A Pinch Of Labor on the Day

Most of my weekends are packed with at least one planned activity and a mixture of some loose plans. I noticed last week when looking back at previous blogs that this year made the fully flexible weekend a trend. And like last year, I had my eyes set on quite a few different recipes to carry me through the weekend. As I sit here late at night rounding out quite a day of baking, it feels good to have a weekend to reset with a little time at home.

A sunset run was motivated by a Pizzata order set for pickup on my way back. One could say Friday pizza into a movie night at home is up there for the best way to start a weekend at home, fuel for Saturday some deep cleaning at the very least.

Before the Saturday afternoon cleaning came the obligatory trip to the farmers market. I’m not sure if it’s because the mornings are starting to tip into the 50s — crazy to say when it was still August — or the produce turning at the markets, but fall is just about here! It’s been at least a month since I got to the weekend market, and all bets were off this go around. Of course there was a list, but I knew going in that there was very little chance of me even bothering to check things off.

So what did we end up with? Grapes, apples, peaches, a large bunch of scallions, shishito peppers, some sweet treats from Market Day Canelé (a coconut eclaire and some canele), some mild Italian sausage and scrapple from Heavy Metal Sausage Co., and an awesome bouquet of flowers to add a little more life to the apartment. I may have had to use my Chemex as a flower vase since I don’t have any, but it fits the vibe.

Sunday’s long run motivation was thanks to a few shared pints of Guinness with some friends at O’Neals Pub in Queen Village. Great spot and a great pour.

That Sunday afternoon bake was when the oven got its first use of the weekend. I saw Red Currant Bakery’s Pain Suisse Babka earlier in the week, and it immediately shot up to a must-make for the weekend. It was a new favorite when I first sliced into it, but when I toasted it up this morning with some butter in a pan, the slice put the best chocolate chip pancakes to shame. I was ready to open a diner on spot. Who knows, perhaps this could be a special at the next cafe morning.

Another one I had my eyes set on all week: some fresh sourdough. Like I mentioned last week, that inspo came to life. Some prep all throughout Sunday with a Monday morning bake.

That was just the start of the oven working overtime on Labor Day. Today I not only took on the task of decorating a large cake, but also making a cake for some who are gluten-free and dairy-free. As if one of those things wasn’t time-consuming or labor-intensive enough, I figured why not take on both challenges all in one day as my first time for both. Lots of notes for later around planning — one of these days I’ll learn that stores are in fact open days before I need to do everything AND that I can plan the recipes before (just to name a few somewhat big ones).

After completing both of these cakes, I gotta say I give a lot of credit to those who do both well. There’s a reason this is a craft, and being accommodating to everyone is no small task. I’d say for the first go around, we did well. The audience will be the real test.

Oh and yes, I did make sure to eat dinner tonight. The pizza didn’t last long enough to keep it simple, and I had to stick to what I had planned: four-hour citrus braised beef from Molly Baz. Yes, the oven really did in fact put in a shift. Safe to say the flavor of these made it all worth the wait, plus some meal prep for the week.

Lots of smells all around the apartment this weekend. And thankfully we did get outside to enjoy the high-70s all day long. Lucy did a few mayoral rounds at the dog park and throughout Rittenhouse Square, making sure everyone knows her name. So is summer officially over mentally? Mother Nature sure makes it confusing. I’m not complaining though. We’ve got football back this week.

Let’s do it again, Go Birds 🤘