Wednesday, November 26, 2008

11-26-08 Thanksgiving Tribute III






11-26-08 Patty Howe's Carrot Souffle 
Last Christmas Patty, my mother in law, prepared this awesome souffle and it wowed the crowd. I made it a couple months ago when we had some family in town. Again it wowed the crowd. So it was a request from my mom for Thanksgiving dinner this year. It's very similar in flavor and texture as sweet potato casserole but infinitely better for you since it starts off as carrots and not starchy potatoes.

7 cups chopped (about 2 lbs)
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup fat free sour cream
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 tablespoons butter, melted 
2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
cooking spray
1 teaspoon powdered sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Cook, peeled and chopped, carrots in boiling water for 15 minutes or until very tender; drain. Place carrots in food processor; process until smooth. Add granulated sugar and next 7 ingredients (granulated sugar through eggs); pulse to combine.
Spoonmixture into a 2 quart baking dish coated with cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until puffed and set. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. (optional)

Enjoy this dish! delicious.
see you tomorrow.
---mel

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

11-25-08 Thanksgiving Tribute II






11-25-08 
Day II of the THanksgiving Tribute give us Pecan Pie.
Oat Crusted Pecan Pie (with Fresh Cranberry Sauce)
Crust:
1 3/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 1/2 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 tablespoon ice water
cooking spray
Filling:
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
2/3 cup light-colored corn syrup
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 large egg white
1 1/4 cups pecan halves
Sauce (optional):
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/2 fresh orange juice
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon corn starch
1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
2. For crust, place first 3 ingredients in a food processor, and process until finely ground. Add butter, and pulse 5 times or until combined. Add 1 tablespoon ice water; pulse until just combined (mixture will be crumbly.) Press the oat mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a 9 inch deep dish pie plate coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for 5 minutes on a wire rack.
3. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees.
4. To prepare the filling, combine brown sugar and next 8 ingredients (through egg white) in a medium bowl, stirring well. Stir in pean halves. Spoon filling into prepared crust . Bake at 350 for 48 minutes or until center is set cool to room temperature on a wire rack. 
5. To prepare sauce, combine cranberries, 2/3 cup granulated sugar, and juice in small sauce pan over medium-high; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer until cranberries start o pop about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. 
6 Combine 1/4 cup water and cornstarch in a small bowl, stirring with a whisk. Stir cornstarch mixture into cranberry mixture; bring to a boil. Cook 1 minute, stirring often; remove from heat. Cool completely. Cut pie into 12 wedges; serve with sauce. Yield: 12 servings (serving size: 1 wedge pie and about 1 1/2 tablespoon sauce.) 
I did not make the sauce I love pecan on it's own, I just thought I'd give you the option. This is a cooking light recipe and while I've adjusted a couple of things. I added a some extra vanilla extract and nuts. That's it. So the carb count per slice before the changes was 58.4g. So it's reasonably healthy ;) enjoy!
See you tomorrow with Carrot Souffle.
---mel 

Monday, November 24, 2008

11-24-08 Tribute to Thanksgiving











11-24-08
I'm really excited about today's installment and for the rest of this week in fact. Besides photography and lots of other things, I am an avid cook. A lot of people think I excel in this department too. This year I have been asked to bring Butternut Squash Soup, Patty's Carrot Souffle, Mom's Stuffing, and Pecan Pie to our families "pot luck" Thanksgiving dinner.
This week I am going to prepare them and photograph them as I go and provide the recipes to boot. 
Today we are going to make Butternut Squash soup with Coconut and Ginger
2 large butternut squash halved and seeded
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
kosher salt and cracked pepper
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 leek, white and tender green parts only, thinly sliced
1 shallot, finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
1 teaspoon curry powder
1/2 cup dry white wine
6 cups water
1 1/2 cup unsweetened coconut milk
2 sprigs fresh thyme
coconut shavings, for garnish (optional)
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lay upright the halved seeded butternut squash put a 1/2 tablespoon pad of butter in each cavity. Season with salt and pepper. Roast for 40 minutes remove brush each half with butter, return to the oven for 40 minutes more. When cooled, peel and cut into pieces.
2. In a large pot, melt the remaining 2 tablespoons in the olive oil. Add the onion, leek, ginger, curry podwer and cook over moderate heat until lightly browned. Add the wine and cook until evaporated.
3. Add the cooked squash, water, coconut milk and thyme sprig. Simmer over moderately low heat for 20 minutes. Allow to rest off the heat for 20 minutes.
4. Discard the thyme sprig. Working in batches, puree the soup in blender until smooth; season with salt and pepper. Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with coconut shavings and serve.
 

Thursday, November 20, 2008

11-20-08 Bank of America


11-20-08 I know I've already sent this out but I wanted to send it again with a better picture. 
Just to give you a little perspective, the sign on the bottom left of this image is Madison Square Garden and Alyssa is taking the picture from the NE corner of 34th and 7th at Macy's.
See you tomorrow

11-20-08 Caymbri Fenn-Anstruther





11-20-08 Yesterday was Caymbri's 1 month birthday. She was born 3 weeks early to Steve's cousin Brad and his lovely wife Anna Fenn-Anstruther. In spite of of her early arrival she was basically healthy with a teensy case of Jaundice. But after a few tanning sessions she was good to go. Her happy parents are still adjusting to parenthood, but truly enjoying every moment. We got to see them when Caymbri was just a week old in California when we were there for the shower. Anna had alot of good tips for me, so I think I am in a good position for the birth of our son...soon. In the second image Anna shows off how Caymbri looks just like Brad from his birth announcement. 
thanks for looking, see you tomorrow.
---mel
 

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

11-19-08 California Baby shower






11-19-08 This shower actually took place at the end of October but since I am pretty far behind I still wanted to share these precious moments with you anyway. It started out a pretty classy affair with fine china and green goddess dressing. Then the poop game game out...thanks Kelsi! Which if far grosser in person then it is in the abstract but I'm glad I go to play. As you can see the event was duck themed, I ran around and stole everyone's parting gift and now baby boy will have a slew of ducks to play with in the tub. The party was thrown by cousin Kelsi and Aunt Janet in the 4th shot, it's hard to believe they're related huh? That's them introducing the poop game, most everyone was a fan, but there were a couple of non believers and who could blame them it was gross.
Anyway there are a few shots from the event. See you tomorrow.
---mel

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

11-18-08 These aren't your Mother's corporate shots



11-18-08 Austin Healthworks is a young physical therapy office coming up here in Austin. They are growing by leaps and bounds and recently asked me to shoot some images of their staff and their offices. These images are a group shot of their entire staff.
I love the hero shot the most.
Hope you like them. Tomorrow something new. It's my goal to post once a day for 17 days, then it will be a habit ;)
This is day 2 of posting everyday.
---mel

Monday, November 17, 2008

11-17-08 Pregnancy





11-17-08 Since I am officially going to stop shooting for the moment until after the baby comes in January, I am going to fill my time with giving you a daily update of things that have happened over the course of this year. Namely, Steve and I are going to have a baby boy on January 2, 2009. So about 2 weeks ago my good friend Alyssa Kirsten was in town from New York to throw me a baby shower with Suzanne another good friend. The shower was outstanding and we'll cover that this week too. While she was here, I asked Alyssa to shoot some images of myself and Steve for posterity, and all of my pregnancy glory. She had to go to Houston first thing in the morning so our shoot had to be before first thing. Which should explain my hair ;)
Thanks for looking, talk to you tomorrow.
---mel

Friday, November 14, 2008

11-14-08 HUGE ad on 34th street in New York


We just learned this evening that there is huge ad running of an image I shot years ago.
Here is a link to the Bank of America website 

Above is the ad from the 34th street station of the New York City MTA.

Incidentally the man in the photograph was the person who married Steve and I in New York nearly 3 years ago.
Thanks for looking, I have several more things to share with you. But I'll start again on that tomorrow (hopefully.)
---mel