Day 32: Julia Made Ham & Beans?

Menu:

Ham & Beans
Cornbread
Fried Potatoes
Iced Arizona Tea
Pear Tart

I had to buy a bag of beans a few weeks back to use on the pear tart I made at that time. Beans are required to weigh the crust down to keep it from bubbling. Once you have the pie crust in the tart pan, then you have to lay a piece of foil over it and put beans on the foil to keep the pie crust from bubbling. I happen to run across a recipe for ham (pork roast) and beans in Julia's cookbook. Perfect! We had some of the sauteed potato chunks leftover from last night so I sliced them up and fried them on high heat really fast to brown them and once they were heated through they were done. I had to be attentive to the beans cooking but other than that it was a fairly easy meal.

The pear tart went more smoothly today since I had made it before. It is my favorite dessert now. It is sweet but not overly rich but not bland like I find most European desserts. I love the glaze that goes over the top when it is complete. It is a blend of red currant jelly and wine syrup. And so you have pears with the glaze over the custard and then it all sits in a sugar cookie pie crust, what more could you want? The custard by the way has macadamia nuts in it and then almond slivers are used to garnish the top. I didn't want to stagger the pears so I made it in a square tart pan this time.

I'm not much on watching television but each season I pick a show and make a point of watching it each week. Right now for the fall I am on a "Glee" kick. I'm going to go cut myself a piece of that pear tart and grab a glass of tea and watch my show. I love quirky shows and this show has lots of quirk!

Facts:
Day 32 of 100 (Not doing 365 even though it is getting easier and actually kind of fun)

Pounds Lost: 1
Pounds Gained: 4 (from the 5 I had lost though)
All the rest is 100% except for Meal Presentation. Beans just look like beans no matter how you take the picture.