Welcome back to my Everyday Food Challenge.  This week I bring you two recipes and a tale of a shopping struggle.

So, after going back through issue #6, I had decided I’d definitely be making the Lemon Ricotta Tart. I mean come on, lemon and cheese. Um, yes please. The problem, I didn’t own a tart pan. I’ve seen them in stores for years and thought about picking one up.  I just never got around to it. And then I needed one for the challenge. Of course, that meant it would be hard to find.  After a long day of driving all over the area with no luck, including a trip to Macy’s (hi Martha, I couldn’t even find one in your amazing collection), Greg made a call to Williams Sonoma and the search was finally over.

The tart came together easily.  The crust is simply made of ground vanilla wafers and melted butter and pressed into the tart pan. After a quick bake in the oven and it was filled with the creamy lemon ricotta mixture. Thirty more minutes in the oven and the tart was done and ready for its debut at dinner at our friends Chris and Shannah’s new house. By the way, their new home is amazing. And so was the taste of the tart. This recipe is a keeper, like a not-so-dense version of a cheesecake.

My second, and more healthy, recipe from issue #6 was the Spiced Chickpea and Zucchini Saute. I swapped out the zucchini for some fresh yellow summer squash from our garden. What looked like a pretty quick recipe actually took a lot of prep time to get ready.  There was a great deal of chopping – onion – tomatoes – zucchini. Once the prep was done the recipe came together more quickly. It’s a one-pan-dinner, and that’s always a plus on a busy week night. I had some cooked chicken leftover from another recipe, so I added that to the pan too. Serving the saute with a whole grain rice rounded the meal out. Coming next week, an amazing chicken wrap that I can’t wait to share with you.