Fresh picked Apple Blue Cheese Arugula Flat Bread

Posted on October 31, 2012 by photoappetite

It was a bumper crop of apples this year, I had a stylist bringing in bushels of apples from her trees. She had so many apples this year she could not get rid of them. They put a ladder out by the apple trees for the neighbors to come and help themselves. They are great baking apples. I felt like something savory as opposed to sweet to bake. I saw this apple pizza recipe, it had all the ingredients I love, blue cheese, arugula and pizza. I still had a bunch of thyme in the garden so I loaded up the pizza with extra herbs and pecans-it was all good. I recommend what ever pizza crust recipe you like, It does help to pre-bake the crust for like 3 to 4 minutes before you put the apples on and bake it , I think the apples add moisture to the crust and can make it soggy. You can make this with goat cheese or feta cheese but I really liked the combination of the pungent blue cheese that was smoothed out with the sweet crisp apples.

Ham and Bean Stew

Posted on October 23, 2012 by photoappetite

It has been a beautiful fall season this year. Inspired by the golden canvas as I scoot down the river road. The cooler weather makes me think of soup, I found this bag of 12 bean variety of dried beans that blended with the color palette out my window. As usual I find a few recipes and improvise with what sounds tasty. I soaked the beans overnight and then cooked the beans for an hour with some water bay leaves and the bones from the ham-hock. There was not much water left in the pot when I was done cooking the beans. So I added a can of chicken stock. I then followed the Cuban black bean stew recipe in my new cookbook: splendid table how to eat supper The Splendid Table’s How to Eat Supper by Lynne Rossetto Kasper and Sally Swift.

Steps

Trim the meat away from the ham-hock bone, cutting it into small pieces. Don’t be too fussy; leaving some on the bone is fine. Film the bottom of a 10-quart stockpot with olive oil and heat over medium-high heat. Stir in the meat, bone, cloves, onions, bell peppers, garlic, jalapeno and salt. Sauté for 8 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the vegetables are sizzling and there’s a brown glaze on the bottom of the pan (the vegetables need not brown, and take care not to let that glaze blacken).
Add a little of the broth along with the garlic, bay leaves, cumin, oregano, black pepper, and tomato paste. With a wooden spatula, scrape up the glaze as you simmer the mix on medium-high heat for 3 minutes. Then add the beans, carrots, celery,can of tomatoes, fresh herbs and the remaining broth. Adjust the heat so the soup bubbles gently. Cover the pot tightly, and cook for 20 minutes.
Stir in the juice from 2½ limes or ⅓ cup of the vinegar. Taste the soup for seasoning. Adjust the salt, pepper, and lime juice or vinegar to taste.
Ladle the soup into bowls, topping each serving with a heaping tablespoon of chopped onion and a little fresh cilantro. Have the hot sauce on the table.

GIARDINIERA – pickled vegetables

Posted on October 1, 2012 by photoappetite

Directions:

In a large non-reactive bowl, combine vegetables with the garlic and herbs; toss well to mix. To prepare brine: In a medium pan, combine vinegar, water, sugar, salt, crushed bay leaves, fennel seed and peppercorns. Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about 3 minutes (salt and sugar should be completely dissolved). Immediately pour hot brine over the vegetables, and mix gently. Allow mixture to sit undisturbed until cooled, then ladle into clean jars, distributing garlic, herbs, spices and brine as evenly as possible. Cover jars tightly and refrigerate.

Last weekend I went to the Mpls Farmers Market and picked up all these fresh vegetables. I have wanted to do a veggie pickle, but I am pretty intimidated on the process. In friday’s Taste section of the newspaper was this recipe for Giardiniera pickled vegetables that looked more my style. I have never pickled a vegetable before-baby steps to a full on vegetable pickle. My grandma used to make great pickels,-in hindsite I should have paid more attention to my grandma’s recipes when I was a kid. The whole process was pretty simple and fun. I chopped up all the vegetables, boil the brine and then pour it over the veggies and let cool to room temp. Put the veggies in some cleaned jars-toss in the refrigerator. You can eat the veggies after a couple of hours-I let mine sit for a week before I sampled the first jar. The veggies are still nice and crunchy and taste fresh with a little pickle bite for flavor. The recipe says it can stay in the frig for a couple of months, but once you open a jar it’s best to eat in a day or two to keep the veggies crunchy. I brought a jar camping this weekend and we munched on the Giardiniera vegetables with our Bloody Marys -yes they are great as garnish in your Bloody Mary.

Indian Pickle Sauce

Posted on September 21, 2012 by photoappetite

Indian Pickle is a traditional style sauce. “Spicy pickles are very important item in Indian meal. Pickles enhances the tastes of the meal and increases the satisfaction after every meal. Pickles are easy to prepare with right ingredients and can be preserved for months.”

There are a lot of varieties of pickles this is a tomato, onion with chili peppers. I received this recipe from Jake, he had some samples for me to try and one bite and I had to have the recipe. Which he promptly supplied, he told me the brand of the curry he used and I followed his instructions to a tee. Words of advice from Jake, ”

Pickles and water are mortal Enemies

When you are making Indian style pickles, be aware that water is the enemy of good pickles. Water allows mold to grow in the jar and gets things nasty. Make sure that you have absolutely no water in the jars that you store your pickles in. When my mother would store pickles, she would put a sheet of plastic over the mouth of the jar(a zip top bag works really well) before closing the lid tightly. Then, every time one of us would dig into the jar , we would make sure to use a clean, dry spoon ONLY. Then when closing the jar, the plastic was replaced and the jar was kept in a cool, dry place at all times. (Kathryn’s note: we’ve kept ours in the pantry cupboard in our kitchen for the better part of a year.)”

The type of peppers and the curry spice you use will make a big difference in the flavor. Jake suggested to use: Shan brand Achar Gosht curry.

This sauce will become a regular at my house. The next combo platter I’m thinking, lentils with steamed spinach and some Indian Sauce. Enjoy

Orange Marmalade

Posted on September 6, 2012 by photoappetite

I am normally not a marmalade fan, but when Doug gave me a jar of homemade orange marmalade that all changed. The first spoon full had chunks of oranges and rind pieces all mixed together. The first bite was packed with a big orange flavor. It had a sweet and bitter combination of the crunchy rinds. I pondered what can I use this with, my first try was some shortbread cookies, delicious. My next experiment my be something savory like some orange marmalade on a grilled chicken breast- sounds pretty good. The marmalade was so beautiful glistening in the sun, I had to grab my camera and set a few pictures. I didn’t know orange marmalade could be so inspirational.Seeing Orange…this was a series of images I shot for a client

and some blueberry jam,

Summer Time is for Creme Brulee

Posted on August 28, 2012 by photoappetite

Summer time is great for Creme Brulee, with all the fresh berries and mint in season. It is a great custard that you can serve cold. It is a very old dessert consist of a rich custard base topped with a contrasting layer of hard caramel. The top of this is cooked using a torch or some people use flaming liquor. But, this dessert is served cold.

“The Spanish have taken credit for this sensuous custard as “crema catalana” since the eighteenth century, while the English claim it originated in seventeenth-century Britain, where it was known as “burnt cream” and the English school boys at Cambridge demanded it. It apparently wasn’t until the end of the nineteenth century that common usage of the French translation came into vogue, putting it on the map from Paris to Le Cirque in New York City. Its wide recognition today seems to have given the French credit for inventing crème brûlée.”

I worked with Karla Spies a food stylist and we came up with this very quaint idea of making the Creme Brulee in a tea-cup, very pretty. Just make sure that you put the cup in a bath of water when you put the custard in the oven to cook. Makes a very nice presentation and a great way to use that old china.

Macalester College Student Cafeteria recipes

Posted on August 16, 2012 by photoappetite

The editorial photo assignment was for Macalester College Alumni Magazine. The story is recipes from the students who come up with creative food ideas with the cafeteria offerings. For the most part the recipes are fancy junk food. But isn’t that part of the college lifestyle? I thought the Desperation Apple Pie was pretty creative.

The Macalester Magazine also came out with an Ipad App version of the magazine that you can download for free. The graphic design is done by BeDesign and is very well layed-out with nice flow through the pages with excellent design. The theme of the magazine is all about food, “Macalester alumni are at the forefront of the organic farming and global agriculture movements. As part of my photo assignment I did some animated gifs that could be used in the Ipad App version.

The Illustration of the cover art by Mark Hoffman/ i2iART.COM

The Northern Heartland Kitchen cookbook

Posted on August 7, 2012 by photoappetite

I got one of those dream assignments, shoot the cover of Beth Dooley’s new cookbook. The theme of the cookbook is northern harvest. The publisher wanted Kale and to have the feeling of a bountiful harvest. I shoot a series of images and submit them to the publisher and hope they will like one of them. Kale is a tricky subject to make look fresh and appetizing, it is so dark and moody. But in an interview, Beth Dooley is a big fan “Beth: Kale! Kale! Kale will save the world! Kale is good for your health, it grows everywhere, it’s hardy, and it actually returns nutrients to the soil instead of depleting the soil. I learned about it from Atina Diffley of Gardens of Eagan. She’s a huge proponent of kale.” Perhaps I should rethink how I feel about Kale.

The Northern Heartland Kitchen is a cookbook about cooking local, seasonal food. The recipes are organized by season, with what is ready to harvest from the garden or shop at the local farmers market. There’s info on pickling and preserving food.

There is a good review of several of the recipe’s on the Heavy Table web site-

The Northern Heartland Kitchen by Beth Dooley

It is a great cookbook for cooking local seasonal food and staying healthy with more vegies. There are several recipes I need to try before the summer season is over- the next on the list is a watermelon gazpacho.

Here are some out-takes from the photo shoot for the cover shot of the cookbook.

Orange Ginger Margarita

Posted on July 27, 2012 by photoappetite

I am on another Ginger quest this summer, well I don’t think I ever really stop. I was introduced to this Ginger Liqueur earlier this summer and just keep finding more recipes to try out. This Margarita is a perfect addition to that mexican dinner soiree coming up. There are a couple of ginger Liqueur brands out at the liquor store. Even found an infusion recipe on-line for you more crafty types. This is defiantly a repeat performance on this cocktail. So simply and flavorful.

Sweet and Savory Meatball Cone

Posted on July 17, 2012 by photoappetite

food stylist: Maggie Stopera http://maggiethefoodstylist.com

We decided to have some fun and do something out of the box. I will not take all the credit for this one, it has been a collaboration of me and the food stylist. We thought about something sweet, ice cream treat. And ended up with a meatball cone. We decided to make all different flavors of meatballs, a veggie Quinoa bulgur with black beans, hamburger with wild rice and spam with jalapeno. They were all pretty tasty and I included some recipes you can try out. If you really want to impress your guests or family try serving them in a cone.

Bon Appetite