The Straight Dope

Yep, that would be me.

I really would have liked to have shared with you the magnificent tart I made for the party. Except that at every turn, disaster showed its ugly face. On the bright side, I have some great footage for an outtakes reel.

Sometimes the kitchen works with me and sometimes it just laughs at me. It laughed loudly on Saturday morning. Guffaws could be heard in Ohio (I'm in Jersey).

Main problems:

1. Not adequately reading the recipe prior to baking.
2. Lack of pie weights (that's a whole blog entry unto itself).
3. Dumb decision NOT to use the shiny new tart pan in favor of a cheapie disposable tin I could just leave at the party. Hypocrite -- I've got a sign on this very site saying "Ditch the Disposables" (albeit, the ad is talking about something not remotely food-related).
4. Too much noodling with the tart crust.
5. Pastry cream issues up the wazoo.

After all that, we didn't end up going to the party. After all the baking and cleaning up after the disasters, I had such a nice time catching up with John after a stressful week that he and I decided to just stay put for the rest of the day (except for a lovely walk). It was a good decision, but now I have a pastry cream fruit pie with lovely fruit decorations [in a (gasp!) store-bought, perfectly baked pie shell, no less] sitting in the fridge.

No worries, though. I'll be meeting up with some friends tomorrow night and am bringing this less-disastrous and less-homemade version with me. Here's a tiny clip of the pie: