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*A Christmas Breakfast Break...*

11/22/2016

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Happy Thanksgiving week everyone!
​
As promised we're writing to you about our annual Christmas Breakfast Delivery. It's hard to believe that what started in 2011 with less than 5 deliveries grew to nearly 40 in 2015. It's become one of our favorite mornings getting to reconnect with many of our very first customers, several now friends, too, and getting to meet new ones. We're honored that so many of you have welcomed us into your Christmas Morning traditions.

So, it is not casually that we share with you that we will be taking this year off from our annual Christmas Breakfast delivery. We do plan to resume this tradition next year, but after 5 years of spending Christmas Eve and Christmas morning working we will be taking 2016 to spend this time as a family. We love delivering to all of you on Christmas, which is the main reason we kept it up even after becoming involved with, and then owning Serendipity.

We have spoken in advance with several of you over the past 2 months and are very appreciative at how supportive most of you have been regarding this decision. We do realize that others will be unhappy, and that this may impact your holiday. To those that are, please accept our apologies, and understand that this was not a decision we made lightly, and we are sorry for any disappointment that we have caused.

This Thanksgiving, as always, we are grateful that because of all of you, we get to spend each day together and doing something we love. Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours.

​-laura & johnny
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*the luck of the partially irish*

3/17/2012

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* johnny read that folks like it when we tell you about our trials, tribulations & successes in the kitchen... 
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in honor of the St. Patrick's Day holiday today,  i figured it was a good day to finally try and bake up some irish soda bread...which i've been wanting to do since seeing that "bobby's ireland" special on the food network a few years ago...
what struck me was that there was something blissful about a 4 ingredient bread that came out so dense but light and full of flavor despite being so simple. 
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as i investigated recipes this morning i found that the traditional "irish soda bread" by name is literally just flour, baking soda, salt & soured milk (our buttermilk) and the twists & additions like currents, raisins, caraway, sugar, eggs etc. that are in most popular or "americanized" recipes should not even be considered "soda bread"... (if this debate interests you in detail, i found this website to contain an abundance of information  on the soda bread issue: www.sodabread.info).
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...that all being said, i decided i was indeed still going to put a hobson's homemade spin on my inaugural soda bread attempt ...i'm irish, but only 15%... so i figured i wouldn't offend my ancestors too much if i went for it...luckily the 15 % provided me with enough "luck of the irish" because our thrown together soda bread attempt came out to be nothing less than scrumptious perfection.
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 we cooked it up in our cast iron skillet  - just like my irish grammy did with hers this morning, and sliced it up hot out of the oven with some melted butter & a sprinkle of sugar. we'll definitely perfect it a bit and will be baking up some to share with all of you next St. Patrick's Day if not before.

- laura
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*march forth*

3/4/2012

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"thinking, dreaming & living outside the box..."
today is march fourth, or as i prefer to think of it "march forth" my personal "new year" and day of action... this may sound a bit kooky or weird (endearing?) but it's something i've been "observing" for many years....i take the day off work and it's the one day i have for myself... to embark on a "better me" or something equally as cliche and "self-helpish".  in the past i've started (but not kept up with, clearly) blogs,  exercise regimens, home organization campaigns and all sorts of other "new years resolution" style activities from finally recording my CD or scanning this huge plastic tote of photos that has become a  bit of a nemesis to johnny...

... however 2010 is the year everything turned around. on march 4th of 2010 is that day that "Hobson's Homemade" (by name & concept) was born, and today in 2012, we will bring Hobson's Homemade to our first, and the 10th annual, Taste of Maynard!so not only is today my personal "new year" and over all "day of action" but it's been and will hopefully continue to be a day of continued success for Hobson's Homemade...and I'd be remiss to mention that without thanking all of you because our success has truly been a community effort. we could bake all day, create a website, have aprons printed with our name (you can see them tonite!) and even call ourselves your "hometown bakers"  as much as we want... but our ability to turn all that from a dream to an actual reality is ultimately determined by you (our community, friends, neighbors colleagues & family) and your support. so, thank you sincerely, from the bottom of our hearts...and we invite you to celebrate "march forth" with us, whether it's by joining us at the Taste of Maynard tonite (info at: www.maynardeducation.org), commenting below, or simply having your own personal day of action along with us.
 
-laura


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check out our first official piece of Hobson's Homemade apparel - our snazzy new aprons :)
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*my "julie & julia" moment*

11/13/2011

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"inspirations..."

is it just me or is anyone else fascinated with the "julie & julia" concept?

 i mean of course it's been done before so we have that against us...but last night as we poured through the cookbook pages in our local independent bookstore (an activity that amazon will never be able to replace) the idea of methodically cooking through each recipe in an attempt to rediscover oneself (or escape from ones day job) seemed to offer up an almost magical clarity. 
so i got to wondering ...what if we gave it a try?

 now i don't know that we'd cook through the pages of julia child's "mastering the art of french cooking" or if even that that fits our (budget) way of life but it's the concept of cooking so intentionally and meaningfully documenting it that is appealing...to me it seems meditative, adventurous, romantic and exciting...but also offers us a venue to foster community in cooking...maybe we could be culinary "heros"  jamie oliver style? i'm not implying that i think we could change the world, but i think it's absolutely heroic the way he shows people new possibilities in life simply by sharing a recipe and basic cooking skills...

or maybe our "julie and julia moment" is not so much one of documenting a journey through someone else's recipes but perhaps the task of sharing and rediscovering our own with you ... because to be honest sharing a homemade meal with others is one of the things in life that brings me very true joy. 

so what do you think? should we pick a cook book and document our way through it or would you be more interested in us sharing the stories of our own recipes with you?

-laura

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*cake dreams & nightmares*

10/13/2011

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"johnny read that folks like it when we tell you about our trials, tribulations & successes in the kitchen..." 

this week we are fulfilling a birthday cake order for a local family where food allergies, notably an allergy to eggs, are a concern. 
this posed a few challenges, but being an individual with food allergies myself, i was determined to make this happen. so, i searched for the best egg-less cake recipe, doctored it up to be hobson's homemade-tastic and forced our good friend maria to come have a few bites just to make sure it was a tasty as johnny and i thought it was. (it is by they way).


the cake is going to be decorated like a soccer field w/ rounded half soccer ball on top... 

having lived 10 years in baltimore, md and thus been an avid  viewer of "ace of cakes" there is no doubt in my mind that this sort of thing is not only incredibly possible but can be done with ease. johnny on the other hand, being the primary cake baker thus far (because he's just much better at it), and familiar with my general hatred of measuring and lack of patience with baking (ironic, right?) was slightly more apprehensive.

i often have this dream where i am swimming, perfect strokes, steady speed, graceful across this entire picturesque lake and it's brilliant...the past week or so i've been having a similarly magnificent dream about making this particular cake order...
(i should mention here that i am a horrible swimmer). 

so this morning, to quell johnny's nerves, and also ensure that we deliver a product of the highest quality, i set out to make a practice cake...to my surprise they baked up in about 25 minutes, carved brilliantly, almost molded really... like playdo'h... into a perfect soccer ball shape...and then i tasted a piece:  i had forgotten the sugar and in effect, created not a cake, but a lovely 5 pounds of warm, chocolate playD'OH!)

but, undeterred, i pushed forward and moved onto practice cake #2, remembering the sugar and once the (successful) cakes were happily out of the oven and cooling i moved onto the bigger challenge - the frosting. 

see, because we're a home based bakery, we are permitted to operate as a "MA residential kitchen" and along with this comes   a list of certain (PHF) ingredients that we cannot use, particularly  fresh dairy ( butter, cream cheese, cream and eggs)  which very quickly eliminates our existing repertoire of homemade frosting recipes...

prior to the farmer's market season we had already overcome this challenge with the icing for the mini sugar & spice cookies...i previously had used a royal icing, which uses pasteurized egg whites and was immediately out of the picture, so i ended up whipping up an egg-less frosting using cream of tartar that although it was not as glossy as royal icing,  i had managed to whip up perfectly on the first try in about 3 minutes one night (i'm normally just 'good like that')  so for this cake i was confident that i would have equal success with an organic shortening based icing (and i am fairly confident that i did).


so cakes cooled, frosting whipped, i stacked my 3 layers out, and wielded my brand new bread knife, just like in the aforementioned dream, expecting to easily carve my 3 layer cake into a rounded half ball...

now that i was no longer working with practice cake #1 (the warm, chocolate playD'OH!) and a real cake, things didn't go quite so smoothly...the bread knife, despite seeing it used on "ace of cakes" (perhaps a "do not try this at home" message should have scrolled across the bottom of the screen during those episodes) did not carve my cake into a soccer ball shape with ease...i ended up using a small cutco knife that i normally use to slice tomates aaaaaand despite making an enormous mess i did manage to carve the cake into a soccer ball shape...needless to say, the ease was only in my dreams!

now here's a question for you...is it true? do you enjoy reading about our trials, tribulations and successes in the kitchen? 

personally, i'm skeptical, i like to think that the businesses i support are professional and perfect, despite this most certainly being an illusion, but we will let you be the judge...

-laura

p.s. the actual cake for the order, which is the important part, and which also brought me an incredible amount of joy to create, came together beautifully and without so much as any problem...guess practice does make perfect! here's a few photos, for enjoyment, or proof: 
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*a warm welcome*

9/5/2011

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we'd  like to welcome you warmly to our blog!

to begin, here are a few thoughts that we'll expand upon in the days to follow:

* in this day and age we are all increasingly curious about exactly where our food comes from ...

* johnny read that folks like it when we tell you about our trials, tribulations & successes in the kitchen...

* thinking, dreaming & living outside the box...

* roots in maynard...

* what are  you curious about...

*the daily grind, the nitty gritty and the home bakery ...

*food allergies...

* a day in the life...

*inspirations...

*our music...

*thanks...

*friends of hobson's homemade...

*guest authors...

*community...

-laura 
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    Authors:


    Laura & Johnny Hobson

     (your friendly & passionate hometown bakers)

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