Lemon Tart with Candied Zest

this tart comes from charlie palmer's practical guide to the new american kitchen. this is the second tart i've made from this book (here was the first). this was my other 2-day recipe this weekend, and it--like the focaccia--required 47 steps as well. i had to make the candied zest yesterday as it required an overnight rest. 1 cup of assorted lemon, lime, and orange zest. 1 CUP! let me tell you how much citrus fruit that is: 4 lemons, 3 limes, and 2 oranges. and i made it a loose cup, not a tight cup. fortunately, i have the pampered chef's zester, which is really a great tool, so it wasn't that onerous a chore. today i had to bake the crust. i wasn't happy with the other tart's crust, but this one was great! it's a cornmeal crust (with more zest!) and really worked well and tasted great. the lemon curd (with more zest!) required several bowls (and the juice of about 7 lemons) and a double boiler, then baking, then cooling, then chilling, and then sugaring the top & taking a torch to it like a huge crème brulee....but, like the focaccia, it was all worth it. this was fabulous! a little crème fraîche on the side and a garnish of the candied zest...i want seconds!

Pain à l'Ancienne Focaccia

i'm just gonna call it focaccia from now on, okay? this is from peter reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day. it's a major pain. the first day requires a stretch & fold technique with a very slack and wet dough with oily hands every 10 minutes until you've done it four times. the next day requires sticking it in & out of a slightly warm oven for 5 minutes at a time with a 10-minute rest between each warming, and oily finger-dimpling before each trip into the oven. but, i gotta say, it was all worth it. i poured on an herb oil that reinhart recommends before baking it. it's so good. i want to make this every day and never share. it had better be that good for being such a pain in the ass to make!

Roast Pork w/ Sage & Potatoes--with update!

sorry, it's been a while! today's Roast Pork with Sage & Potatoes comes from cheap cookbook How To Cook Everything. very simple: pork, sage, potatoes, garlic, olive, salt, and pepper. you can use a loin or shoulder roast, bone-in or boneless (i used bone-in shoulder), but you should use a waxy potato (i used red bliss). you roast it all together in one pan. this was good, but not really spectacular. but that's okay! simple peasant food, and easy. that's the world's best braised green cabbage alongside, which is from one of my favorite all-time cookbooks All About Braising by molly stevens. it's not a cheap cookbook; i paid the full $35 cover price, but it has been a great value because every recipe i've tried has ranged between very good and fabulous (and i've made quite a few, and more than once), and this cabbage is one of my favorites. oh, and that's some of my sourdough bread on the plate, too. now that's a good meal!

UPDATE: so, the next night, i made these great braised potatoes with garlic (also found in molly stevens' book). tonight, i made hash out of the leftover pork & potatoes. now, hash is usually made out of leftover roast beef (or corned beef). since i was making mine with pork, i added some traditional sausage seasonings (onion, garlic, paprika, cayenne, sage, and crushed fennel seed). then, after it was done, i topped it with a fried egg. okay, two fried eggs. even those of you who wish you had some of it can't imagine how good it really was.