Spiced Up Zucchini

I'm on a huge Veggie Kick! And as tempting as it seems to make a buttery, sugary, succulent baked good, I've opted for something a little more simplistic for today's recipe. Basically it's just veggies with spices. I choose to do it with zucchini and acorn squash. (If there is such a thing as impulsive veggie shopping, I've done it. The acorn squash looked cute so I bought it). Unfortunately I mutilated it when trying to slice it because it was so darn hard). Ipso facto, why I didn't end up baking any squash.

On these zucchini slices, I used my new "olive oil pump spray mister deallio". (It's awesome - you should probably get one). Parmesan cheese, italian spices, garlic powder and pepper. Great combo!
Bake'm at 350F for about 25-30 minutes. Spice up your veggies!

Aw... see how cute it is!
(I'm just realizing now it's mammary-like
appearance, oh-well)

The latest and greatest addition to my kitchen:
The Mister!

Are you getting your 5 servings of veggies a day? EAT MORE VEGGIES! Add spices!

P.S. Up until today I totally thought the saying was "if-so-fact-o", but it's not. It's really "ipso facto", a latin term meaning "by the fact itself". Everyday's a schools day.

Lemon Loaf

I realize that it's not Sunday. I was visiting family on the weekend and I ran out of time to make a new recipe on Sunday, so 'New Recipe Tuesday' will have to do for this week.

In honor of the relatives I was visiting, I choose to make a recipe from a book that they gave me a couple of years ago for Christmas. This '4-h favorites' book has a recipe for everything, and even has variations of the same recipe (which is great if you are wanting to experiment...but not experiment too much). Greatest cookbook you could ever have!

Lemon Loaf
1/2 c butter, margarine, or shortening
1 c sugar
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 lemon rind, grated

Glaze
1/4 c lemon juice
1/2 c sugar

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beaat in eggs gradually. Blend in milk. In second bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt and lemon rind. Pour over batter. Stir to moisten. Spoon into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350C for 40-60 minutes until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

To prepare glaze: Combine lemon juice and sugar in small saucepan. Heat and stir to dissolve sugar. Evenly spoon over hot loaf. Cool in pan 10 minutes. Remove from pan. Cool and wrap. Yields 1 loaf.

This loaf was delicious when it was still warm from the oven. The sugary glaze that gets poured over top is a great addition and makes it a very light, yet tangy-sweet, dessert bread.

Playing with Fire

So, you've all seen the awesome "LOVE" wedding picture on pinterest, that appears to be written out of Fire. Neat. So I was determined to figure out how to take these pictures. All you have to do it slow your shutter speed wayyyy down.

   Hold the camera really still, press the shutter and wait. Once it's all done 'processing' (aka, the little men inside my camera finish coloring the picture), view the picture to see what you've "drawn with fire".

The first time I did this was around a wintery bonfire, after a great evening of tobogganing. If "night tobogganing" isn't on your Bucket List, put it on there....  However, my fingers would get too cold to take several pictures in a row, so my friends and I had to take 'mitten shifts' so we stayed warm. Also, I have no idea the temperature tolerance of a camera, and since my camera is new I may have been babying it, just a little bit.

Project: New Camera

Nikon J1

Happy Birthday to me! One of the good things about having my birthday three weeks after Christmas is that I can cash in on some Boxing Day sales. This year I cashed in on a new camera. A step up from the 'green pea' (aka my old, bright green, waterproof, scratched up screen 'pea' of a camera).

At first glance this new camera is comparable in size to the typical 'point and shoot'. However, slap on the lens and things get amped up a little bit. I bought the package deal of the J1 so it came with two lenses, one with a smaller range and one with a bigger range. I know very little about cameras and shutter speeds and exposure levels so the photography section will be devoted to my version of "photography for dummies".

Horse Photoshoot

My friend Michelle owns a HORSE!! A real live horse who lives at a beautiful farm. Perfect opportunity for a photoshoot!

Tip #1: Moving objects are not the easiest things to learn how to photograph, but you can still have fun anyways.

(crop out my shadow and this picture's not too bad).

I didn't play around with as many settings as I would have liked too because let's be honest, when a horse is running straight towards you, your priorities shift a little bit. I did figure out, however, that because it was so bright outside (with the snow and sun) I was able to have a fairly quick shutter speed.

We started out in a barn and the lighting was super frustrating so while I was trying to find a good shutter speed (aka, button pushing until I figured out what some settings actually affected) I made an awesome "whoops-photo" that turned out super cool.

Now, if I could only do this on purpose. Also, I am wanting his eye to be a little more glossy looking so I might play around with the limited photoshop I have to create the glistening look I want. I'm going to have to look at a my camera to see the specs on this picture. I would love it if I could recreate this, on purpose.


 I gave up trying to set my camera to be able to shoot the indoor/outdoor lighting that the barn was offering so I went outside to see what other farm animals I could find.

Cuties!

I still have sooo much to learn about apertures, and which lens to use and lighting and movement stuff. So, I will just show some of my favorite pictures of the day!

Beautiful

Things are getting a little artsy...If you look reallly closely you can see me in the reflection of his eye!

I love Michelle's expression in this one. Gorgeous!

Starting to figure out how to focus on what I want to focus on, not what the camera wants to focus on.

This ones cool! I love how the white on his face looks against the white snow. I also like how you can see his feet in this one. Pretty good angle, I think.

Focused on the Barbs!

Two fluffy cats and a horse!

...still working out how to get the full silhouette effect.

This picture is awesome. However, I don't like how I feel like I'm going to fall off the earth when I look at it... So I straightened things out a bit...

Ah... That's much better.

I love how you can see the snow splashing up around his hooves. And his tail looks pretty neat too!

Custom fence = custom photo

Pretty good for one of my first photo shoots.... and one last one for the bloopers....

You just can't plan for a shot like this! Makes me laugh out loud every time I look at it!

Thanks for the great day at the farm, Michelle! It's day's like this that get me so excited for the day when I will own my own farm and can spend sunny days outside appreciating the little things like goofy horse faces and beautiful friends. Can't wait for the next photoshoot.

Roasted Tomatoes with Shallots and Herbs

I made these tasty little treats to go along with the delicious Roasted Salmon with Citrus and Herbs. These tomatoes were super easy!

Roasted Tomatoes with Shallots and Herbs
4 medium tomatoes, cut in half horizontally
1/2 tsp salt, divided
cooking spray
1/4 cup minced shallots
1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 tsp chopped fresh or 1/4 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp chopped fresh or 1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp chopped fresh or 1/8 tsp dried rosemary
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees
2. Core and seed tomato halves. Sprinkle cut sides of tomato halves with 1/4 tsp salt. Place tomato halves, cut sides down, on paper towels. Let stand 20 minutes.
3. Place tomato halves, cut sides up, in a 13x9 inch baking dish coated with cooking spray. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp salt, shallots, and next 5 ingredients. Drizzle with oil. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hr, 15 mins or until tomatoes soften.

Notes:
-Compare and contrast Shallots and Onions?
  Shallots and Onions both make your eyes water, badly.
  Shallots and Onions both look the same when 'finely chopped'.
  Shallots are found beside the garlic in the grocery stores, Onions are found beside the potatoes.
  If you really want to know the difference check out this website. Little F.F. for ya (fun fact). Now you know...thank you Wiki Answers.
-These tomatoes are BURSTING with flavor! They could be very versatile if you want to create your own special blend of herbs to put on these bad boys. Another fun addition may be adding some version of nuts to the tops.
-1 hr and 15mins is a long time to wait for tomatoes to bake. Next time I might try a combo of baking and broiling to make the process go quicker.
-Delicious and Nutritious!
 

Roasted Salmon with Citrus and Herbs

It's SUNDAY! Time for a new recipe. From the best of Cooking Light: everyday favorites this Salmon recipe is one I will definitely be making again. I love Salmon (it's my go to meal at any restaurant - that's how much I love it), and this Salmon recipe is definitely in the top 3 Salmons I've ever had. (#1 being a $42 fillet at a Vegas restaurant which better make the #1 spot if I'm going to pay that much for a dinner on a students budget). Considering my love for Salmon, choosing this recipe was still somewhat of a risk... there was no picture in the cookbook for reference (huge risk, I know). But turns out, it was a great Salmon. Even without seeing a picture of it first.

Roasted Salmon with Citrus and Herbs
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh thyme
1 tbsp minced garlic
2 tsp grated lemon rind
2 tsp grated lime rind
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 salmon fillet
cooking spray

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Combine first 7 ingredients in a small bowl. Place salmon on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Rub parsley mixture over salmon. Bake at 400 for 15 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.

Notes:
-This salmon was soooo good. The lemon, lime, parsley, and thyme smelled absolutely amazing when combined together! If summer could be put into a bowl and spread on a salmon, this would be the recipe. Very light and super tasty.
-Fresh thyme is interesting to 'chop'. I found that more of a 'picking-the-leaves-off' technique worked best.
-Actually measure the salt. Don't guess a teaspoon.
-I didn't know 'doneness' is a word.

Also shown in the pictures is the side dish: Roasted Tomatoes with Shallots and Herbs. See other post for this recipe. (I highly recommend you check this recipe out.)

Project: Baby Quilt

Who doesn't like baby quilts? No one, that's who. However, none of my friends are having babies yet, so it would seem strange to just start marking baby quilts and not giving them to anyone.

But, life goes on, people get pregnant and soon enough I'm bound to know one of these 'pregnant people'. My friends' sister is due near the end of January, so my friend and I have been working on a quilt to give to the 'baby momma' as a gift.(By the way, today she had the BABY BOY!!! So today is the perfect day to post the post!)

If you've ever shopped for baby fabrics you probably said "awwwwww!" or "That's so cute" at least 1,000 times more than the general public. I'm pretty sure I said "awwwwwwww! Look at how cute this one is!" at every bolt of fabric with pastelly colour tones in it.

This quilt it gender neutral, (my money is on Girl, though....Obviously I was wrong), so I got to pick out lots of yellows, and greens, and browns. I also decided to pick out different textured materials, like the bumpy green one, flannel, and shaggy yellow. I should mention now that I did all my shopping at Joanne's Fabric store in the USA. As if the US prices weren't good enough, it was also midnight madness and the entire store was on sale.

 Pretty simple square design. I tried to make the corners fancy....I probably won't be doing this again. The edge was pretty bunged up. Next time I will be using a 3" binding. At least until I get better at doing bindings.

See, "AWWWWWWWW, super cute!"
Hopefully I can make many more baby quilts in the future!