Blog Vacation

Hello, blog world! I’m sorry I haven’t updated this in forever it seems. I went on vacation to visit James’ parents in Chicago! It was a fantastic time, and took me about two weeks to get back into a routine here at home, but alas, I’ve made it back! Here is a picture of some pictures of our trip:

(I’ll figure out how to use a scanner eventually.)

Here’s our latest CSA, which is mostly gone by now:

(Beets, red onion, heirloom tomatoes, acorn squash, watermelon, poblanos, okra, and garlic!)

It’s all been delicious, I’m trying to push my cynicism aside and not think that the summer is soon coming to an end.

As for other great news, there is a Tapped event tomorrow! It is at Gtech in Lamir in conjunction with their Green Bike tour! Starts at noon and goes till eleven.
Here’s our menu for tomorrow:
Soft pretzel, spicy honey mustard
Blueberry/Peach Cake
Brown-butter Chocolate-chip Blondies
S’mores

The address is 6587 Hamilton Ave. Pittsburgh, PA 15206. Come drink great beers and eat great food!

Tapped, Lawrenceville edition

Hello, everyone, and thank you if you managed to make it out to Tapped on Saturday! The event went really well, and the word about us seems to be spreading!

James is pretty great at holding down the stand for me, and did not light the table cloth on fire! I’m extremely grateful he does this for me, because I love my other job just as much, and would not be able to do both without him, so major thanks to James!

(Thanks to Bar Marco for this photograph!)

I was particularly happy with these S’mores cakes. The graham cracker cake was my favorite 1234 cake recipes with a Clarion River flour blend, (spelt, whole wheat, and corn flour,) substituted for most of the cake flour in the recipe. I also substituted a good amount of molasses for some sugar, and added buttermilk to keep the cake moist. Simple ganache in the center and then piped marshmallows on top!

The soft pretzels were also an exciting process because I finally bought lye to give a pretzel it’s signature crust. (This actually began in Germany in the early 19th century when a tray of ready to bake pretzels was accidentally dropped into a trough of lye used for sterilizing baking utensils. The baker baked the pretzels anyway, and the flavor of the pretzel was born!) This was a new recipe for me, so I added some brown sugar and extra butter to it, and was pretty happy with the outcome!

You may have noticed in the picture of James torching a marshmallow that he is wearing a Fat Cat Baked Goods tee-shirt!

This was a surprise to me, and needless to say, I was very excited!

This is all still very new to me, and very exciting, I hope everyone continues to get excited about what we do.

Speaking of exciting things, check out the Clarion River CSA share for this week:

(Rainbow chard, kale, beets, cucumbers, pole beans, squash, butter lettuce, micro greens, cauliflower, and heirloom tomatoes!) This is a ridiculous share this week, and we clearly have no time to eat anything but vegetables, awesome! Have I ranted yet about how much I love summer?

I am off to the Dinette gardens now to see if I can’t harvest some basil before this rain. I hope you all have a fantastic day!

July 1-3rd update.

Well, this is over due. My sincere apologies. I’ve been busy, not only with boring stuff though, we’ve been having a ton of fun with the beginning of July!

Here’s the CSA share we’re working with this week..

(Bibb lettuce, fava beans, red cabbage, zucchini, cucumber, basil, broccoli, and heirloom tomatoes.)
You may also notice a nice growler in that photo! It is the, “strawberry rye,” from the East End Brewery! It was quite delicious, and extremely drinkable despite this 100 degree weather. Light, yet still providing great flavor.

As for the fantastic produce we received we’ve made some pretty delicious food:

Bruschetta, sourdough toasts. 21st Street Coffee, cold brew.

Grilled shrimp. Bulgur wheat, fava beans, grilled zucchini, red onion, and corn. Thyme, basil, balsamic vinaigrette.

Corn stock.

Golden plums and blueberries from the East Liberty farmer’s market..the name of the farm is slipping my mind right now, so I’ll edit it in later. These were the most delicious blueberries I’ve tasted possibly in the history of all blueberries. Truly amazing.

I have no issue sweating through summer just for the bounty of fresh produce it brings. I can’t stop myself from going to markets and buying produce. We’ve been making it a point to grill as much as possible and fill the refrigerator with as much fruit we can possibly eat each week. It’s just so nice to be able to enjoy delicious food at the drop of a hat. Speaking of which, I bough the first peaches of the season on Monday! They were pretty good, but texture-wise a little better for baking than eating raw, which I did anyway. So, for the fourth James and I made a peach-blueberry cake.

We used one of my favorite recipes, so of course it is one of my grandmother’s. It is a jewish apple cake recipe. (jewish apple cake is actually thought to be of Pennsylvania Dutch descent, but contains no dairy.) Along with 1234 cake, and chocolate chip cookies it’s one my first memories of baked goods. I love this cake. It’s perfect, right out of the oven, the next morning, the next night..you get it. My Grammy is absolutely one of the greatest ladies in the world, and I owe so much to her, but for this post just know that she bakes the perfect apple cake.

In other news, there is another Tapped beer garden on Saturday!
It’s on butler street and 36th in Lawrenceville and starts at 3:30! We will be serving soft pretzels with honey mustard, chocolate-chip cookies (both ways,) and rhubarb, PBR sour gummies! Here’s the test run..

We’re excited about this, so come down, hang out with James, drink beer, and eat food!

I hope your fourth of july was a great as mine!

Edit:
No chocolate-chip cookies tomorrow, S’mores cake instead! Come watch James accidentally light the table cloth on fire while he torches your marshmallow!

Chocolate-chip cookies

Sometimes after a terrible day, you need a pick me up. Sometimes after an amazing day, you just want to keep the amazing going. Chocolate-chip cookies are the always delicious, quick and easy, best ever, fall back treat.

Maybe, they’re so great because as soon as you finish mixing it, you eat it and know immediately you’ve made the right choice. Maybe it’s because you can fold an array of ingredients into the batter to add extra decadence. Maybe they’re so great because every part of the process is engraved in my brain. It seems like this is the first thing I really remember baking with my mom, and she always let us lick one of the “beaters.”

Maybe they’re so great because I am still using the same recipe my grandmother used, or because the recipe can be baked both, chewy or crispy. (The chewy vs. crispy debate is a huge one, of course both have their place.)

I could go on and on about why chocolate-chip cookies are so great, why I think 73% chocolate is best for them, and why a barely cooked one hits the spot, but I’ll spare you this time. Chewy or crispy, warm or cooled, milk or dark chocolate, we can all agree that sometimes you just need a chocolate-chip cookie.

June 25, 2012

Major thanks to everyone who came out and supported us on Saturday, and to James and my fantastic mom for working the stand for me all day! I’d also like to thank, Mike, and the Bar Marco for being really great, and Alexis for the photographs! The first event went really well, it’s hard for me to put into words how extremely excited I am about this beginning. Now that I’ve done this once, we’ll be able to work the little quirks by the next event, and maybe even add a little more flair!

I am awaiting a date for the next Tapped event, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted!
Don’t forget that you can absolutely contact me for pricing and questions about purchasing baked goods at anytime! My email is b.hegarty90@gmail.com!

Also, here is our beautiful Clarion River CSA share for this week..

(Squash, cucumber, mixed lettuces, basil, fennel, napa cabbage, snap peas, and an heirloom tomato.)
Thank you, summer, for being the best and brightest time of year!
Also, a major thanks to every farmer ever, for doing what they do best!
I just love good food, and good people, thanks world!

P.S. It turns out there is a small typo on my business cards, my email is.. B.hegarty90@gmail.com! Thanks again everyone!

Tapped Beer garden event menu!

Good afternoon, everyone! I’m about to run out the door to get a gardening lesson from Sonja’s father. He is responsible for the garden that supplies Dinette with it produce during the spring and summer into fall months! I am extremely excited to be tending to the garden while he is away in Italy for the month of July!

Anyway, for the quick news, I’ve come to my final decisions about the menu for the beer garden! It goes as follows:
Sunflower seed brittle
Chocolate whoopie pies with basil buttercream
Strawberry-rhubarb jam and shortbread cookie sandwiches
Blueberry buckle

Get excited, because I sure am!

June 17, 2012 Vegan Adventures

Hello. First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who is helping me get the word out about me, the start of my business, and my blog. I appreciate that more than I can express, I also encourage you to keep up the good work!
My first big event is coming up this Saturday and I will continue to urge everyone to attend!

Not only will Fat Cat Baked Goods be there, but so will Bar Marco, Franktuary, PGH taco truck, Lucy’s bahn mi sandwiches, Full Pint brewery, and lots of fun. My mother and boyfriend will be selling the sweet treats while I’m at work, so stop in, hug my mom, have a beer, eat some of everything, and play some bocce! I have a general idea what treats I will be selling, but I will post that later this week when I’m sure about the berries I can get my hands on.

Here is our CSA share for this week that we picked up yesterday:

(Squash blossoms, fennel, whole wheat flour, red onions, purple kale, romaine, scapes, mixed greens, and of course, heirloom tomatoes.) What a delight the beginning of summer is!
Thanks so much to, Clarion River Organics!

I also embarked on my first vegan baking journey, cake and buttercream wise, anyway.

I used a chocolate-avocado recipe as a base, tweeking some things slightly..I subtracted 8 grams of cocoa powder and added 100 grams of 73% chocolate. I also blended the avocado into a completely smooth paste before creaming it with the butter. I then switched to a whisk to add the liquids, (water, oil, vinegar) with no clumping.

I then folded into my dry ingredients (cake flour, cocoa powder, baking powder) and then folded in the melted chocolate.

I think that the cakes baked nicely. I had issues with the vegan buttercream expelling the liquid in the basil puree, but that is nothing that cannot be fixed in the future. I of course forgot to get a picture of the cupcakes at their finished state, (don’t worry, I will get better at this..) but here is a picture that the cupcakes are in anyway, along with some vegan mac and cheese and bbq seitan made by a friend!

Overall, things are shaping up for this fat cat. Expect more reminders about the beer garden, after all, who doesn’t love food, sweets, and beer?

Testing, testing..

So, this is a blog.
It’s mostly a blog for my baked goods and confections, (which are for sale upon request for special occasions, or no ocassion at all!) but some savory posts can be expected..it’s June after-all, and our Clarion River Organics CSA just began.
My baking and cooking interest revolve around seasonal, local, and organic ingredients. I work hard to do everything I can to only work with such things. (excluding an occasional glucose syrup to create a delicious sweet treat.)
This is something I do in my free time. I work at a great restaurant called,”Dinette,” and I love it there. Come check it out!
I’ll make sure to figure out where to properly put my email address so anyone can contact me with any inquires or requests for sweet treats for special occasions.
Obviously this is going to take me a few solid days to figure out exactly how to use this wordpress program, (major thanks to Jay for setting me up with it!) So, until then, here’s what I’ve been up to in my free time for the past seven months. Just cooking for people I like, for anyone, really:

Sunny-side up eggs, five year aged cheddar, mushrooms and kale.

My grandmother’s apple cake, caramel buttercream.

Caramel mousse in progress.

Woodberry Kitchen’s “Take 5,” cake. (Buttermilk chocolate cake, caramel mousse, ganache glaze, pretzel finish)

Sugar cookies. (for the babes.)

Ginger snaps with lemon cream.

Castle bundt cake, see below for after baking. (This is where I would put a link to Swords of the Kegasus if I knew how to do that!)

Puppy-chow, Muddy Buddies, or whatever everyone wants to call it. This is a classic sweet treat on the fly. Just melt and shake!

Banana, oat, chocolate chip cookies.

CSA, number one. (Kale, aspasagus, rhubarb, strawberries, collad greens, romaine, scallion, corn flower.) Here, when I learn how to, I would link Clarion River Organics!

Fake chicken, kale and onions, balsamic glaze. (To be tossed with farro and tomato)

Rhubarb.

Vanilla, rhubarb whoopie pies.

Kale pesto, mushrooms, onions, fake meatballs.

Tomato sauce. (Tomatoes, lots of garlic, basil, onion, cayanne, mint)

CSA, number two. (collard greens, scallions, rainbow chard, kale, romaine, scapes, spelt berries.)

Grilled romaine, balsamic reduction, feta, scallion. Farro, grilled salmon and scapes, rainbow chard, fine herb vinaigrette.

1234 cake, rhubarb compote, lemon cream, vanilla buttercream, compressed rhubarb. (See below also.)