Some more old stuff

So I finally hooked my phone up to my computer to get my camera phone photos.  Don't ask me why I can't email them to myself, it never works.  But I finally got some stuff off my phone and here it goes:

Here is a hilarious photo from when Charlie was like a year old.  I accidentally sprayed him in the eyes with some leave-in-conditioner and his face swelled up really badly.  I just think this is a funny picture, you can't really tell how badly he swelled up, but it was bad!

Here is a REALLY old photo from Artisan bread class.  You have "three-day" baguettes (meaning the Poolish was fermented one day, and te whole dough was fermented another two days and then shaped, proofed and baked . . . it's pretty hardcore bread head stuff), pain D'epi (wheat stalk bread), Challah, a Hungarian bread wreath and my "art showpiece" which was a pig trying to fly/ jumping off a fence and falling into it's trough which has a loaf of wonder bread in it and in the corner is Charlotte the spider who has woven a message saying "pigs can't fly!"  The sentiment was that I'd eat wonder bread when pigs fly . . .   the entire piece, was made from pate morte (dead dough), sugar and dyed with coffee, beet powder, spices and so forth, so that technically the entire thing was edible.

  

And here are some recent photos . . .  it has been berry season here in Portland!  I can't beleive the incredible bounty the Willamette river valley has to offer.  I've never seen such berries or tasted berries this incredible!  Just a few weeks ago we started getting fresh Marionberries from our farmers.  They were sooo huge!  They were like 3 times the size of a normal blackberry!  And incredible flavor!  People at work were laughing at me because I was so enthusiastic about them, but that's part of my job, inform staff and get them excited about what's good, so they in turn can get our customers excited.  Most of my co-workers are from here or have forgotten how lucky they are to have such amazing fruit!  It's the little details that make the difference and the flavor is entirely different from what you'd buy in the grocery store.  And it was pretty exciting we just ceased having fresh bluberries.  I'm telling you, we've all had a blueberry muffin, but it's totally different when you have just picked that morning blueberries in a sour cream, brown-butter batter!  This is why I moved here . . . I don't just make muffins . . . I make the best blueberry muffin I can.  It was pretty exciting talking to the farmer too!  He told me all about this years blueberry crop and how and why it is the latest blueberry crop in 30 years and he educated me on the difference between all of the raspberries too!  Wow!  Here's a neat factoid, (we're starting to get fresh peaches) did you know that the seed from a peach sometimes sprouts a nectarine tree?  And a Nectarine seed sometimes sprouts a peach tree?  Weird huh?  I really need to take my camera to work more.  Here are some old photos of some Frangipane Tarts made with fresh raspberries.  Mmmm, flakey pie dough with almond paste filling, powdered sugar, golden and red raspberries . . . so delicious!  And in one photo, you can see our fresh rhubarb hand pies ( flaky puff pastry filled with rhubarb and garnished with lemon icing).

 

Anywhoo, that's all for now!  Are you hungry?