Food « Melinda Holland Photography

09/11/2009

Bottega Louie – Los Angeles

Filed under: Food — Tags: apple danish, bottega louie, croissant, croissant knot, croissant twist, monkey bread, pastries, pastry, sugar knot — Melinda @ 5:46 pm

I’m so behind on blogging it’s completely sad.

I’ve been shooting a ton of pastries at Bottega Louie Restaurant & Gourmet Market this past week…and eating way more sugar than I normally do. I’m not huge on sweets but Bottega’s pastries are SO DELICIOUS! Stop by Bottega Louie in downtown LA and pick some up for yourself. They’re located at 700 South Grand Avenue. Here are just a few of my favorites (also featured on Bottega Louie’s blog here.) More pics to come. Thanks to Stephanie Castro and Rachel Pham for their excellent prop/food styling and overall assistance during the shoots. I couldn’t have done it without you two!

I’ll start with my favorite pastry. I believe these are called Sugar Knots. I could eat a pile of these for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Seriously.

Bottega Louie's Super Knot

Below: A pile of Apple Danishes and a fresh handful of Monkey Bread.

Your mouth watering yet? Mine is, just blogging these. Oh the memory of eating them is so vivid.

The Apple Danish is light & crispy with just enough apple filling so as not to overpower the whole thing.

The Monkey Bread is amazingly moist and melt-in-your-mouth.

appledanish_monkeybrd_blog

I have such a weakness for croissants. These are crispy on the outside, moist & chewy on the inside.

They also sell Croissant Twists: long twists of salty-sweet, flaky goodness.

croissant_and_twist_blog

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08/10/2009

Blueberries – Philbrook Farms, Vancouver, WA

Filed under: Food — Tags: blueberries, bowl, cereal, dish, milk, quaker squares, soymilk, white — Melinda @ 10:49 am

blueberry_newblog

My favorite u-pick farm, Philbrook Farms, had a short blueberry season this year and is now closed until next season…and I’m SO BUMMED!! We picked about 14 lbs not too long ago and we were going to go again this week but alas! no more u-pick! sniffles…

Store-bought blueberries do not compare to the luscious, juicy, sweet blueberries from Philbrook. The store-bought ones are way too tart and lack the full-flavored taste of the berries from Philbrook, probably because they’re picked too early. I guess you can’t pick ripe berries and then ship them to a grocery store for fear they’d be mushy by the time they got there.

For great berries, go to Philbrook Farms in Vancouver, WA: 13705 NE 50th Ave, 98686.

Not only do they have blueberries but they also have strawberries and raspberries. I highly recommend them! At the time of this post, the berries were only 1.20/lb for u-pick. What a great price! And they guy who owns the farm, Kevin Philbrook, is so laid-back and nice. Every time Jon and I see Kevin at the farm, he’s always easy-going and such a great, kind person. We love getting to see him and picking berries at Philbrook Farms. Go there next season! You can get seasonal updates from their website here.

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07/07/2009

Cherry Pie

Filed under: Food,Personal — Tags: cherry, cherry pie, crust, dessert, dough, fruit, pie, pie crust, sweet — Melinda @ 3:39 pm

Homemade cherry pie with fresh-picked pie cherries.

My friend, Heidi, has an aunt with a very happy pie cherry tree. That thing puts out cherries all over the place! Heidi, her husband, Heidi’s aunt and I spent a few hours one morning picking, washing, pitting, sugaring, ‘ziplocking’ and freezing those succulent cherries for later use.

I couldn’t resist and quickly made a pie about 2 days after freezing the cherries and –oh boy!!– I discovered I’m good at making pies! …or maybe they’re just easy to make. I dunno…for some reason, I always thought making pie crust was too much of an involved process, but apparently it’s quite easy–and hard to mess up! For this particular pie, I decided to have some fun with little heart shapes making up the top crust.

One thing that makes a good, flaky crust?

Butter.

Lots of it.

The fitness-inclined shouldn’t eat this pie.

Anywho, my first attempt was divine and now I’m all about making pies. Fresh fruit is so hard to beat when it comes to pie filling!

The pie in progress. Before and after.

Progression of the pie photographed with our little pocket camera.

Progression of the pie. I shot these four photos with greasy, "flour-y" hands on the little pocket camera ...so don't expect anything special 😉

Yum-Yum Getcha Some.

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05/15/2009

Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream – Seattle (Wallingford)

Filed under: Food,Personal — Tags: Honey, Ice Cream, Lavender, Molly, Moon's, Seattle, Wallingford — Melinda @ 4:25 pm

- Rachelle & Daniel at Molly Moon's, trying to get Rachelle's daughter to look at my little point-and-shoot for a quick pic -

Molly Moon's Homemade Ice Cream, Interior

Finally making it inside the door after waiting outside in a long line...but there's still quite a line to get through.

Molly Moon’s has THE BEST ice cream I have ever had. And I’ve had some gourmet stuff. Their Honey Lavender is a wonderfully sweet & aromatic blend. Such a unique flavor. I would’ve never thought that lavender ice cream could taste so good. No wonder there was a line out the door and down the sidewalk. Granted, it was May when we stopped in, but the locals tell me there’s a line out the door even in winter. Okay. If you’ve got an ice cream business that STILL has a ton of business in the WINTER. Your ice cream has got to be phenomenal. And it is. So go get some next time you’re nearby!

And, sorry! I didn’t get any good photos of the ice cream because we gobbled it up so fast. Just trust me, it was a big, fragrant and deliciously good double scoop of Chocolate and Honey Lavender on a big waffle cone.

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