Yearly Archives: 2006

Blueberry tarts for fella tarts

Posted August 12 2012 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Okay, this one isn’t about books or authors or the show, but about tarts. Cleanse your minds, folks; you’ve been looking at online porno a bit too much.  I’m talking about the tarts you make from scratch using summer fruit.  In this case, blueberries.  These tarts were a major hit and my cousin Gerry and a few friends asked for the recipe, so here it is.  The recipe hasn’t been kitchen tested so don’t sue me if the tarts don’t come out exactly right. But the recipe is kinda basic so I’m confident your result will be delish.

Blueberry tarts for fella tarts
It’s so hard to get it exactly right when you see how things are going and you add a little more of this or that. Most tart recipes can be modified. Cakes—no.  They rely more on chemistry and exactly measures but it’s hard to mess up a pie.
Crust
Wheat…
Any pie crust recipe. I used one from my Fanny Farmer cookbook and instead of a full 2 cups of unbleached flour, used ½ cup of whole wheat flour and 1 ¾ cups of unbleached.
or
Gluten free….Also made a gluten free flour mixed that tasted heavenly and held together using 1 cup of tapioca starch, 1 cup of brown rice flour and ½ cup of almond meal that I ground using raw almonds and then sifted so it was all smooth. This with a pinch of salt and 12 tablespoons of ice cold butter and water.
then
Line little tartlet metal molds (bought mine at Sur le Table) and bake in a 350 degree preheated oven for 10 minutes or until they look lightly done.
In the meantime…
Blueberries
4 or so cups of fresh blueberries
1 cup of sugar (I used organic)
3 T cornstarch
1 cup water
1/8 teaspoon salt
(optional: a tablespoon or two of butter. I didn’t add it but for butter lovers, you might want to)
Mix the sugar, cornstarch salt and water in a pot and cook over very low heat until thickened.  Add blueberries and cook a little more.  Turn off heat but allow the mixture to stay in the pot and cool.
Crumb topping
Mix ¼ cup of flour and ¼ cup of brown sugar, mix, then add two tablespoons of cold butter. Mix with your fingers.  You want a crumbly texture. If the mixture seems too buttery, add in some brown sugar, then flour. It’s hard to mess this up. 
Complete and bake…
Now, you have a couple dozen partially baked tart shells, a cooked blueberry mixture and a crumb topping. Scoop blueberries into the tart shells so they are nicely rounded and once they’re all filled, sprinkle with the crumb topping. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15 minutes. Bake a little more until the crumb topping looks a little golden and the edge of the tarts are a little golden, too. You can always use this to make one big plump pie and there’s enough pie crust to make a lattice top instead of using crumbs. And you can also use a different fruit and the same ingredients.  Up to you! Let me know how it goes. Take a picture! And enjoy. 
Love, Barbara

Camille Noe Pagan & Janet Groth

Posted July 23 2012 by Marrie Stone

Camille Noe Pagan talks to Marrie Stone about her novel, “The Art of
Forgetting,” how journalism feeds her fiction, the discipline of writing
 with children, and the mysteries of brain injuries.  Janet Groth joins
in the second half, talking about her years working at The New
Yorker in her memoir, “The Receptionist: An Education at The New
Yorker.”
(Broadcast date: July 11, 2012)

Litstack & Robert Olen Butler

Posted July 23 2012 by Barbara DeMarco-Barrett

Have you visited Litstack? Here’s a cool review of Robert Olen Butler’s writing book, From Where You Dream. Robert was on the show a couple of times talking about this book and talking about his newest novel.  Play particular attention to what the reviewer has to say about writing using the senses. As he says Chekhov says, don’t talk about how the moon was shining; show it glinting on a piece of glass.