Oy vey.

Holy smokes, it’s been busy at the bakery!  Market season is swing (mind you, not full swing, as we’ve still got two more to add to the schedule,) the street has been repaved and reopened, and the lovely spring weather… well, so much for that last bit.  Hail at the end of May?  Really?  Aw, whatever.  We’re still making ice cream.

honey sesame snaps with lemon zest ice cream

 

What’s new in the freezer?  How about some salted caramel ice cream?  Oh, and we’ve kept a bit of the liquid caramel on hand, in order to add a shot or two to your scoop.  Mexican chocolate ice cream is my new favorite.  I’ve always loved the grainy, cinnamony sweetness of Ibarra.  Um, dare I mention that no harm is done to a scoop of the Mexican chocolate ice cream if you choose to add a shot of caramel.  Rhubarb is still the kitchen favorite, but this may be temporary, as we’re working up a buttermilk strawberry ice cream this week.

Forget the rain!  Bring your soggy self in for a bite of cool, creamy goodness.

Cold Play

ice cream sandwiches

I’m not sure I’d recognize a Coldplay song if it was on my ipod (oh my, maybe there is a Coldplay song on my ipod… let me check.)  But Cold Play?  We’re familiar with that.  The last few weeks have brought a flurry (ar, ar) of excitement as we churn out (just full of awful puns today) our first few batches of ice cream.  Saturday was the evidence we needed – proof if you will, that warm weather is not merely a pipe dream.  Rather, summer sun is a  fast approaching reality which we are eager to embrace.  So let’s go!

lemonade

The freezer is on, with settings finely tuned to keep our custardy

ice cream soft enough to scoop, but firm enough to press between two wafer cookies.  Zesty sparkling lemonade and iced toddy coffee are on the menu, too.

iced toddy

And just what sort of ice cream flavors have we been consuming concocting at the bakery?  Well, here’s a rundown for the week:

rhubarb swirl – simple vanilla bean custard swirled with our own rhubarb preserves. The sweet creaminess of the ice cream contrasts beautifully with the sweet-tart nature of the rhubarb.

rhubarb ice cream

 

lemon zest – simple lemon custard ice cream packed with lemon zest. We love this flavor with our honey sesame snaps.

Sterling coffee – our friends at Sterling roast miniscule batches of beans. I can’t swear to it, but I’m pretty sure an entire batch went into the shots they pulled for this ice cream. It’s full of super intense roasted coffee flavor, and sits nicely between two lil’ mama pieces.

Brownie bit – vanilla bean custard sprinkled with pieces of our chocolate cheesecake brownies. This would not be ruined by placing a scoop atop one of the actual brownies for a mini brownie sundae of sorts.

Vanilla bean - simple creamy custard scented with vanilla bean.

Traffic on NW 23rd might be a beatch at the moment, but maybe you’ll be willing to walk an extra block or two for some sweet, delicious Two Tarts ice cream?  Think of it as burning off the calories in advance.

The Weather Down There.

Delivering to New Seasons Arbor Lodge

You know, we have the pleasure of seeing a great many fun and funny things in our daily wanderings.  There are dogs who wait patiently outside our door for treats, customers who get hung up on one, and only one variety of cookie, and regulars who have the ability to deciper the insider acronyms on our chalkboard.  But you know who makes our day, our week, and our year?  The wee ones.

the other side of the case

Available in all shapes, sizes, and personalities, the children who cross our paths each day never fail to give us pause.  Some are incredibly shy.  Others head right for the kitchen, eager to be a part of the action.  Gnomes who leave fingerprints, noseprints, and sometimes entire faceprints on the glass.

party tarts

 

Here’s a shoutout to the gnomes who brighten our day.  Thank you.

Ruby Thursday

Marven's Rhubarb

As if we didn’t love Marven already.  Last Thursday we received an email message from Mr. Winters suggesting that we might receive a pre-market delivery of fresh rhubarb.  As long as we were ok with a small “delivery fee,” we’d have rhubarb in time for the opening day of market. 

Round about noon, Marven’s sister brought ten pounds of the juiciest, loveliest rhubarb I’ve ever seen.  After chopping said rhubarb, my rhubarb-stained trousers bear testament to the fine nature of this spring’s crop.

rhubarb conserve in the making

Sugar, a little star anise, and some vanilla bean were added.  Slow cooking for two hours made the bakery even more fragrant than usual.  And now, we’ve got a week’s worth of rhubarb conserve.  Rhubarb gems were first, of course.   The rhubarb class is full, but we may add a second night in the next few weeks.

So come enjoy Oregon’s first fruit crop of 2010!  The Rhubarb Gems will be in stock until Marven runs out or goes into a diabetic coma from eating an overload of cookies.

Bacisaurus Rex

Owning a business next to what is arguably the city’s coolest toy store adds a layer of daily fun to life at Two Tarts.  Upon arrival one morning, check out what was waiting on our window ledge!

baicsaurus rex

He looked pretty forlorn, and it was obvious to us that  this handsome fellow had been accidentally left behind by his friends.  Hungry, to be sure (I mean, he’s a dino after all,) we gave his a Hazelnut Baci to enjoy.

 

           Although he appreciated the cookie, it was clear that Bacisaurus Rex was in need of some more cultured company.  He likes classical, we like Bowie.   What can I say?  Lucky for us, our dear friend George happened by with his mother.  Such great timing!  George was sporting some green beads and promptly set about adorning our guest. 

George and B-Rex

After a brief bit of negociation involving said “fee” for the room and board of our new buddy, George adopted our friend B-Rex as his own.

Boys and their toys.  It never changes, does it?

Market Basket

Tomatoes at PFM

 

One week and counting!  Portland Farmers’ Market is right around the corner, with PSU Saturday market opening the 20th of March.  We’ll be there, enjoying the new, expanded footprint.  After much discussion and negociating with the city, PFM has garnered an additional block for the Saturday farmer’s market.  What’s that mean for you?  Well, mainly that you’ll no longer need to drag your sleep-deprived self out of bed at 7am on a Saturday in order to beat the crowds that form by 9am or so.  Sweet weekend slumber!  You’ll see a few new vendors as well, judiciously chosen by the PFM staff.  Ah, but here’s to elbow room!  Space to navigate the strollers, baskets and summer tourists that abound.  The ability to circle the market in search of the prettiest peach or the freshest greens.  Oh sweet Jesus! 

Come visit us al fresco next Saturday, at the Portland State University campus.  And check out the new interactive map on the PFM website!  www.portlandfarmersmarket.org  You now have the ability to find your favorite vendor before you get to market. 

farm fresh rhubarb

We’ve already put in our order for rhubarb and honey with Winter Farms.  Marven says he’s looking forward to finally getting his hands on some Two Tarts cookies. (Marven Winter has a ridiculous sweet tooth, and a wardrobe of vegetable shirts that keeps us guessing from week-to-week just what he will wear.)

It’s been hard to be without the market, but thanks to the kindness of owner Barb Foulk, we’ve been able to keep Freddy Guys hazelnuts on hand all winter long.  Barb drives in from Monmouth every two weeks or so, delivering boxes of freshly roasted hazelnuts to her Portland accounts during the off season.  We’re hooked on Freddy Guys hazelnuts.  Taste them, and you’ll see why they’ve induced a near-religious fervor in our kitchen.  Barb and her husband Fritz farm 120 acres of hazelnuts, and unlike most growers, process their own harvest.  They’ve been to Italy twice now to pick out the best possible roaster for their hazelnuts.  It makes an unbelievable difference in the finished product here at the bakery. 

Enjoy your sleep, and we’ll see you Saturday…

The (Tart) is Back

“C-Ya.”  That’s what my kids call her.  To me, she’s my beloved “Ceener-Bean-Her-Balleriner.”  Yes, as kids, we were quite cruel with the nicknames.  (You don’t want to know what my siblings called me.) And just the other day, we were discussing quite politely the merits of the “Bitch of the Universe” vs. “Bitch of the World” title. (She says she gets the Miss Universe one.)

C-Ya

In any case, my sister Cecelia is visiting from Down Under!  She’s one of the original “Tarts,” and responsible for the name of our business.  In fact, Cecelia has an entire block of fictional business names, and has for some time dreamed of a world where each and every one of them would coexist.  “Our Lady of Guacamole,” which of course has the tag line “Pray for Haas.”  Then there’s the coffee cart called “Express-Ho,” which unfortunately was ruined by the advent of the bikini barrista chain.  Hmmm… they must have overheard us at cocktail hour, planning our takeover of the foodservice universe.  The cheese shop on the block would naturally be “Cheesus!”  and of course we’d need a bank to fund all of this, so we’d call it “Jesus Savings and Loan.”  Jesus saves, and so should you!  It’s really difficult to tell that we spent 12 years at Catholic School, isn’t it?  I bet Mrs Troxler, that amazing English teacher, had no idea her efforts would lead to writing such as this.

So how does all of our sophmoric banter translate to kitchen goodness?  Well, Cecelia has always been the Progenitor of New Cookies in the business.  I really do miss her, an not just when I am at a loss to come up with a 13th variety for the case.  The last few weeks have seen some lovely newbies… rosemary pinenut “bikkies,” florentines filled with chocolate ganache, and hopefully the return of “Mother’s Little Helpers.”  Those are rum-raisin, for those of you who don’t have children.

Alas, Cecelia returns to Australia on Friday, so come visit the bakery this week and enjoy a treat from the original “Tart.”

Lunch Buddies

lunch buddies

 

So yeah, contary to popular opinion, we don’t eat sugar every minute of every day.  Truth be told, we get a little… dare we say tired of sweet stuff?  Lunch is a big deal for us - a small opportunity to make the most of all things savory.  No Tart knows how to lunch it up like our resident lunch buddies, Lindsay and Jessica.  Lindsay’s lunches consist of food vignettes remniscent of her midwest upbringing - tiny containers of peas, the cutest, simplest sandwiches ever, and maybe the perfect  apple.  Jessica is ramen-lovin’, kale-inhaling madwoman.  An alternative luncher, to be sure.  You can find them lunching together at the counter most afternoons, heads bent together in laughter, not unlike a couple of third-grade schoolgirls in the cafeteria.  It’s a lovely sight.

Spring in February?

spring.

 

My friend Jean is trying to kill her rhubarb.  OK, maybe “kill” is a poor choice of words.  Let’s opt for “contain,” or “curb the spread of.” (oh, scratch that - it leads one to think of infectuous disease.)  Jean is trying to “contain” her rhubarb.  I, on the other hand, have managed to kill mine.  So those of you who know me can imagine my joy when I came home to find two gallon containers full of healthy, leafy rhubarb stock at the top of the stairs.  Ready to plant (or kill – your choice.)

For me, rhubarb = spring.

Here at the bakery, it’s the first of the local fruits (is rhubarb a fruit?  Can you call a tuber a fruit?  I’d better do a bit of research, I fear.)  Rhubarb gets it rolling, followed by strawberries, cherries, peaches, berries, etc.  Although we love our passionfruit and our lemon, what we really crave is the weekly wondering of what we’ll bring home from market.  And then, once we’ve brought it into the kitchen, what will become of it?

daffydills

This year, Lindsay and I have already discussed “rhubarb gems,” the spring version of the apple gems we made last fall.  We receive frequent requests for the Roo-Bars we made last spring, and rhubarb rugelach are lovely, delicate things. 

So here’s to spring!  I mean, doesn’t it feel as though it’s here already? (oh lord, I’m pretty sure I just tempted fate to serve up a week-long spate of record cold temps.)

Mini Me

Mini Cap Creams

Winter’s relative calm has given way to guerilla marketing at Two Tarts.  We’ve been working the demo counters at various New Seasons accounts, returning a bit of the

Mini PB Cream vs. Mama PB Cream

 loving support they have shown us in 2009.  In order to sample our wares, we created an even tinier version of our already tiny treats.  Who on earth could resist?  I just want to pinch their sugary cheeks…

As much as we would love to have a marketing budget for concepts such as print ads or radio spots, it seems tht our money is best spent getting cookies into the mouths of Two Tarts virgins.  Mini Me Caps and PB Creams seem to do the trick. Oh, and a heartfelt, chest-thumping thank you to all of our regular customers who have spread the love (handles?) by indoctinating friends and family to our wares.  We would be nothing without you.

xoxo

The Tarts