The Tart Queen

One of our very best friends happens to be another ‘foodie’ like us. Every year we usually spend several holidays together, and a great deal of our time revolves around drinking wine and discussing what we are going to prepare for our next meal. Much conversation goes

into the concept that all meals not only must be exceptionally good, but it is mandatory they also look the part. My friend has a habit of sending me recipes on a regular basis that she has found in magazines, cookbooks, book club, and any number of other places. I do not think these mailings are necessarily supposed to be for my benefit as much as they are suggestions for menu items during her next visit!

I get about 2 ‘suggestions’ in the mail every month. She is very old school. No emails here, just the page torn from a magazine enclosed with a hand written note on her embossed stationary that goes something like this, “this could be cute for your next Xmas Eve dinner!”

Before her last visit I pulled out all of her ‘suggestions’ and realized that an overwhelming amount of them were Tarts. There was such a variety that I threatened to make a different tart for each meal – morning, noon, and night. Although, I did not go to that extreme, we did experiment with some of the more intriguing recipes over her visit.

Last weekend we were cleaning up and cutting back what was left of the summer vegetables in the garden. We had been ignoring it over the last couple of weeks.  Between the dog days of summer and a month of consecutive 95+ degrees without much rain, most of this year's garden had seen better days. But, on Saturday I noticed the basil. Where did that come from? In late spring I had bought a flat of left over small plants at a framers market and filled in one of the vegetable beds. They got lost in the mists of all the summer vegetables, but now with the garden fading the basil rules. Well it ruled until I chopped most of it down and made pesto and tarts!

As soon as I can get the Parnter to write some things down, I will post the recipes for both of these and some of our other savory morsels.