October 14th

30 Day Challenge, Day 11: A Childhood memory. I kinda got stuck on today's assignment...had a hard time finding a childhood memory. Then I remembered that Halloween is just around the corner. I trick-or-treating, and getting all that candy!

October 11th

30 Day Challenge, Day 7: Fruit. Stopped by a local produce market and got some inspiration there. I'm surprised that watermelon is still available.

October 9th

30 Day Challenge, Day 5: From a high angle. Took pictures of my son helping make pizza. Since I had to shoot something for the challenge, I decided to jump on a chair and took this shot. Really liked the perspective.

What I learned: Grilled Chicken Salad

Still trying to improve my indoor food photography skills. This time, I tried using back lighting to enhance the salad. I bounced the light off the wall behind the shot. This gave the elements in the salad more depth than light bounced from above. Here's a comparison.

Overhead light


Back light


Settings: ISO 400 | f/9.0 | 38mm | 1/60 | speedlite

October 4th

Insides of a picadillo emapanada from a local food truck. The other empanada is a blackbean-plantain.

October 3rd

One more day at the Food and Wine Festival. Here is my review of the festival. The best things I ate today were: the lobster claw from Hops and Barley (United States)


the coq au vin from France


the pumpkin mousse from Hops and Barley


and the white chocolate mousse from Desserts and Champagne (pictured left)

October 2nd

Went to an ice cream party in a park. The weather was perfect - sunny, breezy, not swelteringly hot.


I had a challenging time keeping someone away from the make-your-own sundae table.

September 30th

The first of what I'm sure will be many days at the Epcot Food and Wine Festival. The theme is Passport to World Flavors. Today we tried stuff from China,


the Caribbean,


Poland,


And Germany.

September 29th

Something seems amiss in the refrigerator.

September 26th

I've heard that if you boil sweetened condensed milk for a few hours, it will turn into a caramel-like custard. We'll see...

September 18th

Enjoying some mango Italian ice.

September 17th

Let's Party!


My favorite part was when my husband and son blew out the candles together.

September 16th

I love sprinkles! Homemade funfetti cake for the party tomorrow.

September 15th

These pies did not make the cut. Although the picture did make it onto the cooking blog.

September 13th

Finished cupcake toppers!

September 12th

Preparing for a Yo Gabba Gabba birthday party on Saturday for our son. He is turning 2 this week. These will be part of the cupcake toppers.

September 11th

Overwhelmed by all the coverage of the events of 10 years ago. Coped by making more pie. These are apple hand pies, baked and fried.

September 8th

Ack! It was a busy week. Time to catch up. Made a quiche today. These were the essential ingredients. Not liking the direct overhead lighting.

September 7th

Trying to get the hang of the speedlite, especially since evening daylight is quickly disappearing. I'm learning to angle the light to the side, and just a little bit up. Using a reflector on the opposite side helps even out the picture, but still keep a few shadows.

September 4th

Maple cinnamon syrup, and cream cheese glaze - toppings for cinnamon bun pancakes.