Lancaster Lemon Tart — Dale Knows How To Host

Mom and Elisabeth during Mom’s last few weeks.

Me and Elisabeth in Williamsburg, VA in the 80s.

The Reeds love a photo recreation! Top photo was a portrait commissioned by our father for one of Mom’s birthdays or an anniversary. Bottom photo is our daughters recreating it for Dad’s 75th birthday.

Photos on Mom’s fridge. Her granddaughters on the left (my daughter, Luca, and Elisabeth’s daughter, Leah) and me and my sister in our English school uniforms on the right.

Our family loves Elvis. It goes deep. I must have written this Valentine before Elvis died in 1977.

An assortment of photos with my sis over the years. (Click on the image to enlarge it.). It’s too hard to comment on the individual photos in this format but the first one with Dad amuses me because of the dangling cigarette (ah, the 70s!) and the second one with Dad is from when we got together in Seattle for the first year anniversary of Mom’s death in 2019. The rest are pretty self explanatory. The last one is with Elisabeth’s friend and roommate, Carolyn, who was one of Mom’s surrogate children.

“And you can tell everybody this is your song
It may be quite simple, but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind, I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world”
- Elton John

Yesterday was my sister Elisabeth’s birthday. When asked what she would like for a gift she replied, “a printout of your blog”. That surprised me but I was flattered. I’m still in the midst of figuring that out. If I print pdfs from the internet it totals over 1000 pages (!) so I clearly need to do some formatting. But, in the meantime, I thought I might write a little bit about my sister. I mean, she’s been with me my whole life.

Let’s start at the beginning. Elisabeth was always pretty nice to me. She let me play with her friends and she let me sleep in her room. I have friends whose siblings were total jerks (one older sister threw a clog at my friend’s head!) so I knew pretty early on to appreciate mine. We shared several fairly formative experiences together including years abroad in Israel and England where we were each other’s only constant. I don’t remember fighting much with Elisabeth. If there was any conflict it was probably because I was jealous of her. You see, as an older sister Elisabeth was pretty damn perfect. She has an incredible brain, works really hard, and made great grades. She is very nonchalant about it all but she was a state algebra champ and took Latin and all of that. I mean, she turned down Yale for christssake! Elisabeth is also super talented in other departments. She started playing cello at eight and was soon off to the races. (She’s now a professional cellist - check out her website.). She was also a beautiful ballet dancer. At some point she had to decide which area to focus on, cello won. Later in life Elisabeth got into bodywork training as a Feldenkrais practitioner. She is a great listener and is deeply intuitive. Elisabeth was kind of always one step ahead of me in terms of integrative living: she helped me find my first therapist, took me to her acupuncturist, and introduced me to the wonders of hot springs and massage. I am blushing as I type this because I can feel Dad’s eyes rolling. But, somehow he managed to raise two SUPER FRUITY daughters! (I am a yoga teacher who is also trained in Thai massage, meditation, chanting & breathwork and I’m now pursuing studies in sound healing.) I doubt I would have gone this route without my sister.

In fact, I am not sure where I would have ended up if Elisabeth hadn’t suggested that I apply to the North Carolina School of the Arts for high school. Elisabeth went to NCSA to study the cello in 9th grade. At some point she said to me, “I think you should apply to the Visual Arts program”. To be clear, I wasn’t really doing any formal visual arts at the time, I was just spending a lot of time papering my walls with Vogue pages, designing my outfits, and styling my hair. But Elisabeth saw POTENTIAL. With her encouragement I put together a portfolio, applied and got in. Attending NCSA in 11th grade was the beginning of the rest of my creative life. Elisabeth somehow knew that I needed that.

She left for NCSA when I was eleven. So, Elisabeth and I didn’t really get that many years together under the same roof. But, I used to write her long letters on the family word processor. (Remember those print outs where you had to tear the perforated edges off the paper?) I also always had Elisabeth’s dorm or house phone number memorized and would call probably too often. She didn’t make me feel that way but I did spend an awful lot of time talking to her various roommates when she wasn’t around. Visiting Elisabeth at NCSA before I attended was a revelation: we got dressed up for dances, drove around with her older musician friends, ate Asian food at the restaurant where her friend worked…. it was all very exotic.

I got married and had a baby first so it was fun to finally flip the script and be able to help Elisabeth out with something I had experienced. I went out to California and took Elisabeth on an epic IKEA / Target trip, obtaining baby bed bumpers and 9000 wipes. When I had my daughter my sister was the only person (other than my husband) who I would let be there. My parents were very excited and arrived in Texas earlier than we had agreed on. I just couldn’t handle them sitting around staring at me so I told them I would call them once I had the baby. (Boundaries, people!!) I had invited Elisabeth to be my unofficial doula. With her bodywork experience she was extremely helpful. My due date came and went and Elisabeth had a concert looming on the horizon. This baby needed to get moving! So, one night Elisabeth gave me an acupressure massage on my legs (there’s is a pressure point about 5 fingers above the ankle that when activated can induce labor). When I awoke the next day things were happening and baby Lucinda arrived by 5pm. Labor was fast but intense. We lived in the country and had to drive an hour to the hospital. My sister sat in the backseat and rubbed my back the whole time. It turned out that Lucinda was facing the wrong direction causing back labor which was freaking unbearable! Once safe in the hospital I collapsed in a pool on the floor of the ER, freaking out the pizza delivery guy who was walking by. Anyway, Elisabeth was a rock star, once again, earning her 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating.

Looking back, I think the best thing my sister and I have done together is to help Mom die. We were, oddly, a dream team for this. Elisabeth is great with feeling things and I am great with running things. I wrote in depth about Mom’s decline in this post. Basically, it was very fast. We had a less than a month with Mom once we knew her prognosis. Elisabeth and I took turns being in North Carolina with our parents. And, for the last few days we were both there. On Mom’s last morning we were sleeping on either side of her bed when somehow, miraculously, I heard Mom’s last breath. I awoke with a start and asked the nurse across the room, “Was that it?! I think that was it?!”. She agreed. My sister climbed in bed with Mom to catch the last of her warmth and essence. I ran to get Dad. Thinking back on this I’m somewhat jealous that Elisabeth had that moment with Mom but, you know what? I probably wouldn’t have had the nerve to do that. I’m not brave in that way. The physicality of Mom’s dying body kind of freaked me out. I feel like I had my moment by hearing Mom’s last breath and Elisabeth had hers by feeling Mom’s last energy.

So now we are two motherless mothers trying to navigate this world. As of TODAY I am 6 months free of alcohol. I kind of drank my way through my mom’s death and my subsequent grief. I am now feeling the feelings for sure. Last week I put Elvis on shuffle on Spotify and bawled my eyes out. So weird. Elvis? Really?! Yes, Elvis. It is the music of my childhood. I wrote my sister about it and she agreed. Elvis is visceral for us. We are getting together in California in two weeks with my dad to honor the 4th anniversary of Mom’s death. I’m going to make them watch Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS. If you haven’t seen it you really must. Austin Butler’s portrayal of Elvis is transcendent and makes his predecessors’ efforts look like caricatures. Interestingly Butler’s mom died when he was twenty three, same as Elvis. (For more on that watch this interview - you can skip ahead to the 7:40 mark for the specific part about his mom but I recommend the whole thing.)

When looking at my mom’s recipes I wanted to pick something my sister would like. I remember that she and Mom both really liked lemon curd. The flavor was too intense for me as a kid but now I’m all in. So, today, I offer you recipes for Lancaster Lemon Tart as well as basic Lemon, Lime, & Orange Curd. Crank up the Elvis and get cooking!
Here’s one of my faves from his ‘68 Comeback Special. (And, how much do I love that that lady put her white purse underneath Elvis’ chair?!)

[As a little birthday gift to Elisabeth I recommend she listen to Austin Butler reading a recipe on the Table 4 podcast. Click this link, click the arrow button to the left of “Ruthie’s Table 4: Austin Butler) and skip to around the 13:00 mark (it varies slightly with the commercials - sometimes at 12:45, sometimes later - but it’s worth it, I swear.). I listen to this when I’m stressed out. Ha ha. You’ll never think of peaches the same way again!]

LANCASTER LEMON TART

For the pastry:

6 Tbsp plain flour
1 1/2 Tbsp lard
1 1/2 Tbsp butter
a pinch of salt

For the filling:
3 rounded tablespoons lemon curd
6 Tbsp butter, at room temperature
6 Tbsp caster sugar
1 egg, beaten lightly
2 Tbsp ground almonds
8 Tbsp self rising flour
grated rind and juice of 1 large lemon
2 Tbsp whole almonds, peeled and halved

You will also need a 7 or 8 inch enamel pie plate, lightly greased.

Pre-heat the oven to 400°F

Start by making the pastry. Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl, holding the sieve up as high as possible to give the flour an airing. Then cut the fat into small cubes and add them to the flour. Now, using your fingertips, lightly and gently rub the pieces of fat into the flour – lifting your hands up high as you do this (again to incorporate air) and being as quick as possible.

When the mixture looks uniformly crumbly, start to sprinkle roughly 2 tablespoons of water all over. Use a round-bladed knife to start the mixing, cutting and bringing the mixture together. Carefully add more water as needed, a little at a time, then finally bring the mixture together with your hands to form a smooth ball of dough that will leave the bowl clean. (If there are any bits that won't adhere to it, you need a spot more water.) Now rest the pastry, wrapped in foil or polythene, in the refrigerator for 20-30 minutes.

Roll out the pastry and line the pie plate, fluting the edges, then spread the lemon curd all over the pastry.

Now cream the butter and sugar together till pale and fluffy, then gradually beat in the egg about a teaspoonful at a time. Gently and carefully fold in the ground almonds and flour, followed by the lemon juice and grated rind.

Now spread this mixture evenly over the lemon curd, smoothing it out with a palette knife. Then sprinkle the halved almonds over the surface. Bake it, on a baking sheet, in the centre of the oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to gas mark 2, 300°F (150°C), and continue cooking for a further 25-30 minutes.

This can be served either warm or cold with cream.

LEMON CURD

2 lemons
1 cup sugar
dash salt
3 eggs
½ cup butter

Cut thin outer portion of lemon off. Put in processor with sugar and process till fine.

Squeeze juice from lemons and add to processor.

Pour into small saucepan and cook over med heat, stirring, just until it thickens.

Chill, covered.

LIME CURD

Same as above – use limes, add 2 tsp rum.

SEVILLE ORANGE CURD

4 Seville Oranges with good skins
4 eggs, beaten
2/3 cup unsalted butter, cubed
1 3/4 cups caster sugar.

Do like lemon curd, and use in 4 weeks

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