J.R.'s Tart

J.R.'s Strawberry Rhubarb Tart

Two years ago I planted some rhubarb. I knew the plants take two years to really produce, so I wasn't concerned that although they had big showy leaves, the stalks were thin and green. I put some up in jars anyway and my recollection is of me at the kitchen sink, spooning mouthful after mouthful of silky sweetness. Still, this year I was looking foward to rhubarb show girls

I remember the first meal I served very distinctly. I was four years old and my customer was Marchie, my beloved stuffed monkey. We lived on 54th street in the theater district and my mother had just fed me lunch

Lemony Lemony Lemon Cake

[I added an ingredient here. Lemon emulsion can be ordered on line at Lorann Oils and the difference is worth the trouble. Unlike extract, the flavor doesn't lose any strength in the baking process. I've started using it with the cakes we sell in the village] Okay, here's the recipe for the lemon cake

Mama's Broccoli Salad

When I was a teenager I would get horrible monosodium glutamate headaches after going to a Chinese restaurant. When I started getting them at home, I looked in the kitchen cabinets and found the culprit-"Accent" a brand name for MSG that unfortunately truly did make the flavors in a dish sing. Mama was pretty sure I was imagining the cause of my headaches because she had been putting the stuff in virtually everything for years. I was all self righteous teenage certainty and strong armed her to stop using it.
Now, I loved Mama's broccoli salad obsessively

We did a birthday tea yesterday

The day is blue

Its sharply blue here today in New Mexico.  The rosemary looks like there was a pale blue snowfall during the night.  All of a sudden- so many flowers.  I'm craving a cornmeal cake that is soaked in rosemary syrup

Fresh Blueberry Pie

Today is my son Buster's birthday and a large version of these fresh blueberry tarts is what he requests every year since my mother made it for him one summer. He surprised all of us by eating it almost single handedly. Of course this was at the upstate New York farm in deep July when the berries were huge and sweet and from a local farm.

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