Lori, Author at Fake Food Free

Introducing CreatingYOU. Food Photography Workshops and Coaching

March 22, 2019

CreatingYOU. is a new opportunity offered by food photographer, Lori Rice. These food photography workshops will focus on creativity in food styling to help you produce images that reflect you and your brand or business.

Last year, I had an idea. Well, actually it was an idea that came just as much from other people.

Teach some type of class for food photography and styling.

So I thought about it. I needed some time. I know I can teach. That was most of my work in what I call my old days. I designed community programs and ran train-the-trainer courses.

But teaching what I know about food photography? I wasn’t so sure.

The thing is I’m not all that confident in the term photographer. The technical side, the numbers, the gadgets, the gear. I know things, but not like others know things.

But I do know how to create an appealing food or travel image, and I’m working on getting there with general still life. So I needed to figure out what it is that I know, the key points of my journey, that would be helpful to others to share.

Hot Smoked Salmon Bowls with Blood Orange Sesame Dressing

February 6, 2019

Well, look at this. I’m writing a blog post.

I’m probably the most surprised of anyone. My commitment to keeping posts going during the testing portion of my next book turned out to be an unachievable dream. It was impossible.

I still have a lot more writing to do so I’m not sure how much you will hear from me over the coming weeks, but I am here now. And I have a recipe.

Spiced Pineapple Brandy Brunch Punch

January 11, 2019

This easy brunch punch has the flavors of cinnamon, cardamom, and ginger combined with pineapple and brandy!

It stores nicely in quart mason jars to chill until you are ready to serve or take it along to your next cocktail-friendly potluck.

Just before the end of last year, I met up with a group around here that has grown to be what you’d call my tribe. We all run small businesses. Some in the form of service-based contract and freelance work and others by producing artisan home goods, decor, and food. We’ve been meeting for a while now as part of our local Rising Tide Society group, but a few of us who try to regularly attend have added some more business-focused meetings to encourage each other to set and reach goals.

This meeting was to set up our business plans and earning goals for 2019 along with the steps we planned to use to achieve them. But it was also the end of the year, so we needed to do a little celebrating. We agreed on a potluck along with some brunch-friendly cocktails to help.

My 3 Words for 2019

January 4, 2019

I have to admit that 2018 was the one year that I barely looked back at my three words. I’m not quite sure why. I was really excited about those words.

It was a good, but also a weird year. Maybe that is the reason I didn’t revisit them. This weirdness is a sentiment I’ve gotten from a lot of other people, too. Professionally, it was a treading-water kind of year. At a recent local meeting I attend with other small business owners and creatives, a friend of mine said, “2018 was about survival.” It was spot on.

That’s never a good feeling. And because of it, I did no work travel for continuing education and I can really feel the effects. I felt closed off from colleagues and stumped for creativity.

Chicken Mole

December 13, 2018

The first time I had real mole, we were nearing the end of our cross-country drive to drop Dan off in California to start his new job, a couple months before the official move. We’d stopped for the night in Salt Lake City and had heard great things about Red Iguana, especially all their excellent versions of mole.

I was sold at first bite.

There are many different types of mole, but what is consistent with all (that I’ve tried) is the intensity of flavor. Chiles, seeds, nuts, spices, and even chocolate come together to create a rich sauce with a flavor that is difficult to put into words.

I’d vowed to try making it at home someday. And truth be told, I’ve been sitting on a recipe for a long while now. It belongs to my friend, Jason, and is from his book Healthy Sous Vide.

Peppernuts

December 10, 2018

We arrived in Copenhagen at dusk. As we stepped out of the train station, it began spitting rain that threatened to transition to ice at any moment. Unphased by the cold temperatures and slick lanes, bikers sped past us in an organized fashion as we hauled our luggage a couple of blocks to our hotel.

When we entered the warm, dry lobby, we were hit with a dose of hygge. Of course, we didn’t know that’s what it was at the time. The popularity of capturing the concept (an impossible task outside of Denmark, in my opinion) hadn’t yet caught on around the globe.

The lights glowed softly, there was a free welcome beer ready to be poured from the tap at the bar, and the tiniest ginger cookies I had ever seen sat in a bowl next to the check-in counter.

It turns out these were a complimentary welcome gift as well, a spoon set inside the bowl to allow guests to scoop out a handful.

It was our first introduction to Peppernuts.

On the Sly Scotch Cocktail

December 7, 2018

I’m usually not one for sweeter, creamy cocktails. At least not anymore. There are two exceptions, though.

Sometimes I can swing one for dessert. And, if they are spiced, I think they fit right in with the holiday season.

So when I was flipping through my review copy of Maggie Hoffman’s The One-Bottle Cocktail, the On the Sly caught my eye. I took a second glance due to the combination of it being spiced, creamy, coffee-infused, and…it uses Scotch!

Pumpkin White Chocolate Peanut Butter Balls

November 16, 2018

I remember the first time I tried buckeyes. You know, those little peanut butter and chocolate candies.

I thought, oh, those are peanut butter balls without the tops. At our house growing up, we made peanut butter balls. It’s essentially the same recipe, you just dip the entire peanut butter ball in the chocolate versus creating the buckeye look by leaving its top exposed.

I like our version better. I’m not sure if it’s because I like chocolate or because if you google buckeye your first page of search results will be for Ohio State and I went to undergrad at Purdue. Either way, ours are better. I stand by it.

With those peanut butter balls in mind, I was thinking about how I could put a seasonal twist on them and switch them up just a bit.

The Simplest Butternut Squash Soup

November 14, 2018

This is the absolute simplest way to make butternut squash soup if you want a version that is full of slow-roasted flavor and more savory than sweet.

I thought I was tired of butternut squash soups. Maybe you are, too. I’ve had quite a few winter squash soups on the blog. But I needed something really simple for lunch. I felt a little bad that the season for the soup had just begun and I’d already hit my limit. I thought I should give it another try.

The catch was that I didn’t want to do any chopping or dicing. I also didn’t want to pour one out of a tetra pak and heat it up. And it couldn’t be too sweet. I think that is sort of the turn-off with squash soups. When other ingredients like apple, onion, and dairy are added, they tend to end up super sweet. It has its place, but I wasn’t in the mood for it.

So I came up with this version. No frills. It uses slow-roasted squash (see the easy instructions below), and it is creamy, savory and a touch spicy versus sweet. It’s the soup to add as a starter course for a holiday day dinner because it’s so hands off and easy to make.

Garlic Tahini Roasted Brussels Sprouts

November 8, 2018

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Garlic and Tahini | Recipe at FakeFoodFree.com #brusselsprouts #sidedishes #vegetablerecipes #tahinirecipes #holidayrecipes #thanksgivingsides

Brussel sprouts season is upon us! Every time I think I’ve made roasted Brussels sprouts in every way possible, another idea strikes.

This recipe is super simple and it’s one you will love if you are a tahini fan. If you are unfamiliar with tahini, it is a paste the consistency of natural peanut butter that is made from sesame seeds. A standard ingredient in hummus, it can be worked into everything from snack bars to soups and salad dressings.

Or as it turns out, roasted Brussels sprouts.