looooot stickier and thicker than other polished I have used in the past.  It is also NOT a "Wite-Out" type of white.  It has a delicate shimmer that is pretty much unnoticeable once the polish is dry, but while it is being applied, it is quite pretty!

Now, I am not the world's most amazing polish applying-person, so please forgive my shoddy work.  The day I got this polish, I was sitting at my computer, put it on my nails and after the first round I ruined it.

It does NOT dry completely for a while.  The outside will look dry, but it is not.  I do realize that this could be a problem with application on my part, too, so please bear with me.

(P.S.  If you want this polish and need some amazing tips, go to this blog post on www.scrangie.com: http://www.scrangie.com/2010/10/man-glaze-mayonnaise.html  She has some really awesome tips and they did help this second time around.)

So, the rundown on Mayo:


  • Beautiful, clean white without being stark, yellow or chalky
  • Thick, need a steady, smart hand to apply without streaking.  Also many coats.
  • Takes a bit longer to dry than most other nail polishes.  Certainly NOT one of those polish-and-go polishes.
  • Awesome fantastic matte.  LOVE.
  • I need MORE PRACTICE!
 I need to get a brush to clean up my cuticles, but for this I just used a small knitting needle to get in my cuticles since I kept getting the polish up under them.  Sheesh!!  Hopefully next time I do a mani I will take pics in the day time... And clean up my mess.  :P

How do you like this white??


Pics! Click for bigger ones!





























Sunday, October 17, 2010

Mythos Look #1 - Blue and Green Gods and Goddesses








Eyes
Inner lid:  Aromaleigh Mythos Demeter
Crease and outer lid: Aromaleigh Mythos Phoebe
Center of lid:  Aromaleigh Mythos Theia
Highlighter: Aromaleigh Mythos Rhea
Lower Lid: Aromaleigh Mythos Theia
Lashes:  Benefit Bad Gal Lash
Brows:  Urban Decay Brow Beaters Brunette

Face & Cheek
Aromaleigh Glissade 1PL+ Voile 00
Aromaleigh Metamorphosis Finishing Powder
Aromaleigh Gothic Lolita Blush - Rococo


Lips
Fyrinnae Lip Lustre - Visual Kei


Today I wanted to use the new samples I bought from Aromaleigh, and my outfit was blue, black and green so I went with it.

I got lots of compliments on my make-up and also on my cowl that you can see in some of the pics.  It is blue.  Everyone thought it was super cute.  I knitted it myself! :D  Keeps my neck perfectly warm.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Things That Have Happened


Soooo.... I don't know if you noticed, but I've been gone for a while from blogging.  


Things That Have Happened:


1)  Lost jobs, now unemployed.  (Sad face!)


2)  Learned how to knit, obsessed with knitting and fiber.  (Happy face!)


3)  VACATION! OMG I WENT ON VACATION!  See photos of beachtasticness at the end.


4)  Finally got my studio space into it's space.  Whew!


5)  Having weekly sales on my Etsy page in order to pay bills and feed myself.  (15% off Oct 1 thru Oct 3rd)


6)  Watched Dead Like Me (Seasons 1& 2), Doctor Who (Season 1) annnddd lots of others.  


Wanna see some pics?  Of course you do, you magpie.




Jewelry!!!





Oh, this isn't jewelry, but it is mendhi.  Prettyyyyy!


Earrings



Cowl!




Oregon!!

What?


Big Pirate, Little Ship

Purdy!



More Seal Rock!
Seal Rock
Bridge into Newport, OR



Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Accepted!

~~~~

Hello everyone!  I wanted to let you know what has been sucking up my time, if you don't follow me on Twitter, that is!

I was accepted to Central Washington University and I will be pursueing a BFA in Jewelry/Metalsmithing and hopefully I can work in some sort of teaching degree, too.  My dream is to teach jewelry someday.

Another thing is that I am moving my studio space into what is currently the computer room.  I'm getting really tired of having to walk all over the house to use all my tools because it makes my production time a LOT longer!

Since I am going to be going away to school, I will be downsizing my stuff.  I will probably start selling books, clothes, shoes and things here on my blog, on the Blog Sale page.  All the info you will need to know will be over there.  :)

I leave you with a picture:


This is me and my sweet friend Meredith (of Sweet Anthem) before her wedding in June.  I'm wearing my custom Ureshii dress!  Amazing!  I officiated her wedding, which was amazing!  


Thanks everyone for understanding!  I have some bezelset stone rings coming, specifically labradorite and moonstone!  Ooo!

<3Carolyn

Sunday, July 4, 2010

30% off - Big Ol' Independance Day Sale!

Happy day!!

Not only do I have a coupon code for you, I also want to introduce a new item!!

You know I have been in love with hammering and thus created my HAMMERED line.  My friend CrowandIris told me to make these hammered hoops that have the earring latch built into them.  Orignially that was her dealio but I do what she tells me because she is amazing.

I have paired copper and sterling silver 20 gauge wire with various tiny gemstone beads to bring you Simply HAMMERED.  Each different design will have a different name and small story or blurb to go with it.  Here are a few pics!

Glimmer - Copper and Labradorite
 Rita - Copper and Denim Mystic Quartz
 Wonder - Sterling Silver and Citrine
Mystic - Copper and Pink Mystic Quartz

Ok, so now that I have teased you with new stuff, these are all available in my Etsy store and my Artfire store RIGHT NOW!  

Here is the info from my Etsy page:

Write "freedomfries" in the NOTES TO SELLER to receive 30% off a purchase of 2 or more items. You may use this on ANY items in my shop. This sale starts right now!! (July 2nd) and will go until July 6th! Yes! You have until Tuesday to take advantage of this great deal! 
You must purchase 2 or more items to take advantage of this 30% off offer. May not be used on previously purchased items. 
30% of your subtotal, not including shipping, will be refunded via PayPal within 24 hours of purchase, *OR* leave a note with your coupon code asking me to send a revised invoice. 
*Please note that items purchased this weekend will NOT ship until Tuesday because of the holiday!! Thank you!*
Yes, you can use this code if you are not in the United States, so seriously, do it!

 Today, July 4th, I will be selling my work at the Fremont Market with a friend, so if you are in Seattle, feel free to come see me and drop this coupon code and I'll give you 30% off any of my own jewelry items.  :)

Happy Fourth of July!

Carolyn

Friday, June 25, 2010

FOYD: Victoria's Revenge Look



Here is my look from last week using Aromaleigh's Limited Edition Collection: Victoria's Revenge.  They are going very quickly and some shades are already sold out, so get the ones you need right now!! Go!








Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Evil Shades Lippie Swatches

Well hello, lovers of make-up!!  

Today I have for your some swatches of lip products that I bought from Evil Shades.  (I bought them, they were not provided to me, except for Zicke which was a free sample.)

My order contained more than just lip stuffs, but I didn't have time to swatch that stuff yesterday.  So, you get lip stuff first.

The Company:  Andrea is super awesome and sweet!  Go follow her on Twitter!  (And me, for that matter.)

Shipping:  Super quick!  My order, with custom eyeshadow, shipped the next day!  Hooray! :D  The only thing was that some of my shadows were escaping from their jars.  :[  I think next time I will ask for sifters if she has them available.

Prices:  Holy canolies?!  REALLY?!  That was my reaction when I saw her prices.  I bought one Large Gift set and one Mini Set for, I think $22.  Two lipsticks, four lipglosses, five shadows.  Glosses are $3.50, lipsticks are $4.75, and shadows are $3.50, and all are pretty gosh ding dang amazing!!   Here is the link again: Evil Shades.  She does have blushes which I will probably order samples of next time I order.

The Products:

Lip Glosses:  

  • Cushiony
  • These may or may not be sticky to some people.  I don't usually have a problem with stickiness since my hair tends to be short and I don't get hair on my lips very often.
  • Very high gloss!  Love it.
  • Moisturizing
  • Smell is fantastic!!  Yum!
  • I am so/so on the jar.  I kind of like it because these are the kind of glosses/lip products I can see actually wanting to use a brush with, espcially the color "Deadly."

Lethal Kiss - "Peachy Shimmer" (from EvilShades.com) 
To me, this is a pinky, peachy color that doesn't amp up the color of my lips the way Guilty as Sin does.  I really like it as an everyday gloss.  The shimmer is subtle but it also has silver sparkles in it, which is a cute added touch!  You can kind of see them on the edges of my lips.



Guilty as Sin - "Pink/Fuschia with glass fleck" (from EvilShades.com)
This is pink.  Awesome sparkly, shimmery fuschia-y pink.  I really like the way it pinks up my lips and seems to me to have a little blue reflectiveness to it, in the shimmer.  I see myself wearing this one for sure.





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