Starting in December

Somehow in the midst of the summer heat, leaving my job of six years and starting another, going to our engagement party and taking a quick trip to Lake Tahoe I missed this little blog’s first anniversary.  Needless to say, I am not too surprised that the anniversary of my first post came and went without notice but these days I have about a case of gifted champagne in our apartment and I feel like celebrating.

And what better way to celebrate a blog anniversary than with some chilled sparkling wine and some baked goods?  My love affair with Kim Boyce’s Good to the Grain continues, and I made some strawberry barley scones to serve as a quick breakfast on my final week of vacation and first few early-get-back-into-the-routine-of-waking-up-to-an-alarm-clock mornings getting ready for the new job.  These scones are probably not what you’re used to because they lack both intense sweetness and the even texture from an all wheat flour dough but they are worth your time, just the same.

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Life has been, er, a little jam-packed lately.  Despite some lovely time off from my job I seem to go to sleep each evening wondering where the day went. Our Netflix movies sit unopened and there is an embarrassing amount of food quickly becoming less charming as it gets shoved into the back corners of the refrigerator.

Around lunchtime a couple of days ago I was gathering the house to leave and run a variety of tedious errands and I realized I was both hungry and willing to create something out of the bits and pieces remaining in my vegetable drawer.

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Reader, I have run away from home. Until just a few days ago I loved my little apartment, cherished its age and character (read: no central air). And then, it became summer in Sacramento overnight and I wilted into a heap of perspiring unhappiness. This week was supposed to go to my happy place because I was in that blissful time between jobs where one has not a care in the world (except for planning our wedding, which I have carefully shoved into the back of my mind for the week) and sleep in! eat bon bons! dust off some ambitions! Instead, dear reader, I have fled the coop and am camping out at various air conditioned wifi spots around my neighborhood. This post comes to you from a sandwich shop, where I have easily polished a liter of their complimentary tap water. Mmmm.

Yesterday I spent the day in San Francisco wedding dress shopping (still searching for the one!) and savored the perfect weather. But the day before, Monday, I started to unravel halfway through this roasting recipe. Why, do you ask, would anyone with a good head on their shoulders, turn their oven on for three hours during the first triple digit day of the year? Because I am slowly losing my mind. I was wooed by the fresh tomatoes at the market, that finally looked plump and juicy for the first time in 2011, and I knew it was high time to roast these little guys and make a simple pasta dinner. Reason was noticeably absent from my decision-making at the grocery store and any shred of sanity left me at about hour two of roasting in my hot, hot apartment Monday afternoon.

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Ladies and gentlemen, as of today I am officially a lady of leisure. Well, at least for the next week and a half. I got a new job! And the vacation gods were smiling down on me because between leaving my previous employer and starting with my new one I worked in a little time off. And what will I be doing with all of this free time? Keeping our un-air conditioned apartment nice and hot by doing lots of baking, of course!

I kicked off my new (albeit temporary) lifestyle a few days ago by stocking up on a couple of pounds of butter and making cookies. Clone cookies, to be exact. These homemade oreo cookies taste exactly like the real thing. Well, except that you know what went into this version — just some sugar, chocolate chips, cocoa powder, flour and plenty of butter. These bad boys are a little time consuming and you might curse the day you stumbled upon this blog for heating up your apartment in late June with a hot oven but making homemade oreos from scratch is well worth the effort (and sweat).

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People, this might be one of the strangest things I have ever made.  Granted, I thought it tasted wonderful but as I was pulling ingredients off the shelf two nights ago I whipped myself into a tizzy.   Rhubarb? Pureed with ginger and five spice powder?  Is this a good idea?  I have made countless flavor pairing missteps over the years, and Tuesday evening I was in no mood to undertake an experiment with a high chance of disaster built in.  Per usual, I was really hungry and there was nothing else in the house to eat but the ingredients for this meal.

At this stage in the game, I should know better than to doubt the convenience cooking master, Jamie Oliver.  By the time I got over the unusual pairing of rhubarb with all things savory I began to understand the “hot and sour” part of this recipe.  Tasting the sauce for the first time after it had reduced for about 20 minutes was an unexpected delight — sweet from the honey, bright from the ginger, tart from the rhubarb and spicy heat from the chili and five spice powder.

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