Last Taste of Summer

The first official day of Autumn is Sunday, and the weather lately has been feeling more fall-like! While it isn't 'chili for supper' weather yet, it is a good time to enjoy some of the flavors of summer before they're out of season. 

The Key Lime Bars were a hit at the neighborhood women's club I attend. I use the term 'neighborhood' loosely - the members live in 3 counties and distance between some of them could span a good 50 miles. This group has been organized since the late 1930's and has it's origins in KSU Extension. I worked with them professionally when I was County Extension FCS agent and it includes some of my favorite people, so it's been a pleasure to become a member. They, and many other clubs like them, started out as Home Demonstration Units in rural neighborhoods to give farm wives a chance to get together for visiting and education. They were later called Extension Homemaker Units and now our group is a Women's Educational Club (WEC). The programs and purpose have always been to improve the quality of the home through lessons on nutrition, food preparation, home maintenance, health, family life, financial management, and community involvement. In fact, the name of this group is Community Benefit. 

Key Lime Bars

Crust:

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup chilled butter, cut into small pieces

½ cup powdered sugar

1 cup shredded, sweetened coconut

¼ teaspoon salt

Filling:

1 ½ cups sugar

4 large eggs

¾ cup Key Lime juice

2 teaspoons grated lime zest

1 teaspoon baking powder

¼ cup all-purpose flour

 (I added green food coloring to filling mixture for a more attractive ‘lime’ look)

Additional powdered sugar for dusting top

1 ounce white chocolate melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Generously butter a 13x9-inch-baking pan.

Combine flour, butter, powdered sugar, coconut, and salt in food processor and process until moist clumps form. Press onto bottom of prepared pan. Bake until edges are golden, about 20 minutes.

Whisk sugar, eggs Key Lime juice, lime zest, baking powder and flour in large bowl until well blended. Pour over hot crust. Bake until topping is set and lightly golden, about 25 minutes. Dust with powdered sugar. Cool in pan on rack slightly. Drizzle with white chocolate. Cool completely. Cut into squares. Makes one 9x13-inch pan (about 40 bar cookies).

 from “Cooking with Bonnie: Farm to France”, Bonnie Aeschliman

Tomato Galette

1 refrigerated pie crust (the rolled kind)

4 oz. cream cheese, softened

4 oz. feta cheese, crumbled and divided

1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano

1 clove garlic, chopped

1/2 teaspoon salt, divided

3-4 tomatoes (Roma or other pulpy tomatoes are best)

1/4 teaspoon pepper

    Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Oil, spray, or line with parchment paper a baking sheet. Unroll the pie crust and place it on the baking sheet. In a small bowl, stir together cream cheese, half of feta cheese, oregano, garlic and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Spread this mixture evenly onto the pie crust, leaving a 1-1 1/2-inch border. Layer tomatoes evenly on top of cheese mixture and top with remaining feta, remaining 1/4 teaspoon of salt, and pepper. Fold edges of pie crusts toward center, pressing gently to seal (tomatoes will be partially covered). Bake for 30 minutes or until crusts are browned. 

A Galette is a term in French cooking to describe various types of flat, round, freeform tarts with hand-folded edges. They are more rustic and less formal than the classic fluted French tart baked in a rigid tart pan. I had also tried this recipe with refrigerated crescent roll dough instead of pie crust, baking the dough partly before adding the cream cheese mixture and tomatoes, then completing the baking. That was also good and reminded me of the popular 'veggie pizza' with crescent roll dough, cream cheese and finely chopped raw vegetables.