Clyde Butcher: American Photographer, Artist, and Environmentalist

While on my vacation in Florida, I spent a few hours going through the cool shops in Sarasota. One of the shops was the St. Armands Art Gallery. What pulled me into the gallery were the massive framed black and white landscaped photographs. At first I thought the photographer of the photos was Ansel Adams.

A few steps inside I saw an old fashioned camera on a pedestal. It was beautiful, old and the wood gleamed in the sunlight that streamed through the door. The camera took my breath away. I loved it. I loved cameras and it reminded me of my original Yashica camera that I used as an undergrad at Kent State where I majored in Journalism.

A man, who worked in the gallery. walked over to me and we started to talk about the photographs. He then proceeded to give me a crash course, 101, about the camera and the photographer called Clyde Butcher!

Clyde Butcher is an American photographer, artist and environmentalist. He is famous in Florida for his large photographs of the wilderness of the Florida landscape. Butcher was born in 1942 and he was from Kansas City, Missouri. He is a photographer who used to shoot his photos in color. When his son was killed, he ended up spending time in the wilderness where he used his over sized camera taking black and white shots.

Butcher, who is revered in Florida, earned numerous awards, like the Florida Artist Hall of Fame Award, Ansel Adams Award from the Sierra Club, North American Nature Photographer Association Lifetime Achievement Award in Nature Photography and many others.

As I walked around the gallery, I felt very small and very humble amidst these huge landscape photos. I finished my tour, bought a book, and two black and white photo cards. Now I know a little bit about Clyde Butcher. I hope that I see more of his work. I not only discovered his works but I learned about the man thanks to the man who gave me a crash course in him. At least, I have a book to read about him with some of his photographs.

I hope to see more of his work, even if it means going back to Florida to visit his gallery.

How To Make Pepperoni Rolls (my way)

One of my baking jobs is to make pepperoni rolls for Erin’s Deli. The job isn’t difficult but it does take a while to get the rolls made.

*First, remove the frozen dough and leave it in the refrigerator to thaw out.

*Next, when the dough is thawed, I take it out of the refrigerator and place it in the Proofer to rise.

* Take out the dough from each bag, cut it in half and roll the dough flat on a floured surface.

*After I get a few flat pieces of dough rolled ouy, I brush on an oil mixture with herbs, then place pepperoni on the top, and sprinkle a generous amount of mozzarella cheese.

*I pull the sides of the dough together and roll it up with the seam placed down on a sprayed parchment paper, on a sheet tray.

*When I get at least 9 pepperoni rolls, I put two slits in the top of the roll, brush on more oil mixture, and sprinkle chopped pepperoni on top.

After I complete all the rolls, I bake them and when they are a golden brown, I take them out of the oven and leave them on cooling racks. After the rolls are cooled, I place them in a plastic bag in the freezer to be taken down to the Deli.

The delicious rolls can be purchased at Erin’s Deli, downtown. The hardest part of this job is not to eat one of those delicious rolls all by myself!

Steps for Making Scones

First find a good scone recipe. When I make scones for the Deli, I follow a recipe that is in our book and it is doubled.

Mix all ingredients together which includes sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt.

Add soft butter to dry ingredients and mix until it gets crumbly.

Add eggs with the lemon juice and mix.

Add sour cream with baking soda, mix well.

Blend all ingredients until mixture forms into dough.

Then add whatever you want…chocolate chips, blueberries, oatmeal and raisins, strawberry…etc.

If using frozen fruit, thaw and drain well.

For the scones like the Dark Chocolate Chip and Orange Zest…I add the zest and juice of the orange and blend well. Or if I make the Vanilla Bean and Lavender Scone, I add vanilla extract and lavender to the mixture.

Scones are easy to make. Try it sometimes. Or better still, come on down to Erin’s Deli and buy a few!

My Favorite Scones...

There are two scones that just might be my favorite ones…well, make that three. So, I guess my top three scones would be: Dark Chocolate Chip Scones with Orange Zest, Oatmeal Scones with raisins, cranberries, and chopped nuts, and Bacon, Cheddar, and Jalapeño Scones.

What I love about the Dark Chocolate Scones with Orange Zest is that both the taste of the dark chocolate chips and the orange zest really compliment the flavor of the scone. But it is the vanilla icing with orange zest that completes this scrumptious tasting scone.

As for the Oatmeal Scone – I like to think of it as a healthier scone with the oatmeal, raisins, cranberries and chopped pecan nuts. The top of the scone is brushed with melted butter, honey and brown sugar. I snack on this scone without feeling guilty.

The savory taste of the Bacon, Cheddar and Jalapeño Scone is totally different from the other scones. Who in their right mind doesn’t love bacon? The bacon and cheddar cheese are delicious together but it is the Jalapeño peppers that give this scone a pleasant punch. It brings the heat to the scone and the taste.  The scone is completed with melted butter, honey and brown sugar brushed on the top.

In the future, I will be playing around with other flavors along with the usual big sellers, Blueberry Scones and Chocolate Chip Scones.

Try one of these delicious scones at Erin’s Deli. See which one is your favorite and let us know! Whichever you choose, you won’t be disappointed.

Just call me Murphy!

I think my last name is Murphy. I also think my whole life has been subject to Murphy’s Law. “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.”

Most of my life, I have been under the Murphy’s Law adage. It has followed me like a storm cloud, with my children; even as I worked in the greenhouse and now in the kitchen. All these anecdotes will be for my future writing.

In the last two weeks – I took my car in because of a major recall that I neglected. Let’s just say that I could have run faster than my car was driving, even with my foot pressed down to the floor.

My car was at the dealership over a weekend and it took 8 hours on a Monday to complete the work. After I drove it for a day, the engine sensor flashed a message that the engine needed fluid. I promptly took it to Pennzoil for an oil change, they put in engine fluid, and the sensor went off, and I drove happily away.

A few days later my sensor flashed a message that my tire was low on air. By the time I arrived home it started to get flatter. My oldest son took my car and put air into the tire, actually in all four tires.  The next morning it was flat and my son came over and changed the tire for me. I owe him big time.

I ended up taking the car to A & M Family Tires on Rochester Road (yes, this is a free ad for them. They are clean and take cars in with or without an appointment. They work on tires and more. They have saved my butt a number of times).  After about 20 minutes, they rotated my tires and found nothing wrong with the tire that lost air. I hope they are right. The man charged me $20 bucks and I drove happily away. I have been using my car all day, no sensor warning and the tires all seem fine.

I am ready to go on vacation. My car has been a pain and I wish that I had a horse but I bet if I did, it would throw a shoe and me off of its back.

Yeah…Murphy’s Law is alive and well in my life. So maybe I should just call myself Mary Murphy!

The Hot Woody, Signature Sandwich

The Woody Signature Sandwich has been on the menu since Erin’s Deli opened. It’s named after the man who gutted the Deli and did all the construction work to make Erin’s Deli look the way it does today. The Woody Sandwich has been made and named in honor of Chris Gauntner!

The amazing Woody Sandwich is filled with a generous helping of Italian salami, capicola, roasted red peppers, sharp provolone cheese, arugula; balsamic aioli served heaping on homemade Ciabatta bread.

After one bite of this signature sandwich, you will understand why it is Erin’s best seller. Besides that it is so good and delicious. Erin’s Deli is the home of the Woody. One bite and you will get it!

Snickerdoodle Cookies

I usually made cookies or some type of after school treat for my kids when they were younger. It usually was chocolate chip cookies or a frozen treat of graham cracker sandwiches with chocolate pudding and peanut butter. Both were a big hit. I did make other types of cookies but I never made Snickerdoodle Cookies, until today.

Recently, I decided to make the Snickerdoodle Cookies for Erin's Deli. It was hot in the kitchen, so I made sure that I went in to bake my cookies early, before it got any hotter. I looked over the recipe, and jotted down the amounts of things that I needed after I decided to make 4x the regular recipe. I pulled out the butter, shortening, eggs, sugar, vanilla, flour, salt and the baking soda, and the cream of tartar.

I creamed the butter and shortening together, and then I added the sugar.  After, I added the eggs, vanilla, beat both together,  and added the flour mixture. When everything was mixed, I scraped the dough into another mixing bowl. I used an ice cream scooper, weighed each cookie, rolled them into a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, and placed them on a cookie sheet that had parchment and was sprayed with cooking oil. I placed the sheet in the Walk-In. After about 20 minutes, I transferred the cookies to other cookie sheets and baked them for about 12 minutes, or until they were finished.

I sampled the cookie and was able to send a picture of the Snickerdoodles with a smile and thumbs up to the Chef. The cookies can be purchased at Erin's Deli!