Fruit tarts help celebrate life’s sweet victories

Published 5:30 am Thursday, August 6, 2026

I once said that my mother taught me to live for the moment, and it might have sounded complimentary, but it wasn’t. I didn’t mean that I learned how to appreciate the beauty of this time and place; I learned how to live unburdened by the lessons of my past and without empathy for my future. As an adult, I should be able to tolerate discomfort for the sake of my greater good, but my instinct compels me to expeditiously extinguish even the smallest flicker and fan the smoke away before it can be seen by judgmental eyes.

There’s no fire here! Nothing but my pathetic effort at a manicure, but it’s chipped polish from the start, and the color is all wrong for me.

The week of Camp Kenai went by in a blur, and I spent all of it thinking about what’s next instead of what’s happening. Like trying to sprint downhill, gravity pulled me faster than my legs could move with purpose, and the race was over before I found my stride or even gained control. Now I’m left with rattled bones and just a handful of pictures to remember our sixth such gathering and my son’s toothless summer.

The truth is that I may never learn to escape this self-oppression. It feels like I’ll never be able to just enjoy the warmth of the sun. I fear I will always either rush to slather sunscreen and nag about hats and shades or allow myself to roast with reckless abandon and let my future self pay the price.

The vicious whispers and sideways glances always come from my own doubt, plastered onto innocents in a well-practiced projection, and I am left in false isolation — a desert island in a shallow pond. I may never learn to shut the voices up and live joyfully in the moment, but I will at least try to take more pictures and pose for more, so my son might have memories of a smiling mother instead of a stressed, snippy mess.

I like to do a baking craft with the kids each year, and this summer, I chose to prepare individual fruit tarts for them to decorate. One of our pickiest eaters tried (and enjoyed) her first bite of kiwi fruit — a little victory I heaped praise upon in the moment to encourage future bravery. For the tarts, I offered two filling options: lemon curd or vanilla pastry cream, and the shell was an experimental recipe using almond flour.

I intended the almond flour to add a bit of sophistication to the flavor and texture of the graham cracker crust.

Not traditional at all, but the kids all gobbled up their tarts and asked for more, so I call that a win.

This recipe made enough crust for seven three-inch tart shells, and I believe it would be ample for two standard nine-inch tart pans.

Ingredients:

2 full sleeves of graham crackers — totaling 18 full sheets

2 sticks of salted butter, melted and cooled *possibly more, depending on the moisture content of your almond flour

1/2 cup almond flour

Directions:

Thoroughly crush your graham crackers in a bag until they resemble sand and put into a large mixing bowl.

Add the almond flour and mix.

Pour on the melted butter and combine. The mixture will be crumbly but should hold together when you squeeze a handful. If your almond flour is on the drier side, you might need more butter to accomplish this, so have extra butter standing by.

Press into the bottom and up the sides of your tart pans. This recipe requires that the crust be on the thicker side, around 1/3 inch thick.

Bake in a 350-degree oven for 12-15 minutes, or until they have puffed up slightly and are beginning to brown.

Allow to cool completely before filling with your favorite curd or pudding.