Peach Tart

     Easy as pie. Except pie is not easy. At least not if you don't have practice getting the crust to that perfect level of buttery flakiness. But then there is the rustic tart. Simple and elegant. I'm a bit embarrassed to post the "recipe" because I never measure the ingredients for the filling. It's one of those things I make when I want to impress my friends, but I don't want to, you know...work hard. I usually just add ingredients to my taste. Not too much sugar, because I like a tart to be, well, a little tart. All in all, the tart is delicious, considering how little effort goes into it.

Pie Crust Tutorial (with pictures!)

I finally got around to making a crust and snapping some shots. I needed the crust to make this, a special request from my boyfriend. Now, I would never think to make a pie out of pineapple, but I guess meringue pies are the go-to for weirdly textured fruit. I'm a sucker for recipes that say "grandma" or "the best," so I couldn't resist making "Grandma Inez's Pineapple Pie." And she's a real, southern grandmother according to the step-by-step! Usually, that statement would not require an exclamation point, but I always had the suspicion that most of those "grandma" recipes are from the back of a flour container...

Papaya Smoothie

This recipe is a little something I picked up from my father. He usually makes it on a weekend morning and we eat it for breakfast with a hunks of soft, challah-like bread.

I was surprised to find the lovely specimen pictured above at my local Trader Joe's. I usually have to take advantage of times when I happen to be in Spanish neighborhoods to find stuff like this. I make it sound like an ordeal, but living in Manhattan...anything is just a short train ride away. And if you live in a reasonably diverse area, there's bound to be a Spanish market nearby. You just have to know when things are in season and trying out these recipes should be cake :)

Papaya Smoothie
Serves 2
1 tray of ice cubes
1/2 a papaya, ripe and cut into chunks
1/4 Cup sugar
1/4 Cup milk
1/2 to 1 tsp of vanilla

This recipe can easily be tweaked to taste. First, remove seeds. Put ice cubes, papaya chunks, sugar, milk, and vanilla into a blender. Blend. It's that easy. And crazy good.

Pi Day

Passionfruit is my absolute favorite of all flavors. You don't usually see it in pies, but I was determined to make it happen. A friend and I came up with this recipe and "tested" it three times. You know...for science. Honestly, I was surprised that it was such a success, but it really turned out very good. A little tart, a little sweet, and the buttery, flaky crust balances it all out.

And, as promised, a pie crust tutorial after the jump. For now the tutorial has no pictures. I didn't have my pie dish, so I couldn't take photos. I'll re-post with pics soon.

Wednesday is Pi Day!

And in honor of this most important of "holidays" I'll be posting a little tutorial on how to make the perfect pie crust (along with a recipe for a passionfruit meringue pie that a friend and I came up with). I've picked up a few techniques here and there, and I assure you it's very doable. There's no reason why anyone should have to eat a store-bought crust. Ever. Sounds snobby? Well, this is not Sandra Lee's blog...

Guava-Apple Crumble Pie

On a little island in the Caribbean there is a quaint little cement house with my name inscribed in the concrete of the back porch. My grandfather wrote it there many years ago, perhaps thinking that I would live there someday, or at least visit often. Well, I no longer live in the balmy Caribbean and most of my close family has settled in the US. The house has largely become a distant, dreamy memory.


What does all this nostalgia have to to with this blog? Well, the back porch that I mentioned is surrounded by fruit trees and other tropical plants. Guavas, acerola cherries, sugar cane, plantains, limes, oranges, avocados; you name it, it grows there. Those are the flavors I grew up with, even though I spent most of my life in the US. And now that I'm far away from my mother's kitchen, I'd like to bring those flavors into my own.


I like to think that by working on these recipes I'm melding two culinary traditions that are important to me; something in between what I would have eaten at the little cement house and what I learned when I first started baking in college...and it tastes a little something like this: