use real butter

Recipe: stir-fried baby bok choy

There are a few spaces left in the Food and Light workshop to be held in Boulder, Colorado on August 2-3, 2011. If you want to take your food photography skills to the next level, if you’re in a rut, or even if you are just getting started – it’s a great opportunity to learn, work hard, make friends, eat amazing food, have fun, and experience a little bit of glorious downtown Boulder in summer.

shooting in my home studio

We have a rock ’em, sock ’em line-up of instructors who were not only selected for their stunning body of work, but for their ability to teach and teach well. I’m quite proud of this team because our collaboration from the beginning has been cooperative, jovial, enthusiastic and most importantly – we are all focused on providing the best experiences for our workshop attendees. In a month, we will be sending out a questionnaire to Food and Light 2011 participants to gauge what each person’s skill level is and to find out what topics they want us to cover and what specifics they want to be addressed. It’s highly customized to the individuals because we only spend a small fraction of the workshop giving lectures. Most of the time is spent shooting and working one-on-one with the instructors.

matt is a our canon man (photo courtesy of matt wright)

Did I mention that Matt wrote a photography manual to raise money for Japan’s relief efforts? He did. He’s amazing.

This year we’re changing things up a bit and spending our second day of the workshop in a restaurant setting at The Kitchen Upstairs. We’ve got the whole place to ourselves! The first day will still be at that beautiful light-filled Rembrandt Yard art gallery we booked last year. This way we can get some studio work at the gallery, some dynamic shooting at the restaurant, and a group family-style lunch at the restaurant (fun!!!). I’m even going to request Diane’s *favorite* waiter :)

todd working the cake (photo courtesy of white on rice couple)

Besides the fundamentals, we plan to cover: styling, composition, motion, lighting (natural and artificial), and we’re adding a short session on digital post-processing. Our sponsor Pro Photo Rental will be providing Canon and Nikon pro lenses for attendees to test drive. That’s super awesome. As stated on the website: Our goal is to not only teach you the fundamentals of food photography and food styling, but to give you the tools to continue learning when the workshop is over. So I hope you’ll consider joining us because it’s going to be a blast!

diane in the studio (photo courtesy of white on rice couple)

There’s never a free moment around here and that’s largely because I cram as much as I can into my calendar. My friend is writing up her dissertation and I read with some horror that she hadn’t been eating well a few weeks ago. At Cornell, when close friends were “in the cave”, I whipped up a few batches of food for them so they wouldn’t have to worry about cooking/feeding themselves. It’s only natural that I’d offer to bring her some food. Ya gotta eat, right?! I asked if she liked beef and broccoli, hot and sour soup, kung pao chicken, bok choy… She said she’d love anything I made. I hope she likes bok choy.

baby bok choy (because baby everything is cuter)

lop off the base

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: baked kale chips

I took a break from Crazytown (in my head) and descended upon Boulder the other day for a much-needed, long-overdue lunch with some of my girlfriends. We waited nearly an hour to get a table at The Kitchen (Friday noon, Pearl Street, gorgeously sunny day in Boulder – what do you expect?). Time flew past, though. We were all doting on Mr. Felix-Cutie-Pie. That’s right. Even the non-baby person (that would be me) couldn’t resist. That kid is snugglicious.

it’s amazing that manisha ever agrees to hand him back to his momma

the fruity cocktail that kitt ordered

Grand plans for getting things done this weekend were only half-realized because the other half was spent with my better half. The good news is that I returned to the kitchen to cook again. And that felt great! I feel better when I eat the food that I make because I know what went into it. I know it’s good and wholesome stuff. One of the recipes I tried this weekend was all Diane’s fault.

the guilty party is on the left

Remember how a bunch of us met for ramen in Los Angeles and then went walking around the Marukai Pacific Market to theoretically walk off lunch (but instead, Diane bought us a dozen giant crispy cream puffs)? As I hugged Allison and Son good-bye in the produce section, Diane came up to me with a bunch of kale and said (at 100 mph), “Mmmm kale. I make baked kale chips. Have you tried them? I love them. LOVE THEM. I can eat them all in one sitting. Just me, by myself. Todd doesn’t get any. They’re so good! You need to make them. So good. Good for you. But not as good as Tim’s Cascade jalapeño potato chips. But almost!” That’s high praise coming from Diane.

exhibit a: kale

Yeah, I had heard about kale chips. First I saw it on Jaden’s blog. Then Shauna raved about them. And you know it’s big when Deb swears by kale chips. Easy, delicious, healthy, crispy (I am, after all, a potato chip fiend) – how could you not want to try them? EVERYBODY is making these chips. And of course, when Todd and Diane posted their kale chips, I knew it was my destiny. That’s because Diane and I have a special bond over salty snacks (specifically, Tim’s Cascade jalapeño potato chips). So I decided to jump off the cliff like everyone else. You should join me.

strip the leaves from the tough stems

pour a little olive oil and toss to coat

**Jump for more butter**

Recipe: steak and mushrooms on polenta

I’m back from California and this time I’m home for a good few weeks which makes me more than just a little giddy. It’s not that I don’t love California – because I love the hell out of California – but this was my fifth trip in just over seven weeks and at some point I start to long for my routine again. The trip was totally worth it though. Have a looksee.

expansive fields of tidy tips

classic combo: lupine and poppies

cherry tree blossoms

It’s spring and that means green grasses and a glorious rainbow of wildflowers in the Golden State. Timing is everything and it’s hard to get that right when you book travel a few months in advance, but we make due. You can find the full sets from day 1 and day 2 on my photo blog. On our third day, the weather forecast was for rain. California poppies don’t open when it rains, so my shooting pal and I drove north up the coast to Big Sur (beyond Big Sur, the road was closed due to a landslide). As our dumb luck would have it – the skies opened up for us!

elephant seals take a group nap

hummingbird checking me out

magical beach

The rest of day 3 along the Central Coast is on the photo blog. We rolled into Big Sur shortly after noon and stopped at Nepenthe on the recommendation of several friends for lunch with a view. Despite the cool temperatures (50s) we opted to sit out on the patio to soak up the sun and gaze out onto the Pacific. After our meal we continued up the coast and dropped by The Big Sur Bakery. We got a browned butter strawberry tart on a whim. Wow… WOW! Finest browned butter tart I’ve ever had. EVER.

dining outside at nepenthe in big sur (with a view!)

salmon appetizer

*amazing* browned butter strawberry tart from big sur bakery

On our last day we drove into Los Angeles and met with Todd and Diane and Allison and Son for ramen at Mottainai, crispy cream puffs at Marukai Market, and ethnic shopping safari. Diane loaded us up with some Vietnamese green mango pickles before we left to catch out flight back to Colorado.

ramen at mottainai: the reward at the end of the trip

diane insisted on a dozen fabulous crispy cream puffs to share

This is the second year in a row I’ve gone to shoot the spring bloom in Southern California. It’s a visual shocker to return home to snowfall, brown and crunchy dead grasses, bare aspens, and dark pine trees. But it’s home and it’s wonderful! I have a hankering for spring-like dishes lately so I figure I should get to posting the dish I made for our anniversary back in March.

simple: polenta and salt

pour in the polenta when the water comes to a boil

The first time I had polenta was in the field in Argentina and despite the project leader’s best efforts, it wasn’t so appetizing. That’s saying a lot because most things you wouldn’t think to eat at home actually taste GOOD in the field. I kept away from polenta for nearly a decade. But eventually I had it prepared properly and well at friends’ houses and restaurants. So I figured I’d give it a try at home… with mushrooms and steak.

luscious chanterelle mushrooms

thick slices

**Jump for more butter**