Creative Buddha

Buddha has been my most recent muse. I started working on a buddha paper cut design and then, coincidentally, went to the Lawai International Center the next day. The Center is the oldest buddhist shrine in the US, with 88 miniature temples, representing the 88 temples in the Shikoku Pilgrimage in Japan. Now I can't stop drawing buddhas! Big buddhas, little buddhas, buddhas with halos, buddhas with robes...

A view from Thursday

cinco siete cinco

beans beans beans beans beans
beans beans beans beans beans beans beans
beans salt tortilla



misting from the peaks
rivers bulging at their banks
puddles in my bed



mud caked to my knees
dirt under my fingernails
happy harvester

Vistas

exploring the inner journey through the outer world

A Trip to the Alps

Welcome to the bakery!!

I took this picture before opening so most of the lights are still out. My great friend Chris is putting all the freshly baked bread in the appropriate places. Here you can also see the cookie, pastry, and cake cases. Everything tastes as good as it looks. Note the slightly tacky aprons.

Grittibenz, a special Swiss holiday treat. Made of sweet Zopf bread, with sugar on top, raisins for eyes, and little ceramic pipes. These guys sold like hot cakes!

Crazy Jess, the cafe chef. She and I tease each other mercilessly and it is fabulous. She makes a new delicious soup every day, and walks in every morning with a smile. Here she is cutting German Sourdough Rye bread for the cafe. That bread is such a pain to cut! It is baked in 8 lb loaves and is priced by the pound.

Breakfast pastries (with two wrapped Panettone thrown in). The apple and cherry strudel, the cheese and cherry danish, and the big round Crispies in the lower right corner are some of the most popular. I personally love the biscuits and scones. Not too much sugar...perfect.

And here you can see our cookie case. The top row is entirely comprised of Christmas cookies: Brunsli, Totenbeinli, Linzer, Zimsterne...The second row has cookies we have all year round: Cranberry Shortbread, Lemon Poppy, Raspberry and Apricot Thumbprints, Swedish Coconut...The third row is mostly fondant cookies, with a few Bird's Nest's, Bishops Hat's, and 3 Hole cookies thrown in. The bottom row has all the tarts: Linzer, Apple Sour Cream Streusel, Frangipane.. and also the tea breads like Cinnamon, Apple Raisin, and Pumpkin.

Mmmm...pastries and cakes. The best days in the bakery are the days when we need to make more pastries like Dark Chocolate Mousse cake and Chestnut Walnut cake, because i get to have the rejects!

Here is Marty. She is working on her externship for school. She mostly does all of the pastry and fruit tart/cake decorating. She will be leaving in March to finish off her final year of schooling for her pastry degree. She will be missed!!

Rod, the cake man! He likes to joke around and sing Boney M songs to me. He is phenomenal at making/decorating cakes. He has such a steady hand! He can do anything with chocolate. Here he is putting buttercream icing on a White Chocolate Mousse cake.

Lauren is the head honcho for cakes. If you order a fancy wedding/birthday/special occasion cake, she is the one who will be making it. She also makes all of the ice cream and sorbets. Here she is decorating Yule Logs. Arent the little meringue mushrooms cute?

And who do we have here? Why, it's my two mailroom buddies! Chelsea on the left, and Jennie on the right. These girls are fabulous. We had a great time together when we were busy shipping Christmas orders, sometimes 10 hours straight. There are so many other great people working at the bakery, but it was hard to find a minute to take their pictures. Everyone is always so busy.

Every day is an adventure at the bakery. I can't wait until you can come and visit!