Tag Archives: baking

Jul28

Getting to know Martha’s Vineyard

Posted on July 28, 2016 by athaidek

First weekend in MV…my backyard!

If there’s one thing I would recommend before spending 3 months in a new place, it’s to truly understand where in the world you are actually going before you get there. By this I mean, let’s say you’re spending time on an island, maybe figure out that there’s no way to get there other than boat before you arrive.

I can say that in my starry-eyed, butter-desiring quest for adventure, I literally thought I’d be skipping over a bridge with my suitcase in hand, singing Fraulein Maria style of course, straight from the plane in Boston to MV,

In reality, Martha’s Vineyard is quite a secluded island, which is 2 hours by bus plus 45 minutes by ferry if you come from Boston. There’s an airport on the island which actually has good flight deals locally, but for the most part, you’re getting here by boat. While it can be frustrating since I’m used to jumping in the car to get somewhere, it’s a pretty cool feeling to arrive to the island on a boat, seeing all the sailboats out in the Vineyard Haven harbor at their moorings (new word I learned, such an island girl right?) and getting welcomed by the beautiful shingled houses lining the shore.

The people here love the distance from “real America,” deciding to forego stoplights and street lamps for roundabouts and really dark, bumpy roads at night. I have to say, the lack of streetlights in most areas can be pretty scary for getting home at night, but the stars out here are absolutely incredible. It’s interesting to live in a vacation town, where most activity happens 2 months out of the year. When I ask the locals about being here in the off-season, they all really love the slow pace, picking up new hobbies, driving with no traffic, and appreciating the wildlife around them. I’m leaving here in September, but I often wonder if I would be “good” at relaxing in the quiet of the off-season island, or if it would be lonely.

When I arrived mid-June, I was surprised to find out that June isn’t even high season for MV. In the south, Memorial Day sparks the beginning of summer, but up here, kids don’t even get out of school until end of June. Just as an example, when Spencer and his dad came to visit in the later half of June, the BEST ice cream place wasn’t even open yet!!! How can this even be a place to vacation without its best post-beach treat place open!?

Adjusting to my new schedule wasn’t terribly difficult, but I did have some growing pains adjusting to a much more physical job. Waking up early for the 6:30 am clock-in was not too hard, but biking to work when you have no upper body strength IS in fact incredibly difficult at 6 am. One strange thing I haven’t gotten used to is observing ALL THE PEOPLE out and about at the RIPE hour of 6:15 am. Weekday or weekend, whenever I bike to work, the parking spots are full in front of Mocha Motts, our coffee place, and people are strolling around Main street. A) I get that waking up early on vacation is nice, but really, 6 am? and B) one more time, SIX AM??

When I don’t get a ride to work, biking or walking is my main mode of transportation. I wind through this little back road, sometimes waiting for a wild turkey to cross the road, and trying to get my body to wake up to bake! It took probably a month or so for my back and my arms to be able to lift our big mixer bowl full of pie dough and transfer to mixing bowls. I’m still working on not throwing out my back picking up the large sacks of flour!!

The day I really knew this experience instilled real change in me happened two days ago. For all of you people out there who have had to deal with me asking waiters if they have almond or soy milk when ordering coffee or granola/oatmeal when out to eat, I’m sorry. Since I’ve been working at Pie Chicks, I’ve been using our extra whole milk in my coffee or in my granola as a mid-morning (lol midmorning is like 8 am at a bakery) snack. The other day, I remembered to bring my almond milk in to work, and within tasting my first bite of granola with almond milk, I knew the baker in me was fully formed (potentially exaggerating here a bit). I’m here to say that whole milk is best milk. To all of you out there thinking “are you kidding me that’s like drinking heavy cream”, hate to break it to you babe, but you.are.wrong. You need to come out to the Vineyard, buy some Pie Chick’s granola and pour a healthy serving of whole milk over the top.

I’m off to go pick flowers at Morning Glory farm, hit up Net Result to get fresh seafood for my dinner tonight, and clean the house!! #dayoff

Here’s a few more snapshots in the meantime!

Another view of Taste the Vineyard….we were strategically placed right behind a cutie serving amazzinnnggg ceviche samples. Sooo good. I’ve never seen so much Vineyard Vines clothing in my life!! We served our Salted Toffee and Chocolate chip cookies, along with Blueberry, Apple Peach, Strawberry Rhubarb and Gluten Free pies 🙂

A meal of epic proportions…Spencer and Mr. Mitchell came to visit and we had a feast at Seafood Shanty in Edgartown. It was absolutely necessary to have two lobster rolls and an entire fried seafood platter. Keep in mind we had Backdoor donuts after this…

West chop is approximately 2 miles from my house. How pretty is this view? There is this tennis club/summer camp/country club looking thing at the lookout, and I think I once interrupted a wedding while biking through here in my bathing suit

Hello road to work! This is the woodsy gnome-filled (just kidding) road to the kitchen!

Some pretty views of the outside of my church. It’s no coincidence that it’s within walking distance of my house! (Grandma, another reason you should be reading my blog….I AM going to Mass up here 🙂 )

Mornings I love. A slice of pie and a cup of coffee, whilst watching the Food Network

Jul26

Beetsmesumma on the Vineyard

Posted on July 26, 2016 by athaidek

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Hello from Martha’s Vineyard, summer babes! I’m currently donning a bright yellow rain slicker, waiting for the sailboat captain to get to the right spot for our lobster fishing adventure today. Just kidding, that’s just how I imagined my Martha’s Vineyard experience before coming up here.

So, why am I 1,000 miles from home on an island off the coast of Massachusetts? To bake ALL the pies, scones, cookies, and granola for 3 months straight, obviously! I wanted to do it all day everyday to learn more about baking and get to know the scoop on working/owning a kitchen. I’m a little delayed in telling you about this because I had to make sure I had some good experiences to share. Here I am, almost 6 weeks into my summer adventure, having the time of my life.

I live in a house with three other women, right on the lagoon where we have a motley crew of animal friends. Looking out my back window, I can observe a swan family, several ducks, an occasional deer, our two cats, and our 14 year old dog Bubba. The most frequented family to our yard is a group of WILD TURKEYS. YES, TURKEYS. The other day, I came home with my bike and almost ran into the lil turkey chicas darting around our yard!! It’s so bizarre walking down the road and confronting a large turkey. Takes geese crossing to a whole new level.

I’m working at this amazing wholesale bakery called (cue fun girly The Cranberries or Sara Evans song) ….”Pie Chicks.” There’s seven chicks this summer. Our days start at 6:30 am on a normal day, usually to the sounds of John Mayer or Bruce Springsteen Spotify playlists. If you visit Martha’s Vineyard, you can find our pies at local grocery stores, farm stands, restaurants, and the West Tisbury farmers market. Every day, I’m in there, baking and doing a whooollleee lot of cleaning.

This island is incredibly gorgeous, and much more rural than I anticipated. In addition to sandy beaches and calm waters, there are many farms to explore, artisans to get to know, and hiking trails. My house has a CSA share at a farm where you can pick your own flowers !!!!

There’s so many things I have to tell you about this place and adventure and all the people and swanlings and pies.

I’ll start with a few snapshots. Last week, one of my tasks at work was to walk around with a frozen piece of key lime pie on a popsicle stick, eating it in the sun while trying to figure out how long someone could walk around outside before it would melt. #workworkworkworkwork ?!? I also was able to visit the West Tisbury farmers market a few weeks ago and I’m still wondering why in the world I did not buy a lassi from Mermaid Farm. We’ve been getting all sorts of fresh fruits delivered for our fresh fruit tarts with lemon pastry cream. One of the most fun parts of the day is watching these things come together, as our pastry chefs slice up plums, nectarines, strawberries, or peaches and carefully make pretty spirals on the gorgeous tarts.

Okay, with that glimpse in mind, here are some pics of MV!!!

Here is a pic of the little swanling who lives somewhere near the lagoon? He used to come through our backyard a lot but maybe we scared him off Any thoughts on what his/her name should be?

On my first week, I got to work this event called Taste the Vineyard and we set up our pies all cute like this !!

Welcome to Chez Pie Chicks! It’s actually a commercial kitchen in a residential neighborhood. Kinda cool. I think there’s also some sort of camp nearby because as I was walking to work one day I think I saw an archery range. During the day, you can smell fancy butter, bubbling fruit pies , and the sinful smells of oats, chocolate, and brown sugar wafting from our doors.

Here’s our sweet shed. You can find me in here lifting big boxes of frozen fruit, attempting to carry big A bags of flour over to the kitchen, or playing tetris with boxes of scones and cookie dough in our freezer trying to get them all to fit.

And here’s my stylish bike that my awesome boss found me for the summer! It’s a little cruiser and it has ventured all the way out to West Tis and even Edgartown on my leisurely days off.

Now for the pieeeee

Below is the lighthouse out at west chop…so pretty! Can I live here and be in a Wes Anderson movie?

Edgartown on the 4th of July! This isn’t what all of MV looks like, but this is what I thought the whole island would be like before I got here.

Last, this is the beach closest to my house. It’s great to bike to after work for a lil walk or just a nice view.

Off to bed , tomorrow we bake some more!!

May10

White Chocolate Shortcake with Strawberries, Blueberries and Whipped Cream Frosting

Posted on May 10, 2015 by athaidek

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I’ve been perusing Etsy lately for new cannisters for my flour and sugar and then I started judging the cannisters based on how much rust they had on them. And then I got really self conscious thinking about the fact that I am searching the interweb for a vintage-y kitschy looking tin can and still considering purchasing it from those South Dakotans (yea that’s how you refer to them) who collect these things even though the can has RUST all over the inside of it. And then I took a deep breath and realized I had too much caffeine.

You know, when did the Container Store fall out of fashion and rusty South Dakota cans make a come-back?

Did you guys also love the Container Store circa 2006? It was absolutely the coolest thing to go and get rando trinkets and your day planner from there during summer break. Instead of buying those sleek Oxo bug-proof jars, I’m trying to find a jar with a print not as creepy as a gnome garden yet not as sleek as an Ikea esque white box. The things I do to procrastinate….

Speaking of flour and sugar….THIS CAKKEEEEE. If I had to describe a cake that would connect a wide variety of people’s sweet palettes, it would be this one. I am one to enjoy the most decadent of sweets, with cake layers full of butter and buttermilk topped with headache inducing frostings (and if you’re really lucky, two types of frosting and some kind of caramel brittley thing in the middle). On the other hand, there are those people born without a soul who like the “lighter” side of desserts.

Yes I am speaking to you, tart frozen yogurt lovers, sorbet-orderers, MERINGUE fans, and the worst – those who JUST SAY NO to dessert. This cake will woo even you!!

It’s a cake that is light enough to be dubbed a shortcake, yet dense and moist enough to satisfy the decadent sweets lovers like (hand-raised) me! There’s even some white chocolate chips snuck in there. The white chocolate gives the cake just enough sweetness that you don’t even notice that this frosting isn’t even really frosting at all. It’s whipped cream!

I made this for my office May cookout a few weeks ago with the help of my baking aficionado friend Tim. While I insisted it probably wasn’t the best idea to break into this cake before bringing it to the office, we made a mini version with the overflowing bowl of batter and made sure the recipe was legit. Here are my tips for assembling cakes after my cake-toppling incident a few years back:

Bake your cake layers the night before if you are gonna make this. Then wrap each one in plastic wrap and cover overnight. In the morning, transport the layers and frosting separately if you’re gonna have limited fridge space because this frosting isn’t the greatest for sitting out. Assemble the cake with the frosting and fruit right before eating!

For all of you who want the recipe – buy JoytheBaker’s Homemade Decadence book!!!

Creaming some butter and sugar (view the sweet potato blondies I also made below)

sawiinngg batta batta

Here are my tips on getting cake out of the pan. Take your spatula and point it straight down around the edge of the cake. Do this a few times until you know the cake is free from the edges. Then start to go down then under the cake and gently pull up slightly on the cake, but don’t actually try to take the whole thing out. Once you’ve primed the cake, place a plate over the cake and count your self down to a flip (I had Tim help with this). 1-2-3 flip!!! Then tap the bottom of the cake pan which is now facing up as you place the plate down on the counter. This will get any last bit of the cake out. Gently pull the pan up – and there ya go.

If you can feel that the cake didn’t in fact come out of the pan (gasp), just flip it over, look both ways to make sure no one saw you, and give it a few more minutes 🙂

You know, just use a big pot to make your whipped cream when all your mixing bowls are taken….

Watching this progression above, this is what happens when you don’t let your mini cake cool and just drop dollops of whipped cream on top

I buckled it in shortly after. This is my recommended safety position for your cake.
Oh just assembling my cake at the office

Shoutout to my coworker Michael who helped put this together!!!

ohhhhh yeaaaaaa

Mar3

Two gals and one large stack of Banana Oat Walnut Pancakes – Galentine’s Brunch

Posted on March 3, 2015 by athaidek

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I agree with the lovely Deb Perelman in her recent Valentine’s post about what one should cook for Valentine’s day. Deb makes a lovely slow cooked beef (someone tell my future husband anything involving the words “slow cook” is a straight path to my heart) and says that although the words pot roast don’t exactly sound romantically, cozy, cold-weather, home-cooked foods are the perfect way to celebrate in a way that both you and your loved one can enjoy.

When I was pinterest-ing to find the ultimate Valentine’s dishes, I was surprised to see fancy lamb chop dishes and wayyy too many chocolate-covered strawberry posts. If you come to my house, I will make you my “warm and fuzzy” dishes – pancakes with maple syrup drizzle and my signature slab of peanut butter as a side “dip”. For those of you just joining us, pancakes = love, at least in my book.

As our lovebird neighbors left Atlanta for the weekend, my friend Jules and I had quite the baking/cooking adventure. First, we attempted red wine brownies and then couldn’t stay away from each other and had a delicious Galentine’s brunch the next morning.

As all pancake recipes start, this one started from a chocolate chip pancake base and evolved into an oat-y, banana, walnut cinnamon pancake recipe. Following this brunch, I also celebrated Galentine’s with an Indian brunch with my mom, Grandma, and sister, hung out with my main man (Dad), and sang my heart out with a dose of late night karaoke. A solid weekend to say the least.

Banana Oat Walnut Pancakes

3/4 cup oat flour (grind oats in food processor until they are the consistency of coarse flour)

3/4 cup white wheat or all-purpose flour

2 TBS brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup almond milk/low fat milk

1 TBS cider vinegar

1 egg

2 TBS melted butter

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 brown-spotted bananas, mashed up

a handful of walnuts, chopped coarsely

1. In a small bowl, whisk milk and vinegar together and let sit aside for 5 minutes. This will make your regular milk the consistency of buttermilk which seems weird but adds richness.

2. Whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and sugar in a large bowl.

3. In another bowl, whisk melted butter (or coconut oil or veg oil), mashed bananas, eggs, and vanilla together. Once milk is ready, whisk into this bowl as well.

4. Slowly stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and add in your walnut pieces.

5. Let the batter sit 5-10 minutes to let the oat flour absorb the liquids. Heat griddle or large skillet to medium/medium high heat and coat the pan in a thin layer of butter/oil.

6. Dollop a ladle-full scoop of batter onto your skillet once the oil starts to sizzle. This should be around 1/3 cup of batter, but if you want them smaller or larger take some liberties. Cook for 3 minutes on one side, flip and cook for another 1-2 minutes.

7. While you are still making pancakes but have some ready, keep them warming in the oven set around 200 degrees.

8. Serve on a perfectly set kitchen table with the “lazy weekend” or “indie brunch” (if you’re feelin cool) Spotify playlist in the background. Top pancakes with banana slices and an uncomfortably large mound of maple syrup. Light a candle. Feel romantic.

xoxo,

the gals of Galentine’s brunch

Feb28

Challah, Challah Bill Y’all – A Judeo-Christian culinary experience

Posted on February 28, 2015 by athaidek

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About a month ago, my expert challah-making friend Kate (who has a laundry list of talents I might add), taught our group of friends how to make challah! In school, Kate made challah every week with an extracurricular group to raise money for hunger relief and let me tell you, it was the highlight of my week. My roommates in our sorority house NOMMED every week on one savory and one sweet loaf – usually some herby garlic, cinnamon raisin, or the cherished pumpkin chocolate chip (life will never be the same without you).

Bringing back the college memories and teaching us a little about Jewish traditions, Kate brought the dough and we contributed the toppings. I learned that in the Jewish tradition, you always bless the bread, hence, the importance of the challah. Shoutout to our snazziest consultant travelling visitor, Chandler who contributed most of these pics. While I didn’t actually make this dough, I can show you a bit about the process and how to get to the pretty part of the challah baking process 🙂

First, we rolled the dough (that had been rising for a few hours), into tiny balls that would later be rolled out

Then, you take two dough balls for your little challah roll and roll them into long thin flat rectangles. This is where you’re going to create a bed for all the fillings. In the pockets, you want to OVERLOAD on ingredients. This is one thing I hadn’t thought of – but apparently when you’re adding filling to these, since the dough expands so much, you always want to put more filling than looks necessary.

In this instance, we made chocolate chip-PB, chocolate cinnamon, sundried tomato garlic basil, peanut butter nutella, and I think cinnamon sugar. Delicious!

After you put the fillings in, you want to start tucking them in. There’s a sort of braiding going on where you tuck the right bottom corner to the left side of the dough and up. Then you go the opposite way and press into the dough to seal it. Do this until the filling is completely enclosed. The one below is sundried tomato, garlic, olive oil, and basil.

Once everybody’s sealed up, you want to make an X with the two pieces of dough. Then, carefully wrap the two strands around each other, seal the ends together, and spiral to make a round loaf.

Place on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and bake at 350 for around 25-35 minutes – seems to be an art to this timing! Serve the savory ones with some yummy soup and have the sweet ones for dessert! Here’s to faith-sharing and food. Cheers 🙂