mmm baking...

Tonight I baked.

First - I made my mom's butter tart recipe, modified with my grandma's touches.

Grandma had many steps when making butter tarts and it was largely about the end product being better than an average butter tart.  She cleaned her raisins (grapes) every time.  So I soak the raisins in warm water for 10 minutes (at least) - rehydrating the raisins and cleaning off any yucky stuff.

So that's three cups of raisins and yes, I used 1 cup of green grapes and 2 cups of red grapes (raisins)

Then you clean them

'Cause - you see that little stem - those suck to eat and they get stuck in your teeth - so I pick off all the extra bits to try and make an enjoyable experience... 

So this is a double batch for 30 tarts (I totally over filled my batch though and they exploded - but I don't really care about that - they are still super yummy...) 

1 cup of margarine or butter

3 cups of raisins

4 cups of brown sugar

4 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

1 tsp white vinegar (yes, this is optional - but I think it makes the tart extra special)

See - totally exploded - but then you don't have boring tart shell and you just have yummy goodness

Oh and then I made 200 cookies :)

On being old - 

Just because I want to rent a copy of Sleepless in Seattle does not mean I deserve a funny look or being told that - sure, we had it - 12 years ago - pardon - how about a little go f*&$ yourself - how about that... 

On dying - 

Laughter doesn't cure everything but it sure helps - hearing the stories today, albeit brief, was both gut wrenching and heart warming... they had love - they understood each other and even in their last minutes together on this earth she was able to communicate the way she always had... hearing her talk choked me up but I held it together until later tonight

xo