10 Minute Fruit Tart

This weekend was, well, far from what I expect of a weekend. Very little relaxing and yet very little accomplished. Most of our time was committed to other people, with very little left to ourselves, most of which went to sleep. Saturday was my father-in-law's birthday and we'd made plans to have dinner at their place Sunday night. They asked us on Saturday to bring the fruit tart that he wanted for dessert. I said sure thing, and then promptly didn't concern myself with it again until Sunday morning. We had a very late night Saturday, so we slept in quite a bit. When I arose I popped open my netbook to check the weekly ads for our grocery errands. And then I realized that most of the stores were closed for Easter. I'm a genius. Now, not only can I not buy my regular groceries, but I can't find the fruit tart that my father-in-law requested for his birthday. Luckily there was a Kroger in our neighborhood that was open, but they of course didn't have any fruit tarts in their bakery. Now I was faced with having to come up with something on my own. Let's be honest here, this tart isn't anything amazing. I more or less pulled a Sandra Lee on this one, which I'm not very excited about. But, it came together quickly, easily, and everyone really enjoyed it. So, I figured why not share it? It's getting warmer, and with warmer weather comes more picnics and cookouts. Maybe you'll need a quick dessert, and maybe this will be it. I'm going to give you the rundown of what I did and how I did it to get this thing together in 10 minutes, not so much a recipe as a process I guess.

10 Minute Fruit Tart

1 9 inch prepared graham cracker crust
1 large box instant vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
1 cup whipping cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 pint strawberries, sliced
1 pint blueberries
1 pint raspberries

• Put the bowl you'll use for making whipped cream in the fridge to chill. Put your milk in the freezer. Rinse and pick over your berries.
• Take your milk out of the freezer; put your cream in the freezer. Combine your pudding mix and cold milk and follow the pudding's instructions; mine said to beat for 2 minutes, let set for at least 5. Once done beating put the bowl of pudding in the refrigerator. Remove your empty bowl and whipping cream from the fridge and freezer.
• Beat the whipping cream on medium-high until soft peaks form. Sprinkle the sugar and vanilla over the cream, and beat again until soft peaks form, being careful not to over-whip.
• Put your whipped cream in the refrigerator. Slice your strawberries to your desired size. By now the pudding should be set. Spread pudding evenly into the pie crust. Top with your fruit, in whatever design you'd like.
• If you want to go the extra step, I used a piping bag to pipe some of my whipped cream on top. I had some fruit leftover, and obviously plenty of whipped cream, which we topped the plated slices with at dinner. You could also spread a layer of whipped cream on top of the pudding and then top with the fruit, or keep all the whipped cream for the side. Whatever tickles your fancy.

My notes: Popping my milk, cream, and bowls in the fridge and freezer just helped things come together a little more quickly. Especially since I started on this as soon as I returned from the store, so my dairy products had been out of the cooler for a little while by that point. Homemade whipped cream takes so little time to make and I think it adds at least a little something to a dessert that relies so much on shortcut goods.

Berry, Berry Good

Saturday morning I got up bright and early to tidy up the kitchen and get to work on some breakfast. I found a nice new blog this week, Checkered Napkins, and discovered a nice new muffin recipe through it. I was pretty excited to try this muffin recipe out because it made good use of the white whole wheat flour I have had since my unsuccessful attempt at baking bread. I've also never done anything with fresh blueberries, but they are one of Josh's favorite things. It was really nice to be able to tell him when he got up that there were blueberry muffins in the oven.

100% Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins
Recipe from Checkered Napkins; Makes 1 dozen
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2 cups white whole-wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons fresh lemon zest
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1 cup fresh blueberries (frozen will work too)

• Line a 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners. Mix together dry ingredients and lemon zest. In another small bowl, whisk together wet ingredients. Make a well in the dry and add the wet. Stir until just combined. The batter should be thick but still wet. Add a little more milk if it seems too dry. Stir in blueberries, and divide among muffin cups.
• Bake at 425 degrees for about 15 minutes.

My notes: These muffins aren't overly sweet, allowing you to taste more of the lemon and blueberry. White whole wheat is a fabulous flour because you are getting all the nutritional value, without the often overpowering flavor of whole grains. I think I'll be making some more of these very soon.

Sunday morning I wanted to have a nice smoothie. I hadn't made smoothies before, but had been thinking about them for quite awhile, ever since I saw them showing different smoothie ideas on Real Simple. I went with the basic smoothie recipe, adjusting for what I had on hand. And I enjoyed it with the muffins I made the morning before.

Raspberry Banana Smoothie

1/2 cup orange juice
1 banana
1 cup frozen raspberries

Put all ingredients in blender, juice first. Blend for 1 minute and serve. Makes 2 small or 1 large smoothie.