Favorite Links

I thought I'd round out this week with some of my favorite things that have really excited me this year.

This blog intersects with my three loves, food, photography and my two basset hounds, so here are a few of my links that I've returned to more than once:

Food Connections

• Spinach Soup with Cashew Cream--this soup was crazy good. Of the 22 soups from "The Soup Project" that I've made, this one by far has the most possibilities for spin off recipes. What can I say? I love cashew cream!

• Quinoa Fritters--this recipe that I pilfered from The South American Table by Maria Baez Kijac has saved me many times when dinner time approaches and I have nothing in mind. Okay, it's not the healthiest recipe because the fritters are fried, but the flavor and texture will leave you wanting more.

• Make an Artist Date in Your Garden--this concept has changed my life. The artist date concept came from Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way, and the idea is to make an artist date with yourself once a week. It can be anywhere--walk on the beach, check out an antique store, go to an art museum, watch a parade--but you must immerse yourself in the moment like an artist. This is a way to fuel creativity and I find it helps a lot in the kitchen, the garden and with photography. If you don't have a garden or it's raining like it is here, check out this fabulous garden blog.

Food blogs

I'm over the edge lately when it comes to food blogs. I've been looking at as many as I can and it feels like every stay-at-home-mom and home cook has started a food blog. Here's a tip for you if you're thinking of starting one, please don't start out with "I have four lovely children" (or two or three). Please look at many blogs first and see if you have anything new to add besides your own recipes, we're knee deep in recipes, I never thought it could get deeper but it does. Every time I turn around someone mentions a food blog they've started. I find myself smirking, thinking, really, another one? And yet here I sit writing about food. You can find many food bloggers at blog hops--the biggest trend blogging this year.

Blog hops are like putting your name in a fishbowl for a prize. If you put your name in enough bowls, you'll pick up followers. Here's how you do it: get the Mr. Linky tool and hook up. When I checked out the people who participated it seems like a workable strategy, especially for the host who gets all the incoming links but are these these people all really followers? On the creepy side, the crowed ocean of what-I-cooked-for-diner-is just a hint that we've become way too obsessed over our daily menu choices. The good and the bad blogs, I check them all. Check out this one with the carved shark over blue jello cubes. What do you think? Creepy, quirky or boring there isn't enough time in the day for all food blogs in this country. Enough rambling.

Here are my favorite food blogs (no Mr. Linky tools here):

• 101 Cookbooks--I love Heidi's vegetarian recipes and her photos can be quite inspiring.

• Smitten Kitchen--I'm a new follower for this one, and it's not vegetarian but her photos, story and recipes are worth taking a look at.

• Orangette--not vegetarian either but seriously who doesn't love Molly Wizenberg's Orangette?

Food Photography

Good food photography is intriguing, inviting and harder than it looks to get the right angle and right lighting using the right lens. One way to improve it study popular food blogs where lots of comments are generated about the photos. Another way is to find tips on line. Here are some of my favorite links to better food photography

Tips to improve food styling

Angles for food photography

The Pioneer Woman's tips for better food photography--I like her focus. Pioneer woman's recipes with close up photos comes about as close as you can get to food porn. Check out this rhubarb dessert and see how she gets hundreds of comments without any blog hopping parties.

Photography

Compositon, lighting, lenses and filters--Since I took pictures for my book, I've been interested in honing my skills. I check out photography websites and blogs and here are two of my favorites.

• Danielle Leavelle--check out where the shadows fall and the colors in the photos

• Dean Riggott-- amazing farm photography for landscape photos

This is Whispering Winds Farm (not my best moment in the farm photo category), but it's yet another shameless attempt to mention that Farm-to-Fork dinner I'll be attending on July 16th. Check it out, it's so affordable for a dinner on the farm. Plus we're giving out door prizes, so get your tickets!

Basset hounds and dogs

If you haven't seen Cooking with Dog and you like dogs, you simply must see it. The talking poodle is totally my favorite. Also, when I realized Pioneer Woman has two basset hounds, I now check her posts about for news about Charlie and Walter. Anyone with one or two dogs on their blog gets my attention. Here are my favorite links for those of you with four footed assistants.

• 50 basset hounds running

• Pioneer Woman (Charlie)

• Tall Clover--Tom a farmer-blogger on Vashon Island and has two bulldogs who are hilarious.

I need to ramp-it-up, get a few basset action photos, but every time I take out the camera Finn poses.

Don't try this one without serious supervision.

Rumbling on the tracks? I think Finn and sister Chloe are keepers.

Food Photography 101

I'd been thinking about getting a better camera for months. I couldn't get decent closeup shots with my Cannon G9, but a better camera was just a dream. That is until last fall at the Hillsdale farmers' market when I was snapping photos at the Ayers Creek Farm booth. Another shopper asked, "How do you like that camera?"

"It's decent," I'd replied. "But it doesn't zoom in on details--flower petals, honeybees, sesame seeds. I'm dreaming about getting a Rebel."

"I'm thinking about selling my Rebel if you're interested, " said Anthony Boutard. "I need something that will take better photos myself."

I couldn't refuse the offer, and two weeks later, I drove to Ayers Creek Farm and bought Anthony's pampered camera. Everything, even the two extra lenses he'd included were in original boxes with original Styrofoam packaging and the CD and instruction manual. As Carol Boutard helped me carry the boxes she joked, "I told Anthony he forgot one of the twist ties." We both laughed.

But seriously, I'm so excited to get this well cared for camera and I wanted to learn more about photography. So I signed up for this class; because sometimes I need a kick to get started.

The assignment this week was shutter speed. I thought I'd get some good shots at the Ballard Farmers' Market. (Or maybe I just wanted another excuse to go to the market.) And after a few lame attempts at capturing dogs walking and sniffing each other and people strolling around and staring at food, I got distracted by the food. We're so lucky to have abundanat food at the markets smack in the middle of winter and we don't even think about it much anymore. And the stuff that's plucked fresh from the earth is so enticing.

Who could resist these Chioggia or "Candy Striped" beets?

Not really "shutter speed" photo, so I moved on and snapped a picture at the Patty Pan Grill. The veggies look enticing but hello the only thing moving here is the steam above them. The Patty Pan Grill, by the way, is my favorite place to buy tamales, if I haven't mentioned that already. But try these local veggies topped homemade salsa and wrapped in a tortilla while you're there and you won't regret that choice either.

At the end of the street, was this hot dog cart, with a man was grilling dogs. I made commented about veggie dogs and the man surprised me when he said, "I've got vegetarian hot dogs, too." Suddenly I was thinking about hot dog possibilities, and I wasn't the only one. Two feet away from me was a red and white basset hound sitting motionless, staring up seriously. She was so much like my Cooking Assistant, it unnerved me. Scent hounds are over-the-top obsessed with scents, especially food and they're so optimistic about getting a bite.

If that hound could have seen the grilled dogs from my vantage point, she'd have really been in heaven.

Back at home I used a macro lens for my soup project. I had to back up to get my Cooking Assistant in the frame. He was patient, waiting for me to get the right settings and to focus the lens. I'm not sure this qualifies as "action" for the class, but I can see my Cooking Assistant is up for more picture since he always snags a well-deserved reward for his interpretation of hamming it up for the camera.