{"id":1815,"date":"2004-09-27T22:58:00","date_gmt":"2004-09-27T22:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/elitemporaryblog.wordpress.com\/2004\/09\/27\/windblown-and-sleepy-with-tarte-aux-quetsches"},"modified":"2015-09-24T03:54:38","modified_gmt":"2015-09-24T03:54:38","slug":"windblown-and-sleepy-with-tarte-aux-quetsches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orangette.net\/2004\/09\/windblown-and-sleepy-with-tarte-aux-quetsches\/","title":{"rendered":"Windblown and sleepy, with tarte aux quetsches"},"content":{"rendered":"
This morning\u2019s heavy fog turned the parking lot outside my window into an abstract painting\u2014maybe a Jasper Johns<\/a>, a soft gray with faint white diagonal lines and tiny brown spots where leaves had fallen. Oh dear reader, I am windblown and sleepy. My kitchen table is filthy with crumbs, oil smears, and a streak of blue cheese. There\u2019s sand inside my shoes and between my toes. Last night was a potluck dinner for four. [Jess would have made five, but she was absent due to an unfortunate bout of onion-ring-and-Velveeta-dip-induced food poisoning.] We made do. Robert baked a slab of king salmon in parchment paper and doused it with a sauce of honey, lime, and soy sauce. Sam steamed baby bok choy with shiitakes, tofu, and scallops, and Teresa brought crusty bread and a terrific green salad with walnuts, Spanish blue, and apples from her yard. Following my usual tendency towards dessert, I made a French prune plum tart.<\/p>\n Although it was certainly lovely on the plate and the tongue, I have to admit that the raw p\u00e2te bris\u00e9e <\/em>was the most satisfying part: rolling it out was like working with a thick sheet of fabric, smooth and cold<\/strong>. Martha Stewart may be in prison, but her p\u00e2te bris\u00e9e<\/em> recipe remains untarnished.<\/p>\n Sometime after dinner, Sam finished the beer in my fridge, along with the last of my beloved Plymouth gin. He then tried (unsuccessfully) to conceal the evidence by refilling the bottle with water, but I like him anyway. There was much discussion of nakedness, family, and loves lost or thwarted<\/strong>; a bit of tickling and squealing; and some lying around on the floor. I hoped to scandalize them, but I failed. Instead I made everyone touch the razor-sharp calloused edge of my pinky toes. They marveled, and then they went home. I tumbled into bed around one.<\/p>\n I dragged myself back out at seven. Dear photographer-friend Margot<\/a> arrived at 7:45, camera bag in hand, and we sped out to West Seattle and the ferry that would take us to Vashon and Maury Islands<\/a>.<\/p>\n We drove to the tip of Maury, where a lighthouse was bleating through the fog, and, after a bit of scouting,<\/p>\n we got down to work.<\/p>\n The theme is reproduction, Margot-style<\/strong>. She\u2019s been making little plaster fetuses for months, forming and painting them and unintentionally frightening family and friends. Last Friday night she had me crouched over a kerosene lamp in a wooden shed, wearing a plain but old-fashioned red dress from Goodwill and a dainty white apron, pretending to examine tiny fetuses hatching from latex rocks. In today\u2019s shoot, I was to wear the aforementioned dress and pretend to collect rocks\u2014presumably baby-filled rocks\u2014on the beach. She shot rolls and rolls of me barefoot amidst pebbles and seaweed and shards of shells, trying to look as though I were not freezing to death and half blowing away, which I was<\/strong>. But the fog was otherworldly; the fishermen kindly ignored us; and we saw a dead jellyfish and iridescent purple mussel shells scattered everywhere. And Margot, ever considerate of her models, had brought me a thermos of hot tea. On the way home we talked longingly of sleep and filled ourselves enormous sandwiches of Swiss cheese, slivered bell peppers, fresh basil leaves, olive oil, salt, and pepper.<\/p>\n Tonight there will be more plum tart, and my bed.<\/p>\n Tarte aux Quetsches, or Prune Plum Tart
I can\u2019t complain. It’s Monday<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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<\/strong>Adapted from Saveur<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n