Blitherings – Page 206 – Ink, Yarn & Beer

Apricot Tart

With summer, the stone fruits beg to be eaten, made into jam, baked in pies and tarts, added to fruit salad! The beauty of this recipe is that you can use any summer fruit, adapting the recipe as necessary for whatever fruit you choose. I hope you enjoy my recipe!

Apricot Tart
You will need about 12-18 apricots for the tart, depending on size.

The puree should be made ahead of time and cooled – if it is not cooled, the buttery dough will melt and the tart will not be as pretty as it could be – but it will still taste good!

Preheat oven to 350 F. Place rack for tart pan in lower 1/3 of oven.

Apricot Puree
12-15 ripe apricots

Make this before you begin the dough – you can make it the day before you plan on serving the tart.

Cut 10-12 apricots in half, removing seeds and any spoiled areas. Add more apricots if necessary. Put into heavy pan with 2-3 T. water; cook apricots in water until tender, stirring so as to make sure apricots do not burn. Cover apricots between stirring to reduce water evaporation. This will take about 10 minutes. Once apricots are soft, add 3 T. white sugar and any spices you may wish to use as flavoring, such as mace or cardamom. Cook in open pan until thickened – another 10 minutes or so. If it does not get too thick, don’t worry about it. Cool thoroughly before placing in tart.

Crust
2 c. flour
1/4 t. salt
1/2 c. sugar
12 T (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter
4 egg yolks

Cut butter into small dice; work into flour until resembles coarse meal. Knead into ball in bowl. If dough is crumbly, add a little bit of water (1/4 t. at a time) until you can create a smooth dough. Do not overwork. Cut off about 1/4 to 1/3 of ball. Reshape both into balls; wrap in plastic and let sit at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

Apricot Slices
4-6 ripe apricots

Cut apricots in half, then cut the halves into quarters. These will be used to top the apricot puree.

Assembling the Tart
Take larger of the two balls of dough, flatten a bit, then mush into a 9-10 inch tart pan (one with a removable rim), covering the bottom and up the sides.

Use about 1/3 to 1/2 c. apricot preserves (I microwave mine a bit to make it easier to spread) and spread in a thin layer on top of dough.

Pour apricot puree over the jam, spreading evenly. Place sliced apricots on top of puree in a pretty pattern, or randomly. Just try to cover the top of the tart evenly so it will look nice.

Take smaller ball of dough and break off small pieces and place them evenly over the top of the tart.

Bake at 350 F for about 60-75 minutes. At 60 minutes, check it. If you use a convection oven, check it at 45-50 mins.

Very good served warm, at room temperature, with a bit of cream or marscapone or ice cream, or all alone!

Lucette

. . . has arrived!

This is a hat I named after the lucet, which is a tool used to make cords, as well as after one of my favorite designers, Lucy of A Black Pepper (click the link at the right to go visit her), who does beautiful designs with cables and bobbles.

This hat is begun with the Estonian cast on, which is really easy to do, but nearly impossible to describe in words. You can find Nancy Bush’s video of it on YouTube, or on the August 8, 2010, entry here. This cast on is incredibly stretchy, as well as neat and tidy. If you look at the bottom two pictures, you can see how much the hat will stretch out to accommodate a head!

What to do on a sunny day?

This morning was bright and warm from the moment I got up – at 6:30.

I really don’t want to be indoors. My thoughts are in a lot of different directions. I could transplant some roses. I can set up the ink and paper outdoors, and wander into when I want. I could download an audiobook (the newest da Silva is calling) and finish up my little knitting projects. This last sounds really good! I’ve been a bit too focused on one thing . . . do like to break up patterns . . .

Especially nice to see this morning is the plumeria finally bloomed!

Knitting Projects, a Video, and a Read

Admittedly, most of this past week I have not picked up my knitting. It’s been rather a busy week with both of us on vacation. There are also relatives in town, friends to visit, and calligraphy to do and novels to read. And exercise, and planning meals, and trying to have a life for a bit! However, I barricaded myself in what was / is my studio (my brother is sleeping in it for now), and closed the door. No one in the same room, but I do hear the clatter of dishes or whatever. It’s so nice to just be alone! Or, a lawn, in the words of Ms. Garbo.

The major projects at present are sweaters for a friend’s twin grandsons, born about 2 weeks ago. These sweaters are for 6-12 month olds in size, so a bit of a wait won’t harm them any.

This sweater is a kimono sweater. The design is not original. I’m not too sure I like it – I think the ribbing is a bit funky, but the yarn is a nice color combo, and it is wash-n-wear. (In other words, acrylic!)

Now this sweater is one of my own design, the pattern which I hope to publish once done. I liked doing this one much more than the kimono, but will admit I am getting tired of it. That long blue blob under the needles is a hood, which, if my neat side plays out, will be grafted – something I really, really hate!

Finally, the SO has another hat. This is the Xenocryst hat, by Linda Shelhamer, in the Fall 2010 issue of Knitscene.

I misread the pattern and put only one purl stitch between the patterns, but it worked out just fine. The cast on was perfect, too, as it really is stretchy. You can find out how to do it by watching this video with Nancy Bush.

In fact, I liked this cast on so much, I started a hat using it and cables and bobbles.

Finally, I am reading another book about Chinese calligraphy. This one is a bit different from many as it goes into some interesting details and makes interesting comparisons to Western art. I’m up to page 70 with a lot more to read.

The Chinese Art of Writing, by Jean Francois Billeter

Nadja van Ghelue has it on her recommended list of books about calligraphy. Just by happenstance I found it at our local library, before knowing of her recommendation. It is quite fascinating because of the way in which Chinese calligraphy is presented, and admittedly, it is holding my interest even though I often find books like this to be more than I can handle – I just look at the pictures! – as I am not especially scholarly in my preferred reading! (I like spy novels, to tell the truth.)

The August Project: Bone Strokes

Kaishu / Kaisho – standard or regular script, with some variations over time, is what most of us are familiar with as Chinese characters or Japanese kanji. It fits nicely into squares, but it goes far, far beyond that. There are a lot of dynamics at work in this script! Dots and lines, hooks, and so on. It is amazingly complicated in some ways, but not in others. But doing it right is another story.

This is an example of regular script, from a long, long time ago.

If you look closely, you will find some long, horizontal lines, which are wider at either end and narrow toward the middle. These are called “bone strokes.” Here is one below – and the path the brush should follow as you create it.