Todays creation comes from the resources of one food blogger and the inspiration of another. Once again, Elle of Feeding My Enthusiasms was kind enough to send me quinces. I just can’t seem to get them here and I love them so. This year I got a bunch so I made two things, quince paste (which will be up sometime next week on Northwest Noshings) and quince sorbet. I had seen a lovely apple tart with cranberry sorbet over at my buddy Jen’s blog and knew I had to follow suit.
I already had leftover tart shells from when I made the Butterscotch Pudding Tarts, so that was a plus. Jen’s apple filling was simple as well. But what to go on top? That is where the quince sorbet came into play, as well as a crème fraiche ice cream. I wanted something with a little tang to go with my tart. I must say that the whole combo taste really nice together.
And if you don’t want to make the tart you can make a Fall flavors float. Scoops of quince sorbet and  crème fraiche ice cream with fresh apple cider poured over it…yum!
I’ve been a busy little blogger as of late, though nothing to do with blogging. So if you haven’t seen my stopping by and saying hi, sorry about that. I am pretty busy up until the election as I am volunteering my time. And they take all of that time up!
In good news, since Palin cursed a new team and mine has been winning. Both of my teams are improving, so my mood is improving as well. My player seems to be recovering nicely too.
All the critters are doing well. LFB eye is the same (but that is good) and CCS has stopped having tummy issues.
Hope everyone has a safe and happy Halloween. All treats and no tricks as well….I got a great treats this year. Special thanks to Elle for the quinces and Hannah for my adorable candy corn magnet!!!

Apple Tarts with Quince Sorbet and Creme Fraiche Ice Cream

4 4-inch prepared Oat Wheat Tart Crust (go here for recipe)
apple filling (go here for recipe)
quince sorbet (recipe follows)
creme fraiche ice cream (recipe follows)

Creme Fraiche Ice Cream

2 cups creme fraiche
¾  cup half-and-half
¼ cup buttermilk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
6 egg yolks

Combine creme fraiche, half-and-half, buttermilk, vanilla extract and sugar, and warm the mixture over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the sugar has dissolved, 3 to 5 minutes.
In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks just until blended, then whisk in about one-quarter of the warm half-and-half mixture. Return the yolk mixture to the saucepan and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until the custard coats the spoon, about 10 minutes. Strain the custard into a medium bowl to remove any lumps and let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate until fully chilled. When cold, pour the mixture into an ice-cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Transfer the ice cream to an airtight container and freeze until set, at least 2 hours.

Quince Sorbet

2 lb ripe quinces
1 cup plus 2 TBSP sugar
8 cups water
2 TBSP Grand Mariner

Peel and quarter quince, then core. Simmer quince, sugar, and water in a 6-quart pot, uncovered, until very tender, about 1 hour.
Blend mixture in batches in a blender (use caution when blending hot liquids), then force through a large fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Cool to room temperature, about 2 hours. Whisk in poire William.

Freeze mixture in 2 batches in ice cream maker. Transfer to an airtight container and put in freezer to harden.

Sorbet adapted from Gourmet Magazine, October 2003

See, you thought I was kidding before, but it no coincidence that Sarah Palin jinxed the Flyers. They have the worst record in the NHL (correction, they did have the worst…they are winning now that she moved on to a new team). They did finally win a game, the same day, MY player, the reason I watch the Flyers, Danny Briere, had to have surgery and is out for 3-4 weeks!!!! That is a long time in hockey folks.
And now, she is spreading her doom to other teams. Friday night Palin dropped the puck, this time for the Saint Louis Blues. Who lost their goalie that night…know why? Palin. Yep, seems he tripped over the carpet that was laid out for her and her kids…and now has a hip injury. He says he doesn’t blame her but I bet he has a Voodoo doll at home that looks just like her (Hopefully it wont get mixed up with Tina Fey ).
Really, this has got to stop. Clearly teams are being punished for having her come out. How many more teams seasons will she ruin. Sarah Barracuda stop the insanity! Go back to Alaska and screw over your minor league and house league teams there!
So NHL teams, if you are stupid enough to have her come out, I hope one of your players is smart enough to cross checker down before she can drop the puck.
Speaking of Palin, I voted this weekend. All voting in my county is done via mail. It’s nice and convenient but I must say I do miss going and voting. I miss my little “I voted today” sticker. And I miss going to the fire station (which is where I had to vote in AZ). But I voted. And I want to once again remind you to do so as well….for whoever it is that you want. Heck you could even write in someone…or some fuzzy critters.

This weeks TWD pick ( by Clara of I Heart Food4Thought) was Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes, which I made into a cake. Well, half a cake. I used the Chocolate cupcake batter as well as basic white cake batter and swirled them together. I topped it with the chocolate glaze that was also the TWD pick. My only beef was that there was SOOOO not enough glaze. Hello Dorie, we people in the states love our frosting and glazes. I doubled it and could have easily made more. If you would like the recipe for the Chocolate-Chocolate Cupcakes go here. If you want the white cake recipe go here.

Since when did getting an education become a bad thing?
In my day, you either went to a community college for 2 years and then on to a 4 year university or you went to a 4 year university….for 4 years. Now granted I took 4 ½ years, but I got two degrees during that time and I went an extra semester just so I could student teach in the Fall (I wanted to see how a teacher set up her classroom, not one that was already established). And no one looked down on your for going to the same college all 4 years.
But I was listening to the radio the other day and a McDonald’s commercial came on. It was making fun of Starbucks by saying now that they offer all these coffee’s you no longer have to have  a degree in Russian literature to drink coffee. It says that you can go back to reading gossip magazines. Umm, really? I don’t feel like I need a degree in Russian literature to drink my Venti, half-caf, non-fat, sugar free cinnamon dolce, no whip (yes, I am difficult coffee orderer). Has no one who works for Corporate McDonald’s been to a Starbucks? I wouldn’t call most of the people in there sophisticated…heck, half of them are teenage girls…reading gossip magazines. Yes, Starbucks carries books and tries to promote reading (the horror) but I don’t get the feeling that I need a doctorate to do so.
Then there is the election coverage where it is implied by a certain favorite VP candidate of mine that I am somehow elite for getting a four year education at the same university. Yes, I feel elite driving my 5 year old (but paid for!) Ford Focus. I feel elite cleaning my house in sweatpants with holes in them. I feel elite when swinging by the Taco Bell on a Thursday night because I am too tired to cook. That’s me, elite.
Now don’t get me wrong. If you don’t get your degree in 4 years or all from the same university that is fine by me. But don’t belittle me because I did. Don’t have a college degree? Also fine by me. I was never one of those teachers who felt that every kid should go to college, because every kid shouldn’t. Some people are just more inclined to do work that doesn’t require a traditional college degree. I have several college degrees…but I sure can’t fix my car. But again, why make fun of me because I did get an education. It’s just so weird to me.
Now one thing I am an elitist about is dessert in a restaurant. Again, not your mom and pop type place, but an upscale place. If I am paying $9 for dessert, it better be flipping FANTASTIC. Case in point, we went out the other night to a new place. I really liked everything but stuffed myself silly. But, I saw on the menu that the had a Pear Bread Pudding. I have this thing where if I go to a restaurant and they have bread pudding and I haven’t had it yet, I order it. Kind of like my own personal quest to find the best bread pudding. $9 this sucker cost me. I got it home and it was quite large (so I was quite excited) but sadly the bread was almost dry (weird for bread pudding) and the pears were crunchy. Boo. What a waste. Of course I had to set them straight.
Since Anita (Dessert First) was the host of this months Sugar High Friday and her choice was spice, I thought I would show that restaurant how pear bread pudding should be looking and tasting. And since nutmeg goes so nicely with pear, and nutmeg is a spice, I figured this could be my entry. This one is made with a basic French bread. I saved money by buying day old bread…so this is a budget dessert (HA!). You can use whatever type of pear you would like but just make sure they are ripe, I learned all too well that crunchy pears are not good in this.
You can use whatever sauce you would like. I used a Dulce De Leche sauce that someone had given me. It was very tasty. I think a nice crème anglaise spiked with a little nutmeg would be great. And of course you can never go wrong with caramel.

Pear Nutmeg Bread Pudding

1 medium loaf French Bread
1 ½ cups heavy cream
½ cup whole milk
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg (this can vary based on how much you like nutmeg, I like nutmeg)
1 ½ tsp vanilla extract
1 cup pears, peeled, diced
½  cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 350F.

The night before making the pudding. Cut French Bread loaf into rectangular pieces. Lay them out overnight on the counter uncovered, as to get stale.
In an greased but not floured 8-x-8-inch pan, sprinkle as many bread pieces as you can on the bottom. Sprinkle with ½ of the diced pears and ¼ cup raisins.
Mix the egg yolks, sugars, vanilla extract and nutmeg together in a bowl. Then stir in the heavy cream and milk.
Pour the custard over the bread first layer of bread. Press down the bread pieces until the bread is soaked with the custard. Again sprinkle bread (you will most likely have left over pieces…that’s okay, make croƒ»tons or bread crumbs out of them). Sprinkle the remaining pears and raisins on top. Pour enough custard over the bread so that when you press down on the bread, the bread is soaked in custard. Depending on how stale your bread is you may likely will have extra custard. Don¢â¬â„¢t feel like you have to use all the custard.
Place pan into another pan that will hold a water bath. Bake the bread pudding for 45 minutes to an hour until golden on top. Cool 10 minutes and serve warm. Serve with Dulce de Leche or Caramel sauce.

The night before we eloped we had to go and get our marriage license. Since in Vegas you can pretty much do that 24 hours a day, we decided to go at night in hopes of it not taking so long (many people told us it would take awhile). So we decided we would go and then eat afterwards. Yeah, it took like 5 minutes, 10 if you want to really stretch it out. There was one couple in front of us, a young couple with the man wearing a “Honk if you like Boobies” t-shirt (I sure hope it worked out for those kids ) and a strange, yet cute (and very in love) goth couple. Moral of the story, if you want to get married in Vegas, go get your license at 8pm on a Saturday night.
Having not made reservations anywhere as we thought it would take a few hours we wandered around from restaurant to restaurant trying to see how long the wait was. They were all a couple hours. Hmm. We figured if we had to wait, we would wait for steak (p.s. Delmonico Steakhouse in the Venetian is fabulous). I could hear music from the lounge, 80’s music. Since I am a product of the 80’s and not knowing anyone (aka no one I know would see me dance) I convinced my husband to go dancing. I happily did the white chick bobbing slug. You know, where you stand and kind of bob your head back and forth. Sometimes you move your arms but that usually results in stabbing someone with your finger so you just go back to bobbing.
We went, we ate, we had fun, we went to bed.
The next day we got married. We got married in the afternoon and had time before we were to go to our  wedding dinner. I made my husband dance to “our” song in the room (Somebody by Depeche Mode…see, 80’s girl) but told him that after we ate I wanted to go dancing again so we could dance on our wedding night. He agreed.
We went, we ate, we had fun, we went to dance. Hmmm. The band that played the night before was not playing. It was a 70’s band. Hmmm. I don’t really know any 70’s music and neither does my husband. We sat there for quite some time. Finally we agreed that we would just dance to the next song that both of us recognized and then call it a night. So that is ladies and gentleman how the song Brickhouse by the Commodores became my wedding song. Yes, a song about a well stacked chick is my wedding song. At least it gives us something to laugh about.

Marriage has it’s good times and it’s sticky times. Lucky for me the sticky times have been few and short lived and the good times are what dominate life in our Brickhouse. But in honour of those having a sticky time in there love life right now, I ofter you up the traditional caramel apple. I tried to make small ones but the lollipop stick kept coming off. The larger ones really do work better as do the wooden sticks (both sticks and pops were found at Michaels). I rolled mine in Demura sugar, just for effect, you so don’t need to do it (it will make it too sweet….but I wanted texture darn it all ).

Caramel Apples

Makes 10 to 12

1 cup granulated sugar
1 ¼  cups heavy cream
½  cup light corn syrup
2 TBSP unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

10 to 12 small apples (I used a variety of sizes), stems removed
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
Round wooden skewers (or lollipop sticks)

Directions
Heat sugar, cream, corn syrup, and butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat, stirring until butter has melted. Clip a candy thermometer to side of pan, and continue to cook until mixture reaches 240F. Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla. Let cool for 5 minutes.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and coat with cooking spray. Insert a skewer into stem end of each apple. Dip apples in caramel, and place on sheet. Let stand until set, at least 1 hour. Apples can be stored airtight for up to 1 day.
If you want to add decorations you simply roll the apple in the item you want right after you dip them. Chocolate chips, crushed candy pieces, crushed cookie pieces, colored sugars, marshmallows, basically whatever you want.

Adapted from Martha Stewart.com