Garden Stroll

 

 

Give me odorous at sunrise a garden of beautiful flowers where I can walk undisturbed.  ~Walt Whitman

A Blend of Seasons

Last weekend I went to the South Coast Botanical Garden and was surprised to see it in full bloom.  It was a bit fantastical because I saw everything from flowering trees, poinsettias, and a few colored leaves that had yet to fall from otherwise barren branches.  Here are a few photos...I'll post more over the weekend. 

 

 

 

 

Planning Ahead

Here's what I'll be cooking this weekend.  Of course not all of it in one recipe but I plan to experiment with millet, soba noodles and red lentils.  Will be posting recipes next week.  In the meantime, I'll be posting some new photos from the South Coast Botanical Garden.

Recipes I Made Up And Liked

So my boyfriend Wendel (who is quite possibly the cutest guy on the planet) greatly appreciates my cooking - even when I try to make stuff up.  After pouring through piles of Gourmet, Bon Appetit and Donna Hay magazines over the years, I think I've gotten pretty darn good at it.

Well, he actually bought me a cool notebook for when I feel like playing "mad scientist" in the kitchen. 

So this weekend I made a delicious flatbread pizza.  And might I add, it was much healthier and tastier than Domino's or Pizza Hut.

VEGETARIAN FLATBREAD PIZZA
-1 or 2 rectangles of Trader Joe's flatbread or lavash bread (plenty of grocery stores now stock this.  I just like their brand).
-2 sliced plum tomatoes
-Trader Joe's meatless meatballs
-Shredded mozzarella cheese
-Arugula
-Olive oil
-Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.  Place 1 or 2 rectangles on large cookie sheet (depending on level of hunger).  Drizzle with olive oil.  Slice up tomatoes and place on top of flatbread.  Rinse arugula, pat dry and add to bread.  Garnish with cheese - I didn't measure it.  Just eyeballed how much I wanted.  Slice meatballs and place on top of bread.  These typically require 10 minutes of baking time at 375 degrees and if they're too difficult to chop when frozen, defrost them for a couple minutes before placing on flatbread.  Garnish with salt and pepper.  Bake in middle rack of oven for about 10-12 minutes.  Serve by itself or with a side of mixed greens. 

If you're feeling fancy, I sometimes serve the flatbread with a little bowl of tomato sauce on the side.  That way you can either drizzle it over the bread or rip off a slice and dunk it in the bowl.  Both methods work perfectly fine.  :-)

 

 

Veg Out

Having a 9-6ish job (not factoring in LA commute time) leaves me with little time for cooking extravagant dishes on the weekdays.  But I do believe in cooking healthy, eating seasonally and limiting the amount of processed food.  I don't think dishes need to be overly complicated to taste good.  All you really need are fresh ingredients, good olive oil, your favorite kosher/sea salt (I prefer Maldons) and cracked pepper. 

And there you have it, I just gave you the recipe for roasted brussel sprouts.  If you want to dress them up a bit more, I sometimes toss them in a little aged balsamic vinegar or a drizzle of maple syrup.  Roasted them on a lightly-sprayed sheet at 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

 

Busy Bee

 

As mentioned yesterday, I participated in a food blogging workshop this past Saturday.  It was a lot of fun and inspiring learning from Christina Peters and Amy Paliwoda.  We learned about lighting, lensing, composition, and food styling/propping tricks.  Not to mention, Christina gave us some helpful PhotoShop tricks on color correction, optimizing images for the web and my new favorite filter - the unsharpen tool.  I sort of forgot about this tool but it really helps to add some crispness to your images.  

Christina and Amy provided us with a selection of food items and props to choose from which was great - I think it helped me focus a lot more on the photography aspect instead of worrying about where to find my next recipe!  So many cookbooks, so little time.  :-)  The products ranged from lovely French macaroons, rustic breads, jams, vegetables, cheese, etc. 

My love for peanut butter and honey sandwiches rivals that of Elvis (I like it with bananas too but didn't include them in the shot) and thought it would be a fun challenge - especially since I wanted to capture the honey pouring onto the bread. 

Thanks again to Christina and Amy for making this such a wonderful class.  I'm hoping to sign up for another one and highly recommend it for anyone looking to gain more experience shooting food.

Here's another link to the class information:  http://www.mdrphotographyclasses.com/

MDR Photography Food Blogging Class!

Hope you all had a great weekend!  On Saturday, I participated in a food blogging class in Marina Del Rey, CA hosted by commercial photographer Christina Peters.  It was amazing and I'm super excited to show you some pictures and share what I learned. 

I'll be posting images tomorrow but in the meantime, if you want to check out any of her upcoming classes, you can do so here.

Happy Monday!