Secret Santas

For Christmas, my Einstein friends and I decided to do Secret Santas, since we wanted to give each other gifts but not spend a ridiculous amount of money. Tristan drew my name, and I have to say he is one smart guy, because look at what he gave me:

If you give me a cookbook of Italian desserts, then you'd better believe I'm going to cook you Italian desserts.

Since today is Cat's birthday, I decided to try out my first recipe from this book of incredibly tasty-looking Italian desserts. For my first attempt, I decided to try none other than the dessert on the front cover, Honey and Pine Nut Tart with Sweet Tart Crust.

The crust required the fresh zest of one small orange. I used, for the fun of it, a blood orange...

...which later held up to its name and gave me a tasty, shirt-staining treat.

Custard, made with honey, sugar, LOTS of butter, eggs, and cream, and finally...

...voila! The finished product.

Other than the bizarre divot, it looks and smells as good as can be. We'll see how it tastes later tonight!