Cheers from the road!

Just have a quick moment at an Internet cafe to say hello. Hubs and I are in Dublin tonight and tomorrow before we head out to Paris. We met the loveliest group of Dubliners last night while in Doolin (Coastal County Clare). They were all on vacation from Dublin and had left the kids at home with a grandma while they went out for a few pints. I gave them this website and wanted to give a quick hello and thank you to them. Hubs and I had such a nice time meeting you all. ::waves::

For all my other readers (hi Mom!) I'll be blogging about the travels (and tastes) of our two weeks in Europe when we get home on August 6. Stay tuned!

Cheers!

Longest day

If the clock were moving any slower, it would be going backwards! I am so ready to leave for the day and finish packing for our trip. We leave Sunday!

The ILs are staying in our place while we are gone. Who can blame them for wanting a free summer vacation near the beach? It is a zillion degrees where they live.
-Rachel

Tonight is the night!

The new season of Project Runway starts tonight. I can't wait! Will you be watching?
-Rachel

TWD: Little white rabbit...

I'm late, I'm late for a very important date! Stay tuned...I might have a little WWD (Wednesday with Dorie) this week!

YAY!

Question

Hey married folks - when travelling, do you wear your jewelry (eg wedding rings)?
-Rachel

TWD - Double Crust Blueberry Pie

It's been a couple weeks since my last Tuesday's with Dorie post and I am super sad that I missed some good ones. We had back to back weddings and are getting ready for our big trip to Europe in a couple weeks so I've been slacking on baking. :(

But this week, I was able to get the recipe made and man was it delish! Thanks to Amy of South in your Mouth for choosing a winner.

Fiscal issues pushed me to use raspberries and blueberries. Using blueberries alone would have cost me over $15 just for the fruit! So I used about 2/3 raspberries and 1/3 blueberries and it tasted amazing. I think next time I'll cut the sugar down just a bit and add in a touch more flour since the raspberries give off more juice than the little blue guys.

I had some issues with the pie crust. This was my first homemade one! The bottom one was soft and wiggly after being rolled and I could not get it into the pie plate without it crumpling up into a ball. After about 10 attempts, I recruited hubs to help. I rolled the crust on parchment and we four-handed flipped the dough onto the pie plate. SUCCESS! So glad the hubs was around to help. The top crust was fine as it was in the fridge after being rolled and I learned that next time, I'll just chill both crusts post rolling in order to make them behave better.

Oh, one other crust-related issue. I created the most beautiful pinched top crust and it all fell off in the oven. I guess it was too heavy? The part that didn't fall off was burnt to all heaven so I used a sharp knife and cut it off. No one was the wiser. :D

Bottom line: DELISH! Another winner from Dorie.

Banana Pancakes!

While catching up on my Google Reader subscriptions this morning, I found a post by Nicole at Baking Bites about banana pancakes. She says that if you have one overly ripe banana, that's the perfect amount for this recipe. Funny, I had exactly one banana to use. So, I whipped up some banana pancakes per her instructions though mine were larger than hers, yet smaller than regular size. Hubs and I really enjoyed them and this recipe is going in the rotation! I think I might have to add some Nutella next time and see what happens. :D

Thanks, Nicole!