Tomato Tart Heaven ~ Fast and Fun

 

Hi! on a lovely summer Friday. [That said, I am indoors blogging as a brief useless cloudburst has sent me and Mo indoors for a while.

This week it was so hot I did have to air condition in the afternoons for Mo and took advantage of that coolness to try a new recipe. A Goat Cheese, Onion, Tomato Tart. Recipe HERE

The version I used was based on an apparently famous tart recipe by Ina Garten of "Barefoot Contessa" fame. I made her fresh tomato salad earlier this summer and was very pleased. I have read about Ina Garten for many years but avoided her cookbooks etc because I felt she was so Hamptons [NY], a la-di-dah celebrity chef type of cook, not for me at all. Looks like I need to rethink that! Because this tart was amazingly delicious and also easy and fast to make. Original recipe here btw, it is NOT pizza-y at all.

This is a wonderful way to use up tomatoes and onions from the farmers market or your garden. I used local produce sourced by my small market, choosing less juicy Roma tomatoes instead of heirloom beefsteaks because it did say the tart could easily get soggy:

I followed the instructions fairly closely. Store bought puff pastry, defrosted overnight. I adore puff pastry but had never worked with it before. The tomatoes were sliced an hour before, salted, then and drained, 

Meanwhile I caramelized the finely sliced Vidalia onion, adding then reducing  the mixtures with inexpensive but okay store wine. With pepper and spoonful of sugar. Don't add more salt bec the tomatoes were salted already.

I leave the pan of onions on the hot but turned-off stove top to finish the caramelization. [I have an electric stove top.] or you could leave the pan on very low for about 15 minutes if you have a gas stove.

And hour later I began constructing my tart. Parchment is essential, on the cooky sheet, tho I suppose wax paper might be okay too.

Score edges of the pastry to create a rim then spread the goat cheese. [You will not taste the goat cheese, but you can sub a spreadable cheese if you must, maybe Gruyere?]

Spread the cooled onions:

Sprinkle w parm. Add the tomatoes, one overlapping layer.

Add more grated parm and also shaved parm. Add herbs: recipe calls for basil but I used fresh and dried tarragon both.

Isn't it pretty!

Bake 425* [I did 400* bec I am chicken, all I need is an oven fire] and bake about 20 minutes.

Watch the edges for golden brown.

Cool slightly and serve. Melts in your mouth!

I plan to try other versions of this idea. Ordered more pastry sheets this week. One will be peaches w mascarpone and marmalade, another will be summer squash and broccoli, w the onions and whatever cheese I find in the fridge.

My only caveat: try to eat at one sitting, it is enough for a meal for 4 if you serve maybe a green salad and corn on the cob. The tart does NOT reheat well, very limp. Room temp leftovers were better.

I hope you try this! Easiest recipe ever!

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Thank you to everyone who has asked about Mo and his ear problem. The test results of the infection culture  are not yet in, still waiting. But the vet told me that if Mo loses weight it will cure his ear infection! WTF? New diet miracle cure for chronic infection? Maybe weight loss can cure Covid and cancer too. I was very miffed, does she think I am an idiot? Not to mention Mo has worked hard and has lost almost 2 pounds since Memorial Day. That's a big accomplishment, I think.

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This week's journal doodle:

I pasted in a photo printout of a swallowtail butterfly bec my drawing was so clumsy, clunky. I doodle these pages from memory, not real life, I suppose you can tell.

have a great weekend, last of August '22.

love

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Little Random Bits of August

 

Hi everyone! This is a Seinfeldian post about nothing, or nothing much.  Summer has hit a lull punctuated by one catastrophe after another it seems. Yesterday I was so pleased a cleaner finally came to make the house, especially my sewing room , presentable for houseguests. The AC is replaced. Deep breath---the handle of the bathroom shower came off in my hand this morning. The good news is the water wasn't running, the bad news is last time it broke it took weeks to be repaired. I have another bathroom with a tub and handheld shower gadget, not ideal. Oh and the kitchen sink is stopped up. Woe is me.

Today the gale winds drove me and Mo off the deck. I think my new umbrella is broken [too]. 

I did manage to sew one Star. Crumpled from humidity and wind.

The wind blew down the painted coreopsis. I rescued and brought it in.

Later I added a few pink roses from the grocery store, six for 5.oo.

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Here is what I wrote in my regular nature diary the other day: 

"This morning was hot & still and there were dragonflies

and a beautiful swallowtail butterfly 

swarming around the zinnias.

 Sweat bees, too, I hope they are good pollinators?"

And my weekly drawing, original

and colored.

In the collection dish this week. 

The eggs are faux, out on display because a small friend visited one morning and she asked where my Easter eggs had gone. She loved putting the eggs in a little basket last spring.

Mornings while I wait for the dogwalker I read a chapter of this book. Very enjoyable and well written, as if walking along the Thames by the author's side. Her childhood memories are charming too. A very good read. The pen is my fave Pilot gel point not a drawing pen but works for me. I think I mentioned this previously.

In novels I have been reading Ruth Ware's The It Girl. Then an oldie by Ware I had missed. Both a smidge predictable, the current one is a slick modern take on the old [I think] Agatha Christie Ten Little Indians / And Then There Were None. [shocking original title so I didn't post the link.]. Both of Ware's books were claustrophobic, especially the second one. 

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I never got to a craft store, finally Amazoned some elastic bead thread to repair my summer bracelets. 

Every summer I make or buy a special bracelet for that year, these are a few.

I lost my glass rainbow bead bracelet from last year, odd bec I rarely lose things. It celebrated the end, we thought, of the Covid pandemic. The white rubber and pearl was my other 2021 bracelet. The multi African bead one is at least 20 years old, retstrung. Influenced by the bead jewelry I see on IG, I restrung it to enjoy again instead of buying with money I do not have.

These are older, made with recycled "seaglass" beads. They need constant restringing, very heavy, but I do love them still.

I think the African trade beads and the giant seaglass beads came from the NYC flea after H Sandy; the other was beads my daughter gave me.

In my bedroom I have layered the Blue Pineapples quilt with a summer favorite, a rescued top I had finished, I call it Sea Urchins:

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I had to clean my fridge today. Mo was miffed at my busyness that didn't include him but sometimes things must be done. The huge grocery order came, replenishing some supplies. The power outage the other night got me to organize, use, discard, replace. No pics but on the menu: steak kabobs bec the delivery included a big bucks mistake by them of three large shell steaks???; fried rice w leftover rice and fresh vegs; a tomato / goat cheese puff pastry tart. Retro ''crudités [cauli/ tiny tomatoes/ cukes] with Knorr veg soup/ greek yogurt dip. So Cape Cod! And lots of salads. 

Tomato goat cheese tart   [photo is from internet]

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Mo's check up and ear appointment are tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Have a great weekend!

love 

lizzy

gone to the beach...

Gorgeous beach pictures--winter in South Africa. From blog friend Penny. Isn't the lighthouse lovely? Her views of SA have been a revelation to me, more mediterranean coast than wild jungles and big game safari. enjoy. Thanks for sharing, P!

And hibiscus photos from a friend, my tropical gardener friend. He grew these lovely hibiscus from seeds given me by blog friend Mel! Third year, they wintered over so well.

Did you make rose of sharon/ hollyhock dolls as a child? How I loved making them, with toothpicks or old long corsage pins my mom would produce like magic. here

a keeping it real pic for Mel who likes to see everything including not yet stored supplies and wet swimsuit:

and XL journal page: