Backyard Farmgals

Seeing as I had a pile of grapefruit calling to me this morning, and I was feeling a little adventurous, I thought I would combine a ginger grapefruit curd with thumbprint cookies.  Yum!  The fabulous curd recipe comes from 101 Cookbooks.  It is, in one word, AWESOME!  I love the idea of the ginger combined with the reduced grapefruit juice.  It gives a rich undertone of flavors.  Plus, curd is a favorite Sunday treat here at our house.  It has oodles of butter... so limited to Sunday... but worth the wait during the week! I used a paté sucrée for the cookie base and coated it with grapefruit zested sugar before baking.  It adds one more layer of flavor and a pretty little sparkle to the cookies.  These would be a darling early spring treat for a baby shower or bookclub, or even Easter... after all, they look like eggs!  They are feminine and dainty, and the brightness of the grapefruit just makes you smile when you pop one in...

With Spring nearly here, I haven't been in the mood to cook much.  I get fixated on dirt, and there is no time for the kitchen.  This afternoon was the exception.  I have been dreaming of Cara Cara Oranges, they are my favorite oranges and they are in season right now.  I picked a few up at the store the other day and there were three sitting on the counter last night begging for something to be done with them.  I grabbed my mandolin and sliced an orange super thin and made it into quick sliced candied oranges.  Then, this afternoon, I whipped up a little pastry cream, orange curd, and paté sucre, and made a fantastic orange tart.  It turned out beautiful, and it was just what I wanted...yum!!!  Plus, it's Oscar night and what goes better with Oscar than something shimmery, tropical, and oh...so...gorgeous?  I think that this one takes the cake on the red carpet!   This recipe takes just a bit of juggling.  You want to sta...

Fresh Wild Blueberries...YUM!!! I found the most amazing wild blueberries at the Farmer's Market and I had to make this.  Really this recipe has been haunting me; it calls to me in the night, "make me, make me," and then "eat me, eat me."  It is disturbing that a tart could have so much power over me, but it does...because it is soooooooo good! Blueberries are one of the most unloved berries.  They get pushed aside by sweet juicy blackberries and glorious ruby red raspberries.  Blueberries are an unsung hero in my mind.  They are PACKED with antioxidants and they have the most remarkable tangy sweetness.  No other berry can mimic the blueberry.  If you have written off the blueberry as tasteless and boring, you obviously have not had fresh picked wild blueberries.  They are remarkable!  Get your buns to a farmer's market and give them a second chance... This tart is really quite easy to make.  I got the recipe out of the cookb...