Berries

Berries are in season now! In either supermarket or farmer's market, we are greeted by sweet aroma of berries. We've seen a one pound package of strawberries for $2.99 or 2 pound package of blueberries for $3.99.

Rick eats blueberries on his daily bowl of cereal in the morning but, never are they as tasty as they are right now. But with three pounds of irresistably fat, ripe, deep colored berries to eat, what to do with them before they spoil...what a travesty that would be! Solution? Make berry tarts!

Hiroko has been working on perfecting her tartmaking skills for a year. And the more tarts she makes, the better they get! Lately she has finally confessed (modestly) that she is finally comfortable with her tart shell.

She makes a sweet pastry shell from flour, butter, eggs, sugar, and ice water. And, for the filling....... lots and lots of berries! If you'd like to know her recipe, let us know. How can you resist one that has been a year in the making? Especially during berry season.

JR Pottery

Since we returned from Japan, we've become fascinated by and interested in Japanese style pottery. We tend to go for unusually shaped and handmade "one of the kind" designs. Recently, Rick's Uncle Carl generously sent us beautiful Bizen-yaki plates made by American man named John Ray. He studied and honed his pottery skills in Okayama, which is reknowned for Bizen-yaki.

We love the organic, earthy shape, texture, and feeling of the plate. We were told that it is a sushi plate, but why just limit its use to sushi when its design makes any food presented look and taste delicious. We've use them for serving appetizers or salads (no sushi as yet).

Check out John Ray's website to enjoy some of his beautiful work!