Rules De L’Engagement and I don’t mean social media!

Yes, even War has rules! How blase, boring, predictable, and almost deplorable! Which leads us to engagements. Le ring, ‘le put a ring on it if you like it” (those Americains), heirlooms (very Francaise), le must, de rigueur, mandatory R-I-N-G!!

Chopard ring 1 Chopard jewelry: platinum ring for $ 7 million

Perhaps, this ring is a bit out of the ball park at Seven Million USD, but it does spell L-O-V-E, and that’s what it’s all about! Really. There’ll be cries of “too ostentatious”, but please remember that when you have your first child, not the ostentatious mon cheri, the cries! Being a Wife and Mother has to be amply rewarded, and whether you know it or not that is where le road is leading.

Alright, so maybe I am over doing it, there are many ways to make a committment. In some cultures, they don’t even use diamonds as a mandatory rule of engagement, non!

This absolutely breath-taking sapphire gem, surrounded by diamonds was given ,(at least one…

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Jun 9 2012

Strawberry Tart

So very yummy, I had to share recipes:

maggiesonebuttkitchen

Strawberry Tart

Tart pan lined with crust and blind baked

1/4 cup white chocolate, melted

Fresh strawberries

Pastry Cream:

1 1/4 cups half-and-half

1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

1 vanilla bean , split and scraped of seeds

2 eggs

3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons flour

1 tablespoon butter

seedless strawberry or raspberry jam

Line the unbaked tart crust with foil or parchment and weight with dried beans or pie weights. The dried beans can be reused over and over again as pie weights. Allow to cool and store the beans in a lidded jar. Blind bake the tart crust. Allow crust to completely cool.

Brush the baked tart shell lightly with the melted white chocolate. This allows your crust to remain crisp when it’s filled.

In a saucepan , combine the half-and-half, vanilla seeds and vanilla bean and bring to a boil and remove from heat; cover allow to set 30…

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Jun 4 2012

Grandma’s Rhubarb Pie

Rhubard Pie very charming indeed:

maren ellingboe

Terribly sorry, everyone. I have been dreadful about posting over the last couple of weeks due to a trip home and a computer being upgraded. I also seem to have contracted a penchant for writing rather like a 19th-century Englishwoman, which may or may not be due to the fact that I have reread all of my favorite Jane Austen novels over the last several weeks.

Anyways, my love for Emma and Pride and Prejudice is not why you are here. My trip home was rather a whirlwind, mostly spent with family and much of it spent in the car on the five-hour drive to Iowa (which was quite pretty, actually). However, I did manage to take a few pictures of my grandma Nancy’s famous rhubarb cream pie, homemade the day of my arrival by my mom. I can thus claim no credit for this recipe, but I do hope…

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