Fancy House Road

Jan
26

Recipe: Apple Pie French Tart

by: camberley

One of the best things about recovering from a C-Section has been being waited on by Dallan. He’s been really good about bringing me drinks, making me food, running errands, doing laundry, massaging my feet and shoulders… Let’s just say he’s done more for me in the past 2.5 weeks than he does in a year of marriage. If that makes any sense (I’m sleep deprived).

About a week after I had Josephine, he decided to pull out the pastry dough and bake me up something sweet. When unattended in the kitchen, Dallan likes to let his imagination run wild (in other words, he doesn’t like to follow recipes). Sometimes this works to his advantage and other times it works to his disadvantage. Like the time he threw Tabasco on Parmesan bread – what the? Fortunately, his recent attempt at French Apple Tart was a huge success.

Ingredients:

1 Sheet of Puff Pastry Dough (Thawed and Rolled Out)
3-4 Braeburn Apples (Peeled and Thinly Sliced)
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
2 Tablespoons Sugar
1/4 Cup Butter (Diced into cubes)
1 Teaspoon Ground Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Line baking sheet with parchment paper and lay rolled out pastry dough on top.
Layer slices of Braeburn Apples on top of the pastry dough.
Take butter, brown sugar, sugar, cinnamon and salt and sprinkle these ingredients on top of the apple slices.
Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes, rotating the pan once during the baking.

1 Comment

Kitchen Table

Tags: dessert, recipe

Jan
26

Decor Trends: The 2012 Purple is Amethyst and Orchid

by: debbie

Anyone in my age group will remember when the color purple became a big hit. All I have to say is: “Donny Osmond and his purple socks” and it brings back memories of young girls around the world becoming obsessed with this color. Girls wore purple clothes, purple mascara and decorated their rooms with purple decor-complete with Donny Osmond posters on their walls. I guess that I can now admit out loud that this is when my love of the color purple began.

Just recently, I was going through my January issue of Better Homes and Garden and came across this article. It reminded me of how much I’ve always liked the color purple.

Purple will continue to be a strong color presence in home decor through 2012. Look for such words as Amethyst or Orchid being used to describe this purple trend. There are many different hues of this color that naturally occur in nature. So it’s up to you to decide if you are going to use the “rich and regal” or “pale and delicate” approach to purple that was mentioned in the BHG article.

Rich and Regal

Pale and Delicate

I will be honest with you. While I’ve liked the color purple since the day I fell in love with Donny, I’m not one to paint an entire room in this color. I’m more of a purple accent person. How about you?

Sources: BHG and Sensational Color

DIY: Valentine’s Day Paper Packages

by: keighley

Around 6 o’clock this evening, I decided to snuggle with my heating pad for a few minutes. It’s been a long week and bedtime, the time for which I usually save my heating pad therapy, just seemed too far away. So with thoughts of how my hypothyroid and freezing house justified my crawling into bed, I turned the heating pad on high and took a break.

Well, not five minutes later, Michael decided that he was cold and wanted to “share” the heating pad for a bit. In order for both of us to use the heating pad we had to get some serious cuddling on. We had 18 inches to work with so Michael literally held me to him so I wouldn’t be pulled off the heating pad by my own body weight. Despite the most awkward position ever, we both started to fall asleep… the power of the pad. In my heating pad induced stupor, I completely forgot about Michaels tendency to spasm while sleeping. So imagine how wonderful I felt when out of nowhere my body was being simultaneously bucked, squeezed, punched, thrown and pulled. My body went into such a fight or flight mode that my heating pad session was officially called off at 6:15 pm.

In more relevant blog news, today I took a short break from work to get my glitter on.

Materials: Mod Podge, Loose Glitter, Glassine Candy Bags, Glittered Scrapbook Paper, Heart Hole Punch.

Instructions: Apply a thin layer of Mod Podge to the bottom 1/4 of your candy bag with a brush or via a dipping process. Immediately sprinkle loose glitter on the Mod Podged area. Shake to remove unnecessary glitter and let dry. Using the heart hole punch, punch the glittered scrapbook paper until you have enough heart to help seal the candy bags. Finally, stuff with small candies, fold the top of the bags over and seal with the heart cutouts.

Once materials are all collected this process is very quick! Definitely an easy and fun activity to do with the kids… however goggles may be required.

Shopping: Luxury Lingerie with Faire Frou Frou

by: kiersten

Well, Fancy House readers, the time has come for the annual post dedicated to luxury lingerie wear! Every year preceding Valentines day, I do this to 1. make our grandma cringe (hi, grandma!) 2. increase our male demographic of readership and 3. remind us that lingerie can still be tasteful. Too often I see women opening erratic, stringy, flossy, you-name-it, lingerie at their bridal showers. Sure, that’s fun, but Lingerie doesn’t always need to be– dare I say– kinky. In fact, it is typically the more classier stuff that speaks femininity and womanhood. Here are some of my favorite elegant pieces from Faire Frou Frou:

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

I love how each of these pieces keep the flirtatious, intimate aspect we all love when it comes to feminine wear, and without showing a crazy amount of skin. And hey, I’m fine with showing skin (during the right times and in the right places, of course), but sometimes we just want to feel comfortable and confident– and confidence doesn’t come easy when wearing a two-piece after eating a three course meal.

Stay classy, folks!