What a fun day we had today!  Our dear friend Ruth was visiting from Vermont, so she stopped by to spend a few hours with us.  Naturally, that means food.

I made a variation on the Rustic Summer Tart from a couple of weeks ago.

Here’s the original recipe and my changes will follow…

Rustic Summer Squash Tart Recipe

By Woman’s Day Kitchen from Woman’s Day | August 1, 2008

Active Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Recipe Ingredients

  • 1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 lb mixed summer squash (zucchini, yellow squash and pattypan), cut in 1/4-in. rounds
  • 2 shallots, thinly sliced
  • 2 tsp chopped fresh thyme or marjoram, plus sprigs for garnish
  • 1 tsp chopped garlic
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 1 refrigerated pie crust (from a 15-oz. box)
  • 4 oz Roquefort cheese, Gorgonzola or other good-quality blue cheese
  • 1 roasted yellow or red pepper (freshly roasted or from a jar), cut in strips
  • 1 large plum tomato, sliced, seeds removed
  • 1 large egg, beaten

Recipe Preparation

  1. Heat oil in large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add squash and shallots and cook, turning pieces as they start to color, 7 minutes or until crisp-tender. Remove from heat; stir in thyme, garlic and pepper to taste. Cool to room temperature.
  2. Heat oven to 400° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper; unroll or unfold pie crust on the parchment. With a rolling pin, roll crust to a 13-in. round. Crumble half the cheese over crust to within 2 in. of edge. Arrange squash mixture, pepper strips and tomato slices on cheese; fold edge of the crust over filling and brush crust with egg.
  3. Bake 35 to 40 minutes until pastry is golden. Slide tart, still on parchment, onto a wire rack. Crumble remaining cheese over top. Let cool before serving.

I made it with arugula, mushrooms, leeks, red onions, zucchini, red and yellow peppers, tomatoes, really good gorgonzola, and assorted fresh herbs from the garden.  And homemade crust, of course.

A bit of fresh fruit, of course…

And scones.

This is the second batch I made.  I forgot the baking powder in the first batch.  They didn’t come out very well.

The second batch came out great!

Scones

  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 1/3 cup jam

Preheat oven to 400°. Mix flour, sugar, baking powder, and 1/2 teaspoon salt in large bowl. Add butter; rub in with fingertips until mixture resembles fine meal. Gradually add 1 cup cream, mixing until dough comes together. Pat to 1/2-inch thickness. Ccut scones into wedges.  Make indentation on top of scone and fill with 1 teaspoon jam. Transfer to baking sheet. Bake scones until brown, about 18 minutes. Serve warm.

We had a lot of fun sitting around and talking up a storm.  And eating.

And we’ll be seeing her in October in New Hampshire.

Life is good.

Oh…  And tomorrow is Victor’s Pasta Day.

Life is really good!