Recipe: Puff Pastry, Four Ways

sub-buzz-11616-1464724089-2via:   http://bzfd.it/1UbzjBs

Cream Cheese Filling

INGREDIENTS
1 8-oz block cream cheese
¼ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract

PREPARATION
In a medium bowl, mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla until smooth.
Strawberry Pastry Diamond
Makes 9 pastries

 

Filled Puff Pastries

 

INGREDIENTS
1 sheet thawed puff pastry
5 strawberries, halved with stems removed
9 Tbsp. cream cheese filling, recipe above
powdered sugar

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Cut the puff pastry into 9 equal squares.
Taking one of the squares, fold one of the edges to the opposite edge.
Leaving a ½-centimeter border, cut about ¾ of the way from the bottom of the triangle to the tip on both sides, making sure the cuts do not touch.
Unfold the square.
Taking the top flap, fold it toward the 2 cuts near the bottom.
Take the bottom flap and fold it toward the top edge.
Place about a tablespoon of the cream cheese filling in the middle, then place a strawberry half on top.
Repeat with the remaining pastry squares.
Bake for 15–20 minutes until pastry is golden brown and puffed.
Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar!
Raspberry Pastry Flower
Makes 4 pastries

 

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INGREDIENTS
1 sheet thawed puff pastry
20 raspberries
4 Tbsp. cream cheese filling, recipe above
Powdered sugar

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Cut the puff pastry into 4 equal squares.
Leaving a ½-centimeter border, make 8 total cuts along the edges of the square, with each cut going about ⅓ of the way through the length of the edge. Make sure the cuts do not touch.
Place a tablespoon of the cream cheese filling in the middle of the square, then top with 4 raspberries.
Take one of the edge flaps and fold it toward the center, looping over the raspberry. Repeat with the other flaps. Place a raspberry in the center, on top of where all the flaps overlap.
Repeat with the remaining pastry squares.
Bake for 15–20 minutes until pastry is golden brown and puffed.
Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar!
Blueberry Pastry Pinwheel
Makes 9 pastries

 

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INGREDIENTS
1 sheet thawed puff pastry
36 blueberries
9 Tbsp. cream cheese filling, recipe above
Powdered sugar

PREPARATION
Preheat oven to 400°F.
Cut the puff pastry into 9 equal squares.
Make 4 cuts on each square, with each cut starting from the outside corners of the square and stopping just short of the center.
Take one of the flaps and fold it toward the center. Fold every other flap toward the center until you have created a pinwheel shape.
Place about a tablespoon of the cream cheese filling in the middle, then place 4 blueberries on top.
Repeat with the remaining pastry squares.
Bake for 15–20 minutes until pastry is golden brown and puffed.
Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar!

Against Self-Criticism: Adam Phillips on How Our Internal Critics Enslave Us, the Stockholm Syndrome of the Superego, and the Power of Multiple Interpretations – Brain Pickings

“In broaching the possibility of being, in some way, against self-criticism, we have to imagine a world in which celebration is less suspect than criticism.”

Source: Against Self-Criticism: Adam Phillips on How Our Internal Critics Enslave Us, the Stockholm Syndrome of the Superego, and the Power of Multiple Interpretations – Brain Pickings

Here’s the hourly wage you’d need to afford a 2-bedroom rental in every state in 2016. | So That Happened | Someecards

The National Low Income Housing Coalition has released their yearly findings on what hourly wage an American needs to make in order to rent a two-bedroom unit in each state based off a forty hour work

Source: Here’s the hourly wage you’d need to afford a 2-bedroom rental in every state in 2016. | So That Happened | Someecards

Daily Words of the Buddha for May 31, 2016

lorikeet
Saddhīdha vittaṃ purisassa seṭṭhaṃ
Dhammo suciṇṇo sukhamāvahāti.
Saccaṃ have sādutaraṃ rasānaṃ.
Paññājīviṃ jīvitamāhu seṭṭhaṃ.

Conviction is a person’s highest wealth.
Dhamma, when well-practiced, brings bliss.
Truth is the highest of tastes.
Living with discernment, one’s life is called best.

Sutta Nipāta 1.184

Translated from the Pali by Thanissaro Bhikkhu

Tarot Contemplation – Page of Wands

tarot_PageWands

Summer is here and you are finding yourself easily distracted.  Try to remain focused in the moment, in spite of the warming temperatures outside.  A younger light-haired woman might cross your path who will inspire you to do more today with her warmth and high energy ambition; she’s your Muse.  Projects begun days ago are now coming to fruition.  Job applications you’ve previously dispatched can yield job offers extended to you now.  Anticipate messages of love and affection from your partner … or, if you’re dating, meeting someone who appears to have much in common with you and is equally adventurous.  Pursue the inspiration to be creative in your works today … dream, play, be inventive.  Your previous efforts to pay it forward seeded good karma that’s coming your way.  As your finances are looking healthier by the day, you would benefit from efforts focused on long-range financial goals.  As for your health, make the effort to do more for your body by eating better and smarter.  Carpe diem!

Tarot Contemplation – Ace of Pentacles

acepent

On your Fool’s journey, you are turning a corner that leads you into a new direction paved with fortune, wealth, vibrant health and prosperity.  You might be a recipient of a money gift or an inheritance … and even if it isn’t money per se, money feels like its more readily available for you.  You are better able to tackle your bills and even pay off a debt or two entirely.  These accomplishments are leaving you feeling optimistic, upbeat and looking forward to the future.  Yesterday’s doldrums are definitely elevated today, including any situation involving your love relationships.  Re-connection is in the air.  If you’re dating, be prepared to encounter someone promising on your horizon.  A new healthcare approach is timely, especially if it’s preventative healthcare measures you are implementing for yourself.  You are also encouraged to explore other horizons of spirituality … try attending a different service to give you perspective.  Insight into what others do and their reasons for doing things is informative.

Home Remedies for Premature Graying of Hair – Healthy Food House

One of the most common issues of adults at the age between 20 and 30 is premature aging of their hair, which is often a result of stress, sinusitis, genetic predisposition, poor nutrition, hormonal fluctuations, thyroid disorders, and chronic colds. The color of the hair is due to melanin, and in the case of its …

Source: Home Remedies for Premature Graying of Hair – Healthy Food House

Boldly Engaging The Ongoing Adventure — Love Has Won

By Zen Gardner, 05/28/2016

Very new times are upon us. The shift continues to shift in new and amazing ways, challenging even new found paradigms almost as quickly as we arrive at considering them.If things aren’t morphing that quickly for you perhaps you’re not paying attention. Because there’s a good chance they are and you’re just not noticing.

Little things and big things are taking on new shapes and forms. It may appear subtle at first until you tune in, but timeline splits and glitches in the matrix are real, as is this powerful background of vibrational change. We’re beginning to notice things we either were too preoccupied to take note of, took for granted, or were too naive to pay attention to.  But now they are increasingly hard to miss.

What to Look Out For

One of the biggest manifestations I’m currently experiencing is meeting new people and seeing an openness I’ve never seen before, almost as if people have awakened out of a dream or some sort of suspended animation but didn’t know they were “on hold” for an indefinite period of time.This has been profoundly so in my recent and current travels, and has been corroborated by trusted awake and active colleagues of mine.

It’s quite thrilling. The awakening we’ve sensed for so long is manifesting so rapidly now anyone can see it –– if they’re looking. Just as profound if not more so is personal experiences I and others I’m in close touch with are experiencing. I’ve written on these types of phenomena for years but they’re not just accelerating in frequency now, but taking on new, intriguing nuances.  That to me is the most confirming aspect of these types of new experiences. They’re out of my old interpretation and experiential paradigm, as awake and aware as I thought I may have been. It’s totally new. It my seem similar in many respects but it’s as if I’ve never noticed these types of things before. It’s very similar to the Mandela Effect and other slippages, be they timeline and parallel world phenomena or aspects of perception.To me these attributes validate what I’m experiencing as potential “Doors of Perception“, as Aldous Huxley wrote about, however misleading or covert his intentions may have eventually been.It’s simply a great metaphor.

With Parallel Awakenings Come Parallel Challenges

The hyperbolic step up of technology is not necessarily an organic outgrowth of the human experience. It’s being used as a co-vibrational suppression technique by external influences while appearing to be empowering. We can always use anything to our advantage, but what’s being unleashed on humanity is a very severe, parasitic attack on our conscious awareness and has aspects that are disturbingly insidious, including implanted technology in all of us of varying types and the manipulation of our electromagnetic and plasma fields. When you add the other vectors assaulting our DNA and overall natural state their overall methodology clearly states their intent – not just the subjugation of humanity, but the altering of its very nature into something completely controllable.  No matter what is foisted upon us, we have to rise to the occasion, as any alive being of any sort would and should.

It may be unexplored territory learning about these influences we’re becoming more aware of all the time, but that’s what pioneers and world changers do, which potentially includes all of us.  And we’re each up to it.That we’re concurrently becoming aware of other potential, parallel worlds of existence right within our own is extremely empowering and should propel us into a state of higher consciousness and awareness which in turn will lead us into new and more profound solutions to the dilemma we’re faced, one that can appear to have no restraints upon it and does not portend well for our planet. Therein is the key. Understanding that our perception cannot and need not be what they are projecting and reinforcing. There is a better way – in fact, many of them! They only await our discovery and realization.

Where To Now?

Good question. That’s up to each of us, isn’t it. How we respond to these new types of changes is a very personal decision, but ultimately a very simple one. Do we say “yes” and keep progressing and investigating new avenues of thought and behavior and methods of being as well as expression as new input and realizations come along?  Or, do we dig in our heels and say enough is enough and it’s getting way to weird for me out here and it’s no use.“Besides, it defies everything I’ve come to learn and throws my life into a tailspin!” Good!  I’ll take “weird with meaning” any day. We need new tools, new understandings, and new spiritual methodologies desperately, to not just exist here, but defy this parasitic invasion of our species and planet.

With Parallel Awakenings Come Parallel Challenges

Old methods simply won’t work and obviously never have. Attempting to confine us to their playing field has been the smartest ploy they ever had – and ultimately the only one. We have to let loose to realize that at its true nature human …

Source: Boldly Engaging The Ongoing Adventure — Love Has Won

Tarot Contemplation – The Chariot

Hawaiian_Tarot_Chariot_7

You’ve made good use of the Page of Pentacles’ energies and mapped out a game plan direction to accomplish the goals your heart knows will ensure further happiness.  The energies of the Chariot are supporting your best-shot efforts and are focused on the achievement of your ambitions and goals.  Do not allow others who are inadvertently thwarting you to get under your skin.  The shortest way to deal with your angst is to remain focused straight ahead and silently through it.  If you and your actions are right (and right now, you’ve been more on than off), then others will soon perceive a view akin to yours and the annoyance imposed by a few will dissipate.  If you’re dating, you’re being tempted to go full steam ahead, which might be acting too hasty under the circumstances.  Slow your roll!

* JUPITER in VIR square SATURN retro in SAG, Vol III (exact on May 26): Crisis and Perspective | Melanie’s Astro~News

A very significant alignment in this FULL MOON to NEW MOON phase is the 3rd of 3 Squares between JUPITER and SATURN. # 1 was on Aug 3, 2015 (with JUPITER still in LEO, and while SATURN – still in S…

Source: * JUPITER in VIR square SATURN retro in SAG, Vol III (exact on May 26): Crisis and Perspective | Melanie’s Astro~News

Blend Turmeric + Ginger with Coconut Milk. Drink Before Bed to Flush Liver Toxins While You Sleep – Healthy Food House

You may have heard about golden milk before, but have no idea what it consists of, nor you are aware of its innumerate health benefits. Namely, it is a mixture of beneficial herbs with coconut milk, warmed to form a tasty and nutritious beverage that can be consumed throughout the day, but most commonly, in …

Source: Blend Turmeric + Ginger with Coconut Milk. Drink Before Bed to Flush Liver Toxins While You Sleep – Healthy Food House

Tarot Contemplation – Page of Pentacles

tarot_page-pent

Are you contemplating work around the house you’ve been putting off, but now that you’re home for a long weekend you’re thinking now is the time?  Allow the supportive energy of the Page of Pentacles to be the current that carries you through even the most mundane tasks on an upbeat note.  Don’t languish in a feeling of boredom to the point where you feel like you need to shake things, or people, up just for kicks because such actions might end up with you falling on your face.  As for those tasks you’ve been putting off?  Get ‘er done and get it out of your way, finally.  You now have the time.  If you are feeling blase’ in your relationships, do something positive about it, like communicate to that other, in a loving way.  Change means being honest about the situation and dealing with it, rather than ignoring there is a problem.  Remember, your hard work is always rewarded as you’ve seen in days past, and today is no exception.  However, this isn’t a good day for gambling or taking risks.  Transmute that bored feeling.  How? Methodology is key to pursuing what excites you most.  Create your own energy and enthusiasm and find someone who is the most upbeat and spiritually aware and ask what makes him/her tick.  You will learn some helpful tips.