GIVEAWAY! (and a classic Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Pie)

I'm celebrating my 100th follower with a giveaway --- a $25 gift certificate to Williams Sonoma --- and all you have to is become a follower to enter.  Just click on the Join this site button on the sidebar.
All followers will be automatically entered to win, and I'll pick the winner via random.org on Sunday November 27th.  Hurry up and follow!!  (Williams Sonoma ships internationally, so all followers are eligible)

Now for the pie...

I've been wanting to make this classic southern pie since I visited my Dad and his wife in North Carolina last month.  This is a venerable old southern family recipe, skillfully pried out of the venerable old Atlanta family by my Dad's wife at a cocktail party, just for all of us here at the The View from Great Island.  I feel so lucky to have it, these kinds of recipes don't come along every day, and just think, you didn't have to ply me with Jack Daniel's jello shots to get it.

Vanilla Bean Buttermilk Pie
(I made it in a 9" tart pan)

1\2 cup sugar

1Tbsp  flour

1 stick (1/2 cup)  melted butter

3 eggs well beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk

Pinch of salt

1 tsp vanilla
seeds from 1 vanilla bean

Combine the sugar and flour in a mixing bowl.  Add the remaining ingredients and pour into an unbaked tart shell*

Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes or until set
(like custard  --- when a knife comes clean)










* This crust is one I've been wanting to try, too.  I saw it on Linda's blog Ciao Chow Linda, and it originated with David Lebovitz ...it's a little different, but it works.  You can use any unbaked dough you want, but here's an interesting and easy version :

French Tart Dough        ---from Ciao Linda via David Lebovitz, slightly altered by me

4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
4 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups flour

Melt butter in a saucepan until bubbly. Add all the rest of the ingredients with a wooden spoon until it forms a ball and comes away from the side of the pan. Add more flour if it seems too wet.. Pat into a tart pan.

Note:  When you bake the tart, put some foil under it to catch any drips from the very buttery crust. I liked this crust very much, I'm going to use it again.

I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that no one really ever wants dessert after Thanksgiving dinner.  Dessert is the last straw, the thing that tips the scales from uncomfortably stuffed to groaning in agony.
Thanksgiving desserts are really better appreciated the next day.  If we're honest about it most of us will head straight for them first thing the next morning.  Our stomachs will have snapped back to their (almost) original size, and we're ready to fully appreciate those sweets.  Cut yourself a slice of tart to have with your coffee as you survey the damage in your post-feast kitchen.  
If you have superhuman restraint, wait till later in the day, after the turkey soup or tetrazzini and have it with a nice shot of bourbon.