Cambridge Mornings : (Clear Flour Bakery)

image from Seriouseats.com

Top of the morning! .... or top of the MORNING BUN!

This next bakery helped me (J) make it to work on time this past Wednesday. I had heard about the mystical wonders of Clear Flour many moons ago, but had not yet made the trek. So on said Wednesday morning I had one of those 'aha!' moments when I was running late and needed a quick bite in the Brookline area. A la perfect!

Not only is Clear Flour a wonderful bread destination that specializes in authentic Italian and French breads, but it also has scrumptious morning treats.

In fact, Clear Flour is such a destination that one of the problems you may have is actually getting in! It has been known to keep a long line out its door in peak hours with most of its customers happily waiting the extra time for some of Boston's best breads. Seriously people, this may be the best bread bakery in Boston.

So come on, let's go! Venture out to Brookline on your bike (with your fashionable attached basket, of course) and bring home a baguette or fire roasted tomato rolls (!!!!!) on a sunny Sunday afternoon. You won't be disappointed with a single thing here.

Here's our list of recommendations, in no particular order:

• morning buns
• brioche (available weekends)
• chocolate croissant
• variety of fruit tart
• cranberry currant scones
• Paris night bread
• Rosemary focaccia bread

Enjoy!!

J&S

Cambridge Mornings : (Verna's)

You know that feeling when you wake up and you not only want to 'smell the coffee' but you also want to smell the delicious baked treats and sweets? Yeah, that happens to us almost everyday.

That's the beauty of the bakery, and boy do we love them. From muffins to morning rolls to donuts to croissants, it just doesn't get much better. So since we are in Cambridge, MA this summer, we thought we would put together a little list of some of the best places to go for that special morning treat. So wake up and get your game face on, it's time for breakfast treats!


Our first stop: Verna's.

This place is a real deal morning institution. Just down Mass Ave (passed the Harvard Quad) hides this little coffee and donuts gem. A true bakery at heart, you are welcomed with the wonderful aroma of brewing coffee and gently baked cake donuts as soon as you step foot inside the little corner building. This hole-in-the-wall beauty makes fresh donuts every morning and truly has the mom and pop goodness factor from the moment you walk inside and are surrounded by true Cantabrigians (aka residents of Cambridge...)

Now I have a feeling you are already sold on the idea of delicious donuts and other treats, but us add two more pieces of information to get your mouth watering.
1. The flavor choices are unreal. There is literally no bad choice. Old-fashioned. Honey dipped. Butter Crunch. Chocolate Glazed. zomg.
2. These puppies are all around $1. wait, did you read that correctly? Yes you did. One freakin' dollar. Unreal!

xo
j&s

Wedding Bells

Uff da.

oh sorry everyone.  sometimes we forget that not everyone speaks Minnesotan.  Here, let's let wikipedia help us here on this one...

Uff da (can also be spelled huffda, uff-da, uffda, uff-dah, oofda, ufda, ufdah, oofta, uf daa, or ufta) is an expression of Norwegian origin adopted byScandinavian-Americans in the 19th century. It is an exclamation that is relatively common in the Upper Midwestern states of the United States.
.... Within Midwestern culture, Uff da frequently translates into: I am overwhelmed. It has become a mark of Scandinavian roots, particularly for people from North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, northern Illinois, Iowa,Minnesota, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.^[2][3] Uff da can often be used as an alternative for many common day swear words.

Ok, so now when we say Uff da, y'all know that we mean 'oh man are we ever overwhelmed.'

And really we have good reason.  See, we just got back to MN after a 3 day wedding extravaganza in Ohio.  For our crazy family, that means packing up our motorhome (RV) and hitting the road for a 13 hour drive to Delphos, Ohio for an afternoon celebration of love.

Overall, we had an amazing time.  The wedding was a beautiful and simple BARN WEDDING that literally could not have been at a nicer barn.  Talk about well-maintaned.  This place made Playmobil look like amateurs.  Here's a little taste of the scene.  Enjoy

 The amazing barn at night- filled with beautiful lights and handmade poms.

Cute vases that were later filled with pastel-colored flowers

The area for the ceremony- small and intimate yet really elegant.

The flower arrangements

The maid of honor.  Oh yeah, best part is that flower is not even a real flower.  It's the most spectacular paper flower I've ever seen.  Made by the bride herself.

xoxo
j&s

Cheesecake Filled Strawberries

Our dad finds some of the best little gadgets/do-hickys/decorations/overall presents.  Today, he came home with a few new 'kitchen toys' including things like a handheld lemon juicer, mini carrot peeler, and strawberry corer.  The last item grabbed our attention because we had previously thought of buying one for ourselves, basically with only two recipes in mind: cheesecake filled strawberries and jello shot strawberries.  Seeing as this was a calm night at our house, we opted for the former choice.  However, don't think that there wasn't alcohol being consumed while we made these.


This corer thing adds a whole new level of fun to strawberry cleaning.  Buh bye to the awkward attempt to cut off the strawberry tops and hello fun gadget.  Check it out!

Then it's time to whip up the cheesecake.  This part is terribly easy and just requires cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla.  The recipe can be found here (they opted to dip them in graham crackers, however we were feeling more like SPRINKLES today)


In short, mix 8 oz pkg softened cream cheese, 1/2 cup powdered sugar, and 1/2 tsp vanilla.  Put this into a piping bag, and fill!


Then, decorate with whatever you choose- sprinkles, graham crackers, whatever you want!

Then if you are craving chocolate like we were, dip them into some melted chocolate (melt chocolate chips in microwave- use 1 min increments to check/stir chips as they melt)

and PRESTO CHANGO......

Cheers

j&s

Rhubarb Cupcakes

With Rhubarb Season upon us, we are doing our best to loyally serve the rhubarb loving world (aka Mom, Dad, Tyler, Grandpa, and maybe some of the lucky neighbor kids)

This recipe was found here, at Food Doodles.  As they mention post-baking, we did double the amount of rhubarb puree from this recipe and it tasted AMAZING.  Then, we added some marshmallow creme to the frosting for a little something extra.  Top that with a little chocolate garnish and call it a day.

enjoy

j&s

Rhubarb Pie

It's..... Rhubarb Season!

You know what that means. Simply head out to your backyard with your gardening expert mom and start harvesting your gorgeous rhubarb plants.  Or at least that is what we are fortunate enough to be able to do.  


But seriously, when this time comes every once a year (aka as often as Christmas) you have to take full advantage of what you have.  Which is exactly what we plan to do.  The first recipe for the day is Rhubarb Pie.

This recipe is really special to us because it was handed down to us from our grandparents.  Our grandpa is quite the rhubarb pie master, so we have high expectations.  We decided to deviate only slightly from the original recipe by adding a small amount of blueberries to the pie.  These were put in as a bottom layer to add some extra special taste and flavor.


First comes the sacred recipe.....

And now out to the garden.   A few snips and.....

Leaves removed (want to remove the leaf plus most of the stem all in one and keep those to the side)

Now this is important : the leaves are poisonous.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Therefore, the next step is to separate the leaf from the stem.  Keep all the good stems (kind of look like celery sticks) and wash them off.  Then you may begin chopping these up into little pieces like so.

Yipee.  Now you prepare the pie filling and add in the nicely chopped rhubarb pieces... and meanwhile you prepare you pie dish with your crust (either homemade or store-bought) and if you're feeling a little frisky, toss in a layer of some nice fruit.  We chose blueberries.

Neat.  Now we add in our pie filling and add the top of the pie.  This is where you get to play baker and make a fun design if your heart desires.  Lattices, cut outs, and all other weird looking or pretty things are encouraged.  This is what we did, not that it's any work of art, but it will do.

Now you eagerly wait outside the oven as the baking gods take over inside that sucker.  And when you are finished, you may add blueberries or fruits around for extra presentation points.

It's pie time!
-J&S

Let's Begin

We have a 'kitchen house.'  Now you might be asking yourself- what on earth does that mean? What we mean is that the kitchen and dining room area is a very central spot in the house we grew up in.  People were always hanging out there, entertaining there, even doing their homework there.  So naturally, we have become 'kitchen people.'  Both of us love to cook, bake, eat, drink, be merry, and quite frankly try anything and everything new and exciting.  So this blog is going to be dedicated to sharing our love for all of these things and hopefully having a good time while we do it.

Cheers