Little Figgy Pies and a Frootshoot

My best friend got married this past September, and had an awesome honeymoon in California. With all that CA has to offer, they basically got four vacations in one.  For a few days, they stayed at a little bed & breakfast where there were trees abundant with figs.  She raved about these figs; how they grew in this adorable, peaceful little garden, and you could just pick 'em and eat 'em right there, as many as you wanted! 

As I listened to her tales, I realized, "I've never had a fig," and then suddenly I had a mission.

I decided, then and there, that the next time I saw figs for sale I was buying those things, pronto, no questions asked. 

But fig season was over.  

For nine months, all I saw were weirdo dried figs and taunting Fig Newtons. But then! There was shipment to the sunny shores of Grand Cayman all the way from California, and with it came fresh figs! This called for a celebratory frootshoot of these strange, Humpty-Dumpty-meets-Cone-Head-shaped, beautiful things. 

I don't think that I've yet mentioned that I've made it my mission to read all of Beth Kirby's {local milk} blog from start to current (and also watch Breaking Bad, and eventually Friends).  Her blog and writing and photography have been fueling a lot of my inspiration/motivation.

My plan, if I ever crossed paths with some figs, was to make her Fig Balsamic & Rosemary Hand Pies. And so I did.

*Note: the only change that I made in Kirby's recipe was using Pepper Chevre Goat Cheese, instead of plain, to add a delicious little kick.

*Another note: I used the leftover juices from the filling as a salad dressing. It was definitely corn-starchy.  In hindsight, I should have added more balsamic and honey to mask that.

Fig Balsamic & Rosemary Hand Pies, copied almost verbatim from {local milk}
Yields about 18-22 4" hand pies

1 recipe of Buttery Pastry Shell from smittenkitchen (or the pie dough of your choosing)

For the Filling
2 cups of figs, cut into 1/2″ size pieces
2 Tbsp sugar
1/8th cup good balsamic vinegar
1/8th cup honey (raw sourwood)
2 tsp finely chopped rosemary
pinch of kosher salt
2 Tbsp cornstarch
goat cheese (optional)
1 egg, whisked
sugar for dusting (turbinado, sanding, or regular sugar work for this)

First prepare your dough which should then be divided in two, shaped into flat discs, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, and chilled. Allow it at least one hour to chill in the fridge, or pop it in the freezer to speed up the process.

Mix figs, sugar, balsamic, honey, rosemary, and salt in a medium bowl and let macerate for about 15 minutes (it can sit longer, even over night, to no ill effect).

Heat oven to 425°F.

Carefully pour off about 2 Tbsp of the liquid from the figs and mix with the 2 Tbsp cornstarch. Stir this back into the figs to thicken.

Roll out half your dough to about 1/8th inch thickness on a lightly floured work surface. Rotate the dough and flour as needed to keep from sticking. Using the cutter of your choice (You can use 4″ and 2″ biscuit cutters to make tiny pies and tinier pies, but you could do shapes or whatever you like.), cut the dough out. If making double crust hand pies cut an even number, if making half moon hand pies then you needn’t worry about it. Lay cut-out dough onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and place in the fridge to chill for about 5-10 minutes. Again, you can just put them in the freezer for a couple of minutes.

Fill a small bowl with cold water and set to the side. Whisk your egg in the bowl to use as a wash. Remove dough and fill with a scant table spoon of filling for half moon pies and a heaping tablespoon of filling for double crust pies. If making 2 inch pies, use about a teaspoon of filling. If you wish, use a little less filling and top with a small dollop of goat cheese (or Pepper Chevre Goat Cheese!).

To seal the pies, dip your finger in the cool water and run your finger around the rim of pie. Either fold over or top with second crust and press carefully but firmly to seal all around. Seal with the tines of a fork if desired.

Once pies are filled place them back into the fridge or freezer to chill for 10 or 3 minutes respectively. Remove from fridge and cut vent holes in the tops of the pies. Brush with the egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Chill once more before baking.

When ready to bake place the pies on a parchment-lined baking sheet on the middle rack and bake for 5 minutes at 425° F. Reduce heat to 350° F, rotate pan and bake for another 10-15 minutes until golden brown, rotating the pan every five minutes to promote uniform browning. Place pies on racks to cool.

Repeat with the rest of the dough and filling.

Enjoy!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to browse over at {local milk}!

A

Fruit Galettes

I do this funny thing when I shop.  If I see something I like, I don’t buy it.  I take a picture of it on my phone, and then I consider buying it for about 3 months.  (This is not the case with food.  If I see a food I like, it’s in the cart, through the check-out lane, and eaten on the drive home.)  If I still want it after 3 months, I go back and buy it. As cost-savvy as that may seem, I actually don’t advise that shopping method.  Seasons change, and things in retail disappear to mysterious outlets forever and ever. 

One instance of a successful 3-month postponed purchase is my Tartine cookbook, the aforementioned cookbook that I've been reading on the beach.  I bought it about a year ago when I was living in Atlanta, and proceeded to bake my first pastry, ever.  I adventurously chose Fruit Galettes. It took me almost 7 hours. My BFF roommate woke up to a note I’d deliriously written at 3 AM making some terrible Harry Potter joke about house elves. That was a little over a year ago.

I decided to give them another go.  We received a shipment of blue velvet apricots at work – designing for a grocery store has its perks. The general consensus was “Blue Velvet Apricot? AKA, a plum?” Yeah, sort of.  It looks like a plum, but it tastes almost like a salty apricot.  I’m not a fan of apricots because they aren’t very sweet, but the fact that these are slightly salty brings out the subtle sweetness and it is just delectable.  (slightly salty subtle sweetness, say that five times fast.)

The Tartine recipe yields a dozen single galettes, or 2 pie-sized galettes OR 1 pie-sized and 6 single. I chose the 6-to-1 combo.  I paired the blue velvet apricots with blueberries for the singles.  I was really bummed that I ran out of apricots for the last 2, and had only blueberries to fill them with, but this turned out not to be a terrible thing. The larger galette waited patiently in the freezer for the maximum of 3 weeks to be a delicious cinnamon apple galette with hazelnut crumble for July 4th when my favorites came to visit the islands :) Note: It didn't get photographed. 

As I said, the blueberry-and-more-blueberry galettes were a supposed let-down. Because of their boringess, I decided to jazz them up with a lemon vanilla cream on top and, oh my holy crap, it was lick-the-plate-clean good. In the end, I was sad to have only two.

Fruit Galettes by Elisabeth M. Prueitt &Chad Robertson in Tartine

For the dough

2 cups Unsalted butter, cubed, very cold

1 cup Water, very cold

1 1/2 tsp. Salt

2 1/3 cups All-Purpose Flour

2 2/3 cups Pastry Flour

Filling

About 6 cups of Fruit, cut-up depending on fruit/size, sauteed if needed

Granulated or brown sugar sprinkled to taste

Lemon juice if desired to add 

Egg Wash

2 Large Eggs Yolks

2 Tbsp. Heavy Cream

Granulated Sugar sprinkled

To make the dough, cut the butter into 1 inch cubes, and place them in the freezer. Measure the water, dissolve some salt into it, and put it in the freezer as well. Chill for about 10 minutes.

Measure all of the flour onto your work surface.  It is not necessary to mix your flours at this point, as they will become well mixed as the dough is being made.  Spread the flour out into a rectangle about 1/3” deep. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour, toss a little bit of the flour over the butter so that your rolling pin won’t stick, and then begin rolling.  When the butter begins to flatten into long, thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up and fold the sides of the rectangle so that it is again the size that you started with. Repeat this rolling-scraping 3 or 4 times.

Make a well in the center of your dough.  Pour the water into the well and begin to cut it into the dough using the bench scraper – folding the sides into the center and “cutting” the water into the dough. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is shaggy mass.  Shape the dough then into a rectangle about 10” x 14”. Lightly dust the top with flour, roll out the rectangle until it 50% bigger. Fold to reshape to original size, roll out to 50% larger and fold back to size again.  Do this 3-4 times until you have a smooth and cohesive dough.  You should have a neat rectangle measuring about 10”x14”.

Transfer the dough to a large baking sheet.  Cover with plastic wrap, and chill well for about an hour.

While the dough is chilling, prepare your fruit. Hull berries, pit peaches and cut, pit apricots and half or quarter, sauté apples or pears, etc.

Remove dough from refrigerator. Divide into 2 equal portions if making pie-sized galettes, or 12 equal portions if making individual galettes. To roll a circle from what is roughly a square, start with the dough positioned as a diamond in front of you, with the handles of the pin at two points of the square. Roll from the center towards each end, flattening the center, but not the two points that are nearest and farthest from you – leave those two points thick. Rotate and repeat with the thick points. You should have a square that has little humps in between the pointy corners.  Roll out the thicker areas, and you will begin to see a circle forming.  Keep rolling until the dough is a little more than 1/8” thick for large galettes (14” diameter), or a little thinner for individual galettes (6”-7” diameter). To transfer the large galettes to a baking sheet, fold into quarters to ensure that it will not break. Transfer individual circles carefully. Chill until firm, 10 minutes.

Fill the centers of the circles with fruit leaving a 2” diameter on large galettes, or a 1” diameter on individual galettes.  Taste the fruit for sweetness to determine how much sugar you should use to sweeten it. Sprinkle sugar, typically 2-4 tbsp. for large or 1-2 tsp. for small. You may also want to add a squeeze of lemon juice to some fruits if you feel it necessary for taste (blueberries, blackberries, apples, pears). Fold in the sides of the circles to partially cover the fruit, being sure not to leave any valleys for fruit juice to leak out. Chill until firm, 10 minutes.

While chilling, preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and make the egg wash. To make the egg wash, whisk together the egg yolks and cream. Brush the egg wash over the pastry edges, and sprinkle them with granulated sugar.

You can bake the galettes immediately, hold them unwrapped for a couple of hours in the refrigerator, or you can skip the egg wash/sugar, wrap the galettes air-tight, and freeze them for up to 3 weeks. When ready to bake if previously frozen, remove from freezer, brush with egg wash, sprinkle with sugar and bake immediately.

Bake the galettes until the crust has visibly puffed and baked to a dark brown, and the juice from the fruit is bubbling inside. 45-60 minutes for large galettes, and 40-50 minutes for small galettes. Rotate the baking sheets 180 degrees and switch the baking sheets between racks at the midway point to ensure even browning. If you are baking them straight from the freezer, add 10 minutes to your baking time. If the pastry is browning too quickly, reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees, or place foil over the tops of the galettes. Remove from the oven and serve hot, warm, or room temp.

Thanks for reading, now go bake some galettes!

A

A Grilled Cheese of Manliness

All of these goodies that I’ve been baking lately have been quite feminine; sweet and darling. That’s not to say that a dude wouldn’t eat these things.  (I know for a fact that there is one guy in particular who is very disappointed that he’s not here to enjoy them.) It is to say that there is always a need for balance. I needed to make something macho and manly. Rub some dirt in it, all that jazz.

On average, it requires about a five minute conversation with me to realize that I’ve got a thing for cheese.  I’m pretty vocal about it.  On my first date with Brian, I asked if we could order the cheese plate appetizer, and then proceeded to talk about cheese for the next 20 to 30 minutes. A few weeks later, because he is the gift-giver to end all gift-givers, he gave me THREE cheese journals to document the various cheeses that I try, so naturally, I’m required to always buy all the cheeses, right? Right! My most recent purchase was an Italian cheese called L’ottavio, otherwise known as beer cheese.  I repeat: beer cheese.

L’ottavio cheese contains flecks of malted barley.  During the curing process, the rind is brushed with brown ale and more malted barley. The result is the smell of a local pub and the taste of a nice pint of beer. Let me emphasize that "smell of a local pub" isn't a very pleasant smell.  You're going to want to triple or quadruple bag this block of cheese to contain the smell in your fridge.

In my cheese-journal, I noted that this cheese is kind of “unpairable." I usually like to pair a nice fruit or jelly or meat with the cheeses that I try, but this one really seemed to want to stand alone.  But then, "ah HA!" This is a manly cheese here. It needs manly compliments, not fru-fru things like fruits and French jams. 

It needs manly compliments like BACON.

What followed is the macho-est, manliest grilled cheese you’ll ever eat.

Behold, the Beer & Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich.  (Note: I did not rub dirt in it.)

The Beer and Bacon Grilled Cheese Sandwich 

2 slices of your bread of choice, I used Buckwheat

Sliced L'ottavio cheese 1/4" thick to cover one slice of bread

3 to 6 slices of natural bacon, depending on bread size

• Heat deep cast iron skillet to medium heat, then turn to low. Throw on your bacon and cook it low and slow, constantly moving around so it doesn't stick. (It's best to use a grease shield if you have one. I don't...womp womp.)
• While your bacon cooks, cut necessary slices of cheese and spread butter on the two outer sides of your bread slices.
• Once bacon is cooked, remove to a paper towel. Drain all but one teaspoon of the grease. The remaining grease will make your bread crispier, and will give your sandwich more taste.
• Set a slice of bread butter-side down. Top with your cheese and cooked bacon, and top with your other slice of bread, butter side up. 
• Once the cheese begins to melt, flip your sandwich so it begins to melt through the bacon. 
• Continue flipping until both sides are crispy and golden.
• Slice into halves and enjoy!

Thanks for reading!

A

Frootshoot in the Caribbean

A refresher course:

Fruit-shoot (/fro͞ot - SHo͞ot/) noun :: Amanda's term for a photo-shoot during which she dissects/murders various fruits for photographic analysis.  This process often advances to hours of editing before creating a graphically-pleasing collage.

As any new culture does, moving to the Caribbean has exposed me to new foods.  Here are some tropical goodies:

Breadfruit 

A food staple throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean, the breadfruit emerges on flowering trees that can grow up to 85 feet tall.  The fruit's name is derived from the texture of the cooked, moderately ripe fruit, which has a potato-like flavor, similar to freshly baked bread. It is high in starch and is traditionally eaten as a substitute for rice.  There are tons of ways to prepare breadfruit, whether roasted and sliced as a nice side dish, or made into breadfruit chips (better than potato chips!), or boiled and served as a main dish with scraped coconut and chilies. 

Fun fact: When you remove a breadfruit from the tree, you have to set it top-down because there will be a fair amount of sap that needs to drain out first...or else your cutting board and knife will be forever sticky. *eyeroll*
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breadfruit

Passion Fruit 

The passion fruit is widely grown around the world.  It is round to oval in shape and can be either yellow or dark purple - a fact that I did not know.  I took photos of a purple-skinned fruit, and the next week, our selection was yellow! There aren't many things that you can bite into for the first time and have your eyes spring wide open causing you to immediately dive in for bite #2.  The passion fruit is one of those rare things. I had never tasted one before, and the taste and texture blew my mind.  It's like a ball full of candy, really. 

Fun fact: Passion fruit is so called because it is one of the many species of Passion Flower, the national flower of Paraguay. 
Source : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_edulis

Otaheite, Jamaican Apple
First, a little back story.  When I studied in Taiwan for 3 months, I discovered that one of my favorite fruits is a Wax Apple or a Bell Fruit - it has two names.  Then! I found out that it actually has 3 names, or so I thought.  I've not been able to find once since; I pick through every farmer's market I go to - I thought for sure I'd find it at one of the two international markets in Atlanta - nope! Then one day after moving here, I was talking about this fruit with my coworkers, and showed them a picture, and they all exclaimed "Otaheite!" "...Oh, whatawhat?" They all got so excited that they had helped me track down this fruit at long last, and that all along it was actually a Jamaican Apple, or in Jamaica, an apple. 
Sadly, I have to report that, though it is yummy, this is not the same as the Wax Apple and Bell Fruit that I had in Taiwan.  They look exactly the same, so they have to be relatives! The Otaheite has a very light and fluffy texture inside with crisp, mild apple-like taste. The Wax Apple packs a punch with apple taste, and has a crunchy, airy texture like a pear. *mouth waters and the search continues*

Thanks for reading!
A

Shootin' some more froots.

Here are three more froot-shoots; strange fruits, I might add. 

Kiwano Melon

Often times referred to as blowfish fruit, this fruit is super funky and difficult to enjoy, but yummy nonetheless.  Similar to the way you eat a pomegranate - seed by messy seed, spitting out each pit - it takes a while to eat a Kiwano Melon.  You cut the fruit in half (hamburger), and then suck out some seed pods. The seeds are surrounded by a gel-capsule-of-sorts that slimes its way around your mouth until you separate it from the flimsy little seed inside.  You can either spit the seed out or swallow it.   
Native to Africa, but grown now in California, Chile, Australia and New Zealand, this fruit (to me) tasted like a combination of cucumber and banana. 
Fun fact ::  Along with the Gemsbok Cucumber, the Kiwano Melon is the only source of water during the dry season in the Kalahari Desert in southern Africa. 
Source :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucumis_metuliferus and my brain.

Dragonfruit

Probably Khaleesi's favorite, Dragonfruit is one of the prettiest fruits both inside and out. However, this does NOT mean it tastes good.  These fruits grow from flowers on Pitaya Cacti, and come in three common varieties :: white-fleshed, red-fleshed or yellow. These cacti grow in hot and dry areas, and cannot withstand cold temperatures. 
The flesh is often likened to kiwi because of the small, crunchy black seeds, however the taste is like a very very bland melon.  I've had this one before; didn't like the first time, thought I'd give it another shot, still didn't like it. Sorry, Khaleesi, your fruit is no good.
Fun fact :: Dragonfruit can weigh from 0.3 to 1.5 pounds; some may reach 2.25 pounds.
Source :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya and my brain.

Rambutan



These guys look creepy, I know, but they are delicious. The word "Rambutan" in the Malay/Indonesian language means "hairy."  You can find these fruits growing on trees in Indonesia and Malaysia and Southeast Asia.  Having only longer spines, or "hairs," rambutan are very similar in appearance and taste to lychee. 
To enjoy a rambutan, break the outer skin with your fingernail (or with a knife if your fingernails seem to frequently disappear like mine c: ) and peel away that crazy outer shell.  Imagine that you peeled all the skin off of a grape, and that the grape is white. This is what awaits you inside that weird hairy shell.  Also, there is a giant seed in the middle of that not-grape, so don't just pop it into your mouth.  
Fun fact :: A yellow variety of Rambutan grows in Costa Rica, and is often referred to as "Wild Rambutan."
Source :: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rambutan and my brain.

That's all folks! I've got a busy busy couple of weeks coming up, so I don't know when you'll next hear from me. c:

Thanks for reading,
A

Where have you BEEN, Amanda??

I have been so stinkin' busy since my last post!  As the job search continues, as does my semi-unemployment.  I took an off-and-on summer nanny position that calls for 11 hours of my day.  That took up 3 weeks in May and this past week.

So what about June, hmmm?  In June, I worked for a Chicago-based gift and decor company called Enesco.  I have been working as a freelance designer for them since May, sending in sketch concepts of merchandising displays to one supervisor, and new-product packaging and displayers to another.  In June, however, I worked alongside four other designers at the Enesco showroom in America's Mart in downtown Atlanta.  We worked to create displays in a showroom FULL of brands like GUND, Foundations, Jim Shore, Vera, and new brands Cuipo and Happy Place.  Below is a picture I found on Enesco's Facebook page of the Happy Place display that I put together.

The idea behind these displays is to help a buyer envision the way that a certain brand could look in their store - to have that vision look so awesome and cutting-edge that they just HAVE to have it. America's Mart is the market to shop new merchandise and apparel in the southeast, and I feel very lucky to have had the month-long opportunity. 

I'll keep this post short and sweet, but I am going to leave you with two Froot-Shoots that I shot back in May.  There has been quite the delay in posting them! Behold, Mango and Pineapple.  (Pineapple may be my favorite layout thus far.)

Thanks for keeping up!
A   :)

A Birthday Party

As promised long ago, here are the long-awaited pictures of baby Ward's 1st birthday.

  

There was a "red wagon" theme.  It was adorable.

Little ones were all over the place.

It was a big weekend of reunions and anniversaries as well.

Mom got all her decorations from an awesome Etsy shop.

Look at him just workin' that camera.

The big sister, runnin' the show with lollipop in-hand.

We had quite a little photo-shoot with the balloons.

What a cutey-patootie.

Baby blues   c:

And, of course, there was traditional, messy cake-smashing!

Until next time. And as always, thanks for reading,

A

Coming Soon :: A Birthday Party

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Portfolio, Photography and Resume|Bio tabs.]

This past weekend, before high-tailing it down to Auburn University for one last roll of The Oaks, I shot pictures for a cute little 1st birthday party.  Here is a little preview of my next post.

One of my previous shots of little Ward was used on this very well-designed invitation; I was so flattered! [For privacy, I had to butcher the invitation a little, but the general idea is there.]

This is the first time I've specifically taken pictures of little babies.  Let me tell you,  it makes for some ridiculously big smiles on my face while editing.  :)

Stay tuned for more in about a week!

A

Fruit Dissections :: Some more.

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Portfolio, Photography and Resume/Bio tabs.]

Here are my latest installments to the Fruit Dissection Collection.  This week's Fruit-Shoot consisted of some funky fruits!  My roommate discovered a really awesome farmer's market (Buford Hwy Farmer's Market in Doraville, GA), so we went to check it out last weekend.  

It is a GIANT market with shelves upon shelves of foreign, exotic foods.  There was a Hispanic section, an Eastern European section, an Asian section, and SUPER fresh seafood (stinky!) and produce; not to mention, spices galore and an organic-health-nut section. 

Since we had never heard of this first fruit, here are some Wiki tidbits in case you haven't either.  

 The Cherimoya (also spelled Chirimoya) is native to the Andes, and can be found in Southern regions of Central and South America, South Asia and Southern California.  The fruit grows on small trees and reaches sizes between 7-15 cm long.  It is ripe when the skin is green and gives slightly to pressure, similar to an avocado. (I know this because I eat avocado now.)

The name originates from the Quechua word "chirimuya," meaning "cold seeds" because the seeds will germinate at higher altitudes.  These are REALLY big, dark seeds that are easy to remove, but there are a ton of them.  The flesh of the fruit is a creamy-white color with a mango-like texture.  There are a lot of opinions on the taste; I thought it was like a pineapple-banana mix.  Others say it tastes like a blend of papaya and peach as well or, strangely, commercial bubblegum. 

Note :: the seeds are poisonous if crushed open. Don't chew on them.  Also, extracts from the cherimoya's tree-bark can induce paralysis if injected into the blood-stream.  Who knew? 

Mark Twain called the Cherimoya "the most delicious fruit known to men."

Red Plum.

Blood Orange.

Thanks for reading! Have a wonderful Spring day!

A

Fruit Dissections :: An On-Going Project

[If you've come to view my portfolio, see the Design Portfolio, Photography and Resume/Bio tabs.]  

March has come and gone quickly, and I've been busy busy.  Since my last post, I have been doing approximately one fruit-shoot a week.  

Fruit-shoot (/fro͞ot - SHo͞ot/) noun :: Amanda's term for a photo-shoot during which one dissects various fruits through photographic analysis.  This process often advances to hours of editing in Photoshop followed by photo-selection before creating a graphically-pleasing collage in InDesign.

This post isn't quite as complete as I had imagined it being, but I didn't want to not have any posts for the month.  Consider this an on-going project, and I will be uploading more as I have time. Enjoy! [Click thumbnails to view full-screen.]

Banana.

 

 Apple.

 

 

 Strawberry.

 

 Kiwi.

 

Keep posted either here or on my Flickr page for more! I've got pomegranate and blood orange up to bat. c:

Thanks for reading!

A