MEET THE DILs
Jessica Coulter
Jessica lives in New York City with her Husband and Dog. When she isn't writing for this here blog, she's a copywriter at an ad agency in Manhattan.
3000 MILES AWAY...
Marites Cristobal Coulter
Marites lives in Los Angeles with her husband. When she's not dabbling as a self-proclaimed domestic wannabe, she's working in PR.
- BEVERAGES
- BREADS
- BREAKFAST/BRUNCH
- DESSERTS
- FRUIT
MEET THE MIL
Pat Tippett
MIL is a chef and food stylist in Portland, OR. For many years she owned Flaming Carrot Catering, pdx's favorite eco-conscience catering company. She takes her passion for art, travel and cuisine back to the kitchen and studio and delicious things happen.
She's currently focusing her talents on food styling and on-site chef services for film scenes and group gatherings (hey tweens - she did the food styling on the twilight movie!). Oh, and writes MIL Missions for this little blog.
Cooking with us? Let us feature a photo of you and your hard work. Email it to 3000milestildinner@gmail.com
3000 miles 'til dinner. |
♥WHEN YOUR MIL (mother-in-law) IS A CHEF, YOU EITHER GET NERVOUS OR GET COOKING.♥
----------------------------------------------- Two busy DILs living on two different coasts getting long-distance cooking lessons from their MIL. |
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recipe
Pecan Tarts (marites’ attempt)
Original MIL Mission #4: Pecan Tarts
New Year’s is usually about resolutions, which typically starts with promises of eating better and exercising more. Even though I’ve been on a holiday binge, I haven’t quite gotten to the “eating better” and “exercising more” parts yet. During the holidays, I figured I’d play catch-up on some of the MIL’s missions, including the Scottish Shortbread and Pecan Tarts. Don’t pecan tarts just say holiday to you? Long story short — I had planned to make the tarts for my holiday party, and I did. I was feeling pretty proud of them too, when in the middle of running around doing errands the day of my party, I gasped in horror. Did I forget to add the melted butter that I had in the microwave? And alas, my horror was true. I got home, found the butter in my microwave and cut into my cooling pecan tart. Liquidy, syrupy mess oozed out…
Needless to say, I didn’t serve up that tart and chalked up that mistake to being harried and stressed. But I was bothered by my failure so on New Year’s Day, I decided to bake the pecan tart again… with butter included.
♥HOW I MADE IT.♥
Here are my ingredients.
I started off by making my crust. Since I’ve made the crust a few times now, I feel pretty comfortable making it and am most definitely less intimidated by the prospect. Here are the tart shells.
And into the oven with my used rice pie weights.
Next up is the filling. Fun! I decided to give my Cuisinart a rest and used my mixer instead. Totally easy. And THIS time, I did not forget the butter.
Once the pie tarts were set in the oven, I added the pecan halves to the shell…
…
and poured the syrupy-sweetness into the tart.
I placed my tart shell on a baking sheet and then popped it into the oven for about 30 minutes. I checked at 25 minutes, but the center was still wobbly so I kept it in a bit longer.
♥MIL MISSION #4: ACCOMPLISHED.♥
And just like that… easy as pie, errr… tart.
Yes, I’m not a total failure! The pecan tart came out great. I made some whipped cream to go along with the tart, and I think the whipped cream is a MUST. It’s super easy to make and keeps in the fridge for a couple of days for your leftovers.
Needless to say, the dessert has kept me and the hubby in the holiday spirit, and I was glad to start off my new year with a new accomplishment, particularly with an originally failed mission.
♥PLATE IT, ATE IT, GRADED IT.♥
scale: 0 (not at all) to 5 (very)
Cupboard to table time: 1 hour, 45 minutes
Difficulty: 3 (mainly because of the crust)
Deliciousness: 4 (I thought my crust should’ve been rolled out thinner)
Impressed Husband factor: 5
Leftover-friendly: 5
