Grrrrrrr-ateful : Dog biscuits with peanut butter

When something is as cute as an Ewok you know your in trouble.
And trouble needs to be fed.

This Thanksgiving I wanted to give a little hot sweet love to my constant companion, Lady Baby O'Gravy.
There is no one who appreciates my cooking more.

Dog biscuits are super easy to make and the ingredients are probably already staring at you in the face when you open the cabinet. Making your own alleviates any fear of processed poisons and with the addition of olive oil and other such add ins you can be sure your pooch is getting a dose of healthy fats ,vitamins and phytonutrients.

This recipe is not intended for everyone but it is a good jumping off point.
Keep your dogs specific nutritional profile in mind when baking and avoid thins known to be toxic or hard to digest for the breed.

Dog Biscuit with P.B.

• 1 1/2 cup stock (I like chicken here but you can use beef or fish)
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 3/4 cup peanut butter
  
• 1/2 cup olive oil
  
• 3/4 cup oatmeal
  
• 1/2 cup cornmeal
  
• 1 cup all purpose flour
  
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  

Mix the wet ingredients together and then add in the dry grains to make a dough.
Working in small batches, add extra flour as needed and roll out to about the thickness of your thumb from finger print to thumbnail - roughly under a 1/2 inch.
Cut out with a cookie cutter, jar lid or free form with a knife. Get creative.
Bake on an open cookies sheet , or the back or a rimmed cookies sheet
(simply place it upside down in the oven ) at 350 for about 30 minutes.

Store in sandwich baggies or a Tupperware container.

Red October - almost. Red Pear and Gorgonzola Risotto with Chicken

Fall got stuck in some traffic this year.
Temperatures are just starting to drop and the leaves have been kind of lazy getting undressed for winter. Don’t get me wrong I’m not complaining,but my eyes have been hungry for fall color and this meal hits the spot.
Coupling red pears with a dusty sage coated risotto this dish packs a nice
one-two punch that knocked my color craving right in the kisser.

Always on the hunt for a good grab and pack snack I can eat between classes red pears materialized on my radar sometime last month like Red October.

Growing up with green and brown pears my curiosity was peaked.
Its worth noting they are a little more soft with a sweet unyielding paper-white flesh.

This recipe came by way of Epicurious, the component of Gourmet magazine. The original recipe would make a great vegetarian meal, but as a proud omnivore I used chicken stock in place of the veggie/wine mix along with a few slices of chicken breast.

Below I paraphrase and add my substitutions. Follow the above link to the original.

Red Pear and Gorgonzola Rissoto with chicken

• 4 cups chicken broth
  
• 2 chicken breasts baked and shreded
  
• 2 tbls olive oil
  
• 1 cup arborio rice
  
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh sage or 2 teaspoons dried rubbed sage
  
• 1/3 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese (about 2 ounces)
  
• 1 red pear very thinly sliced
  

Simmer rice in olive oil untill it is translucent.
Add in chicken stock reserving a 1/2 cup.
Cook uncovered roughly 15 minutes adding reserved liquid as needed.
At the finish mix in the pear, chicken and cheese allowing it all the heat through thoroughly.

I'm a weenie: Oktoberfest Frankfurter Casserole (Vegetarian)

Like any food nerd I have in my possession a motley crew of cookbooks.
Many have been gleaned from thrift stores,yard sales,and then there is the occasional trophy from a weekday eBay bid on company time.
My book shelves are a drunken galleon of wobbly Nikki Sixx stacks and marked up pamphlets precariously leering like so many Tommy Lee-tards .
And
to further extend the Motley Crew metaphor I’ve got going on here, I will add that like M.C. concert, the contents often vacillate between grossly unhealthy and straight up absurd.
Sometimes the collection gets out of control.
I see them for the mess they are and resolve to clean it up.
It’s a tough call but I select a few of the more useless to throw back into the thrift store donation box for another turn of recycling on the karmatic wheel that is Goodwill.
But
just like a less busty but still hot Pam Anderson I keep taking them back bad as they are.
Bizarre and entirely unpalatable as the recipes can be I can’t help but get a little turned on when I pass a greasy McCall’s cover or a dilapidated copy of ,”Family Style in 20 minutes or less."
Really though, Who would’t pop a chubby for hard boiled egg Aspic with paprika cream?
C'mon. Be honest!

Part of my infatuation stems from a love of weird line drawings.
Many of the recipe collections from the 60’s/70’s are real freak shows flanked with drawings of lactating cow bakers and inspiring quotations such as
“A day without wine is like a day without sunshine!”.

However , nuggets of wisdom aside the true root of the problem is my love of the casserole.

This recipe is very loosely adapted from a McCall’s cookbook entry.
While not quite a casserole in the way you may be accustomed to considering them
there are no crumbled Ritz crackers or ,God bless, canned fried onions on top.
It is unerringly simple and comforting, and would have been perfect for October being that October makes me think of Beer and Germans.
And that thought, in the immortal words of Jennifer Coolidge as Paulette in Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde,

”…makes me want a hot dog real bad… “

I had planned on posting this during Oktoberfest.
You can see how that went.
I know I'm kind of a weenie for cheating you, gentle reader,
but better late then never.

Of course I love the simple dump and heat spirit of the dish but I tried to make this recipe a little healthier. However this is a comfort dish so don't expect me to get all martha on you with bouegoius groceries or good china.
I used veggie dogs in an effort skip consuming carcinogenic processed meats.
Don't get me wrong I love a good hot dog fresh from the grill , but no one is grilling here and the veggie version is just as good without the lips and meatholes.
I know the butchies in the audience are groaning - go ahead if you want your meat go for it.
You will notice I’ve also teamed up the scurvy fighting power of vitamin C packed sauerkraut with the cruciferous brussel sprout for some hot cabbage on cabbage action.
Sauerkraut is fermented with lactobacillus bacteria which is a pro-biotic found in most yogurts.
I can’t claim with any authority that any lactobacillus remains in the sauerkraut by the time warm it up but it’s interesting to note.
I guess you could try eating it cold.
Just kidding.

Of course as a health conscious young man I made my biscuit dough with freshly milled whole grain flour picked with the velvet gloved beaks of free range black hens in the Alpines.
It was purchased at Whole Foods.

But if you’re a single mom or someone who else who runs all over creation and back on a daily basis , so much so that , say for example , you don’t have time to post Oktoberfest themed recipes to your food blog during the actual month of October, you could just use one of those pop-tin-pre-made-biscuit-dough-thingy’s from Pillsbury.

Not that I did that.
I’m just say’n though.


Oktoberfest Frankfurter Casserole (Vegetarian)

• 1 package soy hot dogs (or you can use the real thing)
  
• 1 package Sauerkraut
  
• 2 hand fulls of brussel sprouts (roughly one fresh container or one box frozen)
  
  
• Chives
  
• 2 tbsp dry mustard powder
  
• 1 large onion
  
• *1 tbsp caraway seeds
  
• *1 tbsp celery seeds
  
  
• *bacon / or "fake'n" slices

For The Biscuits

• 1/2 cup butter or shortening
  
• 2/3 cup milk
  
• 2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1 tbsp baking powder
  
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/2 tsp cream of tartar
  
• 1/4 tsp salt

or a tin of premade biscuit dough fresh from your grocers dairy isle
* optional

Heat up the sauerkraut and add in the brussel sprouts. I would suggest cooking in the brine but if you need more water go ahead and throw some in. Add in the celery and caraway seeds if your using them along with the dry mustard powder.

Mix your biscuit dough or pop the tin (don't get scared).
If mixing, add dry ingredients together then add butter / shortening.
Add milk into center and mix until just combine.
knead for a bit and then roll dough into a long thin cylinder. If your including bacon set two pieces on each side of the hot dog then wrap the dough around each hot dog in a spiral.
Sprinkle the tops with chives.

Place in a greased baking dish and bake at 400 for about 10 -15 minutes.
When its finished add in the brussel sprout and sauerkraut mix and serve.

Black and Blue: Black Licorice and Blueberry Ice Cream

Cracking the spine to find a recipe for
blueberry with pinot noir and licorice jam all those weeks waiting for an inter-library loan were worth it. (p.s. libraries are fun places. all the cool kids are renewing their cards...and by cool kids i mean me).
"Mes confitures," written by Christine Ferber the "jam fairy of France" proved to throw oil on my long burning obsession with jam making this summer.
Being a fairy myself I liked the idea of licorice and blueberry together and started thinking about them folded into a smooth ice cream .

When I think of blueberries I think of my parents.
First of my dad - smiling with his infectious grin and giving me the last bite of his blueberry pie in Philadelphia - the greatest sacrifice of love any human being can make for another.
My father grew up in the city and being the worlds greatest dad has always been hyper vigilant when it comes to protecting me.
This applies doubly when considering the dangers of eating unidentified things from the fields and forest's I'd run through barefoot as a kid.
If it could be picked, plucked or picked up I brought it home despite his animated protests of "That stuff will kill ya!"

My mom on the other hand , having spent her childhood in the South was all about being bare foot and twiggy.
I can still remember the magic of watching her pick fruit straight off a branch and bite into a berry. Beautiful in dappled light my mother stood lovingly offering me a small round fruit.I was hesitant at first but her daring gave me permission to taste.
I can imagine how Adam felt. The Garden would have been lost that much sooner if the serpent had a blueberry in his pocket instead of an apple.
We laughed there on the wooded path juice running down our chins.

Being my parents son I could not fight the draw to wander in the woods but was also careful not to ingest every damn thing i picked up.
In time I learned what was OK and what was not.
But until that day I'd walk , eyeing my clenched fists of wild berries with suspicion. Rolling them around like so many rosary beads,
I'd say Hail Mary's on the walk home as a charm against the seductive idea of shoving open palms stained blue with want into my mouth before I reached the screen door.
Like Halloween candy they were suspect and as such needed to be investigated and identified before consumption.
Though fairly certain they were edible I wouldn't take a chance as per my fathers warning.
I wanted to be a good boy.
But I also wanted those berries.
Every so often I'd only make it a few paces before succumbing to an impromptu taste test.
If the berries were too sour my panic would send me into ecstatic fervour praying full force the whole way home. I hoped at least one Hail Mary would cushion my young soul in case my father was right.

Though having completed the northeastern half of their tour, a friend from the local farmers market passed along a quart of late bloomers a few weeks ago.
We tend to romanticize blueberries as being sweet, and they can be,
but they have got much more depth then that.
Their acid content can vary dramatically from one to the next
(as well as their cancer fighting and eye boosting antioxidants - anthocyans).
And
there is an earthy quality to them often unremembered that combines nicely with the gentle spice of licorice root making this combination more reasonable then it sounds at first.



An unpopular candy, licorice doesn't carry pom poms and it doesn't listen to pop music. Madmartigan will even tell you it'll put hair on your chest.
However while it is wearing leather, licorice is not without its lace.
Licorice root is no doubt strong , but much more gentle then the concentrated candy,and easily tamed by a short steeping time and small portions.

Most of the recipes I found (like this one I tried )for licorice ice cream use the candy , and a shot or two of Pernod (which while lending its own flavor is a fickle cousin of absinthe with varying amounts of licorice depending on the maker, invariably offering an extreme amount of anise ).
In case you missed it neither of these things are the root.
I imagine this is in part because its not the sort of thing that you can easily find in your grocers freezer.
My suggestion would be to try your local Asian market or a kick-ass herb store like Frontier.

With Halloween right around the corner I decided to try the candy out in a test batch omitting the Pernod.
Why no Pernod?
Because I couldn't possible imagine a time when I'd bust it out again.
I don't plan on chasing absinthe or entertaining any oompa loompas in the near future and I like alcohol far too much to just allow it to sit useless and stupid in the closet.

Trust me its still plenty liquorishy without the liquor.

I extrapolated my own root based version which you will find below.
The results were different enough to note.
The root infused ice cream subtly lent its warmth in the way cinnamon might to an apple cobbler.
The candy version was stronger, blacker and more predictable.
Of course the original recipe using candy here did not call for the addition of blueberries. That was my own doing, but even without the Pernod it overpowered the blueberries.
A practical note should you try the linked version:
I'd suggest making sure that your licorice is soft.
Soft licorice melts much more easily.Try Panda brand. Not only is it generally "fresher" but the animation on their page is ADORABLE!
I would also use 1/2 to 3/4 of the recommended amount of licorice unless you get your jollies on intense licorice flavor.

Don't get me wrong, I can TRUCK up some candy but this time around
daddy likes it raw.


Black Licorice and Blueberry Ice Cream

• 2 cups half and half
  
  
• 2 cups heavy cream
  
  
• 1 and 1/4 cup sugar
  
  
• 1-2 long sticks of licorice (or two tea bags)
  a little common sense and a little tongue go a long way here kids.
  peel some of the stick and taste it.
  if its strong and fresh use less. If its weak and old more makes it bold.
  
  
• 1 and 1/2 cups blueberries
  
  
• 1/2 tbsp vanilla

Blend up 1 cup of the blueberries and set aside the other 1/2 cup.
Mix the licorice with the milks and sugar in a saucepan and bring to just under a boil stirring all the while.
once cooled add in the berry puree and the remaining whole berries.

Now comes teh most important part.
Taste.
Ice cream loses some of its sweetness while freezing. It has to do with our taste buds and how they function under the duress of cold.
It should taste more sweet then you'd like it when completed and licorice-y.
Take out the tea bags after the mix reaches room temp-ish.
Depending on the distributor it could make your mix more bitter if left over night.
If using sticks Don't take the licorice out until the morning / before freezing.

Freeze ice cream according to your machines instructions.

If you don't have a machine you can place the mix in a long container (like a disposable Tupperware) in the freezer and use a fork every hour or so to scrap it up. You want to make sort of a snow flaky mixture.
It wont have the same consistency as churned ice cream but it will do the trick.

Corn Cakes

Sorry for the hiatus. School started and what can i say, sometimes I rhyme slow sometimes i rhyme quick (p.s. - one of the best uses of a sample eva!).

Job interviews are horrific if only for the onslaught of lame questions you find yourself navigating through. You are left in your khaki and cream with no true north , never knowing what they are really getting at (i.e. "are you married?" could mean "can you work long hours," "I'm interested," or "are you a homo").
My favorite part of every interview is the end.
Not only does that mean its over (and i can rip off my tie and itchy pants), but invariably an interview ends with a "getting to know you" question.
I love these.
Though worn out, the go to still remains,"if you could have coffee with four people, dead or alive, who would they be?"

I always answer, "Stalin, the devil,Ngo Dinh Diem and Martha Stewart. "

No I don't.

Actually I'm never 100 percent sure who will jump out of my mouth.
Though if I'm thinking clearly one of my choices would be Diane Ackerman.
In one of my favorite reads, A Natural History of the Senses, Ackerman takes some time out to wax poetic about corn.
At one point she comments on corn as a staple not only for native peoples pre-dating Chris Columbus ,but for our process laden foods today. Corn has truly left an indelible mark in our gastronomic geography and it is nothing if not ubiquitous.

A golden colored ghost it haunts products you'd think would remain untouched by modernity's hand like yogurt and juice. Popping up like a nightmare circus clown there isn't a product you can bump into at any convenience store that hasn't recruited corn syrup in some form, from sports drinks to chips, and even hair gel.
Just kidding about the hair gel.
It is so common place that tongues greet it with the limpest of handshakes.
Hard pressed to detect it, most people don't recognize its taste.

So now I pose a question to you , gentle reader.
How often do you and corn spend quality time together away from such bad influences as monosodium glutamate?

Enter the corn cake (or fritter or polenta cake...)
These little guys are like the "black" of the food world.
Possessing corn's inherent ability to mix and match with a multitude of foods, you can incorporate them into nearly every recipe.
As cheap and versatile as a weeknight twink, you can top them easily with seafood curries or mexi-cali messes.
(I've done both in the past week alone).
Corn fritters are the ultimate bottom.
Spread them with dollop of sour cream and they are just as snack able on their own (minus the Abercrombie and Fitch t-shirt).
You could even try this recipe as a base for arepa's.

Make them thick or make them thin but make them.

I cant wait to hear how you have used them.
Make Daddy proud.

Corn Fritters

• 2 small ears of fresh (jersey) corn
  (or 1 cup frozen corn kernels)
  
  
• 1 small shallot
  
  
• 2 tbp flour
  
  
• 1-1/2 tsp baking powder
  
  
• 1:1 ratio of cornmeal to hot water
  (1 cup to 1 cup)
  
  
• 1 egg beaten
  
  
• tbsp milk
  
  
• cooking oil
  
  
• herbs of choice (cilantro,chives,etc.)

If using fresh corn boil it and then grate the corn. Once this si completed use a knife to scrap the corn cobbs of the remaing flesh.
seperately mix togetehr teh hot water and cornmeal adding a little more water or cornmeal to get a thick evenly moist mush. stir in a little milk and add the shallot.
add the flour and baking powder.

heat up the oil and fry an ice cream scoop sized amount of batter for a few min. till browned on both sides.

finito!

Spiced Fig and Italian Prune Plum Cake

One of the harbingers of summers twilight, Italian prune plums are like
that hot girl at the party.
Even though you might want to get next to them and talk shop , you can't help hating them too.
But, really , its not their fault they're cute.
And so what? They showed up a little late to the party.

Don't get turned off by the name.
Prune is used as an adjective here describing a type of plum.
It's true.
These little purple grenades are avatars of those infamous fiber fortified prunes. Once dried out and packaged,they serve as a solution for a common "binding" problem. Not usually the kind of thing you get a hankering for unless your into that kind of thing.
But these guys are first and foremost plum's, the likes of which even a sugar plum fairy could'nt shake.

Before making that transformation Italian prune plum's defend an allegiance to all things sweet.
Biting into one they may not seem formidable in the face of the overwhelming choices of fruit available this time of year.
Not quite as succulent and drippy as their more punctual summer produced cousins, Italian prune plums have a suspicious spring green interior that might shock you. They hold onto summers own color with an unfailing grip smuggling it under contrasting purple skin, and carrying it faithfully into fall like a souvenir of warmer months.

Take a breath Sally, and Warm them up.
Once baked they give up the goods - fathoms of fructose.

Sweet and tender, they mix well with quartered black mission figs (also purple and decidedly hanging out this time of year), or cousin plums who make a cameo in my version.



The basic recipe follows.

Its amazing on its own, though fun to experiment with.
As it is a kind of upside down cake, part of the charm is playing with the cut fruit and arranging it into patterns.

Ive turned out a few variations.
My favorite involves using mini pan tins scavenged from a friend addicted to Table Talk Pies. I made mini layer cakes alternating with ganache made from a Calindia bar from Vosges chocolate , and a complimenting jam canned earlier in the month.

Not a single cake survived the day,but nothing beats the unadulterated original.
A little bit of summer slips into fall with each fork-full; plum syrup soaking down into warmly spiced buttery cake.


Spiced Fig and Italian Prune Plum cake

• 3 Dark plums
  
• 4 Italian Prune Plums
  
• 6 figs
  
  
• 3/4 C lite brown sugar
  
• 3/4 C white sugar
  
  
• butter for cooking fruit (a few teaspoons)
  
• salt
  
  
• 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 1/4 cup softened butter
  
• 2 eggs room temperature
  
• 3/4 cup buttermilk (make sure it is the real deal - cultured as opposed to flavored)
  
• 1 1/2 tablespoon brandy or amaretto
  
  
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
  
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg or allspice
  
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
  

* Optional: orange and lemon zests. roughly 1/2 teaspoon.

Preheat oven 350

Quarter the figs and cut and pit plums. Italian prune plums are super easy.The pit practically walks out on it own. Cut the proper plums into 6 slices each and the Italian Prune Plums into 4 slices each.

Coat the pan in butter with some to spare and cook the fruit, dusting with sugar and flipping with a spatula to ensure both sides get zapped. Dump in the rest of the white sugar and give it a good whirl. Top with a lid and simmer till it reaches a jam like consistency. Don't over cook or the fruit will get mooshy.

Butter a 6-8 inch spring form pan and arrange the fruit upside down in the bottom however you like.Use a slotted spoon to remove the fruit reserving the syrup for a topping at the end. You can either pour it over the fruit before baking or serve it on the side.
Keep in mind you want the fig quarters face down so that when you release the cake their interiors will be facing upward , smiling with seedy grins.

Mix the baking powder, salt and flour along with the spices and zest if your using it.
Beat the butter with brown sugar (be sure to firmly pack the brown sugar).
Dump in a third of the dry ingredients , then half the buttermilk, another third of the dry ingredients, the final bit of buttermilk and then finally the last bit of the dry ingredients.

Beat in the liquor.

Spill the batter like a blanket over the fruit and cook for roughly 35 min at 350.

Interview: Amy Stevens

Stare too long at Amy Stevens work and you might just give yourself a visual toothache. Starting with an idea to make 30 birthday cakes as a marker of an upcoming birthday, Amy's work has cooked up into something with its own pulse. Two parts Lisa Frank with a dash of miss Havisham, her confections are camouflaged or menacing, like wild things colored to warn unsuspecting predators of what might just lay within.Doling out generous portions of pattern and color, Stevens cuts right past dinner and gives you what you really want.
And you don't even have to finish your Lima beans.

I happened across her work at mew gallery this summer,curiously enough on my way to sign up for a cake decorating class. Unfortunately Amy is not the instructor.

She currently has a show up at The Center For Emerging Visual Artist's through September 20th ( 237 S. 18th St., Suite 3A Philadelphia). Opening reception Friday, September 14th 5:30 - 7:30.

Joe: You mention your initial investigation into cake making on your website. Would you mind talking a little bit about why you decided to make cakes in the first place?

Amy: For a little more than a year prior to starting this series I was using cake imagery from my collection of vintage cookbooks in my collage and mixed media work. I was also making abstract paintings that mimicked icing-- as well as incorporating stencils and images of cakes. Before I started making my own cakes, I was a bit of a collector of images of them - but mostly from 1950's cookbooks.

Joe: Did you bake growing up?

Amy: I loved to bake when I was growing up. Cookies, pies, cakes-- anything my mom would let me bake. It's a very precise and methodical process that somehow relaxes me. And I have a sweet tooth!

Joe: The "backdrops" you use work as a pivot in your photographs. It appears that you choose the fabric first, is that true? How do the two relate? Are you working with the pattern or against it?What is your process like?

Amy: Yes. The first ten or so in this series I made the cakes first, but as I made more and more (I think I'm somewhere in the 60's now) the easier it became to choose the fabric first and then see where I could take the cake
as opposed to finding backgrounds to go with the cakes. My cake decorating skills aren't the best, so I may start out trying to mimic and pattern in the fabric and end up with something totally different.Decorating each cake is a very intuitive process and very much the same way I would approach a canvas or any other substrate for my art. The fabric is used as a springboard for color and pattern and I just go from there.

Joe: In college I can remember having conversations at length about pattern.I found it interesting that something seemingly benign like
a decorative border had a lot of power in "the old world."People believed that the repetition would hypnotize and thus entrap evil spirits.Another point i remember is how pattern sets up a visual expectation and can make the viewer feel psychologically comforted since they know what to expect next. Would you agree with that?

Amy: Definitely. It's funny because I love pattern and am always drawn to it,but have never really tried to analyze the meaning behind it and it makes a lot of sense.

Joe: What do you look for in a pattern?

Amy: Color is usually the first one since I have been grouping them by theme,but then it's just based on my personal taste and what's out there. I have a favorite place for buying fabric (reprodepotfabric.com) that never fails to inspire and feed my cravings for great patterns. The wilder and crazier-- the more fun it is to decorate the cakes, so I always take that into consideration as well.

Joe: The palette in your work is so varied and just as satisfying as actually eating a piece of cake. It's like licking icing off a spoon with your eyes. Ranging from play-dough colors (as in confections #26) to more
earthy avocados and turquoise (as in confections #41 and #48),what influences your color choice?

Amy: My past four groupings of work have been related to each other by color theme. As my work remarks on domesticity and decor, I have been making each sub series of work for each new show in a different color theme according to the season. For example, my Inliquid solo show in February was all reds and pinks, this summer I had two shows-- one at The Icebox in a group show with whites and yellows and another at Mew Gallery with Blues, greens and whites. My latest which opens August 30 at the Center for Emerging Visual Artists will be of a botanical theme (for the patterns) and colors are greens, browns and some salmon pinks. For this show I will also be painting the walls to match the work to create an environment.

Joe: How do you feel about the word decoration?Do you feel like your works are "decorative?"

Amy: I know that to some artists the word decoration is a bad word-- some might shudder at the thought that their piece of artwork would actually be purchased because it matches the couch or decor of a room. My work is all about decoration. Many layers of it in fact.

Joe: Where do you find inspiration?

Amy: Other artists, wallpaper patterns, fabric, home decorating magazines.

Joe: Do you eat the cakes when they are done?

Amy: If I ate all the cakes I made I would be obese and diabetic! It's sad they go to waste, but sometimes they sit in the studio a while before I get to shooting or decorating them, so they get a little stale-- probably not the tastiest.

Joe: What kind of cake are they?

Amy: Yellow.

Since I know these don't get consumed, I don't splurge on the finest of butter and eggs-- just the basics to get the job done. Of course when I bake for my receptions-- I get to be creative with the cake and not just the decorating. I've made red velvet cupcakes, chocolate and coconut in the past.

Joe: Do you see a strong connection between your collage and cake making?

Amy: It's all connected-- all of my work.

Joe: What music are you currently listening to?

Amy: Well, let's see, just to name a few of my summer picks: the new Iron and Wine, Andrew Bird, Elvis Perkins, M. Ward, Mary Timony, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Field Music, Thievery Corporation, Astrud Gilberto...