The Baker's Assistant

I first started out at my  daughter’s catering kitchen doing easy tasks…like a bit of public relations writing, decorating her rooms, running her dishwasher, putting away things, and more. Then I worked on chopping vegetables and fruits. I graduated to being able to arrange vegetable trays, fruit trays, and cheese trays. I started to make salads like tossed green salads, cole slaw, potato salad, broccoli cheese salad and other types. If I’ve cut and quartered some potatoes, I’ve done it for a 50 lb. bag, more times than I can remember. A little bit like KP duty in the Army. But I am in Erin’s Army at Erin’s Fine Foods.

I jokingly referred to myself as the Chef’s Apprentice. Now with a new deli in the downtown area, along with the catering kitchen – I find myself working as Katie Schettler’s apprentice baker. Katie is the pastry chef and a wonderful bread maker. It seems I have two bosses. I am a follower and not a leader and this suits me just fine.

Today, I got to use Katie’s recipes and also the commercial size mixer to do three different types of cookies – chocolate chips, dried cranberry/oatmeal, and peanut butter/oatmeal cookies. I made triple the amount for two of the cookie recipes and doubled the peanut butter/oatmeal ones. After making each recipe,  I used a medium sized ice cream scooper to place a scoop of the cookie dough onto a full sized disposable foil pan. When I was finished, I wrapped each pan, which would be placed in a freezer and used when we need them.

I didn’t mind baking. I actually enjoyed making the cookies, along with watching Katie working on the bread that she was making from scratch. The loaf bread and the ciabatta bread would be used for sandwiches down at Erin’s Deli at the K & L Gates building in downtown Pittsburgh.

Tomorrow will be another day of baking and putting together the scones. Now I can add Baker’s Apprentice to my resume along with Chef’s Apprentice.

The Art of Baking Bread

It’s easy to take a twisty off of a bag of store bought bread. It’s easy making toast, or a sandwich. But what really goes into baking bread? I watched Katie, pastry chef at Erin’s Fine Foods bake bread from scratch. So let’s just say a lot of work goes into baking bread. Her pastries along with her breads are what are served at Erin’s Fine Foods in the North Hills area, and Erin’s Deli, downtown Pittsburgh.

This particular day, while working with Katie, I watched all the steps that went into her ciabatta bread. I also watched her place the dough into the bed pans and bake them in the oven. When they were finished, the top of each bread loaf was the perfect golden brown color.

With all the steps that go into preparing the bread dough, and with the baking – it takes a total of four hours. To get a jump on the day’s bread baking, Katie mixes the dough and leaves it in a big covered bucket overnight. Then she can put it into the large sheet pans of bread pans to bake.

But I particularly watched Katie go through the different steps for her ciabatta bread.

Step I – Katie put in the yeast, flour water, and olive oil and mixed the dough in the commercial mixer until it was smooth. Then she lets it ferment until the dough doubles in size.

Step 2 – The dough back into the mixer with more flour and salt and mixed until it doubles in size once again.

Step 3 – Katie sprays a large sheet tray, and then sprinkles it with corn meal before she spreads the dough on to the sheet tray. She makes sure that the dough is spread to the sides and leaves some air pockets in the dough. Then she places the sheet trays on the racks until the dough doubles in size again. When it is time, Katie places the trays in the oven and bakes the bread.

Let me just say that I have been to the downtown Deli and had a fantastic sandwich called The Woody. The sandwich has salami, capicola, roasted red peppers, sharp provolone cheese, arugula, balsamic aioli on ciabatta bread. Both the sandwich filling and the bread complimented one another.

Katie – your bread is amazing and so are you!

Pine Springs Pottery

On a Friday night, I found myself in a car with my daughter, Erin, and Katie who works with Erin. We were driving up to New Bethlehem to a pottery party at Pine Springs Pottery. The studio is owned and operated by Marie Lewis and it is located in the basement of her lovely 140 year old renovated farm house.

We drove down a gravely road to the picturesque farm house with an equally inviting yard. There was a small building in the yard with the doors wide opened. A kiln was in visible sight.

We were able to check out the downstairs of the two story house, which was obviously restored with a lot of love. The kitchen was cozy with a long, white marbled table in the center of the room. The table either was an antique or it was a customized designed to look that way. Next to the kitchen was a screened in room. This was probably my favorite room. It was decorated with white wicker furniture, and had some old shutters hanging on the walls, along with some of ‘grandma’s’ furniture. Both the television and dining rooms had the dark, old wood farm house floors, which were gorgeous and shiny.

There were a few other women attending the party, so Marie took us downstairs to her studio. He pottery pieces were on display and later we could buy them or order custom made ones. We sat or stood around as Marie sat down at her pottery wheel and went through all the steps to making a pottery piece. She pulled out a big plastic bag with large squares of clay. She cut a piece into fours and placed the remainder in the bag, and tightly secured it so that it wouldn’t dry out. Next Marie worked on the piece of clay, kneading it to get the air out and then she rolled it into a long log shape. Her next step was to place the piece on a potters plate and then to put it on the wheel and begin turning the wheel with her foot. She can also use electricity to make her wheel turn.

It seemed like in an instant the clay started to take shape, all the while Marie dripped water onto the piece and shaped it into a bowl, hollowing out the inside. She cut off the excess clay with a wire cutter, as well as dragging the cutter on the bottom of the pot and the plate to keep it from sticking.

It all looked so simple as Marie shaped and created the bowl. But I knew it had taken her a long time to master her craft to make it look that easy. She knew when the piece was done and stopped the wheel. It would take a few days to dry out. She would then apply glaze to the piece and paint the bowl with her designs. When the pottery is totally dried and ready, Marie can fill up the inside of her kiln…she fires it for the amount of time that is needed.

While she was working on her bowl, Marie explained that she has been doing this for 24 years, shortly after her first daughter was born. She also told how she bought her pottery wheel and kiln from one of her art professors who died. The kiln was taken apart and rebuilt in the small building where it is now. Having this connection to a favorite professor, has a lot of meaning for Marie. To me, it made Marie’s pottery even more special.

If anyone is interested in pottery or in taking a class, look at Marie’s website (www.Pine SpringsPottery.com)

The whole evening was a special one. It was a pleasure to meet Marie Lewis, who loves her pottery and it made me want to take a pottery class. I did walk away with two items and I ordered a few more custom pieces.

The next day, I drank my coffee in the beautiful mug that my daughter bought and gave me for a Mother’s Day present, a Lewis original. It was a pleasant and beautiful reminder of a totally lovely evening.

Kitchen Journal: First Day

Starting back into the kitchen, I felt a bit slow doing my work. It has been awhile since I worked in the kitchen on a steady basis. Today – I just felt slow and unsure of myself. I didn’t feel as if I accomplished a lot, even though both my boss and co-worker said I did a good job and I was fine. This was exactly how I felt when I first went back to work at the Greenhouse, as if I was working in slow motion. After the first few days of working at the Greenhouse, I was totally exhausted and every bone in my body ached. By the third day of working – everything fell nicely into place and I found my working rhythm.

As for the Kitchen, I looked forward to working at the catering kitchen. It wouldl be a nice change. I am a person who doesn’t need to work but I am a person who needs to be busy, so that is why I work.

My first day back in the kitchen, I just did some mindless work. I’m not a chef and pretty much do some of the prep work, clean up, run the dishwasher and put things away like everyone else. Today, I filled the dishwasher with water, put things away, washed all the newly delivered vegetables and put them into their place in the walk-in refrigerator. I put new trash bags in the two cleaned trash cans and made a pot of coffee. Coffee in the kitchen is essential and it helps us to get through the day, especially in the morning I miss the coffee shop next door that closed. I used to make a daily run and buy coffee or a double shot of espresso that kept me fueled and moving. 

Next, I pulled out a box of pastry sheets and thawed a few of them. I counted out 36 small individual paper baking containers. These were circular ones to make individual quiches. I cut a circle out of the pastry shell, then flatten the pastry into the bottom of the  container.  I cut a strip and put that around the pastry to make the sides higher.  The job sounds easy but very time consuming. When I had the pastry in each baking dish, I filled the centers… 12 would have sautéed red peppers and feta cheese, 12 with four cheeses, and 12 with bacon, ham, and cheddar cheese. In a bowl, I broke a flat of eggs, mixed in half and half and milk with the seasonings and poured the liquid into each quiche, which was on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

The end result is that the pastry rose to a golden brown and the quiches looked tasty. These quiches will be sold in Erin’s Deli, located in the K & L Gates Building, downtown on 6^th Avenue. Since the quiches will be made at Erin’s kitchen in the North Hills where I work, I guess I will have to sneak one off of the cookie sheet after it’s baked to sample it. Yes, it’s so good to be back in the kitchen!

Spotting Errors

While reading a book or watching a movie, have you ever noticed an errors? I have found a few errors in my books and they are books from major authors. This leaves me believing that no one proof reads their final work. I know for a fact that I make errors in my writing even after I have had it proofed a number of times. But there used to be copy readers who read manuscripts and magazine articles and newspaper articles. That doesn’t seem to be the case now.

I also find bloopers or mistakes in movies, which seems to be kind of interesting and funny. I was watching the latest episode of Mad Men and saw two discrepancies that made me check them out. Since the time period for Mad Men is in the 60s…I found one of the characters using a television remote control. Wow…when did the remote control appear on the scene? Surely not in the 60s…all considering that it looked like a newer model of remote controls. I found that in the 70s the remote control was hooked up by a wire. This main character in Mad Men did not have a wire attached to his remote controller.

Then later on, the man handed his daughter 50 cents to make a phone call. Now I know that local calls cost at least 25 cents in those days, maybe even less…so why the 50 cents? I didn’t get it then and I don’t get it now. I guess one should be thankful for today’s cell phones because public phones no longer even exist.

Anyway…I guess it doesn’t matter but if the writer is going to be so meticulous in the story line, costumes and music, why not in the little things? I don’t make it a habit to look for errors but those two just popped out at me.

But I do have to say that I like all those silly bloopers or flubs that come at the end of those crazy comedies. Sometimes, they are even better than the movie, itself.

Quest for a Soccer Ball

Soccer – I never played the sport. But I watched plenty of soccer games during my lifetime. My kids played soccer from when they were in first grade. They played throughout grade school and in high school. My oldest daughter played soccer in an adult league and I watched a number of her games.

Now my grandchildren are playing soccer and of course I have seen a few of their games. The topic of soccer brings me to the soccer ball and the reason for my Blog. My one granddaughter, Mika is on two different soccer teams. She loves Lionel Messi and has his jersey. Lionel Messi is an Argentinian, who plays soccer and is arguably one of the best players and one of the most prolific scorers.

But back to the soccer ball. Mika saw a fantastic soccer ball and expressed her desire to have it. I told her that I would get it for her, for her birthday. She described it and wrote the description down on a piece of paper…a black 2014 FIFA World Cup ball. That seemed easy enough to find at Dick’s. The one by my house didn’t have it but the clerk called the Cranberry Dick’s and they had three of those soccer balls. I drove out to Cranberry to pick up the one that they were holding for me.

Wow…it was some soccer ball. It was shiny black with the writing 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil. There were also 20 small flag nationality flags; the USA was one of those flags that encircled the ball. I assume those were the teams that played for the World Cup Soccer League. Along with the flags there was some colorful art work on the ball.

I purchased the size 5 soccer ball. I have to say that it is beautiful. Almost too beautiful to kick around. I don’t know if she is going to use it or just put it on display in her bedroom. All I know is that it is an awesome ball and I can’t wait to give it to her as a birthday present. 

One Apron for Another

I officially planted up the last shipment of plants on Good Friday. Somehow, I can’t believe my job at the Greenhouse is over. I have to say it took a few days to get back into the rhythm of the job and overcome the obstacle of being on my feet for a few hours. But now I retired my brown LMS Greenhouse apron for another apron to work at my daughter’s catering kitchen.

 I actually no longer use her white catering aprons because when I am finished with working, the apron and I look like the comic strip character Pig Pen from Charlie Brown. So, instead, I bring in my aprons from home, like my blue and white striped ones or my black one and use that to work in. All of my work aprons look like a slob has worked in them. I am not a slob but I use my aprons to wipe off my hands so you can pretty much figure out what I have been working on…plants, pasta sauce, spinach dip, potato salad, fruit and vegetable cuttings and more. Sometimes, I even have food going up on my arms, as well as the plant soil that I have been working on. I have to work with a bib apron. I could never imagine not using an apron at all.

I haven’t worked in the kitchen since last December, despite a day or two this month. Like the greenhouse, I have to find my kitchen rhythm. I worked the past three days, and found that I wasn’t sore or exhausted. My only problem was that I didn’t feel like I was working fast enough. It’ll take a while but I’m sure everything will come back as to how to do certain things, the quickness and being able to stand on my feet for a few hours.

All in all, I kind of missed the kitchen work. Unlike the greenhouse, I can sample all the good food and pastries that is being prepared, especially the delicious scones, cookies and breads. Bring them on, Katie!

I also have missed blogging about the kitchen…so there will be more Food Blogs from me.

Greenhouse Journal: Day 12 & 13

I came into the greenhouse on Thursday to work. Since the shipment of plants hadn’t arrived yet, my job was to water Greenhouses 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Watering in a greenhouse is important and takes quite a while. I walked up and down and watering the tray of plants on each bench and then made sure to water the hanging baskets, or any other plant in pots that are on the ground.

Let me get this out of the way. I don’t mind watering but I think because I am short this is a hazardous job. Hazardous in the way that I have to position the water hose to water the hanging baskets…the water usually runs down my arm into my arm pit. It isn’t bad on a hot day but it is definitely a pain on a cold day. Plus, I seem to get as much water on me – from head to toe – as the plants get.

Midway during my watering, the water ran out. Yeah…unbelievable that water can run out in a greenhouse! Running out of water in a greenhouse is a major crisis! And this was a crisis because those plants were in desperate need of watering. I had to wait until someone changed the lines. Unfortunately we had problems with Well 1 and 2, and couldn’t use the backup water from the pond. The pond needed the broken lines fixed.

I finished my job at 2:00 because I lost the water again. I pretty much had every plant watered, except two benches in House 1. Someone else would wait for the pressure to build up and they would finish those two benches.

I returned on Friday and stated planting the 20 plug trays that were waiting for me in House 5. I found empty spaces on the benches and worked on the 11 trays of Petunias before I lost the water once again. I took my lunch break with the hope that by the time I finished the water pressure would be up to par. Then I could finish the remaining 9 trays.

 

I still had problems with the water but did my best and to my astonishment, I had finished all the plants by 2:00. I cleaned up and looked around Greenhouse 5. Everything looked good…the established plants were blooming, and the hanging baskets looked fantastic.

After signing out, I treated myself and bought a big, beautiful Rosemary plant. The aroma of Rosemary filled my car and then my kitchen. Eventually, I will use the Rosemary to bake my Rosemary bread and I will also use it to cook. But until then, the distinctive aroma of Rosemary in my kitchen will be my reminder of things to come.