black raspberry ice cream

sweet treats

applesauce

parsnips? yes please!

missing summer

la vache microcreamery

adventures of an amateur gardener: early july

adventures of an amateur gardener: may 29. 2013

I haven't photographed in the garden for over a month, but things have progressed a good bit since the last post, so I figured it was about time.  

A bunch of radishes, planted back in mid-March

Lettuce mix from seed

Red beets, planted back in March

ice cream sandwiches

It has actually been weeks and WEEKS since I have posted anything on my blog.  It's shameful, I know!  We've been pretty busy getting settled into our new home, so I haven't made much time for blogging.  Oops!  But, things are good and exciting and I am here to share a few delicious photos of some treats I made, shot with my brand new full frame camera.  It's amazing and wonderful and a dream to shoot so I think you can expect me around these parts more often :)

PS the black background is my new chalkboard wall in our kitchen.  Can't decide whether I'm more excited about writing on it or photographing in front of it...because I'm really excited about both!

sweet potato & apple soup

I'm going to be able to start working from home a bit more, which means more opportunity to make a hot (or cold...either way) lunch, and photograph it in natural light!  I love soup, and there's a big box of sweet potatoes in the garage, so I decided to attempt a sweet potato concoction.  After doing a bit of searching (and eliminating recipes that required ingredients not on-hand) I decided on a sweet potato and apple soup.  My method, based on multiple recipe findings, is below...

Ingredients:

3 very large sweet potatoes, washed

2 apples, peeled and diced

1 large or 2 small onions, diced

1 TB butter

salt and pepper to taste

1 qt low-sodium chicken broth

Method:

Heat oven to 400F.  Line a cookie sheet with foil, prick potatoes with fork, and place on pan in oven.  Cook until potatoes are soft (I started with 40 minutes, took them out of the oven and sliced in half, but they weren't even close to finish and it took another 45 minutes.  They could have cooked even longer!).

While potatoes are cooking, melt butter in large pot.  Cook apples for a few minutes, until they begin to soften.  Add onions and continue to cook.  Season with salt and pepper.

When potatoes have finished cooking, slice in half and scoop the flesh into the pot.  Add chicken stock and warm through.  Remove from heat, then blend with immersion blender (or in batches in a regular blender).  Enjoy!

This soup is gluten-free and could easily be made vegetarian or vegan by substituting vegetable broth and olive oil for the chicken broth and butter.  I think you can play with it (I did!) to see what you'll come up with!

a sweet rainbow

t*i*l*t

• my new iPhone!!  Finally joined the club.  Loving how beautiful and fast it is.
• Bejeweled Blitz (often on said phone)...which I should say is more of an addiction than a love.  Shameful.
• this ^ beautiful box of macarons!  A friend dropped them off for me to photograph and they're so pretty I never want to eat them...except I do because they all sound SO good (six different flavors!)
• Etsy...I will go broke shopping on there if I'm not careful.  Evin and I will soon be moving into our first house (!!!) and I desperately want to decorate it with every sweet watercolor print and cutesy thing I find. (plus...psst...I just opened up a shop!)
• nasone's photostream on Flickr.  He makes beautiful, inspiring photos all around the world with a handful of film cameras (and can develop color film beautifully from what I've seen!)
• the fact that the election is finally over!!

an idea

I'm entertaining an idea.  Earlier today, I found myself distraught over what to eat for lunch on any given day (I pack lunch for work, a task I despise, and usually end up with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich every. single. day).  I end up this way frequently...without ideas of something new to try, it's always back to the same old stand-bys.  This has got to stop.  Especially now...it's summer, season-of-plenty.  Eating out is expensive.  Cooking is not that hard and it's rewarding.  So why don't I ever do it?
One reason is that I'm busy...I work all day during the week, work a second job two nights a week, play softball another night, and Friday-Sunday I'm with Evin.  But that shouldn't mean I can't make time to whip something up...
And another thing...all winter long I kept pledging I was going to work on my food photography and get good at it.  I bought a book, I was lent another stack of books, and I intended to comb through thrift stores looking for props...which, guess what?  Never happened.  Again-it's summer, ingredients are beautiful, it's light early in the morning til late at night...no more excuses!  Shoot beautiful food!
So...my idea?  A 365-esque project in food.  I already know this is a tall order...hence the -ESQUE modifier.  Somewhere in between a 52 weeks project and a 365.  I just don't know what you call that.  I think it would be really beneficial on a lot of levels...just haven't decided for sure yet!

strawberries in the summertime

t.i.l.t

• Jose Villa--I'm stating the obvious, and I'm pretty sure ANYONE who has seen his work will agree--but I just love what he does.  Just look at this post...those colors and subjects make for the happiest combination I've seen all week.
• dreaming about Ireland...we booked our tickets the other day (see post) and I'm writing down any and all things in preparation for the trip, even getting suggestions from Irish Twitter accounts...awesome!
• Horse Feathers...perfect spring music if I do say so myself
• warm weather and gaining an hour of daylight this weekend!
• cupcakes on film...I saw this photo earlier this week and it's making me crazy about shooting color film, and of course there's this photo by abbytrysagain with the dreamiest colors, and then that Jose Villa link above features tons of lovely cupcake photos on film..........(originally, this bullet point was just going to be the first photo, but it turns out I really do LOVE cupcakes)

the wine kitchen

blackberry sorbet

things i love thursday

• Puffy vests.  So perfect for late autumn, winter, and early spring walks...and I take a lot of walks nowadays (see third bullet point below)
• Sunny, freshly snow-covered mornings.  Gorgeous light bouncing happily off all that sparkly new snow...perfection.
• How active my dog keeps me.  In order to keep him manageable (read: worn out) I have to spend a lot of time outside doing things with him, walking, playing, etc....stuff I definitely wouldn't be doing by myself!  Finley, as crazy as you make me sometimes, thanks for keeping me from spending too much time on my butt :)
• This happy dress.  Total impulse buy at Target this weekend, oopsie.  Can't wait to frolic around in it!
• Donuts, especially frosted ones...I miss Carol Lee!  The grocery store variety in a plastic bag (above) tastes pretty good, but doesn't quite compare...
• Having a negative scanner!  Being able to process my own black and white film and have my color film processed quickly and cheaply in town without messing with prints...I'm very excited about it.

strawberry nutella crepes

mint