I am thinking about...

Tarte Tatin.

After the rousing success of last weekend's apple pies, I have been thinking about other ways to extend this obsession. The obvious choice was apple pie for breakfast, but one can only do that so many days in a row before developing type II diabetes (exactly how many days in a row? Ask me tomorrow).

I'm thinking about making a tarte tatin this weekend, because, you know, I'm fancy. Plus I have a lot of apples from last weekend in michigan lying around.

(brace yourselves) Now, I haven't ever actually made a tarte tatin. I know, I know. This has sent twitterdom into overdrive. I've always been curious, though, about how to get that beautiful pattern of carmelized apples to stay put when you invert the skillet. I have been known to (more than once) send the contents of the pan flying across the kitchen in a sort of culinary Jackson Pollack mural (which is actually a legitimate form of performance art, I believe) when I attempt to "cover and flip".

One magical time I succeeded flipping an enormous vegetable tarte tatin, but that was a two-person flip operation, and I'm pretty sure it worked only because it was Easter Sunday and God likes tartes.

In any case, it is the marathon this weekend, and even though I am not running it, I like to carbo load in solidarity every year. Pasta and tarte tatin sounds exactly like the perfect pre-spectating meal.