aubergine & ricotta tart.

The time has changed. Now it is pitch black by 6 o'clock. It's moderately depressing.

I went back home today to have my dad help me set up a retirement account, by tickets to go see A Christmas Carol and deposit my paycheck. A massive load of laundry was done in the meantime and running a few errands with my mom when she got home from work. A typical day off for me. A guess not really keeping in contact with anyone from high school, going to 3 different colleges and moving often has led my days off to be for errands instead of hanging out with people. Even though I have lived in St Helena for over a year now, I still feel like I don't know anyone here. Besides the people at work.
I've always been a bit of a lone wolf.
Work for me.
Sometimes.

After I spent one day photographing my new baby cousin Kai, we ended the photoshoot in the garden of my Aunt and Uncle's house. The have a massive amount of things growing. I came away with a few tomatoes, some type of squash and a few little aubergines. The tomatoes were to go into a salad, the squash could be cut up and roasted, but I didn't know what to do with the aubergines. Besides a ratatouille, have I ever done anything with them? Probably and I'm just not remembering. But those suckers sat in my fridge until I knew I had to use them or toss em.

So after seeing what else was in my always empty fridge, I there was butter and ricotta. A tart it all became.

With many photos....

Aubergine and Ricotta Tart
1 9inch tart

For the dough I used a classic Pate Brisee dough
1 1/4 cup (156g) AP flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1 stick (114g) butter, cold and cubed
a few tablespoons of ice water

Mix the dry ingredients together, then cut in the butter until you have small pea sized chunks. Then I add water by the tablespoon, mixing it, just until it holds together. Then wrap in plastic and chill for 1 hour.
Roll out on a lightly floured surface, to just bigger than your pan. Fit into your pan and cut off any excess.

For the filling I just did about a cup of ricotta mixed with salt and pepper and herbs de provence. Then spread over the crust. Next time I would beat an egg into it. It baked off into a bit of a solid layer for me, so I think the egg would make it stay lighter.

Then I just sliced two small aubergines (eggplants) and fanned then on top of the ricotta. Drizzled it with a bit of olive oil and sprinkled with salt an pepper.

Baked in a 375 degree oven for about 1 - 1 1/2 hour. Ate once cooled.

Not the best thing I have ever made, but good enough to suffice for a meal.

pumpkin hazelnut coffee cake.

My internet presence lately has been completely lackluster. I no longer have a job were I can Instagram all the bits and bobs I bake up and now Instagramming shoes just seems a bit silly. Plus I already do that for the store's Instagram, and write for their blog too! But I took one of my days off and finally baked up some, Pumpkin Hazelnut Coffee Cake. It was originally going to be with pecans but hazelnuts were shockingly cheaper at my grocery store, so hazelnuts it was. Now I'm always concerned with this type of cake that the crumbly bits on top are all going to sink into the cake and it will not look as pretty coming out of the oven as it did going it. But I think this thick cake batter solved that problem, plus actually baking it at the correct temperature. At my parent's house our oven ran really hot so I would always bake things 50-100 degrees lower than the recipe called for. So I always have that mind set. But I resisted the urge and baked this at the proper 350 degrees and it came out great. Old habits....

The recipe is a total winner, go make it now, or at lease tomorrow morning. Moist, sweet, the spices are subtle and the nuts give a great crunchy texture. Maybe some dried cranberries would be good in the crumble too? It's a recipe I want to make over and over, it was that good. 

In other news, I have a new baby cousin! Just a few days old and I get to go meet him tomorrow. My messages on my phone have just been flooded with photos of him already so I feel like I have already met the little one. Sometime within the next two weeks, my Aunt wants me to photograph him. While I am excited to do that, I am also terrified because she wants those baby in little crochet outfits dressed as fruit or in a pea pod or in cocoon hanging, type of photoshoots. Which is not my thing at all and told her those photos are scary. But as long as I can also take some cute candid photos of what he is really like and not overly propped madness, I'll be happy. We kinda have to please our families right? Wish me luck! Hopefully it will work out.....

Pumpkin Hazelnut Coffee Cake

a slight adaptation of a Williams-Sonoma recipe

Streusel:

42 grams (1/3 cup) AP flour

100 grams (1/2 cup) brown sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/2 tsp salt

85 grams (6 Tbsp) butter, cold and cubed

128 grams (1 cup) hazelnuts, chopped

Batter:

187 grams (1 1/2 cups) AP flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1/4 tsp cardamon 

1 tsp salt

114 grams (1/2 cup) butter, soft

200 grams (1 cup) brown sugar

2 eggs

122 grams (1/2 cup) pumpkin puree

115 grams (1/2 cup) sour cream

Glaze:

62 grams (1/2 cup) powdered sugar

1 tsp milk

1 tsp vanilla

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a 9 inch round cake pan.

For streusel: Whisk flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and salt together in a deep bowl. Using hands or pastry cutter, cut in butter until small pea sized cubes. Stir in nuts. Set aside

For batter:

Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add in eggs one at a time. Whisk all dry ingredients together in a bowl then mix into batter. Finally stir in pumpkin and sour cream until you have a smooth batter. 

Pour half of the batter into a smooth layer at the bottom of pan. Sprinkle half of the streusel over. Top with remaining batter, making sure to cover all the streusel. Evenly sprinkle all remaining streusel over. 

Bake for around 50 minutes until center is set and a toothpick comes out clean. 

Let cool in pan for 15 minutes, remove from pan and let cool completely. 

Whisk together all the glaze ingredients and drizzle over cake.

Serve.

As I was photographing the pumpkin cake, I heard a knock on my door and it was my neighbor dropping off the last of the season's tomatoes. Plus a squash and some swiss chard. It has been a great run this summer and early fall getting so many tomatoes, for free I might add. They tasted so amazing and the chard was great once I sautéed it up in a pan for a bit, getting the edges a little crispy. Forever indebted to my neighbor.

from the garden.

My little garden is not doing so well, only the herbs are flourishing and tiny little squashes have started to appear. my neighbor's garden is still growing like crazy though. The tomatoes from the 'oven dried tomatoes' post were from him and the other day he gave me all them. Practically a whole grocery bag full. It was amazing. They are so sweet and are just bursting with flavor, my salads all week are going to me glorious. 

When I told my Dad about all the tomatoes I got, for free!, the immediate question was 'What are you going to make?' The question I always get asked when I'm talking about doing a new post. But I really just didn't want to bake anything. It's been hot lately, realy hot and even when their is a breeze its hot air. So turning on my oven heats up my entire tiny little apartment by like 15 degrees so thats not an option. So I've just been making myself salads after work every night. Fresh, unadulterated veggies. Thats all I've been crazy. Radishes especially. My favorite of all. 

Some still life's of all the veggies I have been given lately, one of a salad and the final one of my dresser. I woke up on my day off and I thought the light was so beautiful shining through the window. I grabbed my camera, snapped a shot, shoved the curtain closed and fell back asleep for a bit.

peaches in jars.

So at the beginning of the month I got an email from the website Sweet Preservation, wanting to know if they could send me over peaches to do a canning recipe post. I think I must have somehow got added to some list where I now get all these emails for people wanting me to blog their recipes or new product or something. They all go immediately in the trash folder. I'm not blogging to promote your company, I'm blogging as a way to keep photography present in my life. 

But this email was the one special one that caught my eye. They weren't trying to get me to promote some weird drink recipe or something, they were about local, seasonal produce and preserving them to last all year long. I couldn't say no. This post would have been probably made regardless of them sending me the peaches or me buying them at the store. Peaches are everywhere, stone fruit is everywhere. So when I replied yes to the email, the next week I got a massive box of peaches from Washington state farmers. It was amazing. I love Washington, farm fresh peaches rocks and I always want to can things. 

For the record, my love of Washington is from my one impression from a trip with my Dad years ago. I thought Seattle was great and the northern part of the state that we went to was beautiful. So that one impression of me has lasted and I will forever proclaim my love of Washington. 

So for this rare occasion, this is a sponsored post, but by a great company so I don't feel bad about it at all!

The box of peaches was far above abundant so more than one recipe was needed. A girl can only eat so much jam, eh? So I decided to make peach marmalade and peach syrup, for iced tea. The first recipe seemed like one that would just be able to show off how awesome the peaches taste. The latter is kind of from a silly inspiration. My weird love of snapple peach tea. I chug that stuff. I love it more than any other drink I can think of. 

Their processes and ingredients are pretty similar, the syrup is just the reduced strained liquid from boiling down the peaches and sugar. They both worked out pretty well. For the marmalade I should have probably cooked it down more. It is kinda loose. The fear kicked in of over cooking it like I have done to most of my jams/marmalades in the past. They get really really thick and somewhat impossible to spread on a piece of toast without being left with crumbled shards of bread at the end. But the taste of this marmalade is great so I will probably end up just pouring it over some vanilla ice cream and call it a day.

Peach Marmalade
a slight adaptation of a Bon Appetit Recipe

5lb peaches, pitted and cut into 1/3 inch slices
900g (4 cups) white sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Combine all ingredients in a large pot and let sit on counter for 30 minutes. Transfer to stovetop and bring to a boil over med/high heat. Cook until liquid has reduced and become syrupy. Stir often, should take around 30 minutes. Skimming any foam off of the top.
Ladle into hot, sterilized canning jars, top with lids and can in a water bath for 10 minutes. Let sit on counter until completely cool. Store in a dark cupboard, and refrigerate once opened.

Makes 4 half pint jars of marmalade.
See the Ball Jar website for proper canning instructions.

Side notes:

The new job is working out well, no complaints at all. I really like talking to all my co-workers and customers. My old job left me feeling so socially awkward because I would generally go hours without having anyone to speak to. I found I like getting to talk to people all day. I thought I might go all weird and silent because I was so used to not having to talk but it wasn't the case, thank god.

It is ridiculously hot in my apartment right now, baking off christmas cookies. Yes christmas cookies in August. Because I was asked to do photos for a certain magazines winter issue. I'll tell you more about it when the issue comes out, I'm too superstitious that something will happen and the photos won't get used. Because this is a good one, when I got the email, I was like 'seriously me?'. It's a magazine that I love and feel super honored to shoot for. Merry Christmas in August folks! 

My favorite photo of the lot.

Peach Syrup for Peach Tea
A slight adaptation of a Bon Appetit recipe

2 lbs peaches, peeled and thinly sliced
168g (3/4 cup) white sugar
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
Pinch of salt

Bring all to a boil in a large saucepan, over high heat. Reduce heat and simmer gently. Occasionally mash the fruit until peaches are very tender and liquid begins to reduce.
Using a fairly fine mesh strainer or a layer of cheesecloth over a bowl, pour all of the contents of the pot into it. Let all liquid pour off, don't press down too hard or it will get cloudy. Discard solids. Ladle into jars and follow same canning instructions from above. (My mix took a while for the liquid to run off, so after it all came out, I brought it back up to a boil in the pot so I could can it.)

Should make 1 pint jar.

When using in tea, dilute to your taste with black tea. I did probably a 1:6 mixture with 1 part syrup and 6 parts tea.

I made granola too that day so I threw it in for the photos as well. I used the same recipe that I post before, poppy seed pistachio and pecan granola, but changed things up a bit. I.E. threw in whatever I had in my cupboard in replaced of the actual things it called for. Pistachios and pecans became almonds, maple syrup became honey, coconut was to use up the rest of it and some dried fruits added after it cooled down.

oven dried tomatoes

My neighbor has a plot in our community garden. It's really close to where we live, its a tiny little garden but must have some amazing soil because every time I walk by it is flourishing. 

Last week he gave me a bag full of cherry tomatoes from his section. They were amazing, so juicy and packed with flavor. I ate them up so quickly. The other day he gave me another bag full. I was so happy, more juicy little goodies to devour. 

I wanted to actually do something with them, instead of just eat them all raw, mainly just to give me an excuse to photograph them. 

I thought of maybe canning them, but their wasn't enough for that. So I decided to make 'sun' dried tomatoes. I don't have the patience to actually let them dry out in the sun, so I did the oven method. Which I presume is faster. 

Obviously the end result is only a small amount of dried tomatoes, since they shrivel up to such tiny little things. But they are so amazing. A bit chewy and packed with so much flavor. 

So an update on my life. I am no longer a baker. In the professional sense. I still love to bake at home and for photos, but it is no longer my day job. I just couldn't take it any more. The horrible hours, physically demanding, lonely and the place I was at just wasn't for me. Maybe it was because everyone worked fairly early in the morning or maybe it is just how they are, but everyone was really negative. The conversations were always people complaining, bitching and whining about everything. From the amount of work they did or didn't have to do, to the bosses, to the recipes, pretty much just everything. And it seemed like everyone was always talking about each other behind their backs. Seriously and I was the youngest person their. It was exhausting, when you pretty much spend most of your life at work, you want to at least get on with your coworkers. Now while I liked some of them, a few rotten apples ruin the bunch. I had come from a previous job where I considered my coworkers my close friends. On my first day back from a weekend, I was always itching to talk to them. This job was never that case. 

I needed something completely different. So I'm now working at a boutique on the main street in town. It sells super high-end shoes, handbags and clothes. Like Louboutin's and Jimmy Choo's. Everything is gorgeous. 

After only working a few shifts so far, I really like it better. 

I get to have a normal schedule, wear real clothes to work, talk to people and all my new coworkers are really nice. I'm excited for this new adventure. When I put two weeks notice at my old job, my chef went 'I can't believe your leaving HERE to go sell some shoes.' And I don't think he will ever understand, but I do so thats all that matters.

oven dried cherry tomatoes.

cherry tomatoes

coarse salt

freshly ground pepper

handful of freshly chopped herbs (I used sage and rosemary)

Oven on the lowest temperature possible.

Cut all tomatoes in half, toss is a bowl with salt, pepper and herbs.

Place, cut side up, on a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet.

Place in oven and leave until dry and shriveled. 

Mine took 3 or 4 hours, it depends on how big your tomatoes are.

*Store in fridge.

this past weekend.

Swiss chard from my little garden.

I went to San Francisco with my Mom this past Saturday. Aran's book signing was at 12, the purpose of our trip. So we took BART early and immediately headed to the farmers market at the ferry building. I hadn't been in over a year. The markets by where I lie don't come. They are tiny little things, all napa valley overpriced with little variety. The ferry building is just the opposite. Variety everywhere the eye could see and I didn't feel like I was going to be leaving with an empty wallet.

All the fruit and veggies were glorious. So much stuff I hadn't seen in ages or ever before.

The biggest onions we had ever seen.

All the figs were already bursting, umm didn't seem the most tempting to buy if I wasn't going to eat them that minute.

Strawberries from the same guy I had brought them from two years ago when I made this strawberry pie.

Tomatoes from Eatwell Farm. I used to get a CSA box through them, all the stuff was amazing. I really should sign up for that again...

Lavender Bell Peppers. We had never seen anything like these before. Not in our wildest dreams. So after my mom saw them, talked to the vender about them and then we walked away, she decided we must go back to buy some. So after getting all the different colors, we had to wait till we got home to try them. We immediately cut into a purple one. It was green on the inside. Completely unexpected but spectacular. It got chowed down with some trader joes hummus. The lavender one was nice and sweet.  

My Mom. Me. Aran.

After the market, we walked over towards Union Square and looked in some shops before heading over to the signing. I got some ridiculous 5"+ heels which of course I immediately put on, which is why I look so absurdly tall in the photo. An I also got a romper, with birds all over it. Adding to my ever expanding collection of rompers. Greatest wardrobe staple ever.

Then we headed up to Williams-Sonoma, got our copies of Aran's book, Small Plates and Sweet Treats, which has photos in it to die for. She did a little cooking demo of macarons. It was great to see. I'm more of a visual learned. I've tasted macarons, read about how they are made but without seeing someone do it, the dots never really connected.

Then the time came for us to get our books signed. People were lining up, I assumed everyone before me was like 'Hi' 'Hello' 'Nice to meet you'. I did not do that. I just went straight up to her and just gave her a casual nod and a boisterous 'whats up!'. The store workers and Aran both just kinda stared at me for a minute then started laughing. I immediately went 'Oh was that not proper or something??'. Well at least I made an impression. She was very sweet and nice, her macarons were so tasty and damn the photos are good in the book. Definitely worth the trip to SF.