A couple of days ago I received a text from my friend Angie that said, “Want to meet up for dinner tomorrow night? Angie and her husband Guy are part of a dinner group we belong to where we who go to each other’s houses and restaurants together about once a month. We eat too much, drink too much and laugh enough to last me until our next get-together. I yelled to John and said, “Want to go to dinner with the crowd on Wednesday evening?”
“Sounds good,” he replied.
I texted back to Angie, “love to.”
The messages went back and forth as to the restaurant, the time, etc., but she didn’t say who was able to come. It didn’t matter to me, I was going OUT! We work entirely too much.
Wednesday morning I was up at the crack of dawn getting ready for a meeting with Annie Infinite, a social media marketing guru on the Sunshine Coast (and the world). We wanted her advice on the launch of the new update to EasyRecipe our WordPress recipe plugin.
We both went back to work and about 3pm I said to John, “What do you feel like having for dinner?”
“Aren’t we going out?
“Ack!! I nearly forgot.”
“Nearly??”
We were going to Cala Luna in Maroochydore. It’s a popular restaurant you have to hunt for. The sign is really, REALLY small. The food is so good that there’s never a table unless you book in advance. Thankfully Angie had done that.
We arrived at Angie’s fancy high rise apartment and it’s all women! It was a girls night out. Angie didn’t say and I didn’t ask. John thought going to dinner with four women wasn’t a bad idea. The food was terrific and we were so full there wasn’t room for dessert – for anyone other than John. I could tell he was eyeing the cassata and that’s exactly what he ordered. As the owner took the order Angie said “Bring us each a spoon!” in Italian. When the cassata arrived she gave John a big mixing spoon and small spoons for the rest of us. He wasn’t amused. He did get a couple of bites and that was it.
We must go back. My new friend @Pav1lov described a restaurant on his blog as one of those placed where you want to keep going back until you’ve eaten everything on the menu. It was that good. The Sunshine Coast isn’t crawling with great restaurants but there are a few and this one is definitely one of them.
Next time I go back to Cala Luna I’ll bring the camera! argh. useless.
Have you ever gone out and got it wrong? I’m hopeless, obviously. I’ve even forgotten an event altogether. Now THAT doesn’t make you many friends. (Sorry, Iris)
If your day has been really busy and you need a quick and easy dessert, this one works just great. If you’re strapped for time, buy frozen pie crust and blind bake the tart shells it til they’re golden brown. Let them cool and then add some really nice strawberry jam to the bottom and cover it with sliced fresh strawberries and top it with chantilly cream. It looks really good and only takes a few minutes. The crusts can be made a day ahead and the strawberries can be sliced ahead of time too.
This is my idea of a quick dessert. I really like fruit and cream and John likes cream on everything so it was a win for both of us.
- 12.5 ounces all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2½ sticks (20 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into ¼-inch pats
- 6 tablespoons cold water
- Pastry for 4 tart shells or commercial frozen pastry
- ½ cup strawberry jam (or lemon curd or butter works well too)
- 2 punnets fresh strawberries, sliced
- 1 tbs sugar
- 1 cup cream
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (the good stuff)
- 1 tbs caster (superfine) sugar
- Combine ⅔rds of flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse twice to incorporate.
- Spread butter chunks evenly over surface. Pulse until no dry flour remains and dough just begins to collect in clumps, about 25 short pulses.
- Use a rubber spatula to spread the dough evenly around the bowl of the food processor.
- Sprinkle with remaining flour and pulse until dough is just barely broken up, about 5 short pulses.
- Transfer dough to a large bowl.
- Sprinkle with water then using a rubber spatula, fold and press dough until it comes together into a ball. (don't be tempted to add the water in the food processor -- won't be as good)
- Divide the dough ball in half.
- Form each ball into a 4-inch disk and wrap in cling film.
- Refrigerate for a couple of hours or overnight.
- Preheat oven to 350F (180C)
- Roll pastry or thaw frozen commercial pastry and line 4 or 5 tart shells
- Line with baking paper and beans, rice or pie weights
- Bake for 20 minutes and then remove the weights and paper and bake for a further 10-15 minutes at 300F (160C) until golden brown
- Set aside to cool (or store for a later use)
- Slice strawberries and sprinkle sugar and mix to combine. Set aside. (or store for later use)
- Put cream in a chilled bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and beat until soft cream begins to thicken.
- Add sugar and vanilla and beat until soft peaks begin to form. Don't overbeat and make butter.
- Cover and refrigerate until serving.
- Spread strawberry jam over the bottom of the tart crust then fill with sliced strawberries and top with cream
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Poor John … I would have defended the cassata with a growl and firmly spoken “MINE”!! I firmly believe in a man/or woman being able to enjoy the dessert he/she ordered. If Angie had wanted one she should have ordered a dessert for the ‘ladies’ to share.
Lovely strawberry tart. Just enough for one person. 🙂
hahahah! Love your reply 🙂 Couldn’t have said it better myself .
Hi Maureen, great to know of another good restaurant on the Sunshine Coast besides Spirit House. I only get things wrong when my husband does the organising with another male. And that’s because Carl doesn’t ask for details and the other male doesn’t give any. So we don’t know if it’s a dinner party or cocktails, what the dress code is, who else is going, who’ll be sitting at our table etc, etc. I’m so terrified of turning up in jeans when it’s actually cocktail or arriving at a BBQ to find it was BYO meat that I always do a cross-check and contact the other party myself. I’ve been in your situation far too many times! Glad it all worked out well for you in the end xx
Maureen, that’s a great tradition to get together once a month. Reminds me of our get-together with friends when we lived in Seattle. Ah, good times! The tart is light and so colorful,. I think I am going to bake tonight (the tart) and make some berry tart for myself… 🙂
Oh wow what a great idea! I have been laid up in bed all week but have a family dinner I need to cater for on Saturday and was wondering what I was going to make that wouldn’t take hours. I made something very similar before with a little pastry case, warming up a bottle of lemon butter/curd spread and pouring it in and topping with cream and Lemoncello and lemon zest. Thanks for getting me out of the kitchen for hours tomorrow….now I just need to do the beef in red wine and the oven can do all the work :- )
I don’t normally bake. But this is so easy….and yummy looking……..I am going to have to try this one.
I love your idea of a quick dessert. I have very often showed up to an event and had the wrong night! I’m right there with you.
Such a fun tradition…
I am missing my friends now..
B/W once I sent my hubby to a mommy and me swimming date for kiddos…LOL
I still remember his face when he came back….LOL
Okay excuse me while I pass out. This is gorgeous. I am in love with this.
I do something similar with strawberries, though it’s been awhile. I’m awash in them at the moment, so maybe I should do this? I think yes. Frozen pie crusts aren’t that bad. I’m lucky, I have slave labor – my wife likes to make pie crusts and is good at it – but I think the Frozen have a lot going for them. Really like the pictures, particularly the second. The light on the strawberry that’s front and center is gorgeous!
Thanks heaps for this comment!
Maureen, next time I’m on the Sunshine Coast perhaps we can go together!? It sounds fantastic! And this simple and lovely dessert is such a nice option for when you don’t have time 🙂
Promise?? 🙂
This is just beautiful … I could eat that, right now 🙂
Thanks, CJ, that’s really kind of you.
Mmmmm, this looks yummy! Bummer that John didn’t get his “just desserts”. This tart looks easy enough, even for me.
Thanks for visiting my blog, hope you drop by again soon!
~ Ferly
Gifts We Use {to grow, love and serve}
I don’t think I’ll ever be able to think of tarts as ‘quick’ (to me, they just seem hard, even though I have made them and they’re generally not as hard as I expect!) – so I am very impressed with these 🙂
I love how it is so changeable 😀
Flexible to fruit, pastry, event and gorgeous on top of that 😀
Stunning my friend!
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Haha it was a girl night out. But that’s good that John didn’t mind. My husband would give me a lecture that I tend to assume everything (but if it’s not specified who would have guessed?!). I love this easy dessert – you know me. This is my kind of “homemade” dessert that I can pull off. 😉 I wish I live there. I’d be going to this restaurant and check out every single menu!
LOL I’m very lucky in that respect. John has the most even temperament of any human I know. I’ve seen him angry twice in 17 years 🙂 He doesn’t believe in wasting his energy on someone for nothing. lol
they really look quick and easy but also delicious and so fresh!
This looks fantastic. How nice that you meet up all the time! Especially if you get to enjoy things like this, love the glossy strawberries.
We work from home and don’t get out a lot so I really look forward to letting my hair down and laughing until I cry. It helps to have funny friends. 🙂
Fabulous! I need to make this, strawberries in the UK are lovely at the moment!
Thanks a lot. I love your blog and I’ve learned a lot about Pakistani food there. Every time I visit I look at that photo of you and think, “how pretty!”
The best fruit desserts are the easiest and simplest ones where the fruit shines. These look amazing.
This is an insanely easy and quick dessert! I’d like mine sans the cream. 🙂
Love you dinner group and love this tart! Strawberry jam, plus fresh strawberries and cream? Divine!
Hi Maureen, That is a vibrant and beautiful looking tart and a lovely site you have going here. I want to thank you for dropping by my site and commenting yesterday.
~ ray ~
Thanks Ray, I visit your place regularly – love your blog.
these are so elegant and so delicious! love it!
What a perfect little tart!
Easy and it looks gorgeous! Interesting way of making the pastry too (I just tend to bung everything into the FP).
I can relate to a husband and four women. My hubby had the same privilege as he puts it! What a trouper to share his dessert! 🙂 This tart does look delicious and very easy (except for maybe the pastry which I struggle with). Love it!
Oooooh, that would have made me mad. My dessert is mine! 😀 I guess I wouldn’t have minded going to dinner with all women though, as long as they keep their dessert-thieving mitts to themselves!
Love the look of this little tart – the pastry looks incredible!
John laughed at this comment. He’s still thinking about that fruity, nutty cassata 🙂
one word SCRUMPTIOUS!
I love strawberries and cream, what pretty tarts!
this is my idea of a quick dessert as well! when strawberries are in season, their sweetness is unbeatable!
my husband would be shaking his head if it was him in that situation… plus i will never hear the end of it haha.
i love easy fix up desserts. i was looking for a similar recipe that i used to do before… and it’s serendipitous that i find it here.
happy weekend!
malou
Haha for some reason, I was under the impression that there were more than a few nice restaurants in Sunny Coast 🙁 I’ll definitely suss this place out if I ever make my way up there. Thanks for sharing!
There might be, Libby, but I haven’t found many 🙂
Like Celia, I’m a” bung it into the processor” kind of gal when it comes to pastry, but I’m not averse to buying tart shells either. I’m lazy.
These tarts looks amazing and your photo’s are gorgeous Maureen – well done!
Quick and Easy? Definitely for me…I am in need of delicious recipes that are quick and easy. Would anyone want otherwise? Thanks for sharing! I love strawberries!
Strawberries have just arrived on the Sunshine Coast with several pick-your-own farms already open. I love strawberries!
Lovely tarts and what a good partner you have there. A lot of men would freeze and turn tail at the thought of dinner with 4 women! lol
John’s a very good sport and the most even tempered man (or woman) that I’ve ever met.
Maureen, these are absolutely gorgeous and I love the simplicity! We all need a few tricks like this up our sleeve. I can imagine these would be wonderful with any type of berry – I’m thinking blueberries are on sale this week ……………. Thanks!
Maureen, the pictures are GORGEOUS!!!
I don’t think my man would have manned it up to 4 women, so you have a brave man there. And I don’t blame John for wanting to guard his cassata. Desserts should be strictly off limits with ‘MINE’ labelled all over it.
Absolutely gorgeous! I love recipes that you can partially make ahead to save time. Perfection!
What a funny story! I loved it. The tart looks like a perfect ending to a hectic day. Your photos are stunning!
What beautiful tarts! A great way to use up all the lovely strawberries in season right now.
Thank you, Dara, lovely to see you here and thanks a lot for the comment!
John is a saint! If anyone ever started scarfing on my dessert to that degree.., I’d snap…’snap’ like a dog lol Sounds like you had a fantastic night, camera or not. Your strawberry tarts are perfect. The best preparations use simple, fresh ingredients, and these strawberry tarts are the epitome of that. Hope you’re having a great weekend!
John is a man and I think that leaves him OUT of sainthood. 🙂 He is very easy going and I can take him anywhere. LOL
Hey Maureen, it’s my ‘orgasmic’ pleasure to inform you that I have awarded you the much much deserved “The Versatile Blogger Award”.
Thank you so very much for all the support, encouragement and guidance that you have given me. And of course, for the ‘easy recipe’…:))
http://www.thelady8home.com/2012/06/23/my-first-blogging-award/
Love that you have a dinner group!!
and really love this quick dessert, looks fantastic 🙂
These little tart looks divine. I am not much of a baker but I may be able to handle this if I use pre-made pastry. Beautiful and delicious photos.
wow, Suzi, thanks a lot! Lovely to meet you!
I love the whole dinner group idea. 😀 I always have mishaps when I go out for dinner, but I try my hardest to not forget when something is on. 😛
The recipe does look easy and quick! Must give it a go. 🙂
You are a gal after my own heart. Certainly, to many – this would be far from quick and easy! You made your own pastry FGSake! Love the shell shape, btw!
Strawberry tarts remind me of my grandmother. She had a massive garden and made the most magical strawberry pies and tarts during strawberry season. I can still taste them and I could almost taste yours in that last photo!
And, seeing these photos, I miss my 1.4 50mm lens – sent away to be fixed – AH!
🙂
V
Maureen, I can’t believe such a decadent-looking tart is so simple. Yes, I can believe forgetting an event altogether. You have that feeling that you should be doing something… and hey, yes you should. I’m still unforgiven a decade later. Maybe I should bring around a few of these gorgeous treats as a peace offering. Or maybe I should keep them to myself!
lovely adore Chantilly cream and sounds like a cool place to eat
I love quick strawberry desserts, and this one would disappear quickly in my house! I’m also a major fan of date nights/nights out. I look forward to them for days, and my husband nearly forgets too. It must be a guy thing 🙂
I wish it had been my husband who forgot 🙂 He’s much better than I am. I need a wall-sized diary. lol
Such a simple dessert, but delicious… I can see any guests being impressed when presented with this strawberry tart. And I love making my own pastry:)
Oh my! That made me drool a little. I found your blog on the SITS forums.
Looks so inviting and delicious…mouthwatering!
mmm I love cream too, and strawberries!!!
I like quick and easy desserts with some added fruits.
These looks so pretty and yummy! My husband doesn’t enjoy fruit tart at all.
I think quick and easy is the best, I don’t have to wait for my sweet treat then:-) These tarts looks fantastic! Hug, Terra
I love quick and easy recipes like this, especially when they look so amazing, too!
Who doesn’t love a strawberry tart, especially when it looks this good! I’m loving strawberry season at the moment.
I have a whole pile of strawberries waiting to be put to use, and some time off work this week. I’ll be doing my best to recreate this lovely treat!
I love this and you could do it with other berries, depending on what was in season. Hard to beat strawberries though! I also love having friends like that. Makes for some great times.