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Fun with the Macro Lens & Some Recent Preggy Pics

21 Feb

Well… we’re now down to under four weeks until due date!  Amazing.  I’m wrestling with giving in to my nesting urges vs. staying practical.  On one hand, I feel I have to buy everything in creation in order to be uber prepared.  On the other hand I’m thinking… “that’s stupid, control yourself Nell.  It’s a baby – he doesn’t need all that much and you already have a closet full of baby stuff!”  The funny thing is… when I was about three months pregnant I was like, “I’m going to be minimalistic and not buy tons of stuff…”.  Ha.  That tune has changed a bit as I keep getting closer.

Meanwhile, this basketball belly is now more of a beach ball and is getting bigger and bigger!  Here are some recent photos Adam shot of me:

Me at 36 weeks! Photo by Adam Reid

I made these ones in black and white to try to make them a bit artsier…

Me at 36 weeks! Photo by Adam Reid

Me at 36 weeks! - Photo by Adam Reid

Oh yeah… I’m getting up there!

Anyway – I was very excited this weekend because I was bitten by the photography bug once again.  It’s actually been a little while since I’ve been super inspired to pull out the camera and go to town.  It started with these tulips I got over the weekend.  They are those peachy ones that have a bit of yellow – they’re my favorites.  Anyway, as I was sitting over breakfast, I was staring off into space – transfixed by the gorgeous tulip sitting on my kitchen table.  It was opened up pretty wide and the inside was just magical looking.  I instantly grabbed my macro lens and thus began a little twenty-minute photo shoot in my kitchen.  I just started snapping away with the macro lens… enjoying all the different colors and textures in my kitchen.  Here are some of my favorites:

"Inner Tulip" - 100mm Macro

"Pair of Tulips" - 100mm macro

"Tulip in Window Light" - 100mm macro

"Green Glass Jug in Window" - 100mm macro

"Red Rose in Window" - 100mm macro

"Window Woman Giggling" - 100mm macro

Aren’t those tulips delicious?  They were so inspiring to me.  I must say – I love taking pictures of flowers.  They are so intricately designed – with such gorgeous colors and textures – and they’re all natural?!  It’s amazing.  Plus – I don’t get nervous when I take photos of flowers (vs. people)… flowers don’t care if I take a long time and I find I can really get in a zone.

I also really love that green class jug photo – the texture in the glass is so cool.  It’s almost fluid-like – like an impressionist painting.

This weekend I’ve signed up for a free photography workshop all about photographing newborns and babies! I thought that might come in handy.  The workshop is through a site called creativeLIVE.  They offer a bunch of different photo workshops – and you can take them for free in the live version… which basically means, I’ll have access to it live through the internet over the course of three days.  You can also opt to pay for it and watch it at your leisure… but this is my first, so I figured I’d try out the free version.  It feels good to be feeding my photography brain once again after a little break.

Finally – since September, I’ve been meeting with a group of pregnant gals from the neighborhood once a month.  We found each other through a local list serve and it’s been great gaining a community of women going through their pregnancies (the first for all of us I believe) at the same time as me.  The best part – is once all our babies are born, we’ll now have a local network of new moms to hang out with!   So, Sunday we hosted the February get together at our place.  This time we invited husbands/partners along so they’d have a chance to meet as well.  Adam was the amazing pizza chef (he cooked up nine pizzas over the course of the evening – with the help of a few of the other guys) and we all had an awesome time.  So here is our group photo.  I think by the end of March, all our babies will be born (half the group already had their little ones).

The Preggy Gals (and Jessica, who now has an actual live baby)

The Preggy Gals With Hubbies

Adam’s obviously behind the camera.

So to my fellow preggy mamas reading this… it’s going to be a big month for all of us!  Good luck my new friends!

That’s all for today.  Hope everyone is having a lovely Tuesday.

xoxo

Blog Spotlight: Florence & Millie

13 Feb

So – as I’ve been delving deeper into this blogging universe, one of my goals has become to seek out other blogs and get inspired by other bloggers who are out there – doing their thing.  A couple weeks ago, I came across this blog called Florence & Millie on Freshly Pressed (WordPress’s page of featured bloggers – hope to be on that someday).  I found this blog to be beautiful, whimsical, and totally inspiring and have since looked forward to every post.  Thus – I’d like to introduce you to it as well.

So I give you – Florence & Millie:

Florence & Millie is a collaboration between two twenty-something friends/photographers/artists named Paige and Rebecca, who live in Savannah, GA.  PS – I’m dying to go to Savannah someday!  It is high up on my list of US destinations I’m itching to visit.  Meanwhile, the blog was born as a dedication to both Paige and Rebecca’s grandmothers, Florence and Millie.  Sweet.  Mostly, Florence & Millie highlights the work of artists that inspire the blog’s creators.  And we must be kindred spirits of some sort where inspiration comes in – because nearly every artist they feature, I totally dig.  Everything has a sense of whimsy and magic to it – along with a DIY spirit and a vintage aesthetic.

Here are a few of my favorite artists they’ve highlighted since I’ve started reading.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Food Photographer: Charlotte Tolhurst

Charlotte Tolhurst is a food photographer who got her start in Sydney, Australia and now lives in England.  I think her photography is gorgeous and her love of food is evident.  Check out the images of her studio, where she uses mostly natural light.  Beautiful right??  She inspires me to one day marry my passion for food with my love of photography (definitely on my list of career options for the future). :)

Here are some of her photos:

Photo by Charlotte Tolhurst

Photo by Charlotte Tolhurst

Photo by Charlotte Tolhurst

Tattoo Artist: Amanda Wachob

I’m not super into tattoos or anything, but I think Amanda’s work is so unique that I was moved by her.  In her bio, she states:

It is my intention to expand the boundaries of the tattoo medium.  In the past, tattooing has been looked upon as a trade or craft.  I am re-imagining its potential as a fine art form.  In the same way that a brush can paint the interior of a house or render a fine oil painting, I see the tattoo machine as a tool that can make art.

Here are some photos of her tattoos:

Tattoos by Amanda Wachob

Tattoos by Amanda Wachob

Tattoos by Amanda Wachob

Tattoos by Amanda Wachob

Illustrator/Designer: Justin Mezzell

Illustration work by Justin Mezzell

Justin Mezzell is a designer and illustrator based in Orlando, FL.  He has this vintage vibe going on that I really gravitate to.  Check out some of his work:

Illustration by Justin Mezzell

Illustration by Justin Mezzell

Illustration by Justin Mezzell

Illustration by Justin Mezzell

Illustration by Justin Mezzell

And finally…

Design/Graphics/Animation Studio: N9ve

Based in Turin, Italy – these guys define their work in their own words:

We are not just a studio, we are story tellers! We always try to combine the best narrative and visual solutions to create engaging works, that speak for their selves!

Here are two alphabet/font-inspired videos that were posted on Florence & Millie this week.  I love them both.  Now that I know a little about animation from Adam and my friend Beck, I have much more of an appreciation for this type of work – and I can even visualize the process behind it more.  I think it’s fascinating and beautiful!  And I love the music. :)

So there’s lots of inspiration for you for a Monday morning!  A big thanks to the blog Florence & Millie (be sure to visit them) for exposing me to all these wonderful and unique artists.  Looking through their work and learning about their process is a kind of fuel for me.  Paige and Rebecca at Florence & Millie are such talented curators – I will be sure to continue to follow their blog to see what else is floating their boats in the future.

Have a great day all!

xoxo

Crushing on Fort Greene

5 Feb

Yes, that’s right… I’m developing a total crush on our neighborhood.  It’s definitely helped that the weather has been beyond lovely. Also, my pregnancy butt pain has gotten a little less intense over the last couple days – enabling me to walk around a bit and enjoy the fresh air and this fine neighborhood.

Of course, I’ve been wanting to document the loveliness so that I can share it here, with all of you.  Normally, I would be walking for miles with my camera and a couple lenses and I would do it up right.  Unfortunately, with the extra pregnancy poundage and the sore butt/back – that’s been a little tough and the thought of schlepping around my camera bag has not been too appealing.  Luckily (glass half full), I dropped my Droid cell phone in the toilet a few weeks ago, forgetting it was in my back pocket (pregnancy brain), which was the perfect excuse for me to go out and get myself a long-awaited iPhone.  And I must say – the iPhone camera is far superior to my old Droid camera.

Thus begins photography fun with my iPhone…  lightweight, fits in my pocket… and the photos are not too shabby.

First – there is South Portland Street.  This is one of the most beautiful blocks I’ve seen – in Brooklyn, in Manhattan – pretty much anywhere.  It is lined with trees and gorgeous old brownstones.  It’s a special street.

When you stop and pay attention to the details, you notice the little things – like the railings and balusters decorating the front stoops and entryways to these beautiful brownstones.  Just on this one block alone, I spotted more than ten different styles.  Here are a few:

Then, within a manner of blocks, you experience this amazing variety of architecture:

A modern, renovated Brownstone:

Next to a beautiful renovated church (at least it looks like a church – I’m not sure):

Then down the street – buildings like these… which to me, make me feel like I’m not even in New York anymore:

And this is all within about six blocks of my apartment.  I can’t wait until the spring, when my pain (and extra weight) is hopefully completely gone, my little man is born and fits snuggly in his stroller and I can strap on my proper camera and go out on walking photography adventures to see and document everything this fascinating neighborhood has to offer.

Oh – and for those of you who are interested in learning more about Fort Greene and the surrounding Brooklyn neighborhoods, there has been a documentary airing on Showtime recently called Brooklyn Boheme (future airings listed here).  The film, made by Diane Paragus and Nelson George, chronicles the black arts movement that exploded in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill during the 1980′s and 90′s.  Filmmakers (Spike Lee), Musicians (Wynton and Branford Marsalis), Comedians (Chris Rock), Poets/Hip Hop Artists, Writers, Actors, Photographers… they were all part of a cultural renaissance and it all happened right here in this neighborhood.  Here is the trailer for Brooklyn Boheme:

To make matters more interesting, the apartment we now live in, housed Spike Lee’s production company 40 Acres and a Mule for over twenty years.  So a lot of this meeting and creating and magic happened right here… now that’s inspiring.  Here is an old photo (clipped from the doc) taken on what is now our staircase – featuring Spike Lee, Russell Simmons, Chris Rock and many other creative players from that time:

Photo from "Brooklyn Boheme"

Crazy.

Anyway – that’s all for today!  Looking forward to watching the game later and being the sole person in New York rooting for the Patriots!  GO PATS!

Happy Superbowl Sunday.

xoxo

Sunday Eats at PeteZaaz!

31 Jan

One of the other blogs I follow from time to time is called Nona Brooklyn.  The other day, I checked out Nona and read a great post about this new pizza joint in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn called PeteZaaz.  Chef/Owner Peter Nentner comes from No. 7 – a delicious restaurant in my neighborhood of Fort Greene and the other Chef/Owner and “Dough Man”, Glen Hudson comes from Pulino’s – a popular Keith McNally pizza spot on the Lower East Side.

PeteZaaz was written about for their inventive and playful approach to pizza.  The featured pizza that totally grabbed my attention was the Chili Con Carne pie… described in Nona Brooklyn here:

PeteZAAZ Chili-Con-Carne Pizza - Photo from http://nonabrooklyn.com

It’s got an ancho-based sauce. We use dehydrated ancho chilis and we rehydrate them with Sprite. We add garlic, onions, some lime zest, and we puree all that to make a nice little chili sauce. We braise some pork shoulder in the sauce, then we incorporate the rest of the sauce with a tomato sauce for the base for the pizza. We top it with the chopped braised pork shoulder, and I make a cream cheese burrata to top it as well.

We make our own fresh mozzarella in-house, at least twice a day. To make the burrata, I stretch some of the mozz and heat up some cream cheese, then stuff the warm cream cheese into a balloon of stretched mozzarella, and seal it up like a burrata. It’s like a mozzarella and cream cheese water balloon. After cooking it on the pizza, the cream cheese just oozes out.

When we pull the pizza out, we sprinkle it with cold pickled corn kernels, to give you a little acidic burst. Have you ever had Gushers candy? When you bite into a Gusher the juice comes shooting out, and I like that effect. With the cold pickled corn kernels, when you take a bite of the slice you get this burst of acidic flavor.

For crunch on that one we do a Cheez-It gremolata. I love Cheez-Its. I’ve been eating them forever. I mix crumbled Cheez-Its with lime zest, garlic, cilantro, parsley and Thai basil, and sprinkle that over the top for a little crunch.

I like to have an acidic component, a crunchy component and a sweet component as a base for all the pizzas. That’s the rule of thumb when we’re coming up with a pie.

 ~ Excerpt from NonaBrooklyn.com
Chilis rehydrated with Sprite?  braised pork shoulder, a house-made mozzarella and cream cheese water balloon that oozes over the pie?  I was so there.  I immediately contacted some friends (Kelly & Val, who live around the block) and Amie and Rob and we made a date for this past Sunday.
Upon walking into PeteZaaz, we realized it wasn’t the best atmosphere for seating a table of six.  It’s a long narrow entrance, where you can watch them making pies and grinding their own house-made sausage, which is cool, but the back seating area is pretty tight.  We decided to order a bunch of pizzas (thankfully, we were six people, so we could order a lot and try most things on the menu!) and bring them home to Kelly & Val’s apartment.

Making Sausage

Meanwhile, I was a little heartbroken when I found out that the chili-con-carne pie was just a special and was not available.  BUMMER!  But we managed to do alright with the other menu choices.
Here are Adam, Kelly & Rob waiting out front for our food…
So here’s the breakdown of our order:
One Baked Potato Pie (please forgive… the photo does not do this pie justice):
Baked Potato Pie – purple potatoes, applewood smoked bacon lardons, white cheddar and green onion covered with heavenly creme fraiche.
This pizza seriously rocked our worlds.  It was definitely the favorite of all of us.  It was basically like the best potato skin you’ve ever had (with the most amazing ingredients) served on top of this fresh, slightly crispy, slightly chewy amazing dough.  It was to die for.  I’m still craving more.
One Pie – Half Brooklyn (Tomato, House-Made Mozzarella and Marjoram), Half topped with House-Made Sweet Sausage 
The house-made sausage on this baby was pretty amazing.  That was my second-favorite item we ordered (after that life-changing baked potato pizza).  Side note… I never ate sausage growing up.  Like never.  I thought it was gross.  Since moving to New York, I have found a total love for sausage.  It is now one of my favorite pizza toppings.  And this sausage was outstanding.
One Pie – Half Pepperoni, Half Cold-Fried Chicken
Cold-Fried Chicken Pie – Curried Yellow Squash, Fontina, Stewed Collard Greens, Pickled Thai Chilis
I enjoyed the pepperoni pizza – they sliced up their pepperoni in thin strands and scattered them pretty uniformly throughout, which I liked… you got a little bit of pep in each bite!  The cold-fried chicken pie was not my thing.  The collards were hard to bite through and I just wasn’t crazy about the overall flavor in this pizza.  But the rest were winners!
Valerie ordered a Kimchi Roll – House-made Mozzarella, Kimchi Bruschetta, Thai Basil Pesto and Fried Shallots
I’m not a huge kimchi fan, but I had a bite and thought this sandwich was pretty good.  The fresh mozzarella was milky and delicious and the fried shallots were super tasty.
And Rob (our poor lactose-intolerant friend) ordered The Reuben Stromboli – Minus the Mozz - Pastrami, Sauerkraut, Chinese Mustard
I also took a bite of this one (it’s for the blog… I need to sample EVERYTHING!!).  The pastrami was super yummy – of course, I would have liked it better with the cheese – I mean, look who you’re dealing with here.  But another yummy dish – full of flavor for sure!
So – that was our PeteZaaz experience.  I would definitely hit this place up again.  Kelly and Val are lucky to live so close.  And they deliver!!  Next time I would have to get the Baked Potato pie again – only because it’s just divinely delicious.  But I’m hoping they get rid of the Cold-Fried Chicken pie and add the Chili-Con-Carne pie instead as a regular menu item… there has been some rumor of that according to Nona Brooklyn.  Fingers crossed… I have to try that chili pie!!
Meanwhile, even Lola the pup was digging this pizza:
Thanks for a delicious Sunday afternoon meal PeteZaaz.  I will definitely be back for more!

Handmade Awesomeness

26 Jan

Before I start talking about handmade awesomeness, I want to share my teabag wisdom of the day with you:

From my Yogi Tea Woman’s Mother To Be teabag:

Inspiring others towards happiness brings you happiness

Yes, Yogi Teabag… that is so true.  That is why I’ve thought of becoming a life coach, or a matchmaker, a mother – a BLOGGER!!  That is why I volunteer at the nursing home.  That is why I love taking care of my husband and encouraging him and his amazing film career!  That is why I wanted to be a waitress and a cheerleader when I was a little girl.  I love helping others find their happiness and when I do that, I feel most personally rewarded in my own life.  I’m hanging on to this teabag bit of wisdom – it’s going on my inspiration board (when I actually get around to making one) and I’m going to keep that as a focus as I continue to work towards becoming my truest self and eventually finding a career that matters to me.

Now… onto handmade awesomeness.  This post is a dedication to people who make cool stuff.  Lately, I have been so impressed by friends and strangers who have an incredible talent for making things!  I’ll start with my baby shower – because I got a few handmade gifts that really blew me away.

Emily’s Handmade Quilt:

Emily's Handmade Quilt

Emily's Handmade Quilt (showing reverse)

Emily is one of the “Stockers”.  When she and Brett (her husband) came to Brooklyn for our “Laughing Stock” celebration, she brought along this beautiful quilt she made by hand for our baby-to-be.  Emily amazes me.  She is a doctor and has traveled around the world, working for the World Health Organization speaking about and researching reproductive health.  Then – in her spare time, she sews her own clothes (as well as clothes for us), knits and does all sorts of other crafty things.  I thought this quilt was AMAZING!  She searched flea markets in LA to find cool vintage sheets to make the design.  Then she finished the quilt on the plane ride over.  Awesome.

Next Up…

Marlene’s Hand-Knit Sweater & Blanket for Baby:

Marlene's Hand-Knit Hooded Sweater

Marlene's Hand-Knit Baby Blanket

Marlene is one of the “Brooklyn Boys” crew – a wife of a Brooklyn Boy – thus a long-time family friend.  She surprised me at my shower with this gorgeous hand-knit sweater and blanket that she made for our future little man.  First – they feel like heaven.  They are soft and luxurious and will be kind to the baby’s sweet sensitive baby skin.  But besides that… I mean – that sweater?  It’s so adorable.  I totally want one in my size.  Adam was jealous.  I love the hood and the pom pom!  So amazing.  Marlene does such beautiful work and how special… we will have these things forever.  Oh – and they ‘re safe for the washer and dryer.  Does it get any better than that?

Next Up…

Beck’s “Nell’s Kitchen” sign:

Beck's Handmade "Nell's Kitchen" Sign

So back in November, I wrote a blog post titled “Nell’s Kitchen” and I ended that post dreaming of one day, having a “Nell’s Kitchen” sign hanging in my kitchen.  Well – skip ahead to a few weeks ago, when my friend Beck presented me with this amazing handmade gift.  I instantly started crying (typical for emotional pregnant me these days).  But really – how thoughtful.  I couldn’t believe she picked up on that in my post and then took the time to actually make me this adorable sign to hang up in our apartment.  I was overcome.  Beck is a total artist – she is the one who does the amazing stop motion work I have featured previously on the blog.  To her, everything is a potential art project!  It’s funny… the other day I told her I had to stop and buy wrapping paper… of course, she was like, “Buy wrapping paper?!  We should make some!!”  That is so her.

Finally…

Director’s Coasters from Retro Whale on Etsy:

So, I think around two years ago for Adam’s birthday, our friend Beth gifted Adam with these amazing handmade Directors coasters she found on Etsy.

 

Directors Coasters from Retro Whale on Etsy

I thought it was the most adorable gift, so I ended up buying him another set.  Then, this year, for Adam’s birthday, my father approached me with an idea for Adam.  He wanted to contact this girl on Etsy and ask her to make a director coaster of Adam!  I thought it was brilliant (and just about the sweetest most thoughtful thing ever).  So I reached out to Kelly of the Retro Whale shop on Etsy and asked her if she does custom coasters.  And voila!  She does!  And after we sent her a few pictures of Adam, she had a coaster drawn up within a day or two and the coaster mailed out to me within another couple days.  Adam was blown away by this personalized amazing gift… and dad – I love you more than ever before for thinking of it.

Here’s the “Adam” Coaster:

The "Adam" Director Coaster

And here’s the photo she worked from:

Pretty awesome right??  So… if anyone’s interested in ordering a custom-made “Adam” coaster, it just might become a collector’s item someday when he becomes a famous director (wink wink – fingers and toes crossed).

Anyway, cheers to all you amazingly talented people out there who make awesome stuff by hand!  Now – I’m off to a prenatal massage because I’m currently waddling around like a gimpy old grandma with a terrible pain in my right BUTT cheek!!  Welcome to month eight of pregnancy!!

Have a great day everyone!

xo

A Sunday Filled With Muffins and Tacos is a Good Sunday…

9 Jan

I’ve had a first for the new year… I baked muffins!  That’s right – I don’t think I’ve ever baked muffins before.   Yesterday my friend Wendy came over and she was eating a delicious pumpkin muffin and there on the spot we got inspired and decided we were going to bake muffins.  I checked out my handy Cooks Illustrated: The Best New Recipe Cookbook (everything I make out of this cookbook comes out great – I highly recommend it!) and found a recipe for Cinnamon Sugar-Dipped Blueberry Muffins.  I had most of the ingredients on hand and off we went!

The blog Stylish Cuisine already outlined this blueberry muffin recipe here – but we made a few little tweaks out of necessity… and a sense of adventure.  

First, I only had shy of one cup of blueberries (I’ve been eating them with my cereal in the morning) – but I did have some blackberries… so we threw those in with the rest of my blueberries equaling about 1 1/2 cups of berries overall.

Then – I only had one cup of sour cream (the recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups), which I had bought for the tacos I was making for dinner).  Oh well… we threw that cup of sour cream in and then decided to add 1/4 of a cup of ricotta cheese, which I happened to have in my fridge from making turkey burgers the other night.  I figured – hey… it’s dairy, it’s yummy, I don’t want want it to go to waste – why not?

Well – I don’t know what these muffins would have tasted like without our little tweaks – but MAN – they came out DELICIOUS!  Oh – and when I went to get the ground cinnamon out of my pantry for the topping, I realized I didn’t have any.  But I did have some cinnamon sticks.  So I used my zester and made myself some freshly-ground cinnamon and wow… grating the cinnamon fresh like that is amazing!  It smelled SO good – much more intense than the usual store-bought ground cinnamon.

Here is a pic of one of our beautiful muffins… light and fluffy, perfectly moist, crumbly on top, with a nice coat of crunchy cinnamon sugar – YUM.

Cinnamon Sugar-Dipped Blueberry/Blackberry Muffin

 

Then came dinner.  One of our favorite dinners is TACO NIGHT!  I used to just buy those taco kits in the supermarket with the powdered seasoning mix and the taco shells – but after I looked at the ingredients on that seasoning packet I was determined to ditch the packet and do it up from scratch instead.  Here are the ingredients to the seasoning that comes in the box:

Maltodextrin, Salt, Chili Pepper, Onion Powder, Spice, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Corn Starch, Yellow Corn Flour, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil (otherwise known as Trans Fats), Silicon Dioxide (Anticaking Agent), Natural Flavor, Ethoxyquin (Preservative).

Bad news!!

So I found this recipe (I honestly don’t remember where I got it!) and scribbled it on a piece of paper and I’m telling you… it makes the most delicious tacos.  And now we’ve subbed lean ground turkey breast for ground beef and I actually feel like it’s a healthy meal (and we CRAVE it)!  Try it out… you won’t be disappointed!

  • 2 tsp vegetable oil (I typically use canola)
  • 1 small onion chopped fine
  • 3 garlic cloves minced (I often press them in the garlic press – easier)
  • 2 tbsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp ground coriander
  • 1/2 tsp oregano
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 lb. ground turkey breast (I use lean ground turkey breast raised without antibiotics)
  • 1/2 cup tomato sauce (I use Cento San Marzano Peeled Tomatoes) and squish them – it’s fun.
  • 1/2 cup low sodium chicken broth (I use organic)
  • 2 tsp cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp brown sugar

Directions:

  1. Heat oil over medium heat – add onion and cook until softened (stirring around so it doesn’t burn) – about five minutes
  2. Add garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, oregano, cayenne and salt and mix together with the onion.  Cook until fragrant (smells DELISH) – about a minute.
  3. Add turkey and break apart and cook until no longer pink – about 5 minutes
  4. Add tomato sauce, chicken broth, vinegar and brown sugar and bring to a simmer
  5. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer uncovered, stirring frequently until thick and no longer liquidy about 10 minutes

That’s it!  Now – measuring out the ingredients might take a few minutes… but when I put them all in little ramekins, I feel like a TV chef and it’s fun.  And then once everything’s measured, you just throw it all in the skillet and it’s done in no time.  And it’s so much more delicious – and you don’t get that super dehydrated feeling from all the salt and MSG and there’s no trans fats to make you fat and eventually give you heart disease!  Score.

Usually, I heat up a can of fat-free refried black beans and put together some toppings, which include:

  • sour cream
  • chopped up avocado
  • chopped tomatoes
  • shredded lettuce
  • shredded cheddar
  • salsa
  • Frank’s Red Hot 

This time, I had used up my sour cream and my avocado wasn’t ripe – so I skipped both of those and I must say – I didn’t really miss them.  I might continue to skip the sour cream in the future because it just adds extra fat (and I go full-fat with my sour cream because I hate the low-fat or fat-free – they taste nasty to me).

Oh – and finally, this time, we bought these amazing white corn tortillas from La Tortilla Factory brand and Adam heated up them up in a little oil (next time I want to try doing it without the oil).  They were the perfect vessel for our delicious fresh turkey tacos!

If you end up making either of these (muffins or tacos) – do tell me what you think!

Anyway – happy Monday everyone.  Looks like it’s going to be another fairly mild week in New York.  Yay.

xo

 

 

 

A little creative inspiration for the holiday weekend…

24 Dec

Carousel at Bryant Park

Happy holidays everyone!  It has been a lovely start to the day over here.  Reading in bed until ten-thirty (currently reading On Writing by Stephen King), a delightful egg and cheese sandwich on a toasted Bays Multigrain English Muffin, made with love by my breakfast chef supreme husband.  In a couple hours we are heading out to go see The Artist at BAM (down the street) and that is pretty much the main event on this quiet and sleepy Saturday.  Tomorrow we’ll probably catch another movie and a Chinese dinner (Jewish Christmas).  My kind of weekend for sure.  I hope you are all traveling safe and that you enjoy your weekend filled with family, food, friends, presents and all things merry.

I’ll leave you with a fun, creative, foodie-inspired stop motion short by an artist named Pes that Adam turned me onto this week. Enjoy!

Oh – and here’s a little stop motion holiday gem – created by Adam and the talented team at Bodega:

Happy holidays to all of you and warmest wishes for a wonderful weekend!

xoxo

Let the Pregginess Begin

14 Dec

Yes that’s right…  I’m officially looking and feeling like a pregnant woman now.  My belly is quite large (though I’m still finding it rather cute thus far) and I’m starting to get some pain in my lower back and butt so I’ve definitely got a little pregnant waddle going on. Oye.  I still have three months to go!  That’s a little bit scary.  The subway routine is definitely getting a bit tougher these days.  I surprised myself while huffing and puffing up the stairs at the 2nd Avenue stop yesterday. Lately, in fact, I’ve grown fond of skipping the stairs altogether and opting for the elevators (at those stations that are blessed with elevators).  Here is a photo of me from this past weekend – there’s no mistaking it now… this girl is PREGO!

Meanwhile, this little guy is kicking up a storm, which I really love.  I love lying on the couch with my hands on my belly and feeling him move around.  It’s such a trip.  Though he’s funny… he’s just like me.  He doesn’t like to perform on demand.  Every time my mom is around for a visit and tries to feel him kick, he stops and stays really still.  Stubborn little guy.  Also when I go for ultrasounds and they try to get a good photo of him, he hardly ever cooperates.  It’s ok though.  Between Adam and his filmmaking and me and my photography – he is going to be the most documented kid ever… a camera in his face at all times!  I’m happy to give him some space while he’s still in the womb.

As for me, I’ve been keeping busy with several projects.  This past Friday I did a photo shoot with my friend Yvonne.  She’s moving to LA (sniffle sniffle) and looking for a new job and wanted some portraits for her online portfolio.  We played around with some natural light indoors and outdoors as well as some shots in front of a seamless white backdrop paper I bought from Adorama.  She got her makeup done ahead of time and brought a few outfit changes and we had a blast!  She was a great model – and I definitely feel like I’m getting more confident shooting people, which is good.  I will post a selection of my favorites next week after I spend this weekend going through the hundreds of photos we took!

Then Monday I did some shooting with my friend Amie.  We fashioned a little makeshift studio in my apartment with some lights and the seamless white backdrop.   Amie’s friend  recently launched this awesome men’s sock and accessories line called hook + Albert so we were doing some product shots for him – testing out our skills in that department.  It was fun to experiment with a new type of photography and I do think the photos came out pretty good.  Here are a few examples.

The biggest challenge in this exercise was perfecting white balance/color temperature (easy intro to white balance here if interested).  Because we are advertising a fashion product, I thought it was quite important to get the colors as true to real as possible.  You know when you buy something online and then when you see it in person it’s a totally different color from what was advertised?  I was trying to avoid that.  So, while shooting, I spent a lot of time customizing the color temperature and playing with the degrees Kelvin (more info on color temperature) in the camera settings until it looked perfect.   After uploading the images to Lightroom on my computer, the color looked totally different from how I saw it on the camera monitor.   And now, the color looks different once again after uploading the images from Lightroom to WordPress!  I’m not sure if this can be totally perfected as I believe different monitors will often have different settings – and you can only control the settings on your own monitor.  But I’m going to do a little more research into this area to see if there is anything else I should be doing to improve my results.  More on that to come.

So, I’ve been busy busy – but alas – I feel like my body (which has been tremendously cooperative throughout this pregnancy so far) is starting to tell me to slow down a bit and chill the hell out.  I am approaching the third trimester (Saturday is the official start for me).  I have this tendency to push myself and run around all the time but I’m picking up on the signals lately and I’m thinking… I better rest while I still can!  Right?  So my new goal is to start taking it a little easier and get my body feeling as good as it can in preparation for what’s to come.   Hopefully I’m capable of slowing down – it might take a little self-control. :)  I’m looking forward to a nice quiet holiday week this year, which will help.  We’re keeping it low key – just hanging out at home, enjoying the last of our vacation time with just the two of us.  I’m thinking some good food, some good movies some Rummy 500 and LOTS of relaxation (plus, maybe a massage).  Sounds good right?

Anyway, have a great Wednesday everyone!  Thanks for visiting.

xo

And we’re back…

7 Dec

Greetings on this rainy, gray Tuesday.  I’m feeling very sleepy today – I am writing this while sitting at my computer cloaked in my zebra snuggie.  Oh how I love my snuggies.  Later this afternoon I’m going to head over to Buy Buy Baby to do some research on baby products.  I spent the entire flight there and back from The Bahamas reading the book Baby Bargains, which helped me narrow down the things I think we need for the little guy’s arrival.  Now it’s time to go check out this stuff in real life.  There is really so much to learn about!  Craziness.

But before I go, I’ll fill you in on the rest of our trip to the Bahamas for the 2011 Bahamas International Film Festival.  There were many positives and negatives about this trip.  I’ll start with the positives:

  • I managed to get a little (really… only a little) sun and the weather was pretty nice (high 70′s to low 80′s most days with some wind and clouds)
  • We met a lot of great contacts in the film world and talented people in general – many of whom live in Brooklyn!  And I’m sure we’ll keep in touch and get to know these people even better in the future.
  • We met Zoe Kravitz and enjoyed her interview while she was being honored as the “BIFF 2011 Rising Star”.  She was super poised, adorable and lovely and now I’m going to keep a look out for her work in the future.
  • We reunited with friends we met at the festival last year – one of whom is a local Bahamian and got us off the resort one afternoon and showed us a bit of the local flavor.  Here are a couple photos from our outing:

    A Statue in Downtown Nassau

    A ruined old building in downtown Nassau

  • Adam was a juror for the “First Look” competition, which included both short films and features made by Bahamian filmmakers.  This was a highlight for me – as I learned a lot about Bahamian culture and about the true essence of the Bahamas.  My favorite feature film in this category was called Amos Ferguson – Match Me If You Can and told the story of one of the Bahamas’ best known local artists.  Amos Ferguson seemed like a special soul and was a talented and passionate painter and I am glad to have learned about his story.  I found this film to be really touching and enlightening.  Here is a NY Times article about Amos if you’re interested in learning more.  And here are a few of his paintings:

 

Now… the negatives.  Although we were grateful to get away for a few days – this was really primarily a work trip vs. a vacation.  It didn’t exactly have that “baby-moon” vibe I was looking for.  And now – forgive me while I rant for a few minutes about the Atlantis Resort.

A view of the Coral Towers at the Atlantis Resort

Here is where The Atlantis falls way short in my book:

  • The resort is monstrous and has the vibe of Vegas, Disney World and a Cruise Ship mixed into one…  not exactly my cup of tea.
  • The food is TERRIBLE.  Yes… they have some nice dining options like Nobu and Mesa Grill – but dining here costs a fortune and the quality is not nearly as good as it is in their NYC counterparts.  For less expensive dining options, you basically have lots of fried, processed, gross food – that still costs way too much (we’re talking $40 for BREAKFAST!).  And then – everything closes at weird hours, so we often found ourselves with no available options except for the overly priced and totally disgusting room service (or mini bar, which we frequented due to a lack of better options.  I ate granola bars for dinner more than once).  To give you an idea about how terrible the food was – our favorite thing to eat during the entire trip was the movie theater pizza, which was supposedly from Domino’s, re-boxed and sitting under a heat lamp.  Yes – it was a sad state of affairs in the food department.  Hell… I was on vacation and lost two pounds.  That’s never a good sign for me.
  • There is NO relaxed vibe in this entire resort.  Although there are at least ten different pool areas – every single one of them comes with a DJ, who pumps bass-heavy music all day long.  I went in search of maybe one adult-only, quiet pool (I know – I’m getting old) and nope… there aren’t any.  So I sat as far away from the pool as possible next to a waterfall, which helped to drown out the sound of the music and the DJ so I could fit in a little reading.  Actually – I even called the front desk and complained on Saturday morning as we were awakened at eight-thirty am by bumping beats coming from the pool area closest to us.  Eight-thirty am?  Really?  We had been enjoying sleeping with our door open up until that point – listening to the waves and the palm trees blowing in the breeze but that joy died on Saturday morning.

So here’s what I’m thinking… If I never stay at the Atlantis resort again… that will be fine with me.  However – I am totally interested in experiencing the authentic essence and spirit of the Bahamas and I’d love to return for another visit – this time, departing from Nassau immediately and making my way to another island.  That being said – the festival was super generous and we were very honored to be asked to return this year.  And, as it was last year, the people we met and connections we made was truly the best part.

Now – I’m off to Buy Buy Baby!  Wish me luck.

Greetings From the Bahamas…

3 Dec

Good morning from Paradise Island!  This is the start of our third full day in the Bahamas and we’ve been kind of vacationing/kind of working thus far.  Thursday we saw a movie marathon – we were at the theater from 11am until 7:30pm and saw four feature films and four shorts.  CRAZY!  My butt’s been hurting ever since.  Yesterday I let Adam go to the theater without me and I did some exploring around the Atlantis resort, some reading (currently reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides) and a little swimming.  Swimming DOES feel good when you’re pregnant!  Although I do feel a little funny in a swimsuit with my big belly!  I stayed outside by the pool until the sun started to fade and then I ran back to the room and got my camera for a quick photo walk.  Here are some of my favorite photos from yesterday afternoon/evening:

Atlantis at Sunset - Blissed Out

Atlantis at Sunset - Moody

These two photos have such a different feel – taken only about fifteen minutes apart.

Grumpy Fish Poses for Portrait

A face only a fish mother could love.

School of Fish

Sting Ray

I like how the reflection of the hotel in the water gave this photo more life.

Moon Behind Palm Leaves

I totally played with the colors on this one…  I like the deep red blossoms in the trees against the aqua sky.  Also kind of moody.

Meanwhile, it’s now 10:30am and of course – I’m STARVING (one of the side-effects of pregnancy – I wake up completely famished).  It looks nice and sunny this morning and we don’t have any movies to see until early this evening.  So we have to go get our fun and sun on!

I’ll leave you with this…  Adam found this awesome site featuring Stanley Kubrick’s photography of New York.  I never knew Stanley Kubrick worked as a stills photographer.  I really love a lot of his work.  Here are a couple of my favorites found on VandM.com (Vintage and Modern):

Stanley Kubrick's "Walking Away on the Streets of New York"

Stanley Kubrick's "High Wire Act"

Enjoy and happy weekend to you all!

xo

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