For Love of the Baker... part one.

A dozen bakeries.

This is the body of my current resume.

When i was fifteen i got my first job.
 Pegasus.
A charmed brick building in the marina covered in variegated ivy that was (and is) home to a coffee shop.  Most of my work consisted of making espresso drinks and closing the shop in the evening, of this i recall very little, mostly turning up the Indigo Girls and rocking out while i vacuumed. (Rockin.)

However, on occasion i would get asked to do an opening shift on a Sunday,
blessed were those quiet hazy mornings near the water.
i would arrive generally around dawn when the bakers were there pulling hot scones from the ovens...

i began arriving earlier and earlier to assist them with their baking and creating before setting to my opening tasks. Rolling cinnamon roll dough in particular was enchanting. A long gleaming shining silver table with giant slabs of dough being spread across them, slathered with almost melted butter, sparkling sugar and a fog of cinnamon spice. This was then tucked into itself by rolling it tightly and sealing with an almost kiss. After being sliced into snail like creatures with a sharp blade of steel, each was placed on a baking sheet covered in parchment (a magical kitchen tool indeed!) and slid into a hot oven. When the smell of cinnamon and spice had overtaken the tiny kitchen, you knew it was time to pull them from their brief warm home and inhale their rapture. A drizzle of glaze was the crowning glory to these morsels of delight.

This was not my first experience with baking, my mothers kitchen offered many opportunities for creation. However, this marked the beginning of a long love affair with kitchens in commercial bakeries that i have yet to recover from.

            There is part of me that believes that is a good thing and that the best, is yet to come.

the Secret's in the Sauce...

Actually. The secret is in knowing the secret.
Sometimes, though, the fun is in sharing the secret...
and today i made a discovery worth sharing.            Shhhhh...

Truthfully, i am in agreement with those that don't believe in secret recipes. Food is meant to be shared with others,                 i believe the methods for the making the food  (as well as sometimes the process of)  are also meant to be shared.

This is a beloved recipe. It is a grandmothers recipe. It is also for cookies.
If ever there was a winning combination for a recipe that should be shared, it is those three things.
The recipe comes from my husbands grandmother who is an amazing woman.
She crochets more stitches in a year than i have in my life, although i seek to remedy this
                                                                                      and match her stitch for stitch... someday.

Today the  discovery came in the tiny school kitchen. It was a day when the children were all needing extra love and letting their needs be known with their voices in a wide array of sounds. I was sleepy and in need of a little comfort myself so i decided to make the teachers a batch of chocolate chip cookies. Teachers are always deserving of extra love. They provide so much support and care to so many little ones, i try to remember to find as many ways as i can to say thank you and provide them with some care in return. We do not have a stand mixer of any kind at the school, so i sought a simpler way to cream the butter and sugar. i melted the butter, allowed it to cool and mixed it into the sugar and eggs. The cookies themselves were a bit more melted, a little gooey, and utterly delicious. So this is the secret i share with you today, gooey shortcut cookies, and a gentle reminder to thank the teachers in your life for all they do.


                   Arlenes chocolate chip cookies

Melt 1 and 1/3 cups butter, allow to cool, slightly...

Mix with:
 
        1 cup sugar
        1 cup brown sugar
        3 eggs
        2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix well and add:

        1 teaspoon baking soda
        1 1/2 teaspoons salt
        2 1/2 cups flour

When well mixed add 2 cups chocolate chips

Set the bowl in the refrigerator for around 20 minutes or until your ready to bake

bake at 350 degrees 8-12 minutes until golden brown








i often substitute 1 cup oats that has been ground with 1 tablespoon lavender, 1/2 cup almond meal and 1 1/2 cups flour for the flour amount listed above... its delicious.
 
                 (and if you use skinless almonds and grind them with the oats and lavender,
           you can make extra and use it as a facial scrub. its fantastic and leaves skin so soft!)




                If you happen to be looking for a book to curl up with, or cook from,
                                  on these blustery Autumn days i recommend
                  Fannie Flaggs; Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe.
             The recipes in the back will simplify comfort food for your cold evenings.
                                         (The film is pretty great as well...)

Lunch lady in the tiny kitchen...

Many of my hours are spent contemplating how to nourish 45 children. All of these children are under the age of six. i believe that the majority of our eating habits (as well as the fundamentals of our relationship with food) are well formed by the time we begin to lose baby teeth. With that  fact in mind it is a fascinating to watch the eating styles of the different age groups within the school. 

The younger ones, generally are the best eaters and tasters. Whether it is a sensory exploration of the food or an actual nourishing occurrence, they consistently eat a wider variety of foods than the older kids. Our three-four year old group does a wonderful job of trying new things and will often follow each others lead when a friend tastes it and asks for more. 

In our four-five year old room however, the children are strongly opinionated about what they already do like and do not like. We encourage everyone to have an adventure bite of any food that is new, sometimes they do, once again often if a friend has done so first and exclaimed it to be delicious. However, in this room i notice that new foods get passed to the next person quickly without placing a bit on their plate first. i spend quite a lot of time thinking upon how to inspire them to try something different.

Lentils are a favorite of mine and, depending on how they are prepared, the children will eat them. If it is in a soup, yes, if they are in the form of an indian Daal, not so much. Recently i mixed lentils with slow roasted onions and cheddar cheese and folded them into a butter based pie crust. The results were devoured. (Who can resist pie of any sort, truly...?)

Learning to navigate the space of the small kitchen, as well as the large appetites of the small children i seek to nourish are challenges that i find myself excited about these days. As Autumn descends outside our doors, the winds encourage us to find cozy corners in which to nestle, for me the kitchen seems my favorite spot to choose. 

Liberation in the form of Spray Paint...

             Magic Happens Everyday


A can of spray paint, actually several, and some bottles of hair dye, recently accompanied me through my day. My 84 Subaru, Datura Digitalis Love fearlessly was recently returned to us after being borrowed by a very talented film (and magic) maker friend for an international adventure. This car has served me well on many many journeys and as it is the end of summer and her paint was wearing, it seemed fitting to give her a slight makeover for the autumn to come.
            It seemed fitting to give myself one as well...

In autumn comes the beginning of the gray.

This year it comes in the form of heavy mist in the morning, giving way to eighty degree sunshine in the afternoon. None the less, you can feel the gray.
It is the desire to wear sweaters, to make food in the slow cooker, to have a hooded article of clothing by your side.
People who  live in the Pacific Northwest love to complain about the rain, the consistent drizzle and dull constant of the sky,
many of us however welcome it into our heart.

We love making soup that takes all day, filling the house with an aroma of depth, or curling up in a comfy chair with a beloved book and taking long pauses to stare blankly out at the rain (okay those of us that are parents dream of doing this...) Rainy days are an inspiration to cover the kitchen floor with paper and bowls of paint and allow the kids to create chaos.

We could however, 

amidst all that gray,

embrace color a little more fervently. 

Sometime the grayness finds its way into our closets, we begin to blend into our surroundings. I think Datura is trying to be a source of inspiration to wear bold colors,

 to stand out against the background of our habitat, 

the backdrop of our comfortable habits.

                                                                      

Back to the school Yard... Berry Oat Bars...

The day was a flutter.
Or more like a blur.

There was a baking flurry that involved vegan raisin cinnamon ginger muffins, chocolate granola bars gone wrong (an attempt to substitute brown sugar for honey that did not hold together...thank you to the bees for the magic they create with flower nectar...) and delicious brown sugar oat shortbread cookie bars topped with raspberry preserves and crumble... salty sweet perfection.

A recipe.

This makes a large sheet pan worth of cookies, i imagine they freeze well or if you feel like sharing, your neighbors or friends will appreciate them... or if you like, make a half recipe...

Pre heat oven to 350

Mix 1 1/2 cups oats in a cuisinart... till they resemble flour

Add

1 lb butter- cut into tiny cubes and cold

Mix in a cuisinart, or by hand, with:

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1/2 cup oats 

 3 1/2 cups flour

1 12/ teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Mix until it resembles sand, or, if you squeeze some with your fist it mostly holds together

Line a baking sheet with parchment or foil,

press all but about 2/3 cup into the sheet pan

Chill the sheet pan for a bit in the refrigerator if you have time, and what you have left in the freezer.

Remove sheet pan from fridge and spread 3/4 cup raspberry jam across the shortbread in an even layer with a spatula

Remove remaining dough from freezer and crumble evenly across the top of the jam

Bake until golden brown on top, about 25 minutes

These were just the afternoon pick up we needed as we transitioned back to school.
                 The smiles on the kids faces, said the same.

                               Illustration from the Mary Frances Sewing Book.  (its Full of Magic.)

Morning in a Quaint Island Village...

Awakening. Contemplations of breakfast and the day to come.
Decisions; inspiration from a british breakfast; realization that tomatoes are a must.
Brightly colored purple dresses are put on,  mother slips quietly out the front door towards town...

We are blessed. (in so many ways...)
The town in which we live, walking distance to both the ferry boat that transports us to the vast city landscape, and to the bakeries, grocery stores, and various eating establishments, shops that create our city center is... charming. Particularly in the bright sunshine of a saturday morning when you are on a walk to one of your favorite bakeries, Blackbird, to acquire whole wheat oatmeal bread, still warm from the ovens... Bakeries and i have a long involved history of early mornings and clouds of flour.
They hold my admiration for all that they do on a daily basis. Magic in the making.

After the bakery, i headed up the hill to the farmers market. Smiles on almost every face that i passed said "Good morning" to me, and i in turn replied. i have found that nine times out of ten when i say hello or greet a passer by they return this attempt to connect, to open our hearts to another spirit. This is one of my favorite things about small towns, the willingness to open yourself to others. i sought out Butler Green Farms and their dazzling array of tomatoes...  They truly took my breath away with their blatant spectacle of summer bounty. Several red green and yellow were chosen and joined the loaf of bread in my bag.

Onwards to the grocery store for milk and cream. Even our local grocery store charms me. Perhaps it is because of the fond memories of fourth of July pancake breakfasts in the parking lot, the gathering of community. Or maybe just the many years i have spent wandering its aisles being inspired by its well chosen selection of ingredients, it certainly seems to have the friendliest crew of employees that i have yet come across in a grocery store. Today was a mission for dairy and a moment, as always to ponder their gorgeous lilies and dahlias in the flower department before walking home.

In between phone conversations with beloved sisters in North Carolina, children running through the kitchen being tigers and attempts at doing the dishes, this was created...then devoured with smiles on our faces.

Granola bars, a recipe (work in progress...)

I am of the variety of cook in the kitchen that goes by feel. There is a trust that hovers in the air,  pulsing with each heartbeat as i reach for the next ingredient. Whether it is instinct, experience or the muses whispering into my ear, i allow my intuition to guide me, adding some of this and a bit of that until all seems as it should be.

 Such was the case creating these oat scones with cream cheese and strawberry preserves, a wonderful afternoon treat. Rarely do i follow a recipe, or make the same thing twice. A practice i am seeking to remedy in order to allow others to create the same morsel in the comfort of their own kitchen time and again.

Recently, in the school kitchen it has been all about granola bars... There has been a flurry of oats, raisins, cranberries, sun butter, shards of chocolate, coconut, honey, maple syrup, tahini, brown sugar, olive oil and vanilla swirling together to create a salty sweet chewy snack for the kids (and teachers) to sustain upon during afternoon play.

A recipe...

3 cups Oats not instant
1 cup shredded coconut

4 tablespoons olive oil or butter
2/3 cup honey

½ cup creamy seed or nut butter
1/3 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
 

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Find a 8 by 12-inch baking dish and line it with parchment paper.
Toss the oats and coconut together on a sheet pan and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned.  Reduce the oven temperature to 250 degrees.
Place the olive oil, honey, brown sugar, nut butter, and salt in a large pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Cook and stir for three minutes, then remove from stove and pour in the toasted oatmeal mixture. Add the vanilla, raisins, and cranberries and stir well.
Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Wet your fingers and press the mixture evenly and firmly into the pan. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, until light golden brown. Cool for at least 2 to 3 hours before cutting into squares, if you care to practice an exercise in patience, let them sit overnight, they are much better... Serve at room temperature.

A well Orchestrated meal...

i love to roast a chicken. i adore the simplicity of it, the satisfaction that comes from that golden glow when you pull it from the oven. The warmth it creates in the kitchen and the aroma that penetrates the home while it is cooking. i find myself enamoured with the search for crisp skin perfection, which i also find interesting because i rarely eat it. For awhile i was enticed by the french pot method to cook a chicken, and while i still believe this to create a moist chicken superior to many  (ready for an instant soup of delicious proportion), this evening i discovered another way to prepare chicken that lent itself well to the meal it inspired.

There has been little fried chicken in my life, and i seek to remedy this. Tonight i used a relatively new knife for exactly what it was designed to do: cut a whole chicken into pieces. It was a satisfying way to start a meal. Desecrate the carcass of the creatures body who was to nourish me in an honourable way and then lay it in a pool of milk to rest.

While this was occurring, i diced beets from our friends beautiful garden and tossed them with olive oil. These went into a 425 degree oven with two heads of garlic, the tops sliced off and then the bodies salted. An onion was diced. A pot of water placed on the stove to boil. Six small red potatoes were diced and placed in the water till tender, these were then mashed by my daughter with a bit of cream and a sprinkle of salt. We then mixed up flour, smoked paprika, salt and almond meal in a bag and tossed each piece of chicken to coat well. These went onto a hot baking sheet that contained a pool of melted butter. The onions went into the large cast iron skillet with olive oil to brown and we then added the leftover flour and almond meal until it bubbled and dissolved. In went the milk in which the chicken had rested and we stirred and stirred. We flipped the chicken and baked it a bit longer. The gravy thickened and the children were asked to go outside to get flowers for the table.

i set the table and the family was gathered.
          Dinner was a blessing,
  playing its own melody in the form
of savory  morsels dancing on our taste buds.

All that is Delicious about a Moment of Chaos...

She brought me tomatoes picked from the pots on our back porch and she said, "Mama... mama i have a snack for you, two for you and two for me."
They were indeed delicious and they were indeed a snack and the fact that they had been picked with such love and admiration for all that is amazing about a tomato added to the taste on this sunset eve, amidst all the chaos that has reigned here as of late. She is the fruit bat of our family, finding berries everywhere and trees offering their ripe orbs into her hands.

The end of summer stirs many emotions, muddling together as the raspberries mingle on the stove top with the sugar waiting for just the right temperature and conditions to allow the pectin to gel. It is a bittersweet feeling as the leaves start to fall and the berries start to fade. Even in all their brilliance upon the vine, the blackberries today warned me of fall... slight mold at the corners communicating the recent rain and humidity that still lingers in the air.
         A reminder to harvest now as to savour this moment of summer when the gray returns.

To keep my fingers occupied in quiet opportunities i have taken up finger crocheting  again. Creating large scale spiderwebs that cling to the corners of my living room and encourage autumn spiders to build their real webs amongst my rainbow threads. My mornings have been filled with baking projects at the school, zucchini corn muffins with nutmeg, sun butter granola bars with raisins
      and pumpkin bread pudding with traces of vanilla and a brown sugar crust.

                        i am reminding myself to embrace the moment.
             i am grateful to have two little people in my life
       that remind me to do this constantly.
               i think that their energy and creativity may inspire some
        water color painting with rainwater tomorrow, or perhaps a walk,
                 taking the time to jump in every puddle we encounter.

Sometimes Sundays Save me...

Good morning.
Today is wednesday and i am still aglow in the delight of all that was baked boiled crocheted and devoured on the recent Sunday occurrence here. Breakfast with family is something to get excited about. Whether my husband or i are the masterminds of the meal in our home... it is always made with love. Very little outweighs the joy sitting down to share a meal with family. Although i will say, the moment of trying on a freshly made dress when it has reached the "this fits just the way i wanted it too" feeling comes quite close...
      (She breathes a sigh for missed Stitching...)

Our morning meal began with coffee. Creamy and warm and wonderful. Then i melted butter in a cast iron skillet, always a good way to begin any meal really, there are so many directions one can go from there. In a bowl i beat eggs, a bit of flour, salt, sugar... and then the melted butter. To the cast iron i added blackberries from our yard and a sprinkle of cinnamon from a far away place. The batter was poured over the berries and slid into a hot oven.

In another cast iron i poured some olive oil, allowed it to heat, and threw in some matchstick potatoes, covering them with a lid. i chopped some kale, some summer squash and added these to the pan. i ground some coriander that my daughter and i had harvested from the garden a few weeks earlier, inhaling the aromatic scent and taking a moment to gaze upon the plants currently awaiting harvest in the garden. i walked  out to the garden to sit in a small patch of sun and feel the warmth. My eyes wandered the collection of green and i counted how many plants surrounded me whose name i knew... i counted sixty five, which seemed amazing for such a small space, but the plants like to grow over one another and hide beneath each other so its makes sense they all fit... A family of sorts, caring for each other and crowding each other, encouraging and competing for resources as they reach towards the light.

Our own family was able to sit down and enjoy breakfast together that sunny sunday and i am grateful for the moments we spent around the table, looking each other in the eye, exchanging conversation in the form of storytelling and basking in the glow of the light.

When you have reached a decision...

There is a wonderful feeling when you know you are going to be eating a delicious meal. When you have something specific to look forward to...
Whether that is knowing you have a tin of sardines in olive oil and a crust of sourdough bread awaiting you, or a friend who invites you to her house for a BBQ mentions she is grilling chicken. An idea is planted. A seed of something to imagine, allowing the anticipation to build in your taste buds until the moment it passes your lips.

This afternoon after a long day of cooking for little ones and after the doing of the seemingly endless dishes that occur from such creating, i had a moment of clarity. The muse whispered to me about a perfect meal for a late summer evening... something cool and creamy, crisp and clean, and something for which we had all the ingredients on hand. This is the MOMENT that i spend a lot of time wishing for and dreaming of: a meal to look forward to. The minutes spent envisioning it, planning it, preparing it, and enjoying it.

Tonight's creation began with rice noodles cooked for several minutes in boiling water until barely cooked through. i then drained the noodles out, as many as i could catch, and poured some frozen shelled edamame into the still hot water to cook. While they cooked, i poured half a can of coconut milk over the noodles and mixed it gently. my daughter drizzled some honey over them and i sprinkled some salt and a squirt of lime. i then peeled and sliced cucumbers into two inch spears and cut an avocado into bite size pieces and scooped them out of their shell. These each went into their own bowl, aside chopped basil we picked from the garden. Another bowl was filled with the cooked edamame and wedges of lime. i peeled garlic cloves and broke off a chunk of ginger root and set these on the table with a micro zester. Dinner was served.

The kids enjoyed the build your own aspect of the dinner, my husband enjoyed that it was a somewhat substantial meal he could eat some of having recently had two wisdom teeth pulled and i, enjoyed the delicious clarity of it all.