. . . happy birthday to you

oops. so, yeah, i'm sorry because i am awful at this sometimes. basically, here is how my last week went:

wednesday: blog! success. followed by a rebecca minkoff event with a couple of friends (and many bloggy friends); great fun, didn't have my camera. i'll attempt to scrounge something together for this soon.

thursday: no blog. woke up late and rushed to work, then scrambled to the anthropologie event; great fun, HAD camera, took a few photos but somehow zero of the clothes. derp. will certainly put something together on this soon. dashed home, packed to go to california for a few days, fell asleep watching the daily show at 1 am.

friday: wake up at 4 am to catch car to airport. fly to california. arrive. family! hugs! food! beer. sleep.

(this cycle is pretty much repeated over and over until tuesday morning, when i spent the day flying back to NYC, with the exception of sunday night, when my sisters and i made a big fancy anniversary dinner for my parents [post pending] and spent monday at disneyland [post pending.])

wednesday: back at work. camera dead. super tired. late night dinner with sam & a couple out of town friends at prime meats, a major brooklyn recommend. woke up late on. . .

thursday. work. too late to take outfit photos. thanks to a hair removal cream *incident*, probably wouldn't want to, anyway. bake cinnamon rolls at work, leave early to see colbert report (AWESOME) then head home to order/gorge on cheap mexican food and watch chef reality tv with my husband. MARRIAGE.

which brings us up to. . . friday! today. woke up late, dashed to get bagels for the office, and have basically been buried in paperwork and receipts since. sam & i and a couple of our friends are leaving straight from work to head down to the jersey shore for the weekend, so i have my fingers crossed for sunlight although it looks like we're doomed to a weekend full of rain (no matter, i can cook, eat, drink and sleep in rain OR shine.)

so, my apologies for my lack of posting/responding/commenting for the last ten days or so; i've been busier than usual, but also just kind of let myself have a bit of a vacation from blogging for awhile. which sounds really stupid, because blogging is something i do voluntarily and greatly enjoy. just not when surrounded by my family and beer all day.

anyway, sam went out of town the night before i did last week, to go on a major fishing mission with some pals; i hadn't made him any birthday cake or anything, at his insistence, but raced home after the rebecca minkoff event to make him a berry tart so he'd have something to blow candles out on. he came home as it came out of the oven, and we decided to let it cool while we watched some 'river monsters' in bed (because we are the coolest) and, short story kept short, i woke up asleep on his macbook pro at 1 in the morning. we'd both fallen asleep and didn't get to eat any tart. i had special candles and everything! but he took it fishing with him and said that it was the best thing at least one of the guys had ever eaten, so i'm going to take his word for it and post the recipe. it did LOOK pretty damn good.







this recipe is pretty much exactly the same as this one, right here. but you have to have a membership to the site to see it, and i assume you aren't all giant suckers like me, so i'll copy it here.


pate sucree

1 large egg yolk
1 T heavy cream
1/2 t vanilla extract
1 1/4 c unbleached all-purpose flour (6 1/4 ounces)
2/3 c confectioners' sugar (about 2 3/4 ounces)
1/4 t table salt
8 T unsalted butter (1 stick), very cold, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

filling
6 T unsalted butter
1 large egg plus 1 egg white
1/2 c sugar, plus 1 T
1/4 t table salt
1 t vanilla extract
1 t Kirsch or framboise, optional (i didn't have this, and didn't use it.) (obviously.) (obviously that i didn't use it, i mean, SINCE i didn't have it.) (sorry.)
1/4 t grated lemon zest
1 1/2 t lemon juice
2 T Wondra flour (i used cake flour, since i didn't have any wondra on hand. nor have i ever. i had to google it to find out what it is. apparently it is a "low-protein, pregelatinized wheat flour to which some malted barley flour has been added. it has been formulated to dissolve quickly in either hot or cold liquids, and is most often called for to thicken gravies and sauces." so it actually does sound pretty handy.)
2 T heavy cream
2 half-pint containers fresh blackberries (about 10 ounces total), picked over (i used half raspberries, half blackberries, and just eyeballed the amount.)

for the tart pastry: whisk together yolk, cream, and vanilla in small bowl. combine flour, sugar, and salt in food processor with four 1-second pulses. scatter butter pieces over flour mixture; pulse to cut butter into flour until mixture resembles coarse meal, about twenty 1-second pulses. with machine running, add egg mixture and process until dough comes together, about 12 seconds. turn dough onto sheet of plastic wrap and press into 6-inch disk; wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 48 hours.

remove dough from refrigerator (if refrigerated longer than 1 hour, let stand at room temperature until malleable). unwrap and roll out between lightly floured large sheets of parchment paper or plastic wrap to 11-inch round. (if dough becomes soft and sticky, slip onto baking sheet and refrigerate until workable.) transfer dough to tart pan by rolling dough loosely over rolling pin and unrolling over 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Working around circumference of pan, ease dough into pan by gently lifting dough with one hand while pressing dough into corners and sides of pan with other hand. press dough into fluted sides of pan, patching breaks or cracks if necessary. (if some edges are too thin, reinforce sides by folding excess dough back on itself.) run rolling pin over top of tart pan to remove excess dough. set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet or large plate and freeze 30 minutes. (frozen dough-lined tart pan can be wrapped tightly in plastic wrap and frozen up to 1 month.)

meanwhile, adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 375 degrees. set dough-lined tart pan on baking sheet; lightly spray one side of 18-inch square heavy-duty extra-wide foil with nonstick cooking spray. press foil greased side down inside frozen tart shell, folding excess foil over edge of pan; fill with metal or ceramic pie weights (or lentils - that's what i use. cheap and easily available. you can save & reuse them over and over.) bake until pastry appears dry and pale gold under foil and edges have just begun to color, 20 to 25 minutes, rotating halfway through baking. remove from oven and carefully remove foil and weights by gathering edges of foil and pulling up and out. return baking sheet with tart shell to oven and bake until sides are medium golden brown, about 5 minutes; set on wire rack to cool.

for the filling: while tart shell is cooling, heat butter in small saucepan with light-colored interior over medium heat; cook, swirling or stirring occasionally, until butter smells nutty and milk solids at bottom are golden brown, about 7 minutes. transfer butter to small heatproof bowl to stop cooking; cool butter until just warm to touch. whisk egg and egg white in medium bowl until combined; add sugar and salt whisk vigorously until light colored, about 1 minute. whisk in warm browned butter until combined; then whisk in vanilla, framboise, and lemon zest and juice. whisk in wondra flour (or cake flour,) then whisk in cream until combined.

add berries and bake: distribute blackberries in single tightly packed layer in bottom of cooled tart shell. pour filling mixture evenly over blackberries. place tart on baking sheet in oven. bake until fragrant and filling is set (does not jiggle when shaken), bubbling lightly around edges, and surface is puffed and deep golden brown, about 30 minutes, rotating sheet pan after about 20 minutes for even browning. cool on wire rack to room temperature, at least 1 1/2 or up to 6 hours. remove tart pan ring; slide thin-bladed spatula between tart pan bottom and crust to loosen, then slide tart onto serving platter. cut into wedges and serve.


making sure i am clear about where credit is due: this recipe is from cook's illustrated, which i highly recommend but does charge a subscription fee. i made a couple small changes, which i noted in parentheses, but mostly followed this recipe to the letter. i happened to have some pate sucree left over from another tart i made a bit ago, so it was very quick & easy for me and, apparently, delicious.

thanks for sticking with me, and i am going to do my best to do a post or two this weekend to try to catch up - the only time i opened my computer in california was to dump out my camera's memory card, which was filled with 90% pictures of my nephew, pete, and 10% pictures of food. i'm not sure which is more DELICIOUS. (weird.) i then re-filled it with lots of photos at disneyland, including sneakily (and, some would say, creepily) taking photos of every little girl i saw in a princess costume.

have a great weekend!

xo audrey