Easy Apple Tart. (And Happy Birthday, baby!)

I’ve been meaning to make this ever since Ree posted it on PW Cooks! And then, lo and behold, TWD up and makes a Parisian Apple Tart…let. Tinier and fancier than Ree’s, but you know what? Who needs cute? I just want dessert – who cares if it’s cute? I’m not a TWD baker for that reason (and, well, I don’t own nor have the disposable cash to buy the book), and besides, I have a country girl-connection with Ree’s cooking. It speaks to me.

As with a great many of my escapades, I ended up making this out of necessity. I had an open box of puff pastry in the deep freeze, in danger of frostbite and infamous freezer burn; and I had four five Granny Smith apples sitting on the counter, threatening immediate rot and revolt if I didn’t go ahead and use them for their intended purpose. Kitchen mutiny! I shouldn’t say that. My kitchen is actually trying to help me stay honest and use up what I already have before I dance off to the grocery for newer, prettier items and ignore the unloved foodstuffs languishing on the counter and in the back of the fridge. Lucky for me that Granny Smiths are much hardier than their cousins Gala and Golden Delicious, or they would’ve ended up in the bin instead of on sheets of puff pastry.

I enlisted Cullen (that’s 354, for those of you that don’t know) to cut up apples. I’m left-handed, and while we’re purportedly rather creative beings, we generally suck at straight lines and vectors. That is to say, I can’t cut in a straight line to save my fingers, nor can I make very teeny tiny slivers of things as I would like without the use of a mandoline. Cullen, on the other hand, is right-handed and rather good in a manly, mechanical fashion, and therefore perfect for slicing up apples into something other than wedges or chunks. While he was slicing apples, I was unfolding puff pastry and slicing a sheet in half, spraying down baking sheets… you know, prep stuff. Oh, and playing on the Internet. Does that make me a horrible person, surfing the Internet while my erstwhile fiancè is painstakingly slicing apples on my behalf? I hope not, ’cause it’s going to happen again. Though maybe not with apples involved. Probably onions.

Red Pepper Fougasse (ABi5!)

To be honest, I would have never made this if it wasn’t for my future mother-in-law’s request. She was perusing the Internet and lo and behold, came upon the Artisan Bread in Five site when the Red Pepper Fougasse was the top post on the frontpage. She fell in love, apparently, and when she showed the office, she said, “I bet Kate can make that. She makes stuff like that all the time!”

So I did, thanks to the wonderful ABi5 folks, Zoë and Jeff, who are kind enough to post their recipes online. I followed the recipe almost exactly, and it turned out beautifully. The only difference I made was in the Master Dough – on a whim, I made a wheat dough (half wheat and half regular all-purpose).

The recipe is posted here, of course, and I highly suggest you try it out, especially if you like savory filled breads. Not only my future mother-in-law, but everyone in the family enjoyed this bread, and these can be some picky people! Red pepper fougasse is not usually served next to green beans and pot roast here! What more of a recommendation could you want?

Blogging is hard, man.

I mean it. HARD. Of course, all the dedicated bloggers know that already. But as a beginner blogger, they don’t tell you that when you start. You just start one up, get a few readers, type a few posts and think ‘Hey, this is easy!’ And it is, as long as you’re not worried about a reader following, or any real subject matter – as long as you’re writing for yourself. It’s like writing a novel that isn’t intended for anyone else to read. It can be misspelled, grammatically incorrect, pointless and inaccurate as to the rule of the world (from gravity to the average speed of human reflexes) because your target audience is none other than yourself.

But that’s not the point of a good blog. A good blog isn’t written for the writer, but for the readers. And some folks start up a blog, continue it for a little while, then quit a few months later. Why? Usually it isn’t because of negative comments, or a lack of readership (sometimes it is), but because the writer is just not committed. My last real post was over a month ago. I’m sorry. I’ve meant to write up something interesting, something worth reading, but I just haven’t been able to manage. Thanks to a life crisis of mild depression from an increasingly poor living situation; then a week and a half of moving; and then a bout with a scary medical emergency that turned out to be a brain tumor (NOT me, just family) the rest of May and this first week of June have been crazy with adjustments and readjustments to living, eating, cooking, sleeping and living in general. Now that everything’s getting back in some semblance of order (more time for martial arts vs. no Internet at home), I can try to get back on track. I have a full kitchen now, and sick family to cook for – one that not only enjoys, but actually requests new, healthy food! There’s no reason why I can’t (in theory) write up a post at night and blog at work during my lunch hour, or early in the morning, or late in the day! …right?

Trouble is, by the time I get home, it’s hard to do anything besides clean, eat a short meal, feed the dogs and go to bed. I’m exhausted. (Cleaning up after a 70-year-old can be worse than with a 2-year-old…) I have so much to do on the weekends – plant new garden beds, mow the lawn, train the dogs, clean the bathroom and our bedroom, wash laundry, put away laundry – phew, is this what it’s like, being a stay at home mom? I have the utmost respect for you. I’m not being the least sarcastic. Plus, I’m job-searching like mad because my current position is up come the end of the month (all of a sudden, and no I’m not kidding about that part) and trying to find even a part-time position in this economy requires an act of Congress signed by God and the Holy Spirit. Plus, other things I dare not speak of for fear that audible speech may ruin the chances of realization are in the works, things that I must pray hard for.

But enough of excuses. No more random updates. No more filler posts of “I suck, sorry.” After this one, I mean. I’m going to put myself on a schedule – once a week blog posts, every Friday, with the occasional bonus just-can’t-wait-for-Friday Monday post. Surely I can come up with something remotely interesting, vaguely delicious, every seven days, can’t I? If others do it more than once a week, there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to hold up one post a week barring an earthquake, the Internet hitting the end of its limits and the coming of the Messiah. Starting next week with Hershey’s chocolate cake and Swiss meringue buttercream… yum.

I hope you can forgive me.