Magical Season...Magical Mushrooms!

For me, one of the most enjoyable parts of the season here at the bakery was decorating Yule logs with the merengue mushrooms Sharon made...they turn an ordinary cake into a fairy wonderland!
We hope your Holiday Season is filled with unexpected magical moments...
and that the New Year brings a new sense of Peace, Prosperity and Joy to us ALL!

Happy Solstice...Baby!

The view of the sunset from the baking table about an hour before Calvin was born!

Kate DID it! After going into labor earlier this morning, Kate gave birth about 5 pm this evening!
Congratulations to you: Kate, Jeff, Henry and little baby Calvin...What a beautiful family!

Cookies, Cookies...Everywhere!

We are awash in Holiday Spirit as the cookie making reaches fever pitch and the orders for catering trays are coming in a steady stream! Randy, Ryan, Duffy, Brianna, Sharon and I are all putting it out as fast as we can! We haven't been without our glitches. This weekend's problems included a mix-up in bread orders, with one of our customers having to retrieve the bread his wife was getting for their annual holiday gathering from some other friends who accidently picked it up...it is a long story, one that ended well (I think!) However, the gingerbread (is it a cake, or is it a cookie....or both?) I sent along with the mixed up bread order was all wrong and I feel terrible my friend Mindy ended up with a dessert she couldn't use! All the while I was frantically running between the Bakery and the Theater where my kids were in the throes of the final Nutcracker performances of the season. It is my task to make sure the hundred or so people backstage are fed and it always comes at a time when the bakery is also feeding way more people than usual through our catering and such...makes for crazy times!


and if you think I'm crazy, Sharon has found time to decorate sugar cubes like little christmas presents!

Share the Bread...Share the Spirit!

Tuesday, December 9th is the Share the Spirit Spagetti Feed at the Homer Elks Lodge. This is one of my favorite annual fundraisers. Share the Spirit acts as an emergency food, shelter and service provider to the whole Southern Kenai Peninsula.
The work they do is on the front lines of the Last Frontier...the land of Big Dreams! Dreams that can easily be dashed with one bad ride on the economic rollercoaster. Being stuck with nothing at the end of the road can be especially challenging with many of us starting off in small cabins with no indoor plumbing, survivng on limited incomes as seasonal job opportunities drift south with the cranes come September. Sometimes it doesn't take much to put a person over the edge...car breaks down, can't get to work, get laid off because your late (because of your unreliable car)...oh yeah, it's a cycle we can all wrap our heads around and hopefully we can remember as we give to those with less this year: "There, but for the grace of God, go I."
To help out or donate call Shari Daugherty at (907)235-7466

My Favorite Fruitcake

I have many favorite fruitcakes...two of them are my business partners, Sharon and Kate...another one is my husband, so you can see I REALLY like fruitcakes! I even happen to like the kind you eat, which drove me once about 10 years ago or so, to make some fruitcakes both for myself and to see if there were any of my customers that were also closet fruitcake fans. Well, I sold out that year, I'm not even sure I got one! Now, I have had people asking for them for a couple of weeks already. So, yesterday I made my first batch and as is par for the course, had to endure all the bad jokes and crazy family fruitcake stories my 20 something aged employees like to pelt me with...oh and if you want the recipe, I have to admit that I totally ripped off Martha Stewart (who actually ripped it off from her neighbor, Mrs. Maus) so I won't reprint it on the recipe blog (because, honestly I didn't need to alter it one little bit) but I will find you a link...check back later, first I gotta take the little fruitcakes in my life to school!
UPDATE: I guess my enthusiasm in getting recipes online this summer did lead me to put this one up on the recipe blog, so I've given credit where I could, AND I'll start brushing up on my copyright law...cause here it is!
Fruitcake Tasting UPDATE!: We pulled one out and cut it up to sample today and...oh. my. god. (I sold two to the first two tasters!)
By the way...I'd be happy to ship one to you...call (907)235-2280, ask for Carri.

Fudging it...

Just ask my daughter, she'll tell you. Fudge is my weakness...my favorite sweet treat but also the one I cannot make. "It's your achilles heel, mom." Maya told me the other day. It stung a little more because, unknown to her, I had just asked Ryan the new chef/baker to help me make a batch and it came out a crystallized mess. When he asked me where I got that particular formula we used, I was a little embarassed to say it was from an episode of 'Good Eats' I had seen the night before. Ryan rolled his eyes, "f-ing Alton Brown... You want FUDGE recipes, I'LL give you fudge recipes!" I chastised him saying that I wanted REAL fudge, not the kind made with marshmallow cream or sweetened condensed milk. So the next day he comes in and whips up an awsome batch of his granny's Walnut Penuche...Damn, so good! Okay, Game on...yesterday, I was stuck home, power was out but my propane cooktop worked...what to do? Conquer the fudge! I did it too! The answer...Lyles Golden Syrup

Art is Everywhere!

We have all new paintings by Barb Wyatt adorning our walls just in time to spruce us up for the holidays!

Ryan made a little art of his own...this nut brittle is inspired!

it's not easy being green...

It happens many times a day, I look up toward the bread case and someone is fumbling with a bread bag trying to get it open. "Lick your finger and rub the end without the writing...yeah, that's it!" (I'm like a cheerleader!)... Sometimes, especially if it's an older person who's hands don't work so well, I walk over and do it for them...sheepishly explaining along the way, that while they may be a pain, they are made of corn and will compost in 90 days, the person usually nods with mock enthusiasm and we move on with the transaction. If I know them really well I give them my acronym for these new bread bags...P.C.P.A. (Politically Correct Pain in the Ass)

The people have spoken....time for pie!

Can we finally move on with our lives now that we have this presidential thingy out of the way? I hear that President Obama's favorite dessert is pie...I'm not sure what kind, but anyone who loves pie is good in my book! We are heading into pie season already making some apple and pumpkin (or 'yellow vegetable', as Ryan would have it!). I think I'll make a pie with mixed nuts and dedicate it to the outgoing administration...!

VOTE!

All three kids want to go to the polls with me tomorrow to watch me vote for what we HOPE will be the first African American President in history. They are so invested in this process I'm really excited for them to see what the actual voting part is like...I get goosebumps when I think about it! My daughters Maya and Jane made cookies to pass out to voters...who said voting couldn't be yummy!

Wanna see something REALLY scary?

Pumpkin Cookies...oh my!

You can tell when things are slowing down around here... people, me included, who can't see straight because they are so busy in summer, actually get a chance to catch-up...the errant weather makes for quiet afternoons here at the bakery. The 'winter regulars' keep us entertained, and on our toes! It was one such stormy afternoon a week or so ago that I was working the counter (another sure sign of winter) when one of our w.r.'s called me over to lodge a complaint. It seems the pumpkin cookie he had gotten the day before (and had looked forward to with much anticipation, apparently!) had chocolate chips in it! Now, it's true, we have been making pumpkin cookies for a while now...only in fall, a seasonal specialty, if you will, and no, we have never to my recollection put chocolate chips in them. Frankly, I was as stunned as he was, but I assumed it was some logistical error...in no way malicious, so I assured our customer that I would get to the bottom of it and that he could be certain the next one he got would be choco chip-free. I must be clear in that he wasn't allergic to chocolate, he just didn't want it in his pumpkin cookie...ok, so, as this is happening at the bakery, Sharon, is somewhere across town shopping or something when another 'w.r.' approaches and wants to tell her that they had just had a pumpkin cookie at the bakery and it had chocolate chips in it...it was the best cookie she ever had! We laughed when we shared that story only to cry when the phone rang and it was someone who had just read our recipe in the newspaper (oh yeah, you know what for...pumpkin cookies!) and it said to cream the sugar with the butter, but the sugar was left out of the ingredients list! The paper only comes out once a week...these calls will be coming for who knows how long! Damn you pumpkin cookies...you'll be my undoing!
You can get the correct Pumkin Cookie recipe Here!

A blast from the past...

As with most people I know here in Homer, my friendship with Tom Bodett began through food, that is, him ordering and me serving...in that way, it started out as an entirely professional relationship. It was right around the time that his second book was published that I first came to Homer and it was during my first winter here that he began his radio show, I felt priviledged to help out with catering backstage.
Through his generous nature I was introduced to many people who became good friends at a time when I was very new to town. Tom's time living here in Homer was spent, in part, dodging the growing number of tourists he was attracting to town and much of the rest doing his best to promote the local arts scene on a meaningful level. In 1991, he helped me by sponsoring a 'Winter Writers Series' at the little bistro I was running, which attracted such varied national talent as Tess Gallagher and Bill McKibben as well as local luminaries Tom Kizzia and Nancy Lord (who was just named Alaska's writer laureat). It was also through Tom that I was welcomed into a group of local writers who helped mentor me into living a writers life, (whether or not that's where my paycheck was coming from). Unfortunately for us, Tom and his family have been gone from Homer for a while now...too many tour buses stopping in front of his house, I'm cetain. So it was funny to me when one day, about a month ago, while sweeping the bakery floor after closing time, I picked up what looked like a business card from the dining room floor...it was this ticket, to the first taping of 'The End of the Road ' radio show in 1988...nearly 20 years ago to the day! I sent off an e-mail to Tom telling him about my find, citing it kinda strange. He responded with his familiar blend of humor and pragmatism, "I think it's more likely someone just needs a new jacket!"...that radio show didn't last too long but I'm glad that, at least in some small way, our friendship has. Take care, Tom...we'll see you on the radio!

October in Homer

It's 30 degrees out and the snow that fell yesterday is still on the ground (it was the 5th snow we've had since the 1st when this whole winter madness started!) the skiers are hopeful and everyone else is running sround trying to get their outside chores done! Thank goodness the bakery is always warm, always bright...

The Last Farmers Market of the Summer...

Randall had a stellar day to wind up this years market...it was the second sunny saturday all summer...(sorry, Irene!). We stopped by for a photo-op and were treated to fresh oysters and homemade soup! Thanks again to everyone who works so hard to make this a success, not least of all the farmers! And our lovely market manager Shay Hoffman...it's no easy task wrangling all those vendors. Some of the farmers will still show up on Wed. and Saturdays to sell the last of their crops, so do stop by to stock up on potatoes and onions and other fall veggies!

We also had a scarecrow building contest on the back porch on saturday afternoon. The sunny day and warm apple cider really revved things up and we ended up with some great entries!

Abby and Natalia got to take a break from barista-ing and built 'Roger' our only entry practising yoga















The Winner is...Scarah Palin! (where's Tina Fey when you need her!)

Fall is a trip!

At my house, fall means Nasturtiums! Planted from seed, they take forever to get going, but it's such a treat to have them come on strong while everything else is fading into the sunset. Fall at the bakery brings new faces as seasonal staff turns over, we are welcoming Adam, a born Alaskan, just back from a moose hunt with his family. He's our new coffee guy...(look out Johnny!). Everyone is loving Ryan's soups and we're tapping his inner chef for some awesome lunch specials. He made reuben savories yesterday, they sold out so fast and were so great, I can see that becoming a regular lunch thing! It's great to have some fresh energy after the wildness of summer has died down.This next week, I'm heading off to Bend, Oregon to make a wedding cake for Rylie and Delia and hopefully enjoy some slightly warmer weather. When I return it will be time to start revving up for the Holiday season...can you say COOKIES! Kate is bowing out to Maternity leave in mid-October...we are so excited for her! (did I tell you they found out it's another boy?) Melissa, right hand girl of my dreams is also going on winter hiatus...for a year she has kept us all together, can we do it without her? Tune in next week to find out!

Oven info... part 1

Sharon and Kate discovered Alan Scott of Ovencrafters at a bread bakers conference..we bought the plans,we dreamed about the oven and it's possilbilties, we wanted it so bad that we almost built it before the new building (we'll put it on a trailer!). In the end, it had to wait until a year after the new space was up and running, but we did it! Actually Alan and his dedicated assistant,Julie Lomenda, did it...we offered a workshop and people came from all over and close by ,too, to help and learn from the master himself! It took alot longer and, as you can guess, way more money...$10,000 in 2004...than we thought. it has been an amazing learning experience and has brought us all together in ways we didn't expect. My husband has dedicated himself to the wood gathering, at least as far as the Birch is concerned...we burn a combination of Birch kindling, which grows in patches on the lower peninsula and has a short lifespan, so needs harvesting with regularity, and Alder, it grows in abundance along the roads and is constantly being cleared by the highway department, cut into 3- 4 foot poles which we put on top of the vigorously burning birch to create a hot and long-winded fire. We are currently firing in the afternoon and heat soaking until early morning. It is a retained heat oven, so the fire is burned down to ashes and then they are removed and the brick surface cleaned for bread first, then pastries and on it goes until it's time re-fire. We can put about 40 loaves of bread in it at a time or six sheet pans of veggies for roasting. Cakes and cookies come out amazingly well, as do roasted meats...of course! It took us so much longer to figure it out than we thought, too, which is such an overall metaphor for Bakery life in general! We love it, though, and as we head into fall with so much rain and cold weather, it sure is nice to have a warm hearth in our kitchen!

Raspberry JAM!

I'm not as much of a forager/preserver as I perhaps should be, especially living in a place with so much to offer the hunter-gatherer types. We have a freezer full of rockfish and that's about it...except for raspberry jam. It's a huge staple around here, both on toast in the morning and pb&j's for sack lunches. We need about 24 pints to make it through winter...and if you know anything about alaskan winters you'll completely understand why this is so important! This year was almost a bust in that department...normally we would have been picking mid-august, but it wasn't until a week ago that they finally started to pop. Of course the rain and stormy weather kept me from getting out on Wed. my day off...so, I was relieved to get a little break in the weather to get out today, and boy was it fun! My good friend Jane (owner of the best yard in Homer!) has the most amazing raspberry patch I have ever seen...and in the dozen years I've known her, the berries are always plentiful and her generosity at letting so many of us come to pick is the stuff of legend. The stalks are 6 feet high and the berries the size of my thumb (and then some!) all surrounding a lovely patch of grass looking over the bay with a cottonwood tree so big it has a buoy swing (the alaskan equivelent of a tire swing) hanging from it's branches. The kids run around and play while the grown-ups chat and pick furiously. I got so worked up talking about Sarah Palin I had three buckets full before I knew it! At least she's good for something,eh?
Enough politics...let's make jam!


First we put our clean jars in a big pan half filled with water, put the lid on and set it to boiling. The lids go into a smaller pan also half filled with water and also set to boiling. Then we measured 4 cups of berries and 6 1/2 cups of sugar into our stainless pot and brought it to a rolling boil, stirring most of the time. (daughter Jane was mostly a big help at this) add 1 packet of liquid pectin and boil and stir for exactly one minute. turn off heat. using tongs, pull jars from hot water bath and fill to within 1/4 inch from the rim. Wipe the rim of each jar CAREFULLY and again with the tongs pull the lids out of smaller pot placing them on the hot jars and securing with the screw on metal rings. I like to leave them on a towel at this point until they cool completely when we will check the seals and store away in a cool dark spot.
We got our two cases done just in time to catch our good friend Tom Kizzia appear on CNN to help shed a little light on all this Sarah MADNESS!
Jam is done...back to politics!

Soup Weather

The rain is endless...
Today alone we went through 5 different soups:
Curry Vegetable (pictured above)
Hungarian Mushroom
Borscht
Red Rockfish Chowder
Cream of Mushroom
Almost all of them were made by our most awsome new baker/chef dude Ryan...fresh off a summer on the spit at the Spitfire Grill. We are very Lucky! We also have added Duffy and Natalia to the winter mix.(peaches flaked out to tour asia) Randall and Abby are sticking around also, Thank Goodness! Everyone else has gone or is almost gone...it's a little overwhelming how many people we've said good-bye to! Chelsie was the first to leave for school in Juneau (she had to miss Hesketh...), Irene left right after to meet up with her man in Portland, then Erin back to Portland as well! (a very popular place for Homerites), Brianna is going to travel Europe (she arrives in Amsterdam tonight!), Ben moved to Red Hook, New York to learn from his father how to make guitars (Ben is the talented musician behind Berta) and Haven to California , Emily is off to Stanford, Jenny is going to University of Washington,( Dan is going there, too, I think)! Oh, and Johnny, good ole coffee dude that he is, is hoping to ply his trade in Revelstoke, B. C....Y'all are leaving me with a big hole my tattered little heart, but I wish all of you the very best life has to offer...we'll be here when you get back!

Bye 'rene!

Irene, we couldn't have done it without you! It was a crazy summer...rainy farmers markets, wacky customers, demanding work schedules...Irene weathered it all with signature style and grace. She's one in a million!(I think her new fiance Jake thinks so too!)

Hesketh Island ...a last BLAST!

John Prine drinks Evian...

John Prine came to town this week! Our little corner of the world gets some pretty amazing people coming through and Mr. Prine is a favorite who comes to perform every few years. As usual, we got the catering rider via e-mail from our local promoter and, honestly, as far as 'talent' riders go, this one wasn't that bad...we weren't supposed to be cooking for them, just some deli trays and some very specific beverage requests. They had one show scheduled for Tuesday , which sold out, so they added a second show Wed. allowing the guys to slip in some kayaking or fishing... (good for them! too often traveling performers have to get on a plane and head to the next town, never getting to really appreciate how beautiful it is here.) Since I was off from the bakery on Tues, I offered to do the set-up backstage. Melissa, my delightful right hand girl, had already done most of the shopping so it seemed like it would be kind of fun, and maybe I ‘d get to meet some of the band. I had the kids with me because it was the day before school and we still had a few items on their supplies list to get, plus they are great little porters always ready to help carry stuff from here to there...which is just what we ended up doing on this day! We started by going to the Bakery to pick up the stuff, whip out a deli tray and get the final list for what we didn't have. The sun was shining, one of the rare beautiful days we've had this summer. The kids were chattering (and fighting, let's be honest!) over the next days schedule of events and asking all kinds of questions about who we were delivering food to and why does it need to be Canada dry diet ginger ale and not the store brand? Which, as far as I can tell, after going to every store in town that might even think about carrying soda, is not available here in Homer-town. Given the circumstances, we tried to sub in what we could and left out the things we couldn't. After all this is Homer ALASKA, right? right! So we go the Auditorium with all of our goodies for Mr. Prine and his band. We are lucky to have a beautiful 500 seat theater with nice dressing rooms, etc. attached to our high school. It was fun setting up, we had cut flowers from the bakery yard and put little vases of them out and tried to make it all very nice. As we were leaving, I realized we needed more Ice, so off we went to the store again and raced back to the theater hoping to get there before the performers moved in. We were met at the door by ‘the manager’ and he immediately set about telling us to move everything to another dressing room and fired off a list of things we had not addressed (which were not on my copy of the rider, I might add!). Being all eager to please, I jotted down a new list, the kids and I went back to the store AGAIN and returned to the theater thinking this was the last of our obligations. (All the while Jane and Charles, my kids, are going off about how rude and bossy this guy is being, me, I just want to do good job and get the heck out of there!) But before I could escape ‘the manager’ stopped me and asked what we had planned to feed John for dinner after the show(!) I shrug with resignation and say it’s not on my list, but if John Prine needs dinner at 11:30 at night, I can make that happen…”what would he like?”, I ask. “Manicotti with sausage” was the answer,( “oh yeah and neopolitan ice cream with smuckers fudge sauce and John needs a real plate and bowl and silverware, too”…!) I’m sure this guy was thinking we had some Italian restaurant in town that I could go get it from, but since there isn’t anything like that here, I went back to the store AGAIN and bought the stuff I needed, took it back to my kitchen and made the best darn manicotti ever with sausage and fresh mushrooms and homemade sauce. We delivered it to the theater just as the show was ending. Mission accomplished!
Rather than being paid cash, I had traded the dinner for tickets to the next nights show and took that opportunity to track down ‘the manager’ to see how things went and to gather up my supplies from the night before. When I found him, all he could say was, “it was fine, I loved it! There was one problem, though, John Prine doesn’t like mushrooms, he spit them all out, but, hey, the rest of us thought it was really great!” ...As for the Show...it was REALLY GREAT! And I as watched him stop between songs to drink from his 500ml bottle of Evian (no exceptions!) I felt a certain pride that at least I got the water right!

Root Beer Man!

John has been brewing his own beer for almost 10 years now and for the past few months has been hooked on the idea of making his own root beer. Last Saturday at a garage sale he found a brand new keg cooler.(only $68.00!) Well that lit a fire under him to finally try a batch of our kids favorite soda! He spent a lot of time testing different amounts of dextrose and extract and after many tastings, I think he's come up with a winner! I'll print the recipe as son as I can get it out of him...I have my ways of making him talk! (p.s. Happy Anniversary, Honey!)

a hard week...

Every one has their bad days...every once in a while they stretch into bad weeks. For me it began last week with news that a gentleman from town had committed suicide. He was a long time local who's kids go to high school with my daughter and his wife, a great customer, has the same name as me...(a topic we often discussed because never has either of us been in a place with so many women named Carri) We got word the way we usually do by people calling up for trays of sandwiches or breakfast things to take up to the family. It begets many tearful conversations and makes it difficult to focus on the tasks at hand. (nothing like consoling a friend over the death of their partner and having to turn around and make a latte for some impatient tourist who doesn't know whats going on!) But focus we must and with wedding season in full swing I had 100 petit fours plus two other wedding cakes to deliver before the weekend was over. Well,my anxiety escalated as the petit fours were a little problematic and my inexperience with the medium definitely showed in the final product. (in other words, they looked like shit...okay, not shit...rustic, yeah, that's it) I delivered them in boxes, hoping the wedding they were being served at was one of those down home Homer weddings where nothings too perfect. My heart sank when I walked into the reception area and the vision before me was that of the most elegant wedding I've ever seen! My petit fours were SO not worthy of the lovely setting...I tried to console myself thinking that at least someone else made the wedding cake and those little gems of mine, while they weren't the most beautiful, they would be mighty tasty! Well, I still had to get myself back to the bakery to frost another cake (to be picked up in 45 minutes)...this one with the couples name and the date written on the top of the cake. I got it done, just in time loaded it in the groomsmans car and off he went. I breathed a sigh of relief...one more cake to go and it wasn't being delivered until the next day. (see the Russian wedding below) My calm was shattered when a very short time later the phone rang with an irate bride on the other end saying I had misspelled her name on their wedding cake! Luckily they weren't so far away, they were able to bring it back for me to fix (while they watched!). crisis averted. right. The next day we delivered the cake out to the village. It's about 30 miles one way, Sunday morning of what is usually a day off for me. I didn't charge extra for the delivery because I knew that money was tight on this event and I wanted to help. We left there happy with the cake and getting to see the village, and I went on to have a couple of fairly relaxing days off. Thinking that the vortex had passed, I went back to work on Wednesday pretty refreshed and with renewed bravado. That lasted about an hour until the women who'd ordered the cake for the Russian wedding came in. I was excited to hear how things went but she handed me the bottom tier of the cake, half eaten, complaining that it was burnt and dry and her mother insisted she get her money back...I was stunned! Of course, I apologized profusely and refunded her without hesitation. After she left we looked over the cake and considering it had been sitting since Sunday, it actually wasn't bad at all! I went upstairs to the office to take a moment to regain my composure and there was an e-mail from a gal who was inspired by our business gushing about how she wants to open a bakery in Talkeetna.(don't take this tale to heart Anita, mostly owning a bakery is all good, you go girl!) That was all it took, the tears starting flowing and could've gone on for days except that I had three more weddings to execute cakes for and one alone involved 15 individual cakes, each one a different flavor! So I set about baking 25 cakes on Wed, crumb coated and mostly frosted them all on Thurs and so it went...this time, all went off without a hitch. Whew!

a Russian wedding

Todays wedding cake adventure involved driving out past Anchor Point to the Russian village of Nikolavesk. The cake was for a wedding that was supposedly going to be filmed by the Today Show. While we didn't see a camera crew, we did enjoy meeting the bridesmaids in their lovely traditional dresses, who were also apparently responsible for serving the food, as they were all there preparing while the rest of the wedding party was still at the church. The community here is very private and outsiders are only welcome if invited by someone in the village. Since I had such an official reason for being there, I decided to bring along John and his visiting mom to see it. While I was setting up the cake John quickly ingratiated himself to our hosts and was off on a tour of the yard and gardens...I tracked him down photographing these gals, telling them how beautiful they look...he's such a charmer, maybe I should marry him, oh wait, I already did! Lucky me!

Luca John Fitzpatrick

Daddy Darren and I became friends when he would rollerblade into the bistro I was running. I think he was 14 at the time, I'd steam him up a mocha and he'd dump the whole bowl of sugar cubes into it and stir and sip as we gossiped away about people around town. Years later he held my babies while visiting the bakery, by that time we could share a beer or two... Then he went off and got a life of his own...marrying the lovely Erica in our newly built bakery yard in 2003, and having little Cecelia a few years later. Now my buddy Darren has a boy of his own. Great job Erica! Break out the Sugar Cubes!

Blue Poppy

On Sunday I had a wedding cake to deliver to Anchor Point, so I took daughter Jane and John's Mom (visiting from Wisconsin) along for the ride and on the way back we visited Norman Lowell's gallery and spectacular gardens...his Lilac 'hedge' is twenty five feet high and covered in blooms...and the Blue Poppies...so beautiful!

View from the baking table 7/19/08

How many pastries can YOU make in a day? The competition is fierce around here as we power our way through July. We had a busy baking board on Saturday with a little bit of everything happening all at once!



Randall and Erin discuss the 'Mutato' and a 'rogue' bear...

The Dirty Rags Debut!

We let Johnny go early to see the show and he returned with a t-shirt and reports that they were awesome! Melissa was slotted to video so if that came out, I'll post it for those of us who missed seeing them! I think that once Irene returns from her trip...she jumped on a plane right after playing...they will be a wednesday night fixture at Alices for the rest of the summer!