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Cake competition at Graceland is all I have so far. I'm told foodnetwork is your best resource for getting more info. I was invited but I used all my vacation time for the shows in Phoenix so I won't be making this one.

A Bridezilla would be fun to watch. Thanks for the heads up, K8memphis!

The first thing that comes to mind is Bertie Lou's Cafe 8051 SE 17th. I haven't been there in ages but I hear the food is good and that there can be a bit of a wait because it's so popular. I used to go there back in the early 1970's with my late father, back when "Grandma" and Jake used to run it. I remember sitting at the counter next to a big burly trucker type who was asking Grandma what was good and she replied, "Whatever I make and you're gonna like it!" Great memories.

Thanks for sharing! The only thing I've tried for two is a box of Jiffy brownies in a loaf pan. I'm glad to know such a thing exists. It's tough to make a whole batch of something with just two of us in the house and I can't afford to feed the whole office all the time. This is a great find.

This thread makes me want to go home and dig out my chocolate hazelnut cheesecake recipe. I top it with hazelnuts with the bottom half dipped in chocolate and chocolate leaves. Very fall-ish. The gingerbread and pears with pastry cream sounds really yummy.

By AB, I'm assuming you mean Alton Brown? I've tried his panna cotta brain recipe that turned out like rubber. I've had other people tell me they've had trouble with his recipes. I've kind of learned to just enjoy his show and leave it at that.

I was told a lot of your mini marts have things like Jack & Coke in a can too. We don't have that at our mini marts here in Oregon. I was also told that in some parts of California, the McDonald's actually serve alcholic beverages. I didn't realize how uptight we really are here in the NW. Sheez.

My fave is always "no word in english...you no have in this country." I'll try just about anything once. Blood sausage, emu tacos, whole little fishies, durian, durian popsicles. Can't think of anything offhand that has been too outlandish.

I dine alone frequently and I tend to sit and write. It's one thing when I have a pad of paper but when I whip out a piece of stationary and a fountain pen, it always seems to intrigue people. I'm confident enough by myself, it always seems to set me apart anyway but the writing a letter I guess seems to give me an air of mystery or something.

Four or five Krispy Kreme originals with a big glass of milk. (Or a mountain dew...is that evil or what?) I'm with Ling on the jar of peanut butter, chocolate and a big ass spoon too. Split grilled bagel with peanut butter, raspberry jam and bacon or a full on platter breakfast of eggs, bacon, hashbrowns and bisuits and gravy on the side with extra gravy for the hashbrowns. Let's not forget happy hour after work with whatever is greasy and good with lots of alcohol. Rum punch makes a nice dinner. Or just rum.

Did anyone ever get pictures of the dragon ball uploaded? I can't seem to get mine to work. It uploaded black pictures. I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong. I was going to write a little on the Asian Desserts class but writing about the dragon ball won't be nearly as interesting without pictures.

I don't care what anyone says. I was rooting for Elsie. Sorry to see her go. She grew a lot in her time there.

Recipe from Freida's website - http://friedas.com/press.cfm?action=detail&ref=300

I've actually heard that it's been kind of a tough year this year in the business of cherries. They've had a lot of rain and then sun which causes rain splits. I just thought I'd share an interesting bit of info here that to avoid too many rain splits in the orchards they rent a helicopter and hover low over the cherries and shake the water out. I know they had to do that in Mosier this year. It's kind of like a really big expensive blowdryer. Just an interesting tidbit of info.

I'll take things a chunk at a time on my lunch hours now that I'm back to work. We'll start with Franz Zeigler. We were at the gala dinner and I don't remember what started the conversation but he ended up hanging all evening with the hands on students asking what they thought of the program and he wanted to know what we wanted to learn next year. He talked about the whole MOF thing and compared it to a PhD. I didn't realize there are MOFs in every profession in France. He talked about how we're learning the science of tempering chocolate compared to the way he learned by tempering for several weeks and learning it all by "feel". He started telling us about Felchlin's new Cru Sauvage. Apparently they found a grove of wild cacoa trees in Bolivia which is very rare since they are pretty much all cultivated nowdays. He said the beans are much smaller and they had to redo their way of working it because the beans wouldn't work with the machinery they currently use. He said he was involved through the whole process and helped to develope the packaging for it which has a feather on the front of the package and on the bars of chocolate. They are beautiful. What I heard is that there is a legend among the people of the area where the beans come from about a bird that calls out when the pods are ripe. He lead us through a tasting of the chocolate. I think the most intense memory of the evening for me is remembering the look on his face when he told us that one of the most beautiful experiences in the whole world is sucking on the inside of a fresh cocoa pod. The look in his eyes will probably haunt me forever and now it's something I definately want to experience someday.

While I was at the World Pastry Forum this week I did have dinner at Roy's, Blue Sage and Ristorante Tuscany, all at the JW Desert Ridge Marriot. The spareribs and appetizers at Roy's were decent and the duck breast served balsamic reduction and green chili mac'n'cheese at Blue Sage were interesting as well as good. Ristorante Tuscany was the best meal of the week hands down. On the spendy side but worth the price in my humble opinion. We had many of the appetizers family style and they were all wonderful. We had a salad with smoked chicken that was delightful and the gnochi were nice and light. A friend had the lobster lasagna which I didn't get to taste but he raved about how wonderful it was. I went for the tomatoes and balsamic vinegar and was very happy. For main course many of us had the osso bucco since so many other people raved about it all week. We were not disappionted. The flavor was deep and rich and it was cooked to where it was fork tender but still held it's form and didn't completely fall apart. It still had some body to it. Someone else said the lamb was great. There was a special request of seafood risotto that was not on the menu and it was honestly the best risotto I have ever had. Wonderful food and wonderful company. It was an evening that I will remember for years to come.

Just got back and totally exhausted but had to comment that I talked to a couple of people that got some useful things out of the gelato class. Not everyone was disappointed with it. I'll stand by what I said last year that it really is geared to professionals/business owners and they seem to get the most out of it. The lunch food could be better but the facility was a great place to hold it. It wasn't nearly as hot as it was in Vegas last year. How could they not go back there next year after what we witnessed this year? The relationships you could see being formed around you make it obvious that they stumbled onto an absolutely amazing thing. And I've heard that the tradeshow will be bigger next year. I just got off the plane an hour ago and already I can't wait to go back. I'll get back to my notes and more details later, Wendy, I promise.

Someone said last nght that the recipe is on the dvd. I'm here until sunday but I'll be busy loading equipment so I won't get much time to post. The neworking anf time spent with instructors has been incredible. Last night we were hanging with Franz Ziegler and he was talking us through a tasting of some chocolate that I had. Totally different than Vegas. All these peole have been so open.

I think that was the thing that blew me away last year. You have people that have won the world pastry team championship and you would thing that they would want to hoard their secrets but all of them, especially Maury are willing to show you anything they know. They share all they can. You can ask Maury to show you anything and he will joke constantly, "you come back next year...I will show you." And then he shows you. I had to go ask him for some paperwork yesterday at the end of his class and he was doing a bit of hands on with his students. I'm so sorry I missed his class. Last year the only hands on in the demo classes was in the airbrush class but it looks like several of the teachers are trying to incorporate a little hands on time this year. My roommate came back with a piece she made in Ciril's open kitchen session. Very cool.

I have a moment to catch my breath and pop in. I think the thing that is striking me the most is that this year seems completely different in the fact that when we are in Vegas, the minute class is over, everyone scatters. Here it seems the opposite. The amount of networking and building relationships seems like just totally night and day to me. Here I see groups gathering everywhere to discuss what they do outside of here, what they're learning. Everyone seems more open. It's a great place to meet people in the industry for those who have never been to this event. It's been a great experience volunteering and I'm really glad I went that route this year. I'll try to go into detail on volunteering a little later. I have gotten to meet some very cool people in various positions in the food industry. It's been great to see the "back of the house" if you will. The work and the millions of small details that go into this are just totally unreal. Gotta get back to work.

I didn't get to observe either of these classes at all but En Ming has been going to other people's classes when she can and said Wybauw's class was so cool because Wybauw is very, very clear and precise. I've been able to sit in on En Ming's Amenities and Kanjiri's Asian Desserts and both were wonderful. I'm on my shift right now so I can't elaborate, but I'll try to get to it later. What other classes have you had so far, Whitetrufflegirl?

Very cool! Thanks for posting pictures!

Very cool. Looking forward to it.

The book Potatoes, Not Prozac does a pretty good job and explaining all that stuff in detail. She gets into blood sugar levels and brain chemicals and how it all works together. I actually use her high protein and complex carb diet to help keep my seratonin levels up and keep me level.

Thank you everyone for your replies!