Lemon Tart

I finally conquered my first lemon tart! My cousin gave me a whole bunch of lemons which smelled so fragrant, mmm! I used a recipe from my America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook which I love. I was getting tired of googling recipes and getting a zillion diff versions and not knowing which one to choose. Sometimes, I just like having a simple and tested recipe which I can later adapt other ingredients/techniques once I get the basics down. This lemon tart is a great example.

Ingredients (not all is shown)
For the crust you'll need:

• 1 egg yolk, large
• 1 tbsp heavy cream
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 8 tbsps butter, cut into pieces, chilled

For the filling:

7 large egg yolks
2 large eggs
1 cup plus 2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup lemon zest
2/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
4 tbsp butter, cut into pieces
1 tsp heavy cream
pinch salt

To make the tart crust: Whisk together egg yolk, cream, and vanilla.

It will look like this!

If you have a food processor, mix together flour, sugar, and salt, or you can mix by hand.
Scatter the butter pieces over the flour mixture. If using a food processor, pulse using short pulses, about 15. If doing by hand, cut butter into flour using a pastry blender or your hands. I just used my Kitchenaid, it was fine.

Add the egg mixture to the flour/butter mixture, until the dough comes together. I love that moment when dough totally comes together! :P

Turn the dough out onto a sheet of plastic wrap and press into a 6" disk. Wrap and refrigerate at least one hour.

Let chilled dough warm slightly at room temp and roll out to fit 9" tart pan. Freeze the tart dough in its pan for about 30 minutes.


I like the crimpy look, hehe.

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 375oF. Press a large sheet of foil into the bottom of the tart, and fill with beans or pie weights. (As you can see, I used pennies, just as good!) Bake 30 minutes. Remove foil and weights, bake until the crust is golden, about an additional 5-10 minutes.

While crust is baking, prepare filling. In a stainless steel sauce pan (large), whisk together eggs, egg yolks and sugar. Whisk in lemon juice, zest, and salt. Add the butter and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until the curd thickens to a thin, sauce-like consistency, about 5 minutes.

Strain the curd through a fine mesh strainer, immediately. Stir in heavy cream. (Now I finally figured out why the recipe asks for 7 egg YOLKS, and not 7 EGGS. Because all that white stuff forms. Duh!)

Pour curd into still warm crust. Bake 10-15 minutes, the center should jiggle slightly.

Transfer tart to cooking rack and let cool to room temperature.
Serve, or chill. Best if eaten within several hours. Or right away. Note to self, do not start baking projects so late because by the time you finish, the lighting will suck b/c there's no more natural light and you'll have to adjust the white balance yourself. Still looks tasty even in fake light though, huh? :P



I'm submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks to celebrate the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient. This month's secret ingredient is LEMON. The host for June is Wandering Chopsticks. Do check her blog for the lemon round up with various recipes.

"Homeless People Take a Shower in This!"

I had a really weird conversation today while walking to the Washington Monument. This is after seeing a lady pick up her dog to drink out of the water fountain:

Me: Hey that's not very sanitary! (half to the lady, half to Jer)
Her friend: You're not very sanitary!
Me: (Looks at Jerry in disbelief, what did she just say?!)
Me: Would you use your dog's toothbrush to brush your own teeth?!
The lady: Homeless people take a shower in this! (she basically screams this at our backs while we're walking down the path and everyone in the vicinity can totally hear her, haha!)

Jer and I looked at each other and were like WHAT?! Did they really say those things? And since when is it cool to let a DOG drink out of a HUMAN water fountain? That's why they invented dog water dishes and didn't make water fountains at dog level. Sheesh.

So anyways, though I really like dogs and we will probably get a family dog(s) someday, I will never quite understand why some people treat their dogs better than children. Clothing, pet insurance, and drinking out of a water fountain? Sanitary or not, lines have to be drawn.

Some People Apparently Have Too Much Time

I admit, I'm not always productive. Sometimes I do really un*EARTHQUAKE* literally just happened while I was typing! So close to us too: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=33.9396+-118.3378(M5.0+-+GREATER+LOS+ANGELES+AREA,+CALIFORNIA+-+2009+May+18++03:39:36+UTC)&f=d&t=h&hl=e&ie=UTF8&ll=33.9396,-118.3378&spn=1.99605,4.493408&z=8&iwloc=A

We grabbed jackets, went outside, called our mommas and then went back in after chatting with the neighbors who came out barefoot haha.

Okay back to blogging.

I was about to say that I do some really unproductive dumb things, but this has got to be one of the worst waste of times that I've ever seen:

Jeanie sent you a message.

Subject: Finding all Jeanie/Jeannie Nguyens' on Facebook

"Hi I'm Jeanie Nguyen from Dallas/Ft. Worth, Texas. My name is like yours' except it has only one 'n.' It's close enough. I just thought of a creative idea and it's to add all the people whom share both my first and last name. Well, I guess it's sort of retarded too. I came up with this idea because there has only been one person whom shared my first name and a ton whom shared my last, I mean our name. What's great about facebook is that it enables us to find anyone. Before I add you as a friend I wanted to send you a message instead. You don't add me if you're not into this idea. It's all for fun!"

Really? You have nothing else to do but add people with your name on Facebook? As a "friend"? Totally killing the meaning of "friend."

So I actually did respond to her. I said no thanks and that I was planning on changing my name anyway. Haha. I suppose this is also a waste of time, to blog about it, but I just thought it was so ridiculous that I had to share. Facebook can be a good tool to reconnect with people, but the social networking line has to be drawn somewhere!

Anyone else have dumb facebook stories to share?

Whirlwind

1. I got a job! I'll be continuing my position at Cedars-Sinai, but on a full time basis. I feel super lucky, but I know it was also my hard work that landed me the position. Yay for health insurance and 403(b)! I actually started 3 days after I got the offer, so I had to adjust pretty quickly. I've been knocking out pretty early each night, so not that much time to visit or write blogs lately.
2. I passed comps- the final step! I officially have my degree now though the ceremony is not until June. I can officially add MPH after my name, hehe. Now I'm going to focus on paying off my loans, my goal is to avoid paying interest. OMGAWD, I'm a working professional!
3. I have a lousy commute again, but no complaints. I'm just trying to get used to driving everyday again. I've found some short cuts that do shave off some time, so thank goodness for that! I don't claim to have the worst commute though. I admire ppl who really don't have that many choices for their commute, but they suck it up and do it w/o complaints.
4. We don't want to make a habit of eating out now that both of us are working, and we don't want to make excuses for not cooking because we're too tired or b/c we get home late, so we're going to start spending some part of our Sundays stocking up the fridge for the week. I still do enjoy dining out, but exploring new joints are best left for leisurely weekends. I prefer home-cooked nutritious meals to keep me going throughout the week. I do work in a nice area with lots of restaurants, so maybe once in a while I'll treat myself to a lunch out. I've already tried Joan's On Third- pretty tasty but pricey!
5. No matter what, I will not use work as excuse for not continuing our workouts. It's so easy to fall in that trap, so I want to maintain my habits early on, while I'm still trying to establish my weekday rhythm. I'm determined to be fit for Half-Dome and all of our other outdoor adventures. One thing that I think I'm going to try is to take a short walk during my lunch break, even though it's much easier and lazier to just stay inside. I need creative ways to incorporate physical activity in my day, now that I'll be sitting at a desk for a third of my day, and sleeping for another third.
6. We are going to DC and NYC in less than 2 weeks so we need to get into major planning mode! It'll be my last vacation for a while, until I pass the probationary period and accrue enough PTO. My boss was okay with me going on this trip b/c we had booked it months in advance. I'm very much looking forward to it!

That's pretty much my life right now...once I get used to budgeting my time for various activities like working, cooking, exercising, and trip planning, we can go back to doing some more house remodeling- I still really want to stain the banisters!

This Was Just Too Funny To Not Post

(Taylor Swift's pop version of Love Story is in the background)
Jerry: I know what I want to Youtube next! A Jonas Brothers song. I've never heard of any of their songs.
::types::
Jerry: I wonder what their most popular song is?! (while humming along to Love Story)
Me: Did you find it? Are you at wikipedia?
Jerry: Yeah. (Laughs) I can't believe I'm wikipedia-ing Jonas Brothers. Okay, it's Burning Up.
::types::
Me: Do you like it?
Jerry: Hmm. (Bops his head along)

Omg, I can't believe he is bopping his head along to Jonas Brothers.

...

And is now youtube-ing another Jonas Brothers song.