One Perfect Fruit Tart - No Egg, No Roll, No Worries

Julia Child made a famous peach tart that required a few more steps and ingredients. I am certain even she would be impressed with the easy, fewer, yet authentic ingredients in this perfect tart recipe.

Fall blesses us with an abundance of fruit options. For a quick, delicious, gorgeous dessert, you can't go wrong with a fruit tart. Grab some peaches, plums, apricots, or apples and follow the instructions below. You do not have to peel stone fruit, but you will need firm, not soft fruit for ease of slicing.

You can see this lovely tart in the photo below. The dough base begins on the stove top, the 3 sliced peaches are baked in the oven at the same time as the tart shell, and the gloss added on top of the fruit  at the end is Bonne Maman French made jelly! A French import, their preserves are fruit, sugar, lemon juice and pectin - that is it. You can download a $1 coupon from their website making it a great deal, too. Click here for their website: Bonne Maman Preserves

This tart is easy, tasty, and professional looking.

Bon Appetit!

My Fresh Peach Tart

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Ingredients tart dough shell:

1 and 1/2 sticks butter
1 ounce vegetable oil

3 ounces water
1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 and 1/4 cups all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

Fruit:
In this photo 3 large, firm, unpeeled peaches were used. If using a larger pan select 4 peaches, or use plums, apricots, etc. You will need double the amount when using a smaller stone fruit size. If using apples, peel first. Cut fruit in half and then slice in thin slices, and place on cookie sheet covered in parchment or a silicone pad. Bake at 325 for 40 minutes at the same time the dough is cooking. If they look like they are drying out, remove at 30 minutes. You don't flip the fruit over during baking as the top side of the fruit will be placed down on the dough.

Topping:
1/2 - 3/4 jar of Bonne Maman fruit preserves either peaches, apricot, berry or flavor of your choice, and heat it slightly in saucepan to spreading consistency.

Method:

In a saucepan, heat butter, oil, water, sugar and vanilla until melted. See below. Then add the flour and salt. Combine in saucepan until it forms a ball. Remove from heat and cool until OK to handle. Place ball in center of removable bottom tart pan and press into place. This one is 9.5 inches, but the dough will be enough for a larger pan. Before baking, "dock" the dough by pricking it with a fork to prevent it from rising. Bake for 40 minutes it will not be completely brown. That is the complete baking cycle.

Remove dough and fruit from oven, and cool about 15 minutes or until fruit can be handled. Place the fruit top side down on the tart beginning with outer circle.

Spread heated preserves on top of fruit and let it cool and set before serving. That's it! Serve as is or with a scoop of ice cream.

Invest in a nonstick removable bottom tart pan this is 9.5 inches or larger will do.

Melt butter add liquid ingredients.

Add dry ingredients still to cook the flour a minute before removing from heat.

Press ball of dough into the tart pan. Dock by making fork prints to avoid dough rising during baking.

Slice 3-4 peaches with the skin on. Don't use soft peaches or fruit only firm. 

Use Bonne Maman Peach Preserves or a flavor you like for topping after assembling the fruit on top of cooked dough.

Ireland: Spuds and Stars (of the Michelin Variety)

I am the odd bird that cannot sleep on an airplane. Even as a passenger on a first class Cathay Pacific flight in a pod the size of a small apartment complete with a cozy bed, toasty pajamas, and unlimited Johnnie Walker Blue, I arrived in Hong Kong 16 hours later looking and feeling like a cargo-hold stowaway.

On my first trip to Ireland in 2001, I arrived in a similar catatonic state as I drove with my son towards Waterford on the wrong side of the road in a manual transmission car. Yes, that means shifting with your left hand and foot. I recall very little of that harrowing experience, but I remember in specific detail the very first meal I ate in a village pub on the outskirts of Wicklow.

The lunch special was beef and potatoes and the platter arrived piping hot smothered in dark, delicious gravy and beef. Next to the mound of whipped mashed potatoes was a stack of roasted potatoes. Apparently in this land famous for spuds serving multiple styles of their favorite root vegetable was not unusual. It also explained my mother's habit of serving mashed potatoes along with rice when she made beef chop suey!

Back then, Ireland did not have a reputation for great cuisine. Even Starbucks did not arrive in Ireland until 2005, so finding a thimble of espresso was a challenge. Over the years, with the global trend towards slow food and the farm-to-table movement, this land of shamrocks and grass-fed beef has emerged as a hub of gastronomic delight.

With this transition, the country has wisely taken their assets on the road by growing their food export segment. In 2017, Ireland became the first EU country to sell beef to China and their exportation of dairy and beef recently exceeded 100 million euros. Cathay Pacific launched seasonal service four times weekly between Dublin and Hong Kong last year. Beyond this expanding global demand in the Irish agri-food sector, visitors can now experience excellent cuisine throughout the island.

Since the 1990s, the number of Michelin-rated restaurants in Ireland grew from 6 to 16, with the restaurant Patrick Guilbaud in Dublin being the highest rated and longest tenured on the list. Open for lunch and dinner the prices are modest compared to other 2-star rated restaurants around the world. You can see for yourself at the link below. Interestingly, the word potato is not on this menu. 

Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud

Another export item, Irish cheese is on par with the some of the very best French cheese. Ireland produces more mozzarella cheese than Italy. In Dublin, Sheridans Cheesemongers has an amazing selection from local farmers as well as special international producers. They will cryo-pack your selection of hard cheeses for safe and TSA approved international travel to the USA. This tiny cheese emporium is a must see stop while touring Dublin or visiting their larger country shop in County Meath.

Sheridans Cheesemongers

Ireland is a quick overnight flight from the USA, and you can launch to the European mainland easily from the international airport in Dublin. The next time you head to Paris, London, Rome or Copenhagen add a few days in this amazing country to savor the memorable meals and more.

Starbucks finally landed in Ireland in 2005

This Old House Swapped for That New Condo

I told people it was a downgrade of home style for an upgrade in lifestyle. After twenty years in the same home, I began prepping, purging and packing decades of memories and dragging them down the road to a modest condo within walking distance to not one, but two Starbucks. Check. Check. 

Not unlike that last move, I approached this enormous task by myself, mom solo, despite having four grown children with lives and homes of their own. I won't lie - it was a challenge. Like my lovely white French lilac tree, I, too, aged over the last two decades, and the preparing to move process was. . . interesting. The painter showed up without paint. The handyman showed up and asked to borrow a screwdriver. Without missing a beat, I quickly shot back, "Phillips head or flat head?"  You laugh. I cried. 

My experience has shown me that workers of a certain younger age consider people of a certain older age, like me, completely oblivious to the home repair and remodel world. Clearly, they are unaware that we were bred on the world of PBS's, This Old House long before the capital letters HGTV evolved into a proper noun. My people, baby boomers, are defined by the Pew Research Center as the nearly 80 million Americans, representing 26% of the population born between 1946 and 1964. I proudly rank in the upper percentile. 

We are the focused group who intently studied the episodes of Bob Vila refinishing aged oak floors and restoring kitchens and baths. Along the way, we gleaned the nuances between wax versus polyurethane and satin versus eggshell, as we grew weary over the plethora of baseboard options (by the way, you can’t go wrong with the ubiquitous 5.25-inch primed colonial, always primed). As a result, members of the baby boomer generation are well versed in the world of home restoration. 

This trend is not only my impression obsession. Researchers from the Kennedy School at Harvard University’s Joint Center for Housing Studies (JCHS) published a report titled, Improving America’s Housing 2017, Demographic Change and the Remodeling Outlook.  The study related a prediction that homeowner improvement spending will increase 2% annually over the next decade to a staggering $25 billion by 2025. 

The authors suggested that homeowners 55 years and older will generate 50% of all the home improvement spending. The report pointed out that the 55 and older demographic was growing in both size of population and market share of remodeling. The researchers attributed some of the demand due to aging in place. This trend was in contrast compared to previous generations. I would have liked to ask them: Did they or did they not watch Bob Vila?

For added validation, I investigated the 10-year price performance of the stock of Home Depot. On January 2, 2009, the stock closed at $24.13, and on January 2, 2019, the stock closed at $172.41. I did the math using the handy calculator on the HD website. The stock price with reinvested dividends increased +800% during that 10-year period. There appears to be a correlation with the data on remodeling trends. 

Before embarking on my road ahead, I made a calculated self-assessment to consider if I was really ready for radical change. Having moved twice during my childhood and several times as an adult, this property represented my longest layover. I would never again assemble my coveted farm sink, barn door, French door, and spa bathroom as an ensemble in my more modest, miniature estate.

The outdoor green space that I lovingly tended for two decades was on the site of a former golf course where my father treaded 60 years ago. I have told my children that from my window I could imagine grandpa on the 9^thhole in my patch of tall evergreens digging for his wide-left tee shot. In the quiet breeze, I could almost hear him declaring a Mulligan. 

It’s in that same plot that I planted tiny blue snowdrop bulbs which I legally, or perhaps not, brought home from Ireland at the turn of this century. They popped up each spring simulating little blue stickie notes reminding me that Ireland was calling me back. Melancholy can be a paralyzing emotion. Then, I splashed myself with a dose of reality: Walking distance to not one, but two Starbucks!

The universe has a way of keeping things real. Thankfully, finding my next suitable perch was surprisingly seamless. Devoid of lists of hopes and dreams my younger self required in earlier home purchases, my current list had one subject: needs. My new home checked my few boxes. 

As luck would have it, I located my new home in a nearby village of winding streets. Naturally, on my way to see it, I made a wrong turn. After a few twists and turns, I found myself adrift on a charming little street named Sheridan Avenue. The Sheridans are my great-grandfather’s family from County Cavan, Ireland, that I tracked down and connected with in 2005. 

I took that ordinary street sign as extraordinary divine and directional intervention, as if to say I was heading down the right path. After a few grateful breaths and a duly programmed GPS, I took this road less travelled, and the rest is my new history.

Realistically, that doesn't mean I won't revisit the repair and remodeling cycle that so absorbed my previous homes. In fact, I've already lined up my next project to modify this old condo into my newish condo. After all, life has taught me that it is not mine until I knock down a wall. Or two. 

Keep in mind now, if you are a member of the demographic cohort identified in the Harvard study, you are likely to find yourself in the good company of younger, skilled tradespeople sometime over the next decade. 

They will politely enter your home and introduce themselves as Chase or Morgan or a similar sounding hip name you won’t find listed in your baby boomer high school year book. Resist the urge to ask them to spell it. Nevertheless, when your correct response to a home repair query is met by a surprised look, be sure to follow it up, as I do, with, "What else do you have for me?"

 

My Old House Farm Sink, Island with Wine Fridge, etc.

My Old House Barn Door, Spa Bath, etc.

My Newish Condo Starbucks Just Beyond the Trees

Annotation Links:

Pew Research

Harvard Study

Home Depot