Such a Tart (Tomato Tart!)

If you are looking for a yummy recipe to use some of the tomatoes from your garden, look no further!  This Tomato Tart is a real winner.  My husband stated "it was the best thing I have ever eaten!" and "I could eat this everyday."  He probably could too (I made him this tart last week for when I was away and he ate the ENTIRE THING in one sitting!)

I found the basic recipe on the Sargento Website a while ago and now for the life of me I can't find it... Oh well.

What you'll need:

1 - 9 inch pie crust (bring to room temp)
1/2 cup or so balsamic vinegar
2 medium ripe tomatoes
1 cup and 1/2 or so shredded mozzarella cheese  (or so means I don't exactly measure it out...)
Fresh basil to taste

First put the balsamic vinegar in a small sauce pan on the stove on med/low and let it reduce until you get a thick syrup of about 2 or 3 tablespoons (it will be very sweet and sticky).  Keep stirring and watching it because at the end it goes really quick and you could easily burn it.

Meanwhile, Preheat your oven to 375.


On a sheet tray unroll the pie crust (you could totally make your own pie crust, but usually that stresses me out.)

Put 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese on the crust making sure to leave a 1 inch border.

Slice the tomatoes and arrange them over the cheese in a single layer.

Drizzle the balsamic vinegar syrup over the top of the tomatoes.

Top with the remaining cheese and sprinkle with some freshly torn basil leaves.

Working your way around the tart pull up the sides and crimp them together.

Stick the tart in the preheated oven for 20-25 min or until the cheese is golden brown and bubbly.  (Honestly ours took 30 minutes, but every oven is different)

Once out of the oven let stand 5 minutes or so, until it stops percolating and appears less molten.

Slice into 4 or 8 slices and top with some more freshly torn basil leaves.

 

Enjoy!!

Eminem Showers

Today was my hubby's first day back to school after a two week break. (He's a math teacher) We did not get off to a very good start. Every school day I set my alarm for 5:45 am so that I can make him coffee. This morning I must have turned off my alarm with out waking up. My second alarm did wake me up almost an hour later, and also woke Little Bear (who I was hoping would stay asleep...) Grrrr.
My hubby likes to listen to music while he gets ready though usually the baby is still sleeping so he can't.  This morning we were treated to Eminem's angry rap music... What ever gets him rolling.
So I'm feeling kind of blah so I decided to make myself a cafe mocha. Yum! I put a couple spoonfuls of hot cocoa mix in the bottom of my favorite pink mug, and poured some hot coffee over it. Added a splash of milk (too cool it down) and a sprinkle of splenda.  Four large marshmellows top it off rather nicely!

AHHmazing

So sorry it's been so far between posts.  My hubby is on break from school!  It has been nice to have him home, but he sure does use the computer a lot!  (it's that Fantasy Football time of the year again, it's this season, fall through February that I wish I had my own lap top, but I am extremely happy I have my smart phone!)  Eh, it's all good, I've been busy with a couple million projects!

In honor of the start of football season.  I'm gonna add this cozy to my etsy shop!

Yarn crafters do you ever start a project with full intentions of giving it to someone else (or in my case selling on etsy) and then you fall in love with it and don't think you can bear to part with it?  I found this yummy yarn in the clearance bin at Joann's.  It's Lion Brands Amazing in Vineyard, normally $6 or $7 per skein, on sale for less then $2.  Yes Please!!  It's a blend of acrylic and wool fibers and with its subtle change of colors (purples, pinks, greens, oh my!) I thought it would make a perfect circle scarf!

It worked up quickly with my K hook, each one of the beautiful vineyard colors merging into the next.  The fabric it created was so light, but warm at the same time.  When I was finished I knew that it had to be mine.

Thank goodness I bought two skeins!

Finished!  

I think it suits me!  

Here's a Toast

Funny how things change isn't it?

I remember when I was little and my parents burnt toast, they would take a butter knife and scrape off the edges over the sink (we are not talking charcoal here, just a bit too crispy around the edges)  For some reason I never liked when they would do this.  "Why don't they just make me another piece of toast?" I thought, "I will never do that to my kid's toast!"

Well one day I was fixing breakfast and got a bit distracted trying to do eight things at once, and the baby was yelling, and the edges of the whole wheat toast in the toaster got burnt (which really doesn't take very long as our toaster is about as hot as the sun....) I quickly pull out the toast and guess what I found myself doing?  Yup, you guessed it!  I scraped off those burnt edges, cut it up into bite sized pieces and served them to Little Bear, which instantly stopped his yelling.

I get it now.  :)

Nap time is cleaning time...

At least today it is...  Usually it is nap time is craft time.

It's hard to believe but today is my husband and I's four year anniversary.  We decided no flowers, no gifts, and no cards.  I still want to do something nice for him so for the past couple of days I have been chipping away at the mess that is our bedroom.  I know that the mess drives him crazy, and it is pretty much all my fault.  (In my defense I am hardly ever in our bedroom for longer than 2 or 3 hours at a time...) It is slowly but surely getting better though, at this point it only looks like my closet exploded.

I also crocheted us matching turquoise coasters (the ones we use now have seen better days.) and I made a set of crocheted bowls one to put spare change from my pockets in, and the other to keep the jewelry I wear most often in.  (I also made a coaster for my cell phone to sit on, I HATE the sound of it buzzing against my nightstand when someone texts me or the alarm goes off.)

Little Bear is napping now, lets hope it's a long one!!

Wish me luck!

Coasters!  The big one is for my cell phone (or a giant mug of coffee!!) 

Little bowls!  

Oh so stack able, aren't they cute??!!  

We Have Lift Off!!

Oh man, have I been a busy Mama the last couple of days!  I like being busy though!

Little Bear has started walking, he's not completely done with crawling but he's getting better and better at balancing.  Last Thursday he walked the longest amount, though I couldn't tell you how many steps he took.  When he fell forward towards his Daddy he started clapping for the first time.  (Can you tell how we were cheering him on?!)  I was so proud of him!  And he certainly looked proud of himself!

I have recently been trying to catch his walking on video, I've got a couple short snippets, but they are all kind of blurry and well, really short...  

Petition

Hoping you all can help my husband out by signing this petition.  He has worked in  a Title One school for the past 5 years, this means it is a low income school.  By working for a low income school he was led to believe he would qualify for the Stafford Loan Forgiveness Program for Teachers.  He met all the criteria for the Program except that he started schools before October 1998, meaning that he does not qualify for the Loan Forgiveness.

By drawing up this petition we would like to bring attention to what we believe is an injustice, not only to my husband, but also to the countless other teachers who did not qualify for this program based on when they started school.

The link for the petition is here. Thank you so much for your help!!