No Assumption.

Hello all... hope your mid week is treating you well, mine going very good on most levels.. pretty much just counting the days til vaca at this point (keeps me going, ya know?).

Tonight's dinner was one of those nights were I wasn't exactly inspired to make anything for dinner and started out to make a very simple, usual dish and ended up with something completely different and honestly better than I could have imagined.

I wanted to go italian but without pasta (it gets kinda boring) and for a moment I thought rice but that didn't exactly match my idea so I peered into the pantry and pulled out a couple cans of canelli beans... from there, the idea was lit and I made dinner!

also roasted up a little chicken...put over top the beans w/ spicy marinara and topped with my previously sauteed veggies.

I assumed/hoped it would be good and it was way.....way better than that, I was actually a little surprised at how good. It was actually fairly light and had mild spicy flavor throughout. Will definitely make this again sometime..

Couple things to remember when cooking:

• when sauteing veggies, put different vegetables in at different times, depending on their cook length and lightly season for each vegetable put in, seasoning at the beginning won't carry thru properly a whole pan of veggies. (and by season, I mean s&p because there are some spices that will absolutely carry thru and then some.. also some that wont and it depends on your tastes as well)
• cook elements of a dish separately to lock in individual flavor/spices. ie: I cooked veggies & garlic together then put in a bowl to the side, then I cooked beans and put in a bowl to the side, then I cooked chicken and added spicy marinara and then plated one on top of each other.. making everything in one pot all at one time (unless it's soup, stew, etc..and even then this technique can be implied until the final stages) can tend to extract flavor and mesh the spices/herbs all together and can really turn out bland (imo).

*I apologize for the not so great photos, working with kitchen light again at night ;/

Chord.

Grocery shopping.. each trip it's own little adventure. (ok, well for me?) For whatever I am very contemplative when grocery shopping.. contemplative about what I'm buying, how much I'm spending on it, how much I'm getting of it.. contemplative of the people I'm shopping next to..what their buying and why.. contemplative of the brands, ingredients, advertising.. pretty much everything.

Perhaps over analyzing? Perhaps..

Anyway I thought of a couple things yesterday.. random facts about my usual grocery store experience.

• I normally experience mild nerves just before walking in. (inexplicable..)
• I love how the fresh bread smell hits you first thing thru the door, yes..it's luring.
• I'm always uncomfortable waiting at the deli counter a long time.
• My least favorite part of the store is the frozen food section.. just, literally.. it's the ugliest in my opinion and sort of complacently trapping.
• My favorite part is the fruit/vegetable area.. not just for the goods but you can always find fun stuff here.. like fancy dips, delicious smoothie drinks, tofu goods, higher end dressings..etc.
• My favorite part of the fruit/vegetable area is the apple display.. always so beautifully colorful and perfectly aligned.. I always dive towards the stunningly green granny apples!
• Finds its annoying that clerks make it seem like a task bagging your re-usable bags..

Ok, that's all.. fairly random, eh? And yes, I'm aware I'm abnormal when it comes to the gro sto. ;]

Always gets: Doesn't matter what happened to you on the way to grocery, at the grocery or coming home, these items best be in your (re-useable) bag.

Le Damage

Give.

Hello all, hope everyone has had a wonderful week! Mine was all over the place.. plenty of ups, plenty of downs and busy as all hell. Did have one very nice, unexpected surprise that made our week for sure and can't thank the person enough that made it come to light.. love ya.

I don't know about everyone else, but we are cooking down here in Florida.. you take a shower, get ready, grab your bag, walk to your car and you need another shower! It has been SO hot down here the thought of anything besides shorts, tank top and flip flops makes me shutter.

In light of all the HEAT, I've made a couple of very summery, cool treats.








Thankfully.. with a lot of these hot summer days, we get plenty of afternoon thunderstorms.. here is one I caught in the works.



"I am so happy to be alive.. there is no stopping me tonight" - Bad Boy Bill - Ishy.

Heureux.

beautiful post rain sunset

Wow, can't believe it's been since Wednesday since I last posted something. Last week flew by and this weekend kind of has too but it's been a really good one! Especially today! Sunday's are really the only that Boy & I have an extended amount of time with each other. Today we got up early, went to Starbucks and had some good conversation and then headed to the Lucky Dill Deli (a place I've been wanting to try for a while). We went to the one in downtown St. Pete which sort of stuck something in us.. we parked a couple blocks away and walked up to the deli, a sorta kinda NY style deli.. black & white inside, walk up to counter to order, get a number, etc. Boy had a "Jewish Cuban"...a bohemith of a sandwich that was oozing with deli mustard and cheese, god it was GOOD. I had a turkey reuben and oh man their sauerkraut was delicious.

After that we walked around the city and down to the pier..kinda. By then we were sweating our asses off, so we schleped it back to the car BUT we've decided that perhaps we would like to live down town..we have always gone back & forth about country living vs. the city but haven't ever really immersed ourselves in either so we are going to choose the city partly because it would be so nice to be able to walk to dinner, or go grab a coffee without taking the car, not mention just being to take scenic walks as opposed to walking along the freeway (where we are now..) Our lease at our current place is up next February.. so we will see.

In the meantime, I made a wonderful I'm sorry meal for the boy last night (he's put up with my recent crankyness quite well...I appreciate that!) So I made my polenta, roasted chicken & vegetables, roasted garlic mushrooms & homemade mini sweet potato corn muffins. I didn't catch a picture of the meal itself because it was dark by then and my lightbox is still in my car :)

Smile.

I did a bit of this today... for the little things. I smiled because I loved the color shirt I was wearing.. smiled at my iced coffee, smiled when I talked with my husband, smiled at the baby snails outside my office door, smiled at my accomplishments today, smiled after I cleaned the office, smiled at the beautiful raspberries I bought, smiled at my puppy when she snuggled up to me on the couch, smiled at the thought of dinner, smiled because my babe should be home in about an hour or less.. there's a lot more I smiled about today and I am going to keep smiling because it is almost certainly better than the alternative..

I'm learning to really be a positive person.. not some of the time, not when things are going well, not when it suits me but as much as I possibly can and in the face of embarrassment, sadness, anger,disappointment... doesn't mean I don't experience or won't accept and embrace those emotions, just making a point to be an uplifting and optimistic individual.

I also smiled when I made these...

I apologize for the not so great photo but it was after dark and I was just working with kitchen lighting. (...been too lazy to put my light box back up after the shoot)

This is me trying my hand at homemade veggie burgers and I learned something huge: they are STUPIDLY easy to make at home. Not that we have ever really bought tons of packaged veggie burgers but this........ this was good. The perfect crunch texture in the middle... Mmm...Mmm.......Mmmmmm. I liked them if you couldn't tell.

IMO.

I really dig that it is raining everyday when I get home.. Mother Nature: I approve.

I also approve of this.. a blatantly simple snack that is SO good...

So, as I am in a kind of fired up mood.. (not for any reason?) I feel the need to pass out some praise and question a many things.

Firstly, I just want to say you need to check out these blogs.. Stay with me now.

Leftovers for Lunch - I dig this blog, a lot.. it's really a glimpse into their life, their yummy food creations and an overload of pictures to boot which lets face it, that's why we LOOK at blogs, now isn't it? (touching on this later) Anyhow, I feel like I know these people without ever meeting them and genuinely enjoy scanning thru their blog every day or so. Thanks LFL!

Never HomeMaker - The best of all worlds here, great food, great photography and great personalities that keep this blog going.. Again, these folks seem truly genuine and offer up a lot of fantastic information & tips.

Use Real Butter - I think at this point, URB might be a household name along with a few other choice blogs out there BUT the striking difference here is the straightforwardness, the simplistic perfection of the art and again, genuine behavior. Everything about this blog is beautiful and a joy to read.

I read PLENTY of other blogs but those are the ones I specifically seek out.. ok, I lie.. there's one other which I consider a guilty pleasure and I'm fairly sure she's at the top of the blogging world currently but I have conflicting issues with everything that surrounds her and the blog itself... I'll leave that... there.

On another note.. what is up with people with FOOD BLOGS and no photos? Are you kidding? I've got the attention span of a 3 year old.. if you aren't luring me in with luscious photos.. then you aren't luring. Granted you may not give flip what I think but I just find it a little silly.......just sayin'.

The Queens Head.

That's the location of my first professional food photo shoot. I cannot tell you what a wonderful experience it was.. I shot the very talented, Chris Greer's food and let me tell you, he did not make my job a hard one because his food is truly beautiful. The Queen's Head is a eurobar style eatery in downtown St. Petersburg, FL.. it's an easy going place during the day and they turn the dial up at night with live DJ's. It has been expertly designed, a chic funk that is inviting and whimsical.. not to mention the people that keep this place going are as friendly as they are fun.. makes for a great all around experience.

I was definitely nervous going into this for obvious reasons but found my groove fairly quickly and with some narrative from the owner, was quickly snapping away and wow.. not sure what happened other than lights going off in my head over and over...and right there, right then..I knew this is what I want to do for the rest of my life.

I cannot thank Chris & The Queens Head enough for allowing me the opportunity to get my feet wet with them and I am beyond humble to be a part of their establishment in this way... to the future!

Now for the goods... here is some of what I shot.

stilton & pickled cherry salad

pan charred tofu, horseradish mash, pickled cherries, onion caramel

apple cured salmon, fennel papaya salsa, toasted ciabatta

roasted beet and yellow pepper hummus with toasted ciabatta

fish and chips..sea salt and malt vinegar fries, minted peas, malt vinegar reduction.

bouillabaisse. mussels, haddock, shrimp, tomato, fennel, chablis cream broth. toasted ciabatta.

roasted beet & radish salad with baby spinach, marinated barley, goat cheese, champagne truffle vinaigrette.

SunDAY.

Aaaah.. what a great day.. well, a great weekend really. My news that I couldn't tell you about yesterday is that I did my first professional photo shoot yesterday.. I was asked by a local restaurant to shoot the photos for their website.

It...was...such...an...amazing...experience. This is definitely what I want to do as my career..

Once they have posted the photos, I will post them here and give you all the details!

As far as today goes, had a wonderfully easy day with my babe... we hung out at Starbucks for a while and had some great conversation and in the the spirit of trying to be a little more frugal we did groceries instead of doing lunch out.

When we got home, for whatever reason we decided to reorganize the house a little and clean out a couple of the closets.. by the time we were done we were famished and Boy didn't have a ton of time left before he had to go to work so we threw together a cold pasta salad and a couple sandwiches.. it was perfect.

before: kitchen while madly throwing lunch together.
after: kitchen all clean and tidy.

All......I want to do.

I've got something really exciting going on today but I cannot divulge until a little later today....after said activities have taken place and all I can say is wish me LUCK! ;]

In the meantime enjoy one of our favorite vacation songs.. yes, we have a couple handful of songs that are perfect for feet up on the porch, driving those winding, tree lined roads and dancing slow, bare feet shuffling on a wood floor.. yea, I have vacation on the mind... not too much longer now! :)

Satellite.

Happy Monday folks.. hope all of your days went well, mine was every bit of crazy but hey I am here aren't I?

I was reading thru some of the blogs I follow and came across this from Fashion Meets Food.... seems fairly on point right..plus some of those lovely ice cold drinks look fantastic? I think pretty much no matter where you live right now, you are being cooked. At least down here in Florida is it firing up from 8 in the morning til it gets dark and even then it stays pretty humid..which leaves you reaching for the ice water or in a lot of other instances milk shakes, iced coffee and frozen drinks of any flavor.

I have pined after Dairy Queen, Starbucks and the like most days but in an attempt to keep things simple, inexpensive and health driven (sorta?) I try to make most of it at home.. after an especially sweaty climb up three flights of stairs with the weeks clean laundry in tow, the dog and a bag onTOP of said laundry... I was looking for iced and energy giving.

Ended up on iced sweet raspberry coffee..

• organic Arabic coffee
• fresh raspberries
• almond milk
• ice
• agave

It......was......perfect. Sweet, creamy, roasty & a partly sweet, partly tart finish to each sip.



On another note, a recent picture of our furbaby.. regal, dominating, demanding, sweet girl. (hah...)

Perfectly Quick.

I use to work for a lawyer and her office was across the street from a fantastic pizza place and they of course had little lunch combos for the working folk that surrounded the area.. one of my favorite things to get was a pita pizza & mini salad.. I normally got fresh tomato & garlic and when I was feeling really crazy (or having a crap day)...pepperoni!

So.. yes, I know... pizza on a pita is a fairly simple idea and I could have easily thrown it together AT work minus the fantastic wood oven crunch (minor detail).

But oddly enough, as simple as this concept is I hadn't ever made it at home and to have the ability to whip a pizza together and actually be EATING it in less than 10 minutes is a beautiful thing..

We threw.. I mean BOY threw a couple of these together today and they were absolutely delicious..

This Sunny Day.

gingerale is one of my favorite sodas.. it is packed with bubbles & fizz and is such a refreshing, sharp taste

Today was a weird day.. it was quiet and sunny and still for the most part.. it gave me a chance to do a little extra work on my photography.. and to eat & sip on some good eats.

chicken, green pepper & onions.. sprinkled with cumin, cayenne, s&p..then drizzled with hot sauce, olive oil and liquid smoke

cooked campfire style wrapped in foil and the top unwrapped for about the last 10 and broiled for a few.

mmmmmmmm!

• rice
• tomatoes
• green peppers
• onions
• chicken
• sour cream
• taco sauce
• russian dressing
• cilantro

...then after that I contemplated a Dairy Queen trip.. like I said, strange day so I felt the need to find comfort, in food.. of course? I really try not to but sometimes it's just hard you know? There are plenty of logical explanations between the brain, stress and reaching for food.. oddly enough I started watching a documentary on obesity and between my own mind rattling away and wanting to "do good" and the movie I found myself watching, I gladly ended up at the vegetable market instead of the Dairy Queen drive thru.. and here's what I came up with.




raspberries, strawberries, a little chocolate and some cinnamon honey...it was perfect and much better for me...