10.20.2009

Feeling Patchy




We are outfitted and decked out with pumpkins now at all of our Boulanges. After deciding this year that we would do it right and make a day trip to Half Moon Bay’s Art & Pumpkin Festival, we waited through the traffic, hand-picked our pumpkins from the patch, filled the CR-V with hay and gourds and made the delivery rounds. But we didn’t leave without tasting a few pumpkin-inspired creations and checking out the festivities. Here’s a list of things we liked:



1. “Hot Tamales” from the Cougar Boosters of Half Moon Bay. With Mole they were delish!
2. Live country music you could line dance to.
3. People in costumes.
4. Hand Blown glass pumpkins in all different shapes and sizes, made right there in town.
5. The great Pumpkin weigh-off….the winning pumpkin from Iowa weighed in at 1,658 lbs (The farmer who brought it here blew out a tire in Wyoming just to get it to the festival.)
6. Pumpkin Rolls with copious amounts of cream cheese frosting.
7. Everything pumpkin, from pumpkin ice cream to pumpkin mac-n-cheese.
8. And everyone loves a parade.

And after a long day of careful placement of hay bales and figuring out the right big pumpkin to little pumpkin ratio for displaying, a hot apple cider hit the spot as we headed home. So we suggest loading up on your own picks from the patch and letting that festive fall feeling in.

10.13.2009

Warm Fuzzy

One of the best parts of being in the boulanges, we think, is getting to be a part of our customers’ routines, and by extension...part of their lives. It is often the case that not only are we so used to seeing someone that we can grab their favorite pastry and start their espresso drink before they get to the register, but that we’re also privy to the stress they are feeling because they have a midterm coming up, or we’re elated to hear that their wife just had a baby. In any event, it gives us the “warm fuzzies” when our guests let us be part of these triumphs and pitfalls, even if only as spectators.

So our cup runneth over when we found out two of our former regulars from the Boulange de Cole came back in to visit a favorite from their old neighborhood and he got on one knee and proposed to her…

“We went to La Boulange de Cole for coffee and breakfast. When we lived a few blocks away from Boulange, we would go there three or four times a week for coffee and breakfast. I still go for lunch frequently because I work in the neighborhood, but this was the first time Humu went there since moving away from the neighborhood. John and Tim behind the counter greeted her enthusiastically. John topped our coffee drinks with awesome barista artwork. Tim put our name in for our order as some variation on Jefferson because the capital of Missouri is Jefferson City. (This requires some explanation. Some other time. You’re here to read about the proposal.)

After we ordered, we stood in our usual place waiting for our drinks. I took Humu’s hand, looked her in the eye, and got down on one knee. I told her that I loved her, that she was the most important thing in my life, and that I wanted to grow old with her. I asked her to marry me. She didn’t say “Yes.” Instead, she answered in a variation of our favorite Bernard Purdie quotation. She said, teary-eyed, “I would like that very much.”

(This is an excerpt from their blog, which you can check out at http://trottomatic.com/our-wedding/the-proposal/ )

Rich and Humu, congratulations to you both. We’re very happy for you!