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!
becky's blog
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Monday, September 12, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, August 25, 2011
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...
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...
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
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:
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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- You cook that for a minute or two until the floury taste is gone (chefs say it smells "nutty" but whatever).
- 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.
- Bring to a boil and stir until it thickens. Add the chicken and reseason to taste.
- Combine the sauce and rice in a baking dish, and cover with cheese.
- 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!
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
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!
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.)
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).
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.
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:
• 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:
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!
Monday, August 08, 2011
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.
I took my friend's engagement pictures 2 weeks ago. I thought some of you might want to see since you might know her.
Tuesday, August 02, 2011
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.
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.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
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:
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!
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