Gluten Free Veg Tart, TX decision, Sochi on SNL

Did y'all see the hilarious bit about Sochi on SNL last night? It played during Weekend Update and was truly funny (which really cannot be said for all (many? most?) of the skits). Hilarious! I was really, really relieved to see that the Munoz family's wishes were finally respected today. Marlise was removed from her ventilator, and her family is now able to say goodbye and move on in the ways Marlise, her husband and family desired. Our country has got to come to grips with life and death and individual choice. This is a good decision, a right decision.

My mom is still here and has really been a trooper about the polar climate in which we are currently ensnared. Last night she made roast and spaghetti sauce, and tonight I wanted something equally hearty but more veggie-centric. Tarts always satisfy me in a deeply comforting way so I hoped to make one with some of the gazillion pounds of sunchokes food friend C recently gave me as well as the bunch of kale and Bulgarian feta in my fridge. However, Mom is allergic to wheat so I needed to find a work-around for my old standby tart crust which is based on all purpose flour.

Y'all remember the plum tart I made Mom last August, also sans regular flour? That worked so well, so tonight I made a version of that using hazelnut, chickpea, oat, brown rice and tapioca flours plus butter, salt and the apple cider vinegar-ice cold water blend used in many French crusts. The end result was scrumptious; seriously, you'd not have known it was gluten free (not always the case) and its nutty earthiness paired wonderfully with the sunchokes and kale. What a win!