Plum Tarte Tatin

275 g sugar
125 g butter (cubed)
1 egg beaten
200 g flour
100 ml water
500 g plums, halved with pits removed
powdered sugar

plastic wrap
tart form (22cm) buttered

Prep/Cook
Add 75g of sugar, the butter, egg, flour and a pinch of salt to a bowl and kneed them together into dough. (Not too long, otherwise it may loose elasticity.) Wrap the dough into plastic wrap and put to rest in the fridge for half an hour. Meanwhile melt the rest of the sugar with water over low fire till it starts to resemble light caramel. Pour it over the bottom of the tart form so it covers the bottom completely. Lay the plums cut side down onto the bottom of the tart form. Warm the over till 180C. Roll out the dough. Lay it over the tarte form paying attention to tuck the edges over the form just a bit. Bake in the over 20-25 minutes. Let it cool and then carefully turn it right side up onto a large plate.

Serve
Finish it with powdered sugar. Serve it with sour cream mixed with lemon juice or with a ball of vanilla ice cream...

Breakfast al fresco at a French country house. Bread from the local boulangerie. Peaches from the market. Jam and cheese from the local grocery store.  (La Boutellerie, France) — Breakfast al fresco at a French country house. Bread from the local boulangerie. Peaches from the market. Jam and cheese from the local grocery store. (La Boutellerie, France)

You know how while traveling you taste foods you may eat everyday but for some reason they taste so much more delicious!? A lot of the times we just rationalize that everything always tastes better on vacation because we're usually outdoors, the sun is shining, and we just had a dip in the sea. Of course that's a big part of it, but also certain foods taste better because at those locales they're fresher, locally produced, homemade or organic. But does this now mean we can only really enjoy our food for a few weeks a year? Is there no way to gain the same kind of enjoyment from eating year round? Well obviously this is unacceptable and we here at OTSP blog want to do something about it!

Few shots of delightful eating during our trip to the Loire Valley, France.

Inspired (or I should say motivation renewed) by my recent success of dinding a fantastic source of delicious liquid gold, or olive oil, this challenge will be to upgrade EVERYTHING my family eats to achieve equal satisfaction. I want to be delighted every time we sit down for a meal and not just when we're on vacation. So join us as we kick off the next OTSP challenge!

• • •

Live Like You're Traveling : #DelightfulEating

Let's break this up into three steps. The first being to simply figure out what you eat on a weekly basis. I started by looking in my fridge, pantry and thought about what food we eat every day resulting in this nifty diagram for myself to follow so I can see clearly what needs upgrading, or "delightification".

Step 1: Identify your staples.

In the fridge:

Milk
Yogurt
Butter
Juice/drinks
Cheese
Mayonase
Sandwich meats
Meat
Fish

In the pantry:

Bread
Cereal
Honey
Jam
Fruits/Vegetables
Tea
Coffee
Olive Oil - Replaced!
Spices

Step 2: Raise the quality of ingredients.

I currently buy most of my food in my supermarket or my local health store. I usually buy the organic option but I don't pay too much attention beyond that. There are farms near me and I always wanted to figure out what I could be buying directly from them...

Things I'll be researching for this step and sharing in the updates to follow:

How to source locally
Cooking with what's in season
Specialized grocery store vs. the supermarket. (Mu-Hsien immediately tipped to shop the "perimeter" as processed foods tend to congregate in the middle sections of the store.)

Step 3: Try Making Your Own.

My mom used to make cottage cheese at home! My grandma pretty much made everything at home. Perhaps I can transition some simple things to 'home production'? Ahhh... I'm already imagining freshly home baked bread enveloping my family as they sit down for a Saturday morning breakfast... And a tall, dark, and handsome Italian barrista serving us cafe lattes from just milled coffee beans while singing "con te partiro"... (Oh gosh, did I say that last one out loud? How completely inappropriate for a happily married, pregnant lady.)

- - - JOIN THE CHALLENGE! - - -

Is there something you've been meaning to improve about what you eat? What are your tips for delightful eating?

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