My other website

Have a look at my other website, showing all my creations from art to fashion. You will surely enjoy it!
www.charetgarcia.com

Summer Dress

Summer is almost gone, the rain has arrived in Melbourne with refreshing breeze cooling off the heat that I tremendously enjoyed.
This summer dress will be kept away for a while in my wardrobe and hoping for another hot summer days to come.
This cotton fabric has a black embroidery. With spaghetti straps.

Meat Pie with Middle Eastern Twist

Meat Pie with Middle Eastern Twist

Unbaked pie

Meat Pie Ingredients:

½ kilo of lean minced meat

2 pieces of carrots, diced

2 T frozen peas

3 beaten eggs

A pinch of cinnamon

1 tsp paprika powder

2 t middle eastern mixed powder

Salt according to taste

2 Garlic cloves minced

1 T olive oil

Pie Crust:

2 cups flour

½ cup cold water

80 grams unsalted melted butter

A pinch of salt

1 egg yolk beaten

24 cm diameter cake pan

Place the frying pan in medium heat and add the olive oil, sauté the garlic until soft but not brown. Add the minced meat and add the salt . Mix well. Add the middle eastern mixed powder, paprika and a pinch of the cinnamon. Mix well until the meat turns brown. Add the carrots and cover.

Make sure to taste your cooking. You can add additional middle eastern powder and paprika according to your taste. I prefer it to be a bit spicy.

After 10 minutes, turn the heat low and add the frozen peas, mix for a few minutes and turn the stove off. Add the beaten eggs and mix well. This will help bind the meat together.

Crust

While you are waiting for the meat to cool down, place 2 cups of flour in a big bowl. Add the pinch of salt, and use wooden spatula to mix the flour. Add the butter slowly and keep on mixing it until the flour turns into small balls.

Add the cold water in 3 parts, make sure that the pastry is the right texture. You might not need all the water, so don’t pour all the water all at once.

Sprinkle flour to the board and place the pasrty. Knead for 5 – 8 minutes until the pastry has the right texture. Divide to 2/3 and 1/3.

Roll 2/3 parts to a circle with a diameter of 34 cm. Place the pastry to the cake pan.

Roll 1/3 part of the pastry and with a diameter of 26cm.

Place the meat on the cake pan, and spread evenly. Place the top part of the crust and roll the sides of the crust to bind them together. Decorate accordingly and brush the egg yolk evenly. Bake for 30- 35 minutes until golden brown.

Serve with sour cream but I prefer my chilli sauce.

Baked Pie

Apron with frills

Here is an apron I recently made. I thought it was fun to make something unusual to the conventional aprons I see at the shops.

Pattern making and sewing

Here is one of my sewing creations. My Japanese blouse for the summer. Easy to make! Check out my website:
www.charetgarcia.com

My first recipe to share:

Butter/Olive oil Pecan Cookies Recipe

Cream the butter first. Then add sugar and cream them together.

1/2 cup chopped pecans
¼ cup unsalted butter with ¼ cup olive oil, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar, plus more for coating
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup all-purpose flour

1 Preheat oven to 177°C. On a baking sheet, toast pecans until you can smell the fragrant pecan nuts, about 6 minutes. Let cool completely; finely chop or course chop as desired.

2 With an electric mixer, cream butter for about a minute. Add 1/3 cup sugar and cream until light, about 1 minute more. Beat in vanilla, salt, and flour, scraping down sides of bowl, just until dough comes together. Fold in pecans.

3 Separate dough into 12 pieces; squeeze dough to shape into balls. Roll in sugar. Place, 3 inches apart, on a baking sheet.

4 Gently flatten with the bottom of a glass (reshape sides if necessary). Sprinkle with sugar.

5 Bake until golden brown, rotating sheet halfway through, about 15 minutes. Sprinkle with more icing sugar or white sugar as desired. Cool cookies on a wire rack.

New to the site

Here I am blogging for the first time on this site. I would like to share some of my creations to the web and see if I suck or not...
Artist1961