Lemon Meringue Tart

One of the nice things since our move is that we live SO much closer to our families. My parents popped in this afternoon and I invited them to stay for dinner. Thank goodness, because I would have otherwise frittered the rest of the day away on the couch reading Catching Fire and checking Facebook. While they napped watched a little golf and DiY Network, I whipped up a lemon meringue tart for after dinner. I chose this recipe as an alternative to a traditional lemon tart because it uses fewer eggs and I was down to my last handful (time for another trip to Costco!) I know that I'm beginning to feel more at home in this kitchen as putting this tart together went quickly and smoothly, with all ingredients and tools easily found.
After mixing up my pastry dough and putting it in the freezer to firm up, I got to work on the filling- light meringue folded into a lemon custard.

The lightly baked tart shell ready for filling-

The last slice of tart-the recipe says it serves eight but really, it made just enough for four adults and one Munch-

for the pastry crust:
1 c. flour
3 tbsp. sugar
pinch of salt
6 tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
approx. 2 tbsp. ice water

filling:
2 eggs, separated
1/4 c. plus 2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
2 tbsp. unsalted butter

powdered sugar, to sift over finished tart

For the pastry crust, whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Sprinkle 1 tbsp. water over the mixture. Using a fork, mix gently until it begins to form a rough, shaggy mass. Drizzle a second tbsp. of water over the crumbs and stir again. Continue adding water, just a few drops at a time, until the dough begins to come together. Knead the dough gently a few turns to incorporate all the bits of dough and pat into a disk. Wrap dough in wax paper or plastic wrap and refrigerate approximately 30 min.
For the filling, use a mixer to beat the egg yolks with 2 tbsp. sugar on high speed until thick and pale yellow, about 8-10 minutes. Reserve 1/2 tsp. lemon juice for the meringue and stir the remainder into the egg yolk mixture. Transfer mixture to a saucepan and add the butter. Cook over low heat, stirring continuously, until the mixture begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon. Strain the filling into a bowl and chill until ready to use.
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. On a lightly floured board, roll out the chilled pastry dough into an 11-inch circle. transfer the dough to a 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom. Press the dough into the tart pan evenly along the bottom and sides of pan and trim away any excess. Prick the pastry all over with a fork then press a sheet of aluminum foil firmly over the surface to keep the dough from shrinking as it bakes. Bake until pastry crust is light golden brown- remove the foil and start checking the dough at 15 minutes. Set pastry crust aside to cool.
Using a mixer, beat the egg whites at medium speed until foamy. Increase the mixer speed to medium high and gradually add the 1/4 c. sugar and 1/2 tsp. lemon juice. Beat until the egg whites form stiff peaks. Fold the chilled lemon-egg yolk mixture into the egg whites and pour into the prepared tart shell.
Bake at 375 degrees for approximately 18 min. until the filling is light golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.

Spring Break

It's Spring Break and Munch, AudioDad, and I are all home for the week. As we've been running around doing things with family for the last few days, I took advantage of our first quiet morning to slip out of bed while everyone was still asleep (what else is new?) to make these-

When Munch finally got up, she invited her two friends along for breakfast-

Chocolate Icebox Cake, Take 2

Last Thanksgiving I pulled out my recipe for chocolate icebox cake. We hadn't even been in the new house a full two months and I had just finished repairing the cabinetry and trim and repainting (3 coats plus primer!) the kitchen, entryway, family room, living room, dining room, hallway, and Munch's bedroom. I had unpacked some of our basic kitchen supplies, but had yet to tackle the stacks of boxes in every room of the house. I hadn't yet unearthed half my wardrobe and the majority of my shoes and hoped they'd be found before the cold weather started. Not only that, but I had done all that work on the house late into the evenings AFTER a full day teaching kindergarten. Those first months of school are always the most busy and tiring part of the year because the kids are still SO young at that point and then I even had report cards and parent-teacher conferences as well.

I was nowhere near attaining a comfort level in my new kitchen, nor did I have the confidence (or tools!) in it yet to just whip things up at a moment's notice. An icebox cake, requiring only the effort of my pulling out the mixer to whip the cream and corralling a five year old to put it together, was a perfect solution for a dessert to bring to dinner at my parents'. The cake was a beautiful success- luscious layers of dark chocolate wafers sandwiched between lightly sweetened vanilla whipped cream, which after an overnight refrigeration had softened into thin layers of "cake".

Munch and I had assembled the cake in my favorite cake carrier from my old Williams Sonoma days. It comes with a springform round that clamps onto a stainless steel serving platter with an acrylic lid and carrying handle that fastens the whole thing shut. It's perfect for any type of cake that requires a springform, yet since the serving platter is already incorporated into the design, I no longer end up losing track of my springform bases when I transport desserts. The whole contraption has seen better days though, and there's now a crack in the domed lid. I'm used to its quirks though, but had forgotten that Munch wasn't.

We had arrived at my parents' in a bit of a rush and I remember feeling harried. Munch proudly announced that she would bring the cake in, and as she is so responsible and the cake was in the backseat with her, I didn't think twice. I was steps away from the car when I heard a terrible clatter- and turned around to find the cake upended onto the ground! The carrying handle had jiggled loose and slipped off the cake carrier, sending the dessert, its base, and lid in various directions. Our beautiful layered icebox cake was now a sloppy mess on my parents' gravel driveway. My exhaustion hit me immediately and for once, I had no words of comfort for poor Munch who was horrified at the mistake. My extreme silence left her even more unsettled and within moments, I think we were both in tears in that driveway.

Fast forward a few more months. The kitchen has been unpacked AND its contents rearranged after using it a while. As I'd been assigned to bring dessert to my sister's tomorrow, I figured it was time to revisit the icebox cake. Once again, assembling the layers went quickly and smoothly. Munch even had the chance to operate the mixer and watch the cream as it thickened to soft peaks. The cake is now sitting overnight in the refrigerator, waiting to be taken to lunch tomorrow. And Munch's words of wisdom this time around? "Carry the cake plate from the BOTTOM!"

Pinch Me...Pt. 2

So the last few months have seen us getting settled into our new home. I got right to work painting most of the rooms before we brought the furniture out of storage. The house is much smaller than our last home, but its dark walls made it look even smaller. A fresh, lighter color just brightened the whole house!
The kitchen before...

during...

and after...

Dining room before...

and after...

We were fortunate that this house has freshly refinished wood floors and new windows. Once the new paint color went up, all our furniture seemed to make so much more sense than it did in the old house- what was left of it, anyway (remember, MUCH smaller house...must need to pare down!) We have beautiful hills and open space surrounding our neighborhood. I reduced my commute from well over an hour each way to about 10 minutes, and once the first day of school rolled around last fall, we were pleasantly surprised to find that many of Munch's preschool friends live within a block or two. We have so much more time together as a family, and are within a few miles of Munch's grandparents and cousins. Money is tighter than ever, having sold our first house at a loss and purchased this new one for more than double the value of the last. We're still trying to spruce up the house and yard, figure out our new routines, and have found that driving home still doesn't have that familiar feeling yet. But I NEVER would have guessed a year ago that we would be where we are today- it is so much more than I dared to want.

Pinch Me...Pt. 1

Wow. I was stunned to discover I hadn't posted in almost a year. Somehow, the blog just got away from me. It HAS been a busy year, after all.

We had been talking for the last couple of years about the possibility of moving. Both AudioDad and I had hour-long commutes from our home in an affordable part of the SF Bay Area to our jobs in the most expensive county, also the place where we grew up. The commute wasn't so much of a burden until Munch came along. Spending hours in the car every day, we didn't have much time for family life.

Still, I was surprised when early in May, AudioDad made the decision to meet with listing agents. Our house was on the MLS by that afternoon. Two weeks and an Open House later, we had a buyer and a move-out date in mid-June. The problem was, we didn't have a closing date on a new place yet!

Luckily it was summer, and between vacations, house sitting, and rotating between various family members' homes, Munch and I found ourselves enjoying our nomadic life. We stored all our belongings and AudioDad settled in with our dogs with other family for what we anticipated would be a couple of weeks. But as problem after problem surfaced with the house we were negotiating on, weeks stretched into months. When the deal finally fell through, we were within days of Munch starting kindergarten.

We quickly looked through a handful of homes for sale, put a new offer in, unearthed some school and work clothes from storage, moved more permanently into a corner of my 10-year old niece's room, and crossed our fingers. School started. Munch and I hardly saw AudioDad as our family was now split between two homes so as not to burden our accommodating families too much. We learned that buying a home in today's market was a significantly different and more complicated process than when we were first time buyers ten years ago.

At last, we received keys for our new home at the end of September. We could finally live together as a family again. But now, we were facing a significant amount of work on our new, old house.

Munch's empty room

Last day in the old house

Wisconsin Vacation- Antique Tractor Pull, Old Symco, and Thresheree

A few days into our visit to Wisconsin, my uncle mentioned that he might like to check out a tractor pull. I jumped at the chance to take Munch- when would we ever do something like THAT again? It was a fairly wet day, so the fields were a giant mud pit. After purchasing some hot dogs and nachos, we were able to find a dry spot in the bleachers under some trees and I could take in the local crowd.
The tractor pull itself was fairly anti-climactic (this isn't a monster truck rally, after all) as they spent a bit of time with weigh-ins and chugged along slowly, probably due to the mud. But it was interesting to see the antique tractors.
Munch quickly picked out a favorite- a green Oliver 66 (not to be mixed up with the 88, she pointed out) and had fun watching for it both in the tractor pull and in the rows of tractors on display.
After the tractor displays, we came upon an old steam engine
which was powering the machines in the saw mill-
Hanging from the beams above was a collection of antique chainsaws
Next to the saw mill was another structure being built. It had a fairly new water wheel-
In the next demonstration area we saw the threshing machines and an old log cutter-
In another area of the showgrounds was a cluster of small buildings. I'm not sure whether it is called old Symco or Unionville.
It was a really interesting and memorable day. And on our way home, we stopped in at the Wittenburg Dairy King for a chocolate dipped frozen custard. Yum!

Nibbling through Napa

AudioDad's sisters are celebrating birthdays this week, so we thought it might be fun to have a family day with them in Napa. We decided to meet up at Oxbow Public Market and I was glad to see how popular it has become. I remember taking Munch there when it first opened and was so concerned that it would quickly close due to lack of foot traffic. My last couple of visits though, Oxbow has been as crowded as the SF Ferry Building Marketplace, and it looks like a sit-down restaurant is now in the works where the Wine and Cheese Merchant used to be. Now all it needs is a great kitchenware store!
First stop was a peek into the pastry case at Ca' Momi Winery and Enoteca-
we haven't eaten there yet, as it is a fairly recent addition, but the aroma of their wood fired pizzas puts them as a must-try on my next visit. Another merchant I haven't yet purchased from is Five Dot Ranch, but I imagine we'll also bring something home from there soon-
Next, Munch made a beeline for her Dungeness crab friends in the tanks at Kanaloa Seafood Market-
She loves to talk to them and I'm not quite sure she has realized yet their fate as someone's dinner!
Having arrived before the rest of the family, we had a little time to kill so the next stop was Oxbow Cheese Merchant-
As always, we found plenty to taste and buy!
Everyone arrived soon after that-
so it was time for lunch- Gott's Roadside for them, and a pabellon cachapa (shredded steak, black beans, and plantain on a corn pancake) with yucca fries from Pica Pica Maize Kitchen for me- After lunch, we wandered through the market, tasting chocolate sauces at Anette's Chocolates and olive oils from The Olive Press, where I bought a jar of olive oil salve- just right for my winter-dried hands, before buying ice cream for the kids at Three Twins and some cold cuts from Fatted Calf Charcuterie (MUST go back for more bierwurst!)-
Next we crossed the Napa Valley Wine Train railroad tracks and the First Street bridge over the Napa River to get to the downtown area.
We passed a dirt lot with Dim Sum Charlie's food truck,
which is also the location of Napa's Food Truck Fridays (I hear that Spencer On the Go, from Food Network's Great Food Truck Race, can be found here occasionally- my to-visit list is quickly getting longer!)
At the Napa Riverfront
we peeked into kitchen window at Rotisserie and Wine hoping for a Tyler Florence sighting, but it was too early for dinner serviceso we took a few more pictures and wandered up and down Main Street, popping into a few boutiques,
but not finding Sift Cupcakery which seems to have recently moved to another shopping area a few miles away, so we hopped into our cars for a quick stop-
and left with a half dozen cupcakes