Strawberry-Lemon Meringue Pie: Take 3

With this post, battle SLM (incidentally, my grandmother's initials) Pie comes to a close.  My final foray in strawberry-lemon deliciousness is a ridiculously simple twist.  A classic lemon meringue pie with a layer of strawberries at the bottom.  I figured that something that tastes great can also be that simple, right?

Pie #3

I liked it.  Dave and I liked all of the pies, which tends to make these kinds of decisions harder, because there's no obvious stinker.  However, I feel confident in saying that my favorite was pie #1:

Like I mentioned previously, I just love the look of it!  The layers and the taste go together perfectly, and it's a great summer pie.  Very light and fruity.  So if you'd like to buy a deliciously-tasty strawberry-lemon meringue pie, drop me a line and I'll get to work! 

Strawberry-Lemon Meringue Pie: Take 2

I hope that everyone is ready for pie #2!

This time, instead of working with layers to show the different flavors, I mixed together a filling with both strawberries and lemons.  It was certainly easier to prepare, not having to worry about layers setting/bleeding together.  It tasted just as good, I'm just not sure, but that's why we test these things.  Plus, it's as good an excuse as any to eat pie every night, am I right?

Pie #2, Strawberry and lemon mixed together

Strawberry-Lemon Meringue Pie: Take 1

I'm back baby!

No really, I'm back AND I had a baby.  Nathan was born in June and has been keeping Dave and I on our toes for the last 10 weeks.  It feels so weird not working for the last 3 months, but I've finally been getting back into our home kitchen and it feels great to be baking again.

I've started trying to build up my skills and come up with recipes for what will hopefully be my future business.  I'm actually going to start an out of home baking venture, so if you're reading this and you want to buy something that I've blogged about (or not, I love a challenge), then please drop me a line at piratesnpies@gmail.com.

So my latest experimentation has been to come up with a recipe for strawberry-lemon meringue pie, based on my craving for a strawberry-lemonade.  I made 3 different varieties and proceeded to "force" Dave to try them with me.  Luckily I made them mini-pie size...and now Dave loves lemon meringue pie!  Win-win.

Mini meringue pie deliciousness

Here is the first one that we tried.  It consists of two layers, strawberry on the bottom and lemon on the top with sliced strawberries fanned out over the crust.  I love not only the taste of this pie, but the aesthetics of it as well.  The white of the meringue leading down to the lemon yellow and finally pink strawberry.  Dave has questioned the need for the strawberries on the bottom, but I like it.  I think it adds to the strawberry flavor, which to be honest needs to be pumped up to compete with the lemon which can be overpowering.

Pie #1

Stay tuned for pictures and a breakdown of pie #2!

I shall never Flan again

Oh hey Brooke, you know the flan that you were working on all day yesterday? The ones that you stayed late to finish because I called you after I left to say that I needed 25 more? Well, they're all wrong.

Why? Well, you used the wrong size ramekins...yes the ones you were told to use were wrong. Also, you baked them in the wrong pans. What's that you say? When you first started making the flan here those were the pans you were told to use? Interesting.

So yes, even though you showed the first batch to your boss and he didn't say anything, they're all wrong. So, we made the other girl you work with remake them at 4am, which is why everyone hates you now.

Thanks - love ya!

Conversations and Exclamations

These are just a few of the ridiculous things that have been said to me at work recently:


Delivery Guy: Irish or Jewish?

Brooke: Excuse me?

Delivery Guy: Irish or Jewish?

Brooke:  Me?

Delivery Guy:  Yeah

Brooke: Both actually… (walks away while DG babbles on about how I look “just like” this teacher he once had)

A person blatantly asking about my ethnicity isn’t really anything new, but I’ve still never really gotten used to it.  I just can’t figure out what’s so interesting about the way that I look that they feel the need to ask me about it in such a boorish manner.  I will give him credit though, in that he is the first person to ever ask me if I was Irish AND Jewish in the same breath.  However, it’s also possible that he knows that the owners of the bakery are Jewish, and as I’m obviously not Hispanic like most of the other workers, they may have just assumed that I’m related to the owners.  Either way, its still pretty amusing.

Office Worker: (yelling) Are you pregnant???

Brooke: Very actually

Office Worker: Really?

Brooke: Yeah, I’m 7 months now

Office Worker: I had no idea!

This is mostly funny because the person in question really didn’t know that I’m pregnant.  I had assumed that my bosses had told her already, but apparently not.  I was mostly just taken aback at her question because it was delivered as such an outburst.  I don’t know about you, but I was always under the impression that you should NEVER ask a woman if she’s pregnant unless you literally see a baby coming out of her.  And then it’s kind of a moot point; So really, never ask a woman if she’s pregnant.  As Dave said later that day, "She's lucky you're actually pregnant!"


Driver: (to another worker) Oh, you've got to let her go first...ladies first.  Plus she's white!  White women always go first, ha ha!
Brooke: (stunned silence)


This happened one day when I was trying to push a cart full of stuff out toward the outdoor freezer.  In order to get there, you have to go out of this garage-style door in the back of the bakery.  Usually there's no one there, but apparently there was a party going on and there was a logjam to get through the door.  One of the drivers was there and started babbling on and on about how they all had to stand aside to let me through because, not only am I a woman, but because I'm white.  He seemed to be joking (he certainly was laughing a lot), and just making fun but I'll tell ya, it sure did make me nervous!

Baking With Baby

Everything has been coming along pretty well at work.  For a long time now I've felt like all I do is eat, sleep and go to work.  I assume that this is a fairly common experience for both pastry chefs and pregnant women, and since I finally told my bosses I am excited to tell you as well (if you didn't already know) that I am now both.  Yes it's true, Dave and I are very happily expecting our first child, who is due on June 9th.  Although if my friend Lisa has any say in it, the baby will be born a day early so that they can share a birthday.  Joint birthdays are special, just like narwhals and unicorns. 

I was very nervous to tell my bosses about my pregnancy, but apparently I didn't really need to worry about it at all as they've been very understanding so far.  When I told Mr. Calm he just said, "Oh, so you'll need what, like 2 days off to have the baby?"  "Yeah, something like that."  Hilarity.  Also, as you may know I've been feeling like I don't really fit in with the rest of my co-workers.  One especially (of course, the only one who speaks a modicum of English) appeared to spend the entire month of December swinging wildly between liking me and hating me to the point that she would only communicate with me through our boss.  However, now that they all know I'm preggers, I'm practically the most popular person there.  I guess it's true, everyone loves somebody who is pregnant.

In other, more culturally interesting work news - have you ever heard of Rosca de reyes?  I went into work on January 6th and as I was doing my morning tasks my co-worker Callie offered me some hot chocolate.  I thought that was fairly nice but I didn't want any at the time so I declined, although later I wished I hadn't.  About half an hour later she came around and offered me a piece of a ring cake covered in fruit and asked me if I knew what Rosca de reyes was.  I definitely did not, and she explained to me that it's a Hispanic holiday (Dave also later explained to me more about the Epiphany and the 12th day of Christmas, etc) and that everyone gets a piece of the cake, which apparently you're supposed to dip in hot chocolate or coffee.  Also, if you find the "baby Jesus" in your piece of cake (choking hazard does NOT equal Brooke safety!), then apparently you're obligated to invite everyone present to a dinner where you serve tamales.  It also means that you've been blessed, but they seem to focus on the tamales.  So guess who wound up finding the baby Jesus?  That's right, their super-pale, Jewish co-worker!  They were all highly amused, and while Callie assured me that I don't actually have to bring anything in on February 2nd (the designated tamale day), I'm totally up for it.  I can't promise it'll be tamales, but I love cultural traditions and want to fully embrace the hilarity of me finding the little figurine in my cake (and thankfully not choking on it).  Another co-worker joked that now I have 2 babies, the baby Jesus and Dave's and my baby; I'm sure they'll make a great team.  I imagine them either becoming a crime fighting duo or running a Jewish detective agency.  What?  It could totally happen.