The sunny, summer weather has lots of side effects, one of them being my intense desire to walk around on wet grass or lying lazily in the sun. Another inexplicable side effect is the fact that I can’t stop listening to Michael Bublé. No matter how hard I try, I can’t help blasting his music as I get dressed in the morning, snapping my fingers, and twirling in circles as I fasten my bra and comb my hair singing into my hairbrush like a bad 80s movie. I have never really been a fan of big band music, but there is something so addicting about the drama reminiscent of the swing era when women chopped off their hair, shortened their hemlines, and lindyhopped and jitterbugged around men in zoot suits. Listening to Bublé it is almost impossible to be in a bad mood. Sure he’s handsome and yes he’s always in a suit and ok he has that little smirk that’s annoyingly cute. Blech. It’s all too much too handle.
During the Memorial Day weekend I was in traffic backed up for miles, you know the kind of traffic you realize is caused by drivers gawking at a car pulled off to the side of the road. It’s infuriating to say the least. After hours of stop and go traffic, just when you think you’re head is about to explode off from the rest of your body, you turn on the radio and you hear Michael Bublé’s Haven’t Met You Yet. Suddenly you are transformed to a happy place, filled with trumpets blaring and men crooning. You find yourself leaping out of your car, marching next to the band, and dancing in unison with other drivers on the hoods of stopped cars, confetti flying like an absurd music video. I swear it happened right there on the parkway.
Another lovely side effect of summer weather is the deliciously sweet berries that are in season. Blackberries are my favorite, moras in Spanish, the berry that we would pick in Galicia and make into blackberry jam. We may not have blackberry bushes at every corner in New Jersey, but summertime ensures that every supermarket will have blackberries stocked on their shelves. I eat them all the time, throw them into salads and smoothies, mix them into yogurt, spread them on toast, and eat them right out of the box. I even think if Spanish soccer player Iker Casillas came into my home shirtless with a bowl of blackberries, I may just take the blackberries and plop myself on the couch eating one by one in front of the television. Thanks Iker, good luck with the World Cup.
Blackberry Tartlets
Adapted from Clotilde’s Saskatoon Berry Tart. I love Clotilde’s recipes and the way she talks about food.
Ingredients
Crust
7 tablespoons sugar
6 tablespoons chilled butter
1 1/3 cups of all purpose flour
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
Filling
2 cups blackberries
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup whipping cream
1 egg
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and butter and sprinkle flour into 8 ramekins. Be generous with the butter. I forgot to butter the ramekins once and they stuck without budging.
Put the 6 tablespoons of chilled butter and sugar into a food processor until the mixture is fluffy. Slowly add the flour to the food processor and mix until the dough is clumpy. Mix in the milk and teaspoon of vinegar (prevents gluten from forming). Don’t over mix. If its too dry add more milk drop by drop. Separate the dough into 8 pieces and put each section into each individual ramekin making sure to cover the whole thing all the way to the rim. Don’t overwork the dough. Bake for 15 min until the crust is golden brown at the edges.
While the dough is baking, mix the berries with the sugar. When the crust finishes baking put in the berries into each ramekin leaving room for cream. Bake the tartelets for an additional 15 minutes. Whisk together the egg and cream and add evenly over your tartelets and bake for another 15 minutes.
