January 2007 almost time to go...

On our way south from St. Petersburg Florida, we spend a few days in Sarasota with our wonderful friends Amy, Joe and their sons Logan and Dalton. We know that this was the last time that we will see them in a while and it was sad to say "good bye".

We had two wonderful days in the Cayo Costa State Park and shared the anchorage with a wild hog mother with four little baby piglets – not older than maybe 10 days. A dolphin came and played for more than twenty minutes with a snook (large fish- for all the foreigners!) it caught. We had a lunch in a mangrove “cave” in our dinghy and watched millions of stars in the night. It was sure paradise.




Mike and Carey whom we have met in the Dry Tortugas last year graciously invited us to their house again. So we are now in Cape Coral where we do last (hopefully) maintenance and provisioning for our trip to the Bahamas. We plan on leaving in the secondd week in February after a short visit to Chicago to say “good buy” to our dear friends up there.

While in Cape Coral, I have time to experiment in the kitchen a bit.

Here is a wonderful Pear and Almont tart – easy to make, and WONDERFUL!


You will need a batch of sweet pie pastry, which you can make or buy already made at a supermarket.
¼ cup sugar
1 vanilla bean (or a spoon of extract)
3 pears (ripe but firm), peeled, halved and cored
3 tablespoons apricot preserve


For the filling
2/3 cup unsalted butter softened
2/3 cup superfine sugar
Few drops vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup ground almonds
Finely grated zest of 1 small lemon
3 tablespoon all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375 degrees , roll out pastry to lina a 9-inch round loose bottomed fluted tart pan. Chill in the refrigerator for 20 min.

Put sugar and vanilla bean in a saucepan, add pears and cover with water. Take pears out bring water to a simmer and cook for 5 min. Add pears, cover and poach 5-10 min until tender (don’t overcook!) Drain and cool.

To make the filling, beat butter, sugar and vanilla together until pale and creamy. Beat in eggs gradually and than fold in almonds, lemon zest and flour.

Line Pastry shell with a crumbled piece of waxed paper and baking beads (if you don’t have any use dry rice or dry beans). Blind bake the pastry for 10 min., remove paper and bake for another 2-3 until pastry is baked but still very pale. Reduce heat to 350 degrees

Spread three quarters of filling in the pastry shell and put pears on top, cut side down and stem ends in the middleFill the gaps with the remaining fillingBake for 35 to 40 min. until filling is golden and firm

Melt the preserves for 1 teaspoon of water strain to remove any lumps and brush over pears to make them shine