Fairly Fiberous post no. 1: Bakewell Tarts

I've spent the morning test-baking almond tarts (aka Bakewell tarts) for my granddaughter's 5th birthday party, which will be a Beauty-and-the-Beast tea party extravaganza. Nonna is in charge of tarts and other dessert-y stuff, as well as tea sandwiches.

These tarts were first served to me by Mrs. Watson, the wife of James Watson of Watson Wheels fame, in September when we visited. (And there is the fiber tie-in, ladies and gentlemen!) You may recall that I begged the recipe from her. Mine aren't quite as pretty as hers were - she uses premade frozen mini tart shells, an item that is apparently impossible to find in the US unless I care to order them 200 at a time from a restaurant supply house. (Oddly enough, Walmart apparently carries them in some states - but not in mine.) So I had to make do with pie crust pressed into a muffin tin - not as aesthetic but still good.

I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out - though for children I think I'll use a mini-muffin size; these are two or three bites for an adult.

I am taking the majority of these to a spinning function this afternoon, in hopes both of properly disposing of dangerous objects and also to ingratiate myself, to be honest. I was invited to join this group and this is my first time attending, and I'm not sure what it'll be like, thus I will defend myself and my presence with Mrs. Watson's almond tarts. Food can be a good ice-breaker.

In other good news, it appears I have a buyer for my Ashford spinning wheel - a woman is coming to see it tomorrow. I'm glad it will go to a good home, though in getting it ready to go I've had more than one pang of misgiving - but I need to cull the herd, as it were, and it's time. The potential buyer seems really excited to have it too, which is great. I'll keep you posted on how it goes.