sunset picnics

With Fall approaching, I'm thoroughly enjoying the cooler nights. Friday night seemed like a good night to pack up a picnic and take the dogs to get their wigglies out from being inside all day. I think I would rather eat picnic food for dinner every night over a big meal. Crackers and cheeses and meats and olives, fruits and tomatoes, oh my. Get in my belly.

P.s. This picnic did not go as smoothly as pictured, hah! But it's okay, it was a night to remember nonetheless. 

12 good things

Farewell to summer and welcome fall with some things that are good. 

une tarte

I think it's safe to say that plum season is coming to a close. Well, I guess that depends where you buy your plums. If you're getting them from the grocery store, plum season usually never ends. But if you prefer your plums to have real juicy flavor, then you're probably getting them elsewhere and therefore, your plum season is coming to a close. Farms are selling the last of their picked plums at markets, so if you haven't had your plum fix this summer, go get em'. As a way of saying farewell to plums, I am sharing with you a deliciously simple plum tart recipe. It literally cannot get any simpler than this. And if you don't make it a point to get some plums this weekend and make this, well then, I just don't know what to say. You must not like simplicity or plums or dessert. Also, you're crazy.

My first step was making my crust. I used a basic pie dough recipe for my crust. You can cut the recipe in half since this is a tart you don't need a crust for the top like you would with a pie. I followed a recipe from one of my cook books that I use often, but you can easily look one up online or if you're feeling lazy just buy a pre-made pie crust from the store (I won't tell).

Once you have your dough rolled out (or if its already rolled out for you, ahem), lay it out evenly in a pie dish. Press down around the edges so its nice and snug in the dish. I chose to cut off the excess dough so that I only had a little bit of an overhang to fold over on top. If you're making a traditional tart using a tart pan, you won't have to worry about this. 

Onto the plums. Oh, plums. There are so many varieties of plums. Choose one or mix and match for a combination of sweet and tart flavor. We used about 6 plums. Also, make sure your plums are not overly ripe or it will be a very mushy process slicing them up. Since the fruit has so much natural sweetness and juices, the only thing we added to our plum mixture was about 1/4-1/2 cup of brown sugar. Stir the plums with the sugar so that all of the plum slices are nicely coated in sugar. Fill your laid out dough with plum slices and fold the excess dough over top, overlapping each piece with the last. Lastly, mix an egg yolk with a bit of water and brush over the crust before baking. 

Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes or until the crust looks done. Bon Appétit! 

12 good things

Some captured photos of all things good. With summer here, there's lots to capture. It was tough picking 12. Sooo... 20 good things? 

it's not zucchini tomato soup

This stuff is so good. It's just one of those things that my mom always made at our house during the summer. I can remember enjoying some during one of our many dinners on the back deck. To me, that's one of the best parts about summer. Nothing beats dinner outside with the setting sun as the cool of the night approaches.  

The recipe is really simple and I'm not even sure what to call this concoction other than... delicious? 

You'll need: 

Tomatoes

Zucchini/Squash

Garlic

Salt & Pepper

Crushed red pepper

Cut up the tomatoes and zucchini into quarter sized pieces. Add some olive oil to a pot and and sauté the tomatoes and zucchini until their juices start to give the mixture a liquid consistency. Add some chopped garlic, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper to your taste. There's no exact measurements when it comes to these ingredients, you can make it as bland or as spicy as you want! Turn the heat on medium-low and let simmer for about 45 minutes or until vegetables are cooked through. I wasn't lying when I said it was really simple. Serve hot or cold.