My daily bread...

What a beautiful weekend for Open Farm Days!☀️

I hope you had a chance to get out and explore a little of what was happening across Alberta this weekend. From farm-to-table dinners and field tours to flower farms, markets, tastings and all kinds of behind-the-scenes farm experiences, there was so much happening and Mother Nature certainly showed up for us with the most incredible August weather.

Here at Rise, we had been building up to this weekend for the past month with our little Sip & Snip promotion, and yesterday we finally got to gather our group and head out to the beautiful Uchtenhagen Flower Farm.

And oh my goodness… what an afternoon.

Flowers, sunshine, bubbles, beautiful food, lots of laughs and a pretty wonderful group of people wandering through the flower fields together. It was everything I had hoped it would be and such a lovely way for us to celebrate Open Farm Days and this incredible agricultural community that we are so lucky to be surrounded by.

And now, here I am on this sunny Sunday afternoon at my desk... it’s time to look ahead to a brand-new week at Rise.💛

So, what’s happening at Rise this week?

MONDAY MORNING: Doors open at 7am and we’re right back at it.

The coffee is brewing, the BLTs are available all day, every day, the sourdough is ready for toast, and those Rise & Shine Breakfast Muffins have one very important rule around here: they need to be baked and sitting on that counter when we unlock the doors at 7. Some mornings, let me tell you… it can be a little nip and tuck. 😂

And then, as the morning rolls along, that pastry counter just keeps filling up.

And lately...there have been a LOT of pies.🥧

I had so much fun last week brushing up on my pie-making skills, and I have absolutely no intention of stopping. Funny enough, if I go all the way back to the very beginning of my baking days as a kid, baking in a wood stove oven, believe it or not it was pies. They really were the foundation of my love for baking. Little did I know that all these years later, I would own my own bakehouse and still be standing in front of an oven, playing with pastry and making pies.

So, I think we’re just going to keep this little pie train rolling at Rise. And what a time of year to do it. The farmers' markets are absolutely bursting with fruit right now, and I don't know if it's just me, but everything seems especially delicious this year. The cherries were incredible, the peaches are gorgeous, and this week I came home with beautiful B.C. plums.

We still have Saskatoon berries and rhubarb tucked away in the freezer, and of course there will always be a lemon meringue pie making an appearance and some days the mini lemon meringue tarts

And then there was last week's banana cream pie. First attempt, delicious…but a little soupy. 😂
Second attempt, I tightened things up and nailed it.

So keep an eye on that pastry counter. I'm researching, experimenting and having way too much fun with this, and I'm going to keep getting pies onto that counter every day we possibly can.

NEXT UP WE START FILLING THE GRAB & GO COOLER…

We'll have our grilled chicken wraps back again this week, along with our Olds College smoked beef wraps. We only have a couple of those beautiful smoked beef roasts left, so this will most likely be their last week in the cooler for a little while.

Then come the Quinoa Salad Bowls. The farmers' market is overflowing with vegetables right now, so we're taking full advantage. Our quinoa bowl this week will be packed with all those beautiful market vegetables, including some incredibly sweet fresh corn. It is so tender and sweet that we're leaving it raw, cutting it straight from the cob and tossing it right into the bowl.

And we're bringing back that apricot vinaigrette. Fresh lemon, a little puréed apricot to give it some body, grainy mustard, fresh mint and all those bright, fresh flavors that work so beautifully with summer vegetables.

One little change we've made around here: rice paper salad rolls are now a Tuesday thing.

Mondays are FULL. There is an enormous amount of prep happening in the kitchen, and we've decided we don't need to race quite so hard to get absolutely everything into that cooler at once.

So Monday, we fill it up with wraps and salad bowls, take a tiny breath…and Tuesday morning, the rice paper salad rolls join the party.

And just like that, another week at Rise is underway. 💛

Sourdough line-up...
​Monday - no sourdough loaves
​Tuesday - Red Fife Country Loaf and Superseed Multigrain Loaf
​Wednesday - Classic Brown and 100% Whole Grain Organic Loaf
​Thursday - Light Rye Loaves and Sourdough Milk Buns
​Friday - Red Fife Country Loaves

🍕☀️TGIF PIZZA FRIDAY☀️🍕

With nothing but sunshine in the forecast this week, Friday's pizza needs to taste a little bit like summer too.

So we're going Greek and making a Grilled Chicken Souvlaki Pizza! Starting with our creamy garlic base and piling on lemon-and-oregano marinated grilled chicken, roasted red peppers, artichoke hearts, Kalamata olives, a little red onion with plenty of mozzarella.

Then, once it comes bubbling out of the oven, we'll finish it with cool house-made tzatziki, a handful of greens, crumbled feta, fresh dill, lemon zest, cracked black pepper and a good drizzle of olive oil.
​Bright, lemony, herby, creamy, salty…all those beautiful Greek flavors piled onto our overnight fermented sourdough pizza crust.

Friday. 11am. Be there.

​
​CHEESECAKE FRIDAY 🍋

I didn't really have a plan for Cheesecake Friday this week…and then it hit me.

Lemon Meringue Cheesecake.

Last week's Apple Pie Cheesecake was SO freaking delicious. Apple pie met New York cheesecake, we layered those beautiful Saskatoon berries on top, and honestly, it was phenomenal.

So this week, we're taking another classic dessert and giving it the Rise cheesecake treatment.

We'll start with our graham crust and a rich New York-style cheesecake loaded with fresh lemon zest, then swirl ribbons of our house-made lemon curd right through before it goes into the oven.

Once it's baked and chilled, we'll add another gorgeous layer of lemon curd across the top, and crown the whole thing with piles of fluffy meringue and give it a good toasting.

Creamy cheesecake. Tart lemon curd. Toasted meringue! 🍋

SOAKING UP THESE LAST WEEKS OF SUMMER ☀️

Before we know it, backpacks will be coming back out, school routines will be starting up again, and we're heading straight toward the September long weekend. So I think these next couple of weeks are our little reminder to soak up summer while we still can.

And with nothing but sunshine in the forecast, I have a feeling it's going to be a very good week for patio sitting at Rise.☀️

Grab a coffee, find yourself a spot outside, stay for breakfast or lunch, catch up with a friend or just sit for a few extra minutes and enjoy that beautiful August sunshine.

The patio is always waiting, the coffee will be brewing, the pastry counter will be full, and we'll be here doing what we do.

Have a wonderful week, everyone. Enjoy these beautiful summer days while we've got them, and I'll see you down at Rise.
If I don't see you there I'll be back here next Sunday with another round of what’s coming out of the Rise Kitchen.💛

#5, 4324 - 54 Ave., Red Deer Alberta
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