It's raining .... again. So much for weeding the gardens and mowing the
lawn. So I stayed inside and played with food. First of all, I started
marinating a pork tenderloin in olive oil,lemon juice and Dijon mustard
with finely chopped garlic, fresh rosemary and thyme. It will have close
to 6 hours of marinade time before I throw it on the grill.

Then I started working on a batch of butter tarts. I found the recipe in
Canadian Living a few years ago, lost it and then found it on line. They
turned out beautifully. While they were baking I cooked up a batch of
vanilla ice cream.


BUTTER TARTS
CRUST
· 1 1/2 cups flour
· 1/4 teaspoon salt
· 1/4 cup cold butter, cubed
· 1/4 cup shortening, cubed
· 1 egg yolk
· 1 teaspoon vinegar
· ice water
FILLING
· 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
· 1/2 cup corn syrup
· 1 egg
· 2 tablespoons butter, softened
· 1 teaspoon vanilla
· 1 teaspoon vinegar
· 1 pinch salt
· 1/4 cup currant, raisins, chopped pecans (I use half raisins and half
chopped nuts, and I don't actually measure them, I just drop a bit of
ea) or flaked coconut (I use half raisins and half chopped nuts, and I
don't actually measure them, I just drop a bit of ea)
Directions
In a large bowl, stir flour with salt. With pastry blender or 2 knives,
cut in butter and shortening until mixture rexembles coarse crumbs with
a few larger pieces.
In liquid measure, whisk egg yolk with vinegar; add enough ice water to
make 1/3 cup. Gradually sprinkle over flour mixture, stirring briskly
with fork until pastry hold together. press into disc; wrap in plastic
wrap and chill for 1 hour.

In bowl, vigorously whisk together brown sugar, corn syrup, egg, butter,
vanilla, vinegar and salt; set aside.

On lightly floured surface, roll out pastry to 1/8 inch thickness. Using
a 4 inch round cookie cutter cut out 12 circles, rerolling scraps once
if necessary. Fit into 2 3/4 inch by 1 1/4 inch muffin cups. Divide
currants among cups. Spoon in filling until three quarters full.
Bake in bottom third of 450*F oven for about 12 minutes or until filling
is puffed and bubbly and pastry is golden. Let stand on rack for 1
minute. Immediately run spatula around tarts to loosen; transfer to rack
and let cool.