Flyers, Catherine de Médici, Desktop.

Matt went down for the mail yesterday, came back and announced nothing but junk. This frequently happens. I was thinking what a waste of time, paper, money, trees.  The people who send out all this garbage are certainly not concerned with their carbon footprint. There is a garbage can by the mail boxes and it is frequently overflowing with all this stuff. OK I think it gets recycled, we have all kinds of recycling bins here, but even so... its a waste. Not much one can do to stop it either. A lot of what we get is for pizzas, then there is the political stuff apart from all the other rubbish. One guy cracked “no pizza flyers today, what am I going to eat tonight?”. Talking of pizza flyers, did you see they are now doing wieners inside the outer crust of a pizza. Think its Pizza Hut. Can you believe it? What a combination!

Sadly, on the North American continent, most people seem to believe the Italians eat nothing but pizza and pasta. They are missing out on such wonderful food. The story goes that around 1547 when Catherine de Médici married Henry II of France she found the food so uninteresting that she eventually imported Italian cooks to the French court. Many of the dishes for which France is well known actually were imported from Italy. Funny I have known about Catherine for many a long year, but until I was checking dates, I didn’t remember much of her history. I knew she was largely ignored by her husband in favour of his mistress, Diane de Poitiers, but it would appear she really got her own back after the King’s death and was regent for two of her sons ruling France with something of an iron hand. Pity the king never knew. I remember reading a book about her a loooooong time ago, I’m not sure how many years it covered, obviously I don’t remember a heck of a lot about it anyway.

Woohoo, I have a desktop computer once again. I am still writing this blog on my laptop as I had already started, might as well finish it here. I now have to get the money from the flooring people, they have agreed to pay for the repair and I am just waiting for the invoice to take/send to them. They are actually close by so maybe we will drop it off. I suspect they might warn customers of the prospective dust in future.

I love Debbie Reynolds (or I used to) but we watched the first part of The Unsinkable Molly Brown, what a dreadful movie. I loved here in Susan Slept Here and as Tammy (forget the name of the movie) oh and a whole raft of other movies, but we turned this one off.

I just got a few recipes for appetizers, specifically for Thanksgiving (US) but seems to me they would be suitable at any time. This one particularly appealed to me.

Caramelized Onion and Gruyère Tart

Food and Wine

Serves 6-8

1. 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2. 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3. 2 large onions, halved and thinly sliced
4. 1/4 cup dry Marsala
5. Salt and freshly ground white pepper
6. Buttery Cornmeal Pastry
7. 6 ounces Gruyère cheese, coarsely shredded (1 1/2 cups)

1. In a large skillet, melt the butter in the vegetable oil. Add the sliced onions, cover and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until softened, about 12 minutes. Uncover the skillet and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are very soft and well browned, about 45 minutes longer; add a little water as necessary to prevent the onions from sticking. Add the Marsala and cook until nearly evaporated. Season the onions with salt and white pepper and transfer them to a medium bowl.
2. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 375°. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the Buttery Cornmeal Pastry to a 13-inch round, 1/8-inch thick. Wrap the dough around the rolling pin and fit it into a 10-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Run the rolling pin over the rim to trim off the overhang. Prick the bottom with a fork and refrigerate until chilled, at least 10 minutes.
3. Line the tart shell with foil and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake in the center of the oven for about 25 minutes, or until the edge is golden and the center is nearly set. Remove the foil and weights, cover the edge with foil and bake for 5 minutes longer, until the shell is cooked through and golden.
4. Sprinkle the Gruyère into the tart shell and spread the onions on top. Bake for 10 minutes, or until the cheese is melted and the onions are sizzling. Let cool for 15 minutes. Unmold the tart, cut it into wedges and serve warm.

Make Ahead The tart can be refrigerated overnight. Rewarm before serving.

Have a great day