Fresh Fruits Tart Recipe

My favourite dessert are many but the one that I like most is the Fruit Tart, I like it because of the buttery pastry taste and also the fresh fruit that came with it. Below is the recipe that I always use and it is a very simple recipe.

Fruit Tart

250g Unsalted Butter

½ c Sugars

3 Egg Yolks

1 1/2 c Flour

¼ Tsp Salt

Cold Water (Optional)

In a bowl sifts flour and salt, add in the butter and sugar and blend till mixtures resemble breadcrumbs. Add in the egg yolks and mix until dough comes together use a little cold water to bind if too dry. Gather the dough into a ball.

On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough about ¼ inches thick. Cut and line a 6 inch tart pan, trim excess.  Put tart shell in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 160D F. Prick the tart shell all over with a fork. Line the pastry with wax paper and fill with beans to bake blind for about 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Take it out from the oven and let it cool down.

Filling

250g Philadelphia cream Cheese

100g Icing Sugar

Cream the cheese and icing sugar till fluffy. Pour into tart shell until half full. Arrange cut fresh fruits on top. Glaze with warmed apricot jam and serve.

Fruit

3-4 sliced strawberry

3-4 red seedless grapes

Some sliced Kiwi fruit

Delicious Fruit Tart

Frost Over Queen's Park, Glasgow

One wintry morning as I look out the kitchen window of the Glasgow Victoria Infirmary Nurse’s Home kitchen, I saw this beautiful winter scene which prompted me to go back to my room and take my camera to take this picture. December 1989, was the first day of our stay at the nurse’s home and that was my first winter experience.  The opposite was the Queen’s Park and it was totally covered in frost. It was like a Christmas winter scene and I was very excited to be able to experience all this. I remembered the Glasgow weather was cold, year round with only two weeks of sunshine. We had snow fall on the week of Christmas, and it was such a beautiful sight with the snowflakes falling all over the ground.

Downtown the people were in hordes doing their Christmas shopping. Everywhere you go you would feel the Christmas spirit. I had a wonderful time there doing my shopping at Littlewoods, Marks and Spencer and BHS and along Sauchiehall Street one of the main shopping street in the city of Glasgow. I have fond memories of Glasgow City.

Queen"s Park in Winter

View by Train English Countryside

Edinburgh in December

Made In Japan Bone China

These covered soup bowls has long been in the family collections for as long as I can remember. When I was young I used to watch my mum ladling soup from it. Years later as I went through her collections I found out that these beautiful soup bowls were made in Japan. I am attracted to the bright pink flowers and how smooth the bowl was to your touch. We do not use it anymore as it has become a collectible item and my sister Josie has ownership of it now.

Pretty Flowers adorned the cover and bowl

The Caption at the Bottom

Tea Caddy

I bought this Tea Caddy in Glasgow, to be precise at the W.H Smith Bookshop on Argyle Street Back in 1988. It was a hobby of mine to collect beautiful containers. I like the design of it, it looks classic and traditional. I still use it to store my tea bags. I have got other collections as well, like the Harrods and Wedgwood Tea Caddy. I found pleasure and joy in collecting these items. You can use it as a decorator item or make full use of it to store other essential items like tea bag and tea leaves.

Beautiful Tea Caddies

Sketches of K Pop Idol and Misc. By Jonathan

I have kept most of my son’s Jonathan painting that he has done in his junior and secondary school years. I have always liked his work of art, he may not be a Van Gogh or Monet, but it is enough for me to enjoy what effort he has put into it. I have seen him doing sketches of his favourite Korean Pop Idol ever so patiently. I thought I could use it on my blog or even make a print out of it, this way I would be using my own material, no copyright issue would be involved. I would like to think that “Art makes a sorrowful experience beautiful and pleasant".

Art by Jonathan:

See more here..

View From the Veranda

I remember very well the house that we used to live in when we were young. Mum likes to tend the garden and this was the only photograph that had captured that long forgotten time and looking at it I wished I could have taken more photographs of our veranda bursting with beautiful colours and blooms. Still this photograph reminds me of that time in my life.

The Veranda Overflowing with Beautiful Flowers

Dahlia Flower and  Yonder The Flame of the Forest Tree

















Lovely Soft Doll

I still remember my first doll. I had it as a Christmas present when I was a young girl. I loved that doll and I had it with me all the time, until one day when I left it outside the garden and that night it had rained heavily. When I found it the next morning it was too late, the doll was soaked to its core and I felt devastated. Ever since then I have always wanted to make my own doll, nowadays it is easy because you could go to the craft shop and buy all the material you need to start making a doll. That is what I did and it was fun because I can make it however I want it to be. I use Japanese wool to make the hair. I thought it looked fabulous and what a delightful doll to have around the house.



Lovely Soft Doll

Hair Made of Japanese Wool

Old Fashioned Oven

I remembered this old fashioned oven, the first oven that we had back in the 1960s and 70s. Mum used to bake her butter cake in it and later on as we grew up we used it as well. You have to set the oven over the kerosene stove and you will need to adjust the stove’s fire in order to get the right temperature. We have had success and failure while we bake in this oven. Still I cannot complain, it was because of this oven that we had birthday and Christmas cakes every year.

Old Fashioned Oven Set over the Stove

How it Looks Like Inside

Singing Duo Paul and Paula

These two vinyls were my favourite, when I was a teenager I used to listen to the songs. It belongs to my mom who bought it in the 1960s and I remembered her playing the songs most of the time. Paul and Paula the pop singing duo were very popular during that time and even during wedding years later, some couples requested the song Paul and Paula to be sung. The two popular singing duo were Ray Hildebrand, born December 21, 1940 and Jill Jackson, born May 20, 1942.

Ray and Jill sing Paul and Paula and below School is Thru

Avocado Salad Recipe

When I went back home this May I found out that the avocado tree bear abundance of fruits. I had a good time plucking it from the tree; the fruits were big and heavy. It ripened so fast, within days of plucking it. I like to eat it topped with a bit of  sweetened condensed milk although the avocado itself was creamy and tasted refreshing.

Here is a recipe I used;

1 ripe Avocado cut into halves, scooped out the seed,

1 ripe Mango cut into cubes

1 tablespoon Condensed milk

Scoop out the avocado flesh and put into a small bowl, mix in the cubed mangoes and topped with the condensed milk. Chilled and serve.



Avocado Tree Bearing  Fruits Abundantly

Avocado Mango Salad

Avocado and Mango Topped With Condensed milk



Avocado Big Variety



Inheritance Jar

These jars were my father’s collections. He inherited it from his family. He takes great pride in telling us the history of each jar, how long time ago they actually bought it from the Chinese traders who came to sell their wares over the South China Sea. They then have to carry it on their back to reach their village and walks for miles and days to do that. Sometimes he said before they could reach their village the jar would meet with catastrophe and broke and how devastated can that person be when that happened. I had a feeling that sometimes we do not take our cultures and traditions of our root seriously. Ever since my father passed off these collections had been put into the storage room. Once a while if I do go back to the family home I like to take a look at it. Long ago these jars used to denote the wealth of a person too.

Giant Jar about four feet in Height

Brown Jar

Green Jar

Mum's Golden French Toast

As I walked into the kitchen for my breakfast at my mom's place one morning, I caught a wisp of the smell coming from the kitchen, the aroma was mind boggling and makes me hungry. I saw mum making her French toast. She did it effortlessly frying it from a heavy black wok. She churned out pieces of beautiful golden toast. This is what I like most, mum’s cooking. I had three pieces of it with butter and jam, it was the most delicious French toast I have had in a long time. She took her time with it, the result was a fluffy golden toast unlike the flattened version I always encountered in the coffee shop. Mum you are the best.

French Toast fried on Heavy Black wok

Plateful of Delicious Golden French toasts

With Butter and jam

Josie's Cookery Book

Recently I visited my family home. I look forward to go back each time because I know that I can browse around the house to look for some familiar items to remind me of the good old time. I have been away from home for so long and come back only for short visits each time, this makes me want to connect more to my family home. As I browsed around for familiar things I suddenly saw this big cookery book being shoved into the rubbish collection corner. Looking at it I remembered it so well, it belongs to my youngest sister Josie. I took it and dusted it. This book was compiled by Josie; she painstakingly typed all the recipes and pasted it into this big book. The front and back covers were what attracted me most. It was pages from popular magazines and over time I look at it I feel compelled to thoroughly scan the recipes that were on the cover. It was attractive enough to warrant me to keep it. I do not know why she wants to throw it out; I asked my mum she said "your sister does not really bake and had no time for it". She actually typed all the recipes that were pasted inside and I think that this big and thick self made cookery book is definitely a keeper, so I am going to save it from destruction and put it back to where it rightfully should be, inside the house.

Attractive Front Cover.

Back cover, the Chocolate Cake Recipe of A Popular Brand.

Colourful Pages from Various Magazines Sources.

Typed Recipes Inside the Big Book.