A week or so ago I visited the Wright Memorial Library to get a library card. There’s just something about obtaining a library card from your local library that makes you feel more like a real resident. As I was leaving the library, I saw this little guy running about under the trees. He is so pretty! I wondered how rare all-white squirrels are and did a quick search. Turns out they are pretty rare with just a 1 in 100,000 chance of a female gray squirrel giving birth to a white squirrel.
A couple of years back, we walked to one of the nearby restaurants and picked up lunch to eat in one of the many parks in this area. We saw an albino squirrel in the park that day. I was wondering if this was the same one since it’s just a few blocks away from the park. My daughter-in-law said that they see them frequently all around this area, so this may not be the same one. I saw one back in Georgia once crossing a road that’s very close to my home. Have you ever seen one near your home?
Do you remember the beautiful tarte that Norma made a while back? I loved the look of this tarte so much and knew one day I’d try to make it.
That opportunity came a week ago when I had my son, DIL, and grandsons over for dinner. I fixed lasagna, butternut squash soup, a green salad, brussels sprouts still on the stem, and spider cupcakes for dessert. For our appetizer, I served this tarte. I had a lot of obstacles to overcome to make it! I couldn’t find the round puff pastry the recipe called for in Dorothy Lane Market, Kroger, or Walmart. The next time I was in Dorothy Lane, I checked at the service desk and they did have it, it just wasn’t out because one shelf of the cooler where it’s normally stored wasn’t working properly. They brought out both of these from their back storage coolers. I bought both since I wasn’t sure which I’d want to use. When I got home, I realized that neither pastry was round. They were both rectangular.
It gets worse! First I pulled out the Pepperidge Farm pastry, and that’s when I discovered that it wasn’t round or big enough for my smallish round pizza pan. I ended up laying it on the pizza pan to get the imprint of the pan, then slicing off the square edges and using those pieces to try and fill in on the other side of the pan where the pastry wasn’t large enough.
Not sure if you can see my hobbled-together pastry around the edges underneath the ham and sundried tomatoes. When I attempted to create the top half of the tarte, I really goofed! The pastry wasn’t as cold as it had been when I first pulled it out of the refrigerator, so when I unwrapped it, it stuck all to itself. It was just like when you pull off a piece of cling wrap or tape, and then it falls back and sticks to itself. There was absolutely no way to unstick it, so I ended up throwing away that whole sheet of pastry dough.
Next, I tried one of the Dufour pastry slabs. Dufour is a French brand. Unfortunately, the rectangular pieces of pastry I found inside the Dufour box were a lot smaller than the ones from the Pepperidge Farm box. Since I don’t have a rolling pin with me here at the Dollhouse, I ended up using a can of tomatoes to roll the dough out from all sides to get it closer to fitting the size of the pan. In the end, I had to cut off some of the square edges again to piece together a round pastry for the top half of the tarte.
Here’s how the rectangular pieces look when they are first unrolled. I can’t remember if this was the Pepperidge Farm pastry or the Dufour one. It looks pretty big so it may have been the Pepperidge Farm one.
I didn’t realize it at the time, but I didn’t cut as many sun rays as I was supposed to, to create the sun design. Argggh! Not sure why I didn’t catch it, I usually pay attention to details like that. I guess I was just flustered by all the pastry mishaps. Ha! So the rays on my sun turned out a bit fatter than they had on Norma’s sun. Next time I’ll be sure to make ALL the cuts. I sure hope I can find pastry in a round shape someplace, so I don’t have to piece it together again. Anyone know where to buy it in a round shape?
Here’s how my Tarte Soleil (Sun Tarte) looked once it was baked.
Here’s how it looks when you make all the cuts that you’re supposed to make. 🙂
Oh, one other issue I had was Norma said that it’s best to use a blender or food processor to make sort of a paste of the sundried tomatoes. I didn’t have a blender here and I discovered that sundried tomatoes are not the easiest things to chop up since they sort of stick to a knife, so I just cut mine up the best that I could. Also, the ham was supposed to be thinly sliced and the deli personnel at DLM cut my slices pretty thick. That was my fault for not telling her to slice it thin.
Thankfully, after all the issues I had in making it, my son and daughter-in-law still loved it. I don’t think my grandsons ever tried it, they were too busy playing while we sipped wine and enjoyed the tarte.
I’m definitely going to try making it again. I’ll bring my blender up from the Georgia house—and my rolling pin since I can’t seem to find the pastry in a round shape here like they have it in France. If you would like to make this beautiful Tarte Soleil, you’ll find the recipe here: How to Make a Beautiful Tarte Soleil. Norma mentioned that her husband loves it with salmon and cream cheese inside. I would love to try making it that way, too!
A Recent Find I am always looking for ways to get better organized. In my pantry, I had a mish-mash of various-sized food storage bags. Whenever I needed one, I’d have to go through each of the boxes to figure out which box held the size storage bag that I needed. I was so over dealing with that, I finally sat down to see if there was a better way to organize them. This was the system I purchased. It can be mounted on the wall or stored in a drawer. The top and bottom parts are separate. I was pretty sure the bottom part that’s for storing aluminum foil, cling wrap, and wax paper would be too big/deep for my fairly shallow kitchen drawers, and it was—but the top half works perfectly inside my pantry, which is what I had in mind when I ordered it.
Here’s how it looks and I love it! No more digging through the various boxes to find the one I need. It saves a lot of time and much frustration! If you could use something like this inside your pantry, or on your pantry wall, you’ll find the one I purchased here: Organizer for Storage Bags, Foil, Wax Paper, and Cling Wrap. It’s available in a bunch of different finishes, even white. You’ll find more of these storage systems for storage baggies here: Pantry Organizers for Storage Bags. There are a lot of different styles/designs from which to choose!
Happy Weekend!
Oh my goodness, that squirrel is stunning! We have brown & black squirrels by me & it’s fun to see all the different combinations that a black and a brown squirrel can make (lol). Black with brown tails, dark brown body with lighter tails, you name it & it’s out there, but I have never spotted a white one 🙂
I have never seen round puff pastry! I have several recipes that I use it so I will be interested if you find round. It looked great, nevertheless.
No white squirrels here. He looks like stuffed toy. I have black, brown and gray.
Looks great – I’m so impressed
I’m going to try this
Hi, Well I think you did pretty well on your Tarte looks so good I have never seen a round puff pastry, yet I know that Target has a gluten free one which we never had only Europe did now we do so maybe it would be a good thing to e-mail them and make round ones I think I will do that.
You are a brave woman Susan for even attempting to make the tarte. I have never seen a white squirrel. Beautiful. At a town nearby, they have solid black ones near the lake. I saw a fox squirrel when I lived in another area. Big bushy tail.
Now that you are an official resident, do both states have state taxes to file ? I don’t miss that for sure.
You’d be star baker on the British Baking Show! Great job.
I have never, ever, ever seen an albino squirrel, Susan. I’m amazed you were quick enough to get a photo of him. He’s beautiful. I love little animals. Thanks so much for sharing!
The bag storage is fabulous – you always find the most amazing things to make life easier!
Crazy girl!!!! You have to roll the rectangle big enough for circular shape. Then trace a circle onto pastry and cut it out!!!!
I prolly use puff pastry three times a week around here!!!
In France, Norma can buy round pastry, no rolling required. I don’t have a rolling pin here at the Dollhouse, that’s why I used a tomato can. Not sure if you saw that part in the post. I’m going back to GA soon and I’m bringing my rolling pin back! I wish they sold round one pastry here like they do in the south of France! I did pretty good with the tomato can, though. Hahaha
In Cincinnati there are white squirrels in the Pleasant Ridge area and black squirrels in Glendale. You would love Glendale-huge old houses, well kept. Just off the Sharon Road exit on I-75. Even a black squirrel statue.
You were brave to continue tackling that tarte after all the difficulties you had but it looks pretty good. Looks don’t matter nearly as much as taste but I know you wanted it to be perfect and baked it looked ok.
Never have seen a white squirrel and they are pretty but I hate squirrels so glad I just saw a picture! lol
1) How was Halloween at the Dollhouse? Did the grandkids come there? What were their costumes.
2)What a menu for the family dinner! Everything! sound and looked so so good.
3) I forget what Three was!
I just read that the Dufour Puff Pastry is THE BEST to purchase. Haven’t looked in my area (suburb of Dallas) but it is on my radar. We used to have white squirrels with brown tails. It freaked out all the workers building our houses. But have not seen them in the last few years.
We have used Dufour for years, I think it is the very best ready made. I am a stickler for all butter pastry products rather than other kinds with less healthy fats. I have baked a lot over the years and never seen round puff pastry. One thing I have noticed is making an all butter pie crust tastes very similar to puff pastry and even puffs some. It could be rolled easily into the preferred round shape.
Unless you find one somewhere to special order, there isn’t around puff pastry around here. But you definitely want to stick with they dufour brand, If you read the ingredients you’ll find that it’s the one that actually uses butter. Pepperidge farm does not. It’s much higher quality. But you’ve made me want to try to make one of those myself and I’m not even a baker!
Robin, definitely do it! It’s not hard especially if you have a blender or food processor and a rolling pin if you need it. It was just a bit of a challenge for me because I didn’t have everything I needed. If you make one, share a picture with me, I would love to see it!
When my husband Tom was a young boy he had an albino squirrel as a pet for a short time. It made headlines in the small town in Pennsylvania where he lived.
Love the squirrel!!!!! I wish we had them around here.
TRY,TRY AGAIN. You did great for your first…..i WISH YOU SUCCESS !!
I’ve seen albino squirrels up here in Michigan. They are so unusual and pretty! I can’t imagine they could live as long as the other squirrels only because they stand out easily for predators. The appetizer looks fabulous!! That would be great for the holidays coming up! Thanks for sharing!
I actually liked yours better for serving as an appetizer. It still retained the lovely sun shape and the pieces were generous. The larger pieces looked easier to disconnect from the center.
I have never seen an albino squirrel but in Nebraska and Iowa some of our squirrels are black.
Tart = yummingly delicious….! Squirrel = squirrelingly squirrely..!!
Growing up, we had those snowy, smart little rascals in our yard who stayed very close to the pecan trees..!