Short yet sweet

Keeping it simple this week.
Some of the stuff that we've been making recently.
Shortbread flowers
(Something bright and colorful to make up for all of the rain.)

Lemon tarts

Working on hundreds of mini Eclairs.

Fresh Fruit Tarts.

Seems like a good way to get one's daily serving of fruit to me ;-)

Wet , wet, and more damp.

It's kind of what defines western Oregon when you think about it:
Rain, rain, and more rain.

It's not that we really have more rain than other places or worse weather;
to the contrary it's actually fairly mild around these parts.
(translation-very few days of icy roads)
After a while though the grey, cool, dampness gets to you a little.

You crave brilliant sunshine and warm temperatures.
Somewhere out there, you know there are flowers blooming.

Okay, so maybe they only exist in a hotel room being set up for a reception
but still they are out there.

It's kind of funny really, outdoors there's so much grey and dampyet indoors Spring is in full bloom.So I've decided that I'm going to use my imagination a little.
I'm going to go to a place where the sun is always shining
and the flowers are always blooming,
whether they are real or made of sugar. Sure, the "sunshine" may actually just be from fluorescent lights
and the flowers may or may not be real
but it's a place full of brilliance and colour.
I know there's a place...some place,

somewhere out there;

where the gnomes have finished working for the day and the fairies have come out to play.

Somewhere out there Spring and Summer lasts year round.

Yes, it's a pretty nice place.

Still, the grey and damp can be beautiful in its own way too
and it really does make you appreciate the nice weather
when it shows up.

Sweet Science at OMSI After Dark

Although it was cloudy again in Portland,
the moon was clear and bright...
(and evidently hurtling towards earth.)
Sweet Science was the theme at OMSI After Dark Wednesday night.
(which may explain why the moon broke out of its orbit.)

Yes, there were "Peeps........in..........Space" (think Muppets)
and candy was being set on fire
while Gummi bears were being blown up;
all in the name of sweet, sweet Science.

Of course, we were not about to be left out of the fun.
There was this rather scrumptious game involving most of the Periodic table.
(We didn't have enough space on the board for all of the elements to fit,
sorry Mendelevium & Berekelium-maybe next time.)

*There were a couple of people who,
just for their own satisfaction and because they could,
named off all of the elements.*
(Ah, science geeks)

Here's some of our other sweet action.

There was also an exhibit focusing on the work
involved in designing music,
video games, and roller coasters among other things.
Above this game there was this spinning light,
a little mesmerizing.

Chocolate Craft Studio was doing demos involving
sugar glass blowing.

I didn't catch who it was doing the sugar paste sculptures
but it's nice work.

I was especially fond of the Octopus.
How cute is he!

Here's a couple of the other "glass" sugar sculptures.

with the random Lego robot because, after all, it is OMSI.

Close up of a sugar daffodil-at least Spring is showing indoors.

There's also an exhibit looking at the secrets and science of
Ancient Egypt
so my pastry chef came up with a cake design around that theme.
(We couldn't take pictures inside that exhibit but there was some really cool stuff there.)

"How sweet it is." Jackie Gleason
Of course, all of this tasty sweetness comes down to two molecules

coming together to form the basis of the 6th food group...
right after chocolate which is the 5th.

"The whole is greater than the sum of its parts."Aristotle
and very tasty too.

note: not to actual scale-the atoms grew a little as I was putting them on the cake ;>