photography

Goat Cheese Stuffed Fig, Melon and Prosciutto Salad

The journey that led me to this simple Goat Cheese Stuffed Fig, Melon and Prosciutto Salad was just the ticket to a little mental time out.

Yesterday morning I drove up the canyon toward my photo shoot destination. The radio signal weaved in and out as it typically does, making the radio music that served as unacknowledged background filler a total distraction to the much louder brain noise churning through my head as I catalogued my mind’s daily to-do list.

I realized I hadn’t been hearing the tunes at all when the crackle was nearly as annoying as the same 23 songs I hear whenever Smudge and I are in the car together.

Our musical conversations tend to go something like this, “Mom, can you put it on 6?” and we listen to Taylor Swift belt out the blues about some bad-boy boyfriend she can’t seem to hold onto. “Mom, can you change it to 5?” and we hear Bruno Mars in his big-brimmed hat cry about being locked out of the pearly gates.

Heaven forbid One Direction or the Cups song comes on for the 9,374th time this month. Total freak-out ensues. And I must admit, I totally egg it on.

But yesterday I needed a break. A break from the chatter, a break from the radio and a break from the noise that was inside my head. So I turned off the tunes, or lack thereof, and practiced a little car meditation. As my engine wound up as it climbed the hill to the summit, I worked on my mind winding down.

continue to the recipe… about Goat Cheese Stuffed Fig, Melon and Prosciutto Salad

NEW! FoodieCrush Magazine Summer 2013 Issue

“Summer means watching cartoons all morning, roaming the neighborhood all day and heading home when the streetlights turn on.”

I don’t remember where I read or heard this quote, but it’s stuck with me. It doesn’t apply to me so much anymore, but it reminds me to encourage my Smudge to create her own summer memories. Memories that will get her through the far-to-soon-approaching school year ala 4th grade.

Putting together the ideas for this issue of FoodieCrush, I had a couple of flashbacks of what summer was for me as a kid. If I really let my mind wander, I could daydream all day about finding 4 leaf clovers in the grass, but they primarily center around, swimming (always swimming), my favorite sand color corduroy OP shorts, dipping my bare feet in the gutter water and racing across the black topped street, Caladryl covered mosquito bites, and riding my red, white and blue banana seat bike Sears Spirit with abandon as my hair caught in my mouth and the tassles on my handlebars whipped in the wind.

Of course as I got older the banana seat bike was kicked to the curb once I discovered one word. B-O-Y-S. Let’s just say I’m going to cherish 4th grade for my girl as much as fervently as possible.

In this issue I put the kibosh on any stories that might contain even a mere nod to mosquitos but I knew you’d be craving some serious food blogger love. So here you’ll find everything from teenage food blogger dreams to crazy fair food you can make at home, to of course, homemade popsicles sure to create some sweet dreams. Natch.continue to the recipe… about NEW! FoodieCrush Magazine Summer 2013 Issue

Big Traveling Potluck 2013 Recap and Friday Faves

I spent last weekend in the hilly wine and avocado country of Temecula, California, about an hour outside of San Diego. I was there for a food blogging conference cum retreat founded by Maggie and Pam of Three Many Cooks and Erika from Ivory Hut. Founded two years ago in Philadelphia as the Big Summer Potluck, the ladies have taken their show on the road and foraged their way west, in the incarnation of the Big Traveling Potluck.

This event is far from a traditionally architected blogger conference. Absent are formal seminars, sponsor booths and non-engaged attendees wondering what to do next. It’s less about what to wear and more about connecting over food, drink and the occasional chia seed pudding.

We were all there for the same purpose, to contribute to one another in a less formal, more intimate environment.

Let me make one thing clear: less formal does NOT mean less grand in scenery, attention to detail or heart.

I’ll be detailing far more about both conferences in the Summer issue of FoodieCrush coming this June. Until then, you truly owe yourself a read of the following recapif you’re of the food blogging variety. Or self-growth variety. Or if you’re just curious what happens when food bloggers gather together.continue to the recipe… about Big Traveling Potluck 2013 Recap and Friday Faves

New! FoodieCrush Magazine Summer 2012

Without further ado, I’m happy to share with you the Summer Issue of FoodieCrush magazine.

But first, would you just look at that cover! Thank you Mike from Verses From My Kitchen for contributing your gorgeous photograph and oh-so-tempting recipe.

Hey! What’s that awesome-sauce inside? Just a lot of amazingly talented food bloggers, their delicious recipes and mouthwatering photography (and some illustration too!)continue to the recipe… about New! FoodieCrush Magazine Summer 2012

How to Reposition Images In Your Facebook Timeline

We interrupt our regularly scheduled food blog format with this informational Facebook news.

You might be asking, “Hey, where’s the recipe?” Well, I had a problem and then I figured out a solution and I thought you might like to know about it too.

Whether you post photos of food on Facebook, pictures of your spastic dog, last night’s killer concert or your latest cross-country expedition, you may have come across this problem and perhaps this tutorial will provide the solution.

Do you ever look at an image on your new and vastly improved (*insert the-jury’s-still-out-look here*) Facebook timeline and think to yourself, “Wow Self, THAT is not how that image looked on my blog/mind/camera/computer! Why is it off-kilter?” Well I did.

And then I figured out how to reposition images posted into your timeline that are cropped to just the right size. Here’s how:

continue to the recipe… about How to Reposition Images In Your Facebook Timeline

Friday Faves: My View of Blogher Food 2012

Blogher Food 2012, held this year in Seattle Washington, flourished with food bloggers eager to learn, link-up and of course, talk food.

I did my fair amount of blogger stalking, trying to act nonchalant as I oh-so casually stared at nametags and wondered if I had lunch in my teeth, placing unfamiliar faces to familiar @usernames and occasionally calling someone by the wrong name completely.

I didn’t arrive in Seattle with much of an agenda besides becoming more familiar with the food blogging community. Yes there were plenty of online faces I was thrilled to meet in person, but what was just as inspiring was meeting bloggers I wasn’t aware of in the flip-flop fashion of how I normally discover bloggers—meeting them in the flesh first instead of via their online presence and then wondering what they’re REALLY like in real life.

Day one’s keynote with photographers/food bloggers Diane and Todd of White on Rice Couple christened my weekend with their mantra, “Your eyes are your lens, your heart is your shutter.”

I intentionally left my DSLR at home, wanting to be more spontaneous in capturing the memories of the weekend and my view of the city so instead I shot from the hip with my iPhone. Many of these photos were posted to my Instagram and all were edited with the VSCO app .

continue to the recipe… about Friday Faves: My View of Blogher Food 2012

And the winner of the Tartelette/Helene Dujardin Photo Workshop is…

photo > Helene Dujardin/Tartelette

Look at that gorgeous photo. The lighting, the composition, the styling. All of the elements that make food-picture-making an art. And you ask yourself, “Why can’t I take pictures like her?”

Well now its your chance to be a picture taker and learn from Plate to Pixel, Digital Food Photography and Styling photographer and author Helene Dujardin. We’re pleased to sponsor the workshop and a spot at her Salt Lake City photo workshop at the SLC favorite Market Street Grill Cottonwood.

You commented, you liked and now one of you has won.

And the winner is:

Radhika from the blog Just Homemade. Congrats Radhika, we’ll see you in July.

Thanks for reading. If you liked this post, please subscribe to foodiecrush and follow me on twitter.

Helene Dujardin of Tartelette plus Photo Workshop Giveaway

You see it immediately in the photographs of the recipes she creates. Photographs that are effortlessly styled, that convey a simplicity that sweetly echoes her deliciously fresh and never forced rustic flair. It just organically shines through: Heart and soul.

As a former pastry chef, Helene Dujardin brings that heart and soul to the table. A self taught photographer and stylist—recently named Saveur.com’s 2011 Best Special Interest blog thanks to a gluten-free focus—Helene imparts her French roots, memories and traditions into her warm and welcoming writings, photos and recipes on the award winning blog Tartelette.

Helene’s recipes trend toward the sweet rather than savory with tempting takes on sweets such as Roasted Apricots and Lavender Panna Cotta and Plum Raspberry Cardamom Crumbles. In my mind (and I’m sure for many of her readers) Helene’s recipes and musings create the illusion that if we shared the same neighborhood I might catch her at the weekend farmer’s market where she’d be searching out fresh, seasonal produce, visiting with vendors and friends and then bicycling back home on her old-school cruiser, her bike basket overflowing with fresh produce and a bottle of wine.

She’d be off to create a quick Blackberry Apple Galettes and Burnt Sugar Ice Cream, a dessert that perfumes her home, tempting neighbors to drop in to enjoy an afternoon sweet and a chilled glass of fresh lemonade in the backyard, under the pecan tree.

Ahhhh, tranquility with a touch of romance.

But behind the tranquil Tartelette there is a woman who doesn’t quit moving, who has her hands in multiple projects and is generous to offer advice and friendship to fellow food bloggers and followers. After photographing several cookbooks including Deliciously Organic, Tart Love and Basic to Brilliant, Y’all, Helene is now sharing her expertise as a food photographer, stylist and teacher in her recently released book Plate to Pixel, Digital Food Photography and Styling.

We wanted to get to know Helene beyond the blog, to see if our romanticized perceptions of her life were notions or reality.

Thank you Helene, for being our foodiecrush!

1. Describe your blog in 3 words:
Nostalgic. Heartfelt. Storytelling.

2. If you could be one food blogger other than yourself, who would you be?
My friend Anita from Married With Dinner. Because she’s smart, generous, honest. Now, Anita is part of a trio I call “the three muskeeters” because they hold me tight and are the embodiment of authenticity. So ideally, I’d love to be 1/3 Anita, 1/3 Jen and 1/3 Jeanne

3. Which 3 blogs do you follow/are obsessed with/can’t live a day without?
Décor 8 by Holly Becker
A Photo Editor by Rob Haggart
Ordinary Courage by Brené Brown
Lots of style, lots of photography and lots of soul. Not necessarily obsessed with but definitely checking every day!

4. What is the one kitchen tool you could never give up?
My chef knife. Shorter blade from my days back at the restaurant to fit my small hands. Close second would be my whisk.

5. What dish are you obsessed with mastering that you just can’t get quite right?
My dad’s Osso Bucco. That’s his signature dish.

6. What did you have for dinner last night?
It all came from the farmers market here in Charleston: pork chop I get from my friend Jason’s company Meathouse, oven “fried” green tomatoes and field peas salad (heirloom tomatoes, avocado, field peas, vinaigrette). Truly, I have embraced my Southern home!

7. What’s one secret talent outside of the kitchen nobody knows about you:
I have the biggest memory bank you’ll ever find. I remember everything. Hands down seriously. It’s a bit of a curse a times because I can’t avoid a situation by simply saying “I don’t remember.” Ok, so it’s not a real talent. How about this? I can’t sit still and just watch TV so I have my cross-stitch next to the couch and cross-stitch away whenever we watch a movie or the news.

8. You’re happiest when cooking/eating:
For the people I love.

9. In your book, Plate to Pixel, you educate the reader about food photography and styling. What is the one technique in food photography or styling you find yourself surprised that you use again and again?
Honestly? All. Everything. Not necessarily together and not always all the time. Seriously though, whether it is camera modes, settings, capturing light and using it, composition or styling, photography is a series of decisions about what resources or techniques you are going to use to help you create a story with a picture. I guess you could say that my one technique would be to focus your sensibility on the story or the person(s) behind the recipe/dish.

10. The one secret ingredient to your success is:
Pour your heart out in everything you do and keep negatives away.

A great note to end on, thanks Helene! And now…

In addition to writing a book, photographing a few cookbooks and writing her blog, Helene teaches hands-on photography and food styling workshops across the country. (also here and here)

Which leads us to our super exciting announcement!

Helene and her students at the Ace Photo Camp in Santa Fe

Helene will be in Park City, Utah where she’ll be leading a workshop on food photography for attendees of the Evo Conference 2011 on Friday, July 8.

But on Wednesday July 6, in celebration of the release of a her book Plate to Pixel, Helene will be leading a food photography and styling workshop here in Salt Lake City, Utah. FoodieCrush is thrilled to sponsor this event and is giving you the opportunity to learn from her in an intimate venue, limited to just 12 students, your cameras and Utah’s gorgeous natural light. And one lucky reader just may get to do it at no cost–FOR FREE!”

You’ll spend the afternoon with Helene and just 12 other students, receiving personal instruction on how to improve your own photography and ultimately, your blog.

To get the class description and reserve a spot, just e-mail photoworkshopslc@gmail.com. Workshop spots will go fast so don’t dilly dally in making your decision.

But, if you don’t happen to make the cut…

We’re giving away ONE FREE SPOT for a lucky FoodieCrush and Taretlette fan. To enter the contest to win the free workshop spot, you must do these two things:

1. Like FoodieCrush magazine and Tartelette on Facebook

2. Leave a comment on this post and tell us why your photography needs Helene’s help.

If you purchase a ticket and win the prize, we’ll refund your money for the original ticket and open the spot to the next in line. Its a win-win all around! Good luck.

all photos courtesy of Helene Dujardin