Sunday Feast № 51 | Almond Frangipane and Cranberry Tart with Honeyed Pistachios

Ever since late fall, there was a bag of fresh cranberries still hanging around in the bottom drawer of my fridge. They should have been gone by now, meaning eaten, but no, and suprisingly still looked highly edible. Maybe it is the skin... Anyhow. Here I had in my hands the latest issue (December/January 2017) of Saveur magazine, with this tart on the cover. Well, "those cranberries are dead now!" The original recipe called for ¾ cup frozen cranberries, which I thought suprising considering my state of fridge affairs and perception of the season, but probably normal for other fridges-freezers, and the original recipe called more sugar to mix them in. Also, seeing all the butter mixture beating, this recipe pushed me to acquire a hand-held electric mixer despite trying to keep the kitchen as "decluttered" as humanly possible - for me. Hand-held since I am still not ready to graduate, spacewise and otherwise, to a standup mixer. Give it time. Before that, bake this tart.

Sunday Feast № 50 | Quinoa with Dried Cranberries and Pistachios

Quinoa is one of those ancient Latin grains that became very popular outside of its indigenous regions around mid-2000s and early 2010s, and around that time, funnily enough, I always ate it as a cool salad with fruits and vegetables that one would most likely not cook. Fast forward tiny bit past exactly mid-2010s, and yes I am super late to the party, I considered the season and locked onto this version, which in fact tastes better warm, and was a very welcome alternative to the cool, or cold to be exact. Serves 4 as stand alone lunch or 6 as a side dish. The recipe is from Muscle & Fitness magazine November 2014 issue and has been slightly changed by adding twice the dried cranberries and pistachios.

Sunday Feast № 37 | Goat Cheese Pistachio Prune Savory Cake

As Rachel Khoo notes in her video, often cake is taken as something sweet, but French do savory cake. Music to my ears as I believe that cakes are perfect breakfast food. Think of them as something similar to muffins. This one being savory has the lower guilt factor, if you will, and as such can be paired with egg done you favorite way - sunny side up in my case, till I truly master poached egg. The recipe is from "The Little Paris Kitchen" by Rachel Khoo, adjusted to use goat cheese instead of sausage, the way she does it in the video of her show.    Hopefully, unlike me, you can bake it at a setting specified in the recipe below, or twiddle with it all by baking at 345°F for 45 min then 340°F for 10 min then 350°F for 10 min then keeping it in an off-oven for 5 min for a total of 70 min.    Absolutely not necessary, but I guess I like to twiddle.