Last day at HQ

my work station at HQ

the studio at HQ design

Kate's desk

on my right hand side: the patio
sun light streams into my desk area

coffee station

the artwork around the studio

So, today was my last day at HQ. I'm sad that its time for me to go but the experience was definitely worthwhile. I wanted to make them something special before I left. So, I remembered this one time when Kelly mentioned that she met her client from the Lime and Moon pie company about wanting a website done for them. And they came in with a freshly baked apple pie. She mentioned that she was expecting a strawberry rhubarb pie instead because that was her favorite so I've always remembered that scenario so I took the time to look up a recipe and I baked them a strawberry rhubarb pie. Recipe courtesy of food network.

Here it is:

putting all the ingredients together

my pie crust

adding the ingredients into the crust

the pie shell on

TA DA! its done

Here is the recipe:

Grandmother's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie

Ingredients

Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus additional flour as needed, up to 1/4 cup
• 1/2 cup cake flour (recommended: Soft As Silk)
• 3 teaspoons sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup butter-flavored shortening (recommended: Crisco)
• 1/4 cup salted butter
• Pinch salt
• 1 egg
• 2 teaspoons vinegar
• 1/4 cup ice cold water

Filling:

• 2 1/2 cups chopped red rhubarb, fresh
• 2 1/2 cups de-stemmed, washed and cut strawberries (in larger pieces)
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (1 1/4 cups for high altitude)
• 2 tablespoons minute tapioca
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon zest
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons butter, cubed small
• 1 egg white beaten with 1 teaspoon water
• Large granule sugar

Crust Preparation:

Directions

Using 2 pastry blenders, blend the flours, sugar, shortening, butter and salt. Whisk the egg, vinegar and water in a 2-cup measure and pour over the dry ingredients incorporating all the liquid without overworking the dough. Toss the additional flour over the ball ofdough and chill if possible. Divide the dough into 2 disks. Roll out 1 piece of dough to make a bottom crust. Place into a pie dish. Put dish in refrigerator to chill.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Filling Preparation:

Mix the rhubarb, strawberries, sugar, tapioca, flour, zest and juice of lemon, dash of cinnamon, and vanilla. Mix well in a large bowl and pour out into chilled crust. Dot the top of the filling with the butter. Brush edges of pie crust with egg white wash. Roll out the other piece of dough and place over filling. Crimp to seal edges. Brush with egg white wash and garnish with large granule sugar. Collar with foil and bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes. Decrease temperature to 375 degrees F and bake for an additional 45 to 50 minutes, or until the filling starts bubbling. Higher altitude will take 450 degrees F and 400 degrees F respectively. Also, you can use a pie bird for extra decor. Let cool before serving.

Grandma's Strawberry Rhubarb Pie Recipe-Food Network

TIP: I read the reviews and many people used 3-4 tsps of cornstarch instead of tapoica.

By the way this was my first time baking a pie using rhubarb. And yesterday night around 8:30pm, I was struggling to find rhubarb at Superstore. See why...

Can you spot the difference? Which one is rhubarb?

So, I didn't buy any rhubarb that night. Apparently my mom told me we had frozen rhubarb at home. So, I used that instead. But, the thing with it being frozen there is still a lot of moisture in the rhubarb when defrosted. So, it would make my pie more watery. And since it wasn't fresh, it wasn't the best either. Even worse was, since it was a last minute idea. I wasn't able to make 2 pies. Only one! so I couldn't see if it was good or not. But, at the end of the day, Kelly mentioned to me that Claire, her daughter said the pie was delicious! and that was all I needed to hear. Nevertheless, I will have to make the pie again to see for myself.

Talking about baked goods. My future endeavor is to learn how to make my current favorite cake from Save on Foods, their strawberry shortcake (which I found the recipe for!) awesome! and one of my favorite pastries is the Walnut Napoleon from Anna's cakehouse.

Walnut Napoleon: layers of yummy goodness

I'm so thankful for Ian and Kelly for taking me in and mentoring me during this past month. I've enjoyed my time there and I've also met some great people, their family, Kate and Kelly Chen. There is a saying about giving back to the industry and one of them is through teaching/instructing. And, Ian and Kelly did just that for me. I've learned a lot and I really got a sense of what the 'outside' working world is like now. As, Keith taught us, we are given many projects at a certain time and we need to learn to manage our time and to juggle all our project deadlines. Now, I fully understand why he would assign so many projects during the semester. It was sad to go but, I'm so grateful that they took the time to take me in and teach me a few tricks of the trade. Thanks again! I understand why HQ design is so successful. I hope to see them again.

ANSWER: top is rhubarb, bottom is swiss chard