Recipe: Tarte au Sucre / Sugar Pie

Sylvie at Amuses Bouche has given me permission to translate one of her post and use her photos as well. The recipe is for a Tarte au Sucre or Sugar Pie in English. Doesn’t that just sound yummy? And the photos are very appetizing.When I saw this post a few weeks ago, I thought to myself: “I HAVE to try this”. I wasn’t disappointed, and I know you won’t be either.

The recipe calls for a bread machine and I would strongly recommend using it. In fact, I would probably not attempt it if you don’t have one unless you’re comfortable enough.

I am not a cook, but I love to bake. This recipe takes a little patience, but it’s easy.

Ingredients:

For the dough 1 ¾ cup Flour 2 Eggs 1/3 cup Milk 2 tsp (1 pack) Yeast 5 ¾ tbsp Butter ½ tsp Salt

For the topping 1 Egg 2 oz Heavy cream 2/3 cup Brown sugar 2 ¾ tbsp Butter

Instructions:

In her instructions, Sylvie tells us to dilute the fresh yeast with a little bit of milk. I did not have fresh yeast, and simply used the granulated kind. You can do that as well.

Pour all the dough ingredients in the bread machine, put it on the dough cycle and wait…

Put the dough on a lightly floured surface. Put a little flour on your hands and work the dough to get rid of the air bubbles. Place the dough in a 9.5 in. pie dish and let it rise for one hour.

Once risen, poke holes in the dough with your finger. Beat the egg and heavy cream and pour into the pie. Sprinkle with the brown sugar and the butter cut up in little cubes.

Put in the oven at 380 degrees for 25 to 30 minutes.

The Sugar Pie is great with an afternoon tea once it cooled but still warm or for breakfast (prepare the day before as it takes a little bit)

Big thank you to Sylvie and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you see a recipe you like on Sylvie’s blog and would like me to translate it for you, leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

All photos from Sylvie at Amuse Bouche

“Attention customers of the Orange Line…

…we are experiencing delays due to a signal problem”

Go ahead and ask me where this comes from.

…

Alright, I’ll assume you asked.

This is the announcement I hear almost every night on my way back home from work while waiting for the train and then again while on the train.

I know I wrote that I liked the public transportation in Boston and I do, but this is ridiculous.

The Orange Line goes from Forest Hill in Roslindale to Oak Grove in Malden. I have been living in the Boston area for 7 years and have been taking that line for 5 or so years. Ever since I can remember I’ve been hearing that “signal problem” announcement.
My husband tells me that this “signal problem” has been happening since he can remember.

What’s the problem exactly? I’m not sure to be honest. Something about signals at Wellington station. Which is the depot station, where trains go to sleep at night.

I found the July 2007 status report that states that “the MBTA has determined that power upgrades are required at the power substations at Sullivan Square, Wellington, Malden and Oak Grove. Track improvements (e.g., Mainline turnout replacement at Wellington, Wellington Yard Rehabilitation, Cross Tie Renewal from Oak Grove to Community College, etc.) are also required. Signal modifications for the maintenance yard are also required.”

When will this be done? Let me re-phrase that: When will this actually get started? Don’t know…

So far, what has been completed for this project:

• Initial infrastructure survey was completed in April 2005 – so they’ve gone around and wrote down what was wrong with the line
• Assessment of infrastructure improvements necessary to accommodate the new coaches: December 1, 2006 – and then they decided what needed to be done about it

What I like about this report is how vague and not specific it is: “Based on the suggestions in the report completed in April 2005, the MBTA has determined what types of infrastructure improvements are necessary”.

All in all, I think we made progress, didn’t we? I still have no idea what that whole “signal problem” is or when it will be finally fixed. Yippi. All I know is that it makes my commute a pain, especially at rush hour, when me and another 1,000 try to get on the train and it’s 90 degrees in that station with a 98% humidity rate, everyone is cranky and just wants to get home.

This will lead to another post in the next few days about commuting etiquette and what I think are the “do’s”, “dont’s” and “really dont’s” on public transportation. So stick around…

Photo from mbta.com

How to Save Big on Your Mortgage… by David Bach – Revisited by Me

Last week, David Bach (the author of the Automatic Millionaire) wrote an article for Yahoo! Finance titled “How to Save Big on Your Mortgage” and one of his tips is “Going Biweekly”.

Mr. Bach writes:

“When you set up a biweekly mortgage payment plan, instead of making your monthly mortgage payment the way you normally do you split it down the middle and pay half every two weeks.

The result is that you end up making one extra full payment every year. (Twenty-six half payments is the equivalent of 13 full payments.) The best part is that the extra payment is made gradually over the course of the year, so you don’t feel the pinch. And since most people are paid every two weeks, a biweekly payment plan turns out to be a phenomenal budgeting tool.

Anyone can do this. You don’t need a special mortgage, and you can set it up anytime.

Pay More, Save More”

White I completely agree with this theory, the practice gets a little more complicated.

You see, if you’re like me, you get paid twice a month – I said “if you’re like me”. I realize that a lot of people are paid bi-weekly, in which case Mr. Bach’s advice works just fine.

My paychecks come in around the 1st and 15th of every month. A few weeks ago, I had every intention of going bi-weekly on our mortgage until I realized that I wouldn’t be able to.

Assuming you make your payment every other Monday, the bi-weekly scheduled would have made us send in 3 half payments this July. Our mortgage payment comes in at $1,730. Making that extra half payment this month would mean somehow coming up with $865. It’s a big strain and needless to say that it just won’t fit in our budget.

The remedy? Instead of making a 3rd payment twice a year, make it easier to carry by evenly spreading the extra payment.

1. Figure out how many half payments I would actually make:
   The common belief is that by making bi-weekly payments, you would end up with 26 half payments (52 week / 2 = 26). Truth is, you would make 28. Yes, I was surprised too. But open your 2007 calendar and count the number of every other Mondays, you’ll get 28. Weird, isn’t it? I don’t have an explanation either.But since the last Monday of the year is on December 31st, we won’t count it. And the first Monday of the year is January 1st, we won’t count it either. (Ok, Ok, I know, I’m cheating, but it turns out using 28 instead of 26 makes things a little more difficult to fit into the budget).If your budget allows for it, I would definitely go with 28 however.
   Edit: There are NOT 28 every other Mondays!! I don’t know what I had smoked when I figured that out.  There are, indeed, 26… Sorry about that silly mistake
   
2. Figure out the total payment made throughout the year if making bi-weekly payments:
   26 * $865 (I’m rounding) = $ 22,490
3. In order to keep making monthly payments, divide total by 12:
   $ 24,220 / 12 = $ 1,874.67

$ 1,875 (rounded) becomes our new monthly payments or $937.50 twice a month.

In the end, I’ve saved over $80k in interest and stripped off 5 years off of the loan period. Not bad.

Today in the Boston Globe: “French urged to ‘roll up your sleeves’”

I have a little secret! I’m hoping that this will not make my already very low traffic go even lower: I am from France… And I’ll let you take a moment to curse the living hell out of me…

…

ok, let’s keep going, shall we?

I found this article written by Elaine Sciolino of the New York Times in today’s Boston Globe to be interesting: French urged to ‘roll up your sleeves’.

Kay Bell at Don’t Mess with Taxes (Taxes, Texas, got it? ) actually wrote a piece on this today: Lower taxes for less thought. In her closing, Kay suggests that “[i]f this political trend continues, France is on the fast track to becoming America’s new best friend”. Well Kay, I don’t know about that, but who knows? Sarkozy is the little US lover after all.

In her article, Sciolino writes: “she [Christine Lagarde, France's finance minister] said the French should work harder, earn more, and be rewarded with lower taxes if they get rich”. I’m very offended by this quote. Not so much the work hard part, but does she mean that if you don’t get rich, you’ll be stuck paying high taxes while the guy who got that great job that pays a gazillion a year will pay none? Does she mean that people who work at job that pay little do not work hard?

I’m sure the guy down at the coal mine, or the janitor at my old high school, or the guy who raises cows at the village where I come from would agree with that.

I don’t disagree that some of my fellow Frenchmen do complain a lot and expect aids to fall on their lap just because. They will go in the streets and demonstrate at the tiniest hint that their precious benefits might be threaten, or simply to ask for more money and vacation days. (After all, demonstration by civil servants has been a right in France since 1946). But to say that you should pay more taxes if you earn more is just plain ridiculous.

Sarkozy (the new French President) says: “I am not an ideologue. Oh, I am not an intellectual! I am someone concrete!”. Ok, so I get that and I get his “work more to earn more” way of thinking. We are a country of thinkers and philosopher and debaters. We should get moving and doing instead. Sure. I agree. But guess where this is going to get us?

People will get pissed off being called lazy and start thinking and philosophizing and arguing and debating. Well, that would get us far, now, didn’t it?

Investing in Harry Potter?

I’m a big fan of Harry Potter. Not the biggest a long shot, but I enjoy the movies. The movies?… and then it hit me. Harry Potter is originally a series of books.

So I went on eBay.com and searched for Harry Potter under the Collectible section. Some books go for $200.00 (in this case it’s a 1999 autographed edition of “The Chamber of Secrets”).

If I got the 7-book hardcover set when it comes out, it might fetch quite a bit in a few years. Considering that even if it is not worth much than what I paid for in the first place, I will read and get some use out of them anyway, it might not be such a bad idea.

What do you think? Investing in Harry Potter? Does it make sense?

Just a thought…

Popular Advice You Shouldn’t Take…? Yours are not so much better Mr. Clements

I read this article on Yahoo! Finance’s Personal Finance section by Jonathan Clement: Popular Advice You Shouldn’t Take.

The article starts “If you’re in your 20s,… “, so I thought “Great! A nice little article just for me”. Well Mr. Clement, I don’t know where you’re coming up with those “great tips”, but I think that next time you have the urge to share. Don’t!

What have I learned from it? Let’s see:

1. “If you are just out of school, you probably have all kinds of financial ambitions, including buying a car, purchasing a home and trying your hand at stock-market investing. But according to some financial experts, your top financial priority should be amassing an emergency reserve equal to six months of living expenses, with this cash tucked away in conservative investments like money-market funds and certificates of deposit.”
   So you’re saying that I should not build an emergency fund but instead buy a bunch of stocks and a nice (brand new maybe?) car that will depreciate faster then I can type it – I had a hard time typing that word for some reasons, and
   Avoid low risks investments
2. “If you get hit with a financial emergency, tap the money in your regular taxable account first. But you could also borrow from your 401(k).”
   I can borrow from my 401(k) if I need it… No, really, it’s no biggy
3. “Once you have bought the house, set up a home-equity line of credit, which you can then use as an emergency reserve.”
   Once I’ve bought a big fat house I can’t afford in the first place, I should take out a line of credit on it.

And that was only from the very first bullet point… I wonder what else he has in store for me

1. “That brings me to another piece of conventional wisdom that’s often doled out to folks in their 20s: Buy the biggest house possible.
   I have some sympathy with this suggestion. If you are early in your career and you expect sizable pay increases in the years ahead, you may want to stretch to buy a somewhat larger house.”
   Ok, I know he’s saying not to do this, but exactly how could we have afforded that big house anyway? He’s completely missing the point. You should not buy a big house because you should not qualify for a loan to buy the big house in the first place. If foreclosure is what you’re looking for, go right ahead with one of those liar loans.
2. “Rather, when buying that first home, you should strive to purchase a place that’s the right size for you and your family — and that you can see living in for a good long time.”
   Can I say “duh”??
3. “And if you are married with young kids, you no doubt need a heap of coverage. The cheapest way to get that coverage is with term life insurance, which offers a death benefit and nothing more.”
   Alright, I have to say that I agree with that one
4. “Instead, start by building a well-diversified portfolio that includes both growth and value stocks, as well as offering exposure to the broad U.S. market and to foreign markets. If you later want to add a tilt toward value stocks, be my guest.”
   Finally someone has knocked some sense into him. Although diversification is not everything (I believe you can be very successful trading stocks without diversifying, but you would have to be a little more of an active trader) it is a good rule to follow.

All of this to say that following what those personal finance “experts” are writing is not always a great idea. Use your heads and think. Sometimes, common sense is the best rule to follow.

Those Crazy MA Drivers

I never realized how lucky I was to take public transportation to work until this week.

I live in Wakefield, MA and work in Cambridge, MA. I could drive, but I can also take the T, as we call it around here. Read “subway”. It takes me a little longer, but I can read the Metro or the BostonNOW, whichever one gets into my hand first. I can do the Sudoku puzzle and read my horoscope, listen to my iPod or just read a book. It is much less of a hassle. And that’s not even talking about the prohibitive prices or garage parking in Boston/Cambridge.

A few weeks ago, I learn that I will have to go to Burlington, MA for some training for a week. Burlington is about 13 miles from where I live and my first reaction was to look up the MBTA website and figure out how to get there by bus or commuter rail. That’s when I found out what seemed to be a rather harmless trip would actually take 2 hours (2 hours to go 13 miles!!!). I quickly re-though the public transportation idea. (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority – for those not familiar).

My alternative, off course, was to drive. Alright, I can do that…. I thought.

Where do I begin? I knew Massachusetts drivers where not right, but COME ON!! This is insane. For those of you who know, I have to take 93 North onto 95 South, onto route 3 North. It is not a long trip, but certainly not a pleasant one either. First of all, I have learned that it does not matter at what time I leave my house, the highway will always be packed. Always!

On Monday, I though I’d leave a little bit earlier since I had never been there before. So I was on the road at 7:45 am and was on my home around 4:30 pm. Packed!

On Tuesday, I figured I knew my way there and could leave a little later: 8:10 am, and left around 5 pm. Same thing!

Today I left there at 3:30 pm. What are people doing on the roads at 3:30 pm??? Shouldn’t they be at work? One of my theories is that they know what time I’m on the road. They pass on the word so they can be there when I am. Seriously, I can’t think of anything else.

My second pet peeve is the driving on the break-down lane! Why do people think they can do that?? Quite frankly I don’t care that your exit is 1/2 mile away, or even 1/4 mile for that matter. There is a reason the right-most lane is going slower than the other 3. Everybody else is waiting to get out as well. Did you get an “I’m special” card that lets you do that? NO! And where on earth is the police when this happens? “Fighting crime” you say? Well if that isn’t one, I don’t know what is. It is dangerous, reckless and needless to say completely inconsiderate to us, poor schmucks waiting in line to get out of that damn highway.

What should I say about cutting off? I love it when an idiot squeezes his way between me and the guy in front, when there is barely 15 feet between us and we are going 50 mph. I love that feeling I get when my heart jumps into my chest because I’m close enough to his rear bumper that I can count the hair on his head (if he has any!).

Robert Rittmuller summed it up pretty well with his 5 Crazy MA Drivers, Which one are you? post a few months ago.

I have one more day to go… Wish me luck!

Photo credit: dahveed76 at Flickr.com