It has been a long while since I have posted, but that doesn't mean that I haven't been cooking or gardening. Short ribs, lamb shoulder chops, various uses of quinoa, grilled asparagus, a refrigerator-emptying soup, and all sorts of other things have come and gone, and I haven't written a word about them. And then there is all of the activity in the garden. Potatoes, onions, and peas planted, grasses cut back, and all the rest. I think that this is my busiest time of year. I have even found myself wishing for a Federal government shutdown, just so that I could have a week or so to make some progress on my "to do" list. There are several painting projects, for example. Indoor and outdoor, it seems like we just have a boatload of painting to do. It reminds me of a story I read once about the family firm that is in charge of painting the Bay Bridge in San Francisco Bay. They start at one end and work their way across the bay. By the time they finish, it is time to start back in on the other end.

So I was off today, even though it was a Monday, because I had to work on Friday, which was my normal day off. I only finished about half of the things on my list, but I did accomplish a few kitchen goals. I made three loaves of pain de campagne, which is the variety I have been struggling to perfect. I think that I did the best job with the dough that I have done so far, but shaping the loaves is still a bit of a challenge. Hopefully practice will eventually make perfect. Today I did one boule and two batards. We had part of the boule for dinner, and it was undeniably tasty. Perhaps next time I will just do three boules, and really try to get them right.

Along with the bread we had an asparagus and ham tart. I essentially adpated a recipe from the Greens restaurant cookbook. They have a basic recipe for tart dough for a 9 inch tart. Since I have a 10 inch pan, and since I have always found their recipe to be a little skimpy, I just increased it by a factor of one third, which was about right. Their dough uses one cup of regular flour, which I supplemented with a third of a cup of whole wheat flour. I thought that really worked. For the filling I sauteed a giant sliced leek in olive oil, blanched some asparagus for 3 minutes, diced some ham, and grated about 2/3 of a cup of Gruyere cheese. The custard included 3 eggs, 1 1/2 cups of light cream, some salt and white pepper, and some fresh thyme. After prebaking the crust, I layered in the cheese first, then the leek, then the ham and asparagus before pouring in the custard. It spend about 45 minutes in a 375 degree oven.

I opened a 2009 Linden Rose wine to have with the tart, and it was delicious. I want to get out there to buy another case of wine, but I wanted to try everything we bought on the last trip so that I would know what we wanted. In truth, comparable French and Spanish wines are available for quite a bit less money, but I still like the idea of drinking locally.