friday, at last!
While this week flew by and I can’t believe the weekend is already here, I also can’t say I’m bummed about that. I was suuuper busy this week (which was fun!!) but holy buckets – I’m pooped!! Just in time for a weekend of R&R… well, not so much. Lots-o-fun to be had but not a ton of sleeping. I might try to stock up tonight!! Who says early to bed on a Friday night is lame? Not me.
So far on tap for tonight I have dishes, laundry, photo editing, dinner making, cookie baking and of course, the always implied, kitty loving. To keep everyone hungry, how about some delicious cookie photos?? Makes me hungry, that’s for sure!!
Happy Friday and Happy Weekend everyone!!
… p.s. SO excited for some of my upcoming photo posts …. I have an adorable 1yr old, more kitties, a dog named Shelby, the most fantabulous pet photography weekend on the planet! and a few outdoors festivities!! I’ve got a busy few weeks ahead of me but I can’t wait. Ok – go eat cookies now 
… interested in the recipe? It’s from Martha Stewart’s Cookie cookbook. They were FAN-TAB-ULOUS!
Read Moreminneapolis photographer :: my first bridal shower!
I did it! My fears aside, I’d have to say I threw one GREAT bridal shower. The guest turnout had much to be desired but what’s most important is the bride-to-be has fun, right?? And I think she did …. I mean really, there was wine. Who wouldn’t have fun??
… and there were cute decorations …
wine ….
and amazing food …
Ok – I just don’t feel right about something. I must confess that the Carlo Rossi was brought to the party and not really part of the party. It was intended to be drank in order to create empty jugs for wedding centerpieces. Phew – needed to say my piece about the kinda-not-so-great-jug-wine And sorry Charly, the jugs have barely been touched.
This last weekend marked the big event! I was nervous beyond what’s probably normal but excited all at the same time. Mur and I had spent a lot of time coming up with good food/wine pairings and after scaling back just a wee bit we settled on 4 different wines and 4 different foods + 2 desserts (because who doesn’t love 2 desserts??). I also scoured websites to get ideas for what to do for not only a bridal shower but a cute, wine themed bridal shower! My colors were purple and green and I was thrilled with how the apartment looked in the end!!
And there is a shot of the lucky gal, herself! Hooray!!
I also set up a photo booth for fun.fun.fun photos… but it didn’t get used during the party. Oh well – the photos that came from that later in the evening with our neighbor will probably show up on here at a later date. They are pretty funny. But Mur did help me get the booth all set up!
rock star, right?
… ok, how about just 1 more cupcake shot. These were the best darn cupcakes I’ve ever had! So excited to have a reason to make them again! How’s Saturday looking for people?
Yeah – CONGRATS Charly!! Let me know when you are free to do the originally scheduled seasonal wine pairing party
foodcapades
With the end of the year always being a marathon eating contest, I have come to several conclusions. First, I am seriously thinking about joining the Y this year. And second, there are countless photo ops! For a while now I have thought food photography and/or food styling would be an amazing profession. Meh – here’s hoping. And here are some photos of the good eats I’ve had for the last several months. Prepare to be hungry…
First, there was Beaujolais Nouveau night. Yeah, I know. That was a while ago. But I’m playing catch up now that I’m home more than 7 hours a day… The third Thursday of November marks the release of Beaujolais Nouveau, a red wine that is fermented for only a few weeks prior to its release. We were curious about the wine but mostly we were super excited to partake in the festivities of the day!! We lit a fire in the fireplace, plopped down with our wine and smorgasbord of snacks and went to town. Course I bugged Mur to pose with the food for some photos.
It was delicious!! Originally I was planning on whipping up something scrumptious from Ina’s Paris cookbook in the spirit of the event, but got home late and consequently was tired, so instead we came up with my new favorite snack. Ever. We had sour cream with dill (lots of dill) with smoked salmon and kettle chips. I have now had this ‘snack’ for dinner on 3 separate occasions. And that right there is another reason the Y is calling my name.
Second, there was Thanksgiving. This year we decided to give deep frying a turkey a try. Mur was in charge of that part of dinner (no pressure, hun) and in the end it seemed like a big hit! Now if you combine hot oil, a turkey and night time, you do not get a good recipe for photos. Ha. Get it? Recipe? Thanksgiving? Deep fried turkey? Meh….
Therefore, instead of turkey photos to show, I have this …
Mur decided we might as well start a glutinous day off with a huge breakfast. … Yeah, ok – I’m game.
He asked what I wanted to eat and I did say something ‘different’ which I would say fits with this! He cooked up bacon, lined a muffin pan with this bacon, cracked eggs into each cup and baked them. Yeah – mmmmmm is what I thought too!
After this we scooted over to dad’s to help get all of our different dishes ready to go while all sharing one oven. Note to self: next year we really need to plan out a crock pot Thanksgiving! With 5 crock pots in the family we would be set.
And for dessert we had these scrumptious cupcakes my cousin baked. They were so good even a week later when they resurfaced from the back of my fridge. What a delightful breakfast!
Third, is the feast that is called New Years! For the last several years I have ventured down to Iowa for New Years celebrations. Usually it’s pretty wild and crazy – 2 years ago we stayed up hanging out and celebrating until 1 or so before crashing and if I recall correctly, last year we saw the ball drop on TV and by 12:05 I was in bed. Party animal. So the festivities do vary from year to year. This year we celebrated the East Coast ball drop (ie: 11pm CST) and then by 12 we were all so tired we didn’t even recognize it was 12. Again – another raucous New Years!
Somehow it didn’t dawn on me to take photos until we were all very stuffed and the remains of all our snacks was all that was left. Oh well – there will always be another year of New Years festivities in Iowa to capture!
So in conclusion, I hope your New Year leads you to skip the resolutions and appreciate all the AMAZING food, drink and company we have all year! Happy {belated} New Years!!
Read Morepie day sunday
I think I’ve said it before, but I really enjoy baking tasty treats because who doesn’t like something warm and delicious right out of the oven. I should really bake in tiny batches just so I can eat everything as soon as it out that golden warming box. Meh – instead I’ll just eat more.
As my family probably knows, I like to keep secrets when it comes to tasty desserts and what I’ll be making at upcoming events. But this one I just can’t keep a surprise. It was too awesome. So without further adieu, Dear Family, welcome to the deliciousness you will taste on Thanksgiving …
Last weekend I cleaned, cut, scraped and cooked a pumpkin to make a pumpkin pie from scratch. It was very time consuming but oh so rewarding!!! Just look – num!
I typically don’t toot my own baking horn but this was a darn good pie …
Here is what I remember of the recipe …
Cut the pumpkin into a few pieces {the more pieces, the faster it cooks}. I found a really great way to cook it was to steam it. It made it so soft and easy to scoop. I then blended the pumpkin to make it smooth and not too gritty. I scooped that into a cup and put it in the fridge while I made a target run. $55 later, I returned to finish the pie. I then mixed the ‘goop’ together with all of the tasty spices and sugars.
Baked it at 425 for about 15 min then turned the oven down to 350 for 45 minutes. Now, please excuse the grit in the photo above and to the left. The rest of my kitchen is a lot cleaner than this oven dial and surrounding area. I promise.
In the end I pulled this out of the oven …
… delicious! My taste tester liked it, so it was a complete success. And all the while the kitties kept my recipe from blowing away. Thanks girls!
taste of the Minnesota – in April
Last weekend was great. I had a to-do list with more items on it than Minnesota has lakes — yep, that’s 10,000 and counting — and I got the majority of it done! Wanna see?
I kicked the weekend off by heading over to my dad’s to get started on bottling our new brew. To my pleasant surprise, he had brought home a marvelous toy to play with …
I lovingly call it The Beast. It is the Canon 1D — a camera that could seriously knock someone out if used as a weapon. And with that, I proceeded to photograph the entire weekend. Which is possibly why I’m so excited about it.
Bottling was fun. Never done it before but can’t wait to do it again. And with these 2 on my team, who wouldn’t want to keep working?
We bottled a full case of 12oz bottles plus a few growlers and some nifty flip top bottles that are, well, nifty looking. Beer tasting will commence in a few weeks. I’ll report back.
On Saturday I tried really hard to spend money and just couldn’t quite do it. A seemingly big bummer, I know. Mur thinks so too. What happened was that I went to the camera store and I had this lens totally picked out (and paid for and 3/4 of the way home) when I realized it wouldn’t work out. What a pitty!
After camera toy shopping, we came back to work on this…
We have started clearing out garden space for the year. It went so much faster than I expected due to the handiwork of Mur + Dad + rented tiller + me staying out of the way. It was fantastic! For city kids we are going to have so many veggies. It’s not hundreds of feet of potatoes, but I think we’ll survive – and besides, I know where I can stock up on said potatoes.
So that turned into…
We finally got Roux to swim last year and reintroduced her to the pond behind the house this year. So far so good. I mean, I guess dad will have the final say on the ‘good’ matter since it’s his stinky wet dog. Either way, we had fun on Saturday – and that’s what matters, right?
Swimming led to…
Yep – who can do yard work without breaks for beer? And that turned into…
A super cool photo shoot with the pup. And if you ask her, she would agree that she needed some new head shots.
And this was all done while I was supposed to be cleaning up garden tools and/or chopping something for dinner. Of course.
Next came…
Whoa Nelly. Fancy burgers? Get down with your bad self!
Ahhhh what a great weekend! And after that? I did my taxes. What a party pooper, eh?Not so exciting and definitely not photograph worthy so I’ll just let you imagine me sitting at a computer figuring out how my business did in 2009. Pretty riveting!
Read MoreLe Creuset
I am excited to report that Mur and I are now the proud owners of this bad boy:
Yep – we splurged on this guy a few weekends ago and are so excited to start using it. We compromised and if Mur could get the orange Le Creuset pot, I can get the pear colored kitchen aid mixer. It may be a while until I can afford that after this big purchase but I can’t wait until that day. For now, we can enjoy quite a bit with this. What to do first? …
Perhaps this?
Or maybe I will just…
tack up my grocery list on my fridge. Gotcha!
Happy Sunday of fantabulous Sunshine!
Read Moreso much to eat i need a nap
As a follow up to the Ren Fest, Mur Dad and I went to the MN State Fair. Like most other state fairs there are countless things to eat. I mean really, good luck counting it all. I have a few staples that I have to have each and every time I go to the fair…
French Fries… they are always hot, fresh and super greasy but AMAZING. I have never had such a good French fry.
Pronto Pup… the State Fair staple. It’s really just a corn dog but I think it is actually against the rules to leave without having one. I saw someone get questioned at the gate once.
and Sweet Martha’s cookies… the second best cookies I’ve ever had. They are gooey, warm, chocolaty and OVER. FLOWING. in their bucket of goodness. Aside from sorta knowing Sweet Martha (who was a teacher friend of my moms) I just really think she makes a delicious cookie! I did say second best because my bestest friend’s mom makes the BEST cookies I’ve ever had, but she doesn’t have a booth at the fair – yet.
Aside from the staples I tried more food until I was not sure I could do anything else but sleep. We each sampled a Summit’s beer while watching stand up comedy and a Leine’s beer while watching a mediocre variety show. 
When we needed a break from food we walked on down to the midway to check out the scene. I remember as a child going to the fair with my parents and being so excited for the midway (ie: rides/games/toys/bright lights/etc.) and way less excited for the boring stuff like the Art barn or the Horticulture barn. Surprisingly enough, I grew out of the steal-your-money games and got more interested in art. Fast forward 12ish years and add my dad’s great idea to take photos of the midway after dark and you have a fun event! 
fun was had by all! And I don’t even think it was too much torture to spend an evening with 2 photographers who at the time, in their possession, had a combined collection of 5 cameras.
just look at that excitement!
And as a post Labor Day post, adios State Fair. We will eat again!
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