In all the excitement of the past few weeks I never got around to sharing with you that I signed up for the Project Food Blog challenge hosted by Foodbuzz.

The challenge gives us a chance to prove ourselves as foodies and food bloggers by conquering 10 assignments. And, the person who wins in December not only has a chance to be featured on Foodbuzz for 1 whole year, but that person (oh I really hope it’s me!) will win $10000! Now, I don’t know about you, but I can think of plenty of productive ways to use $10000: boost my kids’ college funds, open my own bakery (commercial kitchens are so expensive!), expand my food styling props, save it…

What would you do if you won $10000?

So, many people are in it for the fun. I am definitely in it for the fun, but a serious sort of fun. I want to win. And, NOT for the $10000. No, I’m not crazy – there’s just more to take into account. I blog because I want people to read what I have to say and make my food and be happy. I want to win for the love of food

The challenges will start in about the second week of September and as each challenge is posted on my blog there will be a second post after then telling you guys that voting is open. And, I want all of you to vote for me!! So, keep your eyes open for my posts!  And, check out my profile here.

From time to time I like to enjoy grilled pork belly. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it for sale in the US, but it is quite popular here in Germany – especially in grilling season.

What is pork belly? Think is thick slices of raw un-smoked bacon – pre-bacon if you will. Before slicing, the meat is scored with a box cutter and then cut into finger-thick slices and placed in a marinade which is usually paprika based.

Grilled pork belly tastes best, but if you just can’t light-up the grill, you can also grill it in your oven with a little creativity. Most importantly, don’t forget to add a casserole dish filled with water to steam the meat while it grills so that it becomes nice and crispy, but does not dry out. Think of this as indoor grilling 101 – this method work well with any type of meat that you can fit on your oven grate.

Enjoy!

Well, it looks like we will be moving sometime in February. We have been on the look-out for a nice apartment in our town for the past few months, and, finally, we have found one that fits all our needs. Most importantly, it is on the ground floor (no more going up 5 stories holding two small children) and it has enough room for my husband to have his own office so he doesn’t have to work in our bedroom the whole day.

While the apartment is actually very beautiful as is, we have to have it renovated because it used to be a tax attorney’s office and there are no bathrooms..among other things. We will be knocking down some walls, adding a balcony, and adding 2 bathroom, etc. I just thought I’d share a few pictures of the future apartment with you, it’s a bit over 100 years old. The top left picture is of a old door handle to our future master bathroom. The top right photo is the entrance to the future master bathroom and the window to the right of that will be turned into a glass door to our future balcony. The bottom right photo is of the hallway/entry way. And, the bottom left picture is one of the main reasons I fell in love with the apartment – this is the kitchen…and that window is 9 feet wide!! We will be knocking out the wall to the left and making a large living/dining/kitchen, and under this huge window will be part of the kitchen and my sink as well as a desk for me in the kitchen. I will be adding lots of tall planters with tall plants on the outdoor windowsills so that we have some more privacy.

Oh, and it’s right off of the pedestrian zone in the heart of downtown.  Which means that I have to only walk 3 minutes to the closest grocery store and less than 60 seconds to the nearest pharmacy!  Granted, now I live a 10 minute walk away, but closer is always better and more comfortable.

So, when you are wondering where I am when I’m not blogging or taking care of my 2 little ones or baking Christmas cookies…I’m picking out new kitchen flooring, kitchen cabinets, and bathroom fixtures.

It is exciting, but I can’t wait until it’s finally over…it’s very stressful!

So, where have I been for the last 4 weeks? In short: home-bound.

Three weeks ago our second son was born and 2 weeks ago our first son started preschool. So, I have been up to my ears in teeny tiny dirty diapers and an upset 2-year-old who wants more attention than I can currently stay awake for.

(on the way to preschool)

So, here are some pictures from the last 3 weeks. And, yes, I have still been cooking and taking pictures, eventually I will get around to blogging them.

Oh, so, our little boy, baby Christoph, weighed in at 3,450kg and was 52cm long. He was born roughly 3 weeks ago (sorry, I don’t want to give out any specific dates here – privacy you know) at 15:16.

Well, I am back into a normal sleeping/waking pattern – finally! I actually have been for a few days now, but being at the end stages of pregnancy makes it hard to sit at a computer and do anything – because it makes my feet swell.

Anyways, I want to start sharing some pictures with you from my vacation, and I’m going to start backwards. The last leg of our vacation took us on a 15 hour car ride from south-central Texas to just south of Denver, Colorado. So, why would I subject myself to a 15 hour car ride with 5 other family members (including a 2-year-old)?? For my brother-in-law’s wedding, of course!

We had a really great time – especially escaping the intense Texas heat and getting to visiting with the extended family that flew in from all over the US and world. Of all the people who enjoyed going to Colorado the most, I believe it was my son. He fell in love with his new aunt and still talks about her all the time. Many evenings he will come to me while I’m in the kitchen preparing dinner and tell me “goodbye mommy – going Jessica home”. Then he puts on his helmet, gets on his bike, and rides down the end of the hallway and tries to open the door to no avail. It is quite cute, ut makes me sad that we live too far away for a quick visit. Maybe that will change in a few years….

First, let’s talk wedding location:

The wedding was held in a beautiful private garden that can be booked for events or you can pay admission to enter to just walk around.  They have a few little alcoves that are meant for ceremonies and the one that they chose was nice and intimate.

This place is impeccable.  I just couldn’t get over the perfectly manicured lawn.  And, much to my surprise and content it was a turf lawn – as in fake grass.  It looked and felt so real that I had to go to an edge and try to pull out a piece of grass…and it just lifted up like a carpet…it really was fake.  If I ever have a home with grass, I want the fake stuff – no mowing, no watering, no fertilizing.

Right at the entrance to the alcove where the wedding was held was a table with cups and lemonade.  I thought this was a fantastic idea because many of us had to be there hours before for pictures, etc.  I do have to add, though, that I am not a fan of drinking from plastic cups and find them very environmentally unfriendly, but the over all ideas was a good one.

Second, the photography:

So, as I said earlier, we were there a few hours ahead of time taking pictures.  I have tons of great pictures, but I’ll only share a few with you…no need to over do it.  There were 3 photographers at the wedding and I had a few conversations with the head photographer who was admiring my camera lens.  We traded some tips (her sister is a big fan of food photography) and I got to pick her brain on what types of lenses she used for the different shots.

Third, the wedding ceremony:

Then, we headed off to the wedding – my son was extra excited that he was going to get to see his new aunt.  Luckily, she likes him just as much as he likes her.  He was 1 of two children there (the other being only 3 months old), and he got quite a lot of attention.  Now that we are back in Germany, he is having a hard time adjusting to the lack of being the center of attention 100% of the time.

She’s coming – can you see the excitement in his face??

The ceremony was nice and short and simple, much to my liking.  Then, we all headed off for more photos and then to the reception which was held in an air-conditioned tent on the garden grounds.

There was a nice BBQ buffet, an awesome Mario & Princess cake, and lots of dancing.

Sorry that this post is a bit later than I had planned on writing it. I spent the better half of Saturday in the hospital from dehydration from the nastiest stomach flu that I remember having and then spent until now just sleeping. Luckily, it was a quick stomach bug and I am perfectly fine now.

Ok, so on to the winner. I used a random number generator that I came across on the internet and the winner is:

Jeff Blackwell.

I will be sending Jeff my copy of Cooking Green as soon as I get his shipping address.

To the rest of you who would like to read this, but don’t want to spend the money to buy it, I highly encourage you to borrow it from your local library. Or, pool together with some friends and buy it together and take turns reading it.

Ok, Iḿ back to vacation time!

A few months ago I received an email from Da Capo Press Lifelong Books letting me know about a new book that they had just published: cooking green by Kate Heyhoe (an Austinite).  I was very intrigued about a book that was going to give me ideas on how to be more energy efficient and more environmentally friendly in the kitchen, but I wasn’t sure it would be worth buying.  I figured it would be full of common sense ideas that I already practiced in my own kitchen.  So, I wrote Da Capo asking them if I could have a free book to review and then give away to someone through my blog.  They agreed as long as they didn’t have to ship it to me overseas, so I had it sent to my in-laws who just visited me 2 weeks ago.

I was sure I would read the book and be able to pass it on without a second thought.  Boy was I wrong!  Not only does the book really go into detail on how you can be more efficient/environmentally friendly in the kitchen, but it goes into detail as to why  what is being recommended works better than what is the norm.  It also has a fantastic recipe section in the back.  And, I have to say that I am having trouble parting with this book.  I have really fallen in love with it.  But, a promise if a promise.

So, I am giving my book away to one lucky person who leaves a comment on this blog post by June 21st at 6:00pm US Central Time. The winner will be picked at random, and I will mail out (or personally deliver the book if you are in the Austin or Houston area while on my vacation) the book as soon as I have your personal info.  And, I will buy myself another book (hopefully in a used book store) and buy some more books for friends and family that I feel would appreciate reading the book.  So far I plan on buying at least 4 of these babies.

Now, a bit more about the book and what I learned:

The book is a quick read.  It took me 2 weeks to finish, but I’m sure I could have read it in less time if I hadn’t just read at bedtime.  I also read through every single recipe (I wanted to be able to give a full and honest review) which took a week of that time.  Cooking Green is also interesting from page one.  Personally, I hate books that start off painfully and only start to improve and turn out great only towards the end.

As I had suspected, this book does mention some of what I already do for environmentally friendliness, but it goes far beyond and provides really great ideas.  My favorites that I have chosen to incorporate into my daily cooking life are:

-saving soaking/cooking water for my plants

-turning my oven off early to conserve energy and letting the food continue to cook with the residual heat

-turning my cook-top off early and letting the food continue to cook with the residual heat (like only boiling spaghetti for 2 minutes!)

-cooking more in my toaster oven

-cooking a item for multiple meals at one time (such as cooking enough beans for 2 meals at one time instead of cooking beans on 2 separate days – just save what you aren’t going to immediately use for later in the refrigerator or freezer)

My eyes were also opened when I read about the different USDA organic classifications and other meat classifications – like “grass fed”.  Apparently, saying a cow has been grass fed does not mean that the cow and all its cow friends were hanging-out on in a nice green pasture chewing grass off the ground that it’s growing on.  Oh no, all this USDA classification requires is that the animals are only fed grasses, hay, and other non-grain vegetation, but still allows the animals to have been confined to a pen and only fed hay – there are also no restrictions on the use of hormones or antibiotics!!

And, as I mentioned earlier, the book mentions some things that I already do, but many of these are because I live in Germany.  For example, the book recommends getting rid of your garbage disposal because they produce a lot of sludge in the water treatment process that has to be disposed of.  Instead, it is recommended that you compost any leftovers and trimmings that you would usually throw away.  Now, the reason I don’t use a garbage disposal is because they are illegal in Germany.  Instead, we have a green-colored garbage can that we put any biodegradables into, the city picks it up, composts it, and re-sells it locally to the community for a reduced price.

The book is defiantly written for the American market, but many of the suggestions can be put into practice anywhere in the world.  And, I am definitely happy I got my hands on this book, and I can’t wait to pass it on to you.

I encourage you to buy this book used from a local store or online.  Or, to read it electronically.  Currently, I can only find it available electronically for the Kindle, but I hope it will one day be available via PDF making it easy for me to search through recipes and contents on my computer.

I’d like to thank Kate Heyhoe for putting together this fabulous book and Da Capo Press for sending me this book!  You can check-out Kate’s website, New Green Basics for more tips and current information about environmental friendliness in the kitchen.

Recently I received a comment on one of my posts where a fellow blogger expressed her frustration with her food photography – all her pictures look the same – was her complaint.

Upon checking out her blog, I noticed that she has only been blogging for a few months and that her pictures look just like mine did 4 years ago: very one-sided.  I remember back when I first started blogging and taking pictures of my food that I was always so frustrated that my pictures never ever came out the way I had seen them with my eye.  The “simple” explanation is that my eyes are much better lenses than the one on my point-and-shoot camera and that the brain compensates quite a lot – much like the brain of a digital camera.  Except, that, well, a human brain can do much much more…so far.

So, for those of your who are just starting out, planning on starting out, or wishing to advance to the next level, this post will help you.

1. buy a tripod and use it…if you aren’t already.  A big mistake made by myself as well as many food photographers when first starting out is that pictures look like they are over-head pictures – like you are standing above your food to take the picture.  This is fine, but if you want to change it up, a tripod will give you the most versatility and stability.  I can’t say that I always use mine, but I do have to admit that when I don’t use it I often regret it.  The two pictures above are good examples.  The pictures on the top of the ceviche was taken with a tripod and I was able to create the exact look that I wanted.  The picture on the bottom of the Irish stew was taken without a tripod and the focus is on the group of carrots to the very left – leaving the rest of the food out of focus in varying degrees.
2. don’t use a flash & take pictures next to a window.  This is hard/impossible for me to do in the winter because it is always dark…that’s the only time of the year when I use my flash.   I also use a flash that allows me to flash away from what I am taking a picture of.  Otherwise, I remove the flash from my camera, set myself up next to the brightest window in my house before the sunlight is directly coming through – I don’t want the light too be too harsh and cast shadows.  If the sun light is too harsh, you can draw a white sheet, or sheer white curtain in front of the window to soften the light.
3. a camera with a big lenses is a big plus!  For years I used my Minolta point and shoot, but when my son was born back in 2007 we made the switch to a Nikon D-40 DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) – I was very very reluctant to do this because of the huge price jump..I mean, I had a working camera anyways…but it was worth every cent.  The larger lens allowed more light in and gave a more realistic look to my pictures.  Then, last summer I broke the lens on the camera and bought the next larger lens…it was so very painful to pay as much for the new lens as the entire camera had cost,  but, again, it was worth every cent.  The even larger lens allowed even more light in and gave me even better results.  Look in my blog archives and compare:

from March 2005: http://forfood.rezimo.com/?m=200503

from April 2007: http://forfood.rezimo.com/?m=200703

from June 2008: http://forfood.rezimo.com/?m=200903

For an even better example of what my “new” lens (Nikon 18-200mm) can do check out this picture I took after the sun had already set (May 2008):

I ran outside with my equipment and set everything up on my mom’s driveway, with the already set sun to my left and snapped away.  There was still plenty of twilight, and, NO, I did not tweak this photo one bit!

4. get a white board.  A plain 3-D white board (see this post for more details) .  This will help reflect any light back onto the side of the plate that is not directly in front of the window and remove any shadows. This is one of my most important pieces of equipment..and I think I paid $4US for it.  This is also a great food photography tutorial from one of my favorite bloggers, Tartlette.  I have learned a lot from her and made some changes to my set-up after reading this post in December of 2008.

Just to give you an idea of what a picture looks like with and without a white board:

the tweaked version (notice the shadows are harsh and the colors are not true):

in this image I used a white board and required no tweaking:

5. read books on food photography.  This is only something that I started-up last year.  Two books that I can recommend are: Food Styling For Photographers (read more about it here) which will give you lots of tips and tricks.  I only photograph food that is completely edible…since I always photography my meals, it’s important that I be able to eat them after the fact!  But, there are still plenty of helpful tips.  The other book is: Still Life And Special Effects Photography.  It is a really boring book to read, but it really showed me all the different equipment that is used to get different effects. I found the book more for professional photographers that used special lights in a studio, but it’d be good to flip through it in a book store.

6. save your favorite food photography pictures from other sites.  I have a nice little folder saved on my computer where I save any pictures I come across that I think look awesome.  Then, later on when I can’t think of a way to set-up a picture or want to try something different, I look to these photos for inspiration.  It’s fine to copy the food “poses” or styling, but eventually you will be well practiced and you will need less and less help.

These are some of the many blogs that continue to inspire me:
HomeMadeS
Tartlette
Steamy Kitchen
La Tartine Gourmande
mattbites
Milk and Cookies

Bellow are some of my favorite pictures that I have looked to for inspiration over the years.  They are all copyrighted under Creative Commons which allows me to share them with you in this post:

via: Flickr/chez pim

via: Flickr/neon.mamacita

via: Flickr/chocolate monster mel

via: Flickr/chocolate monster mel

via: Flickr/jen_maiser

via: Flickr/joshbousel

via: Flickr/joshbousel

You may also find these posts of interest:

What is Creative Commons & How it can Help you – how to get free advertising for your blog

Baked Potato Chowder & Bacon For Food Styling – recipe

Tips on Food Photography (by Tartlette)

Part 1: How to Get More Traffic from Search Engines

Part 2: How to Get More Traffic from Image Search Engines

My 36 Hour Chocolate Chip Cookie Studio

I am very excited to share with all of you that my 10 money saving tips for in the kitchen have been featured on the Chew On That blog.

Every month I receive an email from Chew On That asking for my opinion on a food-related matter as part of their Monthly Mouthful. I have been lucky enough to be taking part in it for at least a few months now. This time when Hillary emailed me I just couldn’t stop writing…I had such much to say and so many tips to give that she decided to feature my words as a guest post! I am truly honored.

You can find the whole post here.

A small example of what a 25 square meter (250 square foot) garden can produce in one day by early summer.

This is a very short synopsis of the tips/topics I covered (there’s about 1 paragraph worth of comment from myself on each topic):

1. Buy your meats from a butcher, preferably local, and NOT from a store that only sells prepackaged containers of meat

2. Buy staples in bulk

3. Plant a garden / Plan your garden

4. Learn to can and then do it

5. Make your own condiments and spice mixtures

6. Make your own salad dressings

7. Wash your own lettuce

8. Cook from scratch

9. Buy in season

10. Plan ahead / Make a grocery list

I am also happy to make myself available via email to anyone who’d like personal help cutting their kitchen budget, planning their garden, making the move to homemade foods, etc. myamii [at] rezimo [dot] com.

Update (Jan 14): It looks like I have the stomach flu too…  it looks like it will be a few days longer.