Ok hopefully you didn't see the title and immediately think I was cooking turtle. Poor little cute turtle, no worries for you, you are safe. I'm talking about a cute little crochet turtle!

I made this for little Nina-Maria! It was so much fun to make and she loved it. :) John is her godfather and we celebrated epiphany with her and her family last night. Apparently it's a really big thing in Columbia, so Paul and Kim want to bring the tradition to Nina to celebrate. It was a ton of fun and once Kim sends me pictures I'll write all about all the yummy food traditions that go along with it!

So yesterday you saw my hamburger handy work when it comes to crochet... today I have a picture of the wiener dog I crocheted for my sister! Isn't he adorable!? Although his nose is a bit odd if you ask me... but that's what the pattern said to do so... oh well :D


Now onto more baby shower chow. For a dessert I made a cherry macaroon tart. I found the recipe over at ... ok looks like I forgot to bookmark where it came from... so if you are reading this and it's from your blog let me know and I'll add the link!

... Anyway... The macaroon part of the tart seemed a bit dry to me, if I make this again I'd suggest either adding more egg whites or maybe a little cherry juice to moisten it up. I'd also add more then 1/2 pound cherries, it seemed like it just needed some more and maybe that would help moisten it up! Here is the recipe as I made it.


Cherry Macaroon Tart

1/2 pound cherries, washed
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
2 3/4 cup unsweetened finely shredded coconut (divided)
1 1/4 cup raw cane (or brown) sugar, lightly packed (divided) (i used brown)
scant 1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
4 large egg whites

Preheat oven to 350F degrees with racks in the middle. Butter an 10" round tart pan (or rough equivalent) and line with parchment paper. Pit the cherries, tear each cherry in half, and set aside.

In a large bowl combine the flour, 3/4 cup of the coconut, 3/4 cup of the sugar, and salt. Stir in the melted butter and mix until dough is crumbly but no longer dusty looking. Press the mixture into the prepared pan (it should form a solid, cohesive base), and bake for 15 minutes. Remove and set aside.

In the meantime prepare the coconut topping by combining the remaining 2 cups coconut, the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and egg whites. Mix until well combined.

Evenly distribute most of the cherries across the tart base. Now drop little dollops of the macaroon topping over the cherries (use your hands it's more fun that way), and press the coconut topping around a bit into the spaces behind the cherries. Be sure to let at least some of the colorful cherries pop through the topping for visual flair. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the peaks of the macaroon topping are deeply golden. Let tart cool, and garnish by sprinkling any remaining fresh cherry halves across the top.

As I said above I'd either add more egg whites or maybe some cherry juice and more cherries to this to moisten it up a bit.

Chow!

I made this in a tart pan that had a removable bottom so it was super easy to take out of the pan

So this past weekend was filled with lots of talk of babies, children's books and fun. My mom and I hosted a baby shower for my sister who is currently 6 months. How cute is she!? We had a great time, I banned all playing of baby shower games, which made Jennifer very happy. I know my cousins weren't thrilled with me but it did make them be more creative! Carol came up with the idea of instead of buying a card buying a baby book, costs about the same and now Biscuit (jen's baby boy in utero) has lots of things to read once he's out of Jen's belly! Donna came up with the idea of instead of signing a card attaching your own baby picture so Jen had to guess who the gift was from. See creativity without annoying baby shower games! Good job everyone :) We also decorated with children books from our, along with Mom's childhood. No silly paper decorations that will just end up in a landfill! It looked super chic and cute :)

So I learned to crochet a few months ago so I put this new found hobby to work and made Biscuit a full on multi piece hamburger... seriously FUN! Jen and I always LOVED playing with fake food when we were little (and apparently playing with real food now that I'm older hehe) so I figured I needed to pass on the tradition!
I also felt the need to make a wrapper for said hamburger... why... because I'm a dork of course!

Ok onto the Fiesta Dip that everyone devoured within an hour. I'll have to make a double batch at the next family get together! This recipe is always at my coworker Erika and also my coworker Niki's parties and EVERYONE loves it. Literally everyone at the shower was asking for the recipe... so without further ado!


Fiesta Dip
1 can black eyed peas
1 can shoe peg corn (HAS to be shoe peg)
1 red pepper diced (I used 1/2 a red and 1/2 an orange since we had it on hand)
1 green pepper diced
1 red onion diced

Rinse and drain peas corn

Add: 2 tbs Tiger Sauce (secret ingredient) a MUST (it's near the ketchup in Wegmans... if you have Wegmans near you)
3/4 cup white sugar (I used a little less)
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 veg oil (I used about 3 Tbs instead of 4 Tbs)

Mix and let stand overnight.

Drain liquid before serving with tostito scoops or other veggies or cucumber slices for dipping.

This also works great as a salad topper/dressing. Delicious!

CHOW!


Update: I realized I didn't have a picture of Stockton! So here we go :) Also just as a side not, Jen is drinking non alcoholic champagne that Dad picked up for her :)