These are my Mom’s hands.  They’re two parts lady lumber jack, one part awesome raiser of children, and three parts amazing gardener.  That’s six parts total.  Arbitrary… I know.

I love Mom hands… they tend to have super knowledge.

I taught my mamabear how to make Apricot Crostatas.  Pie dough.  Egg wash.  Wait.  Not so much egg wash.  Fruit.  Fold.  That’s basically how to lesson went.

What.  Back up.  What the heck is a Crostata?  I’m glad you asked.  Crostatas are like free form fruit pies… pies without the limitations of a pie tin.  I like to make a mini version of a crostata because… I’m greedy and I don’t like to share.  Also… eating six mini crostatas is easier on the guilt brain that eating and entire  regular sized crostata.  Been there.  Done it.  Whateves.

Come on… let’s bake fruit things.

Let’s start with pie dough.  Please don’t freak out.  It’s just butter and flour and water… you can totally do this.

With your fingers break up the cold (frozen, even) fat chunks into the flour and sugar mixture.  Don’t be shy… really get in there.  You’ll get to about this point in the dough making process…

That wasn’t so bad, now was it?  Now we need to add the cold cold cold water.

Theme?  Everything has to be cold here.  Ok.. not the flour, salt and sugar… but everything else.  The cold will keep the fat from completely incorporating into the dough.  You want little buttery fat pockets.  That’s what makes pie crust so freakin’ flaky.

Add cold water to the butter and flour mixture.  Work it together with a fork until all of the ingredients have been moistened.

Moistened is a weird word.

Dump the dough, in a shaggy mess, onto the counter.  Work it together with your hands.  Once it forms a rough ball, smash it slightly with the heal of your hand… just cause it feels good… and because you’re the boss of the dough.  So there.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to rest for at least an hour.

This is important… it allows the gluten to relax, the fat to re-chill and the moisture to mellow into the dough.

These are pretty.  These apricots are sexy.  Slice them up and they’re ready for crostatas.  Feel free to use fresh raspberries or blueberries.  Blackberries are rad.  Avoid strawberries and bananas…  no good.. moisture issues.

Pits.  It’s only natural.

Once the dough is properly chilled, divide it into eight or sixteen pieces.  Depending on whether or not you doubled the recipe.

Roll the dough pieces out into circles.  Not perfect circles.  Kinda-sorta circles is good enough.

We’re going to use egg wash two times in this whole situation.  Before we add the fruit, and just before the crostatas go in the oven.  Egg wash is a beaten egg with a splash of milk.  Sweet.

Brush the dough circle lightly with egg wash.

Ok… that’s a little heavy handed with the wash… but it’s ok.

Pile on the sliced apricots.  I think we used about 4 to 6 apricot wedges per crostata.

Carefully fold the dough up and around the fruit.  The egg wash will help the dough stick to itself.

Pile the crostatas onto a baking sheet and chill for an hour before baking.  Do note… this isn’t how we bake the crostatas.  We’ll put them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper  and spread them out more.  It’ll work out better that way.

This deliciously light, sweet and refreshing Cantaloupe Sherbet has everything and nothing to do with what I’m about to say.

I do a lot of thinking in the shower. Why do you need to know that? Well, you probably don’t. Nevertheless, allow me to over share. I got this new minty shampoo and it works wonders in the thought department. I think the fresh minty smells might be penetrating my brain.

Last minty shower I got to thinking about my dream job. After I mulled over my dream job I got to thinking about you. Yes, you. I think about you. It’s true. What’s your dream job? Are you lucky enough to have it? Does it pay you the millions of dollars that you deserve? Are you paid in smiles from your little squirt? Do you wake up in the morning before the alarm goes off because you’re thrilled to get to work? If not, what’s the difference between what you do now and what you really want to do? What will it take to make your dreams your reality?

I know. Lots and lots of questions. I told you the minty shampoo was good!

In some ways, I think I have my dream job. I get to cook and write about food virtually every day of the week. If someone would have told me two years ago, while I was grinding away in college, that I would soon get to write about and photograph food, I would have said to them “Awesome Opossum!”

So I feel like I’m mostly living the good life. Of course there’s the day to day of life that sometimes seems daunting or downright annoying, but all things considered it’s a dreamy.

This can’t be it though. I’m not done dreaming it yet! I think one of my dream jobs would be working for Epicurious or Bon Appetit or Gourmet Magazine in some way. Dreamy right!? I’d also like some sort of television or Internet show. I know. I owe you another podcast. Long story. I’m working on that. Maybe more minty showers will lead me in the right direction.

You?

Remember I said that this post has everything and nothing to do with my ramblings?

Well this lovely Cantaloupe Sherbet is a recipe from Epicurious.com- my dream job destination. The recipe didn’t have a picture attached, so you can say you saw it here first.

The flavor of the cantaloupe sherbert is just outta sight. It’s light and sweet but the cantaloupe flavor really comes through. It’s not over laden with sugar. The consistency might be an issue. I keep my freezer very cold and this sherbert isn’t exactly a scoopable treat. Once in the freezer overnight, the only way I got it into the cup was as a shaved ice/granita kind of thing. Let’s just say I did more scraping than scooping . Maybe I churned wrong? I dunno. Hard to say.

Important! Check out the second installment of Baking Basics at Foodproof.  It’s more than you ever wanted to know about muffins.  Good stuff.