Persimmon Cobbler

Today is a baby bowl celebration! If you guys haven't heard already, the lovely Cynthia from Two Red Bowls has brought bowl #3 into this world. Her new little family is just too beautiful for words so we wanted to send lots of love their way by sharing some tasty bowl-themed recipes with you all. Huge thanks to Steph and Alana for organizing this virtual baby celebration. You can head over to their blogs to see a full list of all the recipes.

One of the things I love most about Cynthia's awe-inspiring blog is she's not afraid to use more obscure ingredients or make recipes that might be unfamiliar to most of us. I first learned about mentaiko through her fabulous recipe, and she taught me there's something called korean army base stew that's this crazy and delicious concoction of spam, ramen, cheese, kimchi and other ingredients you wouldn't think should go together. For today's recipe I wanted to honor Cynthia's blog by sharing a cobbler with persimmons, a fruit you wouldn't normally think to use as the filling for a baked good.

I kept flip flopping over making this recipe because part of me was afraid it would turn out terribly as I had never baked with persimmons before, but the other part of me said to be bold like Cynthia. Turns out, persimmons hold up surprisingly well and have a texture similar to peaches when baked. Any doubts I had were swiftly squashed after the first bite of subtly sweet filling paired with warm and pillowy biscuits. And now that we're quickly approaching a cold season void of fresh berries or stone fruits, persimmons make for the perfect depths-of-winter cobbler. Enjoy guys, and congratulations Cynthia, B2, and B3!

Pear Cake with Salted Caramel

The days fly by. You couldn't ask for a more perfect New York fall. I watch the sun set at work most days, we have a panoramic view of the city from our office. It reminds me every day how beautiful life is, and if I had one desire, it would be the ability to slow it all down. It comes with the territory I suppose, time moves too fast in moments of content, and it trudges along slowly in moments you'd rather skip right through.

The markets have been bursting with apples, pears, and grapes lately. Picturesque fall. Last weekend, at every stall that carried them, there were huge swarms of honey bees all over the gorgeous and fragrant cartons of concord grapes. They were so damn happy. And for every bee present there was a person squealing about them, either in excitement or fear. It was truly a sight to behold. I decided to take another route from the bees, purchasing what may have been a few too many bartlett pears to make pear cake. It was a tasty decision.

Apple Pie with a Cheddar Cheese Crust

My dear readers, I have some good news and some bad news. The good news? I got a job. The bad news? I got a job.

As some of you may know, I moved from Chicago to New York back in April and left my job there in order to do so. My educational background is in marketing research (I actually have a master's degree that I got when I was 22 years old, if I may toot my own horn for a second...okay, I'm done now) and I worked at small marketing analytics consulting firm during my time in the windy city. It was nice at first, but toward the end I was miserable, which made it that much easier for me to leave and start something new here in Brooklyn. I had been casually looking for another job in the same field, but after I started this blog, most of my time was spent here. In the six months that have passed this blog has turned into my world, a (mostly) productive way for me to channel my energies. I say "mostly" because sometimes I get down on myself for not being good enough, or for taking shit photos, or for whatever else I can nitpick about. The human ability to create stress out of an otherwise completely stress free environment never ceases to amaze me. All tangents aside, I've learned more than I thought I would in this short time, I've met some wonderful people, and I've developed a deep appreciation for what it means to be a food blogger, a recipe developer, a home chef, a photographer.

Unfortunately, what this new job means for me is that I won't have as much time for good old O&O. Believe you me, this is by no means a goodbye. I could be in a hospital bed and I'd still be updating this blog. What it does mean is that I'll be around less often. Currently I try to post once or twice a week, this might slow down to once every two weeks. Especially as the sun will be setting quite early in the coming days, I'll only have time to photograph my creations on the weekends. To give you an idea, let me walk you through how I made and shot this apple pie. I started working on it at 11:30 am: setting up all the ingredients, weighing flour, cutting in butter, grating cheese, slicing apples, accidentally huffing cinnamon, clumsily weaving a lattice crust, taking photos every step of the way, washing my hands a thousand times over (so I don't get flour stuck inside my camera). I worked until I could no longer take photos as the sun was too far gone, around 5:30 pm. And I didn't even get to cut out a slice! I ran out of time.

I won't be able to do that anymore on a wonderfully sunny Tuesday (that's on top of other days that are full of recipe testing and re-shoots, which I'll spare you the agony of reading about...). I'll have to reserve it for Saturdays or Sundays when I'd much rather sleep in and eat breakfast at 2 in the afternoon, then have my early evening bourbon at 4 and watch tv for the rest of the day. Now, instead of lazy weekends, I'll be cooking, taking notes, and taking photos. All because I've carved out a home for myself here, a little blog home in the vast wild west of the internet.