Tart Archives - Nerds with Knives

Hibiscus-Vodka Cocktail with Mint and Jalapeño

February 19, 2021July 22, 2016 by Emily

Hibiscus Cocktail with Mint and Jalapeño — Hibiscus-Vodka Cocktail with Mint and Jalapeño; refreshing and downright gorgeous.

This gorgeous cocktail combines homemade hibiscus syrup with lime, vodka (or gin), and a few slices of jalapeño and mint. Poured over ice, it’s just what you want on a hot summer day.

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I’ve mentioned before that for someone who has lived her entire life on land, I’m extremely concerned about getting scurvy. The fact that my preventative measures always happen to be delicious, tart cocktails is purely just coincidence. Odd that.

Because I’m also concerned about you, dear reader, I’m writing you a prescription* for drink at least two of these cocktails a week, all summer long. You’re welcome.

*I’m not a doctor and you probably (definitely) shouldn’t listen to me.

Vanilla Custard Tart with Berries

March 14, 2021May 20, 2016 by Matt

Vanilla custard tart made from homemade pastry cream and an easy graham cracker crust, topped with fresh summer berries. Perfect for summer parties!

If there’s one challenge to keeping chickens – there aren’t, of course, there are dozens: keeping the dog out of the chicken pellets and poop, keeping the chickens out of the vegetable patch and flower border; keeping Bernie Sanders, our runty salmon favarolle, from being bullied by the other, bigger, chickens – but if there were only one challenge, it would be: what the hell do we do with all these eggs?

With seven hens, even giving them away to our friends and neighbors, we’re never shy of around six dozen eggs on the counter at any one moment, with five or six being added to the stock every day. Yes, there are worse problems to have, and most of the solutions are pretty delicious.

Vanilla Custard Tart with Berries — We topped our tart with strawberries, blackberries. golden berries and fresh mint.

Coconut Key Lime Cupcakes

January 19, 2021March 5, 2016 by Emily

These coconut key lime cupcakes titillate your tastebuds with light, tropical flavors and look pretty dang party, too.

It’s hard for me to believe but it’s true; today is the 3-year anniversary of Nerds with Knives. I know we act immature, but we are, in fact, toddler-aged. *Throws a cupcake at your head and licks frosting off the floor*

Who would have thought that a blog whose scintillating early posts had titles like “My Kettle” and “In Case You’re Wondering If You Can Boil A Pre-Sliced Ham In Coca Cola. Answer; You Can’t,” would make it 3 whole years. We’re as shocked as you are but somehow we’ve managed to keep this sputtering, mildly out-of-control train on the tracks. Yeah, us!

But really all thanks go to you, our readers, who we love and adore. If it wasn’t for your positive feedback, I’m sure we would have given up ages ago and would most likely have picked up some other, less respectable hobby. Like knitting. Or taxidermy.

Caramelized Onion, Olive and Goat Cheese Tart

January 19, 2021January 21, 2014 by Emily

This tart is the delightful bastard child of the classic french Pissaladière which is a deceptively simple combination of sweet onions, briny olives and salty anchovies. Now, most people would scoff at the hubris required to take an elegant, timeless recipe and besmirch it with additions like goat cheese, sherry and thyme but, like a certain movie villain Matt is getting very tired of me mentioning, I regret nothing. It’s possible that you’re thinking “Hey wait just a minute here! Didn’t Emily already blog a very similar, though delicious, recipe for a tart a few months ago? She hasn’t even been doing NwK for a full year and she’s already recycling ideas!” To which I would reply, “Mean!” and also “While there are certainly similarities between the two tarts, this one is more intensely flavored, with the addition of cured black olives and anchovies, and also has a few advanced techniques in working with puff pastry. So neeeeh!”

Custard Tart with Pear and Ginger

February 25, 2021November 13, 2013 by Emily

We all have our culinary strengths and weaknesses and I freely admit that making pastry is a major weakness of mine. It’s frustrating because I’m really comfortable cooking pretty much anything, but pastry always trips me up. It’s like I see the combination of butter, flour and a rolling pin and I immediately begin to panic and look for the emergency exits.

Chard, Onion and Goat Cheese Tart

January 19, 2021July 24, 2013 by Emily

When my gorgeous sister-in-law Hayli and her delightful husband Tristan got married in France a couple of summers ago, Matt and I spent a week at a gîte (french farmhouse) with his family and a mad gaggle of their international friends. It was a delightful mixture of cultures, languages and food with English, French, Belgian, Irish (and one slightly befuddled American).

Each night of the week, different groups of people would cook for the whole gîte (seriously, I think there were about 40 people in all). On our night, Matt and I along with a few co-cooks made baked pastas. I think one was a creamy wild-mushroom rigatoni and the other was a cheesy tomato penne type of thing. Not fancy but cooking for 40 people in a strange kitchen is HARD. I think between shopping, prepping and baking it took about 15 hours (okay, I may be exaggerating a teeny bit but it was seriously exhausting).