City Sidewalks Busy Sidewalks, New York City 2012

One of my favorite traditions of the Christmas seasons is the annual girls trip that we take with my Mom, Sister and I.  This year however, we got to bring my darling 11 month old niece.  Our first night, my Mom and Sister went to a musical while I got to babysit this little munchkin.  

 The next morning, we went decided to take her to Macys to meet the REAL Santa Clause.  When you arrive you stand in a really long line, and watch the Miracle on 34th Street windows.

 Here is another window, there are five, but ill save the rest for when you get the chance.

 Here is the line next to the train...

 A picture of the train, and then when you walk inside the train cards, it gently rocks with the sound of a train. It's really cute.

When you get off the train, you enter the North Pole.  Where there is the talking tree, and animated snowmen, penguins, and elves.

 There are also Elves that interact with you while you are waiting in line. Lyla loved it!

 She BELIEVES!!! No fear for this little one when she first met Santa.  She was amazing, and so was her Mommy!

 Trees and ice skating in New York City, look at the beautiful decorations on the live tree.

 Crumbs bakery, a must stop when we go.  They always make our favorite cupcakes.  White Hot Chocolate, Peppermint Swirl, and Red Velvet.

 Store windows and the snowflake hanging in the middle of the city.

 Little miss was a trooper and it had been a long day, shuffling through the crowds and city all cozzied up in her sleeping bag.

 Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, and ice skating below with other shops and there lights.

 Anyone who knows me, knows I have a slight Anthropologie obsession. So here are some of the darling store windows across from Rockefeller Center.

 Alices Tea Cup is a must stop for us every time!

 I may have a love for cupcakes but my little sister has a love for Pies!!! So her friends told her to check out this darling little shop and get a pie.  For a non pie lover, the LITTLE PIE SHOP, sure knows how to make some incredible pies!

 Time Square where we were staying.

 Saks 5th Ave Store Windows. The theme was snow.  Sorry for the lousy pictures kinda hard to get.

 Of course we had to go to a few Musicals. This is one of the plays we went to that my sisters friend Nikki was in.  She did an amazing job! We also wen to Newsies and Peter and the Star Catcher.

 We decided to skip Normals this year and try out Max Brenner Chocolate Bar.  It was good, but it doesn't hold a candle to Normas!

 My sister got the BLTA with waffle fries.

 My Mother got the Breakfast burrito with a chipotle salad.

 I was naughty and got the waffles with strawberry sauce and white chocolate.

 This was a church we saw on our walk to SOHO.

 View from our window at the Marriott.

My little sister and I saying goodbye to Time Square!

Treacle Tart

One of my favorite desserts that I had on my visit to England was Treacle Tart.  Its a lovely tart that has this buttery, carmely flavor. Its quite difficult to describe but its a must try.  I am even considering making it for Christmas day.  Sorry about the quality of the pictures, I took this at the quaint little inn we were staying at.  This is the actual Treacle tart that I got to try!  When I make it for Christmas day, im going to use this recipe and let everyone have there own.  So here is the recipe in case you want to try it, or if anyone out there has an amazing recipe, please share it with! 

Treacle Tart
Makes one 9 inch tart, or 2 dozen tartlets

Ingredients

FOR THE CRUST
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) cold, unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
3-4 tablespoons ice water

FOR THE FILLING
18 oz. golden syrup (or 12 oz. light corn syrup combined with 6 oz. molasses)
2 eggs
finely grated zest and juice of 1 small lemon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
2 tablespoons heavy cream
1 cup fresh bread crumbs

For the crust: In the bowl of a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, and salt with 2 or 3 pulses. Evenly distribute the cold butter over the flour mixture and and pulse 10 to 12 times, until the mixture resembles coarse corn meal. Sprinkle 1 to 2 tablespoons of the cold water over the flour mixture, and process with 4 to 5 pulses. After processing, the mixture should look sandy. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Sprinkle another tablespoon of the water over the mixture and use a rubber spatula to press the dough together. When the dough looks shaggy and a bit dry, but holds together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 3 or 4 times until the dough comes together completely. Add more water, up to 1 tablespoon, as needed. Handle the dough as little as possible to prevent melting the butter.

Continuing to handle the dough lightly, shape it into a disk six to seven inches across. Wrap the disk in plastic wrap and chill in the freezer for 30 minutes, or the refrigerator for at least two hours.

Once chilled, Place the dough on a lightly floured surface. If making many small tartlets, work with half of the dough at a time. Roll the dough to about one-eighth of an inch thick. Line tart pans as directed above.

Place the tarlets on a baking sheet and chill for at least 30 minutes, preferably in the freezer.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Once chilled, line the tarts with bits of foil or parchment and fill each one with a small amount of pie weights or dry beans. Bake mini tartlets for 15 minutes. Bake a full size tart for 20 minutes. Allow to cool completely before filling.

For the filling: Combine all of the ingredients in a medium bowl and pour into the cooled tart crust.

Bake for 20 minutes (for tartlets), or about 30 minutes (for a standard tart), or until the filling has set.

Allow to cool completely before serving. Serve with clotted cream, vanilla ice cream, or fresh whipped cream.

Christmas Tea

The Christmas season is always a very busy time of year for me.  In fact, this year it started very early for.  I work in a Design store that sells high end Christmas decor during the season.  So with working long hours of designing and selling, plus designing clients homes for the holidays, along with my own I have been a very busy girl.  With little time to get blog post out, I'm sadly behind this year.  Though Sunday I will have another post out of Christmas in my house and so on...

After I finished putting Christmas up in my little home, to celebrate our house being finished, we decided to have a midnight Christmas tea while we watched a movie.  So I whipped up some English scones, clotted cream and jam.  Made up a fresh pot of loose leaf berry tea from England. Took out some fresh cakes from the local bakery, and some shortbread cookies and curled up by the soft glow of the Christmas tree.

Stay tuned for more exciting post, and a very special Sugar Plum Fairy party in January for my darling little nieces 1st Birthday!