Bad News Tart

My youngest brother is about to leave for two years to serve a mission for our church in El Salvador. I'm sure that the hermanitas in San Salvador are going to take REALLY good care of him, but I don't think that he'll be eating his favorite comfort foods any time soon. Brendan is a huge fan of my cooking (possibly my biggest fan) so I invited him over for a last meal.
As per his request I cooked quiche, and while that delicious cheesy, eggy, goodness was bubbling away in the oven, I decided to throw together a dessert using the odds and ends in my pantry. The big question was, what to cook? I've been trolling around on Pinterest today, and one of the trends in the cooking categories has been lemony desserts. Brendan is a big fan of non-chocolate desserts, so I got the idea to make a French-style fruit tart. I thought it would go well with the quiche, and we have a lot of yummy fresh fruit in the house right now.
I used this recipe to make a citrus shortbread crust. I have no vanilla, so I used coconut extract. I also have no lemons so I used lime juice (lime zest is usually pretty nasty). While it was cooking up, I diced some strawberries and rendered them with a little sugar. I have some CHOICE mangoes right now, so I diced up some of those, too. Somewhere in the back of my pantry I discovered a packet of Dream Whip, which I prepared with lemon extract (again, due to a lack of vanilla).
Here is the final product:

Oh. My. Gosh. 

This is SO good. By the end of the first slice we were all nearly weeping tears of joy. The richness of the crust plays off of the tart, fresh fruit and the cool creaminess of the whipped topping so perfectly that Brendan named it Bad News Tart, since he thinks that you should give people a slice of this right before giving them bad news to soften the blow. 

So next time you have a younger brother going on a mission, or bad news to deliver to someone, give this sweet tart a try. You will not be disappointed. 

My Plant Problem

I have a rather peculiar problem, and I'm hoping that I'm not the only one. You see, I may have a teensy tiny plant hoarding situation going on around my house. I'm totally addicted to plants and gardening. Like 12-Step-Program, support group addicted. You know how some women compulsively shop for shoes or purses? I shop for house plants. I'm confessing this because I may have made my biggest score ever this last week, and I'm both thrilled and horrified at the implications of this discovery.
Monday, I ventured to one of my local nurseries looking for either red geraniums and/or a replacement for a rosemary topiary I had inadvertently over-watered and subsequently killed. I went to Cook's because they are simply the best place in this area for buying plants. HUGE selection, great quality, fantastic prices. I'm never disappointed by their selection, and this time I stumbled into their house plants section, eyes glazed over and needing a fix. Salivating, palms sweating, and heart palpitating, I wandered among the geraniums, the potted  herbs, the succulents, and the ornamental planters; until I spotted it! Tucked neatly in the back corner of their main greenhouse there was a rather impressive stock of hanging planters filled with delicious green eye candy. After much careful thought, deliberation, and diaphragmatic breathing, I decided that I could not justify purchasing one of each, so I settled on a Boston Fern which may or may not be the largest of that species I've ever seen. I kid you not, this plant when hanging is approximately 3.5 long and weighs more than a small child. It's GORGEOUS, and I had just the right place to put it. Observe:

See? It's perfect! This photo fails to accurately communicate the enormity of this fern, but the longest fronds come within a couple inches of the floor. SO choice! The best part? I only paid $19.95 plus tax for this sweet, sweet baby. A STEAL, I tells ya! Shoot. once I payed almost that much for a half-dead Christmas Cactus in a 6 inch pot. (See? I told you I have a problem.)
Incidentally, looking at this photo I'm having a really hard time controlling my impulse to go purchase one of these for each room in my house.
What is your bizarre impulse shopping addiction?