strawberry tartlets (the dud) and my little dove

I was so excited when I went to the swap shop at our dump on Saturday - I found these dear little tart pans tied up with green twine, and a pretty saucer.  You had a feeling the person who lovingly dropped them off had cherished them.  But, we all are decluttering, and I would imagine tart pans might be one of those unused kitchen things that go reluctantly into the Swap Shop box for the dump.

Sunday night I made a nut crust from a Martha Stewart book, but halved it, as I only wanted a few.  Stuck it in the fridge, and yesterday prepared the tartlet pans.  Into the oven, let cool, and....disaster.  They would not unmold.  I took a tiny sharp knife to the edges and they shattered into buttery crumbs.  I had one out of nine that remained more or less whole.  Mostly less.

Today I tried again, with the last half of the dough, but this time I greased every ridge carefully, and did the bottom twice.  Chilled, then baked and....again.  Disaster.  Again, one survived.  All I can think is that somehow in making half a recipe, I made a mistake, because Martha's recipes are usually pretty foolproof.

This dessert was based on one I used to make with cream puffs.  I used the cranberry and dark cherry jelly I made a few weeks ago to glaze the berries, heating just until the jelly melted, then using a teaspoon to drizzle on the fresh strawberries. With the cream puffs, I dolloped whipped cream on top, but this dessert was to be a little plainer, because of the rich nut crust.  The surviving tarts were delicious, but clearly something went wrong when you lose 80% of your desserts.

In the meantime, Spring has sprung !  I have a sweet little mourning dove pair that hang around, sometimes both, but often just one.  The daffodils have wilted in the hot (HOT!) afternoons, but the violets are sprinkling the lawn with their beautiful color.  Hard to believe two weeks ago I was still filling the woodstove at night.  Enjoy these beautiful days!

a walk in the woods and a dud

Happy Saturday! My server is being difficult, so I'll make this short. I had hoped to have a glorious recipe for ginger scones, but they were dense and too heavy for me, even though I'd made my own homemade crystallized ginger chunks (yes!) and my mouth was watering at the thought of those scones. So be it, there are duds, sometimes, in this universe, and you learn to just look at the dud and carry on.

So I went for a walk instead. The day was beautiful and a very unlike-October warm. I visited these enormous cliffs of granite, which must be two or three stories tall, and a glorious place to walk. Our dog Lulu used to whizz off to snuffle around these boulders, once, coming back with a nose full of porcupine quills. Of course, she never learned to avoid those porcupine dens; the thrill of the hunt was just too much for her. And the vet bills? Astonishing.

Hope your weekend is beautiful, and sorry I couldn't fit in some more lovely woodland pictures - the uploading is now taking more than a half hour per photo . Enjoy your weekend!

strawberry scone dud & the pleasure of ferns

My humble greetings to all! It has been an exasperating day, when once again I wasted those beautiful local strawberries on a scone recipe that refused to work. After thinking it over, I believe the moisture of those local berries skewed the recipes - leaving me with strawberry cookies that were quite stuck to the cookie sheet. Ah, well, so it goes sometimes. And with that thought, I took a lovely cool walk on a very hot day among the trees and ferns. I hope your day has been cheerful and comfortable!

recipe fail: goat cheese tart

It happens once in a while : you try out what sounds like a great recipe that just doesn't work. In this case, it was a recipe from The Modern Baker, which has blessed me with many, many great recipes. I should have listened to the bell clanging in my head when the tart crust dough called for baking powder. I should have, but didn't. And the result was an olive oil dough that was just too thick and fluffy for the delicate goat cheese and fresh basil. I ended up eating only the filling.

So, I will try again, this time seeding the tiny tomatoes, and sauteeing them to sweeten them a bit, as well as tossing them with both basil and oregano - just the basil made for a very underwhelming custard.

And next time I'll use either the olive oil crust I've used before, or Julia or Martha's recipes for tart crusts. Live and learn!

~

You may also enjoy Tomato Pie with sweet potatoes on the side or

Spinach Quiche with onion jam

oeufs a la neige - the dud

We all know we cooks are prone to peculiar fits of passion, often going to remarkable lengths to either procure ingredients or experiment with a new recipe. Today was such a day.
It started so innocently. I picked up the September Gourmet and browsed through it, delighting in what looked like a return to the old Gourmet, which had “real” recipes and gorgeous photographs of Paris. Parisian food, I should say. I fixated on this recipe “Ginger-Cardamom Oeufs A La Neige” - or, in American cooking terms, Floating Island. I got the cardamom - pods and ground, since I couldn’t remember which was called for - and set aside a few hours today to make the recipe.

I whipped the egg whites and heated up the milk with the spices. Using an ice cream scoop, I placed the egg whites carefully in the hot milk for four minutes, turning once. The egg whites inflated quite suddenly, but I nudged them over, losing only one, which crumbled to bits. I took the skimmer and gingerly set them on a baking sheet.

I was halfway through beating the yolks into the hot milk to make the custard when I turned around and saw the puffs of meringue had shrunk to a strange gelatinous disc (see middle photo showing 1st and 2nd attempts)). I tasted it, and it had the texture of a very slippery, sweetened, poached egg. Struggling on with the custard, my eyes bugged as I saw the custard turning to a grainy, cornmeal-textured and colored sauce. I bravely plated it up and took a picture, swearing the whole time at the idiots who came up with this recipe ( see bottom picture).

About to flame out of the kitchen and take a walk, I felt that stubborn, ornery streak we all get at this point, and pulled out my cookbooks until I found "Oeufs" in a very old edition of Joy of Cooking. I washed the pots and started again. This time, the meringue stayed inflated, and I dollied up the custard sauce with pepper, lemon zest, and a crushed cardamom pod. I looked at the dish plated (top photo), tasted it, and wondered why anyone would want to go through this trouble for such a mundane dish - but email me if you'd like to try.

And now, I think I'll go smash a plate.