Yesterday, More Michael Jackson, My Tart.

I was very pleased with my Heirloom Tomato and Basil Tart yesterday, it was delicious. I was impressed with the flavour of the Heirloom tomatoes too, Giada di Lauretiis said they were very sweet and they were. I would buy them more often but at $4.38 a pound, that would put my food bill up rather high. Matt drizzled the olive oil and I think maybe we got a little too much, also, I think the pastry wouldn't have hurt for a few more minutes. The recipe calls for 7 minutes but it did come out a bit pale as you can see. Tasted good though. The recipe also calls for regular pie crust but when Giada made it on TV she used puff pastry so I did too. May 20th blog if you want the recipe. It looked like the superintendent's barbecue went off very well yesterday, not sure how many people attended but from our balcony it looked like quite a good crowd. At least it didn't rain. I was sorry not to be there. Mind you they were eating around 4 which is way too early for us usually. We had our own little celebration at home. I also made the basis for some more of Tim Barrie's mom's asparagus soup. I will probably finish it this afternoon. Michael Jackson is still hogging the headlines, now his will has been read there is lots about it. His money goes to his kids and mother and his dad doesn't get anything. No real surprise. Diana Ross has been named as secondary caretaker for the kids after his mom. Neither of them are young women, I would have thought he would have found someone younger. The speculations about his death are getting wilder and weirder - I guess silently waiting for the toxicology report isn't news. Funny, it feels like yesterday must have been Sunday. The weather certainly doesn't seem like July at all. I paid off our holiday rental this weekend too in order to take advantage of the stronger Canadian dollar. Although it was stronger a couple of weeks ago, guess I missed the best time. You can be sure it will strengthen again now I have paid up. I also had a bit of a scare, my lower left leg and foot decided to go a bit numb and I couldn't walk without consciously lifting my foot of the ground rather than automatically. It went off after about 15 - 20 minutes. I then did some checking online and I believe it was possibly peripheral neuropathy which is something people with diabetes can be susceptible too. However, if it does happen again, I will be in Emerg. before you can spit. On Good Morning America they have been giving recipes for the 4th July and I have stolen this one for potato salad. I very rarely eat potato salad but I thought this one sounded pretty good. In North America, no barbecue would be complete without one. The recipe was originally given with prices per item, but this doesn't apply anywhere but in the States and even then, not everywhere, so I removed that information. They call Sanda Lee a semi-homemade chef - what on earth does that mean? Sandra Lee's Heirloom Potato Salad Semi-homemade chef Sandra Lee cooks up delicious, inexpensive summer grilling recipes for Independence Day. Ingredients 4 large Yukon gold potatoes 1/2 pound bacon 1/2 large yellow onion 4 stalks celery 1/2 cup mayonnaise 1/2 cup sour cream 2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1 1/4 cups shredded Swiss cheese Directions Peel potatoes, and cut into 1 to 11/2-inch cubes. In a large heavy-bottomed pot, add potatoes and enough water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat; cook until potatoes are just tender. Drain, and refrigerate for 1 hour. In a large skillet, cook bacon over medium-high heat for about 10 minutes, or until browned and crispy. Transfer bacon to a paper towel–lined plate, reserving 1/4 cup drippings in skillet. Thinly slice onion. Add onion to bacon drippings in skillet, and cook over medium-high heat for about 6 minutes, or until caramel-colored. Remove onion from pan, and allow to cool. Chop celery. In a large bowl, combine mayonnaise, sour cream, dill, parsley, salt, and pepper, whisking well to combine. Add potatoes, bacon, celery, and cheese. Toss gently to combine. Have a great day.

Lolcats, Pet Doors, The Link

see more Lolcats and funny pictures I couldn't resist adding this. Karen Miller (Karen's Musings see link this page) often adds Lolcat pictures to her site and I was looking at some of them on the website and thought this was hilarious. I was talking about the dangers of Doggie Doors the other day, I must admit I hadn't thought of this one. A woman in Maryland came home one day to find she had a visitor on her couch curled up next to her Beagle. What a gorgeous little critter. Have you heard about Ida The Link? She is a 47 million yr. old primate fossil which was discovered in Germany and, incredibly, has opposable thumbs which is something not seen on later specimens. If you would like to read more about her click here to see the GMA article. Another incredible thing is that she has fingernails, not claws. They figure she broke her wrist and was unable to climb trees and that is why she died. Absolutely fascinating. Watched Giada di Laurentiis on TV yesterday, she cooked some good stuff as usual, but one which really appealed to me, was a tomato tart. She made it with Heirloom Tomatoes which she says are the best, like old fashioned tomatoes with a wonderful flavour. Now I am going to be on a hunt to see if anyone in our area grows Heirloom tomatoes. If not, I will use the best I can find, but I will probably season the tomatoes before I use them and if necessary add a sprinkling of sugar to improve the taste. Heirloom Tomato and Basil Tart Crust: 1 (9-inch) refrigerated pie crust (recommended: Pillsbury) Basil Pesto (see below) 2 med (12 ounces) heirloom or 4 plum tomatoes, cut into 1/8-inch thick slices 2 Tbs thinly sliced fresh basil leaves Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling Kosher salt Freshly ground pepper 1 Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Place the pie crust on an ungreased baking sheet and bake for 7 minutes until lightly golden. Cool for 20 minutes. 2 Using a spatula, spread the pesto over the cooled crust. Arrange the tomato slices on top of the pesto and garnish with the sliced basil. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Cut the tart into wedges and serve. Servings: 4 Cooking time: 7 minutes Source: Giada Di Laurentiis Cook's Notes: To toast pine nuts, place on a baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 8 to 10 minutes in a preheated 350 degree F oven until lightly browned. For those of you who do not have a basil pesto recipe, here is the one I use, you will see above that Giada tells you how to toast pine nuts, my recipe tells you a different method - either method is perfectly acceptable. Classic Basil Pesto 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil, divided 1/4 cup pine nuts toasted 2 cups fresh basil leaves 2 cloves garlic 1/2 tsp salt 3/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese 1 In a small skillet set over medium-low heat, toss the pine nuts with about 1 tbsp of olive oil, stirring constantly just until they begin to turn golden, about five minutes. Be careful not to let the pine nuts burn. 2 Transfer the toasted pine nuts to the container of a food processor or blender and add the remaining olive oil, basil leaves, garlic and salt. Blend until almost (but not entirely) smooth, scraping down the sides of the container once or twice so that it blends evenly. 3 Add the parmesan cheese and process just to mix. Have a great day.

Barrie's, Everyday Italian

I published the picture of Barrie's Asparagus Farm yesterday. I was fascinated to read, in the article, that they have 35 acres of asparagus and one acre of rhubarb. That's a lot of asparagus. I don't think even I could put much of a dent in that amount. Yesterday's picture also showed the machine they use to pick the asparagus, I had naively assumed they did it by hand. The man in the centre of the picture is their lead hand, Lam Tram. The crate of fresh asparagus shown at the front of the picture makes me drool. I want to reach out and grab some. Apparently the current owner, Tim Barrie, is a third generation asparagus farmer and the farm used to have a contract with Campbell's Soup. I wonder why they don't now, probably not cheap enough any more. The beauty of the asparagus from Barrie's is there is no waste. Most asparagus you buy has to have the ends snapped off, never from the farm. Do you know what's really sad, I don't have any at the moment *g*.

I have been having some problems with one of my cook book programmes which wouldn't open for me after I had wiped my hard drive and re-loaded everything. I had to prove that I had bought the programme in 2005 in order to get help opening it again. However, I have finally done that and now can use it once again. Very frustrating as I had a lot of recipes from Giada de Laurentiis of Everyday Italian which I would have hated to lose. We frequently watch her programmes and I get the recipes from the Internet if it is something I want to keep. She did a super looking cake from Venice the other day, but I refrained because I shouldn't really eat the stuff. A small slice probably wouldn't hurt, but keeping to one small slice, is very difficult to do. Years ago in England I used to make cakes and Matt would come home from work "for tea" and then go back again. We would have some cake, but by the time he came home for supper, there wasn't too much of that cake left. I never did figure what happened to it, but every time I went into the kitchen it seemed to be smaller. Must have been the dogs.

However, you might like to make the cake so here is the recipe:

Almond, Pine Nut, Apricot Crumb Cake Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis Show: Everyday Italian Episode: Venetian Holiday

1/2 cup whole almonds, toasted, plus 1/4 cup sliced almonds, toasted 1/4 cup pine nuts, toasted, plus 1/4 cup 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 4 large eggs 1 1/4 cups sugar 1 1/2 sticks butter, melted 1/3 cup milk 1/4 teaspoon almond extract 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan. Combine the whole almonds and 1/4 cup pine nuts in a food processor. Pulse the machine until the nuts are finely ground. Transfer the nuts to a medium bowl. Add the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine and set aside. In a medium bowl, using an electric mixer beat the eggs and the sugar until the mixture becomes thick and pale yellow. Add the butter, and milk. Stir in the almond extract and apricots. Gently stir in the dry ingredients. Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan. Sprinkle the top of the cake with sliced almonds and remaining 1/4 cup pine nuts. Bake until the cake is cooked and a toothpick comes out clean, about 50 to 55 minutes. Let the cake cool on a wire rack. Use a knife to loosen the edges. Turn the cake out, slice, and serve. Have a great day.