Birthday Tart
Busy, busy. I was sick, then my best friend flew into town and she is staying with us for the week, so between showing her the vast coolness of Portland and schlepping her to work with me I've been all over the place lately.
Her birthday was last week, so last night we had a little belated birthday bash with a special tart I made, incorporating her favorite treat flavors, chocolate and strawberries.
I'm calling it "Lauren's Birthday Tart". Not terribly creative, I know, but it pays respect to it's inspiration, no doubt. It is a chocolate tart shell and with a creamy, jellish strawberry layer, decorated with fresh slices of strawberries and piped with chocolate frosting. It was a big hit with the birthday girl, even though I forgot to add the decorative chocolate curls I was going to make with a yummy chocolate truffle bar from Trader Joes. Oh well, looks like I'll just have to eat the chocolate bar myself. I'm really sacrificing for my art over here. :P
I will be back to posting fairly regularly again soon. We are actually in the process of buying our first home right now, very exciting, confusing and scary all at once. We are supposed to be closing on August 18th, so keep your fingers crossed that everything works out between now and then so we can move in and start tearing it up! LOL, it doesn't need to be torn up, we just have lots of ideas for the space. Jim and I both have been life-long renters, neither of our parents owned homes when we lived at home, so this is an especially big deal because neither one of us knows what it's like to be able to paint the walls or tear up the carpet or anything like that. Fingers crossed for a smooth and uneventful closing!
14 comments:
Congrats on your first house.
That tart looks good enough to be illegal :-)
Wow!!! Congratulations on buying your first home. It's so exciting. Can't wait to see pictures.
Ooh, painted walls... something I have missed, but was able to do when renting one time. This birthday treat looks heavenly.
Yummy tart, and my finger are crossed for your house closing!
That tart is tantalizing. What a great birthday treat! Excited about your house situation - wish you the best with this!
That tart is gorgeous, kris! YUM.
Best of luck with the house! Home ownership is fun and rewarding, I hope you'll love it. :)
WOw - what ana amazing tart. You are so talents.
Congrats on your house. I totally understand what you're going thru. Paul and I bought our first condo about a year ago and it was SO stressful and exciting and overwhelming and awesome. I hope it all works out smoothly!
Ok I keep coming back because I seriously want to lick all that frosting off the tart. Sorry that may be gross, and the tart's probably gone by now but hey, I just had to share how freaking awesome this looks to me, especially that the frosting is all flower-shaped and pretty. Yum.
Thanks to everyone for the congratulations and support. I'm going to the inspection this morning, I hope everything goes well! I am a worst-case scenario kind of person, so I won't actually feel comfortable with this whole situation until the key are in our hands. It's craziness!
This event will result in much celebration, I'm sure. My birthday and Jim's birthday are both within 2 weeks of the closing, so our lives in the house will begin with a high level of cake consumption... not that there's anything wrong with that!
That looks so yummy! I’m a big fan of anything chocolate-strawberry. Good luck with the house. Home ownership is yet a far-off dream for me.
I'm the biggest fan of anything chocolate, adding strawberries just makes it better. Great tart.
I have never lived in a home we owned. The family is saving toward that end right now. congrats, that is a super big deal.
Hope the house stuff is going well. If the inspector found problems, you probably know you can request that the sellers fix them before closing. Recheck just before the closing (walk thru the house) to be sure things are okay and all junk is removed.
Be prepared for a little culture shock - when things go wrong - plumbing, sewage, electrical, drainage, roof leaks, gutter leaks, it's you and your guy who will be figuring out who to call or fixing it, there is no landlord to come to the rescue. Not meaning to be discouraging, just wanting you to not be surprised. It would be a good idea to ask around among your friends in that neighborhood to get the names and phone numbers of good, reliable repair people now, rather than trying to find someone at 3 pm on a Friday when something breaks.
Be sure to check over the house, esp. that the screens are securely fastened, and that the screening itself is strong, so the cats don't get out and get lost. also watch out for things like the fireplace chimney, which cats have been known to climb up.
We just had our inspection the other day and things went well. Very minor things to take care of. We're going to talk about what we want to ask of the seller with our agent tonight.
I hear you, Anon, about the mantainence stuff. I'm lucky to have a very handy hubby, but we need to bulk up our savings account for the occaisonal "oh shit!" circumstance arising. Right now I just need to focus on getting to the end of this, though, I'm too freaked out to feel like a home owner quite yet.
this looks so good. would you be willing to share the recipe?
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