The Grass Grows!

These are another stunning dozen eggs from my neighbour. 

And look at how the grass is coming in! The green section was planted Sept. 5^th.
The wooden garden wharf looks better now that is's flush with the lawn.

Garlic, Spinach and Cheddar pie (with melted sides).

Tarte Tatin.

t rained all day Friday, so I lit a small fire and decided I’d make caramelized garlic, spinach and Cheddar tart with a braided edge. 

It was a lot of work. I used a new method to make the pastry and let it chill for two hours while I caramelized the entire three heads of garlic.  Then I lined the pie pan, braided the pastry around the edge and blind baked the shell, let the crust cool, washed it in egg and baked it some more to dry it out. 

The pastry had too much butter in it and melted down the sides of the pan. Sigh. But I carried on. I layered the crust with spinach and cheese and then the egg mixture and finally the garlic in its delicious smelling sauce. God I hope it tastes good; in the end it looked reasonable. I’ll serve four pieces with the braid and save the rest for myself.

All that for one dish! Late in the afternoon, I made the salad: It was labour intensive too because I used the recipe of a hero: Yotam Ottolenghi. I shelled and baked nuts, diced all the ingredients and stored them for today and made his delicious mayonnaise (its like none other I’ve ever tasted). And in the evening I made a Tarte Tatin (my best yet), so I was cooking and baking all day. Why do I do this?

Today I’ll finish making the salad, make the beet pasta, the broccoli, the whipped cream and clean and tidy the house. Phew!

It’s a meal, in a way, for me. My guests don’t know that it’s my way of celebrating the (virtual) end of the landscaping. (I doubt I’ll do Section Two this year.) They’re coming at 6:00 and I have a nice big bottle of Veuve Clicquot to start.

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Sheba chilled most of the day away. She was still limping a little and licking her foot, so I’m glad we had a quiet day. And today she’s showing no signs of any trouble at all on the foot. Thank goodness.

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Consider this: In the USA, a few teens have had their lungs damaged by vape pens and so the administration is moving remarkably quickly to take legal action against them. And, miraculously, the Attorney’s General of fifty states are pursuing the Sackler, the makers of Oxycotin. But they absolutely refuse to deal with guns. What a fucked up country!

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It’s not raining yet but it my later today; there are big patches of unexpected blue sky this morning.  I'm glad the new lawns will get a break from endless rain.  The good thing about today is that all the heavy lifting in the kitchen is done, so I won’t be exhausted tonight.