Summer Baking

I feel that I have been MIA lately, but no worries... I'm back! This past weekend was quite hectic. The annual softball tournament in my town meant my sister and I worked long days in a small snack shack wreaking of french fries and with an ever constant flood of rude softball fans. That's right, rude. There were a select few that were nice and appreciative of our gourmet snack bar food but you would be surprised at how nasty softball parents can be. Now, I'm sure you're wondering how a snack bar at a softball field can be gourmet right? I'm not going to lie, we sell all the basics- hot dogs, nachos, soft pretzels- but the owner is a top chef at his day job and his creativity spills over onto the snack bar. We have amazing salads including a goat cheese, candied walnut, and pear salad, and each day we had a special. Penne pasta with homemade bolognase or pesto sauce, fish/chicken/pork tacos, and tri-tip and steak sandwiches. YUM!

You would think that after working all day on my feet serving other people, I would have had enough of food. But, no, I'm unstoppable. It's like the energizer bunny, I just keep going and going and going. And going and going and going. Or maybe it was just the night before Father's day and I had yet to get my dad a present. The nice thing about moving back home is having my mom to help in situations like this. That day, she had gone to the farmer's market and bought me rhubarb and strawberries. So come 9pm Saturday night, I made a strawberry rhubarb pie. This is why I love early summer. There is so much amazing produce available. The pie was a great success. I used a recipe I found on the food network website and made a few tweaks to the crust and filling. It's aroma was so tantalizing I wanted to eat it all that night!

On Father's day my sister and I had to work until five. At which point it was still beautiful and warm out (Summer solstice remember?) and we decided we needed to go somewhere special for dinner. Having a pilot for a dad makes things convenient. We flew to Half Moon Bay, a place we used to go when I was a baby but hadn't been to in more than a decade. Half Moon Bay is the site of Mavericks and more importantly the site of my first solid food as a baby- fried clams! Go figure right? So dinner was great... we enjoyed it on the deck of the restaurant overlooking the harbor. And the flight was gorgeous. The air was smooth as silk and the sky was cloudless. The route we took was just off the coast of San Francisco and on the way back, we could see all the lights from the planes in the SFO holding pattern. It basically doubled the amount of "stars" in the sky.

Finally, at ten that night we returned home to enjoy the pie! So good, especially with Straus vanilla bean ice cream.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Crust
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (add an additional 1/4 cup if needed)
3 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1/4 cup room temperature butter
pinch sea salt
2 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons ice water (plus more if needed)

Mix flour, sugar, shortening, butter, salt, and lemon zest until resembles coarse crumbs. Add lemon juice and just enough water to firm a firm dough. Separate into two disks and chill.

Filling

4 cups fresh chopped red rhubarb
4 cups fresh chopped de-stemmed strawberries
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons minute tapioca
1 tablespoon all purpose flour
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Mix the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, tapioca, flour, lemon juice, and lemon zest. Roll out 1 pastry disk and place in 9in pie dish. Pour filling in and have it mounded in the center. Roll out second pastry disk and place over filling. Crimp edges and cut slits in the crust. Brush crust with an egg wash. Cover edges with foil and bake for 15 minutes at 425. Reduce heat to 375, take the foil off the edges and bake for 45-50 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!!!

If you give a mouse a cookie...

You know that story I'm talking about. "If you give a mouse a cookie, he'll ask for a glass a milk..." and it goes on and on and on. Well, I feel like that is a good allusion to my family when they come in contact with sweets. Or rather, if you give my family cookies, they'll eat the whole plate. But that's a good thing right? It shows my baking is appreciated. My dad's a funny one though. It has to be the traditional recipes used. The recipes that he grew up with, that his mother made. So anytime you make something and it's different than Grandma's he'll tell you. "You know when my mother makes this...." or my other favorite is I'll be in the kitchen making one thing and he'll come in and say "You know I like ___". Well then make it yourself dad!

At this point I think it is necessary for me to point out that I really love my dad. And I rant about him in the most deeply loving way. And I understand why he compares everything to my grandma's baking; she is a phenomenal cook/baker. Seriously, everything she makes is amazing. Even foods I normally don't like a delicious... but this could also be due to the fact she swears by the theory that a stick of butter solves any cooking disaster.

These past few weeks have been hectic. It has consisted of studying, writing 28 page reports, and driving from Santa Barbara to Petaluma for numerous graduations. My brother graduated from UC Berkeley and my sister graduated from high school (note that she is attending UC Santa Barbara in the fall!). So I made the 6 hour trek up from Santa Barbara and my grandma hopped on the 6 hour flight out from New York to stay with us for three weeks in order to see both graduations. Along with the two graduations came two graduation parties which meant lots of baking for Grandma and me. We made numerous types of cookies, brownies, and a bread pudding with all the excess rolls left from the party. Grandma has the best snickerdoodle recipe which I will post at a later time when I have it in front of me. The other favorite I made was chocolate chip cookies! I have had the Ghiradelli's chocolate chip cookie recipe memorized since I was ten years old. But I decided to change it up a little bit this past weekend and replace the granulated sugar with honey and add nutmeg and cinnamon. The cookies were gone very quickly!

Honey nutmeg chocolate chip cookies

1 stick of unsalted butter at room temperature
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg at room temperature

1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cream butter and add sugar and honey until well combined. Add the vanilla and a beaten egg. When well combined (make sure not to overmix). Combine all dry ingrediants in a seperate bowl and add 1/3 of the dry ingrediants at a time. Stir in the chocolate chips. Bake for 9-10 minutes and enjoy!

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Bay Area Bites

A long Awkward wait...

So after positive steps in the contact process with the the holy trinity of bay coffee, I feel like I have reached a wall. After two interviews and one "offer" I feel disheartened without anything tangible to show for it. There is nothing to really stress about, but patience would be the most important valuable tool i seem not to possess. My day has been riddle with awkward phone calls to lifeless answering machines. Lets hope things come together soon. I am going to cook to relieve stress.