Strawberry Belly.

Yes, our bellies here at the Balfour, or anyone whose eaten here lately would be one thing, - full of strawberries!  Whole Foods had been selling four pound boxes of strawberries for $7.99, and as I stood over the tower of red and delicious looking juicy berries, I felt a little like Bubba from Forrest Gump and his shrimp creations.  In my head I began "strawberry shortcake, strawberry icing, strawberry compote, strawberry parfaits..."  The list went on, and I felt I was up to the challenge of purchasing a four pound box of them without wasting a single one.  And I did.

Menu:

Strawberry and Mascarpone Tart with Brandy Glaze (#94)  **yes, this is a new one, I haven't used mascarpone before.)

Potato and Zucchini au Gratin (#95)

I even used the fancy pie weights.

 Um...yum.

I wish I could say the rest of this tart was left to be enjoyed at a later time.  And, while, yes, a bit was left, the weekend didn't leave us without seeing the whole thing completely devoured.  I'll take it as a compliment.

The other super awesome thing about last weekend is that I purchased a new kitchen tool!  A handheld mandolin for slicing the most beautiful disks of vegetables, etc in the simplest of ways.  That is, of course, if you are careful not to slice off your finger.  Which I should say, with a mandolin, is something you really need to be careful not to do.  So far, I still have ten fingers.  And I've used it quite a bit.

205 to go...