I should warn you…

http://xkcd.com/15/

Someone is *wrong* on the internet!

Reblogged from (it's all in the) Details:

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 Jenna here!Holy freaking doodle, have you seen the interwebz today? It’s blowing up (at least in my little corner of the wedding blogosphere) at a bride in Puget Sound having some serious issues with the price of wedding photography. Now far be it from the Details crew to ignore pressing current issues, so here’s her post (and the link in case the resolution isn’t great: http://seattle.craigslist.org/kit/evs/2804332414.html) :  I’ve seen a ton of responses about this today – ranging from the costs of …

The Chick Pea aka My Falafel Addiction

Hi, my name is Avelaine, and it’s been 25 days since my last falafel. At least according to Twitter.  The Chick Pea (723-8 Avenue, SW) in downtown Calgary has got me hooked! At one point, I ate their falafel for a week straight. The addiction was bad enough that I had to make a conscious effort to stay away for a little while. Luckily, Calgary weather decided to make it easy for me by dropping down to minus stupid degrees Celsius, so I managed to keep my appetite at bay. But not today. Today is a beautiful day. I headed down early at 11:45 to avoid the lunch rush. I hate waiting in line, and even though there were about 10 people ahead of me, I was served within 5-10 minutes. They make an amazing magenta colored pickled cabbage. I kept telling myself on my way back to my desk that I should take a picture, take a picture, take a picture. I opened up the wrap but you couldn’t see all the fillings, so I had to take a couple of bites first. Then a couple more. And a couple more. Till it was all gone. Once again, no picture. Ah well. I’ll try again next time. Falafel, no pickles! Try it.

My $5.00 Logo

I shared this last year on my photo blog, but I wanted to share it here as well

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I’ve been working on re-branding for the last several months, and it has just been a neverending process. I wish I found out about this guy sooner! Check it..

What are you waiting for? Get your own horrible logo, give a guy a beer. Win win!

Prosciutto Trout

I had some leftover prosciutto from the other night’s chicken dish, so I thought I’d try the same method for some lake trout (fillets) at last night’s dinner. Same cooking technique and ingredients except that I didn’t use any sage or cheese (big no no for fish), and I shortened the cooking time by a few minutes. They turned out very very nicely! I’m always happy to find new ways of cooking fish since we have quite a lot in our freezer. With my husband Charlie being half Icelandic, fishing is a huge part of our lives.

Perhaps next time I’ll add a fish friendly herb like tarragon. Ooh that sounds really good actually

Whoops, again, no pic. Hey, dinner is served immediately after cooking, so I have to be really fast if I want to get any pictures in haha

Weekday Chicken

My boys always gobble up this chicken whenever I make it, so I thought I’d share this quick and easy recipe. If you’re good at multi-tasking, you can have dinner ready within 30 minutes!

Pan Roasted Sage Chicken
Ingredients
Boneless, skinless chicken breasts or chicken thighs
Seasoned salt (salt, paprika, garlic powder, dried parsley, onion powder)
Freshly ground black pepper
Fresh sage leaves, chopped finely (approx. 1 leaf per piece of chicken)
Thinly sliced prosciutto (1 slice per piece of chicken)
Swiss cheese  (1 slice per piece of chicken)
Flour
Vegetable oil

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Arrange all the ingredients assembly line style in the order they appear above.
- Using an oven safe pan, heat vegetable oil over medium high heat on the stove.
- Season both sides of the chicken with seasoned salt & pepper. Lay them on your work surface ugly side up (the non-smooth side)
- Sprinkle sage leaves on the chicken, top with swiss cheese, and cover that entire side with a piece of prosciutto. 
- Lightly dust both sides of the chicken with flour.
- Once the oil just starts to smoke, pan roast the chicken prosciutto side down for 2-3 minutes until browned.
- Turn the chicken over and cook for another 2 minutes.
- If your pan is oven proof, finish cooking in the oven until the chicken’s internal temperature reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit, about 10 minutes.

I usually serve this with rice or potatoes and steamed vegetables or a simple salad. Last night I served it with pureed parsnips that I dressed up like mashed potatoes (butter, milk, blitzed with my immersion blender). The boys liked it better when it was still warm. Once the parsnips cooled down, the parsnippy flavour was a lot stronger and tasted less like mashed potatoes. Still delicious though! I like the texture much better than pureed cauliflower, which is also a nice substitute for mashed potatoes in a pinch.

I totally forgot to take a picture – next time! Let me know if you make this recipe and how it turns out for you!

Chunky Chocolate Chookie

I am never making these cookies again.

They are entirely too delicious! I have probably eaten my yearly quota in a couple of days

I was browsing Pinterest on Friday night (nvm about how times have changed har di har har), and I found Linda’s blog with this recipe named Jacques Torres’ Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe. Like Linda, I have also been searching for the perfect chocolate chip cookie. I have been trying to duplicate Charcut‘s super delicious version for months, and I think this may be the one! Click the link above for the original version. My version below halves the recipe and has substitutes for brown sugar and bittersweet chocolate. Because at 11PM Friday, even with an intense cookie craving, I was not about to go grocery shopping for missing pantry items.

Jacques Torres’ Secret Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe Redux
Ingredients
1/2 pound butter (half of regular slab of butter)
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups packed light-brown sugar (I substituted 1/2 cup white sugar + a couple glugs 1/4 cup molasses)
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon pastry flour (I only had all purpose unbleached flour, so I used 3 cups total instead of both flours)
1 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 pound bittersweet chocolate, coarsely chopped (I only had semi-sweet and white chocolate)

Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. **Use “bake” not “convection”** Line baking sheets with parchment paper or nonstick baking mats; set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together butter, sugar, vanilla and molasses.
- Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
- Reduce speed to low and add both flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt; mix until well combined. 
- Mix chopped chocolate chunks using the slowest mixer speed just until incorporated. Try not to pulverize the chocolate
- Scoop 1 tablespoon cookie dough and shape into a ball onto prepared baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
- Bake until lightly browned, but still soft, about 15 minutes. Place cookie dough in the fridge while waiting for the cookies to bake.
- Slide parchment directly on counter or wire rack to cool. Line cookie sheet with fresh parchment and re-load with cookie dough. (I only have one big cookie sheet, so I have to bake one sheet at a time!)

Well maybe I’ll make them again with the proper ingredients. If only to find out whether they could taste any better

Pow! Right in the Kisser!

Is how I’m kicking off my personal blog.

My little Jude decided to lube himself up with a tub of Vaseline last night. Perhaps he felt his skin was too dry, or perhaps he was trying out a new hairstyle. Not really sure what motivates my two year old monster. Anyway, after I had the audacity to pass out while watching Star Wars: The Clone Wars for the millionth time, I woke up after hearing something fall in the bathroom. I look to my right, there is Dean. I look all around the room, and Jude was nowhere to be found. I quickly deduced that Jude must’ve been the culprit of said bathroom thud. To my horror (and amusement), Jude dropped the giant tub of Vaseline on account of being too greasy to handle it. He was covered HEAD TO TOE in Vaseline, with about an inch thick layer on his head. So of course, my natural reaction is to yell at this two year old boy, (obviously the louder I yell, the more he’ll understand?) something to the effect of ‘WHAT HAVE YOU DONE???!!! GAAAHHHH!!!!’.  There was also a fun little chase around our bedroom – imagine trying to grip a greasy watermelon while it’s running away from you, and you’ll get an idea.

After Charlie finished taking a couple of snapshots (Jude with a big smile on his face: “Cheese!!”), I set to work right away in trying to get rid of all that gunk. Take note.

#1 – I wiped off the biggest clumps with toilet paper before putting him in the tub.

#2 – Water made things go from bad to worse.  The Vaseline seized up, and he looked like he was wearing a white grease helmet. 

#3 – Trying to shampoo the Vaseline directly was not going to work and it hurt his eyes every time I rinsed. Instead, I put baby shampoo on an adult sized face cloth and used that to scrub the stuff off his hair. Repeat several times.

On the plus side, he didn’t need any lotion afterwards

I should get a medal.

For my Apo

iPhone Best Cam photoI’m feeling nostalgic today. Today, I had another lunch at Big Fish on Edmonton Trail in Calgary. You know what I had (in addition to my Grey Goose martinis and delicious house white wine)? Fresh frog legs. Not frozen and shipped from Thailand. FRESH. Boy, were they good! The menu description reads: “salt and pepper frog legs with pistou (garlic, basil, olive oil), lemon preserves and garlic.” Don’t they look like chicken wings? They tasted as if they were sauteed in (lots of) butter, served with fresh pea shoots that were dressed with the frog leg sauce remnants and fresh lemon. But you know all I could think of? My youth in my tiny little village in the Philippines, when I would go frog fishing with my late grandma, or as I called her, Apo. We didn’t have the fancy fishing rods we have now – just simple sticks pulled from the nearest tree, with lines made of regular string and earthworms for bait – casted into our rice fields. Granted, the frog food memories I had when I was younger will NEVER ever compare to what I have in my all too real adulthood, but I was still so so happy to be able to find such fresh and delicious frog legs in my current hometown of Calgary. Oh and the service is wonderful too

Photography Tip – Natural Light Portraits | Calgary Photographer

Here are a few tips on how to get the best results using your SLR or point and shoot camera to make portraits.

Rule #1 – Turn off that on-camera flash! Unless you know how to use it without having it pointed directly at your subject, please turn it off. Direct on-camera flash is positively unflattering and will give everyone evil red eyes.

#2 – Look for light. If indoors, a large window is best. Position your subject to get the best quality light on his or her face.

#3 – Expose properly. Most cameras have meters on the display that look like this -…….0……..+ Adjust your settings until the meter reads at 0 or very close to it. Take a test picture and look at the display to make sure you are exposing properly.

#4 – Shoot wide open. This blurs the background and makes the subject pop, creating a more pleasing portrait. If you are using an SLR, shoot in manual mode and choose a wide open aperture – smallest f number your lens is capable of. f/2.8 or smaller will work great.

#5 – Focus on the eyes. This is especially important if you are shooting wide open as everything other than the focus point will be blurred. If you’ve lit your subject properly per rule #2, you should be able to see nice catchlights in the eyes.

If you follow these simple rules, you should be able to get results like these very easily:

Here is a great example of a comparison of a photo with and without Flash.

I hope some of you found that useful!
Love, Avelaine