Luminaria in Historic Bethlehem

We have a lot to learn about the Historic Bethlehem District, but something we discovered right away was Luminaria during the holiday season. Each home is given candles, paper bags, and sand and you put all the bags outside to line the area just outside your door.

Sorry for the poor pictures - my night-time photography skills still need polishing :)

Street after street, you could see glowing candles in every direction. It was quite a spectacular sight. Pretty, isn't it?

The only unfortunate thing was that our moving truck was supposed to arrive that morning at 8am, and instead it arrived twelve hours late, right in the middle of this peaceful, beautiful Luminaria event. Nothing like pissing off the new neighbours like throwing a loud orange 18 wheeler in the middle of a quaint event like Luminaria. Luckily, though, we received no complaints.

Below is an example of a very typical Christmas light display. Practically every other house has either glowing reindeer, snowmen, sleighs or something equally festive in a balloon version.

Still Moving...

We are now in Bethlehem, but still waiting for our boxes...the movers are now about 12 hours late. Waiting around stinks, and the moving company will hear about this on Monday. At least we are connected to the internet again.

Gatsby in the empty apartment.

Moving Week

It's moving week!

Tomorrow the moving crew comes to pack our apartment, and Wednesday they load the truck and drive away with our things. We will be heading out soon after that, on Thursday, with cat in tow. Poor Gatsby has been sleeping under our bed all week; he knows something strange is about to happen.

It's a very weird feeling to move again so soon - we just started feeling settled and off we go again. Our friends Jay and Sonja hosted a lovely going away party for us on Saturday, and a great time was had by all - especially delicious and sweet was the Pennsylvania map cake made by Devon. Thanks guys! We'll be saying goodbye one more time before we go.

The blog will be a little on the slow side for the next couple weeks, but I promise there will be lots to update you on once we get settled.

Happy Christmas!

Fruit Tartlets with Pastry Cream

Here's what you do when you've made too many tart shells and then find yourself with some leftover pastry cream!

Tart shell recipe: Pate sablee from the Tartine cookbook

Pastry cream recipe: How to Bake by Nick Malgieri.

I swear this hasn't turned into just a baking blog...I've got a new beret to show you, and the finished fair isle mittens. Tomorrow is photo day!

Hope you're all having a great week.