Tag Archive for 'recipe'

Rustic Tarts So Easy A 4 Year Old Could Make It.

Published on October 8, 2009 in food and recipes. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

I love our Farmer’s Market.  We bought a flat of strawberries this week.  They are so delicious.

Strawberry Tart

Izzy hand picked a big pile for our tart.  She carefully checked each one, turning it around and around, making sure they were the right ones, red and delicious.

Strawberry Tart

We poured our cut strawberries onto the rolled out dough.  She folded the edges of the dough over the strawberries. And we popped it in the oven.

Strawberry Tart

This was totally delicious, and so easy a 4 year old could make it (with a little help from mom).

Rustic Strawberry Tart

Tart Crust

  • 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
  • 1 egg separated
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 4-5 tablespoons ice water

Filling

  • Lots of fresh strawberries, sliced

Preeat oven to 400F.

Put flour, butter, egg yolk and sugar into the food processor and pulse until the mixture turns into little balls, like course meal.  Slowly add the cold water until the mixture forms one big ball.  (Watch the amount of water you put in, too much and the dough gets too wet).  Remove ball, wrap in plastic and place in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

If you don’t have a food processor, you can do this by hand too! Make a mound of flour on a work surface, then make a well in the center of the mound and put the butter, egg yolk, sugar, and 3 tablespoons of the cold water into it.  Mix the ingredients in the well with your fingertips, then begin incorporating the flour in until the mixture has the consistency of coarse meal. Add 1 tablespoon water and continue to blend, adding water 1/2 tablespoon at a time as needed to form a workable dough, gathering it into a ball. Add a little flour to the work surface and knead the dough two or three times with the heels of your hands. Take care not to over knead. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or up to 2 hours.

Remove the chilled dough and place on a floured work surface.  Roll out to desired thickness and size.  Brush egg white over entire dough surface.  Pour cut strawberries onto the center of the dough.  Fold edges up over strawberry hill.  Brush egg whites over the dough edges. *Optional, sprinkle entire tart with sugar (we did not and it was just fine!)

Place tart on flat sheet.  I lined mine with parchment paper.  Cook for 30 mins until crust is a golden color.  Let cool for about 15 minutes before cutting.

We used just plain fruit for the filling, nothing else, and it was perfect for us, not too sweet.  We’ll be making these tarts with the fruit we get each week from our Farmer’s Market, and it’s something Izzy can do a lot of by herself, pick the fruit, pour the ingredients, pulse the food processor, roll the dough, brush the egg whites, fold over the dough, and of course, eat it.

Aunt Ellie’s Beer Bread

Published on October 7, 2009 in food and recipes. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

Beer Bread

I remember the large black wood cook stove in our kitchen in our farmhouse growing up.  It heated our whole drafty 200 year old log cabin farmhouse throughout those cold Bucks County winters.  It kept us warm and cozy.  Mom also cooked on it. And in it.  One of our most favorite treats was beer bread.  OH MY GOODNESS.  It smelled so good, it just filled the house with bready sweetness.  We’d stand there and wait for a whole hour, checking on it constantly.  Finally, it would be done and come out of the stove.  I’m sure we had to wait 15 minutes before we cut into it, but I remember the hot slices all steamy, in my hands, then gone!  The bread never made it to the table.  The butter was close by, and spread on each slice.  HEAVEN.

If you haven’t made beer bread before, you are missing out.  Seriously.  It is a simple and amazingly delicious treat.  You will eat it standing up at the oven hoping it has had enough time to cool off so it doesn’t burn your mouth. Super delicious alone, but some butter makes it even more delish!

Aunt Ellie’s Beer Bread

  • 3 cups Self Rising Flour*
  • 3 tablespoons Sugar
  • 12 oz beer
  • pad of butter
  • sesame seeds

Preheat oven to 375F.  Put a healthy pad of butter in a 8″ loaf pan and place in the oven so the butter melts in the pan.  Mix the flour, sugar and salt in a bowl.  Pour in the beer.  Mix together so dry ingredients are no longer dry.  Carefully remove hot loaf pan, sprinkle sesame seeds over the melted butter.  Pour in the dough.  Bake for 45-60 mins.  Bread should be crispy on the outside and moist and chewy on the inside.

*Don’t have self rising flour? You can make your own: for this recipe:

3 cups of Flour, 1 teaspon Baking Powder, 1 teaspoon Salt

Notes:

3 tablespoons of sugar makes this bread pretty sweet.  If you want a less sweet bread, try 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Gazpacho Makes My Summer

Published on August 3, 2009 in food and recipes. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

(I promise to post photos later!)

I really can’t remember the first time I ate gazpacho.  But I feel like I’ve loved it for a long time, and when I see lovely ripe tomatoes at the Farmer’s Market and it’s so stinkin’ hot, I have to make gazpacho.

I love it for a bunch of reasons.  I love being able to taste every single vegetable in each bite.  I love how it chills me right to the core.  And I love when it’s so spicy my eyes water.

After looking through a bunch of recipes, I made my own.  Mind you, this is not traditional, so you won’t find bread in this soup, but you will find seasonal ripe veggies.  If they aren’t ripe or local, they just aren’t worth eating.

Enjoy!

  • 4-6 large tomato chopped  – 1 cup put aside
  • 1 large cucumber – peeled and chopped – 1 cup put aside
  • 1 large red onion – chopped
  • 3 large stalks of celery – chopped – 1 cup put aside
  • 1 yellow pepper – chopped – 1 cup put aside
  • Cilantro (amount to your liking) – chopped
  • 1/4 cup Red Wine Vinegar
  • 1/4 cup Olive Oil
  • 1/4 cup Lemon Jiuce
  • 4 cups Tomato Juice (I use V-8, seems to have the most real food ingredients)
  • Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper
  • Hot Sauce

    • Makes about 8 servings.

Put chopped veggies and cilantro in a blender or food processor and pulse to desired consistency.  I do it just a wee bit of processing, I like to chew this soup and taste each vegetable in each bite.

Pour into a non-reactive bowl, add the Red Wine Vinegar, Olive Oil, Lemon Juice, Tomato Juice, salt and pepper / hot sauce to taste and mix together.  My blender and food processor aren’t big enough to hold it all, but if they are, you can put it all in and blend away.

I’m thinking about other gazpachos.  I’ve had a beet gazpacho that was so amazing I just can’t forget about, and it might be my next gazpacho….