TWD: Tartest Lemon Strawberry Tart

When I was little, and until they passed away while I was in college, my dad's parents lived in the hills (not those Hills, just hills) outside of Los Angeles. They had a gorgeous house with a deck that wrapped around the back of their house and you could see Catalina Island from their windows. The air there smelled better than anything, from all of the eucalyptus trees, and in their backyard was a gorgoeous lemon tree that bore great, big lemons. I think that one of the saddest moments of my life is when I was leaving the house after my grandfather passed away and I realized that it was the last time I'd be there; it was a chapter in my life that had ended. The bright side of that story is that in the throws of my overwhelming sadness, I packed a bunch of lemons from the tree in my bag. I was too sad to remember that you're not allowed to bring citrus outside of California and there must have been a divine force that wanted me to have those lemons because they made it back to Texas and my college apartment. I had no idea what I'd do with them, I just couldn't bear to part with them, and my best friend's dad had the best idea: I should plant the seeds. And, right then and there, he took me to Smith & Hawken and got me a pot and some dirt and we talked to a nice lady who knew nothing about starting seedlings from lemon seeds. But the seedlings took off and, today, in my parent's back yard, there is a lemon tree that came from one of those lemons. It's a lovely reminder of my grandparents, and the result is that we constantly need to use up lemons. Now my parents are in the process of moving from this house and they're moving a smaller, potted lemon tree with them, but the big tree will stay in this backyard. Leaving the lemon tree behind has been a source of discussion so who knows what will end up happening.

I made the drive from DC to Houston in fine fashion and I was back at home in time for Mother's Day. On the way, I stopped in New Orleans and I ended up arriving here in Texas with some fabulous Ponchatoula strawberries in tow. I had a kitchen bursting with lemons and strawberries and I didn't see why I shouldn't use both of them. Dorie has a recipe that was referenced on P&Q and it calls for rapberries in the tart; strawberries are much too watery to bake whole, so what to do? I knew that I wanted it to sort of end up tasting like strawberry lemonade -- I love strawberry lemonade.

To make a strawberry sauce for the bottom of the tart I pureed half a pint of strawberries in the blender. Then, I heated the strawberry sauce in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of sugar, a teaspoon of lemon juice, and a teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken it. This made a very nice, smooth, and thick strawberry sauce that I spread on the tart crust. I followed the rest of the recipe as written but I didn't use the pith of the lemons. I peeled the zest off and then I discarded the pith before I chopped up the lemons. Dorie warns in the recipe that the crust might bubble over and she's not kidding. My tart was a hot mess when it came out of the oven and one side had gone crazy and bubbled all over. This side was pink -- not the lovely layers of red and yellow that I was going for -- as the strawberry and lemon mixture had combined. The other side, was actually a very pretty layer of red strawberry puree and yellow lemon custard; however, in order to use up more strawberries and hide the mess of the top, I covered everything with strawberries and I thought it was a very pretty presentation.

I often find myself in alone in Washington wondering why I didn't blog when I lived in Texas. Last night I realized the answer: because it's impossible to take pictures with all of these people buzzing around. My family knows that I have a food blog but it's still hard to pause from socializing to snag a picture of something as mundane as, say, a slice of my tart. So, you'll just have to use your imagination to imagine both the messy and pretty slices of this tart.

This was the second dessert at my dad's birthday dinner last night and it was a big hit. I don't love lemon desserts and I loved this tart. It really tasted (to me at least) like strawberry lemonade -- very, very tart strawberry lemonade. Thanks to Babette, of the lovely blog Babette Feasts, for choosing this tart. I know that it's definitely going to be a repeat for me!