Asparagus Gruyere Tart

About 10 months ago, I pinned this recipe to my Pinterest board. It looked yummy so I decided to make it for New Year's Eve.
It was delicious! I'll definitely make this again sometime. One thing I'll do differently though, is add a little less salt. The cheese is already salty, so the asparagus doesn't need much salt added to it.

Asparagus Gruyere Tart
Ingredients:
Flour, for work surface
1 sheet frozen puff pastry
5 1/2 ounces (2 cups) Gruyere cheese, shredded
1 1/2 pounds medium or thick asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt and pepper

DIRECTIONS

STEP 1
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. On a floured surface, roll the puff pastry into a 16-by-10-inch rectangle. Trim uneven edges. Place pastry on a baking sheet lined with parchment. With a sharp knife, lightly score pastry dough 1 inch in from the edges to mark a rectangle. Using a fork, pierce dough inside the markings at 1/2-inch intervals. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes.
STEP 2
Remove pastry shell from oven, and sprinkle with Gruyere. Trim the bottoms of the asparagus spears to fit crosswise inside the tart shell; arrange in a single layer over Gruyere, alternating ends and tips. Brush with oil, and season with salt and pepper. Bake until spears are tender, 20 to 25 minutes.

NOTE: Thaw puff pastry according to package instructions.
Emmentaler or Fontina cheese can be substituted for the Gruyere.
After the 1st bake, let the puff pastry cool a little, that'll allow it to fall if it has puffed up. I gently helped it down by pushing on the top of the tart oh so very carefully, so as not to break the tart. But I mostly let it fall by itself. It may not have puffed as much if I had made my folk piercings deeper.
I didn't bother trimming uneven edges. It seemed even enough to me after rolling it out.

11.3 Buckeyes

This summer I bought peanut butter from Costco for Camp Retz, expecting to use a lot of it for all the kid's sandwiches. But you know Costco sizes. Even making almost 10 PB&J sandwiches a day didn't dent what I bought and I still had a lot left over.

I have a love/hate relationship with peanut butter. I'm currently not a big fan of it, but thankfully the husband loves peanut butter. So I scoured Pinterest for recipes to use up that peanut butter. I decided to try this recipe for "Buckeyes". I have to admit, it's pretty good. But mixing and smelling all that peanut butter didn't make me like it more. So I probably won't eat more than 1 or 2. Unfortunately, Ninja Nephew is allergic to peanuts, so I can't unload some of them to their family. I'm getting together with some of my crafting friends tomorrow night, so I'll pass some on to them. But I'll dole the rest of them out slowly to Jimmy.

Buckeyes

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups Creamy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 -4 cups powdered sugar
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 tablespoons Shortening

Directions:

1. COMBINE peanut butter, butter, vanilla and salt in large bowl. Beat with an electric mixer on LOW until blended. Add 2 cups powdered sugar, beating until blended. Beat in additional powdered sugar until mixture, when shaped into a ball, will stay on a toothpick. Shape into 1-inch balls. Refrigerate.

2. PLACE chocolate chips and shortening in microwave-safe bowl. Microwave on MEDIUM for 30 seconds. Stir. Repeat until mixture is smooth. Reheat as needed while coating peanut butter balls.

3. INSERT toothpick in peanut butter ball. Dip 3/4 of ball into chocolate, leaving top uncovered to resemble a buckeye. Remove excess. Place on wax paper-lined tray. Remove toothpick. Smooth over holes. Refrigerate until firm.

Original recipe here.

On the Table Monday

After spending some time at that Scrapbook Expo on Thursday, I've been on a bit of a creative streak. Here are a couple of things I've made in the past day or so.
I drew my inspiration from this card that I had pinned onto Pinterest 40 weeks ago. I still like their card better, I think the solid colors work better for a chevron pattern, but I'm satisfied with my version. I'll just have to make another card with solid colored paper.

I'm going to try to include a photo with the tools I used to create the card, kinda like how I try to include a photo of the ingredients (à la pioneer woman) whenever I share a recipe.
Aside from the paper, I used 3 different sized scallop punches to make the flower. The diamond punch for the cheverons - I punched 40 of them and glued them on individually. The swirls and birds embossing folder, embossed in my Cuttlebug (see below), a black ink pad and stamps from CTMH.

This whimsical little bunny card is inspired by Karen Burniston's pop'n cut dies from Sizzix.

When the card is opened up, it has a pop-up image in the center. I just added a little sentiment, but any image could be glued onto it.

I needed my Cuttlebug to use the pop'n cut die (it's below the ink pad) and the base tray to use the die. I also used 2 oval dies (1 regular, 1 scalloped) for the front image, and the bracket square die for a layered piece on the pop up. Most of the stamps were from Penny Black colored with alcohol ink markers. The sentiment is from CTMH.

Chicken Tortilla Soup

I want to try a few new recipes instead of just sticking to my old standbys. I pinned this recipe on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago and decided to try it tonight.
These were the ingredients.

My finished photo isn't pretty. I was hungry and I forgot to put the soup in a prettier bowl for a photo. But it was delicious! If you want a pretty photo, then you should really check out Sing For Your Supper's post.

Here's her recipe:
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Chicken Tortilla Soup

6 cups chicken stock
2 cups cooked, shredded chicken (I like to roast or poach bone-in chicken breasts until tender, then shred the meat. Additionally, you could also use a store-bought rotisserie chicken)
half an onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 small-medium zucchinis, chopped
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
juice from 2 large limes
salt and pepper to taste

Coat a large saucepan with olive oil over medium-high heat, add onion and zucchini and sautee until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic, chili powder, cumin, chipotle chile powder, salt and pepper and stir until fragrant. Pour in stock and bring to a boil. Add the shredded chicken, reduce the heat to medium and simmer until the chicken is heated through. Add the lime juice and taste for seasoning. Ladle into bowls and top with and desired garnishes. Serves 4.

Garnish ideas:

crushed tortilla chips
shredded Monterey Jack cheese
sliced avocado
fresh cilantro
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Unless I'm baking, I pretty much just guesstimate my measurements so everything I added was approximately what she calls for. I had an extra 1/2 a lime left over from yesterday so I used 2.5 limes and a little extra garlic. It was deliciously limey! And we love cilantro so I put a big handful in each bowl.

I'll definitely make this again.