apple tart.

i think apple tart was the first recipe i learned how to cook as a kid growing up.  i don't really know how that happened, but i think its true.  my parents had dinner parties all the time when i was younger and i think that might be the origin of this apple tart.  when people would come over, one of the go-to desserts was apple tart.  i must have just helped make it a lot until it was stuck in my little girl mind!

i didn't actually make this the exact same way as we did in my house, mostly because it was a totally last minute idea that necessitated using ingredients i had on hand (specifically, regular pie crust instead of puff pastry).

this was a great way to use a bunch of delicious csa apples!!!

apple tart.

ingredients

3 apples from your csa box

1 frozen pie crust, thawed

cinnamon

sugar

lemon juice

directions

1.  preheat the oven to 350.

2.  peel the apples and cut them into thin wedges.  OR if you have one of those contraptions you crank that cores and then spirals the apple, you can do that then cut the whole thing (top to bottom) into halves or thirds to speed the slicing process up a bit.

3.  toss the apples slices in a bowl with some cinnamon and sugar (1:1) and squeeze a little lemon juice in.

4.  cut the crust into a rectangle and then improvise by slicing and combining pieces into thin strips to use as ridges of the crust.

5.  place the crust onto a baking sheet and arrange the apple slices in rows.

6.  bake of about 20 minutes or until crisp.

a little baby apple tart!

eating these things.

i've been having moments all over the place.  i think that all the time i really appreciate how great this community-supported agriculture is, but there are these really clear and sincere moments that are happening more and more often where i feel like this is the best thing i could have done.

the stillman's newsletter this week recommended eating the corn right away so we could experience corn at its absolute freshest.  even though cait and i had already had separate dinners on sunday, we decided to make some corn around 930 so we could try it.  THE CORN THAT WE ATE HAD BEEN PICKED THAT VERY SAME DAY.  i can barely handle that.  read it again.  i mean, think about our produce in the grocery stores.  someone picks it when its not yet ripe so it can last the miles and miles it has to travel until it gets to some sort of warehouse then it is sorted and transferred to more trucks that bring it to our grocery stores where it is unloaded then resorted then stocked on the shelves.  you have to wonder... WHAT did they DO to that cucumber to make it last for 2 weeks before i bought it?  its like i've been eating fruits and vegetables my whole life, but i've never experienced them like this.  they literally couldn't have taken a more direct route from the earth to my belly unless i had picked them myself.  (yes we did have a garden growing up, which was amazing, but not enough to regularly harvest from it...mostly just delicious herbs).

oh and apples.  the type of apples we got i think are the earliest of the season.  vista bella is their name.  this is a type of apple i have never once tasted.  well they are REALLY GOOD.  we also shared one that first night to experience it at its freshest and it was startlingly good.

anyways.  produce that was on a plant in the 24 hours before i ate it?  not even comparable to the stuff that ripens in transit or on the shelves.  the verdict?  i am signing up for a csa every summer that i can.  stillman's if i am still in boston next year.  i absolutely recommend it.  DO IT.