Bugs Again, Chocolate,

I know you are all agog to know how my battle with bed bugs is going. I am sure there is nothing else on your minds. I wish there was something else on my mind. Anyway, it appears that this diatomaceous earth (DE) is doing the trick. I appear to be avoiding any more bites, so we decided to do the same with Matt's bed. When I started a found a nest of bed bugs on one of the creases of his mattress cover, as I mentioned the other day. Got rid of them and then surrounded the bed with diatomaceous earth. Two days later I checked again and found a smaller nest in the same place, but this time the bugs were dead in place or certainly almost dead which proves to me the stuff works. They had to cross it to get to his mattress cover. There has been nothing since on his bed or mine. Hoorah. I think I was beginning to go mentally bonkers with this business of being a feeding station every night. Of course I don't know about the rest of the rooms - I am assuming they must still be around so I need to do more spreading of the DE. The pest control people are supposed to be coming on the 31st (Thursday) and I will be able to tell them at least the beds are OK, no thanks to them. They will also now find what uncooperative really means. There is no way I am going to strip my home the way I have done twice before in order for them to work on the place. I will deal with it, thank you very much. At the moment I cannot use my bedspread as it dangles on the ground and that is an invitation to the little pests to climb up.

I regret to say that at least two of our chocolate bunnies are somewhat the worse for wear. In fact Matt and I both seem to go for the ears first. Being Lindt chocolate it is absolutely delicious. We have a Lindt store locally but I wouldn't dare go there very often. They give you a Lindor Ball when you walk in the store and you can try before you buy with many of their products. There is no doubt in my mind, that Swiss Chocolate is the very best. I am not alone in this opinion of course. Dutch and Belgian chocolate is pretty good too, but the Swiss have them all beat. Er, update, our first two bunnies have gone the way of all things.

This, to me, is a very unusual tart.

Swiss Easter Rice Tart

8 to 10 servings

Francesco Tonelli for The New York Times

This is a custard tart, with rice, lemon and almonds in the filling, which is served only at Easter in Switzerland. “It was called gâteau de Pâques and I remember it very well,” said Gray Kunz, the chef who was born in Singapore but grew up in Geneva and Bern. “There would be a bunny in icing sugar stenciled on top.” Nick Malgieri, the baking teacher and author, based this somewhat lighter recipe on several he found in Switzerland.


INGREDIENTS
1 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour and more for dusting
1 tablespoon plus 1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
11 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, in 11 slices
½ cup long-grain rice
3 cups milk
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest
½ cup blanched almonds, finely ground in food processor
3 large eggs
Confectioners' sugar


PREPARATION
Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the baking powder in food processor. Pulse to blend. Add 10 tablespoons butter and pulse 3 to 4 times, until butter is in pea-size pieces. Sprinkle in 3 tablespoons cold water. Pulse 4 times. Dough will not come together. Turn dough out on lightly floured work surface and knead gently a few times to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least 1 hour.
Meanwhile, half fill a 3-quart saucepan with water, bring to a boil, stir in rice, lower heat to medium and cook until rice is soft, about 15 minutes. Drain rice and return it to saucepan. Add milk, remaining butter, 1/2 cup sugar and remaining salt. Bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat to low and simmer until mixture has thickened almost to a risotto consistency, about 25 minutes.
Place saucepan in a large bowl of ice and water 10 minutes, to cool mixture to tepid. Purée in food processor. Pour into a bowl and add lemon zest. Mix ground almonds with 1 tablespoon flour and add to bowl. Stir in eggs one at a time.
Place oven rack in lowest position and preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove pastry from refrigerator and place on lightly floured surface. Lightly dust top with flour. Use a rolling pin to press down on dough to soften it. Roll out disk to 12 inches in diameter. Transfer to a 10-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Press dough evenly into pan. Trim edges flush with pan. Pour filling into pastry.
Bake about 35 minutes, until filling is set and golden. Cool on a rack. Dust with sifted confectioners’ sugar before serving.

Have a great day