Something Squirrelly this Way Comes

No, I did not use squirrel in my fruit tarts. They just came out oddly. The cream didn't whip up as directed. It looks like a cross between cottage cheese and tapioca pudding. The glaze makes the fruit look spoiled. Perhaps the combo of apricot marmalade, razzmatazz and blue curacao wasn't the best idea. Tastes pretty darn good though. It just doesn't look pretty. At all.

Between the prepping, mixing, kneading, chilling, rolling, cramming into tart pans, lining with foil, filling with rice, baking, removing (most of) the rice, baking some more (and that's just for the shells) I was making tarts for over three hours. THREE!!!

If only they tasted good enough to warrant that much of my time. If I factor in the shopping for tart pans & ingredients, we're over four(!!) hours now. Oh and the cost? Yeah, the ingredients alone were $40. Pesky fruit and mascarpone cheese.

Ah well. If any of the folks at the pot luck I'm going to (the reason I made the tarts), make comments about them or offer me pointers, I may have to hit them. Repeatedly. I've taken pix. When I find my camera cable, I'll share them with yall. And explain more of the ..alterations and substitutions I had to make.

Happy Solstice Everyone! :)