food: apple turnovers

Last night for dinner I made quiche lorraine (one of our faves). Since it is kind of a breakfast-y meal, I like to pair something sweet with it - usually I make some of these fabulous cinnamon rolls, but I didn't have all of the ingredients (and had not planned ahead ;)). I knew I had some apples.... and a puff pastry a friend had left for me after a party awhile back.... so I started thinking --- apple turnovers! This was the first time I've ever made these and they were delish.

Typically, I try (keyword) to make most everything from scratch - but I was on a time crunch and had the puff pastry. I did some research and found a recipe to try making my own next time here.

I found a recipe, adapted it a little and we loved how it turned out!

Apple Turnovers - adapted slightly from allrecipes.com

1 Tbsp. lemon juice

2 cups water

2 Gala (or Granny Smith) apples - peeled, cored and chopped into bite-sized pieces

1 Tbsp. butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1-1/2 tsp. cornstarch

1-1/2 tsp. water

1/2 (17.25 oz) pkg. puff pastry

Icing

1/2 cup confectioner's sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 Tbsp. milk

Pull puff pastry from the freezer and allow to thaw on countertop until easy to handle - about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

In a large bowl, mix together lemon juice and 2 cups water. Place chopped apple pieces in mixture and set aside (this will prevent them from browning).

Melt butter in medium skillet over medium-low heat. Drain water-lemon mixture from apples, and place apples in skillet with melted butter. Cook for about 3 minutes. Add brown sugar and cinnamon and continue cooking for about 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Meanwhile, mix cornstarch and water in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved. Add cornstarch mixture to the skillet and stir to combine. Cook for 2-3 more minutes until sauce thickens.

Unfold puff pastry into a square and cut in half vertically, and then in half horizontally - so you will have 4 squares. Scoop apple mixture onto each square and be sure to divide evenly among each square. Pull one corner of the pastry over the the other diagonally so you have a triangle (see picture of finished turnover). Place on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. 

Bake for 20-25 minutes in preheated oven. While turnovers are baking, combine icing ingredients - add more milk to reach desired consistency - remember that you want it to drizzle over the turnovers easily, not be a huge glob of icing ;)

After turnovers are done baking, transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool about 10 minutes. Drizzle glazing over them and serve! Enjoy!

a(nother) wedding book: Cristina and Nicky

Tis the season for weddings! I recently finished and shipped another wedding book to a sweet couple - Cristina and Nicky. They are having a beachy wedding and their colors are a gorgeous purple, ivory, sand, and teal. This book was so, so fun to create and I loved adding in a burlap-type fabric paper to the cover. Thanks, Cristina and Nicky for letting me create your book for your special day :)

christina and phil: a wedding book

I recently created and shipped another wedding book! This was truly one of my fave books that I've made - I loved the colors, the burlap, the key. The bride-to-be's bridesmaids are wearing royal blue dresses with hot pink shoes - so fun! It will be a rustic yet elegant wedding - thus the burlap :) Thank you, Christina and Phil for letting me create your book for your special day! :)

food: cinnamon raisin bread

For years I have loved a good loaf of cinnamon raisin bread. For years I have tried making my own and failed. Almost every.single.time. (seriously!). My loaf always comes out with a huge hole in the spiral filling (while still good and edible, it's kind of difficult to spread with honey and eat without the honey dripping all down your hand ;)). I came across this gorgeous looking loaf on pinterest and decided to try again. The loaves (it made two) came out perfect, ya'll. Perfect. We ate one loaf in one evening. It was that good. 

I tweaked the recipe a bit (ingredients and process included) - I ended up dividing the dough into two loaves and I think we finally have a go-to cinnamon raisin loaf of bread! Yay! This bread is perfect lightly toasted with a drizzle of fresh honey on it. Enjoy!

This recipe does take pretty much all day to make. The dough requires two rising times of about 2.5 hours each and then baking time. But it's well worth it. So worth it.

Cinnamon Raisin Bread - adapted from It's My Side of Life

1 cup Milk

6 Tablespoons butter
2-1/2 teaspoons Active Dry Yeast
2 whole eggs
1/3 cup Sugar
3-1/4 cups  Flour
1 teaspoon salt

For filling:

3 Tbsp. butter, softened

1/2 cup raisins

1/3 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

For topping:

1 Tbsp. butter, melted

1 Tbsp. sugar

In a small saucepan, heat together milk and 6 Tbsp. butter. Mixture should start bubbling with tiny bubbles, but NOT boil. Remove from heat immediately, set aside to cool to warm. Add yeast and stir gently. Allow yeast to proof (bubble up into a foamy mixture) for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together 3-1/2 cups flour and 1 tsp. salt. Set aside. In a large bowl, beat together eggs and 1/3 cup sugar until thoroughly combined (use a hand mixer). Add yeast mixture and continue to beat until well incorporated.

Add half of the flour mixture in, and beat on medium speed. Add in the other half and continue to beat -- it gets super hard to beat at this point because the dough is so thick, so I kind of lifted my mixer out of the bowl a bit to just try and mix up a little of the mixture at a time. Add a couple of tablespoons of flour at a time if the dough is too sticky - do NOT add too much flour or it will become too dense :(

Once I was finished mixing, I lifted the dough out of the bowl, used olive oil (or extra melted butter) to coat the bowl and then put the dough back in. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise 2 to 2-1/2 hours in a warm and draft-free place. The dough should double in size.

While dough is rising, combine 1/3 cup sugar, 2 Tbsp. cinnamon and raisins in a bowl. After it is finished rising, pour the dough (do not punch down) onto a floured surface. Using a rolling pin, gently roll dough into an 18"x24" rectangle. Use a rubber spatula and spread the softened butter onto the dough. Sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar-raisin mixture. 

Beginning at a short end, roll the dough tightly. I pulled the dough and stretched it taught as I was rolling it - I think this is what helped prevent the big hole in the center of my loaf from happening ;). Pinch the seam to seal. Cut the dough-log in half so you have two loaves. Tuck and pinch under the edges. Place each in a greased loaf pan. Brush melted topping butter (1 Tbsp.) on each loaf, gently. Sprinkle with sugar. Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise 2 to 2-1/2 more hours. Loaves should puff up, but they won't be huge.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Once loaves have risen, place in oven (remove plastic wrap). Bake for 30-35 minutes, until top crust is a dark golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped. I started checking on mine every couple of minutes at about 25 minutes. Immediately remove from pans and place on a cooling rack. Brush with a little bit of extra butter if desired. I let mine cool like this for about 10 minutes and then turned them onto their sides (once again, trying to prevent a huge hole from developing in the loaf ;)).

To store (if there's any left ;)), wrap tightly in plastic wrap and keep in a cool, dry place.

Enjoy! :)

working on: vintage sheet quilt

I recently bought a bunch of beautiful vintage sheet charm squares from this fabulous shop on etsy during an end-of-the-year sale. They are fabulous. Beautiful, beautiful vintage patterns. I've been wanting to make a quilt and these squares seemed like a perfect way to go about doing that. 

I kept the squares 5" and simply laid them out. It's a great project for doing in bits and pieces. Just piecing it all together, sewing straight seams and then ironing the seams. So little by little, it is coming together.

I work on it when I have a spare minute - it's easy to pick up and do for a minute and then leave to come back to later. 

I've finished the quilt top and am now ready to make my "quilt sandwich" and start the harder part of quilting it. 

Hoping to wrap this one up soon. Excited to have a new blanket to snuggle under on these cold days!

Shop Update TODAY :)

Updating my shop today with a bunch of I Love You goodies - perfect for Valentine's Day or a "Just Because I Love You" project :) Mini MiniBooks, Embellishment Packs, Paper Packs, and heart cut outs from scrapbooking papers and vintage French pages. These items will be available at 2pm EST in my shop :)

sneak peaks: shop update - i love you edition

I am currently working on a shop update for upcoming Valentine's Day! :) I plan to have it all ready to go either tomorrow (Thursday) or Friday. I am so excited to share some sneak peeks of different goodies that will be available - I Love You Paper Packs, Mini MiniAlbums, Embellies Packs, heart diecuts and more. Want to be up-to-date on the shop update? I always post to my Facebook page and Instagram feed.