came to visit this weekend. a surprise visit, of sorts. we talked, ate great food, laughed and shopped. all that a weekend should be.

did I mention that we ate this weekend? not only did we eat, we feast on delicious food. it all started with lunch at this place. lunch was a feta and spinach quiche for me. grilled chicken and red pepper panini for amanda. and tuna salad for mama. we all gobbled down the best homemade tomato-basil soup. i’ve had dreams about it. we finished lunch with a moist red velvet cupcake with yummy butter cream frosting.

dinner was a homemade pizza – half cheese and pepperoni and the other half veggie. i think veggie pizza should be required at least once a week, perhaps twice. amanda, made homemade tomato sauce. we licked the pot clean, it was that good. and to finish just saturday, a blueberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. i seriously forgot how good cobbler is. yet again, there seemed to be a problem with taking a picture of the cobbler before it was eaten. must work on that.

every sunday should be started with flaky biscuit, homemade honey-butter whipped (yes, butter. yumm. oh so good) and jam strawberry jam. of course, only to be followed by a famous fried chicken at stroud’s. wondering how we ate all this food? well, the better part of sunday we sat and watched mad men. one must recover from such an eventful weekend, agreed?

It’s been raining and storming Kansas City style this week. Lots of t-storms warning, NBA finals weather advisory interruptions (I’m not too concerned but I have heard a few choice words coming from someone else in the house), and  humidity. Soon it will pass and it will be blazin’ hot, Kansas City style again. So I’m enjoying this weather and eating lots of broccoli-cheddar soup. Yum!

I made an apple tart this weekend. It was delish and so pretty! Everything an apple tart should be – brown flaky crust, caramelized glaze, apple arranged in a concentric circle, sweet with a little zing…I could go on and on about my little apple tart. I might have gotten a little carried away in how pretty it turned out that I forgot to snap a picture. I understand it that is could be hard to believe that an apple tart was even made. But…ah-ha, my evidence: the start of the pâte brisée.

The recipe was a combination of Martha Stewart’s pâte brisée and the barefoot contessa apple filing.

You are just going to have to trust me that it was that good. No fears friends, I feel another apple tart coming this week, with pictures to come.

memorial day.

jack fork river.

hots dogs and s’mores.

warm fires.

summer rain storms.

perfect calmness.

lots of turtle spotting.