Chocolate Tart Recipe

I spotted this recipe in Food Magazine and loved the look of it, but the taste is even better. The cocoa in the recipe makes all the difference and the organic cocoa I found at Whole Foods is amazing.  I made this tart the first time for a 4th of July dinner, not with pears as the recipe suggests, but with strawberries and rhubarb I was saving in the freezer.  It was delicious, but the berries gave it a shorter shelf life. The second time I tried the pears when I made it for my garden's summer potluck. It dissapeared pretty quick.  Today I'm going for broke with fresh peaches.  Really almost any fruit would work.

The recipe also calls for almond flour or making your own in a food processor, which I substituted with wheat flour without any problem. 

OMG! Ice Cream Posters You Will Love!

Share with a Buddy! I was walking down Spring Garden Street here in Philly when I came upon these signs in the window of Petrucci's Ice Cream at the corner of 18th street. I came back later and had to get a Mega Blend (their version of the Blizzard, an old favorite from high school when I worked next door to a ice cream place). I took some more pictures on my second trip and found out all of the signs were made by the girls who work at the shop. They must have been mightily inspired to come up with these super adorable signs. Check out the single scoops in cups and the Brownie Sundae girl in green.

Chanticleer Gardens in Wayne, PA

This weekend I visited Chanticleer with my family and we took a quick tour in the bright sunshine, but the garden is really wonderful. The gardeners are given the liberty to make changes to the beds and create furniture which includes painted pairs of Adirondack chairs to allow visitors a view down the hills.
View down the stairway into the tennis court garden.

The cutting garden and vegetable garden with two men talking on a bench at the end of the path.


Lilly pads on the pond.


Succulent plantings on the hill.


The ruins in the center offer great framing devices, creating windows onto the woods.


They'll only be open until Oct 31st when the season ends. They are on Church rd. in Wayne, PA.

Arts By the River East Falls

I showed my photographs at the Inn Yard Park today and it was really nice! The weather was beauuu-ti-ful and everyone was really cool! My friend Carrie came and helped my run the table expertly and I had a collector of my bird paintings show up to sweep four more paintings off to her home and I got lots of good advice for new places to take photos! Thanks! I'll be out there shooting soon! There were alot of dogs out with their people.
This set up was my most involved so far, but I like the look of it. It took a good hour to put together, though.
Carrie has such good sales instincts, she put the postcards in front and the cards in the lid of the box. We made the best of the time by making upcycled photo cards for the Design Philadelphia show and the Swap-O-Rama-Rama give aways.
Meeting all of the people and having fun made it all worth it! I also scored 4 vases made by kids in the Claymobile program for the Clay Studio. I love coil built ceramics and I can't pass them up! See you all in 2 weeks at 906 Christian for Design Philadelphia (Oct. 18, 10-4)!