Berry Cherry Almond Tart

Don't you love summer's berry season? I do, and I always buy the large containers of blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, raspberries at Costco.  I also can not get enough of fresh summer cherries.  We eat the berries added to yogurt for breakfast, blended in smoothies, mixed in with breakfast cereal or oatmeal, or in a fruit salad, and usually, I have no trouble finishing them all before my next shopping trip.

One of my favorite food blogger's Linda of the blog Ciao Chow Linda made a wonderful "Very Berry Crostata" in May and I saved it on my Pinterest Pies and Tarts Board to make it one day myself.

Linda's blog is full of delicious authentic Italian style recipes  I'm always getting recipe ideas and learning new techniques from her. We met once, years ago when I lived in Brooklyn, New York, and I was given four tickets to see a new TV show at the time called "The Chew."  My husband and my best friend Rosemary also came along to see the show. After a fun time as audience members, we went out for brunch and then took Linda on a little tour of Atlantic Ave in Brooklyn, where some of our favorite shops are located--if you'd like to see that fun post click here.   

Linda made her summer berries into a crostata, which is an open-faced free-formed fruit tart with the crust folded into a rim. I had quite a few berries plus cherries I wanted to use up, so I decided to make my fruit tart in my large 12-inch tart pan.  Most of my tart pans are 8 inches in width, but my 12-inch size pan is fast becoming a favorite as it holds so much and is wonderful to use when I have company over or making a sweet or savory tart for a holiday meal. 

Berry Cherry Almond Tart right out of the oven!

Prep is easy--the crust is made in a food processor and therefore little fuss, and can be pressed into the pan, so no rolling and measuring are needed.  The dough does need to be made ahead for at least an hour to chill. The blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries only need to be washed and drained.  The strawberries need to be hulled and sliced, and the cherries need their pits removed. I cut the cherries in half and picked out the pits easily.  Linda added sliced almonds to the bottom and crust of her crostata--I added them to the fruit rim of my tart.  They are optional but add a nice crunch and almond flavor.

Berry Cherry Almond Tart

Ingredients:

Crust:

This recipe makes two 8-inch or one 12 inch tart crust--if making 8-inch tart freeze half of the crust dough for an another time
2½ cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
½ cup granulated sugar
Finely grated zest of 1 small lemon
1 teaspoon almond flavoring
1 teaspoon baking powder
⅛ teaspoon fine salt
½ cup cold unsalted butter, cut into dice
2 large eggs

Filling:

4 cups fruit -- I used a mix of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, sliced strawberries and pitted cherries cut in half
1/2 cup of sugar
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon almond flavoring
2 tablespoons cornstarch

Toppings: (optional)

1/2 cup slivered almonds

If desired, a coating of apricot or apple jelly heated to make liquid can be brushed on top of the fruit after the pie is baked to make the fruit shine.

Instructions:

In a food processor, combine the flour, granulated sugar, lemon zest, almond flavoring, baking powder, and salt and pulse to mix.
Add the butter and pulse until the mixture is crumbly.
Add the eggs and process just until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. If you are using an 8-inch tart pan divide the dough it in half, and pat it into two disks and wrap one half in plastic wrap and freeze for another use.
If using a 12-inch tart pan pat dough into a flat disc and refrigerate it for 1 hour.
After an hour remove dough from the refrigerator and roll it out to a diameter to fit your tart pan or simply flatten and press dough into your tart pan. I like to then re-chill the dough in the tart pan in the refrigerator while preparing the filling

Mix all the ingredients for the filling. Mix gently, but well, and fill your tart pan with the fruit.
Carefully transfer the tart pan to a Silpat or parchment paper-lined cookie sheet to catch any baking overflow or seepage.
Sprinkle the slivered almonds around the rim of the tart.

Bake on the lowest oven rack at 375 degrees for 30 minutes, then remove it and place it on an upper rack for another 15 minutes, or until the crust of the tart is baked a golden color.

 What a nice summertime treat! 

We really enjoyed eating all our berries this way.  I added a bit of whipped cream on top of my slice--so delicious. You could also serve with ice cream on the side.  The crust has a delightful cookie taste to it which made it extra special, and all the berries, cherries, and almonds were a sweet combination.   I hope you will enjoy it this summer before berry season is over!

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Rocky Mountain National Park with Family

Anne and Rich

I am continuing to blog about trips my husband and I took last summer, pre-pandemic days. This summer we are staying home trying to stay as healthy as possible.  I never had a chance to show many "Summer of 2019" trips on my blog, as I was blogging about our wonderful land and sea trip to Alaska--click this tab to read all those posts--that we took last June, which took up many posts. When my husband's sister and brother-in-law, Anne and Rich,  visited us last August, we drove up to Rocky Mountain National Park ( RMNP) for a quick visit.  My husband and I have visited RNNP many times since moving to Colorado--it is only about a two-hour drive from our home.  If you'd like to see past more in-depth posts about the park you can see them on this tab link.  This time we wanted to share the beauty with Anne and Rich. Our brother-in-law was not a fan of high elevations, as he had some dizziness and shortness of breath when we visited the ski resort town of Breckenridge a few days before--click here to read that post--so we knew this would be a quick but a non-the-less scenic trip to enjoy together,

If I ever win the lottery I'm going to buy a second house in Estes Park, the town very close to the entrance to RMNP,  so I can stay there often and visit RMNP all the time.  I absolutely love it!  This summer RMNP, which is a very popular national park that attracts many millions of visitors every year, instituted a reservation system to control how many people could enter the park in an effort to help visitors maintain social distance and avoid overcrowding in parking areas.  I heard it is working so well it may become a permanent feature. Local residents are able to enter the park without a reservation before 6am and after 5pm--see more information on the park's official website at this link. 

Because we were going to basically drive in and out of the park, so my brother-in-law could stay in the car and not exert himself, most of my photos were "drive-by" photos.  

Trail Ridge Road is the major road inside the park and covers the 48 miles, both ways, between Estes Park on the park's east side and Grand Lake on the west. It crests at over 12,000 feet and includes many overlooks to experience the subalpine and alpine worlds of the park.

Even though it was the month of August there was still snow and glaciers on the high Rocky Mountains!

Lots of purple mountain majesty to see in every direction!

So many majestic views the higher we drove.

We made a quick stop at Forest Canyon Overlook so Anne could take a quick walk with me to get some views of the deep green forest views below.

We arrived at the Alpine Visitor Center parking lot but did not go into the building--this is the highest part of Trail Ridge Road so we knew we would turn around here and go back to a lower elevation for Rich's comfort. If you look at the collage above one of the photos is of a tundra walk up the side of a mountain across from the Alpine Center. The tundra in this part of the park is similar to the tundra at the arctic circle!

The views here are spectacular!

Long's Peak is in the distance.  At an elevation of 14,259-feet (4346 m), it is the highest mountain in the park.

Please click on photo collage to enlarge to learn more about the Alpine tundra.

Alpine Tundra view

Please click on photo to enlarge

Alpine Tundra wildflowers

Do you see the elk in the distance?

A closer view

They live and roam wild in a beautiful place!

On our drive back down to a lower elevation in the park we saw many bristlecone pines and weather bent trees.  Trail Ridge Road is closed starting in October to late May due to deep snow.

We did a quick drive-by to show Anne and Rich the famous Stanley Hotel in Estes Park.  This is where the author Stephen King was inspired to write his horror novel "The Shining" because of a paranormal experience he had there as a guest.  I also "saw" a ghost when we stayed at the Stanley Hotel.  My ghost seemed to be a benevolent one! Click here to read that post. Summer thunderstorm clouds gathered on the way home.

As we approached our community we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow in the sky!  It was the end of a wonderful and memorable day together. We hope that we will have many more visits to Rocky Mountain National Park in the future....in the meantime we wish you all dear readers to please stay happy, stay grateful, and stay healthy!

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Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado

Last summer my husband and I finally took a ride up to the Mother Cabrini Shrine in Golden, Colorado. For years we had seen the statue in the distance on the top of a foothill, that you see in the photo above, from Interstate 70 whenever we returned home from a trip to the Rocky Mountains, and we'd both say: "someday we have to take a ride up there!"  Mother Cabrini, officially known as Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini, was well known to us as the "Patron Saint of Immigrants," and was revered in New York City for her work as a missionary sister working to help Italian Immigrants in the late 1800s. In 1889, New York seemed to be filled with chaos and poverty, and into this new world stepped Italian-born Mother Frances Cabrini and her missionary sister companions. Cabrini organized catechism and education classes for the Italian immigrants and provided for the needs of the many orphans. She established many schools and orphanages despite tremendous odds.

You can read more about her on the Missionary Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus web site--the religious order which she founded in 1880.

Mother Cabrini also loved the mountains of Colorado and the foothills west of Denver held a special attraction for her. During her journeys in 1902 to visit the Italian workers and their families in the Clear Creek, Argentine, and South Park mining districts, Frances X. Cabrini discovered a property on the east slope of Lookout Mountain owned by the town of Golden. No reliable source of water was known to exist on the property at that time, although there were two fine barns and a springhouse built in the 1890s. In 1909-1910, she negotiated the purchase of this property as a summer camp for her charges at the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in Denver, Colorado. A farming operation, with poultry, other livestock, and dairy cows, was established and maintained by three of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart who set up living quarters in the loft of the larger barn. During the summer months, groups of about twenty girls, according to age, would spend several weeks at the summer camp. They enjoyed the freedom of the outdoors and recreational activities in addition to tending the animals and performing farm chores.

Please click on photo to enlarge

Mother Cabrini had established Queen of Heaven Orphanage in North Denver in 1902 to take care of orphans of Italian miners killed in accidents in Central City and Blackhawk.  It functioned for over 70 years.

In 1912 during Mother Cabrini’s last visit to the foothills, she and a builder, Thomas Eckrom, drew up the plans for the Stone House that would serve as a dormitory for the girls.  It was completed in 1914. Upon the closing of the Queen of Heaven Orphanage in 1967, the summer camp became a year-round retreat facility and a place for small prayer gatherings.

Moved by faith this land was bought by Mother Cabrini for the orphans but after her canonization as a saint in 1946, and her declaration as "Patroness of Immigrants" by Pope Pius XXII in 1950, it was also turned into a shrine to honor her.  It is now a peaceful place for people of all faiths to gather and reflect and enjoy its serenity.

To reach the top of the shrine one has to climb 373 steps on the Stairway of Prayer.  There are benches along the way in case you need to rest...

...and there are the 14 Stations of the Cross along the step's path on the ascent.

The stairway follows the path Mother Cabrini, the sisters, and the children took to the top of the mountain.

Each station's picture is made of stone mosaics made in Italy.

As one climbs the steps the city of Denver, can be seen in the distance!

It is quite a view! 

At the top of the hill is this beautiful 22-foot (6.7 m) statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, designed by Maurice Loriaux and mounted on an 11-foot (3.4 m) base, which was erected at the highest point of the site in 1954.

Inside the base of the statue is a statue of Mother Cabrini

In front of the statue of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is a heart made of stones enclosed in glass. On her last visit to Colorado in 1912, Mother Cabrini took several sisters and a few of the children from the orphanage by horse and buggy along a cow path to the foot of the highest hill. Leaving the buggy at the base, they climbed to the top where they gathered white stones and arranged them on the mountain in the shape of a heart surmounted by a cross; with the smaller stones, she formed a crown of thorns on the highest promontory, overlooking the city of Denver. Frances X. Cabrini dedicated the hill to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, naming it the “Mount of the Sacred Heart”. Those are the stones still present beneath the glass case and preserved for all to see.

This magnificent statue now looks down on the city of Denver in the distance ...

...and is surrounded by this natural beauty! If you look closely at the photo above or click on it to enlarge it, you can see the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the distance.  Many people have placed benches at the top in the area around the statue as memorials to their loved ones.

After some prayer and reflection, we walked back down the steps. 

There is a chapel dedicated to Mother Cabrini on the grounds over the water grotto, As you can see by the sign by the altar her birthday is this week--July15th.

At the time the summer house was built for the orphans all of the water needed for drinking and cooking had to be brought up to the summer camp from the stream at the bottom of Mt. Vernon Canyon. In September 1912, the sisters complained to Mother Cabrini that they were dying of thirst and there was no water to be had. She answered, “Lift that rock over there and start to dig. You will find water fresh enough to drink and clean enough to wash.” The spring, which is housed in an 8,000-gallon tank, has never stopped running. Many pilgrims, through their faith, believe the water has brought healing and peace to their lives.  You can see the spigots where this water can be drawn in the photo collage above.

Please click on photo to enlarge

Also, on the grounds is a small museum filled with mementos of Mother Cabrini, including some of her clothes, her writing desk, and some letters.

The work of Mother Cabrini continues in her order.

Last fall my husband and I were invited to attend the 41st Jefferson County Historical Society's Hall of Fame ceremony, as we are members of our community's historical society.  We were pleased to see that Mother Cabrini was one of two "Hall of Fame" award winners for last year, for her good works in Colorado and the fact that her shrine attracts visitors from around the world.  A member of the Legendary Ladies group portrayed Mother Cabrini and told her life story at the ceremony.

This biography of Mother Cabrini and the Hall of Fame plaque will be displayed along with past winners at the Jefferson County, Colorado, Jefferson County Administration and Courts Facility in Golden Colorado.  It is a wonderful and well-deserved honor!

* Edited on 9/30/20 to add that the Colorado Legislature passed Frances Xavier Cabrini House Bill 20-1031 into law, establishing Frances Xavier Cabrini Day as a Colorado State Holiday. The first paid state holiday in the nation that recognizes a woman, Cabrini Day will be observed in Colorado annually on the first Monday in October.

PS: Thank you to all who offered their condolences on the loss of my blog friend, Shelagh, last week.  It was hard to lose a friend who I've known so many years of blogging and who always had a pleasant and uplifting word for me. She will be truly missed!

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