Kudos to Uncle Bob!

I am happy and proud to pass along that Uncle Bob was recently elected to the National Academy of Medicine as part of the class of 2018. The announcement by the University of Texas Health Science Center, San Antonio, where Uncle Bob is the Dr. John M. Smith Jr. Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, has a great picture of Uncle Bob in his white lab coat and a few comments about his community-health research that was recognized by the NAM. In particular, Uncle Bob was cited by the NAM for his "innovative application of a groundbreaking capability framework that provides a practical and positive method for addressing the social and environmental determinants of health in participatory interventions that integrate primary care and community health." Here are links to some of Uncle Bob's studies using the capability framework if you want to read more:

• Practical Opportunities for Healthy Diet and Physical Activity: Relationship to Intentions, Behaviors, and Body Mass Index (Annals of Family Medicine [Mar. 2016])
• Measuring Capability for Healthy Diet and Physical Activity (Annals of Family Medicine [Jan. 2014])
• Capability and Clinical Success (Annals of Family Medicine [Sept. 2010])

But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as PubMed currently lists nearly 60 articles on which Uncle Bob has been a lead or contributing author.

I am, however, more than a little concerned that Mom is going to find out about one of those studies concerning "The Effects of Yoga on Physical Functioning and Health Related Quality of Life in Older Adults" (Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine [Oct. 2012]), which concluded that "yoga may be superior to conventional physical-activity interventions in elderly people." Thanks, Uncle Bob. That's just what I needed—more encouragement for Mom to push yoga on me. I mean, community health is great and all, but what about little brother's needs? Seriously though, this is awesome news and well deserved!

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In honor of Uncle Bob, I made this crostata, which is an easy jam tart sort of like the crostata our Nonna used to make for us in Italy. Since no one was here to celebrate with us, Mom and I had to sacrifice and eat the whole thing ourselves. Professional tip: leftover tart is great for breakfast. 

Crostata

(Easy Jam Tart)

Adapted from Ready for Dessert (2010) by David Lebovitz and Flavor Flours (2014) by Alice Medrich

Time: 2 hours until the tart is out of the oven and cooling on the rack (including 1 hour resting time for the refrigerated dough)

I was going for simplicity here. For a more visually appealing top crust, you can roll out the remaining dough and cut ¾-inch strips to overlap into a lattice top, as in this version by Emiko Davies.

Dry ingredients
210 grams (1¾ cups) all-purpose flour or white spelt flour
70 grams almond flour (~⅔ cup) or stone-ground cornmeal (~½ cup)
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon fine salt

Other ingredients
125 grams (9 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and slightly softened
100 grams (½ cup) granulated sugar
1 large egg (~57 grams in the shell)
1 large egg yolk (19 grams out of the shell)
225 grams (⅔ cup) apricot, cherry, plum, raspberry, or other jam or preserves

    1. In a small bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients.
    2. In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium speed (4 on a KitchenAid) until smooth. Scrape the bowl. Beat in the egg and egg yolk. Stir in the dry ingredients just until combined.
    3. Place 150 grams of the dough in a cup in the fridge. Press the rest of the dough evenly into a 9½-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Don’t bother pressing the dough up the sides of the pan; it’s fine straight across. Place the pan in the fridge for at least an hour and up to 3 days.
    4. When you’re ready to bake the tart, place a rack in the center of the oven and heat to 375 degrees.
    5. Remove the tart shell from the fridge. Spread the jam or preserves evenly over the dough, leaving a ½-inch border. A small offset spatula works well for this job. Pinch off lima-bean-sized pieces of the remaining dough and scatter over the jam (see the headnote for another option for the top crust). Leave some gaps so the jam shows through in the finished tart.
    6. Place the tart pan on an 18-by-13-inch rimmed baking sheet (stainless steel, not dark nonstick). Bake until the crust is deep golden brown, about 25 minutes. Cool the tart in the pan on a wire rack.
    7. When the tart is cool, remove the rim of the pan and transfer the tart to a serving plate. The tart keeps, wrapped in plastic, for up to 3 days at room temperature, but it tastes good cold from the fridge too. Makes 10 servings.