Wedding anniversary at my favorite Japanese restaurant.

I like dessert, any kind of dessert. Usually I prefer chocolate but sometimes I crave fruit. My usual fruit dessert is apple pie. I like the apple pie recipe I use but it takes way too long to make and to cool. So I’ve been on a search for a quicker fruit dessert.

I came across a recipe for a rustic fruit tart. It’s a “cooking without recipes” recipe from Fine Cooking. What does that mean? Well “cooking without recipes” lays out the basics and you can customize the ingredients to your liking.

So first I tried a rustic pear tart.

It was o.k. but the pears didn’t work really well. I didn’t like the way they looked, they reminded me of mushrooms. The texture of the pears also wasn’t to my liking. I think I should have peeled them. And it wasn’t exactly quick.

But I tried the recipe again because the pears were so disappointing. The second time around I had blackberries and strawberries. I had just bought some little tins so instead of one big tart I thought I’d try four individual tarts.

Originally I was planning to just bake the tarts with the fruit sitting right on top of the dough. But they looked ugly and messy. I had leftover dough so I cut some strips out and laid them on top. Much prettier.

But again it’s not a quick fruit dessert. There’s the mixing and then letting it rest in the fridge for 15 minutes. Then the rolling, making the filling, the egg wash, and it takes 50 minutes to cook! Wow I’m tired just from typing all that out much less cooking it. But if anyone wants this recipe let me know.

So…anyone have a good quick fruit dessert recipe?

The other day I made some bread pudding. Alan doesn’t like bread pudding but Isabelle does. I mean she REALLY likes it. Maybe that’s why she prefers to have it fed to her, instead of doing it herself. That way she doesn’t lose a single bit.

Update- I combined two recipes (one from Cook’s Illustrated and one from Cook’s Country) to make these individual bread puddings. I’m not exactly sure what I did but here’s what I think it was:

Individual Bread Pudding for four

Ingredients
Bread Pudding:
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, plus extra for greasing ramekins
2 large eggs
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup heavy cream
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon table salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
4-5 slices of firm white bread, cut into 1 1/2 inch squares (5 cups)
OPTIONAL, 4 tablespoons chopped bittersweet chocolate

Cinnamon Sugar
1 tablespoon granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directons
1. Butter 4 ovensafe ramekins.

2. Whisk the eggs and sugar in a large bowl. Add the milk, heavy cream, vanilla, salt, and nutmeg. Whisk together and transfer to a large measuring cup for easy pouring.

3. Set aside 1 cup of bread. Fill each ramekin with remaining bread squares (if you want a hidden surprise you can add 1 tablespoon of bittersweet chocolate after the first layer of bread slices). Pour custard over bread. Let sit for 20 minutes while you heat the oven to 325 degrees with the rack in the middle position.

4. Put remaining 1 cup of bread in each ramekin pushing down to partially submerge. Brush the exposed bread with melted butter then sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Bake for about 25 to 30 minutes. The puddings should be set but still a little bit wobbly. Let cool and then scarf it down.

Can you tell I haven’t been on top of my drawing lately? I know I’ve mentioned it repeatedly on how I start late in the evening. I hate that because then I’m rushed and I’m not really happy with the result. But I keep on plugging away. It’s almost been two months and I don’t want to break my drawing streak with the excuse that it’s too late in the evening.

But of course then that’s how you get quick one pane scribbles like this that don’t really make sense.

I was trying to show Isabelle making a mess and getting flour everywhere while “helping” me bake cookies. Ok it was a total cop out last minute drawing.

Pictures work so much better here.

She really did get the flour everywhere. But she had so much fun. She didn’t want to stop even when the cookies were done. So I had to gave her a little bowl of flour to mix some more.

I do love making cookies with Isabelle.

And the best part? When we’re done playing we actually have cookies to eat!

Guess what’s the only thing Alan ate?

Yep. The steak. That’s it. Oh wait. With rice.

Avocado and snap-pea pasta.

Why doesn’t Alan like the food I like?

On Valentine’s Day, Secret Agent Josephine made cookies. Her pictures looked like so much fun and I’ve really been looking forward to cooking with Isabelle.

So yesterday we made cookies! Well, it turned out harder than expected but, yes, it was very fun. Isabelle didn’t do much sprinkling on the cut cookies. On the table, on the unrolled dough, and on the floor, yes. But on the cut cookies, not so much. And she didn’t quite understand the concept of gently putting a cookie onto the cookie sheet. Instead she smooshed and mangled them before placing them on the cookie sheet. Can you tell which ones she made?

And the daily comic: