Sugar Pie

In French, tarte sucre. Today we did laundry at Chièvres (pronounced shevr-us by most of our colleagues). This is the US base north of Mons that is probably closure proof since it's essentially SACEUR's private airstrip. It's the closest place for us to find a PX and commissary. They're both small but reasonably well stocked. The PX has Polish pottery, so Rita is happy as a clam; she buys a piece every time we go. I try to keep us from going. Anyways, as we were leaving today we went looking for a wood-fired bakery we saw advertised on a hand-made sign. When we found it, of course we bought a loaf of the gnarly-lookin' bread baked in the wood-fired oven, but we also picked up a tarte sucre, which seems to be their specialty. And what it is is a double-crust sugar pie. For the Southerners, sugar pie is the New England version of chess pie. And for those of you who know neither product, it's eggs, sugar, and butter. Now imagine that between two flaky European-style pastry crusts, with the filling oozing out and bubbling up through the top crust like a little volcano of fat and sugar, and you've got tarte sucre. Can't-miss goodness.

We haven't touched the bread, but the tarte sucre is almost gone.