Sarah Stringfield is our resident snack queen, the guru of all things nutty and popcorny. She’s also a jeerleader (the industry equivalent for cheerleader) for a local roller derby team, a Japanese speaker and teacher, and makes a truly killer biscuit. Say “hello!”

Sarah Stringfield
Associate Shift Supervisor/Baker

Ovenly Nickname
Snack Queen

Amount of time at Ovenly
One year and a little more.

Pre-Ovenly Background
B.A. in Sociology/Anthropology from Guilford College, three years teaching English in Japan, and two years at the U.N. before baking professionally.

Favorite thing to make at Ovenly
Spicy bacon caramel corn. It makes me look & smell tough.

Favorite thing to eat at Ovenly
Granola bars.

What are your go-to kitchen jams?
Anything upbeat unless I have the kitchen to myself, in which case it’s lots of metal.

How did you learn to bake?
Self-taught.

Besides being a stellar baker, what is another skill you are really proud of?
日本語を話すぜ！(I speak Japanese!)

Best Ovenly memory?
Baking on the day the kitchen moved from Red Hook to Greenpoint; movers were taking things out of the kitchen as I was turning hot pans in the oven.

Any kitchen disasters?
I once made a huge batch of blueberry muffins and completely forgot to add sugar. Not my finest moment.

Dearest fans, thank you so much for all of your votes. We are absolutely honored that you chose us as the best new bakery in New York City for the 2013 Time Out Food & Drink Awards. It’s good feeling to know that you love our cookies so much. We’ll keep making them just for you!

This is our fourth post in our series “Pleased To Meet You.” This time, we’re introducing you to Laura Russell, our Texan friend. Ever resourceful, Laura has been known to turn a batch of slightly over-baked muffins into the most amazing bread pudding you’ve ever tasted.  Read on for another instance in which she turned lemons into lemonade.

Laura Russell
Shift Supervisor/Baker

Ovenly Nickname
[Ed. note: Laura did not list a nickname, but in some circles she is known as the Scone Queen]

Amount of time at Ovenly
Eleven months.

Pre-Ovenly Background:
Associate Degree in Baking and Pastry Arts, The Culinary Institute of America.  Experience in French pastries, recipe development, catering, and barista-ing.

Favorite thing to make at Ovenly:
Scones or espresso shortbread (aka the Stumptown Shorty).

Favorite thing to eat at Ovenly:
Peanut butter cookie dough and cake crumbs with buttercream

What are your go-to kitchen jams?
Cee-lo Green.

How did you learn to bake?
I started baking with my mom at an early age, then later went to culinary school.

Besides being a stellar baker, what is another skill you are really proud of?
Color coordination.

Best Ovenly memory?
Baking in a fancy dress at the opening party.

Any kitchen disasters?
I made a huge batch of coffee cake batter with twice the amount of eggs…which later turned into relatively decent pancake batter.

This is our third post in our series “Pleased To Meet You.” We are pleased to introduce you to Hannah Duke, our intrepid kitchen manager. As you will find out, she’s a woman with a panoply of interests, including watching episodes of Full House (yes, that TV show), and loudly singing along to 90s R&B. Her knack to retain lyrics is unmatched, and we’ve yet to meet another grown woman whose singing voice sounds so similar to that of ten-year-old Michael Jackson (sorry upstairs neighbors!). What’s not to love?

Hannah Duke
Kitchen Manager 

Ovenly Nickname
Pee Trails (I’m not proud of it, but when your bosses give you a nickname, you better adhere to it, right?) [Note from Erin: Despite popular opinion, Agatha coined this nickname, not me.]

Amount of time at Ovenly
Thirteen months.

Background Pre-Ovenly
I have a BA in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Washington in Seattle, but I never did much with that. Instead I worked as a full-time nanny (basically a single mother from 9-5) for almost 10 years before moving to NYC and going to culinary school at the French Culinary Institute.

Favorite thing to make at Ovenly
I think my favorite thing to make is coffeecake. I mostly really like traying them. PB&J is my fave!

Favorite thing to eat at Ovenly
Oh dear God. It’s so hard to choose! I guess I’ll have to go with chocolate truffle cookies… and of course BUTTERCREAM (I have a problem).

What are your go-to kitchen jams?
90′s R&B and classic Disney (but I only listen to that at 4am when no one else is around).

How did you learn to bake?
My grandmother, mother, and aunt taught me to bake at a very young age. I think the first thing I really learned was pie crust. I sat on the kitchen counter and watched over and over while my grandmother made pies for Thanksgiving. It seemed pretty natural when I finally got my hands in the flour.

Besides being a stellar baker, what is another skill you are really proud of?
I know pretty much every 90′s R&B song there is (is that a skill?) and I think I throw a pretty good dinner party (another thing I learned from the amazing women in my family)!

Best Ovenly memory?
There was a week recently when we played lots of games during the day, like 20 questions (Tonya is a natural!) and two truths and a lie (we learned SO much about each other). I always like those days of laughing and working.  Oh, and that one time Erin and I broke our wrists .

Any kitchen disasters?
One time a GIANT tub of red velvet cake batter tipped over in the walk-in fridge. It was a ridiculous chore to clean it up. But on the bright side, now I know who I’d go to if I ever had to clean up a crime scene (I’m lookin’ at you, Marianne).

You keep asking, and finally, FINALLY, we’re going to say yes.

That’s right. We’re going to give away all of our secrets. In fall 2014, that is.

It’s already been announced (see below), but we’ve signed a book deal with Harlequin. We can’t wait to get started and share our recipes with you.

This is the second in our series of interviews with the Ovenly staff. Tonya Brown, the subject of our next post, comes to us with a background in art history and fashion and with a penchant for  gastronomic tinkering. Her recent obsessions are focused  jam making and bread baking — thanks to her we’ve had many a breakfast (and snacks, and second breakfasts) of sourdough boules slathered with fresh raspberry jam.  Say hello to Tonya.

Tonya Brown
Baker 

Amount of time at Ovenly: Five months.

Favorite thing to make Ovenly: Anything I get to roll with the rolling pin and peanut butter cookies (so I can eat the dough).

Favorite thing to eat at Ovenly: I cannot live without the peanut butter cookies.

What are your go-to kitchen jams?  Beastie Boys.

How did you learn to bake? My mom and grandma and then culinary school.

Besides being a stellar baker, what is another skill you are really proud of? I’m a jam maker, self-taught bread baker, and long distance runner.

Best Ovenly memory? Playing “20 Questions” and “Two Truths and a Lie” in the kitchen, and running from Soho to Ovenly for my night shift.

Any kitchen disasters? My first week I made the super super large batch of chocolate chip cookies and it was wrong. Had to throw it all out, womp womp!

Pre-Ovenly Background: BA Art History, University of Georgia; Diploma in Baking & Pastry from the Institute of Culinary Education. Years in the fashion industry and in the front of house at restaurants and bars.

This is the inaugural post in our series “Pleased To Meet You.” Over the course of the next few months, we will be introducing you to the lovely Ovenly staff — from our dishwashers to our bakers to our delivery drivers — through a series of interviews.  We hope you enjoy meeting us as much as we enjoy working together.

Our first Q&A is with Dale Goldberg, whose tenure at Ovenly is the longest of any other staff (except Erin and Agatha, of course). She’s been with us through it all: the craziness of Red Hook (threats from the mob, missing bathroom doors, fishy smells from neighbors, but more on all that in later posts), the chaos of our move to Greenpoint, baking mishaps, and cookie triumphs. It’s time you get to know her, don’t you think?

Dale Goldberg
Shift Supervisor/Baker 

Nickname at Ovenly
“Big Mama Dale,” but I’ve put in a request for it to be changed to just “Mama Dale.” Thanks.

Pre-Ovenly background
After finishing a masters in English, I went straight to professional baking.

Amount of time at Ovenly
15 months

Favorite thing to make at Ovenly
Scones! They’re a four-hour workout, so then I don’t have to go to the gym. (Not that I go to the gym, but if I DID then I wouldn’t have to.)

Favorite thing to eat at Ovenly
The chocolate chip cookies, hands down. And the chocolate chip cookie dough, which, in a way, is better because eating it is tinged with guilt. Also our amazing dark chocolate pudding, which no one knows about because we only use it in our blackout cake frosting, but we should totally sell it on its own!

What are your go-to kitchen jams?
The Justin Bieber Pandora station. J/k! (Or am I?)

How did you learn to bake?
Good question! I suppose cookbooks taught me. It also helps to have a husband who is always challenging me to make things like cheesesteak pie (turned out amazing) and cherpumple (epic failure). [Ed. note: cherpumple is a frosted, three-layer cake with an entire pie baked into each layer. Kind of like a turducken, but sweeter.]

Besides being a stellar baker, what is another skill you are really proud of?
I’m really good at grammar.

Best Ovenly memory?
All the times I’ve giggled to the point of tears over something silly like topping cupcakes with popcorn kernels.

Any kitchen disasters?
Never! Everything I’ve ever done at Ovenly has turned out perfect, every single time!*

*Message from the owners: This is a lie.

We have a secret. We’ve been trying hard not to tell you, but we’re really bad at hiding it. We’re going to just come out and say it. Ok… deep breath… we have a crush on you! Like, really big crush. On ALL of you. So, this year we’re doing things third-grade style – we’re giving every single one of you a valentine (and because we want to and not just because the teacher is making us). Stop by on Wednesday to get yours.

If our crush is unrequited, then we also have the perfect valentine for you to give to your object of affection… in the form of cupcakes. Our Boxes of Velvet are the perfect way to say “I love you.” or “I like you.” or “I would like to kiss you.” Each box comes with three of our indulgent black velvet cupcakes — dense black velvet cake smothered in milk chocolate buttercream — and three of our red velvet cupcakes — rich and moist cake paired with champagne buttercream and sprinkled with heart-shaped sugar candies.

Order these by February 12th to make your special someone feel extra special. Whether you love us or someone else, we hope to see you on Valentine’s Day.

After the holiday rush, the kitchen here at Ovenly has been recuperating a bit.  We’ve been taking stock of 2012, and feeling lucky that none of us perished in the apocalypse (not the Mayan, just the crushing flurry of holiday orders). Now that the holiday madness has passed, we’ve been hibernating a bit. All we want to do is wrap ourselves in layers of down, and blast the heat until our lips are dry. We’ve even found ourselves wishing for the serial Nor’easters of 2010 just to have an excuse to cozy up until springtime begins again. (Though, it’d also be nice to be able to build a snowman or two.)

While we hunker down for the rest of the winter, we have to eat. And we don’t want those salad ingredients that we resolved to make as the staple of our diet in 2013. Heck, we’ve already had to compost most of them anyway. What we really crave is hot chocolate, and fresh butter melted into a warm scone. We want the comfort of a cookie. We want to stuff our faces. So, to hell with those New Year’s resolutions we say! Come eat a brownie instead. Trust us, it feels damn good.

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