Kitchen Travels

Photography: Visiting the Farmer's Market & Antique Store

I love photography. In fact, making and sharing pictures is one of my favorite things about writing this blog. So you can imagine my excitement when some local business owners, after seeing my blog photos, expressed an interest in hiring me to make photos for their websites. I felt happy and humbled.

One of my potential clients was curious to see how I might photograph things other than food, such as a place, event or object. With that in mind, I set out this past weekend in search of inspiration. I found it at the farmer's market and a local antique store.

Meet-and-Greet with Oliver Ridgeway - Grange's New Executive Chef

This post is the second in a series of "catchup" posts. xo

Remember when I attended the Follow the Chef Lunch at Grange Restaurant & Bar last spring? You could probably tell that I just love that restaurant. When I heard the exective chef was leaving to pursue a new gig, I was pretty bummed so happy for him. Who would take his place? And would the new chef continue Grange's tradition of turning out the local, seasonal food I loved so much?

I got a chance to find out in early December when I was invited, along with a select group of local food bloggers, to participate in a recipe contest. We were asked to develop an original soup recipe, reflective of Grange's menu philosophy, one that would celebrate "the abundant, fresh, and local ingredients the Sacramento area is known for." The entries were to be judged by Grange staff, with the final winner selected by the new Executive Chef, Oliver Ridgeway. To wrap up the contest, Grange hosted an afternoon meet-and-great with Chef Ridgeway, where they announced the winner and gave all the contest participants a chance to sample the Chef's food. We even got to bring a guest. So in addition to spending an hour or two at a great restaurant, I got to have an actual date out with my husband. Yes!

Autumn Leaf Cake, Scharffen Berger Bakery Crawl, and a Contest

Recently, I was fortunate enough to snag an invitation to a special event in San Francisco: a bakery crawl hosted by Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Maker. Scharffen Berger® was kicking off its latest contest: Elevate a Classic Dessert with Scharffen Berger® Chocolate (more on that later). As part of the launch, they challenged some of the city's best pastry chefs to elevate a classic dessert using Scharffen Berger® chocolate, and I was to be among a lucky group of food bloggers and writers to taste their creations.* An afternoon in the city, tasting chocolate and hanging with famous pastry chefs? Yes, please.

We met at the Scharffen Berger® Chocolate store in the Ferry Building Marketplace on a beautiful Friday afternoon, then boarded the trolley car which would take us on our Bakery Crawl. I knew from some pre-event Twitter exchanges that a few familiar food blogger faces would be on the trolley with me, including Irvin from Eat The Love and Benjamin from You Fed A Baby Chili?, 

Irvin and Ben photos courtesy of Scharffen Berger® Chocolate Co.

along with Catherine from Munchie Musings, and Sheri and Larry from Pork Cracklins.

Follow the Chef Lunch at Grange

You know what I love? (Aside from great food, I mean.) Lots of things, actually. But one of the things I love is learning new words, especially when those words relate to food.

Here in Sacramento, there is a wonderful restaurant called Grange, where - according to the restaurant's website - the food is derived from "market-driven bounties selected from farms throughout the golden state" and the menu is "simple, seasonal, and soulful." (And, I might add, excellent.) I have always enjoyed the food at Grange, and I've always liked the name, as well. But until recently, I never knew its meaning.

Travel: Clarksburg, California

 

Today, we're headed to Clarksburg here on Kitchen Travels. Clarksburg? Where are the recipes? The food photos? Well, the name of this blog is Kitchen Travels, after all. But not to worry, my fine foodie friends. We will return to our regularly scheduled recipe-centric programming momentarily. In the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy this post about a little day trip we took to the wine country recently.*

No, not the wine country made famous by a certain indie film a few years back. (That one is much too far from us for a day trip.) And no, not either of the other two vineyard-filled valleys you probably have in mind (although both are wonderful in their own right, and a fairly easy day trip from our town, as well). The wine country I'm talking about is a miniature, less "Hollywood" version of California's more celebrated wine country areas.