arizona

Heartbroken And Without A Home

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Tree with a sail boat carving nailed to it at the first house.

Originally this post was stuffed full of wonderful photos I had taken of the new home we were in the process of purchasing. It was situated on 1.4 acres of land in Phoenix and we were so excited. A new home for Christmas and the bebe’s first Christmas to boot!

We sold our house in Gilbert, packed up all our belongings and hauled them to storage, moved into my parents living room with our Tuft & Needle mattress and a few boxes of our belongings for a couple weeks until we closed. And then the appraisal happened.

If you don’t know, the appraisal is the part of the home buying process where a 3rd party you hire comes and evaluates if the property is worth what you are paying for it. They save this inspection until last, and our sweet little house with the red door and the 1.4 acres of land appraised $30,000 less than what we were paying. The sellers didn’t want to drop the price, and asked us for a week to take all the bills for the money they had spent to remodel the house back to the appraiser to see if that would bring up the price. We saw this sinking ship before us and decided to jump back into the house hunting pool.

Quickly, we came upon another house. Back in the area we wanted to be in, and plenty large enough for us to grow into. There was no 1.4 acre lot, but we fell in love with the house and the neighborhood. And there was plenty of room for me to have some backyard chickens and citrus trees. And then the inspection happened.

A bunch of little things came up, but two big things, the pool they supposedly had replastered (unfortunately, it had not been and would have cost $6,000 to redo) and the roof, of which we needed a whole new one! We went back and asked for the $10,000 to re-roof a brand new house priced at the top of the market for the area. This afternoon they told us no way. We walked away.

To say we are crushed is an understatement. We had fallen in love with both houses. And now we have no home and no prospective home. To the greedy grinch house flippers of the world, I say bah-hum-bug! Do things the right way and make the house safe, then add some nice touches to it. Do a good job and people will pay you top dollar for the houses you rehab.

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Citrus tree at the first house. I love how it just popped out of the cement near the pool.

I honestly don’t know what we are going to do now. Retreat. Lick our wounds. Figure out a game plan. Head back out into the fray. There just seems to be nothing we like anywhere in the area we would like to be in (and it’s a rather large area). It’s discouraging, but I do believe we will be in the right place for us. I just hope it’s sooner rather than later. Send us some good vibes and let me know in the comments below if you have a really insane house buying story. I could use some commiseration or a good laugh right about now.

And now for some food business…

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Peach crostada with an oat crumble. Eagerly awaiting peach season.

I’m looking forward to getting back into teaching some cooking classes, probably in the middle of the new year. I’m currently working on the curriculum for the classes. Every class I teach I learn something more I want to expand on or add or edit out.

I am searching for a great location to teach the classes, so let me know if you know of a great space or see anything while out and about.

I have also started to freelance again. The goal was always to get back into writing more, and now writing seems to fit into my schedule a little better than baking full-time.

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Lemon curd handpies. We teach handpies in our Pie Perfection class.

You may notice that everything on the Pistol Whipped Pastry website, with the exception of some apparel items, are listed as sold out. Since we just had a baby, and it’s her first Christmas, I am taking a break for the holidays. We will be updating the website with some old favorites, new products, and some new branding (woot woot!) come February.

Lets leave this kind of sad post on a happy note, and feel free to comment below with any of your holiday baking questions. I will be more than happy to take a little time in another post to try to answer and help you all out with your holiday baking projects.

Before we go, you should definitely go check out the interview I did recently with my friend Marlee for her blog, I Just Make Sandwiches, where I answer baking questions from her readers.

Lastly, send us some love and cross your fingers we find the right house soon, as I desperately need to have my own kitchen again. Bakers gotta bake. Am I right?

 

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Daydream Monday, anyone?

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Summers in Arizona for restaurants and bakeries or any hospitality business here is slow. Super slow. I assumed this would give me time to relax, daydream, and plan for the upcoming season. Yeah, not so much. I have been consistently busy planning and plotting with the odd job here and there, that I feel like I haven’t been able to spend much time playing with all my new ideas.

Mondays are my creative days. Well, I do office work too, but I give myself space to write recipes, test recipes, and flip through my cookbooks and mags that are piling up on my desk, and finally organize the bobs and bits around my messy office.

Daydream Mondays allow for endless cups of coffee, slices of leftover dark chocolate cake for lunch, and wine time arriving whenever the day demands and permits. Bowls of sweet plum slices for snack while catching up on emails or sorting through boxes of baking tools that will be used and abused this upcoming season. I don’t have to be anywhere or have to meet any deadlines. The day takes shape however I need it to, plus it’s alone time in my home office and kitchen to be by myself.

It’s simple and not the break I had hoped for, but the business is growing and starting to find its shape, and I am so grateful for this progress.

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Thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday to Williams-Sonoma Biltmore for the Artisan Market. We love being able to do these events and spread the word about what we are doing at Pistol Whipped Pastry.

Happy Monday, friends!

 

Rachel Ellrich Miller is a pastry chef and food writer in Phoenix, where she bakes, eats, hangs out with her amazing husband, Mr. PC, and drinks copious amounts of Arizona wine. You can get more information about her pastry at http://www.pistolwhippedpastry.com, or her Sugar Rush column on Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog.

A Willcox Weekend

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Mr. PC and I are in love with Willcox, Arizona. The land stretches forever in every direction, with farms and vineyards lining the roads. People are kind, waving to us, even though they have never seen us and may never see us again. The main drag of downtown is slowly being revitalized with wine tasting rooms, and hopefully restaurants will follow.

The purpose of our trip was a going away party for our friend Simona. She has an amazing career as a wine maker, venturing around the world to different wineries, helping through the entire wine making process. We met Simona a few months ago when we went to Willcox to help our friends at Sand-Reckoner plant some vines (see story here).

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We brought a dessert bar with dark chocolate cupcakes topped with vanilla buttercream, a s’mores station (Simona had her first s’more and while a little too sweet for her, she did enjoy it), bourbon coconut rice pudding, and mason jars of lemon posset.

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As everyone arrived at the Pillsbury Wine Company tasting room, a variety of dishes filled the table and full bottles of wine collected on the bar. There wasn’t a bad bit of food in the place. Citrus salad, grain salad, peaches baked with goat cheese, baked squash, marinated steak tacos, and Simona’s veggie lasagna.

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Everyone sat outside eating, drinking wine, talking and watching the rain storms roll overhead. A beautiful weekend with lovely people.

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If you have the chance, get down to Willcox wine country and taste the beautiful wines they are making.

Simona, we will miss you! Safe travels on your next journey! xo

Rachel Ellrich Miller is a pastry chef and food writer in Phoenix, where she bakes, eats, hangs out with her amazing husband, Mr. PC, and drinks copious amounts of Arizona wine. You can get more information about her pastry at http://www.pistolwhippedpastry.com, or her Sugar Rush column on Phoenix New Times Chow Bella blog.

 

It’s a Farm Life For Me

Moving to a small town again, wasn’t exactly in my plans. I guess when I pictured life in a small town in my future, I assumed it would be Cornville, AZ or Jerome, AZ where I would be surrounded by amazing wine, and easily be able to get down to Phoenix to see my friends and family, for dinners and drinks in my favorite restaurants. Enter, love of my life, Mr. Paul Child, and off I go packing up my cookbooks and knives, into my FJ, and accept a job as an executive chef for a farm bakery in Yuma, AZ.

I grew up on 60 acres of land and went to college at a school that was built by farmers and known for a long time, for it’s agriculture. Apparently, living in a city has become ingrained in me, because the moment I see a combine driving down the road, on my commute to work, I started laughing. The third day it happened, I started to get pissed, trying to get around it. Now, it’s a common day annoyance.

This is a massive change in my life and exciting development in my career, all rolled into one. It thrills me that my job includes being able to order seeds for the fields and watch the guys lay the irrigation lines for the pumpkin patch (see photo above), knowing that soon I will pull them from the fields and turn them into delicious edibles. It’s a dream gig for a chef to have a field of produce at their fingertips, and now it has happened to me!

Mr. Paul Child no longer has to listen to me proclaim my love for chickens and how convenient it would be for me to be able to retrieve eggs for cooking from a coop, if I had one. The shabby chic coop will house 50 hens and is made from all up-cycled materials from the farm and the vintage shop. It’s going to have a chandelier and a guest book for kids to leave the chickens messages.

Part of what we are trying to do at the farm is to feed people good food. In a world where store bought bread doesn’t mold for a month or longer, we are going to be offering breads to our customers. I’m in love with breads, and the simplicity of the ingredients, that must be manipulated by a skilled hand, to create a rustic, beautiful product. This is how they made breads for centuries before we got the cockamamie idea to commercialize the process. Our breads will be made by hand, specifically, my hands.

I am missing Phoenix and all my friends and family there. I’ve been trying to create really healthy habits for myself and just be kind to myself. While I’m working every day getting everything in line for the opening of the farm bakery, a couple weekends ago, I zipped over to San Diego for the Color Me Rad, color run. If you haven’t done one of these 5K’s, it’s amazing. A sea of people in white arrive, a sea of people colored by pink, purple, blue, green, and yellow cornstarch leave. It’s renewed my desire to get my butt into shape so that I can run a half marathon at some point.

I made my first solo pot of my mom’s (passed down to her from my grandma) sauce. Waking up to the smell of onions and garlic being sautéed, is home for me. Letting the scent permeate the house, so that leaving and coming back, it smells like my parents house…happiness. I think I needed the reminder, since I’m missing my family.

And now, a new recipe for you. I’m sure I’ve seen a recipe like it somewhere before. Have you ever craved a recipe you’ve never had? That’s how this was for me. I was hungry for it, and I had to create the recipe from the taste I dreamed of in my head. I just knew I wanted veggies, herbs de provence and some crunch.

Mr. Paul Child likes veggies, but doesn’t love them like I do. I could eat roasted veg for dinner every night, but I’m pretty sure he would view that as torture. I have to come up with different ways to get him to eat veg, hence this recipe. Yeah, there’s some parm and breadcrumbs (panko) on there, but it’s a light sprinkle, and in the end, he’s eating veggies.

The farm I work at has a U-Pick, and I can’t wait till we get the delicious fall veg coming off the fields that I can use with this recipe.

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Roasted Veggies with Panko

Rachel Ellrich Miller

Ingredients:

2 small zucchini
1 small-medium eggplant
3-4 small potatoes, purple or red
olive oil
1/2 cup panko (can be found in the asian section of most grocery stores)
1/4 cup fresh grated parmigiano-reggiano
1 - 1 1/2 tsp. herbs de provence (I use about 1 1/2 tsp. but herbs de provence is not for everyone, so start will a little less if you have never tasted it.)
kosher salt
freshly ground pepper

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees. Rub a baking dish with olive oil. I use a Le Creuset baking dish that's 10" X 6 3/4" x 1 1/2", and it works perfectly.

Mix together panko, parm, herbs de provence, salt and pepper. If you want more cheese, add more cheese. I usually do this by eye.

Thinly slice the veggies, making each slice close to the same thickness. I cut the eggplant in half length-wise and then slice them from each half.

Toss the veggies with olive oil. Start with one veggie type and line them standing up down the shorter side of the pan. Sprinkle with panko mixture. Line with the second veggie type. Sprinkle with panko mixture. I think you get the point. Once layered, I sprinkle any remaining panko mixture on the top and drizzle the little drizzle of olive oil that's left in the veggie bowls, over the top. Pop in the oven for 30 minutes to bake. After 30 minutes, my oven doesn't get it nice and browned, so I turn on the broiler for a few minutes to crisp up the cheese and panko topping.

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