Chuck Wendig's Autumn Pasta

I'm about to share with you a pretty amazing pasta. Trevor reads the blog Terrible Minds by Chuck Wendig, and on there he occasionally writes recipes in the most hilarious but completely inappropriate ways. We made his original recipe, which you can find here, a few months ago, and it really did Autumn our effing faces off (as Chuck promised it would). The thing is though, Mr. Wendig likes to swear and talk about male genitalia while cooking a little more than I do (or, really, doing anything at all). So, for your eating enjoyment, I'm translating!

Trevor and I have dubbed this "Autumn Pasta," but just you try not to recite Chuck's real title in your head every time you want to make it. We tried Chuck's buttery rendition the first time, and then added much more cream because we just like our pastas creamier instead of buttery.

Here's what you need:

1/2 white onion, diced
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
1 pound ground country sausage
salt and pepper
1-2 portabello caps, diced
1 finely grated carrot
2 jonathan apples, diced (or similarly tart apples)
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 pound spiral pasta, like rotini
1 stick unsalted butter
salt
2 cups half and half
1/8 teaspoon ground sage (or dried equivalent)
2 teaspoons fresh chopped rosemary
1-2 teaspoons thyme
crumbled walnuts (optional)

NOTE: Chuck's version uses 1/2 stick butter, and 2 tablespoons of cream. That's it. You can try it, but I think it's better this way :)

K. So.

Saute and soften the diced onion in olive oil, and sprinkle with salt. The salt helps to draw out the moisture in the onion, so do it! These babies should cook for at least 5 minutes.

While the onions are saute-ing, start chopping all your other stuff like apples, and mushrooms, and grate your carrot. I chop into little bite size pieces, but you could pretty much do any size you want. Grate the carrot super fine. Chuck says it's supposed to look like orange dirt. Yum.

A word on the apples: Make sure to choose something that will stand up to cooking and not totally lose it's firmness. I used Jonathan apples the first time and they were the best.

Add your sausage to the onions and cook away. Add salt and pepper.

 Right about now is when you start boiling a huge pot of water for your pasta. Remember to salt the water so it tastes like sea water, so your noodlies get some flavor too.

Once all your sausage is brown, add all the chopped stuff and carrot to the sausage and combine. 

Add the cider vinegar and get it all cooking for a couple minutes. The apples and mushrooms should start to get a little soft.

Okay, now just take a minute and smell that wonderful goodness you've created... Right here, you have two options: 1. Taste the sausage mixture and be amazed at the wonderful flavors you'e never tasted combined, OR 2. Just wait and taste it all together and be even more surprised and amazed at what is in your mouth :) You decide. 

 Keep an eye on your pasta so it doesn't over cook. It's okay to make it al dente so it can soak up some of the mind-blowing sauce you're about to make.

Belt the butter in a pan. Let it cook for like 5 minutes on medium until it gets browned and nutty. Don't burn it though.

Add your cream and spices. This is where my version differs from Chuck Wendig's. He says to add 2 tablespoons of some sort of cream, like sour cream, creme fraiche, or whatever. I say, add 2 CUPS of half-and-half (or any kind of cream, just as Chuck suggests). Chuck's version is buttery and delicious but makes not so delicious leftovers, and leaves a film in your mouth. My version is creamy and warm, and, let's just say it, perfect. 

Drain noodles, combine with sauce once it's been thickening for a few minutes.

Mmm. If you're brave, add a crap ton of herbs. Go wild. It tastes best with strong rosemary and sage flavors. My recipe says 2 teaspoons of rosemary and 2 teaspoons of thyme, but you could go a full tablespoon if you want. Just use the amount you like. Also, you can pretty much use whatever spices you want. I think rosemary and sage taste like fall though.

Get some noodles in a bowl, top with the sausage mix, and possibly walnuts, and prepare yourself for the awesomest autumn pasta ever.

EAT while watching TV and drink milk. Well, really, you can eat it wherever you want and drink whatever beverage you prefer; you'll love it just the same :) 

Holidays and Family 2011

So, these two photos are pretty much the extent of my 2011 holiday photos, haha :) I've been ignoring photographs for a while. Not really on purpose; I've just been too busy.

For Thanksgiving, I made that brined roasted turkey, and it turned out pretty great. I used someone else's oven, and it ended up taking a lot longer than last year. But it was still tasty. It made a pretty awesome turkey pot pie too. We had a late dinner with Trevor's family that day.

My family all came over for a get-together last night. We weren't able to be together on Thanksgiving, and won't all be in town for Christmas, so this was basically just a Holiday thing :) Sometimes I seriously consider getting rid of my giant dining room table for something smaller for just the two of us. Then occasionally I have 15 people over for dinner and I fall in love with it again! I made spaghetti sauce and let it simmer in a crock pot for like, 10 hours. It was pretty delicious, and I have leftovers I'm about to go eat for lunch later. YUM. 

Planning family get-togethers is seriously so stressful, but once everyone is actually there, I don't regret it. My grandma, mom, uncle, and my little brother came to Utah for a doctor visit, and my brother, his wife, and my niece came up from Cedar for something else. It was practically a miracle. There were still a couple people missing, but for the most part, it was practically the biggest reunion we've had all year. 

After dinner, Trevor and I went downtown to check out the lights with my brother and sister-in-law, and of course, my niece. Every time I see her, she is so much bigger and smarter, and cuter. Her hair has grown out, and it's all curly :) AND she remembered by name! I thought for sure she would be too shy or not remember my name very well since we only see them like 2 or 3 times a year. After a couple hours though, she started talking to me about the fish in our tank. We had a late night snack at Village Inn after. I got a waffle. That's kind of amazing. I never get waffles. But there's nothing like breakfast food at 11:00 at night. 

Here's us, being awesome. 

Here's Bella, scoping out the floaty lights.

She's definitely on her parents' sleep schedule. She was still ready to go at midnight :) 

Everyone might still be in town for a few days, so hopefully we get to see them all. I'll try to be more diligent about getting pictures. The new iPhone update makes it so easy since now you can just click the home button twice and use the volume button for the shutter.

Olives

If you've never tried real olives, you totally should. Over the weekend I tried a bunch of different kinds at the Whole Foods olive bar, and they were fantastic! I've always been a fan of plain old regular black canned olives. Like, incredibly so. But every time I've tried jarred green olives with pimento or greek olives in salad, I've been unimpressed. So I thought I just didn't like "real olives" and never bothered to try anything else.

But on Friday I did, and my olive world exploded! I asked the olive and cheese expert at Whole Foods to help me find a few REGULAR olives from their buffet of like 20 different varieties. I didn't want to try any crazy weird things. She directed me to several mild kinds which have changed my life. I was encouraged to sample by using tongs and a cup; I sampled the crap out of them. They tasted like your regular olive, only times that by a thousand.

The first thing I'm going to do with my new-found knowledge is add some sort of fancy olive mix to my usual cheese and crackers in December. (Oh my! It's December NOW :) Guess I get to go get some.) Every year I love to have all sorts of cheeses, assorted meats, and crackers for Christmas, and olives are TOTALLY joining the party.

To my knowledge, Harmon's and Smith's Marketplace also have olive bars. I smell a new habit forming.

Moral of the story. If you've never tried REAL olives, please do. Oh my gosh! I want some right now!

Heartburn is the bane of my existence.

Alton Brown's Roast Turkey

I'm obsessed with food. We all know it. I love to cook it, and I love to eat it. That's pretty much why all my posts have nothing to do with my day-to-day life, or how Trevor and I are doing with school and work, and whatnot. And it's basically why I'd rather make meatloaf than go to the gym. It's because I really just care about what I'm having for dinner tonight. You should be glad though, because I share some of my favorite recipes with you! And your kitchens are happier for it, I hope :)

That being said, this is a two way street, you know. I like it when people share their recipes with me too! So, please do. Tell me what you like or hate about the recipes I post, or send me better ones, or post them on your blogs. I love me some new recipes.

In honor of Thanksgiving next week, I want to share my new favorite turkey recipe. We tried it last year, and it was seriously the best turkey I've ever had in my life. I'm not kidding. At all. My grandma makes a mean turkey, with basting, and slow cooking, and moist goodness, but Alton Brown's Roast Turkey kicks my grandma's turkey's trash (sorry Grandma). Everyone at our Thanksgiving dinner last year loved this turkey. PLUS, it is incredibly fun to make!

I'm in charge of turkey again this year, and as I'm heading out to the store tomorrow to begin preparations, I thought I'd give you a heads up so you could have time to make it too!

You can check out Alton's recipe on foodnetwork, and watch his videos for tips and stuff, but I'll explain everything here too, plus a bunch of stuff you might miss if you haven't watched the episode of Good Eats. http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/good-eats-roast-turkey-recipe/index.html

This recipe starts 3 days before Thanksgiving, by thawing your bird in the fridge. So I'll be starting on Monday.

Here's what you'll need:

• 1 (14 to 16 pound) frozen turkey

For the brine:

• 1 cup kosher salt
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 gallon vegetable stock (8 16oz cans)
• 1 tablespoon black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 teaspoons allspice berries
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped candied ginger
• 1 gallon heavily iced water
• 1 clean 5-gallon bucket

For the aromatics:

• 1 red apple, sliced
• 1/2 onion, sliced
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 1 cup water
• 4 sprigs rosemary
• 6 leaves sage
• Canola oil

Brine, you say? What the what? Don't worry, your turkey won't taste anything like the Great Salt Lake. A brine is actually a salt/sugar solution that you  use to soak your meat in like a marinade. Brining is basically like osmosis--after a few hours sitting in the salt water, your turkey will begin to absorb the water, taking in all the flavor of the brine with it. The flavors in the water begin to flow between the water and the turkey. Thus, your turkey meat actually begins to taste like your brine. So make it good!

Here's what you do:

1. MONDAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING: Start thawing your bird in the fridge. I'm doing a 14-16 pound bird, and 3 days should do it. Even if it's still a little frozen on the big day, it's okay. (When you're picking your bird, allow at least 1 pound of turkey per person. All your turkey will get eaten. Do 1.5 or 2 pounds per person for leftovers. Consider two birds instead of one giant bird if you're worried about size.)
2. WEDNESDAY DAY:  Make your brine. Combine all your brine ingredients into a big pot, except the ice. Alton's recipe calls for candied ginger, but I didn't use it last year because I couldn't find it. You can use whatever ingredients you have. It's important to use kosher salt, as the measurements are made with kosher salt in mind. If you don't have it, you can use table salt, but remember to use less. A teaspoon of table salt contains more salt than a teaspoon of kosher salt because the grain is finer on table salt. (http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes-and-cooking/kosher-vs-table-vs-sea-salts/index.html) Dissolve the solids and bring to a boil. Cool and refrigerate. 
3. WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Begin brining your turkey. Combine the brine and 1 gallon of heavily iced water in your CLEAN food-safe 5-gallon bucket. Add your turkey (innards removed) breast-side down to your brine. Alton says to brine for 8-16 hours. I'd definitely go on the longer side. I start brining right before going to bed Wednesday night, and leave it in until I start the oven. So, more than 16 hours, but what the hey. Leave your sealed bucket somewhere cool, where the water will stay icy throughout the entire brine. I put mine on the porch, and I've heard garages are even better.
4. THURSDAY MORNING: Turn your turkey over in the brine, and continue to brine until you're ready to cook. 
5. THURSDAY DAY: Consider how long your turkey needs to roast. My 14-16 pound bird will take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours. For a 16-20 pound bird, add about 30 minutes, and so on. My family is eating at 6:00 PM, so I will preheat my oven at 3:00 PM to allow for resting time. PREHEAT your oven to 500 degrees. Yes, 500. REMOVE your turkey from the brine and rinse it off; pat dry with paper towels. Place your bird onto a cookie sheet topped with a wire rack. Tuck your birdy wings back or truss with string.
6. THURSDAY DAY: T-minus 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Start your aromatics. Microwave your cinnamon stick and cut up apple & onion in a cup or two of water for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, get yourself a square of aluminum foil and fold it into a triangle. Brush a little bit of oil onto one side of the foil, and fit it onto your turkey. You're making a sort of turkey breast shield that you will later use to protect the white breast meat from overcooking. Set your foil shield aside. Stuff your turkey with aromatics--apple, onion, cinnamon stick, and herbs. Coat your turkey with canola oil. 
7. THURSDAY: T-minus 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Roast your turkey at 500 degrees for 30 minutes. Use the lowest oven rack level. 
8. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees, cover your turkey with your foil shield, and put it back in. You can use a probe digital thermometer that stays in the turkey, alerting you when it reaches the right temperature-- or you can do what I do. LEAVE THE TURKEY ALONE FOR 2 HOURS or until it reaches 161 degrees. Check the turkey after two hours with your meat thermometer, and put it back in if it's not there yet. Be sure to check the thickest part of the turkey breast, and don't hit any bones with your thermometer. Don't trust the pop up thingy that comes in your turkey. It will over cook your white meat.
9. Your turkey is done when you hit 161 degrees.
10. Remove from the oven and rest, covered, while you do other stuff for 15 minutes or so.
11. CARVE :)

You're going to love this. The pepper/allspice brine adds a sweet/savory hint to the meat, and the aromatics lend their flavor throughout. The skin is crispy, the meat is juicy, and the white and dark meat are both properly cooked. 

You can buy me a Christmas present to say thank you ;)

spiced up spaghetti from a jar. it's so good, you'll die.

If you ever want to have the best friggin spaghetti of your life (maybe), you'll do what I say.

I LOVE spaghetti. I make it every week, and if my husband would let me, I'd make it twice a week (prob'ly).

I also love money. And expensive jars of yummy spaghetti sauce cost lots of money.

In addition, I love free time. So not waiting an hour for my sauce from scratch to simmer down to a thickness that won't leak water onto the bottom of my plate of noodles is important to me.

If you are plagued with these concerns, by all means, read on, dear student.

HERE'S HOW TO MAKE YOUR JAR OF SPAGHETTI SAUCE FRIGGIN TERRIFIC, as I said earlier:

First, make sure you have all these ingredients:

1 pound of ground beef ($3)
olive oil, some
kosher salt
pepper
1 teaspoon (or more) crushed garlic (spend 50 cents, get a freaking garlic bulb)
1/2 regular sized onion (you decide if you want white, yellow, sweet, whatever) (also, $1)
1 or 2 handfuls of bulk mushrooms ($1)
1 jar of generic spaghetti sauce--the cheapo kind ($1.50)
10 or so basil leaves (or dried if you don't have this)
oregano
parsley
red pepper flakes
whatever other spices you might like---try them out! :)
optional zucchini (50 cents)
1 regular sized bag spaghetti noodles (you know, the kind you think will never be enough but it really is) ($1)
1 regular sized can of petite diced tomatoes (75 cents)

So hopefully you already have all those spices, and if you do, you're looking at $8.25 for a giant pot of spaghetti that will feed a whole family, or 2 ravenous people for almost 3 meals.

Okay, you've gathered up all this stuff from your pantry and your fridge and from the store. Get to cookin':

1. Turn on the heat to medium with a big saute pan. Add like a tablespoon of oil after it's hot (add it before it's hot and your kitchen will fill with smoke, so if you like that...)
2. Start your noodle water. A ton of it. 
3. Chop your onion. Go fast so it doesn't burn out your eyeballs. Add it to the oil and get it cookin.
4. Add garlic. You can add more or less depending on how much garlic you like. Seriously though, just try out going all in, I bet you'll like it.
5. Also add in your sliced or chopped mushrooms. And your chopped zucchini if you're game for that.
6. Season with salt and cook for a couple minutes so the onions get soft and your mushrooms aren't dry.
7. Add beef. Yum! Season with salt and pepper (pretty liberally). And brown.
8. Cooky, cooky, waity waity.
9. Your water should be boiling so go ahead with your noodles, and make sure your boiling water tastes like sea water with salt.
10. You may drain your meat if you so desire, but I don't really. Whatever. Unless I go way cheap and buy like 60/40 beef.
11. Add your jar of sauce along with the can of tomatoes. Oh, be sure to watch your heat and stir slowly so it doesn't volcano up onto your hand and burn your fingers off.
12. Add spices and basil leaves! You can cut up the basil or throw them in whole, both are good. Try starting out with a layer of spices that covers the top of the sauce, and stir it up. TASTE IT to see if you want to add more spices of any kind. I go for about a little less than a tablespoon of oregano, a tablespoon of parsley, a pinch of red pepper flakes, and sometimes a sprig of rosemary if I have it fresh and I'm feeling pine-treeish. Lots of people swear by bay leaves, but I hate fishing them out. Besides, we aren't simmering that long anyways.
13. I can't stress this enough--make sure you taste it and adjust all your spices, including salt and pepper. If you want it a little sweeter, add a teaspoon of honey. 
14. Let it simmer while your noodles cook.
15. Drain your noodles, and combine. I love to combine. It's not required, but it reminds me of being a kid again where I never had to mix my own pasta on my plate :)
16. Top generously with parmesan.
17. Eat. And eat a second plate. 
18. Come back to my blog and leave me lots of compliments for resurrecting your spaghetti night.

P.S. Your kids ages 1-15 might hate you for making this with mushrooms. 

P.S.S. Your husbands will love you and kiss you all over for making this. The next day. They'll be too full to leave the table the night of.

P.S.S. You'll love you for making this because you'll have an amazing lunch to bring to work the next day, and all your co-workers will be jealous of the smells coming out of your microwave.

P.S.S.S. I don't pay attention to how many ounces are in cans and jars, and how many grams my noodles weigh. Use your brains. "Regular" means the most common size, the traditional size. Don't Biggie-Size your cans of tomato.

I'm selling my dear friend, Mr. 24" Imac

I'm selling my 2009 24" iMac! $1000.00. 


I recently upgraded to the newest model with some crazy awesome specs for my photography workload. 


It's in perfect condition. We purchased it brand new 2 years ago and have been very happy with it. It has a crystal clear, vibrantly colored screen for gaming and photo editing, as well as every day computer use. We used it most for World of Warcraft, and as the main photo editor for my photography business. It has served me so well! No scratches or blemishes.

Here's some specs:
2.66 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
4GB RAM, upgradeable to 16 GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9400, 256 MB
Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8

Significantly higher ram and video capability than the 2007 model.

Airport Wireless Internet Adaptor
Bluetooth
Firewire
USB 2.0
Wired Keyboard + Mouse that originally came in the box (barely used)
All the SnowLeopard default programs

Contact Becky at 801-558-7422 or beckygreenphotos@gmail.com; text, call or email.

5 year anniversary

Trevor and I celebrated our 5 year wedding anniversary last weekend!

Here's some stuff we did:

• Trevor went to Cafe Rio with me. This is like, a once in a lifetime experience. He even went in and sat at a table :) PLUS, I'd gotten enough stamps so we got a meal free. For the win.
• We went grocery shopping and took our time; got Waffle Crisp and Chips Ahoy.
• Ate at Quiznos. Possibly got food poisoning though, because I had a hard time eating for the rest of the weekend. 
• Watched a lot of Cheers, and Thor. 
• Had adequate time to prepare for my photography assignment.
• Watched Conference here and there.
• Took 2 days off work.
• Trevor didn't go to school :) Missed some homework assignments :(
• Had a fancy dinner at The Copper Onion downtown--I reviewed it on Yelp.
• Picked up $20 worth of desserts at Gourmandise--also reviewed it on Yelp. 
• Played the "which actor stars in the most movies we own" game (turns out, it's Ian McKellan; who'd a thought)
• Read some Lord of the Rings trivia out loud for like an hour before going to bed.
• Watched Julie & Julia--WITH TREVOR. Holy moly. 
• Subsequently got a craving to make some French cuisine.
• Ate at California Pizza Kitchen. Also on Yelp.
• Did a lot of brainstorming with Trevor on his new book.
• Made a pumpkin cheesecake.
• Started an oven fire. But we didn't die. 
• Made a pumpkin pie with homemade whipped cream. 
• Read some books.

Pretty good weekend. We love going out to eat and trying new places, so we were happy to just hang out at home mostly. 

Can't believe it's been a whole 5 years, but at the same time, I can't believe 5 years has gone by so fast. I love Trevor, he loves me :)

Julia Child's Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream

http://sugarandspice-celeste.blogspot.com/2009/08/chicken-breasts-with-mushrooms-cream.html

Last night I tried making Julia Child's Chicken with Mushrooms and Cream. Mostly because we just watched Julie & Julia a couple days ago, and I've been hungry ever since ;)

some other girl's photo from sugar and spice

I've ALWAYS wanted her cookbook, but have never properly prioritized so I can afford the 10 pound bible of a book when I go to the book store. But I found a copy of this recipe online, see link above.

You can find the full recipe straight from her book below, but here's how I did it.

Take 2 pounds of chicken breasts (2 full size breasts) and cut them all up into really flat pieces. I like to do this so they don't take 45 minutes to bake. Sprinkle with lemon juice--I used the bottled kind and just put a little in my hand to sprinkle on each side of the breasts. Seasoned with salt and pepper. Go easy on the salt because the sauce reduces and is SUPER flavorful already.

Melted 5 tablespoons of butter in a large cast-iron frying pan until it was frothy, like Julia says. Use all 5 tablespoons, since this is making the base for your sauce. Just go for it; it'll be delicious. To this I added about half of a white onion chopped fine, and half a carton of white mushrooms sliced, and a bit of seasoning, and let that saute for a couple minutes. Julia says to saute but not brown. Good idea.

Place the chicken breasts in the pan and turn them over a bit so they're all covered in the butter. Then cover with a piece of buttered wax paper and put in your oven at 400 degrees. Julia's recipe says for 6 minutes--she must have had uber thin breasts, or a really hot oven, because my breasts took about 15 minutes even cut thinly. Just bake until your chicken's done. The one thing I think I would prefer to be different about this recipe is that the chicken isn't seared or browned at all. I think I may try it one time where my chicken gets seared in the mushroom butter pan before I bake it all the way. I'm not exactly sure what the wax paper does... but I did it. Maybe if I didn't use it at all and didn't cover the chicken they'd get a little brown in the oven?

While it's baking, you get your other fixin's ready. I had asparagus handy, and a box of stuffing :) Who can ask for a better meal?

When your chicken's done, remove it from the pan and keep it warm. Return your pan to the stove on high, where you add the stock and wine. I used regular old chicken broth (hence, lenient salting) and Pompeien white cooking wine. You let that simmer on high for like 5 minutes while the alcohol cooks out and it reduces . If you're a stickler about even cooking with alcohol, which, sometimes I am, I just replace the wine or whatever with more broth or something else. More broth in this case would probably be fine, or a water broth mixture.

Add your cream, and boil again, reducing and stirring until it's thickened. Add more lemon juice and salt/pepper to your taste, add the chicken back in, top with parsley (I used about a tablespoon of dried), and serve!

Chicken was tender and juicy, sauce was jam packed with flavor, mushrooms were delicious! And it really only took like 30 minutes. Served more like 2-3 since we loved it so much :)

Supremes de Volaille aux Champignons

(Chicken Breasts with Mushroom and Cream)

Source: Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. I by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle and Simone Beck (Knopf, 1961)

Ingredients:

4 supremes (boneless, skinless chicken breasts)

1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Big pinch white pepper

5 tablespoons butter

1 tablespoon minced shallot or green onion

1/4 pound diced or sliced fresh mushrooms

1/8 teaspoon salt

For the sauce:

1/4 cup white or brown stock or canned beef bouillon

1/4 cup port, Madeira or dry white vermouth

1 cup whipping cream

Salt and pepper

2 tablespoons freshly minced parsley

Directions:Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Rub the chicken breasts with drops of lemon juice and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Heat the butter in a heavy, oven-proof casserole, about 10 inches in diameter until it is foaming. Stir in the minced shallots or green onion and saute a moment without browning. Then stir in the mushrooms and saute lightly for a minute or two without browning. Sprinkle with salt.

Quickly roll the chicken in the butter mixture and lay a piece of buttered wax paper over them, cover casserole and place in hot oven. After 6 minutes, press top of chicken with your finger. If still soft, return to oven for a moment or two. When the meat is springy to the touch it is done. (Please Note: Although Julia suggests to check the chicken after only 6 minutes, I (as well as several of my readers!) feel that this amount of time is inadequate to thoroughly cook the chicken. I cooked it for closer to 30-40 minutes. Please use a meat thermometer to ensure the correct temperature before serving!)

Remove the chicken to a warm platter (leave mushrooms in the pot) and cover while making the sauce (2 to 3 minutes).

To make sauce, pour the stock and wine in the casserole with the cooking butter and mushrooms. Boil down quickly over high heat until liquid is syrupy. Stir in the cream and boil down again over high heat until cream has thickened slightly. Off heat, taste for seasoning, and add drops of lemon juice to taste. Pour the sauce over the chicken, sprinkle with parsley and serve immediately.

Serves 4.

Busy

I literally have nothing else to talk about except photography stuff this week. So I'm make it brief and send you on over to the photography blog for details on all that stuff: beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com

I'm smack dab in the middle of an online photography course that has SO MUCH information to give me. And it's taking up a lot of my time preparing for assignments, doing assignments, and then editing the assignments. Plus it's giving me so many ideas on how to make my business better, so I'm spending time implementing those changes as well. I'm already seeing improvements to my work, and we get feedback, so I expect even more :)

I've also agreed to have one of my sessions given away at the Utah Senior Expo in a drawing, and I've made some coupons up for all the people who enter. So I've been working away in that area, designing the materials and whatnot. I'm hoping I'll get some extra business from that, although I'm not exactly sure how I'll fit them in :)

And, we are in the middle of switching out our old (well, not really OLD, just the one we're upgrading from) iMac for a new one, and all my photography stuff is on an external hard drive, all my user settings are messed up, and I have no time to go and arrange everything again for a while.

Oh! Here's something completely unrelated to photography! Our 5 year wedding anniversary is on Tuesday! We're taking 2 days off of work, and hope to have a relaxing time. I promise myself I won't spend the whole time on the computer.

I have a cold. Or something like that. And it's making me uber tired and cranky because it's making me miss important events like Book Club, and Dinner Club, and making me not want to edit at night. And so I hope it goes away before the weekend!

Testing out the Blogpress app

Hello.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Trevor's Writing Blog

Trevor has done something totally brave and, to me, uncharacteristic.

 He's made a blog. A blog about his writing. That means he's telling EVERYONE that he's been writing.

That's a long ways away from where he used to be: silent, embarrassed, and never wanting to tell anyone what he does with his spare time. It's clever, interesting, and full of little tidbits about writing, and advice from one aspiring author to another. Go check it out; I think you'll like it. Plus, he talks about me sometimes :) I'm one step closer to being famous.

/http://beyonddragonsandwizards.blogspot.com

herbs, garlic, bread, books, school, draft, and fieldguide.

I know all my posts have been about food lately... but I love it, so...

I took the advise from ... well, everybody... and bought me some of those fresh herbs in a cup of dirt from the grocery store. You know, the kind you put in your window sill to make it look like you've been growing them yourself the whole time? Yeah those. They've been wonderful! You also know how you can buy those little teeny tiny packs of fresh herbs in the produce section, and how they're like $4 for 8 basil leaves? Well, the cup of herbs is like a bagillion leaves for $3. Plus they last longer since you keep them growing. All you have to do is put water in them every day (which, I still sort of failed at, since apparently I'm a plant murderer).

I also FINALLY got around to picking up some of that minced garlic in a jar. I've been chopping and mincing and crushing my garlic for years, and I'm really just so tired of sticky, garlicy hands just to get a teenie weenie bit of garlic. I know. "It's not fresh." Bla bla. Opening a jar of garlic and using a spoon to get it out is seriously so convenient. My food has been a million times tastier the last 2 weeks because I finally gave in. I use the right amounts of garlic, and I don't dirty a cutting board just for garlic anymore. SO NICE.

I guess since I'm on the topic of food we've loved lately... We also tried those Rhodes frozen bread loaves a few weeks ago and have been hooked. They're just like the frozen dinner rolls only they're in loaf form. They come out to costing about $1.25 per loaf, and they are ridiculously good. We eat them constantly (and we're constantly running out and forgetting to let rise new loaves). We just weren't eating all our bread before. We'd get a loaf and half of it would go moldy before we'd get around to finishing it. But it's not like you can just NOT have a loaf of bread around the house; what if you want midnight toast, or an after work pb and j? And you know those times you're so disappointed after an attempt to recreate your favorite deli sandwich at home that you find yourself vowing to never buy deli meat again? These loaves have solved all those problems. It's deli sandwiches, pb&j, buttered bread with dinner, and toast at midnight for us all the time now. We just have to remember to give yourself 5 hours of rising time.

I DO have other things going on in my life right now besides food. Not much, but there's some stuff in between meals. Trevor started the next semester yesterday. We spent the "summer break" (that means the last 3 weeks) (and by "we" I mean "I") registering Trevor for his new classes and ordering his books while waiting for Trevor's loan money to show up at the last minute.

Somehow I also read 3 books last week. What the? I read the first two books in the Pretties series and The Help. All of which you can see how much I loved/liked over there ------> on my goodreads widget.

AND Trevor and I got through the second draft of his book. I read through and marked up a bunch of conceptual changes, inconsistencies, that sort of thing. And then he had to go through and write it all, be the mastermind, you know? He ended up writing like 35,000 extra words or something like that. Now he's taking a break while he gets used to school again, while his reading group (me and his family) read through what he's done so far.

I'm very close to being able to purchase this photography workshop/field guide I've been waiting for. It's almost $300, and I've been saving up. Now that the time has come, I'm really nervous about spending the money. I need so many things relating to photography... I almost just said, "I wish I had more money." But that would have just been so obvious and laughable! Don't we all. The hard thing about buying intangible items is that if you don't like them, you can't just return them. I guess I need to take a page out of my clients' books and trust that I'm going to get a good product.

AND here's the end of my 10th post in a row without any pictures of us doing anything spectacular. I took some photos at the Peter Orullian/Brandon Sanderson book signing... but they aren't really fantastic so...

Leftover Chicken & Rice Casserole

Okay, for real. Last night I made a rice casserole from the leftover chicken from my Chicken in Milk recipe from last time. It was the best chicken and rice bake EVER.

And I've made a few rice bakes in my time. If you never follow any other advise but this, you'll always have amazing rice bakes: never use canned cream of mushroom soup. Homemade gravy/sauce is SO easy to make, and tastes so much more unique and fresh. Obviously, I still think canned cream of mushroom has it's uses, but if you're trying to make something that actually tastes different than every other casserole that was ever made? Yeah... And all you need to make your own mushroom sauce is regular milk, flour, butter, mushrooms, and broth. (Sometimes I use boullion and water instead of broth to save even more money.)

Here's what you gotta do:

1. Start your rice. I used chicken broth instead of water in the rice; it's the easiest way to get yummy rice without rice-a-roni. I used 1 1/2 cups of uncooked rice, and 3 cups of broth (I used half broth and half water sometimes when I want to be frugal). Cook for like 20 minutes ish.
2. While the rice is cooking, saute up some chopped onion and mushrooms in a tablespoon on olive oil. Salt and pepper. I didn't add any other seasoning to this (like garlic or oregano) because the chicken was so flavorful. 
3. After the vegetables are done cooking, make a roux. That means you add a few tablespoons of butter to the frying pan and melt it down, then add an equal amount of flour. Stirring briskly till it's all dissolved. If you want thicker sauce, add more flour to the butter.
4. You cook that for a minute or two until the floury taste is gone (chefs say it smells "nutty" but whatever). 
5. Add a cup or two of broth and a cup or two of milk. I didn't really measure this. I just sort of added as much liquid as I wanted. Add more if you want more sauce.
6. Bring to a boil and stir until it thickens. Add the chicken and reseason to taste.
7. Combine the sauce and rice in a baking dish, and cover with cheese.
8. Bake at 375 for like 15-20 minutes.

I served it with fresh green beans and it was seriously delicious. The chicken had a leftover sage, lemon, and garlic flavor, that went perfectly with the creamy sauce and mushrooms. 

I'm also eating some leftover chicken sandwiches--I had some yesterday and I'm having more today. This chicken is so good!

Jamie Oliver? Chicken in Milk?

So I've been watching a little bit... actually A LOT of Jamie Oliver lately. Sometimes when you're watching Netflix, you pick something really fast, and just keep watching it when it turns out to not suck. Sometimes you have to hurry and just choose, otherwise you'll realize a half hour later that you've just wasted an entire episode's worth of time browsing all the options (and listened to the Apple TV's "bop" every time you click).

So I settled on "Oliver's Twist" one day about a week ago. It's a British cooking show, made in like 2002, and the host is Jamie Oliver. I guess he's sort of famous in England... Anyways, he's pretty eccentric, but not in an Emeril or even Ramsey kind of way. More like an almost too goofy to be comfortable kind of way, with several catch phrases that have no meaning to Americans, and sort of a lisp to go along with his partially cockney accent. I watched the entire season, and ended up really enjoying it, except for the theme song. Which makes me want to kill myself every time they play it (which is at least 3 times per episode).

Anywho, I was kind of blown away by the way he was cooking though. It must just be the British influence, or something, because I hadn't really seen anyone cooking like he does. He uses PILES of fresh herbs like no one I've seen! And his presentation is wacky, but that's probably the England thing. Going in, I was concerned I'd be seeing a lot of "Spotted Dick" and "Blood Pudding" and crap I would never want to eat because it's made of tongue or something. But it turns out, lots of English cooking looks pretty good. He uses tons of vegetables and fish, which is like inspiration in a bottle because I'm always feeling like I use the same old chicken and ground beef recipes.

Long story not so short, I decided to make one of the dishes that looked tasty, and it WAS!

I went for the chicken in Milk. Basically, you put a seared whole chicken in a roaster with milk, lemon, garlic, and fresh whole sage leaves, and out comes a juicy, flavorful chicken soaking in lemony broth and CHEESE! What the... ? Cheese? Yep.

So remember when you learned that one time when you were watching a documentary on cheese... (just go with me) that basic cheese is can be made by combining milk with an acid like lemon juice? Well, same concept applies. The lemon "splits" the milk and out comes cheese.

Seriously, have you guys ever used fresh sage? I sure hadn't. I smelled it at the store and I felt like I was in a forest. But it was definitely the perfect flavor for chicken. It's practically nothing like dried or ground sage. I highly recommend trying out this recipe.

And Oliver's Twist is still available on Netflix to watch instantly, so go check it out. You have to watch at least 4 before you start ignoring all the quirks.

Here's Jamie's recipe, and here's my version with the slight variations:

• One 4lb chicken 
• kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper 
• 1 stick of butter 
• 2 tablespoons olive oil 
• 1 good handful of fresh sage, leaves picked • zest of 2 lemons (this needs to be peeled off in thick strips, not grated), plus juice from 1
• 10 cloves of garlic, skin left on (I used crushed because I just bought a jar of that super convenient stuff and wanted to use it)
• 2 cups milk (I used 2% but more whole means better cheese)


Preheat the oven to 375F (I used a roaster because I don't have roasting pan that will fit a chicken), and find a snug-fitting pot for the chicken (instead of a pot, I used my cast iron frying pan to sear the chicken). Season it generously all over, and fry it in the butter and a little olive oil, turning the chicken to get an even color all over, until golden. (On the show, Jamie used half the butter to sear one half of the chicken, then threw it away, then used the other half of the butter to sear the other half of the chicken. I guess it keeps the butter from going brown.) Remove from the heat, put the chicken on a plate, and throw away the oil and butter left in the pot. This will leave you with tasty sticky goodness at the bottom of the pan, which will give you a lovely caramel flavor later on (because I used a separate pan for searing than for roasting, I just tried to scrape as much of the bits from the frying pan into the roaster).

Put your chicken back in the pot with the rest of the ingredients, and cook in the preheated oven for 1½ hours. Baste with the cooking juice when you remember. The lemon zest will sort of split the milk, making a sauce that is absolutely fantastic.

To serve, pull the meat off the bones and divide it onto your plates. Spoon over plenty of juice and the little curds. Serve with wilted spinach or greens and some mashed potato. (On the show, Jamie served it with plain polenta mixed with butter and parmesan. I made the mistake of buying the preseasoned Sun Dried Tomato kind when the store was out of plain. Don't do it. Gross.)

Win a session :)

In an effort to increase followers on the bloggidy blog, we're doing a contest to win a free session!

All you have to do is share the link to the blog:

http://beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com

You can use the picture or the link, as long as it links back to the blog! Then all you have to do is leave me a comment or send me a message letting me know where you shared the link, and you'll be entered to win a free 30 minute session. Your name can be entered more than once for sharing in multiple places, so get going! And don't forget to follow the blog, because the contest ends when it reaches 30 followers!

friend's engagement pictures

http://beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com/2011/08/engagements-in-american-fork.html

I took my friend's engagement pictures 2 weeks ago. I thought some of you might want to see since you might know her.

clubs

I've been doing a lot of "clubs" lately. Dinner Club, which I think I've talked about before, and which has probably made me gain like 10 pounds, I haven't checked. And Book Club, which has made me read books I probably wouldn't have.

I was invited by an old co-worker to go to her Dinner Club. Basically it is a bunch of ladies from her neighborhood who get together once a month to eat a themed pot luck dinner. They all bring a dish (which is usually pretty darn fancy compared to normal people food), and eat it at someone's house (which is more house than I have), and talk about their houses, kids, husbands, and lives. At first, I was worried I'd be out of place... But after I went just one time, I knew these ladies weren't the snooty types I was judging them to be. Even visiting a giant house with a giant pool in their giant backyard, I couldn't help feeling welcome and wanted. We just talk. About life and family. And even though I don't have all the things they have yet, like a house and kids, and, well, money, in many cases, I have enjoyed the company of women (wow, that was a lot of commas). Plus, there's delicious food. I might suffer through a lot of things for delicious food.

Book club has been going on for a few months. It's probably a pretty typical book club. We decide on a book, read it, and meet about it once/month or so. We talk about the book for maybe 20 minutes, and then chat about important stuff for an hour and half. I'm sure once we all have nothing new to report on our lives, we might talk about books more. But honestly, 20 minutes seems pretty good to me. I've missed a few of the get-togethers but I've read all the books. It's kind of interesting to see which books people like, and which they don't. Also, it gives me a reason to read out of my comfort zone sometimes. It's weird sometimes to see the books that society as a whole values the most. Sometimes the books are complete trash, and the world is in love. And sometimes they're gems. The world is weird.

As you can see from my older posts, I've been doing a lot of photography stuff. Like, stuff for my business. I bought my own light kit, only to find it is SO not what I wanted. I have to return it and get a different one, which means spending more money on a better one. 5 steps forward, 1 step back. I guess I can't complain. But of course this all comes the week before I have a gig where I need a light kit. So I'm back to borrowing. I'm grateful I have that option though.

I would love to be a fancy cook. Random thought. But I've been watching a lot of random cooking shows on Netflix lately, and it's rekindled my desire to learn diverse foods and cook super fancy. I try, but I'm still really limited by my experience. I hate watching cooking shows and knowing that I have NO IDEA what a dish would taste like because I've only tried 1 ingredient they used.

Trevor's first semester back at school ends this week.

And that's pretty much all for now.

Photography Blog

hello!

I've been working on SO much stuff for the business these last two weeks! 

I updated my website: www.wix.com/photosbybecky/web

But most importantly to all your bloggers out there, I made myself a designated photography blog:

http://beckygreenphotography.blogspot.com/

So go like it, and follow it, and read it :) 

It's all integrated into my website now! It's pretty crazy. And I finally figured out how to do all the stuff on my website I've been wanting. So I made those changes I was talking about last week to my services, and I'm soooo looking forward to using the new system. 

Hope everyone goes there and leaves me some love :) because I love YOU!

Lots of stuff I'm thinking about.

uh... stuff going on:

• Saw Harry Potter 7 part II twice last weekend. It was super. Cried most at Snape's memories.
• Procrastinating Trevor's next semester registration. 
• Working on photography networking: cupcake photos, free wedding stuff to some people. Trying to open my eyes more. Doing a women in business photoshoot thing in a few weeks.
• Working on my marketing. I bought some new labeling supplies for my photography discs, and came up with a new logo I can start using. I need to update my website, bad. It's been like 9 months.
• Trying to make by brain stop thinking same-old-same-old. Thinking of things I currently have in place that are limiting my creative potential possibly? 1/2 hour sessions might be ruining my ability to be creative... but I like offering a cheap alternative to clients who need it.
• Thinking about at-home studio possibilities and oggling over DropItModern
• Thinking about all the things I need to buy for the business: an external hard drive or two for backing up, a freaking long zoom lens, a better flash, bulbs, backdrops, the world--why not?
• Trying to stay positive and not getting caught up in small arguments--although I've pretty much failed at this lately. There's so many little things.
• Reassessed our debt situation today. That's always fantastic. 
• Trying not to watch too much TV, although I'm probably failing at that too. Netflix is so amazing, but so annoying sometimes.
• I need to eat more vegetables! And less cake. Too bad there's a fudge covered cake sitting on my counter at home right now, waiting and gooey-izing while I work. And too bad I found that cinnamon roll recipe by Alton Brown over the weekend. Something's gotta give.
• I gave up a stupendous coupon over the weekend to Torrid. It was one of those "thanks for shopping with us, so here's a coupon for $25 off your next $50 purchase when you come back during these dates" coupons. That's 50% off! Ugh, but I couldn't justify another $25. Sad day. Gosh, we need to spend less.
• Am loving Trevor. He's special to me. He makes me laugh, and he makes me frustrated--especially when he switches the mouse on the iMac to his freaking crazy insane 100 button WoW mouse that I can't edit with, or when he stressing me out every 10 minutes about something, or when he wants to watch Battlestar Galactica and I just want to watch Terminator Salvation dangit because it's been forever. I love him, and he makes my life better. 

More pie

I decided I needed a stress-relieving session of baking on Sunday. So I decided to try my hand solo at pie making. And I also wanted to test the difference between shortening-only pie crust as my grandma makes, and a shortening/butter combo as my pal Alton Brown makes. (Yes, he's my friend.)

The difference: Shortening-only pie crust is whiter, crisper, and more delicate. A pie crust with shortening AND butter is soft, flakey, tender, and golden. They're two different beasts, in my opinion. The butter/shortening combo was 10 times easier to handle though.

I got to use my great-grandma's sifter for the first time, and I felt super special.

I ended up making 3 pies in a matter of 4 hours. Berry, cherry, and key-lime pie, all completely from scratch. I spent the most time on the cherry, depitting and all. But the fresh cherries that were actually kind of amazing, turned in to that fated "cooked" cherry mess. Cherry-pie lovers would probably love it, but for some reason, I just can't handle cherries. The berry pie recipe called for a bit of blueberry jam, and it actually solved the sour problem. I might stick to that trick for the rest of my life. The key-lime pie is great. Although, I might just suffer the artificiality next time and add the green food coloring, because lime pie that isn't green is off-setting.

All in all, I had an informative and stress-eeking evening. Now we just need to eat all this pie.

Pie Crust and the 4th of July

We spent the weekend in Idaho for the holiday, but mostly just to get away. Some of my family lives up there, and while it's stressful in its own way to be around family so much in a condensed amount of time, it's still relaxing no matter what to be away from normal life in a green, grassy, breezy, familiar place that is consistently 10 degrees cooler than Salt Lake.

We spent half a day in Lava Hot Springs--which was pretty much insane, given that it was July 4th weekend. We wanted to go to the hot springs, and were almost jumping for joy when we saw that they weren't very busy. But one toe in the water showed us why there were only 10 people lounging around with their feet in the water. It was freaking hot. Like, so hot we couldn't even keep our feet in. LAME. So we suffered the jam-packed public pool down the street for about an hour and a half, all the while with Trevor asking if we could go yet. Seriously, is it so bad for me to want to spend a little time away in the sun and chlorinated pool water away from any friends, family, or acquaintances I might run into that might happen to see me in my swimsuit? Society just won't let me. We knew it'd be busy, but we were hoping not quite THAT busy. The highlight of the outing was probably a toss-up between the Thai restaurant's yellow curry, or the geyser at Soda Springs.

I did get a sunburn on one side of my body though.

We ended up getting up at the crack of dawn on Monday to make it out to a chuck-wagon breakfast, but it didn't work out. You know how things go when family gets together; something always goes wrong. I'm sort of surprised we made it home alive since we were both practically napping at the wheel (not really, we aren't that dangerous, I may be exaggerating).

My grandma made pie with me on Sunday, and handed down to me my great-grandma's flour sifter. She showed me how she makes pie crust, and had me roll out my own dough after she showed me how she learned to do it from my great-grandma. Pie crust is freaking ridiculous. Mine kept cracking and breaking and getting dried out. Hmph. The only other thing I've sucked at right off the bat so much in the kitchen is frosting cakes. But, needless to say, I will cherish that pie-making afternoon for the rest of my life. My grandma is getting old. And she only has more stress in her life lately. I want to remember the different things she gave to me at different times in my life--whether it was a floor to sleep and feel safe on during a summer trip when I was 5, protection from my older brothers and their plans to shove me into the ditch or catch moths and put them on me pronto pups on the shop porch when I was 10, consistent compliments on my hair, eyes, height, or brains as grandmothers do from the time you are 1 day old, or crust-making when I'm 23.

Needless to say, this was my first Independence Day without a single firework, sparkler, or throwing snappy thing. We catnapped the afternoon away while doing laundry, and mustered up the energy (somehow) to make spaghetti and lay on the couch watching Stargate while the fireworks went off outside in the parking lot. I love America; America's the best. And this year I celebrated by listening to America the Beautiful by the MoTab on my phone.

RotK and Shtuff

• We are going to The Return of the King tonight. It's a bad night for it. I hope I get more in the mood before 7, because the extended version is like 5 hours long. And we already paid for our tickets, so... good mood go!
• Editing is going well. I am currently working on 2 business headshot sessions, one small family of a mom and son, and 1 large family. I think I've finally mastered my editing time calendar. I used to overbook myself and not really know why--I figured out I have to leave adequate time between shoots to account for my editing time. Like, more time than I thought. I started to do less time in between, and rushed the editing, but I felt like I didn't have time or space to grow or explore new editing techniques. I've had to learn to say "no," or "I can help you, but not for 6 weeks." It's hard sometimes when I might lose business because I don't have enough time. But hopefully the time I spend learning and developing increasingly better editing skills will make up for that down the line.
• I'll post some pictures from what I've been working on as I finish them.
• House is messy because life is hard.
• We're planning a trip to Idaho to visit family for the 4th. We'll also be spending a day at Lava Hot Springs, which I'm looking forward to, even though it will be busy.
• Oh! I went to a Dinner Club with one of my friends from my old office last week, and it was such a good time! I'm glad I went. I made frog eye salad (my mom's recipe, of course). But it was just nice to eat and talk with some ladies--some I knew, some I didn't--who were genuinely nice and trying to do the best they can. I'm totally going next month. Each month is a different theme, and we all bring different dishes, like potluck.
• I'm reading The Unremembered, by Peter Orullian. My book club chose it also, so that kind of works out--which is lucky because it's sort of long. I was excited about it at first because it's supposed to be an epic fantasy, and the cover is actually way cooler than a lot of fantasy covers. I can tell it's the author's first full novel though. It's a pretty neat story and I'm liking it. But I don't think I would've recommended it as my book club's first fantasy genre novel had I read it beforehand. Oh well. I get to host the get-together in July, and it's going to be awesome either way.
• Trevor is doing a lot of homework and getting A's. I'm trying my best not to distract him or invite him to do fun things when he should be studying or doing homework. This Lord of the Rings business isn't helping the last couple weeks though. It's throwing us off.

Books

Mmm, I love to read.

Just wanted to share that with you all today.

I was thinking about that last night as I was watching The Two Towers in a theater (yeah, that's right, it's 2011), and realizing I really just want to read the book again. And then I realized I have too many other books to read. I have too many books I want to know, too many subjects I want to learn about, too many adventures to go on to repeat that one again just yet.

I think I'd love it if my work paid me to read a novel from 8am to 12pm, then I could do normal work. I'd be okay with that.

This is sort of related more to mathematics than to literature, but yesterday I listened to that recording of a customer on the phone with Verizon disputing a charge on his bill. Long story short, nobody at Verizon understood the difference between .002 dollars and .002 cents. It made me stop and think about how grateful I am for my education (however long ago it was), and that I was taught by teachers who cared (for the most part) about my welfare. They taught me the basics, but also helped mold my brain into something that can understand beyond what I've been taught. I love to learn. I want more of it. I think that's why I crave reading so much, is because I really don't have the opportunity to learn scholastically at the moment.

Books are amazing.

What's happening

• Trevor started school on Monday at SLCC. He's taking math and english right now, and I'm jealous and relieved it's not me at the same time.
  


• Trevor is working 3/4 time at At Home Heros as a dispatch person.
  


• I started a new job on May 23rd at Wagstaff & Crawford downtown. This was a pretty awesome promotion that included a pay raise, my own office, benefits, and I'm not the lowest employee!



• I have my first business headshot photo session booked for this month. It's with my old work.



• I paid my first photography income taxes in March. That is a sucky concept.


• We paid off some credit cards, and got a student loan. Nice trade. Not.



• We now have use of our second bedroom, which we've turned into an office. We're totally taking advantage of it and using for pleasure, photography business, and Trevor's writing. I even sewed curtains with this fabric:

• Trevor is delving more into writing as a hobby, and I'm super impressed.



• In February and March I started a family cook book which I'm taking pictures for. It's been put on hold while my regular photography has picked up. But I think about it a lot :) That counts, right? I frequently feel the urge to photograph food and am trying to make it a higher priority and a part of my business model.
  


• We bought an iPad this week! It won't come in the mail for another 2 weeks, but we are now officially iPad owners.
  

• We went to CONduit a few weeks ago; it's a fantasy/science fiction writing convention. It was pretty enlightening and encouraging. We met a TON of authors, and got a lot of helpful info.



• I've had a ton of photoshoots: www.facebook.com/photosbybecky


• That's all for now.