A Berry Happy Day!

Happy Father's Day Rich!

I hope it's a great day for everyone, where ever you are and what ever your doing. Here at the Pires household, It's a BBQ and dessert. Maybe a present or two!


This is my favorite (Pillsbury) Baked crust brushed with melted chocolate, filled with Dorie Greenspan's pastry cream. A crown of fresh berries top this easy tart with a glazing of raspberry jam. Refreshing and simple.

And a happy day it is!

I was so bummed when we heard of the closure of Tastespotting. For those of you who don't know about Tastespotting, it was basically a food porn site. A place you could go to drool over great food and find great new blogs.It was also a great way to generate traffic to your blog.

I just found a new site called Food Gawker
Chuck from Sunday Night Dinner stepped up to the plate and cloned Tastespotting!!!

All is well in my world again.

The Pastry Cream
makes about 2 cups

Ingredients
2 cups whole milk

1 plump, moist vanilla been, split and scraped

6 large egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted

3 1/2 tablespoons (1 3/4 ounces) unsalted butter, softened and cut into 3 pats

Procedure
1. Bring the milk and vanilla bean (pulp and pod) to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cover the pan, turn off the heat, and allow the milk to infuse for at least 10 minutes or for up to 1 hour.
2. If the milk has cooled, it will need to be reheated now.
3. Whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together in a heavy-bottomed medium saucepan. Whisking constantly, drizzle one-quarter of the hot milk over the yolks. When the yolks are warm, whisk the remainder of the milk into the yolks in a steadier stream; remove and discard the pod (or save it to make vanilla sugar).
4. Put the pan over medium heat and, whisking vigorously, bring the mixture to the boil. Keep at the boil—still whisking energetically—for 1 to 2 minutes before pulling the pan from the heat and pressing the cream through a sieve into the small bowl. Let the cream sit for 5 minutes, then whisk in the butter. Cover the cream with a piece of plastic wrap—press the wrap against the cream—and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled. You can speed up the chill by putting the bowl in a larger bowl filled with ice cubes and cold water. (Keeping: Covered tightly with plastic wrap, pastry cream can be refrigerated for 2 days. To smooth the chilled cream, whisk it for a few seconds.)


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Sign ups end June 27th

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