Fig-caramelized onion tart comes to fruition beautifully
/I am super-excited about jumping into this tart tonight. It's got 2 minutes left in the oven, and my mouth is watering. Also, I didn't really eat lunch so am starving. In any case, I caramelized one large yellow onion and one shallot slowly in olive oil and salt; near the end, I stirred in some good quality balsamic.
Then I put most of them into a puff pastry which I'd laid out in a rectangular baking sheet, sprinkled some crumbled bacon and then some crumbled Valdeon (spanish blue cheese) on that and then layered on sliced figs and the last of the onions.
Buzzer. More in a bit!
Friends, this tart is unreal, a 5-star keeper if ever there was one. Sweet, salty, savory, bacon'y. Mamma mia!! And I served it with an arugula/tomato/balsamic vinaigrette salad. AAH!
So very Oliver
/This afternoon, I was wiping down the walls in the stairwell and hall because with four little boy hands around, they get more crud on them than you could possibly imagine. I came across some drawing and while I was hopeful it was in pencil, it was, in fact, pen. Knowing Jack would never do such a thing, I sternly said to Oliver, "do not write on the walls again. This is not OK, especially because you wrote in pen." He replied, with quite the aggrieved tone, "well, I wanted to trace my hand but there wasn't any paper." Y'all, I am not going to lie, I nearly died laughing. If you'd have heard him say this, it'd be even funnier because he has such a priceless accent (the origins are unclear). This kid is really going to give us hell as a teenager, and I'm totally sure he'll be arrested for something remarkably dumb during his later teens. He's the sweetest and most loving soul, but he is mischievous as get-out and quite the BS artist too. About an hour ago, I had an inspo for dinner: a puff pastry tart filled with caramelized onions, fresh figs, blue cheese and bacon and topped with arugula!

