Thanksgiving's Cranberry Tart!

Yesterday was Thanksgiving as I'm sure most of you know.
Being part of the Neff family Thanksgiving means that I have to contribute in the form of pie, of course.
This is a cranberry tart and it's really simple and one of my favorite tarts to bake.
By really simple I mean, really dang simple.
Even the tart crust is easy.
The tart as a whole is not only beautiful (!) but also has the perfect balance of sweet from sugar and sour from cranberries. It's, well, tart.
So, yeah, it's the day after Thanksgiving and you can't make this now for the day of, but, you can make it now or for some sort of holiday party or something.
I had intention to put a recipe up the week before Thanksgiving, but I couldn't do it. Too much stuff happening with school and the like.
But, you have a recipe now and it's delicious and easy and wonderful.
The end.

Sweet Tart Dough

(from The Village Baker's Wife)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter at room temp

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 3/4 cups of flour

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Start by mixing the butter on medium until it's smooth with a beater or by hand.

Add the sugar and beat until incorporated.

Add the eggs, one at a time, waiting until the first one is well incorporated before adding the other.

Lastly, add all the flour and mix until just incorporated. (It's important not to over mix here!)

Roll the tart dough out into two circles, cover with saran wrap and put in the fridge for about a half
hour or until the dough is cold enough to roll out and line the tart pan.

Once it's cold enough to roll out, roll the two circles out together, gently pick up and place into the tart pan, then, using your fingers, press the dough into the tart pan.

Poke a few holes into the tart pan with a fork.

Line the tart pan with aluminum foil.

After 6 minutes take the pan out and remove the aluminum foil, then place the tart shell back in the oven and bake for 8-12 minutes more. The shell should be slightly browned.

Take it out of the oven and let it sit while you finish up the filling if you haven't already completed it.

Cranberry Crumb Tart:

Ingredients:

6 cups

12 tblsp butter (cold)

1 ¼ flour

2 ½ cups of sugar

½ tsp salt

Preheat oven to 375 F

Wash and towel dry all the cranberries. Pick out any bad ones and toss them.

Make the crumb topping by first cutting up the butter into 1 inch cubes.

Mix the butter, flour and 1 ¾ cups of sugar with a mixer until the mixture forms large clumps. Be careful not to over mix into the dough stage! Set this aside.

Combine the remaining ¾ cup of sugar and salt and toss with the cranberries.

Pour the cranberries into the prebaked tart shell, mounding them in the middle.

Spoon the crumb topping onto the cranberries, but don't press the topping into them.

Bake for 40 minutes or until the topping begins to brown and the fruit bubbles around the edges.

Serve and eat at room temp.

There you have it. In all of its tasty glory. 

I'm now back in Santa Cruz for about 2 hours before I head off to Big Sur for some weekend adventuring.

And you, dear reader, matter to me so very much that I made sure to leave you with a tasty blogpost. 

Especially since I didn't update this last week.

Ehm. Sorry.

See you peeps on the flipside!

Love,

          Neffie

Journaling Drunk(ish)

I enjoy journaling.

I enjoy journaling after a night out.

Here are some drunken, tipsy and soberly regretful thoughts of Natalie over the last year or so.

And before you get all upset at me drinking, remember that 95% of the time, I'm the designated driver, I've never gotten black out drunk and the most I've ever drank in one night is 2.5 beers.

Most weekends I stay in and do old people activities like knitting, baking and drinking tea.

On the RARE occasion, I will go out and get a little tipsy.

I didn't even get drunk over Halloween weekend and I went to multiple parties.

I'm a goodie two shoes who enjoys the occasional beer and because I didn't do a DIY project this week and have nothing better to do with my time (except maybe finish reading that genetics chapter...), this is what you're getting.

Bearing all that in mind, also remember that these are entries that I started LAST YEAR. This is a full year's worth of rambles and most are from the same entry. 

Regrets:

"I'm going to regret the everything of life I have"

"I had one job. Climb the ladder. Could not climb latter. Attic room regrets."

"Every time I get drunk, I text people. I want them to know ridiculous things that are happening, but because I'm drunk and aren't wearing reading glasses, texts aren't texted very well. Why I can't just hold my phone a little closer to my face when out is beyond me."

"I should have all the regrets of everyone, but I don't have enough shame. I already too far gone in the having shame to have regrets of shamefulness."

Food:

"I want a grilled cheese"

"I wish I had pizza in possesion"

"It's two am. Two am taco time. Two am taco time in taco town is where I want to be. With taco and taquitos."

"Why does everyone want Taco Bell when they're drunk? I never want taco bell. I just want taco from another taco place that's not bell."

"I don't think I've ever been so happy to come home and remember that I baked a pie. I win at life. 

Even when drunk. Boo. YA."

"I want a chocolate. So. Much."

"If the world was good, there would be a pizza burrito in my hand right now. And I would eat it like a person eats a pizza burrito. With all the might of eating most delicious."

Being the life of the party:

"I got drunk before everyone else tonight. I went from regular loud person to voicecontroless veronica in one beer."

"Tonight, I stood in a corner and people watched for forever. It was fun until I realized how creepy I must have looked"

"I have a bean plant and the universe is impressed. It grew out of the drier and into my heart. Everyone loves it."

"I think people forget that I can't hear them when they talk over my head at a loud party, so half the time, I don't ever know who I'm talking to or what I'm talking about entirely. There's only so many times you can say "what?" before it become weird."

Boyfriend Priorities:

"Tonight, this girl told me she needed no more boys, but a man in her life. I must have a long way to go before marriage because at this point in my life, I just want someone who wears flannels and watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer."

On Being Forever Alone:

"There are reasons why being forever alone is my life always. Reasons are: can't shut up and control voice volume."

"Flirt with boy for a long time. Girlfriend walks in. I win at this game"

"Guys don't want weird girls because weird girls probably can't kiss very well and they don't know you're actually ok at that one."

"My flannel has become my significant other because it's with me at every party, keeps other boys away and holds me close when the drunk wears off and I get cold. But it lives in my closet. I don't want a boyfriend in the closet."

That's this weeks really intelligent and enlightening update.

Hope it was refreshing.

Love,

          Neffie

T-Time: Triple Threat Triad T-Shirt

Look! A real DIY project!
Oh my glob, guurrrrllll.
It's T-Time again.
This one is very heavily inspired by the Generation-T book that I have mentioned before.
(And by heavily inspired, I mean, everything is the same except for one little t-weak)
This shirt is rather playful- it shows some skin down the sides of the shirt (and possibly, shows off that one cute bra you own) , sports a v-neck and also emanates the sheer awesomeness of the classic slashed sleeves of a muscle T all while still maintaining a certain femininity guaranteed to make your shirt (and you) the topic of conversation at that hip house show next week.
You know the one where your crush is 99% certain to show?
That same one.
So, ladies, this one's for you.
Find that T-shirt in your closet that's a little long, baggy, and frankly, unflattering to your rockin' bod and let's make something a little short, tight and sexy.
Fellas, sorry, this project kind of excludes you.
But, if you want to impress a DIY lady with your crafty T-shirt reconstruction skills, then by all means, feel free to use this post to your advantage next time she asks you how she should reconstruct an old T.
Did I mention that this one's a no-sew?
Hells yes.
Basically, you're cutting the sleeves off, making a v-neck, and then cutting triangles out of the sides and tying the fabric together on the sides.
Easy as pie.
I apologize for the photography- I did this project late at night and so yeah, not the best photo quality.
Also, I forgot to take a before picture, but this shirt came down to my thighs and there was about 2 inches of fabric on each side I needed to take in to make it "fit" and the sleeves were long and collar high on my next.
But...
Let's cut the chit-chat (you've had enough of my endless ramblings the last two weeks, sorry) and get to the t-shirt reconstruction.

The Triple Threat Triad T-Shirt

Needs:

1 slightly long, baggy and unflattering T-shirt

Scissors

pencil or chalk

Ruler or measuring tape

Reconstructions

Take your T-shirt and lay it flat on a, well, flat surface. 

A floor works nicely.

Cut the sleeves off just above the seams.

Cut the neck out and make the front a v-neck by cutting a V out of the center of the neck. Duh.

Figure out how long you want your shirt to be. Keep in mind that it'll be a little shorter when you're done tying it up and such. So, with that in mind, figure out how much you want cut off. If you like the length, then leave it. If you still want a raw edge look and the length, then just trim off the hem.

Make sure your shirt is laid out really flat and even for this part! You're going to be cutting through two layers of T-shirt, so make sure that T-shirt isn't laying down all wonky!

Also, your doing this step for each t-shirt side. When you're done, you should have 4 drawn on triangles, 2 on each side of your shirt and "sides" as in right and left, not front and back.

Ok. Triangle drawing time. Grab that rule and measure the length of your shirt from bottom of shirt to bottom of armpit hole. Divide the length by two. That how long each triangle bottom will be. Make a mark to separate each triangle bottom. Now, find the center of each triangle and make a mark with your drawing instrument. From that center, measure out a 2-3 inch line and make a mark at the top. Do this for each triangle. Now, complete your beautiful triangle by drawing straight lines from the top center triangle mark to the bottom end of the triangle bottoms. 

Look closely...there are triangles drawn on

Cut out the triangles out through both layers of t-shirt (front and back layers)

Try on and tie the points made by cutting out the triangles to your desired tightness. 

Now rock that bad boy and accept all complements and flirt shamelessly.

Unlike me in the next two photos.

I can't pose for pictures.

Front

Side!

Woo!
You've got this, girlfriend.
And yes, the title is a Legend of Korra reference.

Love,

        Neffie

Because People are the Greatest Thing to Happen

Does it bother anyone else how much you judge someone immediately by how they dress?

I mean, it's not that I'm trying to be judgmental of people, but you know, if I see a girl dressed in an ambercrombie shirt with booty shorts and uggs and and another girl dressed in a flannel with jeans and chucks, my mind is going to immediately think two completely different things about each person.
I don't want this to happen because, who knows, maybe booty short ugg boot girl is actually really down to earth and grunge punk gal is actually really plastic and fake instead of the other way around- the way my brain automatically labels them.

Not trying to immediately stereotypically label someone the first time I see them before I know them is something I've been working on since my freshman year of high school.
So far I've deduced that this is basically impossible and the best I can do is let my brain automatically label someone as "interesting" or "bro" and then tell myself, "You don't know anything about them, so you can't think that" and then try to get to know them before making anymore assumptions.

Maybe I'm a total asshole for thinking this way, because honestly, I have no idea what goes through other people's minds when they meet someone for the first time, but this is what happens with me and the little "don't assume" in my head is proving to be pretty efficient.

Recently, I wrote in a letter to one of my friends about this phenomena and that since I've been doing this, I've become friends with people I would've probably ignored because of how they dressed.
Which, I mean, how terrible, right? The fact that I would dismiss talking to someone because of the way they present themselves with clothing is pretty awful, but it's true and I'm just being completely honest because, yay honesty and such.

But like I said, since I've been practicing trying to ignore how people dress, the people I've met and friends I have gained from such practice is pretty damn awesome.
I have a variety of friends that enjoy a variety of different activities and interests and this makes my personal life much more enjoyable and fulfilling.

The people you surround yourself with help shape the person you are and the life you live, so having a variety of different people in my life is freaking awesome. I have friends I sing with, friends I skate with, bake with, go to shows with, study with, thrift with and eat ice cream with.
I don't know if anyone understands how freaking stoked I always am to have the friends I have, but I promise you I'm really f'ing stoked.

Every night, before I go to bed, I always like to think about my day and everything I did. Mostly, this consists of who I came into contact with, how I treated them and why I treated them a certain way. It's always less rewarding when I look back on my day and realize that I was a flaming bitch to all the people I care about, because I never have any reason to be mean to anyone and then when I am, it's terrible because dammit, I freaking am so excited to be your friend, honestly, so stoked you're in my life and then I treated you like poop today and I'm so, so sorry.

I've also recently discovered that even the people I don't see eye to eye with or who drive me insane are also pretty cool. Not everyone is going to get along all the time, and I know I'm not the poster child of someone who's easy to get along with (a shout out to being a little over opinionated and loud a little too often...), but I am starting to appreciate the people in my life I'd rather not see as often as I do more and more. Even if it doesn't seem like it, I promise that's true.

Everyone I meet has taught me something and just because I don't like some initially (or for years at a time), it doesn't make them or myself a terrible person, I think it just means we have yet to discover what we share in common, even if it's just one hobby, like drinking tea or eating ice cream, doesn't mean we have to be best besties forever, but I definitely enjoy life more when I've got less enemies and more friends and friendly acquaintances in it.

Plus you know, it's important to love your neighbor and that's more fun than disliking someone.

So, in conclusion, yay for people, you know?
And try not to judge each other so harshly, yeah? No one benefits from that. You definitely don't benefit from that.
And maybe be a little nicer and forgive a little more? Be a little more understanding.
And just because you haven't seen someone in months or years doesn't mean you can't be friends or love that person anymore.
And treasure the friends you've got- faults, quirks, weirdness and all- and make sure they know you love them because even though on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, love lies in the middle, right above food and security, it doesn't mean it's not important, because it is important.
Really damn important.


Love,

          Neffie