The freedom and creative opportunities of freelancing are, oftentimes, sadly offset by the downside of trying to collect money you're owed. The Freelancers Union has created a site where we can all commiserate over this ridiculous practice of overdue invoices. On the World's Longest Invoice, freelancers across the globe are invited to input payments that they're owed - adding to a stomach-churning sum on the website.
On Saturday evening, a stylish community of St. Louis young professionals gathered at The BHive in the Central West End to toast the appointment of Eric Johnson as director of the Funds signature project, the Saint Louis Fashion Incubator. Saturday Evening Social was the first of a series of events hosted by Dawn Sturmon and Courtney Tharpe to bring together Friends of the Fund in a casual cocktail setting.
Photos by Suzy Gorman.
Stephanie Oliver, Deb Bass, Bernie Lee, Laura Kathleen Baker, Elizabeth Tucker
Zach Gzehoviak, Chris Holt
Lindsay Pattan, Kia Springer, Jessie Miller, Stephanie Oliver, Laura Kathleen Baker
Kate Pollmann, Retta Leritz
Dawn Sturmon, Eric Johnson, Courtney Tharpe
Kia Springer, Natalie Benjamin
Andy & Pam Schlicter, Liam Springer
Tania Beasley-Jolly, Shereen Fischer, Anna Spector
Todd & Jeni Deibel, Tanya Coventry-Strader, Annie Castellano, Dawn Sturmon
Kasper Lorene, Jill Firns
Eric Johnson, Anna Spector
Robby Baker, Sarah Stallmann
Powell & Danielle Kalish, Joanna Wolff
Show that special someone how much you love them with a super cute sweetheart mini cherry pie! These individual sized mini cherry pies are perfect for celebrating Pie Day, Valentine's Day or anytime you just feel like a cherry pie.
You know how they say, "easy as pie?" If you used canned cherry pie filling and frozen pie crust it really IS easy. So feel free to let the kids help make these tiny little pies.
I used to think it was cheating to buy a pie crust. My mom makes the best homemade pie crust ever, but her recipe is kinda hard to follow. It's goes like this: 2 globs of shortening, a couple scoops of flour, a dash of salt and 6 spoons of ice water. Its like she's a Pie Jedi, just feeling the dough flow through her. I spent most of my adult life trying to copy her style. Sometimes I nail it, other times I get a crumbly mess.
When I got an offer to talk about the ease of prepared pie crust on Show Me St. Louis for a sponsor (more on that later) I was a little nervous. I'd never used frozen crust before! So I decided that in honor of Pie Day I'd educate myself on prepared pie doughs and see which one can truly masquerade as homemade.
In my search I found a box of Betty Crocker pie crust, hanging out by the cake batters and corn muffins. Betty Crocker is NOT sponsoring this post, I'm just sharing because dang it…this stuff tastes like my mom's pie crust and gave me no trouble at all. You just add water, stir it up and roll it out. Now that I think about it…Mom's cookbook is a Betty Crocker–so maybe that's why the crust was so perfect.
Preheat your oven to 350.
Thaw out your frozen dough or mix up the box dough. Or heck, if you're a Pie Jedi like my mom, just whip up a batch.
Find a bowl or small butter dish lid about 4 inches wide. I used my 64oz travel mug, which is 4.5 inches wide. Use the lid, mug or dish to cut 12 circles in your dough.
Spray the muffin tin with Pam or something similar. If you forget, you pie might be just a tiny bit harder to pry out–or not. We forgot to grease the tin on our first batch and they all came out more or less in one piece.
Press the circles into the muffin tin very carefully.
Divide a can of cherry pie filling evenly between all 12. You'll use a little less than a quarter cup in each.
Take the left over scraps of dough, form back into a ball and roll out again. Use a tooth pick or knife to carve heart shapes in the dough. Place hearts on the pie filling.
Beat the egg with a fork in a little bowl. Use a pastry brush to spread a thin coat of egg on the exposed crust. If you don't have a pastry knife you can dab it on with your fingers (I did). The egg will make your crust turn golden brown.
Pop it in the hot oven for 25 minutes
Since I was doing pie research, I decided to buy a can of every cherry pie filling I could find at Walmart and Dierbergs. (For you out of town readers, Dierbergs is a family owned St. Louis grocery store chain. Not the most expensive store in town, but very nice. Realllly nice. They bag your groceries for you nice. I couldn't afford to shop here when we were newly wed. Heck, I still don't make a habit of doing whole grocery runs here… Anyway, what was I talking about? Oh, pie filling!
I'll do a full post on this later, but I bought 7 cans of cherries (and a bag of frozen) to experiment with for this recipe. We did a taste test, and I can say with clear conscious: DON'T BUY CHEAP CHERRY PIE FILLING. The two cans of cheap, house brand filling had more goo and fewer cherries. One even had a bit of a metallic twang. The best filling we tasted was Lucky Leaf Premium, which I found at Dierbergs. Next was Duncan Hines found at Walmart.
This recipe was inspired by Mini Pies in a Cupcake Tin, found at Tablespoons.
The post Sweetheart Mini Cherry Pies appeared first on StLMotherhood.
Now that Thanksgiving is over, I feel like I can officially welcome the Christmas spirit and all that holiday joy, happiness and…quite frankly madness…that comes along for the ride during this most festive time of year! The tree is up, there’s a chill in the air and I’ve even started my shopping…let the Christmas fun begin!
What mom’s like us really need this time of year is a game plan, a holiday bucket list, if you will. St. Louis is full of so many great things to do with the kiddos,you don’t want to miss any of it!
1) See a great light display! We’ve got NINE really good public displays in St. Louis, from the Anheuser-Busch Brewery Holiday Lights to the O’Fallon light show in Fort Zumwalt Park. Some of these are even free!
2) Take a good holiday photo of both my boys…together! I gave up on Santa pictures with both kids once Ryan got taller than Santa…the last decent photo of them together at Christmas is from 2010. (I have plenty of candids, but nothing posed.) I wonder how much you have to bribe a teenager to stand NEAR Santa?
3) Visit Santa! Ryan might be off the hook for a Santa photo, but Mitch is still little enough to at least pretend to still believe. Last year we got a picture at the Museum of Transportation and this year we saw Santa while riding the Polar Express at Union Station. There’s ONE I can check off!
4) Send out Christmas Cards! And not just the ones I sign for my hubbie’s clients.
5) Make some ornaments! Mitch and I have had a lot of fun making Minecraft ornaments. I think we’re going to make some painted ones this year!
6) Bake Christmas Cookies! Every year our Cub Scout troop has a cookie baking contest–and mom is not allowed to help! But I’m also doing a big Cookie Exchange this year, so we’ll need lots of cookies! I’ll have to bake way more than I need if I have Mitch helping me…and eating them fresh off the tray.
7) Donate to Toys for Tots! Donating to Toys for Tots is always fun, since you can usually find a nice bunch of handsome Marines at radio station sponsored toy drives this time of year. BUT this year we can donated our toys to a Marine AND a Clydesdale! Yep, Grant’s Farm is opening their stable on Dec. 12 for a toy drive. Be there!
The post Christmas Bucket List appeared first on StLMotherhood.
