We have been fortunate to pick up some very ripe, local strawberries this week. On Monday we drove Barb’s parents to their home in southern Illinois, and on the way stopped in the little town of Belle Rive and bought a couple of quarts from an Amish woman with a roadside stand. On our way back on Tuesday, she wasn’t there, so we stopped just off the highway in a town called Richview, and bought some more. At both places they were $3.50/quart! Then last night I went to the Webster Groves Farmer’s Market on the way home from the studio, and picked up the box above, also grown in southern Illinois. The price jumped to $5/quart, but still very reasonable. There is nothing like in-season ripe strawberries. Eating them transports me back to my childhood, at Grandma Ruth’s house. They need no sugar, and I prefer no cream or anything else to diminish their wonderfulness.

I’m very happy to have a new client, Kräftig beer, but also happy that I finally figured out how to type an ümlaut. (It’s pretty simple, just hold down the letter in question, and options will pop up that can be used with that letter) Mike Dillon of HDO Partners contacted me about this a few weeks ago, and we had not worked together since he was at Rodgers Townsend several years ago. His new agency is in a cool space in mid-town, and since opening for business a few months ago has landed this new beer account. Billy Busch, one of the Anheuser-Busch family members, has started this new enterprise with big ambitions. He wants to compete with Budweiser and Bud Light, rather than position the brand as a micro-brew. I’ll drink to that!

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to work with Eric Brenner, a local chef and entrepreneur. He needed some photography to update the packaging for Bold Organics pizza, which hit the market earlier this year and is poised to really take off in many more stores. It is a very unique product, because it is pizza for people who can’t eat regular pizza due to dietary restrictions. This has no gluten, egg, or milk. We were skeptical that something lacking such essential elements for pizza would taste any good, but were very pleasantly surprised by its deliciousness. The crust has a nice crunch and flavor, thanks to an addition of cornmeal and herbs. The toppings are generous and tasty, so I’m sure it will be a big success.

Sunday evening, needed something to go with leftover pizza. I had bought some ramps as a pizza ingredient, but since the stormy weather limited my pizza making activities the night before, the ramps were still around. I looked up a recipe for ramps, and it said to sauté the bulbs in some bacon fat and water for a while, and add the green tops to wilt. We had a small bit of pork left from our half pig we bought last fall, which I thought was bacon, but it turned out to be ham. I chopped it up and rendered the fat in some olive oil, and added the ramps bulbs.

Succotash with ramps and smoked ham

There were some ears of corn in the frig, as well as fresh English peas. After removing the ham, I sautéed the corn and peas for a bit, added salt and pepper, and voila, a very odd but wonderful side dish to serve with leftover pizza.

We photographed some puppies for the current issue of St. Louis Magazine, and as always, you never know what you are going to get, as F. Gump might say.

May cover, St. Louis magazine

How many people does it take to wrangle a puppy?

We photographed Golden Retriever pups and English bulldog pups, and the Golden made the cut. They were all cute, and were well wrangled by Trish Seifried and her helpers.

My friend Brigham sent me this link. If the shoe fits…

Shutter Club group, photo by Kristi Lenz

Last week I hosted a group of photographers from Shutter Club St. Louis. They are a small group of portrait and wedding photographers who have met each other in various photography classes around town, and get together regularly to have fun and/or learn something. The topic was food photography, and after a tour of the studio, I showed them a step-by-step of a typical food photo for publication. I had told them to each bring a fruit or vegetable, and they all did. After the presentation, I turned them loose in the prop room and let them spread out in the studio, and they got to work making some very nice photos!

Photo by Crystal Rolfe

Photo by Pamela Schniepp

Photo by Kym Birkenkamp

We are finishing our third day of shooting for the June issue of Dierbergs Everybody Cooks magazine. There were several grilling recipes, so we had the grill going just outside the door for the first couple of days. My colleague Greg Landrum took a few photos, and I thought I’d share them here.

Enhancing grill marks on zucchini

The set

Grilling the chicken thighs

Finished shot

Shelled fava beans

Fava shells dwarfing beans

I was at the grocery picking up a few things for Easter dinner, and spotted the last 2 boxes of fava beans. They are one of my favorite legumes, and I prepared them the way I usually do, which is adapted from a Patricia Wells recipe: take an equal amount of fava beans and pecorino cheese, toss with a handful of fresh herbs like oregano and parsley, add a lemon juice olive oil dressing and top with salt and hot red pepper flakes. The amount of favas/shells is alarmingly small. It takes about 4 lbs of lava pods to produce a small bowlful of bliss.

Guys Cook Night, where the guys cook and the ladies relax. Bruce and Karen hosted a GCN last weekend at their hilltop home in the country. When we planned the menu a couple of months ago, I suggested making an asparagus dish, since it should be in season about now. Turns out that Bruce and Karen have a nice patch growing in their garden, so I got to use the freshest possible stalks.

Home grown asparagus

World's smallest slider

Walt brought an appetizer of micro mini buns with a slice of his homemade sausage and various condiments.They were small but mighty. One of the toppings was their famous pear chutney, made with Mark’s Kieffer pears. A bottle of Lassalle champagne went well with it.

After the asparagus, which I served with Parmesan, chopped raw tips, and chilled olive oil, we had Walt’s fresh pea soup. It was thick and luscious, served with Parmesan crisps and a 2005 JP Brun Beaujolais, Moulin-au-Vent.

Butter glazed asparagus with fresh tips and chilled olive oil

Bruce made a daube of lamb, using two separate meat stocks. We served it with mushrooms over a potato/celeriac mash with toasted sun chokes. The sauce had wonderful depth of flavor. When we decided to serve lamb, Walt suggested that we drink Bordeaux, so we drank it very well. Bruce opened a 2002 Cos d’Estournel and Walt decanted a 1986 Mouton Rothschild.

A bonus wine that was served with blueberry cake dessert was a 1964 Chateau Roumieu, a sweet Bordeaux that a neighbor gave Walt recently. Not expecting much, since it was not stored in a cellar, it surprised us by being quite good.

It was a beautiful setting for a beautiful meal, and after a tour of Bruce’s young vineyard of Marechel Foch vines, we headed off into the sunset, well fed and watered.

Barb, Karen, and Marcia surveying the estate