It Starts with the Tart

Okay...so now I'm about six months into my I Heart the Veg cookery ummmn what? lifestyle? awareness? smackdown? I was gonna call it the Veggie Challenge but it's not so much a challenge anymore. It's pretty damn easy actually and I'm actually digging all this cooking and baking. Now I just gotta get my ass back to Weight Watchers and see how well (or not) I'm managing these kitchen forays into my life and health. So far the clothes are still fitting comfortably so I'm not really feeling any urgency...yet. I do sorta miss the meetings. There are some new changes in the program that I'm curious about, but I think it all comes down to The Veg. Zero points for most fruits and veg, but I suspect their adding more points elsewhere. All that managing, worrying and questioning of point values is so tedious and the time it takes up in meetings is punishing. I take a note from Sam the Cooking Guy on the lo-cal aspect of his recipes: if it says it serves 4 it serves 4. Portion. Portion. Portion.
So here's a little goodie from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspan. Before I almost had to have the library come and pry this book outta my hands, I challenged myself to pick 10 recipes to copy and make. I had 30+ marked but in a rare attempt to face reality I knew recipe collection is not the goal.
I started with the tart. I got what I think is the perfect sized tart pan at Kamei last week. It's a 7" pan. The recipe calls for a 9-9 1/2" pan so I was left with some extra tart dough and some extra cream and egg mix when this was done but I got all the shrooms in there. Perhaps I will attempt a note from Ruhlmans Ratio and see if I can mathematically scale this down to fit my pan.
I made the tart shell the night before and froze it though there was really no need to do that as the shell will keep in the fridge for up to 5 days. Dorie recommends freezing the shaped tart in the pan, thus requiring more pans if one should become a big fan of the tart. Well this one was so good that I may just do this. This pan was $4.
I partially baked the tart while I was cooking up the shrooms and shallots with some thyme. Thyme is also sprinkled on the bottom of the crust before adding the shrooms. Cream and egg mix gets poured on top then scallions and cheese get sprinkled on top then it gets baked for 30-35 mins.
This was really good...welcome another new addition to the Little Kitchen arsenal.