Mystery at the Door

This morning, just before I was heading out to do a few errands, my husband saw someone pull up in front of the house, run up the steps and leave something at the door. He disappeared back into his car before my husband could see him clearly, so instead we went to the door and found a small jar of pesto. Who could have brought me pesto? There were a few options. We decided to put it in the fridge until we figured out the identity of our mysterious benefactor.

A few hours later I got a text from a friend from culinary school, identifying himself as the bringer-of-pesto, made with basil from his garden. I had loaned him my bee suit a few weeks ago and he wanted to thank me. Little did he know, I had been eyeing a recipe that required pesto and had been wondering if I needed to buy some. Now I could make the recipe today!

The recipe was for a tomato tart that was in the New York Times over the weekend. I have been getting heirloom tomatoes from the farm share and there was this one tomato that was likely almost 2 pounds all by itself. It had been ripening on the windowsill and it was time to do something with it. Everything was coming together nicely. I made the crust and par-baked it, spread it with the pesto, mozzarella cheese, fresh basil and oregano from my garden, and then arranged the tomato slices and topped it all with an egg custard.

It was so good, even the youngerchild ate a slice. And pretty much every ingredient except the cheese is usually a no-go. 

Before adding the custard

After baking

Strawberry Tart

That looks like a strawberry, right?

Yesterday after work I made a quick tart with more of those strawberries. I made a half-recipe of pie crust and pre-baked in a tart dish for about 10 minutes. After that, I arranged about 3 cups of strawberry halves in crust, sprinkled with sugar and topped with a strawberry shaped piece of crust. The whole thing baked for about 30 minutes at 375˚F and, as soon as it came out of the oven, I brushed it with saffron syrup.

Between yesterday and today, with all the consumption of tarts and shortcake and plain strawberries, we only have one quart left!

Happy 4th of July!

Apple Picking

Today started out overcast and rainy but quickly cleared to one of the nicest fall days we've had so far. We had planned to go apple picking, isn't it nice when Mother Nature goes along with the plan? Fortunately we went early, so by the time we had all our apples, ran in the hay bale maze, fed the goats and bunnies, and ate cider doughnuts and drank cider, the place was mobbed and we were happy to leave. We picked 1/2 bushel of apples: Honey Crisp, Empire, Cortland, Jonagold, Fortune, and a couple of Macintosh and Red Delicious. We've been home 2 hours and so far we've made caramel apples (with one caramel pear for the family member who cannot eat raw apples) and I baked an apple pie.

I have not made a pie crust since college. I tried, and my crusts were always too dry and fell apart, or they would stick to the rolling pin. No matter how much flour I used, I could not get them to work properly. So I gave up long ago, until a nurse at work suggested saran wrap. He said it worked better than waxed paper (which I had also tried). Hooray! It worked! And it was so easy! (Can you tell I'm excited?)

When I was a kid, my mother made apple pies. AWESOME apple pies. And she would always take the leftover crust dough and make a little tart for us to eat for a snack - just some strawberry jam in the middle. It always made me feel special.

Thanks, Mom.

Tarts

Tonight was another school PTO bake sale. Last week I'd made chex mix which did not sell all that well. This week, I went for sweet. I bought a bunch of phyllo dough shells, the little ones, and filled them with the lemon curd, raspberry jam, and peach jam. They went fast at 2 for $1 and I will definitely be making them again!