Vegetable Tarte Tatin

Vegetable Tarte Tatin

We had friends of ours from Roxbury for dinner Saturday night. Tim pulled out all the stops and made an amazing dinner. One of the side dishes was this great upside down vegetable tarte. It was delicious.

Ingredients:

2 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thin rounds

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds

2 medium parsnips, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds

1 small onion cut into 1/2 thick rounds

4 cloves garlic halved

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon small fresh sage leaves

1 tablespoon fresh oregano leaves

6 ounces mozzarella, grated ( about 1 cup)

1 - 8.5 ounce sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed

All purpose flour for dusting

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss both kinds of potatoes, the parsnips, onion, garlic, olive oil, 1 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper in a bowl. Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet; bake until tender about 45 minutes. Let cool slightly.

2. Meanwhile, mix 2 tablespoons water and the sugar in a skillet and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook, swirling the pan, until amber, about 7 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon each salt and pepper. Pour the caramel into a 9 x 13 inch glass baking dish and spread with a rubber spatula. Sprinkle the sage and oregano on top.

3. Arrange the roasted potatoes and parsnips in a single snug layer on top of the caramel. Scatter the onion and garlic over the roasted vegetables; sprinkle evenly with the mozzarella.

4. Roll out the puff pastry on a lightly floured surface into a 9 x 13 inch rectangle. Pierce the pastry all over with a fork and then lay it on top of the mozzarella, folding the edges under to fit, if necessary. Bake 20 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and continue baking until the dough is cooked through, 15 to 20 minutes.

5. Let the tart cool 10 minutes in the baking dish, then carefully invert it onto a cutting board. Replace any vegetables that stick to the dish, if necessary.

If It's Not One Thing It's Another

Sooo any one who has started a project and it evolves into one project after another ultimately never getting finished knows the kind of day we had with this gazebo kit. With 5 acres and a new house, we have so much landscaping to do. Tim's parents are a huge help but it is endless. It looks like a moonscape. Endless rock and mud. We haven't done anything with the backyard so the gazebo was our first attempt. We started to put together the gazebo and originally we wanted a simple slate patio with the gazebo but we picked the worst day to try to assemble this thing. It was a really warm day and the snow was melting, the ground was unfreezing, the spring was overflowing, it was a sea of mud. We couldn't get the posts level and had to go buy 12 x 12 x 2 planks to get the thing level and then the gazebo was really tall. Tim was helping but by the time we got the whole thing assembled, the two of us were on a ladder on top of a picnic table trying to screw in the finials. Who designs these things? We now are going to have to build a deck because the posts can't be level on the patio and we have mud everywhere. I know we will come back next weekend and the posts will have sunk into the ground and all will be left will be the canopy.

DIY PROJECT: Upholstered Headboards

Do you know how hard it is to find stylish, affordable twin headboards for an adult guest room? Ok, I won't tell you. I couldn't find what I wanted so I decided to make our own. Zarin Fabrics in NY for the 4" foam, spray adhesive, printed linen fabric and nailheads. One stop shopping. Lowes for the plywood. I cut the plywood to size, stapled the fabric to the plywood, sprayed the foam adhesive and put the foam into place. All of this took no time at all. However, two hours of measuring and placing and hammering the nailheads into place. It is impossible to keep those things in line. However, I was really happy with the results. The drapes and bedskirts match the headboards. A little paint and some wainscoting and the room will be perfect. Now all I need is another week.

If it's Tuesday, It's Bowling Night In Margaretville

Like the Flight of the Choncords song - "Business Night", Tim and I like to break up our week accordingly and Tuesday night up here in Margaretville is Bowling Night. I know I would make Tim insane if all I did was work on projects. I have to make myself venture out a little and Tuesday night we decided to go wild. First with a dinner at the Bun and Cone - Woo hoo! Nachos, burgers and ice cream. Disgusting. Second, with a game night at the Margaretville Bowling Alley. It turns out that there are only two nights a week that they have open lane night - Tuesdays and Saturdays. We had dinner guests coming Saturday night so the only night we could go was Tuesday. We walked into the Bowling alley feeling less then competent but up to the challenge. I haven't bowled since my twenties but was a pretty good bowler. Michael, the owner, was incredibly friendly and made us feel very comfortable and welcome. There were several lanes full with female leaguers and they were kind of scary so Michael moved us to the farthest lane away as possible. Tim and I grabbed our balls and ordered a couple beers and stepped into our bowling shoes. We had a blast. The bowling alley is old fashioned and hasn't been updated and that was a big plus. Places like this are a goldmine. We had a great time in a great environment that just reminded us of the past. Tim does this hilarious moon walk when he makes a strike or a spare. I couldn't stop laughing. I won. However, I got a blister on my pinky finger. I guess I am a little fragile. My hand modeling career is over.

Cha Cha Hut BBQ

Saturday night, post Burger King, Pancake fest ( yes we like to eat), we decide that we aren't going to cook and decide to go get take out. Now, getting take out in Bovina is a challenge. The only food option in our town is a little deli/merchantile store called Russells and it is only open during the day - the sandwiches are great BTW. We have to drive to Delhi, Andes, or Margaretville which are all a 30 minute drive for us to get food. Everyone has been telling us to check out Cha Cha Hut BBQ in Andes which opened last October. We had met the two owners, Cherie and Frank, at a cocktail party in Roxbury when they still had a restaurant there. I grew up in Texas and I love brisket. I also love the hole-in-the-wall places you go to in Texas to get good BBQ. Cha Cha Hut is exactly like that - I mean this in a good way. The restaurant is tucked behind a general store in the center of Andes on Main St. You can smell the smoke burning and BBQ cooking as you get out of your car and walk towards the restaurant. Cherie and Frank run it and chat with us as they carve and plate the BBQ. We are so excited about having them in our neck of the woods. I got brisket and Tim got pork ribs and they were both amazing. Their sauces are incredible (on the spicy side the way Tim likes it) and their sides are fantastic. I especially loved the sweet potatoes. Cherie also makes phenomenal ice cream. Delicious. We start our diets tomorrow.

Maplewood Farm and Orchard

As if we hadn't had enough food from the friday night commute - we got invited to an open house pancake breakfast early Saturday morning. Duane and Karen La Fever are two of the nicest people we have met upstate. Duane was our contractor for our house and should have his own HGTV show like Holmes on Holmes. Duane is a perfectionist and an all-around nice guy. Karen is attractive, sweet, talented and helps run their business with Duane. As if a contracting business isn't enough, they also own a maple syrup business. They run Maplewood Farm and Orchard. I never turn down pancakes or any food for that matter so we drove over to the open house. You arrived at the open house which was a large room with room-length tables and you sat down and a large plate of pancakes, scrambled eggs and sausage was instantly set in front of you. Every weekend should be like this. The breakfast was delicious. The room was full of happy local people eating and chatting. Along the perimeter of the room were tables with displays of all of the products that the farm produces. Maple syrup, candies, spreads - if it's maple they make it. In addition to the Maple displays - the local Dairy ambassador ( apparently it's an official title and it comes with a sash) has a demo table displaying Dairy Ambassador type thingies.

We didn't know anyone there so we walked back to get a tour of the evaporating equipment room with Duane. Duane is always happy but seems especially proud of his equipment. We got the tour and got to watch syrup being made. Afterwards, we went out front and chatted with Karen and not that we were obligated but bought a crate of syrups, candies and spreads. Their products are really good and make great gifts. Thanks Karen and Duane for inviting us!

Burger King #5 Please

We took a week off this past week and spent it at our house upstate. We really look forward to vacations upstate because it also means that we can bring up our cats instead of leaving them in our NY apartment. We have had our older Siamese, Burns, at the house before and he's always a total pleasure. He spends most of the week napping and sunning himself on the sofa in the living room. I love the way animals make a house come alive. We feel like a little family tucked away in the woods. We decided to give Sookie, our "True Blood" year old kitten, another chance. We had her up over New Years and she wasn't the best behaved. However, maybe the second visit would be better, right?

I love animals but don't want to be identified as one of those crazy pet people on the metro train so I drove up early with all of the luggage. Tim doesn't have issues with being a crazy cat lady so he picked up the cats after work and took the train. I met Tim at the Poughkeepsie train station and Burns was crying in his carrier as usual. He is most definitely - Siamese. Sookie was quiet but she hasn't learned how to meow yet- so that wasn't surprising. Burns cries enough for a dozen cats. We drove through the Burger King drive thru because we are currently addicted to the #5 A1 Steakhouse Burger with crunchy onion rings. Yum. We chowed down on the thruway and afterwards felt a little queezy from the quantity and smell of the fried food in the truck. Maybe it was the odor, the movement of the truck or the rude toll operator in Kingston but suddenly Sookie started meowing. We got so excited about her meowing that Tim pulled her out of her carrier bag and held her in his lap. Her meow is more of a squeak at this point. She sat there squeaking and we sat there amused and all of a sudden she pulled a Linda Blair all over us. Apparently, we weren't the only ones nauseous from Burger King. Tim put Sookie back in her carrier. 2 cats crying and squeaking, vomit, Burger King onion ring remnants and a two hour drive to the house. That was how our vacation began. Happy Family.