Make it work!

Ok, 1st ... one of my fave shows is back tonight!!!! Tim Gunn and Frau Heidi are back for Project Runway on Bravo!!! Hence the title of this post, but ... I'm makin' it work too :-) ... Here are some pics from the road last week, then I'll drop a post with a brief description of the commercial shoot I did this weekend ... gonna say jusssssst enough to not get in trouble with any Food Network suits lol!!! Ok, so first last week I went to Rochester, NY to find out how tomatoes get into Francesco Rinaldi pasta sauce ... here it is coming off the line ...


And post water, oil, seasonings and PRE-Tomato ...


Now lemme tell ya about the hosts ... they were THE BEST!!! We as a team are on the road plenty trying to get the shows taped in time to meet the schedule given to us by the network. So, there are plenty of long days, long flights and long drives. It really is a bonus when we get somewhere and the people we are there to interview are just kind. The people at this factory, were way more than just kind. The crew felt like family. They made a huge Italian family style lunch for us and constantly asked if we needed anything. Usually we fend for ourselves, hunting down lunch and bringing our own water bottles to the set. This is actually totally ok with us, we are all adults and actually sometimes get excited to find a local spot to grab a bite. So, hospitality is not expected, but surely appreciated. And oh, wow, was it HOT in that factory!!! Consider the fact that the bottles in the above pic come off the line at almost 200 degrees ... imagine the temperature of the room ... crazy!!! So, here we are eating lunch and finishing up with espresso .. yes, I'm telling you they had a full on meal for us ready at lunch time ... we are all chillin' and in walks Erinn!!! She was the daughter of one of the people we worked with that day and we actually called her to say hi earlier because her dad said she was a fan of Food Network. She wasn't there though when we called, she was at work. So, I thought awww shux, we miss a chance to say thanks for watching and in she walks from her job at lunch with some treats ... ICE CREAM SUNDAES for everyone!!! Helped she worked at an ice cream spot ... So thanks to her, with the heat we were enduring in the factory, the Ice Cream hit the spot!!!

Then next day I hopped a flight to Portland, Oregon to pick some cherries ... these are my first two ...


It was hot here too ... and the host farmer's were again very kind and took us to lunch ... turns out the restaurant owner wanted to meet some foodies ... and there we were!! Romul's was the place, in The Dalles, OR ... we all piled in and ate like kings n queens on some yummy food and then headed back to work. I can't wait for you to see the cherry episode of How'd That Get On My Plate? They way maraschino cherries are made is verrrrrrry interesting. Here's some pics and hopefully video later ... enjoy!!!

This is me and Bob, he's talkin cherry pickin' and I'm listenin'!


Ok, now I'm pickin', but in order for you to see it on TV, there's (from left): A producer holdin' her clipboard making sure we do everything right; a production assistant (hidden) holding a sun reflector making sure even though it's sunny and hot out, I get an extra dose of light; a cameraman catching the memories, me picking cherries and trying to not sweat off the make-up artists' work; a makeup artist holding a tree limb down for the camera man; and a sound man making sure you hear the "snap" when i pull the cherry from the tree. Behind the still camera??? The p.r. dude Eric, he was there to make sure we got our facts right!! Thanks for the pics Eric!!!





After I picked 'em, time to dump 'em ... uhhh and I must admit to stuffing my bin with some cherries I didn't pick lol!!! It was hot out there!


Here I am at the processing plant, about to sort through cherries to weed out the bad ones ... I am now a terror at my local fruit stand ... it took me waaaay too long day before yesterday picking out cherries! One little trip to an orchard and now I think I'm a pro at my local spot ... coincidentally called "The Orchard" lol. That's Brenda next to me, her family has been in the cherry biz for generations.


That's it, I hope to get that video up so you can see some behind the scenes stuff from the shoot ... then I'm also gonna post about the commercial shoot I had with Aida this past weekend ... it'll start popping up soon, so I wanna give ya some scoop before everyone sees it. Check in a bit later, for now ... I have a pineapple upside-down cake to make for a new show, more on that later as well!