Our April showers should bring plenty of May flowers. All the dogwood trees were beautiful for Easter Sunday. Everything else is blooming and looks so pretty. I just hope we don’t get a late frost and ruin everything. If all goes well, we will have a bumper crop of apples this year.
The stinky ramps are up and everyone is having dinners everywhere. I have never eaten ramps but have been around enough people who have to know how you smell after a big feed. Momma Said, “No thanks to the stink.” I can dig them all day but I don’t want to eat any. The old timers used them as their spring tonic to purify their blood. Mom loved garlic and onions but she would not eat ramps either. She would dig, cook and can them but didn’t eat any. Gran loved them fried in with potatoes and ham.
People are starting to get their gardens ready for planting and it won’t be long before all the seeds and plants are growing and producing new bounties. It is really a good feeling to harvest your own food and someone who has never tasted food fresh off the vine don’t know what they are missing. Fresh strawberries, sweet corn, green peppers and ripe tomatoes, Momma Said, “Yum, Yum get you some!”
After eating produce from the store all winter it will be good to get some fresh out of the garden. It will still be a little while but it will be worth the wait. I always have to eat the first green pepper that comes on I don’t even wait until it is fully mature. Just can’t help myself.
Pecan Tarts
Ingredients
1- 3oz. pkg. cream cheese, softened
1 stick of margarine or butter, softened
1 C. flour
Dash of salt
Blend together cream cheese, margarine, flour and salt. Shape into 24 balls; press each ball into 1 ¾” muffin tins (press dough in bottom and sides with fingers, do not leave any holes).
Filling:
2 eggs, beaten
1 C. brown sugar
2 T. margarine or butter, melted
1 tsp. vanilla
Dash of salt
1 C. pecans, chopped
How to make
Combine eggs, brown sugar, margarine, vanilla, and salt. Mix well (do not beat with beater, or tops will be crusty instead of a nutty one). Divide pecans evenly in pastry shells. Pour filling in shells, filling 2/3 full. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from pans. Cool on wire rack. Makes 24.
