rikibeth

After the Christmas cookie rush, work slows down a lot. We had some New Year's parties, and we've got an event coming up Saturday, but kiosk business is very slow, because the community college isn't back in session until the 22nd, and the prep school associated with it follows their schedule.

So I've had time to putz around playing with things. Last week it was making fondant icing from scratch, to see if I could, with the eventual notion of making petits fours in-house instead of Chef ordering them in from outside.

This week, I got handed some slightly-past-their-prime strawberries, the excess from what got chocolate dipped over the weekend, I guess.

"Can you use these for something?"

"I'll figure something out," I said.

So I washed them, and sliced them, and sprinkled them with sugar as I layered them into a bucket, and let them sit for a while to develop juices while I did some other stuff. Then I dumped them into a saucepan and cooked them with a little cornstarch until the juices thickened. And then I let them cool off while I pulled the rugelach dough I'd made a little while ago and hadn't gotten around to using out of the fridge, and floured the workbench and rolled nice neat circles.

One yellow-handled scoop per circle, roll up the edges neatly around it, and presto, single serving strawberry tartlets.

I stuck them in the freezer. I'm not even sure it'll be worth baking them off until everyone gets back from break.