Miranda Bray was born in Truckee, Calif., and grew up in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. She moved to Hood River with her now-husband, Carey, in 1997. In 2012, she opened River Daze Café in downtown Hood River. She and her husband are also farmers, and source many of their veggies from their own farm and other local farms. River Daze is known for its made-from-scratch menu —including dressings and sandwich spreads, and even its bread and pastries.
On Sept. 3, 2010, my mother, Ethel Pochocki, suffered a stroke and passed away three months later. Since then, I have tried to honor that day annually by doing something special.
HILLSBORO (AP) — There’s mischief afoot in one suburban Portland neighborhood, but police say it doesn’t involve the typical spray paint or broken windows. No, we’re talking pastry here — maple bars smeared on cars, doughnuts left atop windshield wipers, pastries littering a yard.
When Swiffer WetJet hit the market several years ago, consumers went wild for it. I loved my Swiffer, but I did not like the price of the cleaning pads. And my readers didn’t like it, either. They sent me their tips on what they used instead. Some were clever, some too complicated, and some I just can’t repeat.
As the story goes, the local inventor invited the town’s pastry-makers to observe his latest invention: an automated pastry-making machine. To his dismay, the bakers deemed it unfit because it could not consistently turn out perfect pastries. Not one to give up easily, the inventor took one of the chefs aside and asked, “What do YOU do when you make a mistake?”
