My Favorite Fruitcake

I have many favorite fruitcakes...two of them are my business partners, Sharon and Kate...another one is my husband, so you can see I REALLY like fruitcakes! I even happen to like the kind you eat, which drove me once about 10 years ago or so, to make some fruitcakes both for myself and to see if there were any of my customers that were also closet fruitcake fans. Well, I sold out that year, I'm not even sure I got one! Now, I have had people asking for them for a couple of weeks already. So, yesterday I made my first batch and as is par for the course, had to endure all the bad jokes and crazy family fruitcake stories my 20 something aged employees like to pelt me with...oh and if you want the recipe, I have to admit that I totally ripped off Martha Stewart (who actually ripped it off from her neighbor, Mrs. Maus) so I won't reprint it on the recipe blog (because, honestly I didn't need to alter it one little bit) but I will find you a link...check back later, first I gotta take the little fruitcakes in my life to school!
UPDATE: I guess my enthusiasm in getting recipes online this summer did lead me to put this one up on the recipe blog, so I've given credit where I could, AND I'll start brushing up on my copyright law...cause here it is!
Fruitcake Tasting UPDATE!: We pulled one out and cut it up to sample today and...oh. my. god. (I sold two to the first two tasters!)
By the way...I'd be happy to ship one to you...call (907)235-2280, ask for Carri.

Fudging it...

Just ask my daughter, she'll tell you. Fudge is my weakness...my favorite sweet treat but also the one I cannot make. "It's your achilles heel, mom." Maya told me the other day. It stung a little more because, unknown to her, I had just asked Ryan the new chef/baker to help me make a batch and it came out a crystallized mess. When he asked me where I got that particular formula we used, I was a little embarassed to say it was from an episode of 'Good Eats' I had seen the night before. Ryan rolled his eyes, "f-ing Alton Brown... You want FUDGE recipes, I'LL give you fudge recipes!" I chastised him saying that I wanted REAL fudge, not the kind made with marshmallow cream or sweetened condensed milk. So the next day he comes in and whips up an awsome batch of his granny's Walnut Penuche...Damn, so good! Okay, Game on...yesterday, I was stuck home, power was out but my propane cooktop worked...what to do? Conquer the fudge! I did it too! The answer...Lyles Golden Syrup

Art is Everywhere!

We have all new paintings by Barb Wyatt adorning our walls just in time to spruce us up for the holidays!

Ryan made a little art of his own...this nut brittle is inspired!

it's not easy being green...

It happens many times a day, I look up toward the bread case and someone is fumbling with a bread bag trying to get it open. "Lick your finger and rub the end without the writing...yeah, that's it!" (I'm like a cheerleader!)... Sometimes, especially if it's an older person who's hands don't work so well, I walk over and do it for them...sheepishly explaining along the way, that while they may be a pain, they are made of corn and will compost in 90 days, the person usually nods with mock enthusiasm and we move on with the transaction. If I know them really well I give them my acronym for these new bread bags...P.C.P.A. (Politically Correct Pain in the Ass)

The people have spoken....time for pie!

Can we finally move on with our lives now that we have this presidential thingy out of the way? I hear that President Obama's favorite dessert is pie...I'm not sure what kind, but anyone who loves pie is good in my book! We are heading into pie season already making some apple and pumpkin (or 'yellow vegetable', as Ryan would have it!). I think I'll make a pie with mixed nuts and dedicate it to the outgoing administration...!

VOTE!

All three kids want to go to the polls with me tomorrow to watch me vote for what we HOPE will be the first African American President in history. They are so invested in this process I'm really excited for them to see what the actual voting part is like...I get goosebumps when I think about it! My daughters Maya and Jane made cookies to pass out to voters...who said voting couldn't be yummy!

Wanna see something REALLY scary?

Pumpkin Cookies...oh my!

You can tell when things are slowing down around here... people, me included, who can't see straight because they are so busy in summer, actually get a chance to catch-up...the errant weather makes for quiet afternoons here at the bakery. The 'winter regulars' keep us entertained, and on our toes! It was one such stormy afternoon a week or so ago that I was working the counter (another sure sign of winter) when one of our w.r.'s called me over to lodge a complaint. It seems the pumpkin cookie he had gotten the day before (and had looked forward to with much anticipation, apparently!) had chocolate chips in it! Now, it's true, we have been making pumpkin cookies for a while now...only in fall, a seasonal specialty, if you will, and no, we have never to my recollection put chocolate chips in them. Frankly, I was as stunned as he was, but I assumed it was some logistical error...in no way malicious, so I assured our customer that I would get to the bottom of it and that he could be certain the next one he got would be choco chip-free. I must be clear in that he wasn't allergic to chocolate, he just didn't want it in his pumpkin cookie...ok, so, as this is happening at the bakery, Sharon, is somewhere across town shopping or something when another 'w.r.' approaches and wants to tell her that they had just had a pumpkin cookie at the bakery and it had chocolate chips in it...it was the best cookie she ever had! We laughed when we shared that story only to cry when the phone rang and it was someone who had just read our recipe in the newspaper (oh yeah, you know what for...pumpkin cookies!) and it said to cream the sugar with the butter, but the sugar was left out of the ingredients list! The paper only comes out once a week...these calls will be coming for who knows how long! Damn you pumpkin cookies...you'll be my undoing!
You can get the correct Pumkin Cookie recipe Here!

A blast from the past...

As with most people I know here in Homer, my friendship with Tom Bodett began through food, that is, him ordering and me serving...in that way, it started out as an entirely professional relationship. It was right around the time that his second book was published that I first came to Homer and it was during my first winter here that he began his radio show, I felt priviledged to help out with catering backstage.
Through his generous nature I was introduced to many people who became good friends at a time when I was very new to town. Tom's time living here in Homer was spent, in part, dodging the growing number of tourists he was attracting to town and much of the rest doing his best to promote the local arts scene on a meaningful level. In 1991, he helped me by sponsoring a 'Winter Writers Series' at the little bistro I was running, which attracted such varied national talent as Tess Gallagher and Bill McKibben as well as local luminaries Tom Kizzia and Nancy Lord (who was just named Alaska's writer laureat). It was also through Tom that I was welcomed into a group of local writers who helped mentor me into living a writers life, (whether or not that's where my paycheck was coming from). Unfortunately for us, Tom and his family have been gone from Homer for a while now...too many tour buses stopping in front of his house, I'm cetain. So it was funny to me when one day, about a month ago, while sweeping the bakery floor after closing time, I picked up what looked like a business card from the dining room floor...it was this ticket, to the first taping of 'The End of the Road ' radio show in 1988...nearly 20 years ago to the day! I sent off an e-mail to Tom telling him about my find, citing it kinda strange. He responded with his familiar blend of humor and pragmatism, "I think it's more likely someone just needs a new jacket!"...that radio show didn't last too long but I'm glad that, at least in some small way, our friendship has. Take care, Tom...we'll see you on the radio!

October in Homer

It's 30 degrees out and the snow that fell yesterday is still on the ground (it was the 5th snow we've had since the 1st when this whole winter madness started!) the skiers are hopeful and everyone else is running sround trying to get their outside chores done! Thank goodness the bakery is always warm, always bright...

The Last Farmers Market of the Summer...

Randall had a stellar day to wind up this years market...it was the second sunny saturday all summer...(sorry, Irene!). We stopped by for a photo-op and were treated to fresh oysters and homemade soup! Thanks again to everyone who works so hard to make this a success, not least of all the farmers! And our lovely market manager Shay Hoffman...it's no easy task wrangling all those vendors. Some of the farmers will still show up on Wed. and Saturdays to sell the last of their crops, so do stop by to stock up on potatoes and onions and other fall veggies!

We also had a scarecrow building contest on the back porch on saturday afternoon. The sunny day and warm apple cider really revved things up and we ended up with some great entries!

Abby and Natalia got to take a break from barista-ing and built 'Roger' our only entry practising yoga















The Winner is...Scarah Palin! (where's Tina Fey when you need her!)

Fall is a trip!

At my house, fall means Nasturtiums! Planted from seed, they take forever to get going, but it's such a treat to have them come on strong while everything else is fading into the sunset. Fall at the bakery brings new faces as seasonal staff turns over, we are welcoming Adam, a born Alaskan, just back from a moose hunt with his family. He's our new coffee guy...(look out Johnny!). Everyone is loving Ryan's soups and we're tapping his inner chef for some awesome lunch specials. He made reuben savories yesterday, they sold out so fast and were so great, I can see that becoming a regular lunch thing! It's great to have some fresh energy after the wildness of summer has died down.This next week, I'm heading off to Bend, Oregon to make a wedding cake for Rylie and Delia and hopefully enjoy some slightly warmer weather. When I return it will be time to start revving up for the Holiday season...can you say COOKIES! Kate is bowing out to Maternity leave in mid-October...we are so excited for her! (did I tell you they found out it's another boy?) Melissa, right hand girl of my dreams is also going on winter hiatus...for a year she has kept us all together, can we do it without her? Tune in next week to find out!

Oven info... part 1

Sharon and Kate discovered Alan Scott of Ovencrafters at a bread bakers conference..we bought the plans,we dreamed about the oven and it's possilbilties, we wanted it so bad that we almost built it before the new building (we'll put it on a trailer!). In the end, it had to wait until a year after the new space was up and running, but we did it! Actually Alan and his dedicated assistant,Julie Lomenda, did it...we offered a workshop and people came from all over and close by ,too, to help and learn from the master himself! It took alot longer and, as you can guess, way more money...$10,000 in 2004...than we thought. it has been an amazing learning experience and has brought us all together in ways we didn't expect. My husband has dedicated himself to the wood gathering, at least as far as the Birch is concerned...we burn a combination of Birch kindling, which grows in patches on the lower peninsula and has a short lifespan, so needs harvesting with regularity, and Alder, it grows in abundance along the roads and is constantly being cleared by the highway department, cut into 3- 4 foot poles which we put on top of the vigorously burning birch to create a hot and long-winded fire. We are currently firing in the afternoon and heat soaking until early morning. It is a retained heat oven, so the fire is burned down to ashes and then they are removed and the brick surface cleaned for bread first, then pastries and on it goes until it's time re-fire. We can put about 40 loaves of bread in it at a time or six sheet pans of veggies for roasting. Cakes and cookies come out amazingly well, as do roasted meats...of course! It took us so much longer to figure it out than we thought, too, which is such an overall metaphor for Bakery life in general! We love it, though, and as we head into fall with so much rain and cold weather, it sure is nice to have a warm hearth in our kitchen!

Raspberry JAM!

I'm not as much of a forager/preserver as I perhaps should be, especially living in a place with so much to offer the hunter-gatherer types. We have a freezer full of rockfish and that's about it...except for raspberry jam. It's a huge staple around here, both on toast in the morning and pb&j's for sack lunches. We need about 24 pints to make it through winter...and if you know anything about alaskan winters you'll completely understand why this is so important! This year was almost a bust in that department...normally we would have been picking mid-august, but it wasn't until a week ago that they finally started to pop. Of course the rain and stormy weather kept me from getting out on Wed. my day off...so, I was relieved to get a little break in the weather to get out today, and boy was it fun! My good friend Jane (owner of the best yard in Homer!) has the most amazing raspberry patch I have ever seen...and in the dozen years I've known her, the berries are always plentiful and her generosity at letting so many of us come to pick is the stuff of legend. The stalks are 6 feet high and the berries the size of my thumb (and then some!) all surrounding a lovely patch of grass looking over the bay with a cottonwood tree so big it has a buoy swing (the alaskan equivelent of a tire swing) hanging from it's branches. The kids run around and play while the grown-ups chat and pick furiously. I got so worked up talking about Sarah Palin I had three buckets full before I knew it! At least she's good for something,eh?
Enough politics...let's make jam!


First we put our clean jars in a big pan half filled with water, put the lid on and set it to boiling. The lids go into a smaller pan also half filled with water and also set to boiling. Then we measured 4 cups of berries and 6 1/2 cups of sugar into our stainless pot and brought it to a rolling boil, stirring most of the time. (daughter Jane was mostly a big help at this) add 1 packet of liquid pectin and boil and stir for exactly one minute. turn off heat. using tongs, pull jars from hot water bath and fill to within 1/4 inch from the rim. Wipe the rim of each jar CAREFULLY and again with the tongs pull the lids out of smaller pot placing them on the hot jars and securing with the screw on metal rings. I like to leave them on a towel at this point until they cool completely when we will check the seals and store away in a cool dark spot.
We got our two cases done just in time to catch our good friend Tom Kizzia appear on CNN to help shed a little light on all this Sarah MADNESS!
Jam is done...back to politics!

Soup Weather

The rain is endless...
Today alone we went through 5 different soups:
Curry Vegetable (pictured above)
Hungarian Mushroom
Borscht
Red Rockfish Chowder
Cream of Mushroom
Almost all of them were made by our most awsome new baker/chef dude Ryan...fresh off a summer on the spit at the Spitfire Grill. We are very Lucky! We also have added Duffy and Natalia to the winter mix.(peaches flaked out to tour asia) Randall and Abby are sticking around also, Thank Goodness! Everyone else has gone or is almost gone...it's a little overwhelming how many people we've said good-bye to! Chelsie was the first to leave for school in Juneau (she had to miss Hesketh...), Irene left right after to meet up with her man in Portland, then Erin back to Portland as well! (a very popular place for Homerites), Brianna is going to travel Europe (she arrives in Amsterdam tonight!), Ben moved to Red Hook, New York to learn from his father how to make guitars (Ben is the talented musician behind Berta) and Haven to California , Emily is off to Stanford, Jenny is going to University of Washington,( Dan is going there, too, I think)! Oh, and Johnny, good ole coffee dude that he is, is hoping to ply his trade in Revelstoke, B. C....Y'all are leaving me with a big hole my tattered little heart, but I wish all of you the very best life has to offer...we'll be here when you get back!