Don't Choke!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Look at the cutest little thing you've ever seen! I was thrilled to be able to hold him for a while this evening. Mom, can I please have one? Pretty pretty please?

Monday, June 1, 2009

Over Memorial Day Weekend, I went to Orcas Island with some friends. I had a little bit of time to myself at the start of the trip, and got rest that I so desperately needed. It was absolutely rejuvenating and beyond glorious.

Details from the ferry ride over

The rest of these are from the top of Mount Constitution. I got up early to go capture the sunrise from the top, but unfortunately the very tippy top of the mountain was enshrouded in clouds. While it was cool to stand in the middle of clouds, it wasn't all that great to take pictures. So, I played around with textures some more on some of the more foggy ones.

Laura's Family

This past weekend I spent some time taking pictures for one of my old coworkers, Laura. She and her boyfriend, Jameel, have the cutest daughter ever! They were lucky enough to have Jameel's daughter there as well, so they took some family shots as well. It helps to have such gorgeous people to photograph!

How can you not love chunky baby rolls!

Catching Up on Food

Sunday, May 31, 2009

I know I haven't been the best blogger lately. I don't have all that much time, nor do I want to spend every waking moment on a computer. Having to sacrifice the future of my eyes at work for 8 hours a day is enough, so blogging isn't exactly highest priority. However, I have had several people give me a good kick in the pants for not doing it, so I swear I'm going to catch up. I have at least 3 more posts waiting in the wings, just waiting to be typed. I'm not quite done editing all the photos, but I promise I'll throw more your way once they are finished.

In this post, I am going to just show you pictures of food that I have taken over the past month to share with you. I don't feel like typing out all of the recipes, and I know that if I wait to post these until I get that urge, these will never see the light of day. Thus, here's some lovely food porn for you. If you want a recipe, just ask.

The following two cookies are from the Macrina Bakery (based in Seattle) cookbook. My mom gave it to me last Christmas, and I have to say it is one of my favorite baking books. SUCH wonderful baked goods, and I've learned a lot from reading it. Yes, I actually sit down and read cookbooks cover to cover like a novel.

Chocolate Chip Cookies (I think I actually still prefer the Nestle Toll House recipe)

Molasses Ginger Cookies (these were A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.)

Soba Noodle Bowl with a Garlic Ginger Asian Dressing

Gateau aux Noix (French Walnut Cake-- which I actually didn't like at all. It tasted like bread but had the texture of cake, which just grossed me out. Jess and her family liked it, so I guess it wasn't all that bad.)

Cutie Patooties

One of my old coworkers asked me take some pictures at her daughter's birthday party a few weeks ago. These 8-9year olds were getting the spa treatment and needed to document how beautiful they were. Aren't they gorgeous!!!

Oh my word, I'm dying

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

From laughter that is. I just checked my Flickr account stats and saw that one of the referring sites was one that includes a naughty word in the title, but it was all about cilantro. I am dying laughing here, so if you want a good shock, just go to the site. You'll see one of my pictures being used in a place I never imagined even existed. The best part is definitely the caption. However, do not go to it if naughty words and innuendos offend you. It's clean enough if you're like me, but if you have a prudish slant, you might want to stay away.

Also, here's another one of my pics being used. Scroll all the way to the bottom for it. It's really not even a good picture either. Weird people at Seattle Beer News.

For My Mom & Sis

Monday, May 18, 2009

Because they have been bemoaning the fact that I haven't posted anything in a long time, I'm going to just send some eye candy your way. I have a lot of back editing to do of photos, and am feeling slightly overwhelmed with the amount I have to show you all. However, I'm taking a vacation soon and am hoping to catch up on it then. Until then, here's some pictures I took at the Bellevue Botanical Gardens a few weeks ago. I've used Photoshop for a while and am constantly figuring out more fun things to do. It's a really slow learning curve when you teach yourself, but it's also a huge sense of accomplishment when you do learn something new. Currently, I am working with textures and creating a "fine art" feel to pictures with them. Here are my first 4 attempts:

Chocolate Stout Cake with Irish Cream & Chocolate Frostings

Thursday, April 23, 2009

For Easter, my mom wanted a chocolate cake. I had been planning on making just a normal chocolate cake. Nothing fancy. However, I just couldn't do it. I had to experiment. So, this cake was born. I made a chocolate cake with stout beer, which actually just tasted like a richer version of chocolate cake. I also had to have two frostings-- Irish Cream for the inside and a plain old chocolate for the outside. The recipe below is a few different ones that I cobbled together for the final masterpiece. It definitely was a highly successful cake!

I found the Chocolate Stout Cake recipe at Smitten Kitchen, but she used the original one from Bon Appetit (which incidentally is a magazine my dad requested for his birthday-- I know, odd to me too).

Chocolate Stout Cake w/ Irish Cream & Chocolate Frosting

1 cup stout (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
2 cups all purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream

Cake prep:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray 2 8" round cake pans well. Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in large bowl to blend. Using electric mixer, beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter evenly split into prepared pans. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan, then turn cakes out onto a rack.

Once cool, carefully cut each cake in half horizontally. Lay one half on a cake stand and line remaining platter with parchment paper to keep it clean as you frost the cake. Spread a thin layer of the Irish Cream frosting and place another cake half on top. Repeat until remaining cake has been layered. Spread chocolate frosting on top and sides to complete the cake and sprinkle with cocoa nibs for garnish. Carefully remove parchment paper.

Irish Cream Frosting

2 sticks butter, room temperature
4 tablespoons Bailey's Irish Cream
4-5 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat the butter in the bowl of an electric mixer until creamy and smooth. Add the Bailey's and half of the confectioner's sugar and beat until smooth. Add the second half of the sugar and beat until smooth.

Chocolate Frosting

Coming soon... I can't find my notes on it at the moment and am too lazy to look for them. I promise I will get this up soon.

Ali & Alex

A couple weekends ago I took some pictures of the lovely Ali & Alex. Aren't they gorgeous girls!

Grilled Chicken & Butternut Squash with Mango Salsa

Sunday, April 5, 2009

I have done it! After numerous attempts to cook squash in a way that will actually make me like it, I have succeeded! This may seem silly, but to me it is a BIG event. Growing up, it was a most hated dish but once we started getting it in our boxes from The Farm, I decided that I must like it. Last fall I tried recipe after recipe in hopes that I would learn to love it. Sadly, I did not. I was rather upset this past week because the dreaded squash appeared randomly in our box again. I definitely did not want to deal with it, but decided that I might as well try to make the best of it. I hadn't yet tried grilling the squash and invented this dish around the concept because we also had a buttload of mangos from The Farm to use up.

This is one of my better creations, if I do say so myself. The mango salsa is a conglomeration of several different recipes. It is also delicious with tortilla chips and I can imagine would be good with fish, if you were into that type of thing (and not allergic, like me). The garnish is the perfect finishing touch and really is a nice tangy & cool counterpart to the sweet mango.

Grilled Chicken & Butternut Squash with Mango Salsa

1 butternut squash
1 lb chicken
olive oil
salt & pepper
Cooked rice of choice

For salsa:
1.5 cups cubed mango
1/3 medium red onion, diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded & diced
1/2 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
handful fresh cilantro, finely chopped (4ish Tbsp)
juice from 1 lime
salt & pepper to taste

For garnish:
1 cup sour cream
juice from 1/2 lime
pinch of salt, to taste

Mix salsa ingredients and let sit while you prepare the rest of the dish.

Peel butternut squash, cut in half & scoop out the seeds. Turn so flat side rests on the cutting board and cut into thin strips lengthwise.

Cut chicken into strips the same width of the squash. To save time, you can buy the precut chicken tenders.

Grill the squash & chicken over a medium heat after brushing with olive oil and seasoning with salt & pepper. The squash only took around 4-5 minutes per side and the chicken not much longer than that.

Mix garnish ingredients.

Layer squash & chicken pieces over rice, then add a scoop of mango salsa and the sour cream garnish.

Sister Sister Crab Day

Sunday, March 29, 2009

Oh my, what a day it's been! Every so often Jess & I get together with our sisters Bekah & Shannon for a Sister Sister Day. This time we decided to stay in and enjoy some food and a few episodes of Scrubs. Wowsers, did we enjoy some food. It started with my special grilled cheese sandwiches, graduated to Bekah's Clove Bean Burritos, then our feast of crab cooked by Jess, and ended with Shannon's Cheese Danish. It was an amazing day spent with amazing people with amazing food. In fact, we're still enjoying each other's company so I'm going to cut this short and just give you some pictures of our crab feast instead.