"Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest."
~ Henry Van Dyke

Friday, October 9, 2009

Plums tartlets in a brighter light

Blogging saves money and feeds the soul...


I was blog hopping and wondered on to a blog called Small Home In The Country. While looking through a couple of her entries, I found one about a lamp (forgot to take a before photo but you can see it on Kammy's blog). Not just any lamp though. I have the same lamp sitting in my storage closet. The only difference is mine has frosted glass and hers clear. Kammy spruced up this cheap looking brass making the lighting look really wonderful! All it took was a few minutes and some spray paint. We dug out our lamp which has a nice shape and gave ours this super makeover inspired by hers. We even had some woodstove spray paint already in the house. It is wonderfully matt in finish so worked perfectly for the job. I am thrilled to bits. I finally have a nice light on my newly remodeled kitchen ceiling without spending a penny for it. Don't you love using what you have? Thanks for the inspiration Kammy!

I also tried a recipe that Heidi put on her blog Heart And Home. It is for......

Italian Plum Tartlets
Kuchen Pie Shell:
1 1/2 cups sifted flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup butter or reg. margarine, softened
1 egg
1/3 cup sugar
dash salt

Sift flour and baking powder into medium bowl. With a pastry cutter, cut in butter until it resembles large crumbs. In medium bowl, beat egg until frothy. Gradually beat in sugar and salt, beating until thick and lemon-colored. Add to flour mixture, mixing until smooth with a wooden spoon. Press dough evenly over bottom and sides of tartlet pans (or use one 9" tart pan). Refrigerate until ready to fill.

I just love baking with my colored mixing bowls. I found them at a discount store for only a few euros. There are 5 in the set. I had to have them as they reminded me of my mother's beautiful old set. I grew up watching her mix all kinds of goodies for us in those bowls. I also picked out quite a few fingers full of raw chocolate chip cookie dough with my baby brother. *grins* She received her bowls as a wedding gift from my aunt when she got married way back in 1957 and they are still in great shape today. Sorry I got off track while I reminisced so now back to the recipe...

This dough smells so delicious while it is baking!


Filling:
1 1/2 lbs Italian plums
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange peel
confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Wash plums and remove pit, cut into quarters for large tart pan, sixths for small tartlet pans. Arrange plums on unbaked kuchen shell, sprinkle with granulated sugar and orange peel. (I must admit that I did not measure this but added sugar and orange peel to taste.)

Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees F, reduce oven temp. to 350 degrees F, bake 30 minutes longer.

Remove from oven, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

Just the dough alone makes this worth baking! You could try this dough with other fruits too I think. I might make it trying blueberries soon. Enjoy it if you decide to bake them for a weekend treat!

Have a great weekend out there in blogland!

16 comments:

Nancy said...

Ok, I am talking to you on Skype while baking chocolate chip cookies using my Green bowl, (the second largest one). When we got on Skype, you said, hey I was talking about you baking on my blog.
I am taking lunch for Becky and me to the craft show tomorrow, and giving Eric and Bill lunch to take on whatever they do in between coming in and out.
I also baked cookies to take for the church to sell. I still have to do no bakes for Eric.
The light looks great and I KNOW that made my son in law very happy. Saving money is great for him.
The tartlets look great and I would like one when I come. I would like cherry or peach please.
Love you, Mom

Tammy said...

Oh my!! those plum tartlets look VERY yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Very nice idea with the light :)
Hugs2u!

irma said...

Wat een schitterende krans!!!!
Heb je die zelf gemaakt????? Echt heel mooi. Zou ik ook best leuk vinden om te maken. Je maakt echt veel werk van je blog.
Ik vind het ook leuk om te doen, alleen heb ik maar weinig mensen die er op kijken. Misschien meer reclame maken.
Liefs Irma

Heidi said...

Hi Heidi!
Thanks so much for the vote of confidence, I'm glad you liked the plum tart recipe. Yours sure look delicious. Why do I always have room for sweets? :)
I hope you'll come back for a visit soon, and try those muffins they really are easy and yummy!
Have a wonderful weekend.
XO
Heidi - Heart and Home
(We Heidi's need to stick together! There are quite a lot of us out here in blogland!)

Elizabethd said...

Mmmm, those do look good. I'm tempted to try your recipe!

Fluitenkruid said...

Ziet er goed uit! Fijn weekend he!

Andylynne said...

I love your light!First because it looks great. And second I have one very much like it. I wanted to take it down and put up a celing fan in that spot. Was going to move the light, but it doesn't match anything else. I was afraid to paint it. But yours looks so good I think I will try it and see. The tarts look great. I might try them with peach and plum:) Thanks to your mom the peach sounds good.

Saskia said...

I'm drooling! Not at the lamp...
And I did kind of the same with my lamp in my hall. It's a lamp from my grandfather who spray painted it gold (yuk..) and I spray painted it back to silver, with some patina for a old image.
Make something old, something new.
"knuffels"

Kammy said...

Hi Heidi !!
Thanks for visiting my small home in the country blog, nice to meet you ! I am so glad that I inspired you to alter something you already had - yeah you ! Come back and see me again !
Kammy

angelasweby said...

Heidi,
The lamp looks so stylish, what a great idea. It's always satisfying when you know it's been a bargain too.
I love the look of those plum tarts - oh how i wish I had seen this recipe a few weeks ago when our plum tree decided that this was the year to treat us to a plum harvest the like of which has never been seen before. We've had stewed plums, plum chutney, plum jam, plum cakes and shelves full of frozen plums in the freezer plus giving away bags and bags of them!!

I'm just thinking that plum jam tartlets might be rather yummy :>)
Hugs Angela

Reginas Cottage said...

Dear Heidi,
I like your baking bowl,they looks very nice.Mmmmmmh your plum tartlets
looks very delicious.I will it try,too.Yesterday I have baking, too
(applecake).
Have a wonderful weekend,
hugs Regina

Sonja said...

Zijn dat pruimen? Ziet er lekker uit!
En wat is jullie schoorsteen mooi geworden! Ik mis wel een beetje de mooie rode kleur die eerst op jullie muur zat, maar ik kan me voorstellen dat het dan te donker zou worden. Great job!!

Tracy said...

Plums...mmm... I just love plums! Your tartletts are lovely, Heidi--thanks so much for sharing your good recipe! :o) Happy Days ((HUGS))

Mary said...

I must try these - love baked plums! Thanks for sharing the recipe Heidi.

The ceiling light looks really nice - it's similar to the one in my kitchen over the island - and I have the matching hanging one over the kitchen table (now Bob's desk, boo hoo!).

Love bowls too - have far too many but somehow they all get used now and again!

Gotta run - off to the NC mountains for the weekend - pouring rain, but hopefully it will clear by tomorrow when I meet a blog friend and we are going thrifting! Stop by later to see who!

Tone said...

Hi Heidi!
Your tiny pies looks delicious!!
here autumn has arrived, this night I thought the roof lifted up in the sky!! - ,....
But today the sun is shining - and I am going to spend the day in the garden, making it rest for the winter, and ready for spring!!
Hope you are ok!
tone

Rhondi said...

I just love all the ideas I get from visiting blogs. Those tarts look delicious!