Hazelnut Plum Tart
By this point, dear readers, I hope you all know how much I love to have guests for dinner. (It is one of my dreams, by the by, to be referred to in print as a “celebrated hostess.”) For a week beforehand I will hunch over a menu, planning its every turn. One thing in particular will usually set the tone: I simply can’t resist the first brief rush of artichokes in fall or am inspired by a clever combination at a restaurant. That first dish will be my starting point as I coordinate the other courses to surround it in an evening.
And I believe in dessert, of course. Before I was a cook, I was a baker, the girl in high school bringing her friends plates of chocolate chip cookies and making zucchini bread on Saturday morning. In an average adult week, it can be difficult to carve out the time for a loaf or bread, and the excuses to bake, I find, are rarer than I would like. But there is nothing quite like the tactile experience of baking, using your fingers to cut butter into flour, rolling out pastry, or kneading dough. When friends are coming for dinner, it is my chance.
