Food Styling and Photography

"When you look at food you have two eyes, when a camera looks at it, it only has one."

-Delores Custer, food stylist

A couple weeks ago I attended a food styling and photography class.  It was put on by the Portland Culinary Alliance, a professional organization of which I am a student member. I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this class, but I knew it sounded exactly like something I should do. 

The Fox Foodie is coming up on our one year anniversary, and wow! have we come a long way from January 30th 2010. My writing has improved, my recipes have improved, I have been trying new places and attending new events, but the most obvious change is that my photographs have improved greatly. 

If you don't believe me check out some of my very early posts such as this one or this one. And then look at the photos I upload now. Hopefully you will notice a dramatic difference. 

I am convinced that good photos are one of the easiest and quickest ways to make your blog look professional. If you look at the very best food blogs, you will notice that they have the very best photos.  Sometimes people can even get away with being so-so writers, if they are excellent photographers.

I do not claim to be an excellent food photographer by any means, but I do enjoy it and I love learning more about it. In fact you would be surprised and perhaps appalled if you saw the camera in which I take all of my photos with. Let's just say it is a small point and shoot and it is nearing its fourth birthday. Yeah, I am in desperate need of a new camera.

But as you can see, it doesn't take a professional and expensive camera to take good food pictures. Of course, as any amateur food photographer would wish, I do hope to get a Canon Rebel in the year 2011...

Gingerbread Men and Women

OK, before you ask, yes I am aware of the fact that it is after Christmas. I had all the intentions in the world about blogging my gingerbread recipe prior to Christmas, but alas, that failed to happen.

I decided the saying "better late than never" applies to blogs too, and am posting this recipe in case anyone would like to bake New Years gingerbread men. And also because by next Christmas-time I will have probably lost track of the photos...

I suppose I should also take this time to explain myself. My last post was on November 10th. I completely agree that this in inexcusable behavior, and blogging once a week (or at LEAST every other week) is one of my New Years resolutions.

Pomegranate Ginger Muffins

Lately I have been getting very excited because Christmas is fast approaching. Although I have been severely tempted I have resisted the urges to secretly listen to Christmas carols or start buying Christmas presents or decorations (OK, maybe I bought a few, but overall I have been very good!). 

If I had to choose a favorite holiday I would pick Christmas. Everything about Christmas makes me smile. Decorating the tree(s), baking special treats, making gingerbread houses, driving around for hours looking at Christmas lights, and of course remembering and reflecting on the true meaning of Christmas. 

So much of what I think of when I think of Christmas is food. For most families holidays are centered around food. Food is the biggest form of hospitality. Food is also something that is strongly connected to our memory. When I think of Christmas I can almost taste it. 

Hot chocolate. Candy canes. Gingerbread. Sugar cookies. Pumpkin pie. Ham. Spiced cider. Marshmallows. Peanut brittle. Mandarin oranges. Chocolate covered cherries. The list could go on and on. 

The Perfect Newberg Picnic

If you’re looking for a quaint spot to have lunch in Newberg or for a place to pick up a picnic basket for a date, I know just the place. Perfect Picnics is located in the heart of Newberg and offers all this and more.

Perfect Picnics opened on Memorial Day and feeds customer’s appetite by serving lunch and dinner in their charming restaurant, offering catering services, and providing wonderful picnic or boxed lunches to take to a favorite Newberg (or beyond) destination.

Perfect Picnics is located within walking distance of George Fox University in a beautiful historic house across the street from the library. Customers can eat their lunch or dinner inside at a cozy table adjacent to shelves of unique picnic baskets, or enjoy their meal outside at one of the picnic tables that are dressed up with tablecloths and pepper plant centerpieces.

Pumpkin Bread

 

It's officially pumpkin week. Well not "officially", but I have decided that it is the week to celebrate everyone's favorite winter squash.

During the past seven days I have visited the pumpkin patch, carved pumpkins, made my own pumpkin puree, made pumpkin cheesecake and this pumpkin bread.

I didn't just start loving pumpkins recently. I was born in October, so from the start I was personally and deeply connected to pumpkins.

 Homemade pumpkin puree

I think the moment I fell in love with pumpkins was when I was a few weeks old and my parents stuck me in a hallowed out pumpkin for a photo. (Looking back it seems endearing, but when I did this to my puppy a few days ago my friends all looked at me like a was crazy...)

When I was seven years old I had my very own backyard pumpkin patch, as did my brother. He grew large pumpkins, some that got to be almost 50 pounds, and I grew the tiny ones. I have always loved tiny things.

The best thing about my patch in comparison to my brothers was that mine produced a far greater yield than his did. I had hundred of pumpkins by October.

With no idea of what to do with so many pumpkins I opened up a "pumpkin stand" in my driveway. It was similar to a lemonade stand except that it was freezing cold out and I was selling miniature pumpkins. Fifty cents each, or three for a dollar.

Quick and Easy Pumpkin Cheesecake

I am about to share with you my favorite fall recipe of all time.

Get excited.

This pumpkin cheesecake is a modification of a recipe that has been in my family longer than I even have. My mom received the recipe for "company cheesecake" (don't ask me, I have no idea why it's called that) from a coworker about 30 years ago.

It was a recipe for plain cheesecake, but also had suggestions on how to spice it up, such as adding berries to the mixture.

It wasn't until about five years ago that I got the idea to use this recipe to make pumpkin cheesecake. I know, Brilliant, right? I love pumpkin, but don't love pumpkin pie. But I do love cheesecake. Thus, pumpkin cheesecake was born.

Every year the recipe is a little different as we can never seem to find where we wrote down the recipe the year before, but fortunately this cheesecake is very forgiving and you can add more or less or just about anything and it will state taste AMAZING.

Lucky for you, I made it my goal to finally decide on the perfect recipe once and for all. (Ok, maybe I did it more for myself, because now that's its on my blog I will always know where to find it!)

This cheesecake is probably the easiest dessert recipe you will ever find. All you do it add all the ingredients into a blender or food processor, mix, and pour into a crust. That's it! Well, you have to bake it too, of course. 

Butternut Squash Soup

This fall is like so many others, except at the same time it is so different. I went back to school as I have for the last seventeen years, the leaves are changing color as they always have, and the air has a delightful chill to it even with the sun out. But this may be the last fall I go back to school. The last fall I get to quickly walk to class at 8:30 am wishing I had worn more than a sweater with anticipation of afternoon warmth.

Although this fall marks many "ends" for me, it has also held some firsts too. It marks the first time I have my own apartment and therefore my own kitchen. It also marks the first time I have been solely responsible for my own meals. Before this year I was required to purchase a school meal plan which I did not take advantage of nearly as much as I paid for, and before that my mom did most of the cooking.

I have only been in this new cook-for-myself stage of life for one and half months now, but I have already had a total blast learning to menu plan and cook for one.

 

 

I have had the opportunity to try many new recipes and freeze a good portion of my efforts. I have had the opportunity to learn about food dehydration and ways to utilize leftovers. Believe it or not, cooking for one is way harder than it looks! 

Apples, Apples, Apples!

Fall is my favorite season. My reasons include: my birthday is during the fall, I love halloween, I love wearing cozy scarfs and gloves, apple cider is one of the best beverages in the world, pumpkin patches are fun for people of all ages, and apples are plentiful.

 

 

There is a lovely produce stand in Newberg that I have been shopping at since I was a freshman in college. It is always a sad day for me when they close up for the winter (and a wonderful day when they re-open).

This fall I have done a lot of shopping at Ray's Produce, but what i have bought more than anything so far is apples. Fuji, gala, golden delicious, pink lady, jonathan, honeycrisp...apples, apples apples!



First I dehydrated some apples. I sprinkled a little cinnamon sugar over apple rings and slices and cooked them for hours in my new food dehydrator (that I scored at a garage sale for $5!).

Secondly, I did something I have always wanted to do: I made applesauce! It ended up being so easy that I wondered why I hadn't made any sooner!

 

I decided not to can any of it and instead made a relatively small batch and froze some. (While making this I can across the suggestion to try some warm homemade applesauce with a dollop of vanilla ice cream on top...oh my! was it good!)

With the majority of the applesauce I made apple butter. If you have not had apple butter you need to try some very soon! It resembles jam and tastes like fall! Contrary to the name, there is no butter in apple butter at all. It is just a cooked and reduced mixture of applesauce, spices and sugar.

I hope this post has inspired you to go out and buy or pick some apples and make something wonderful out of them!

Applesauce

Adapted from Simply Recipes

• 7 to 8 lbs of peeled, cored, and quartered apples. (Make sure you use a good sweet cooking apple like Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Fuji, Jonathan, Mcintosh, or Gravenstein.)
• 8 strips of lemon peel - use a vegetable peeler
• Juice of two lemons, about 6 Tbsp
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 1/2 cup of dark brown sugar
• up to 1/2 cup of white sugar (depending on sweetness of apples)
• 2 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt

Put all ingredients into a large pot. Cover. Bring to boil. Lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Remove from heat. Remove cinnamon sticks and lemon peels. Mash with potato masher.

Ready to serve, either hot or refrigerated. Delicious with vanilla ice cream or vanilla yogurt.
Freezes easily, lasts up to one year in a cold freezer.

Apple Butter

• 6 cups applesauce 
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Put all ingredients in slow cooker and cook on low for 8-14 hours. Freezes very well.

* Here is a site with some good information about apple butter

Leavenworth Oktoberfest

 

For my 22nd birthday my generous parents took me to the Oktoberfest in Leavenworth WA. I had been hinting around the fact that I wanted to go this year for a while but I think they made the final decision while I was in Austria and Germany in May. 

If you have never been to Leavenworth, you must go! It is a small Bavarian themed town with plenty things to do, eat, drink and see. I've been to Bavaria (a state in Germany) and I can honestly say that Leavenworth does remind me a lot of it. Even the beautiful mountains behind Leavenworth are reminiscent of the Alps. 

Before we left for Leavenworth I packed the latest copy of Northwest Palate in my bag because they had just done a feature on Leavenworth and all the great destinations and restaurants one has to visit. 

Our first meal was at the very popular Munchen Haus Bavarian Grill and Beer Garden. Despite the usually long line, this place is a must on your dining schedule. The outdoor Beer Garden is a loud place full of German charm and they serve up a mean bratwurst. 

The sausages are prepared right in front of you and once you get your sausage you then have to make the very difficult decision of which mustard you are going to use (they have over 20 options!). After much thought I settled on garlic Dijon and honey and champagne mustard. They also have fabulous homemade apple cider sauerkraut which I personally think is a  condiment no sausage should go without. 

The Oktoberfest itself was actually a letdown. I expected a much better selection of German foods, but what I found was a disgrace to Germany itself. There were about ten different food booths inside the festival but they all had the same drab menu: bratwurst, polish dog, hot dog and some sort of pulled pork dog. That was it! 

One only had to be in the festival a few minutes to realize it really was all about the beer. Now don't get me wrong, I have nothing against beer, especially German beer, but I didn't go all the way to Leavenworth for beer. I was there for the food!

Take my suggestion, if you are going to Leavenworth for the Oktoberfest don't eat all your meals in the tents. Venture out into the charming town and discover all the wonderful foods Leavenworth has to offer. 

 Guava and raspberry gelato at Via Dolce Gelato

With that said I still did enjoy the Oktoberfest, and if anyone reading this wants to go it is still going on next Friday and Saturday October 15th and 16th. 

Here is a list of other great places to eat in Leavenworth: 

• King Ludwig's
• Via Dolce Gelato
• The Cheesemongers Shop
• Schocolat

Blueberry Lavender Freezer Jam

I absolutely adore blueberries. They are my favorite berry and lucky for me they are one of the healthiest foods there is. As with many other fruits, I went blueberry picking this summer. In total we picked about 20 pounds of blueberries and bought another fifteen.

(Random fact: while picking blueberries I picked a kitten as well. I had been wanting a kitten and there they were running around the blueberry patch! The owner said I could have one, so now I have more than just frozen blueberries from that trip, I also have Berry the cat!) 

In order to preserve some of the delicious blueberries I decided to make blueberry jam. But not just any blueberry jam, lavender blueberry jam (are you sick of my lavender posts yet?).

As with my lavender lemon bars I used lavender sugar to give this jam the faintest fragrance of lavender. At first I couldn't taste it, but as I swallowed it lingered on your tongue. I think it is an absolutely marvelous combination! 

I decided to make this a freezer jam so I didn't have to fuss with making real jam. But this combination can easily be made into canned jam (just make sure you follow a different blueberry jam recipe for the traditional canning process).

Since I am posting this quite a few weeks (ok, maybe months!) after I picked blueberries and made this jam, I would like to point out that this jam can be made just as deliciously with frozen blueberries. Just thaw them out and you're good to go!

Blueberry Lavender Freezer Jam

Adapted from the recipe inside Sure-Jell Pectin box

• 3 cups crushed blueberries
• 5 1/4 cups lavender sugar (recipe follows)
• 1 box pectin
• 3/4 cup water

1. Wash and rinse plastic containers with tight fitting lids. Use 1 to 2 cup size containers. 
2. Prepare blueberries by discarding stems and crushing (or blending in a food processor). 
3. Measure 3 cups crushed blueberries in a bowl and add 5 1/4 cups lavender sugar. Let stand 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
4. Stir 1 box pectin and 3/4 cup water in small saucepan. Bring to boil on high heat, sitting constantly. Boil 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. 
5. Stir pectin mixture into fruit or juice mixture. Stir constantly until sugar is completely dissolved and no longer grainy, about 3 minutes. 
6. Pour into prepared containers, leaving 1/2 inch space at the top for expansion during freezing, cover. 
7. Let stand at room temperature 24 hours until set. Refrigerate up to 3 weeks. Otherwise, store in freezer for up to 1 year. Thaw in refrigerator.

Lavender Sugar

•  1 cup sugar
• 2 Tbsp dried lavender flowers.

Combine sugar and 2 tbsp dried lavender in an airtight container and let sit for at least two days, preferably more. Sift out lavender before using. Multiple this recipe as many times as necessary. 

I'm a Published Food Writer!

"With its motto 'Great Coffee is Public Domain,' this new coffeehouse in downtown Portland has set out to provide superior cups of coffee--not just something to drink every morning to wake up with, but rather a truly buzz-worthy experience."

This is an excerpt from my restaurant review of Public Domain coffeehouse that was published in the September/October issue of Northwest Palate.

Northwest Palate is a local magazine covering everything food, wine and travel-related in the Pacific Northwest. It is a great magazine and I had the wonderful opportunity to be their editorial intern this summer.

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that being an editorial intern would lead to my first real food-writing publication, but it did! 

You can find a copy of Northwest Palate at these locations. Pick one up this month or next and read my entire review of Public Domain.

Spicy Dill Pickles

My mother and I embarked on quite the adventure this summer. We made pickles. From scratch (well, from cucumbers)! It is something I have always wanted to do and have been talking about all summer, so we finally got up the guts to just go ahead and do it.

 
We devoted an entire day to Pickle Production. We woke up and purchased gherkin cucumbers and huge bunch of dill almost as tall as me from a local produce stand. We then went to the grocery store in search of all the supplies pickles require. We had to find pickling salt, a huge jug vinegar, and pickling spices.

We didn't have to worry about finding jars, rings, or lids because my parents had bought a couple boxes of wide mouth canning jars at a garage sale this summer! Score!

My mom did a lot of research online to find a dill pickle recipe that reminded her of the ones she would help her grandma make when she was young. She fondly recalls sneaking more peppers in the pickles jars before they were sealed--she loves a good spicy pickle!

Although my mom found a good recipe, we tweaked it a bit. We added a lot of garlic, more spices, and a lot of peppers. We also threw in some onions too, because when is a little onion a bad thing?

We got started by washing all the jars and then sterilizing them in a hot water bath. After they were sterilized we began eagerly filling them with the cucumbers and the spices. It felt just like we were packing a goodie bag or a gift basket! We knew when these jars were opened next they would be enjoyed by our eager mouths or by our lucky friends and family.

At this same time we were cooking the brine solution of water, vinegar, and pickling salt ( I looked at the ingredient list of pickling salt to see how it differs from any other salt, and it just said SALT! I went to several stores to find regular salt?!?). The whole house began smelling like pickles before we even poured the brine over the cucumbers. I am convinced I smelled like pickles for days too, although no one would admit it.

We then poured the brine into our fill jars and put on the lids. Next was the time consuming part. We had to boil each of the jars for fifteen minutes. We're lucky we had two canning pots but it still took about an hour to get all the jars processed.

Then came the very rewarding part (well, other than eating them)...we got to hear all the jars "pop!" as the lids sealed. This was proof that we had successfully canned pickles! They would stay perfectly fresh for up to year. Canning really is an amazing thing!

Now this particular recipe calls for the pickles to cure for eight weeks. This means eight whole weeks of torture and eating sub-par pickles from the grocery store. This was not going to fly with us so what did we do? We opened one jar not even 24 hours after making them. And believe it or not, it was REALLY GOOD! It looked like a pickle, smelled like a pickle and tasted like a pickle!

Of course I have opened several other jars since then (ya, it's still only been a few weeks) and they have only gotten better! The most recent jar was very flavorful and had a good amount of heat. I just served them two nights ago at my apartment warming party and am pleased to report that they were the first food to disappear. I would say our first pickling experience was a success and I definitely plan on doing it again next year!

Spicy Dill Pickles

25 lbs of Gherkins cucumbers
32 cups of water
2 cups pickling salt
12 cups white vinegar
Garlic, cut in half
Fresh Dill Weed
12 dried hot red peppers
Pickling spice
Peppercorns
Onion, sliced

Sterilize the jars and lids in a boiling water for 10-15 minutes. At this time have your cucumbers soaking in an ice bath to keep them crunchy.

Prep your pickles. If you want your pickles sliced, do so now, or leave them whole.

Make the Brine. Bring water, salt and vinegar to a rolling boil in a large pot.

Meanwhile, fill each jar. Put a layer of spices on the bottom: 2 cloves of garlic, 2 peppers, a few slices of onion, a sprig of dill, 1 teaspoon of pickling salt and 1/2 teaspoon peppercorns. Now, pack the jars with as many pickles as possible. Next put another layer of spices and flavoring agents on the top.

Fill each jar with brine, leaving a little room at the top.

Wipe off the top of each jar. Place a lid on each jar (these have just come out of the hot water) and seal with a ring.

Finally, process the jars in a boiling water bath from 15 minutes.

Pickles will be ready in 6 weeks if sliced and 8 weeks if whole. However, they are still delicious if opened sooner. Enjoy!