Tales of The Traveling Tote and A Giveaway

Welcome to our March edition of 

Tales of the Traveling Totes,

where twelve of us galavant off to

anywhere and everywhere. 

My bags are packed!  

Actually my bag has stayed packed and

will for most of January-March as

we head out almost every weekend.

I bet you can guess by what Miss Madi K is

carrying where we are off to, and what we will

be doing.

This is taken from my back deck and the

arrow points between the two mountains

where the canyon road goes up to Sundance.

Sundance Mountain Resort started having

Alpine skiing in 1944, and Robert Redford

purchased it in 1968.  It spans 5,000 acres

on the back side of Mount Timpanogos.  

We see the front side of 

Mount Timpanogos from 

our back yard.

This is a picture on a pretty day.

We have had record snows this year, so

skiing is great.  This was a controlled

snow slide (meaning the County caused it)

that blocked the canyon road for two days.

I just read that we got an additional 14 inches

in the last 24 hours up at Sundance.

I brought along some MacKenzie-Childs

to show off the snow!

We look right out at the ski run. 

The snow has been right up to

the deck railing twice this year.

But we can stay warm on the inside with

a nice hot chocolate,

or just stay warm inside!

Miss Madi K and I prefer inside,

by the fire.

Sundance is only fifteen minutes up

the canyon from us, but if we keep going

for about another thirty minutes,

we arrive in Park City, which has another

three ski resorts.

They helped host the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Park City started out in the 1800's as a silver

mining town, and is very upscale and trendy,

but it has kept its quaint, old-west

flavor on Main Street.

(Photo by Historic Park City)

We like to run up from Sundance for

dining and shopping once in a while.

These cute booths were in Whole Foods -

they look like ski lifts!

We also like to stop in for dining

in Midway and Heber.  Both are

on the way up the canyon, and have

great restaurants.

So as long as it keeps snowing, this is 

where you might find us on weekends,

skiing, drinking hot chocolate and eating bon bons!

Now on to the fun giveaway!!!

Aren't these MC's bunny candles so

adorable?!!  Visit Cherry Kay and Carrie

Ann Hall and leave a comment to have

a chance to win them.  Good Luck!

We hope there is no snow by the 

late Easter this year - maybe the grass

will be green and beautiful for our 

Easter Egg Hunt!!!

**“Thoughts and prayers for our fellow toter RJ @ Sketchy Reader as she is away caring for a family member"

Take a few minutes to visit the other

ladies who have been off traveling

with their totes.  I love reading about the

places they have been - often places I have

never heard of.

Debbie with Miss Aurora @ Mountain Breaths 

Emily with Miss Courtney Childs@ The French Hutch

 Patti with Miss Kenzie @ Pandora's Box

Jenna with Miss Coquille @The Painted Apron

Linda P with Miss Lola @ Life and Linda

Rita with Miss Luna C @ Panoply 

Sarah with Miss Merri Mac @ Hyacinths for the Soul

Jackie and Miss Madi K @ Purple Chocolat Home

Cherry Kay and Carrie Ann Hall @ 

Entertaining Women  

Parisian Chocolate Eclairs

I admit I have been a chocolate eclair

lover since I first started baking as a

young girl, but I have always been just

a little disappointed in how they turned

out and how soggy they became.

Then I went to Paris and experienced

the visual delight of rows and rows

of thin, gorgeous eclairs and I knew

I was missing something.

Here is a photo I took in Paris in 2015

at Christmas time.  Of course we sampled

quite a few.

You know how your computers and phones

are suspiciously tracking you and listening in

on conversations?  Well, we are planning a

trip to Europe with our kids and all of a

sudden my Pinterest is just swarming with

pins of eclairs.

I was captured by a photo and the title

of a post by Food Nouveau

on how to make eclairs.  After reading

it, the recipe for the pastry seemed very

typical, but Marie had some tips that

were a little unusual, so I decided to give

her recipe and tips a try, and follow the

instructions exactly - I am not so good at

that, but when we took our pastry classes

in Paris, we learned how exacting that 

teacher was, so I decided to throw some

of my casualness out the door and be

more exacting.

I also decided to pipe my dough out into

thin strips to make them more like my

Parisian favorites, rather than spooning

them out like we always did growing up.

After boiling the water, butter and milk, Marie

said to let the mix cool for about 5 minutes,

stirring a few times to let some of the steam

out.  Well, that seemed logical - remove steam

and I would have a less moist pastry.

Marie's Choux Dough

(A variation)

1/2 C. water

1/2 C. milk

1 cube butter, cut into pieces

1/4 tsp salt

1 C. flour

4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring the water, milk, butter and salt to a boil

in a saucepan.  Stir in the flour and let it cook

for about a minute to let moisture escape (ahh,

that steam escaping thing again.)  It will form

into a ball.

Remove from heat and place in bowl of

your mixer.  Let cool five minutes and

stir occasionally during this cooling time.

You will see a lot of steam escape as

you do this.

Place bowl on mixer stand with paddle

attached and beat in one egg at a time.

It may separate, but continue until all

eggs are used up.  It will be a nice

glossy mass now.

Pipe into eclairs or puffs, on parchment paper.

I used my half inch sized round tip, and piped

them about 6 inches long.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature

to 350 and bake another 20 minutes.  

Let cool on a rack.

We had always just cut our eclairs in half, but

I wanted mine to be Parisian, so I made

three holes in the bottoms and piped

my chocolate whipped cream inside.

Not certain this would work, I had to make a

test one to see if the filling got all the way in.

Hooray - it worked.

Then they were dipped in chocolate ganache.

These were beautiful just this way, but

I wanted to have some fun.

After the ganache had set, I piped some

wonderful chocolate buttercream on

trying out some of my new Russian tips.

(They take a little practice, but I liked

the way they turned out.)

The secret is my new one and only cocoa

powder.  I honestly can't remember which

blogger recommended it, but there is nothing

like it and I have tried all of the expensive

brands.  This runs on Amazon just under $20

and gives everything chocolate such a 

wonderful flavor (when paired with Mexican 

vanilla, of course.)  I get so many

compliments on my chocolate buttercream

and I have to give all the credit to this cocoa.

Chocolate Buttercream

1 C. softened butter (I always use salted)

4 C. powdered sugar

1/4 - 1/2 C. Extra Brute Cocoa - depending

on how dark you want it.

2 tsp. vanilla

5-6 T. milk

Mix all with paddle attachment until

smooth.  To use the Russian tips you need

a stiffer frosting, so I added about 1/3 C.

additional powdered sugar, or less liquids.

For the filling, you can do whatever

you want, pastry cream, pudding, or

whipped cream.  I whipped two cups of

cream and added 1/2 C. powdered sugar and

1/3 C. of my chocolate ganache.

Now I want to try all kinds of other

eclairs that are popping up on my Pinterest feed!!

Thanks for stopping by for a little chocolate.

Butterfly Cake for Baby's 1st and Baby Shower

Sweet baby Emery turned one this week,

so I made a Butterfly Smash Cake for her.

We set the cake up in her bedroom under

her darling canopy that she loves to go

play in.

At first she was only interested in playing 

with her pearls.

We had to introduce her to the cake.

It is amazing how quickly they grow and

how much they change in the first year.

We decided to move the cake to the

floor.  Just like the darling little lady

she is, she delicately ate her cake.

But it didn't take long for her to let us

know she had had enough sweets.

I had made the same cake a few days before for

a baby shower for Amy from our craft group.

Everyone in the craft group helped.

Laura hosted it and set this stunning table,

 Joanne created the beautiful balloon

garland, Karen did the flowers, Brenda

organized us on the food.

It was like a giant charcuterie table.

I love this shot with the table reflected in

Laura's mirror.

Crafty and meticulous Brenda and Karen

made this gorgeous quilt for Amy's baby.

It was fun using the same cake inspiration

for two baby events in the same week.

There is nothing like celebrating darling

little girls!

I will be posting this with

Tablescapes Thursday

and

Dishing It and Digging It

MacKenzie Childs Pie Plate Winner

Happy Valentine's Week to the lucky winner

of this giveaway of a 9.5 inch 

MacKenzie-Childs pie plate (or dish,

or bowl, or whatever you want to use it for.)

I used the random number generator to

choose the winner, and the lucky lady is....

Bonnie

at

Living With Thanksgiving.

I think she is going to love this.  I know

I love mine!

I love how the pattern changes on the underside,

and the gold rim.

And I am even including a couple of

bags of these fun mega-sized

Valentine M&M's with messages on some.

Speaking of Valentine's -

hubby gave me this gorgeous box

of chocolates - lips, heels, lipstick

and gold - how girly and gorgeous and

delicious too!

Visit Bonnie to tell her congratulations

on winning!