noelle o designs

creativity + sewing + upcycling inspiration

books, food, friends

fruit tart AND cinnamon covered almonds

You might be shocked to hear that I turned off the sewing machine for the evening and crept up into the kitchen to make something, from scratch. I had to host my book group so I decided to mix it up and prepare something not including chocolate, an extremely curious decision- am I finally a grown up? losing my marbles? getting sick?  Making something different- like a fruit tart- hit me while I was running that morning, after some self reflection, I can (perhaps) admit the reasoning: I lack the stamina to say “no” to homemade chocolate treats. But last night, I easily stopped at one serving. I’ll portion out the leftovers to my neighbors (ladies, get ready for a knock). Even still, I’d better keep one slice of the tart for dessert tonight… therefore continuing my two-steps-forward one-step-back approach to diet, exercise and life.
The recipe is from Joy of Baking.

BUT after all of that work whisking ingredients and fretting over pastry crust, the big hit with the ladies was a bag of cinnamon covered almonds I grabbed while running through the grocery store. Delicious and still sans chocolate? That is saying a lot about these cinnamony nuggets of flavor.
The book we read was Ready Player One by Ernest Cline a book I have read (listened to) twice now and loved both times.

Here’s the schtick:
“At once wildly original and stuffed with irresistible nostalgia, READY PLAYER ONE is a spectacularly genre-busting, ambitious, and charming debut—part quest novel, part love story, and part virtual space opera set in a universe where spell-slinging mages battle giant Japanese robots, entire planets are inspired by Blade Runner, and flying DeLoreans achieve light speed.
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place.
Like most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.
And like most of humanity, Wade dreams of being the one to discover the ultimate lottery ticket that lies concealed within this virtual world. For somewhere inside this giant networked playground, OASIS creator James Halliday has hidden a series of fiendish puzzles that will yield massive fortune—and remarkable power—to whoever can unlock them.”

I’m not a huge fan of science-fiction, but I really enjoyed this book. Well written and chocked full of references to the 1980’s pop culture- the era in which I grew up, it’s social commentary leaves you pondering what life on earth might become if we continue on our current path of interneting and environmental insensitivity.

5 Comments

  1. jrg2012

    April 20, 2012 at 9:19 pm

    Beautiful fruit tarte! Yeah hahaha, I know the feeling of beeing sick or something not adding chocolate into desserts (i´m on diet to) 🙂 Wonderfull blog by the way X

  2. Sue

    April 20, 2012 at 9:54 pm

    fruit tart looks delicious! and I love that little blue dish/bowl for the almonds – I need one!

  3. colett

    April 21, 2012 at 2:41 pm

    Im pretty sure I ate 90% of the almonds all by my little ol self, thank you for introducing me to my new favorite treat!

    1. noelleodesigns

      April 23, 2012 at 4:41 pm

      When I sneaked into the pantry the next morning, to find the handful of left over nuts, I found they’d been polished off by Steve O who seems to feel the same way we do about these treats. Back to the grocery store, then into a hiding place.

  4. ooothatsshiny

    April 22, 2012 at 10:24 pm

    all those treats look so good!

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