Blueberry Crumb Pie for Pie Day

I thought I had all week, then I realized Pie Day 2012 is today!  GASP!   I had the ingredients and the fruit so I was able to pull it off, however this will be published late, oh well.

I saw some pretty amazing pies in the internet, click here to go to the Facebook page of the event, the most stunning I saw was made by Irvin of Eat the Love.  I made mine with blueberries since I had some organic ones waiting to be used, and then I got the idea of the crumb topping from Irvin.  Et voila', a pie is made.

I wanted to try a new pie dough recipe, so I consulted one of my favorite books, The Secrets of Baking by Sherry Yard, and found this delicious sounding pie crust recipe.  I made it gluten free using Jeanne's mix.

Delicious!


Blueberry Crumb Pie

For the Crust:
2 cups a/p flour, or GF mix of your choice
1 cup yellow cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp salt
8 oz cold butter, cut in 1" pieces and chilled
Zest of two lemons
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup heavy cream

Pie Crust:

Mix the yolks and the cream together, set aside.  Mix the first four ingredients, either in a food processor bowl or a mixer bowl.  Add the chilled butter pieces and the lemon zest, pulse or mix with a paddle attachment until the mixture contains only small pieces of butter.  Add the yolks and cream mixture and pulse or mix just until incorporated.  Roll half of the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap, refrigerate for an hour.  This recipe makes two pie crusts.

Filling:
4 cups blueberries
1/3 cup sugar
1 TBS corn starch
juice of one lemon

Crumb Topping
100 gr all purpose flour, or GF mix of your choice
80 gr cold butter, cut in 1/2" cubes
80 gr sugar
1/2 cup  almond meal
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Salt, a pinch
2 TBS heavy cream

In the bowl of a food processor, mix the dry ingredients together.  Add the butter and pulse until it is in small pieces.  Add the cream and pulse until the mixture turns crumbly. 

To assemble the pie:

Pre-heat the oven to 375F.  Roll half of the pie dough into a circle, line a pie dish, add the filling, then cover with the crumb topping. Bake until the crust is nicely browned and the fruit starts bubbling, about 50 minutes.  Cool slightly and serve with your favorite ice cream.

Austria-A Cleaner Reality

I am not cooking much these days, although I have few things I want to make before I leave Italy.  I have been pampered by my mom's cooking and baking in her kitchen in the heat of summer is not ideal.  I haven't stopped taking pictures though, so I leave you with some photos I snapped during a wonderful trip to Austria I took last week with few "old" friends.

What a different world Austria is, clean, orderly, organized.  I wish Italy would learn from this neighboring country.   It is not just a question of size and population density, there is pride in keeping cities clean and blooming with flowers.  The country side is absolutely stunning, with fields of corn, wheat, and soy.  Many fields are used to cut grass for the animals and they are a great source of wild flowers.

The woods are also kept clean and are blooming with Digitalis, a stunning plant.

Digitalis purpurea, how can such a beautiful plant be so deadly?

As we were walking in the woods foraging for mushrooms, we run into the biggest blanket of blueberry bushes I have ever seen.   We started eating them like crazy and then decided to bring some back to our home to cook with them, filling few water bottles.  I made a blueberry cake with a streusel topping that I didn't get to photograph since I got sick with the stomach flu.

We also drove to the Czech Republic, and visited Cesky Krumlov, a beautiful town, with one of the most beautiful castles in Europe.   

Until next time!

Tomato Bounty in Venice

Another month that I will not be able to join the Daring Bakers' challenge.  I have to say I am happy being where I am though, spending time with my family and old friends.  I apologize for the lack of posts, I will resume shortly and hopefully show you some pictures when I will be able to sort through them.

Particular of a little statuette my dad has in his house

I spoke a little about my dad before, a tough man with an avid passion for food.  In my opinion he would rank high as a chef is he had gone that route instead of working as a chemist, everything he makes tastes amazing.  He is not scared of unusual ingredients and because of his experience with WWII and his mom's upbringing he cooks a lot of so called "cucina povera", simple cuisine based on humble ingredients.  

My dad's other passion is gardening, especially when it comes to growing ingredients for the kitchen.  His "orto", or vegetable garden, gets bigger and bigger every year, slowly taking over what was my beloved grandmother's garden.  

There are lots of gold fish in this little pond

I used to spend hours gardening with my nonna Anita, mostly weeding when she was too old to plant anything new, so this space is really dear to me, even though it resembles very little the manicured garden my nonna used to tend.  

 

 

This year my dad must have planted more than 50 plants of tomatoes, which I just picked since he is away for few days.  What a treat!    

The varieties all have Italian names but one is clearly a San Marzano and another a Beefsteak.

  Ready to be turned into tomato sauce

I leave you with a picture of one of the most breathtaking sunsets I have seen in my life, taken from a terrace in Radicondoli, a stunning little Tuscan town near Siena.

Happy Summer!

Panzanella-My way

I just spent two hours picking my tomato plants clean of ripe tomatoes, cutting many of the leaves to allow for more sun to hit the remaining fruit, and harvesting lots of basil before the cold weather kills the plants. It is a warm and sunny Autumn day in the Bay Area, so I am hoping for more ripe tomatoes in the next week or so. Every year in July I tell myself that I will not plant that many tomato plants again, but then in September and October I change my mind when I get to eat the fruit of my labor.

Panzanella is a summer salad originated in Tuscany, and like many dishes of the "cucina povera" (literally poor cuisine), it is a way to use stale bread, Ribollita is another example. A little olive oil and balsamic vinegar turn this simple dish into something delicious. I don't know you, but I could eat tomatoes all summer long.

There are many versions of this dish and traditionally the bread is soaked in water before adding it to the tomatoes. I like mine with plenty of basil and a shallot vinaigrette made with balsamic vinegar, which is a little French I guess. Sometimes I add cucumber, string beans, or corn to the salad.

Panzanella

2 C bread, cut in cubes
1 T extra virgin olive oil

3 C tomatoes
1 medium shallot
1 T balsamic vinegar
1 T extra virgin olive oil
Basil, salt and pepper to taste

Sprinkle the bread cubes with 1 TBS of oil and bake at 350F until dry and lightly colored. While the bread is in the oven, mince the shallot and add it to the vinegar (this will soften the onion and impart a nice flavor to the vinegar), marinate for 30 minutes. Add the remaining oil to the vinegar, mix well, add to the tomatoes and their juices, toss with the cooled bread cubes, and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serves two.

Buon Appetito!

Baked Peaches, Zabaglione Cream, and Streusel

I love summer for many reasons, one being the variety and deliciousness of stone fruit, so it is a sad day for me when I step into my local grocery store and all I see are apples and pears (I love pears and apples, don't get me wrong, but let's face it, they can't compete with stone fruit). Today was the day I sadly realized that the summer season is over, fall is here, and I have to change my baking flavors. I luckily had some wonderful baked peaches in the fridge so I made this flavorful dessert to say goodbye to summer and welcome fall.

This dessert is a winning combination for a dinner party as all the components are made ahead of time, all you need to do is assemble them on a plate. Baking the peaches concentrate the flavor, not to mention the wonderful color that the skin imparts to the pulp. For the best result buy free stone fruits so the pit comes off easily. The fruit should be perfectly ripe for the skin to come off easily, best is to buy the fruit 2 to 3 days before you plan to serve them.

Zabaglione is traditionally made with Marsala, but I prefer to use more delicate sweet wines, like Port, Sauternes, or Passito.

Almond Streusel
8 oz finely ground almonds (pistachios will work really well too)
8 oz sugar
8 oz all purpose flour
8 oz cold butter, cut in pieces

Mix the dry ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Add the cold butter and mix until it just starts coming together. Cool for at least an hour in the refrigerator (the unbaked streusel keeps for few days). When ready to bake, pre-heat the oven to 325F. Spread the desired amount on a baking sheet lined with a silpat or parchment paper and bake for 10 minutes. When the sides start coloring, remove the pan from the oven and break any lumps with a bench scraper, mixing the streusel for even baking. Cook for another 5 minute and repeat the mixing, so no lumps form. When the streusel in nicely colored but still soft looking, remove it from the oven, repeat the breaking of the lumps one more time and cool completely. Keep in an airtight container. This is such an amazing recipe and it can be made with other nuts, and sprinkled on anything. Warning, it is addictive!

Baked Peaches

8 free stone peaches (yellow or white)

1/2 cup sweet wine (same wine use for the zabaglione)
sugar to taste

Cut the fruit in half and remove the pit. Bake at 400, cut down, covered with aluminum foil, until tender but not mushy (10-15 minutes). Let cool, remove the skin, and cover with the pan juices. Refrigerate until needed.

Zabaglione Cream

8 yolks
1/3 cup sugar
3/4 cup sweet wine (Port, Sauternes, or Passito)

1 cup heavy whipping cream, whipped

Mix the yolks, the sugar, and the wine in a stainless steel bowl. Adjust the bowl on a pan of boiling water so the bottom doesn't touch the water. Cook the zabaglione whisking constantly. To make it more stable, cook it until it deflates and is very creamy, 15-20 minutes. Strain it and let it cool completely on an ice bath. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and fold it into the zabaglione. Keep refrigerated at all times.

Daring Bakers-Vols-au-vent, Two Ways

It seems that I am not learning from past DB challenges. I won't bore with the details of my busy life, but just know that I am not even working full time, only 2 days at the farmers' market and I can't seem to get organized. Time is flying under my eyes, and I find myself in disbelief every month, with another challenge I haven't even put into my brain for a second. Why do I always find myself at the last minute? Why am I so disorganized? I ended up making the puff pastry on Tuesday but it wasn't until today that I managed to put together the dessert and take pictures. Lesson learned? Maybe..., only time will tell.

The September 2009 Daring Bakers' Challenge has been chosen by Steph of a whisk and a spoon. Steph chose Vols-au-Vent, which we are pretty sure in French means, “After one bite we could die and go to heaven!”

For the complete recipe and a wonderful slide show of all the other wonderful creations please visit the Daring Kitchen site.

I had made puff pastry before so I wanted to try something different for this challenge. Since I always wanted to try from Sherry Yard's pistachio recipe from The Secrets of Baking, I decided to give it a try for this challenge. Sherry's recipe is slightly different than the one for the challenge, but the butter amount is the same so I added the 3 ounces of pistachio paste the recipe calls for to the 1 pound of butter. The puff pastry acquired a very pale green color so I didn't bother taking a picture of the dough. The resulting baked vols-au-vent were slightly darker than the ones without the pistachio paste, and to my disappointment they didn't really have a marked pistachio flavor.


I have wanted to make and write about a baked peach dessert for a long time but never managed before until now. So when I went to the market I was really shocked to realize that Fall has arrived and not many stone fruits were left but I found some good looking white peaches. My readers will have to wait until next year to try this, unless they are in the Southern Hemisphere. I used to make a variation of this dessert in the last restaurant where I worked, and it sold really well. The peaches were baked at 375-400F in a sweet dessert wine. Then I made a zabaglione with the same wine, which is lightened with some whipped cream to cut the sweetness. I used to serve the peaches cold with the same pistachio streusel I wrote about here and here. I love this recipe for its versatility, and the crunchiness it adds to desserts.

I also made some pizzette, Venetian style, with mozzarella, tomatoes and anchovies. They turned out pretty close to what you may find in many osterie in Venice, really tasty.

Thanks Steph for choosing this recipe and to Lisa of Mia Cucina and Ivonne of Cream Puffs in Venice for creating this wonderful group and bringing all these wonderful challenges, month after month.

Fig Walnut Ice Cream, an Anniversary, and a Request

Ten years have passed since the death of my mother in law. She died too young, and I can't believe it still. Somehow every time we drive to Los Angeles, I picture seeing her, hugging her, enjoying her company. She was a great lover of food, and one great supporter of my creations, and never said no to a cake I would bring to all the family meetings. I miss her terribly, so this ice cream is dedicated to Marilyn, who would have licked the spoon with delight.

My friend Darren is raising money in order to participate at the Leukemia Cup Regatta that is being held in the San Francisco Bay next weekend. This regatta is part of a bigger fund raising effort by the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, with events throughout the States. Darren has raised 69% of his contribution but unfortunately he is $600 short of the minimum that will allow him to sail on Saturday. Today is the last day he can try to raise the final $600. In this tough economy he relies on the generosity of his friends and relatives, so it would be really sad if he weren't able to participate to this event which means so much to him. I am asking my readers to generously donate any little amount to help my friend honor his mother and her long struggle with Leukemia. So please visit his web page and follow the directions. As someone who lost a loved one to a long struggle with cancer, I thank you from the bottom of my heart, every little amount counts.

I recently tried a sorbet made with figs and walnuts and it was delicious. You could first taste the sweetness of the figs, followed by the slight bitterness of the walnuts. Since I can't eat enough figs, and they are so bountiful and relatively cheap now, I tried this combination in an ice cream version.

A recipe by David Lebovitz was the starting point for this ice cream, to which I added a step in which I steeped some walnuts in the cream for an hour, and omitted the lemon. The resulting ice cream has a wonderful texture, is not too sweet and delicious!

Fig Walnut Ice Cream
3 cups

2 pounds fresh figs, cut in 8th
1/2 cup water
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup walnut pieces

Cook the figs with the sugar until jam like consistency, set aside to cool. Bring the cream to a boil and steep the walnuts for an hour. Add the cream to the cooled figs and puree until the desired consistency. Chill the ice cream base completely and then freeze it according to your ice cream maker. Enjoy!

Tomato Quinoa Salad and Roasted Portobello

This meal was eaten a while back, but it wasn't until today that I found time to post about this wonderful dish (this is what happens when the full moon wakes you up at 4 AM). I discovered quinoa more than 10 years ago, when I had it for lunch in Washington D.C. when I was there for a biochemistry conference. I immediately fell in love with this grain and have been making salads with it since then. Quinoa, or Chenopodium quinoa, is a super food, rich in proteins, easy to digest, and very versatile. This plant belongs to the Amaranthaceae family, and is not quite a grain or a cereal, but a relative of plants like beets and spinach, and has been cultivated for thousands of years by the Incas. It comes in three colors, light brown, deep red, and black. Béa, the talented author of La Tartine Gourmande, wrote recently about this wonderful grain, including photos of her trip to Peru. I especially like quinoa paired with tomatoes, they balance each other very well. This time though, I used oven roasted tomatoes to increase the flavor, added avocado and purple basil. I served the quinoa salad with an oven roasted portobello mushroom on a layer of wild arugula, a great combination indeed.

Roasted Tomato Quinoa Salad

1 cup quinoa, rinsed and drained
2 cups cold water
2 pints cherry tomatoes, or any other type of small tomatoes.
EVOO
one shallots, chopped fine
1 TBS balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper
fresh basil, julienned

Cut the tomatoes in half and roast them in a 375F oven until cooked through and they begin to dry, set aside to cool. Cook the quinoa until it is soft, fluffy, and the little outer ring releases. Drain and cool completely. Cut the avocado in cubes, add it to the quinoa, together with the rest of the ingredients. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Spaghetti with Creamy Zucchini Sauce

Paoletta, the very talented author of Anice e Cannella, invited her readers to join in a summer game (Giochino d'estate). The idea is to replicate or reinvent this dish, and send her a photo of the final creation. She will then select three photos and publish them in her blog.


Since I have zucchini coming out of my ears (typical Italian expression, mi escono dalle orecchie), I decided to try this delicious sounding pasta sauce today. Plus I am having so much fun discovering blogs in Italian, so perche' no (why not)?

Below is a closer look at the tomato topping, one word-DELICIOUS! I made only minor changes to the recipe. Since I can't have too many tomatoes I cooked more than the recipes called for, I also used sliced almonds since I had them and thought that they would look nicer. The original recipe sounded perfect but I decided to add some chili flakes to the tomatoes just as I turned off the heat. The added spiciness worked perfectly to add a little more zest to this otherwise perfect dish. This was a great dish to have in this super hot summer evening.

For non-Italian readers here is the recipe, with my changes, in English:

Spaghetti with Creamy Zucchini Sauce
Four Servings

one shallot
three zucchini, cut in small cubes
marjoram
basil
EVOO
Salt and Pepper
3 TBS grated Pecorino cheese
40 grams of sliced almonds, toasted
a handful of small tomatoes
pinch of chili flakes
320 grams spaghetti

Sautée the shallot in olive oil. Add the zucchini, the herbs, salt and pepper, and cook for 10 minutes. Puree the zucchini, adjust with more salt and pepper if desired, and add the Pecorino cheese. In another sautée pan, cook the toasted almonds in a little oil, add the sliced tomatoes and cook at high heat for 5 minutes, set aside. Cook the pasta al dente, drain and mix it with the zucchini puree. Plate the pasta and add the tomatoes and almonds on the top. Add more freshly grated Pecorino and some julienned basil.

Ho fatto solo delle piccole variazioni alla ricetta originale. Ho usato piu' pomodorini perche' non mi stanco mai di mangiarli e ne ho a bizzeffe, e ho usato le mandorle tagliate sottili. Ho anche insaporito con un pizzico di peperoncino i pomodori e le mandorle dopo averli tolti dal fuoco, e li ho aggiunti sopra gli spaghetti invece di mescolarli con il sugo di zucchine.

Buon Appetito!

Spreding the Gratitude and a Recipe for Zucchini Bread

Jill of Jillicious Discoveries surprised me with a "one lovely blog" award. I am relatively new as a blogger, but have been reading many blogs for a long time. I find the blogging community so amazingly talented, and one day I hope to meet some of the people I have gotten to "know" through their blogs. Recently, I had the pleasure of meeting Jill during one of her trips to the Bay Area where she once lived. I was surprised when I realized that I felt like I had known Jill for a long time. If it hadn't been for her two friends who joined us for dinner, we would have talked dessert non stop. Jill is very bubbly and super nice, she loves what she does and she is very creative. Please visit her blog for fun posts and recipes.

To thank Jill for her recognition I am passing along the Zucchini Bread recipe she published in this post. Like Jill, and thanks to three gardens I was watering this past week, I now have too many zucchini to possibly use in our family, and some are huge so I knew something needed to be done (besides begging everyone I know to take some). Since I don't have a trusted recipe for zucchini bread I tried Jill's because it sounded great with not too much sugar, tons of zucchini and the nuttiness of the pecans. The recipe takes more time than a regular quick bread thanks to a step where you let the zucchini release some of their water, but in all the recipe was easy to execute. I actually ground the pecans almost to a flour since I know some picky eaters who hate nuts, but leaving the pecans in bigger pieces would have worked great as well. The resulting bread is very moist, not too sweet, and really yummy. I will be making more soon to give it away to the many people who make my life sweeter.

I am not sure who started this but the idea is to pass this award to thirteen other bloggers, so you can imagine how hard it was to choose with so many talented people out there. Some blogs are in Italian, but that is one of the many reasons I love them. Some bloggers I read have been given this award already so you know who you are, some others are already amazingly recognized that I feel too little to give them this award. I would like to extend the gratitude for all the amazing people that inspire me on a daily basis to the following bloggers:

Cindy of Cindy Star
Elena of Comida de Mama
Elra of Elra's Baking
Enza of Da Grande
Ilva of Lucullian Delights
Lien of Notitie van Lien

Lisa of Lisa is Cooking

Natalia of Gatti Fili e Farina
Nicole of Pinch my Salt
Paoletta of Anice e Cannella
Rosa of Rosa's Yummy Yums
Simona of Briciole
Susan of Wild Yeast

Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam with Lime Zest

This jam was born out of necessity to cook some left over rhubarb. I often buy too much fruit and turn the very ripe leftovers into quick jams. These "leftover" jams don't have big yields, so they are consumed quickly and there is no need to preserve them in jars. I normally add very little sugar to start, and add more after the fruit has started to break down. Add more sugar if you prefer a sweeter jam or if you make such a quantity that you need to preserve it. Knowing that the rhubarb had only few days left in the fridge, I bought some strawberries to add to it. When I was trying to decide what to add as a flavoring (I normally add vanilla beans but wanted something different), I remembered that I had some left over limes as well. I quickly zested and juiced one lime and added them to the jam, ready for a surprise. The lime flavor is really subtle, but it is there, and it is more evident after the jam has been cooled and the flavor had a chance to develop. Really tasty indeed.


Strawberry-Rhubarb Jam with Lime Zest

1 pint strawberries, cut in quarters
1 pint rhubarb, cut in small cubes
sugar to taste (maybe 1/2 cup to start)
Zest and juice of one lime (add more zest if your prefer)

Mix all the ingredients in a small sauce pan. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened. Cool completely and store in the refrigerator for few weeks.

Tomato Corn Salad

I live on tomatoes in the Summer, and wish I could grow them year round. These beauties, a Cherry Gold variety, are the best cherry tomatoes in my opinion. They are very sweet, not acidic at all, and they grow beautifully and plentifully. Two years ago the first plant I grew took over and started growing on everything, including an oak plant nearby, very prolific indeed. It was also the last plant standing after it got too cold for the other tomato plants to survive the Fall, very hardy.

This salad is very simple, you can put it together in 15 minutes and is very refreshing. It would work as a pasta sauce, slightly sauteed with some garlic. You can use any cherry tomatoes, but I love the contrast of the orange, the yellow, and the purple of the basil leaves.

Tomato Corn Salad

1 pint cherry tomatoes, sliced
1 ear of corn
EVOO
Balsamic vinegar
Salt
Basil, chopped

Cut the kernels off the cobb, and boil for two minutes. Cool the corn in ice water, then toss with the rest of the ingredients.

Daring Bakers-Bakewell Tart with Fig and Raspberry Jam

Once again I find myself doing this on the last possible day. Luckily we are having dinner at some friends' house tonight so I won't have to eat it all by myself. Naturally today had to be one of the hottest days we had in more than a month, so it will be a challenge to take a picture of the ice cream before it melts. But I won't be a daring baker if I didn't try in the worst possible conditions.

The June Daring Bakers' challenge was hosted by Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict and Annemarie of Ambrosia and Nectar. They chose a Traditional (UK) Bakewell Tart... er... pudding that was inspired by a rich baking history dating back to the 1800's in England.

To read the whole recipe click here, I will tell you about my version.

To be true to the challenge we had to make two things from the original recipe, the short tart dough and the frangipane. We could be daring, however, and change the rest of the elements. Some of the comments that had been posted in the daring kitchen private forum made me decide to decrease the amount of sugar in the frangipane as some people found the tart overwhelmingly sweet. The frangipane recipe given is very different from the one I normally make, which calls for less sugar and just one egg for the same amount of butter so I was curious to try it. I only used 80 gr. of powder sugar instead of 125, and added extra ground almonds to compensate for the super liquid frangipane.

I decided to make mini tarts so they would bake faster and will look more elegant in individual plates.

For the jam, I initially thought of using the blood orange jam I made few months ago, but then I saw some beautiful figs at the market and couldn't resist. I made a quick fig and raspberry jam inspired by Julia Child's book Baking with Julia, in which you can find a fig raspberry crostata to die for. Fig trees produce figs twice a year, once right when they put out new leaves, which results in a very small fruit crop, and later in the summer for a more bountiful fall crop. I love the combination of the two fruits so I decided to use that under the frangipane. I didn't strain the seeds out since they add texture and I don't really mind them. I only added a teaspoon of jam at the bottom of each frozen tart, and piped the frangipane on top.


To finish the dessert I made the always pleasing lemon-verbena ice cream. Lemon verbena goes so well with more stone fruit and berries, so I figured it would work with the flavors of this tart as well.


Fig Raspberry Jam
1 pint figs
1 pint raspberries
1/4 cup brown sugar
zest of one lemon

Cut the figs in small pieces and add to a pan with the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a soft boil and cook until thick, stirring occasionally. Cool completely before adding it to the tart shells.

Lemon Verbena Ice Cream
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cup reduced fat milk
1 cup lemon verbena leaves
3/4 cup sugar
5 yolks
pinch of salt

Bring the cream, the milk and sugar to a boil and steep the lemon verbena for an hour. Re-heat the cream mixture to a boil, and slowly pour onto the yolks whisking to temper them until they thicken into a custard. Add the salt and strain the yolk custard into a bowl set onto an ice bath. Chill completely and then freeze the ice cream base in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

The resulting tarts were very good, the jam was delicious and the ice cream worked well with the rest of the flavors. The frangipane was a little on the dry side, having to do with the reduction of the sugar amount. It was still plenty sweet so I am glad I cut the sugar.

Thanks Jasmine and Annemarie for choosing this recipe and teaching me a new tart I didn't know.

The Color of the Rainbow

Not too much to offer today in terms of recipes, but since it is around my birthday I offer you this bouquet of flowers from my garden.