Things have been simple around here lately. My next recipe is proof of that.
Life has been busy. Cooking has been light. The focus has been on fruits and vegetables. Especially before we take off to the Big Island in a few weeks where all bets will be off. I can’t visit Hawaii without consuming a fair amount of kalua pork, rice, and mac salad.
So breakfasts like these have been common.
Nine hundred and eighty-one published posts.
That is what it tells me when I log into WordPress.
I wasn’t always on WordPress. Actually, I stayed true to Blogger as my platform until just a few years ago. But all those posts are there, from 2008 to the present.
It’s probably not a lot compared to other blogs that have been around this long. Some years have more posts than others.
The first few had a lot of soapbox opinion posts about my views on nutrition. The blog has always had a smattering of internationally inspired content. For a while, you’d find nothing but mascavo sugar and white whole wheat flour. Then I relaxed the rules a bit on that. Mainly because the sugar got much harder and more expensive to find when we moved back to the States, and to be honest, I got sick of the flavor of that flour.
Then I went and wrote a cookbook about making foods with beer. And I started a business, now called Fake Food Free Productions, LLC where my main services are photographing food and writing related content.
It’s been an interesting path. The pictures above are of me with my first sticky rice in Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2009. Then a picture I took at my first food photography workshop. Jumping to current days, the next is one of the headshots I had taken when my cookbook published last year.
Lately, it has been fun to look back at all my content and see how some of my favorite recipes compare to the internet’s favorite recipes.
Fake Food Free is 10 years old this week! While I haven’t had many recipes up lately, I have been doing plenty with food. This is a little photo tour.
Other than working on projects for clients and throwing a holiday cookout last weekend, I haven’t been in the kitchen much in May.
We’ve been eating a lot of leftovers from shoots. Other things have been less than glamorous which means there isn’t much of a recipe to photograph and share.
My point with all of this is to say that I know I haven’t been posting much recently. Even with the fresh produce of the spring and summer coming on, I still have nothing.
I plan for it to change some in June, so hang in there with me.
While I haven’t been developing recipes fit for this site, I have been taking a lot of photos.
And guess what? Fake Food Free turns 10 years old this week!
This cinnamon cider whiskey cocktail is a simple mix of flavored vodka, dry hard cider, and whiskey. Served over ice it’s perfect for any season of the year!
I might be the only one that feels this way, but cinnamon is a tough ingredient to incorporate into the warmer months of spring and summer.
If you think about it, do any of your favorite foods or drinks for the summer have cinnamon in their flavor profile? I tried to come up with something, but I haven’t thought of it yet.
I refused to give up, though. I knew there had to be a way to use cinnamon in something refreshing. This cocktail is it.
These grilled baby yellow squash are topped with a savory crumble made of rich butter, smoked almonds, and fresh, local garlic!
I’m happy to say that Fake Food Free has transitioned to the Substack Newsletter called Every Corner of the World.
I hope to see you there.
I have a special produce shopping skill. I can spot baby vegetables on a table from the other side of the farmers market.
When this happens I briskly walk straight up to the table and buy every one they have. I’ve done it with eggplant. And this time, it’s baby squash.
I’ll admit I do sometimes feel guilty about not leaving any for others. The guilt snuck up on me again this shopping trip so I left about 4 on the table. In the end I didn’t succeed, though.
This spring pea salad uses farm fresh peas and combines them with green onions and crunchy walnuts. It’s dressed in a yogurt-based sauce that is seasoned with za’atar, a Middle Eastern herb and spice blend.
Pea salad. We’ve had a love-hate relationship for as long as I can remember.
It has a bit to do with the pea salad I grew up with – canned or frozen peas and a mayo-based dressing. My family loved the stuff at get-togethers, but I always skipped over it in favor of macaroni or potato salad.
But spring pea salad? This I can get behind. It sounds the same, but there is a key difference.
Fresh peas.
The Beers Knees cocktail is a drink that feels like it was made for me. Gin, honey, lemon, and beer! It’s from Booze & Vinyl, a book that is going to lead to all kinds of fun for upcoming parties.
After the kitchen remodel was finished up last year, it was finally time for my husband to work on getting his home office in order. The first step involved finding a slab of black walnut that he finished as a beautiful table. Second, getting a record player for that table along with some new vinyl.
He’s the music person in the family so I simply get to reap the benefits of the music being played. But we have some other related things in common, our enjoyment of throwing a party with friends, and making and drinking cocktails.
So when I received a review copy of Booze & Vinyl: A Spirited Guide to Great Music and Mixed Drinks by André Darlington and Tenaya Darlington a little while back, as you will see, it was downright perfect.
These pickled shrimp are flavored with sundried tomatoes, black peppercorn, and dill. Prepared with crunchy vegetables and a tangy brine, they can be eaten with crackers or used to top tacos!
Good shrimp are hard to find. At least they are when you define good as them arriving to you in sustainable ways from areas that fish them responsibly.
Knowing that these type of shrimp cost more, I invested in some for a recipe that I had to develop…and they were awful. I expect because the turnover here for that type of thing is low, but either way, I won’t do that again.
So my only solution has been 1) saving shrimp eating for when we travel and 2) buying these small bay, or salad shrimp as they are often called, that I can find at the market that do have some traceability for sourcing.
It turns out that I’m kind of liking them more than larger shrimp. I’m also finding them a lot more fun to work with.
Today I’m thinking back one year later and reflecting on my experience with food photography in Rome at Meeta K. Wolff’s workshop.
People still ask me about the trip. It happened again just this past weekend.
It’s been just about a year since I traveled over to Italy to take a food photography workshop just outside of Rome in Torri in Sabina.
One thing you should know is that Italy was never at the top of my travel list. You see, I tend not to go for the places people gush over, especially in the food community.
They seem too predictable. Too easy to like. I mean, Italy? Come on. It’s a given I’m going to like the pasta.
More often I set my travel plans around places that are a little more unexpected to others when I get into “where have you been, where should I go” kinds of conversations. Places like Vienna (my favorite city in the world), Ubud, Berlin, and Copenhagen. Places people like and go to, but they don’t always rave about.
Everyone raves about Italy and given my stubborn nature I went determined not to.
This pasta is tossed in a creamy, dairy-free almond spinach sauce. It’s a meatless meal that is flavorful and filling!
If I had to pick one ingredient that I’m really inspired to work with right now, it would be nuts. But not nuts as a crunchy snack or topping.
Nuts as a soaked and blended ingredient to make things creamy while also adding protein.
A couple years ago, I made this Broccoli Cashew Soup. There have been plenty more experiments.
This time I’m using almonds. I bought a big bag of slivered almonds a while back with every intention to start perfecting my macaron making skills.
