Hi! It’s Liz and this month on decor8 I’d like to invite you to an all-girls picnic with a delicious lemon tart recipe for you today! What a fun way to celebrate summer! We were on vacation in Bavaria, where I got to see my cousin and my daughter loves spending time with her, too. Nothing like having an older girl to worship... Both kids helped me with the baking in the kitchen, and while the tart was in the oven, we sat down together and painted flower name-cards with watercolors. The girls had it all planned out.

It was so fun to see how everyone was enjoying the idea of having lemon tart and lemonade outside, and how we all worked together to make it a nice event. Somehow the feeling of having a picnic under a shady tree and eating something sweet is different than sitting down at a table. It was hot the day we planned the picnic, and we stayed indoors most of the day to avoid the heat. But the kids wanted to decorate, so they set out to find some pretty flowers in the meadow in front of our house. When the sun was slowly setting behind the Bavarian mountains, we spread out a tablecloth we repurposed because we didn’t have a blanket. But it did the trick wonderfully. A female family reunion – my five-year-old daughter thought it was perfectly splendid and thinks we should have picnics like this every day! Who needs boys if you have sweets to eat and female friendships instead?

LEMON TART RECIPE For the pastry: 1½ cups flour ½ cup sugar Pinch of salt ½ cup chilled butter, chopped 2 egg yolks 1 tablespoon iced water

For the filling: 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 1 cup creme fraiche 4 eggs 1/2 cup sugar

Note: You also need powdered sugar for dusting

HOW TO: Combine flour, sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the butter, egg yolks and iced water and quickly knead the dough with your hands until it comes together and forms a ball. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a tart tin with butter. Roll out the pastry on a surface dusted with flour and lift it into the tin. Press down lightly and trim the edges. Line the dough with baking paper. Fill the tin with baking weights (or dried peas or chickpeas) and blind-bake for 15 minutes.

In the meantime place the lemon juice, creme fraiche, eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk until everything is combined. Take out the baking tin, remove the baking weights and pour the lemon filling into the tin. Reduce the heat to 300 degrees Fahrenheit and place in the oven. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Cool before dusting with powdered sugar and serve.

Enjoy and I'll see you in September with another recipe from my kitchen to yours! - Liz

(recipe, words, photography: Lisa Nieschlag)