Our neighbors spend an incredible amount of time carefully tending to their lawns. They spend hours manicuring them, mowing them (and sweeping them?! Is that normal?) and paying green and white vans to show up and treat every blade with chemical cocktails, leaving behind bright yellow flags on the perimeters of their property warning children and dogs to KEEP OFF. The results are beautiful, clean, lushly carpeted lawns in a single, tidy shade of green. Meanwhile, our yard, while well-enough maintained with weekly trimmings and weed-whackings (thanks entirely to Zach), is much less a lush carpet and much more an ill-patterned patchwork quilt. Our lawn is a hodgepodge held together with grass, but primarily punctuated with smattering seams of clover and clover flowers, pronounced patches of dandelions, both with sunny yellow faces and puffy white beards, and a motif of buttercups and pretty little purple flowers.
And while Zach and I may joke about what an embarrassment our yard is amidst these perfectly kept lawns, I honestly love our imperfectly perfect, chemical-free lawn with all of its colors and clovers (and especially the dandelions — think of the bees!). It’s pretty and simple and (possibly my favorite) low maintenance. Coincidentally, that’s also how I like my desserts.
Likewise, these lemon blueberry tarts are pretty, simple, easy and sweet. You don’t need a fancy tart pan (though I think it may just be me who thinks that tart pans are something extravagant and fancy), you just need a couple of clean mason jar lids and a few basic ingredients. The graham cracker crust is a mere 3 ingredients, pressed into the lids and baked briefly. The filling is so, so easy — I had originally been working on an intricate, multi-step lemon pastry cream, but (about 5 batches later) by the time I had perfected it, I decided I would much rather have something lighter, and definitely easier. The lemon filling is made with cream cheese and has an airy, fresh-lemon cheesecake flavor. If you don’t feel like making your own lemon curd you can buy a jar from just about any store. Topped with blueberries, the combination of crunchy, creamy, and sweet is refreshing, spring-y, perfection.
If you’d like, you can also brush the berries with melted apple jelly (or toss them in the melted jelly before piling them on top of your tarts), it gives them a beautiful sheer shellac that makes them look almost unreal. Enjoy! You Might Also Like: Lemon Zucchini Cake
Lemon Cream Pie
Blueberry Breakfast Cake
Lemon Blueberry Tarts in Mason Jar Lids was originally published 4/29/16, updated 5/22/17
