On a recent trip to visit family I happened to acquired a variety of fresh ingredients to bring back to my own kitchen. My dad gave me venison from a deer he recently got and an entire fresh ham from a pig he had butchered. My mom gave me a large bag of apples from her orchard. My aunt and grandmother gave me many quarts of freshly picked raspberries and another jar of that wonderful raspberry sauce. Finally, my mother-in-law gave me a box full of freshly canned tomatoes, salsa, and ghee. I think I have my work cut out for me these next few weeks!
So, today I started with the most perishable items...the raspberries. I wanted to make something simple that would bring out the raspberry flavor and this tart certainly did. I parbaked the pastry shell and then spread a thin layer of cream cheese on the bottom followed by a spoonful of sugar. I then arranged the raspberries and finally drizzled on some of the raspberry sauce. Then I popped the tarts into the oven until hot and bubbly. (The picture was taken before this final step because I thought they were so beautiful when fresh.) These were wonderful...slightly sweet but with a great bite from the berries.
Later I started on dinner. I sliced off about a 3 pound cut from the fresh ham I had. Then I covered it in rosemary, salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil. This baked at 325 for about 1 1/2-2 hours...the internal temp should read around 160. (I finally got to use my thermometer I won at my last cooking class for this!) I also made some mashed cauliflower to go along with the pork. This was really really good. I think I've mentioned it before, but I really love the combination of rosemary and pork. Really, I think I love rosemary with just about anything!
