| Hint of Vanilla

First off, I'm sorry for falling off the face of the earth for the past month and a bit. I started interning at a hotel in the morning before school and on the weekends, so I work 13 hours days sometimes and usually only have one day off. And to be honest, I'm not that keen on baking for 6 hours on my day off when I do it for 13 hours on my work days. But, finally, here is something I did make on my day off.

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Spiced Crab Apple Mini Pies

Fruit | Pie

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This is it, the first "official" fall recipe of the year. I feel like as soon as September hits, bloggers go crazy for fall. It's like suddenly, on September 1st, no matter where you are, it is now fall and you better be putting pumpkin into something. I'm a bit late to that party, I guess.

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Roasted Peach Ice Cream

Fruit | Ice Cream

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As much as I love fall, I'm really going to miss the abundance and variety of fresh local fruit that we have in the summer. I love going down to the farmers market on Saturday, picking up whatever fresh fruit that was in season, and finding something to make with it. Fall has apples, pears, and, of course, pumpkins, which are all nice fruits, but they're not the same as fresh raspberries, strawberries, peaches, or blueberries. They just don't have that bright, summery taste. I guess that's what makes them so wonderful when they finally arrive at the markets - we've missed them for so long.

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Basic Bread Dough

Bread

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Bread is incredibly simple yet deceptively complicated at the same time. Four ingredients - flour, water, yeast, salt - that can be manipulated to produce an endless variety of products. Every step in making bread is important and attention to detail is key. A slip-up in any of the many steps can create a less than impressive bread.

Because of this, people are intimidated by making bread at home. It's complicated, I don't have a bread stone, I don't have a steam injection oven, I don't have a linen cloth, I don't have a mixer. To make an outstanding loaf of bread, yes, those tools really do help. But you can still make a great loaf of bread without all the extra equipment and it is much simpler than most people make it out to be. The only tool you really, truly need is a digital thermometer. You don't need a mixer (I did these completely by hand), but a thermometer is essential. Once you successfully make a loaf of bread at home, you'll be hooked on it.

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Blueberry Lavender Pie

Fruit | Pie

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I hate to say it, but summer is winding down. Just kidding, I'm actually pretty excited that summer is coming to an end, at least here in Vancouver. I've had enough of sweating. It's as simple as that. Summer is nice and wonderful, but sweaty. I managed to enjoy some of it after my trip to Italy, but then it was right into school. Not much time to enjoy summer when you're in a hot, humid, crowded kitchen for 7 hours a day.

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