Lemon Tart

Crust:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup(1 stick) could unsalted butter(cut into smaller pieces)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. In a food processor or mixer, combine ingredients for crust. Pulse together until a dough starts to form in clumps. Press into tart pan, making sure to cover bottom and sides evenly. Pierce the bottom of the crust with a fork and place in freezer for 10-15 minutes.
Place tart pan on a cookie sheet and bake until crust is a golden-brown color, approximately 12 minutes(check it at about 9-10 min. Mine was done in that amount of time.) Remove from oven and let cool.

Filling:
5 oz. cream cheese
1/2 sugar(can add an extra 1/4 cup)
3/4 c. fresh lemon juice(about 3 large lemons---DO NOT use concentrated lemon juice!!)
2 large eggs
Zest from 1 lemon(get zest before juicing)

Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees. Mix cream cheese with electric beaters until smooth. Add sugar. Mix until well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each egg. Stop and scrape bowl halfway through. Add the lemon juice and zest and mix until smooth.(This will be pretty runny, but will set once cooked)
Pour filling into tart crust and bake on cookie sheet for 20-30 minutes, or until filling is set. Let tart cool on wire cooling rack. Cover and refrigerate until well chilled.
Use whipping cream as an optional topping. It can be piped on in stars or served on top with each piece. For extra flavor in the whipped cream, add a tsp. of lemon zest.

*Note: I bought my tart pan at the local kitchen supply store for around $7. But I'll be you could find one at Walmart.

From the kitchen of Kym Allen(I got this out of the book "Lemon Tart" by Josi Kilpack.)

Ratatouille

This is a great recipe for this time of year when gardens are starting to be ready to be picked!

Ingredients

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 smallish zucchini
1 smallish yellow squash
1 longish red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in one tablespoon of the olive oil and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. As carefully as you can, trim the ends off the red pepper and remove the core, leaving the edges intact, like a tube.

On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside. (Tricky, I know, but the hardest thing about this.)

Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

Tips: The recipe calls for an Italian eggplant, I can never find one or when I do it's more expensive, so I just look for a long skinny eggplant and make it work.

From the kitchen of Megan.

Original recipe: http://smittenkitchen.com/2007/07/rat-a-too-ee-for-you-ee/

Baked Beans

This is a yummy (the picture doesn't do it justice!), easy (crockpot!) recipe that is perfect for any end-of-summer potlucks and/or family reunions you may have.

BAKED BEANS

1/2 lb bacon, cooked and broken up
1/2 lb hamburger
1 green pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped

Cook hamburger, pepper, onion together until hamburger is done. In a crockpot combine hamburger mixture with:

1 32 oz can pork and beans
1 16 oz can kidney beans
1 16 oz can butter beans
1/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup bbq sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 T mustard
2 T molasses
1 t salt
1/2 t pepper

Mix all together and cook for about an hour.

From the kitchen of Kelly.