Fresh & fabulous...

I tried a new recipe in a food magazine called Cuisine Lite ~ Fresh & fabulous, a publication of August Home Publishing.  I was flipping through the pages and found a dessert called Strawberry-Rhubarb Crostata.  It looked so delicious, I knew I wanted to try it.

It is described as an Italian-style fruit tart, easy and fuss-free, in which any seasonal fruit could be substituted.  The crust, they said, with a texture like a cross between short-bread and cake, is an Italian short pastry called pasta frolla. It has more sugar than pie dough, so there is no worry about over-kneading it.

Since I have never even eaten rhubarb, I decided to use strawberries, pineapple and walnuts as well.  We also topped it with whipped cream for serving, and it was very good!   I can not wait to try it again, using peaches, plums, and perhaps even Rhubarb! 



The crust is brushed with egg-white/water before baking



When it cools, sprinkle some powdered sugar on the crust!

 

The Wedding Gift.... Part 2

Today was a wonderful "Monday."  I am usually at work on Mondays but traded a day off, and I found myself back in my stained glass studio today -- ignoring most of everything else I should be doing, but hey, I did lots of that kind of stuff this past Friday and Saturday.  Needed to squeeze in some shop time somewhere.... :)

For those of you who read my blogs, you may recall that I put The Wedding Gift piece on hold until I completed a recent commission that came through unexpectedly. I really hated to do that, but the commissioned piece was under a deadline and I really needed to deliver it on time.  Plus, The Wedding Gift was to be a complete surprise for the bride, a dear friend of my daughter.

When we attended the wedding, I saw that the bride used sunflowers in her backdrops and bouquets.  Of course, I told my daughther I was tempted to change the panel to include sunflowers rather than a rose.  But as I laid out all of the previously cut pieces and cut out the rest of the leaves and petals, I realized that it is really a very pretty piece, and yes, it does feel like a Beauty And The Beast piece!

Here it is so far.  I've used two shades of reds; one a German antique, the other a Spectrum wispy; two shades of green in the leaves; one again a German antique (you can see the lines in it) and the other is a waterglass with streaks of deeper green running throughout.  The background is glue chip glass.  I only need to cut-out the pieces surrounding the heart, which I think will be in clear textured iridescent glass.  Since I don't plan on framing it, I will use a zinc border for strength, with a nice dark patina finish.  

I hope to finish and upload pics of the completed piece in the next couple of weeks.

Update: The below pic includes the surrounding glass....textured iridescent.  I think it works well.  Seeing it all laid out like this, I believe it needs a combination of copper foil AND lead.  The heart and rose will be wrapped in copper foil, and surrounded by lead.  Then lead will be used in the outer pieces, and bordered in zinc for added strength.  Should have it done in another week.  Stay tuned....

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Out of The Blue - Part 2

It's done!  In fact, I delivered it to my client today and she honestly loved it.  I am so happy.  Her response was so important to me, and did she ever deliver, ha ha.  You know someone loves it when they draw in their breath, hold it for a moment, then start gushing.  "It's beautiful, oh I love it....It's perfect!"  Yup......that pretty much said it all for me.

The fit was very good as well, although I'd brought my husband along to help shave down some of the lead in a few key places.  She has someone else lined up to do the official install in the next few days, and they should have no problems.  She will give me a call to come see it once it is installed.

This was my first octagon-shaped window and my first ever panel to be installed to fit into an existing window.  Honestly, I was a little nervous about it all, but really, I had a lot of helpful advice before I even began.  This all really helped make this project come together smoothly for me.

John, in Ventura, said, "Make sure when you make your template that you mark which side is the top!"  Sounds so logical, but had he not told me that, I wonder if I would have.....  This stayed with me even to the end as I was adding the lead around the outside.  Although you can't tell from just looking at it, all eight sides were slightly different measurements.  So as I laid my lead to the pattern to cut it, I also labeled it as to which side it was cut to fit. 

John, in Santa Barbara, was very helpful in color/glass selection when I told him how particular the client  was about her colors.  He quickly collected several samples, lined them up in a window, and they all went beautiful together.  I did make a few changes: grayer for the dolphin,  light blue Baroque for the sky rather than waterglass, and I added a slightly deeper blue near the horizon.  John liked my choice of Baroque for the sky.  "Just make sure the lines flow from one piece to the other,"  he said.  He also said to be careful when making the template as all sides may be different.  He was sure right about that!  I guess octagon windows have a reputation of being a bit challenging.

Chris, here in Carpinteria (and my sister/mentor all these years) gave some great advice about putting it all together, as she knew my concern about not letting it grow, which can happen if your pieces are even a smidgen larger here and there.  "Just line up all your outside pieces to the pattern line, and tack-solder them in place. That way you know it won't grow, and you can make adjustments to the inside pieces if needed." 

Thanks everyone!!  When I get the opportunity to pay it back to someone else along the way, I will!

Here's a few pics of the finished piece.