Tan, Rested, Ready and All That

It’s good to be back, though in truth one is never too happy about coming back from vacation. The Pastry family had an outstanding time roaming around the south-eastern part of west North Carolina, where the mountain lakes are clear, cool and lousy with bass and bluegill. The last day of the trip I hired a guide to take me up to fish some of the higher trout streams, and my friends, all I can tell you is that it was like fisherman’s paradise. Standing calf-deep in those chilly, crystalline rivers at dawn, under a low canopy of leaves shimmering in the reflected rays of the sun, I felt like I was in Eden. Fat brown trout were everywhere, leaping out of the water after dragonflies or swaying lazily in the current. It almost spoiled the whole mood to catch them. Almost. The only thing that momentarily interrupted the bliss was the copperhead viper that almost swam between my legs. But that was just one moment of terror in an otherwise perfect day. And anyway every paradise needs a serpent, am I right?

Asheville was a notable stop for us food-crazy Pastrys. The place is a Mecca for everything from produce to cheese to beer. And of course plenty of baking goes on there too. I wished I’d had another week just to explore the food scene there. But duty calls, and there’s baking to be done. I’m glad to be back in the command seat at Joe pastry World Headquarters.