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| Tart and photograph by Susan Grant |
When one attends "Squam" one does not necessarily need to do anything. You can sit on the dock, sleep, go hiking. You don't have to attend any of the classes you signed up for. But if you decide not to attend one or any of the classes you would be missing out. Missing out on creative energy from the other participants or the creative connection you may make with the person sitting next to you or across the table.
When you register for Squam, you submit a list of classes, in order of preference, of those you wish to participate in. You will have the opportunity to participate in three classes. There were about 30 different types of classes I had to choose from. It wasn't difficult to choose. I new right away I wanted to participate in the food styling and photography class, being taught by Helene Dujardin of the blog Tartelette. I have been following Helene's blog for about a year. Her photographs are beautiful. Her stories funny, warm, touching and always enjoyable! It's where I learned of "Squam". I signed up for two classes taught by Helene. I am glad I did. Because we didn't have much time the first day to photograph with natural light due to rain. The second day we were much more fortunate.
In both classes we baked in the morning and photographed what we made in the afternoon. Day one was savory tarts. You could make a dry or wet tart, in any shape, with any of the ingredients that were available in the kitchen. We all made the same dough. No two tarts were the same. I chose to make a wet tart (aka quiche), in a rectangle shape. The filling was made of eggs, bacon, asparagus, minced onion, chopped red pepper, mozzarella cheese, salt, black pepper, parsley, cilantro, and thyme.
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| My savory tart getting ready to go into the oven. |
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| The tart at the top of this photo is spinach, ricotta tart topped with zucchini and tomatoes, using a flower shaped tart pan. |
Here is a photo of my quiche straight out of the oven. Clearly no food styling occurred!
Below are three of my favorite photos of my quiche.
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| This is my favorite photo. I like all the straight lines. |
Day two we baked scones. This item was more up my alley: it was something sweet. We all made the same dough for the scones. Once again we chose our "flavor's" based on the ingredients available. I chose to make chocolate raspberry scones as well as a rosemary lemon scone. A few of the other flavor combinations made by the other participants were ginger apricot, pear ginger, and raspberry lemon.
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| Chocolate raspberry scones, fresh out of the oven. |
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| Favorite photo of the chocolate raspberry scones. |
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| Favorite photo of the rosemary lemon scones. This photo was taken with a 35 mm film camera! |
The third class I participated in was titled "Knitting Salon". Knitting was no where to be seen on my list of class choices. I had not chosen knitting. What was I going to do?
I thought about contacting "Squam" and requesting a change. But I didn't want to be the unsatisfied customer. The class description said you could bring your own supplies or there would be supplies to available to purchase the day of the class. Was I going to bring my own or wait to see what was available the day of?
I emailed the class teacher, asking what was she bringing to sell. The response wasn't any help because I don't know one type of yarn from another. I was still in my predicament! I decided to bring my own supplies and pattern.
On my way out of town, I stopped at the local yarn/knitting shop to make my purchase of supplies. I went in with a list of the knitting needles I have had for many, many years. I asked for a project that was for a beginner and could be made with one of the size needles on my list. I left with a pattern for a knitted scarf with a cable down the center and two skeins of yarn. Cascade 220 to be exact. It's the type of yarn called for in the pattern I chose. It's a 100% peruvian wool. It's soft and it's orange. I was starting to get excited about the knitting project!
I made good progress during my morning class:
And I was making good progress since I've returned from vacation. That is until earlier this week. Something happened. I am not sure how the initial error was made. I should have left it alone until I could get to a knitting expert. But I didn't. I tried to fix it. I made it worse, and worse, and worse. I am going today to a knitting clinic. I am hoping for the best; that they can fix whatever happened and I don't lose any of the work I have completed. I am also hoping that the worse thing to happen is I lose only 10 rows of completed work. I am praying that I don't have to start at the beginning! Whatever the outcome, I will finish the scarf. I'm in no hurry. It's summer. It's hot. There is no need for a wool scarf for a few months.
I thought about contacting "Squam" and requesting a change. But I didn't want to be the unsatisfied customer. The class description said you could bring your own supplies or there would be supplies to available to purchase the day of the class. Was I going to bring my own or wait to see what was available the day of?
I emailed the class teacher, asking what was she bringing to sell. The response wasn't any help because I don't know one type of yarn from another. I was still in my predicament! I decided to bring my own supplies and pattern.
On my way out of town, I stopped at the local yarn/knitting shop to make my purchase of supplies. I went in with a list of the knitting needles I have had for many, many years. I asked for a project that was for a beginner and could be made with one of the size needles on my list. I left with a pattern for a knitted scarf with a cable down the center and two skeins of yarn. Cascade 220 to be exact. It's the type of yarn called for in the pattern I chose. It's a 100% peruvian wool. It's soft and it's orange. I was starting to get excited about the knitting project!
I made good progress during my morning class:
And I was making good progress since I've returned from vacation. That is until earlier this week. Something happened. I am not sure how the initial error was made. I should have left it alone until I could get to a knitting expert. But I didn't. I tried to fix it. I made it worse, and worse, and worse. I am going today to a knitting clinic. I am hoping for the best; that they can fix whatever happened and I don't lose any of the work I have completed. I am also hoping that the worse thing to happen is I lose only 10 rows of completed work. I am praying that I don't have to start at the beginning! Whatever the outcome, I will finish the scarf. I'm in no hurry. It's summer. It's hot. There is no need for a wool scarf for a few months.
