Blog Bday Giveaway: Digital Food Photography

The blog birthday giveaways continue with this copy of Digital Food Photography! This seems to be THE book on food photography so of course, being a food photographer, I just had to read it and bought myself a copy.



I am not one to hold onto books when I am done reading them (cookbooks excluded of course) and I really loved this book's perspective on, well, perspective. It really "shows" you how to look at your subjects differently and deals with food photography and photography theory at the same time.

I particularly love the part where Lou writes about the evolution away from giant contrived food layout towards focusing more on the food and setups being less cluttered. If you look at my food photography, you know that is how I like to photography my food. It is all about the food.

This book taught me so much about myself as a photographer. I vehemently disagree with using soap suds to make my bacon glisten but if you want to know about that element of food photography you will find the section dedicated to food styling fascinating.

I have one copy to give away. It is open to everyone, everywhere. Leave a comment with contact info (unless your profile already includes your email address) to enter. To qualify, tell me what you love about food photography, why you want to learn more... Winner will be announced Monday! Good luck everybody!



Jamie came in safely last night! Somehow a crappy rainy and windy day that was forecasted turned to sunny skies, probably because is such a positive force of nature. We were up way too late last night so I am nursing a catching-up hangover but it is so worth it. I can't believe my sister is here!!!!

Making Homemade Pasta From Scratch Take 1!

Photo courtesy Foodie Fran

It is so very cool that my friends Foodie Fran and AvaDJ joined me in the homemade pasta challenge! Above you will see Fran's paper thin pasta going through her pasta machine, absolutely amazing! Apparently it was gobbled up very quickly and enjoyed by her whole family, so much so there were no leftovers. She is deeply contemplating making sweet potato and goat cheese ravioli next. Genius idea!


Foodie Fran

Fantastic work Fran!!! I will definitely follow your lead and make my pasta thinner next time. 


Photos courtesy AvaDJ

Ava is Italian and dusted off her pasta machine and followed a recipe in the cookbook Cook Italy. Apparently it was such a huge hit in Ava's house that she wishes she had doubled the recipe!


Ava

She found that it has been so dry this winter she needed to use additional eggs to bring the dough together. Sounds familiar... LOL. I was happy to hear that she enjoyed making it so much she will do it again. That it was so delicious it was well worth the effort.

The following is my first attempt at making homemade pasta dough with my Fox Run Pasta Machine thanks to CSN Stores. I can tell you right now, it won't be my last!



Thanks to Monica, one of my Facebook foodie friends, I found out about Ricardo's recipe for fresh pasta. It starts off simple enough with flour in a large mixing bowl with four eggs in the center and some oil. You use a fork to break up the eggs.



Then with the fork you start incorporating the flour. I could tell pretty darn quickly that this was going to be dry. Way too dry.



This much did finally come together. I took it out, added another egg and brought the rest together. Then I tried to get the two mounds of dough together.



I was really worried at this point but started to knead. I kneaded the dough while listening to the radio for ten minutes. OMG, it hurt! It hurt so much but look:



Amazing! The dough got all nice and smooth and perfect. I could not believe it. Next time I will make it in the food processor like Jamie Oliver does. Thanks for that link Fran! Next, you need it to rest for a while.



I divided it into balls, rolled out one of the balls of dough a bit and then put it through the machine. One thing I was not expecting is the machine does NOT attach to kitchen countertops. Mine are rounded and I thought I had a broken machine, it would not attach.

Then I tried attaching it to my little island in my kitchen and it was fine. Thank goodness! Make sure to take that into account if you are contemplating buying one of these machines. It was annoying that my island shook and shook as I cranked the dough through but it was that or nothing.



I had seen in a video a guy who folds his dough a few times through the thickest setting which seemed to prevent tearing. I started on the thickest setting, put it through, folded, put it through two more times. Then I went to a thinner setting twice. Then a thinner setting twice...



Then things just got insane. I could not believe how long the pasta could get without falling apart! As a result. I started cutting it up into shorter and shorter pieces because it this way by yourself is impossible.



I managed to figure out how to attach the top part for cutting the dough into linguini. I floured the dough regularly to prevent sticking and also floured the noodles after they came out to prevent them from gluing themselves together. I did not have a place to hang the noodles so I left them in a loose floured pile. I boiled salted water and cooked them for just a little more than two minutes.



I added them to a traditional creamy chicken dinner and noticed that wow, they really, really swelled in the salted water. I had not made them thin enough!



I topped dinner with some roasted asparagus. I loved it but it bugged my husband. This is one of his favourite dishes and I don't think he liked me changing elements of it. I made a version of Ten Dollar Dinner's Super Buttered Noodles the next night and he loved them, LOL.

Yes, it was kind of a pain to make these the first time but I know next time will be so much easier. It has been a while since I made pasta so it took some getting used to again. But! I did somewhat successfully make homemade noodles and can not wait to make it again. I hope you considering joining us and sharing your homemade pasta story. I promise you the flavour is worth it, so delicious and full of love. There is nothing like fresh homemade pasta!

The Dempster's Thin Bagels Winners are!!!

 

lindsey: My faves are onion, everything and sesame. Mmm now I'm hungry!

amelia: I love garlic bagels with the garlic chips stuck to them!! Very stinky but very good!!

Eunice: Here's Wishing you a Wonderful 2nd Blog Birthday! I'm sending you a 'virtual' birthday bagel

Lucy Ladham-Dyment: I love everything bagels, with butter or Herb and Garlic cream cheese.

aliceinparis: Reading that first post I realize I've been along for the ride since the beginning!


Michelle: I still, to this day, remember my sandwich: fresh roasted turkey, cream cheese, sprouts, tomato slices, and homemade cranberry sauce.

spike: I like the "Everything" bagels.

Sweetamyrae: I have not tried this kind but they look yummy!


Melly: I typically buy plain, cinnamon raisin, or multi-grain.

Cassandra: Toasted and buttered blueberry bagels with nutella

vivi3chui@yahoo.ca: i love bagels that are super toasted and drizzled with peanut butter and condensed milk, and just plain cream cheese bagels taste awesome too!


CollegeBakerGirl: I like mine multigrain and full of seeds.



Jen H: My fave bagel sammie has always been a hot salt bagel with plain cream cheese, smoked salmon and slice tomato.

Congratulations everyone!!! Please do not be discouraged if you did not win. Many more prizes to come very soon. ~ Suzie the Foodie

Restaurant Review: Thai Ivory Cuisine Restaurant, Bedford, Nova Scotia

Anyone who lives near Halifax is going to recognize this sign for the Stardust Motel hanging out by the Bedford Highway. It seems to have been there forever! What I had not noticed before was the sign below for Thai Ivory Cuisine.



Most hotels have generic restaurants but Thai Ivory Cuisine is far from ordinary when it comes to food and decor. Also,a $10 Thai lunch is hard to beat.



It is not a huge restaurant but holds a respectable amount of patrons which is good because people were coming and going quite regularly.



You definitely do not feel like you are in Bedford as you walk around the restaurant, investigating shrines and artwork.



The ever-photo-elusive Shelagh from Alice in Paris Loves Art and Tea took me out to lunch, introducing me to this restaurant and helping me out in my search for real Pad Thai. Both of our birthdays are in January and it was not until months later that we got to celebrate together here on rare sunny day in March.



There is so much to look at while you wait for your food.



Quite a charming restaurant with little details everywhere, I love that.



We both got the Pad Thai lunch special for $9.99 (I added shrimp which cost an additional $3) which came with a spring roll, dipping sauce and hot and sour soup. Actually that soup should be called sweet and hot. We could not get over how sweet it was! Good but crazy sweet soup. The spring roll with dipping sauce was pretty traditional.



Here is my Pad Thai platter which looked very promising. Usually when I order it I have to really, really emphasize that I want a mild batch of noodles but they do not make a spicy version of these noodles. At all. That worried me. That is not the Thai way when it comes to food. Thai food is always spicy.

As much as I do not like my head to explode with heat, a little heat is required and these noodles were, unfortunately, too sweet. The missing Thai chillies kept this from being true authentic Pad Thai. Also, the noodles were slightly over cooked which was a shame. So close! They were pretty good but the perfect Pad Thai still eludes me.



It is hard to find a good lunch for $10 and finding Pad Thai noodles in the greater HRM is extremely rare. It was nice to escape the normalcy of Nova Scotia for a while and go some place far away with lots to look at. Just wish there was a bit more heat and a little less sweet.

If you are looking for a great place to have a quick lunch for under ten bucks that is a little different, I recommend trying Thai Ivory Cuisine and give the restaurant four out of five wooden spoons. 

It's Suzie the Foodie's Birthday! Year Two!

Please note: contest is now closed, thanks for the awesome turnout! Winners will be announced Wednesday.

It is true! Today is my blog's second birthday. I can hardly believe two years have gone by since I started food blogging. For those curious, here is my first post! By creating this blog I decided to focus my energy into making my life tasty and better than is used to be. I hope I have done that for you too.

So much has happened in two years and a lot of that has to do with you, my readers. Your comments, support and friendship have helped make my blog rock. I could not do this without you. As a result, I am going to be doing giveaways all April long.

I begin with a giveaway for: 

THIRTEEN coupons for FREE Dempster Thin Bagels!

You can read my review of them here. These bagels are only available in Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic provinces so to enter, you must live in these areas. I also need a way to contact you so include your email address, especially those anonymous commenters.

I promise that the next giveaway will be open to anyone, everywhere so don't get discouraged! There are many giveaways coming up!

To enter, leave a comment about your favourite type of bagel, a fun bagel story... anything bagel-related is fine. Include your email address, especially if you are commenting anonymously. If you could also become a follower of my blog, I would appreciate it. The more followers I have, the more giveaways I will be asked to do!

Winner swill be announced this Wednesday! Good luck everybody and make sure to include email or contact info OK?! I need to know how to get in touch with you. If you don't, you will be disqualified.

Newsletter is on its way!

Here is a sneak peek of some of the content of my latest newsletter but information about giveaways remain a secret! Hate not knowing? Well sign up for my newsletter silly! It is free and shares all sorts of secret intel.

I will tell you that tomorrow is a big day for my blog and April is going to be an exciting month that will make you want to keep coming back and checking out what is going on here at Suzie the Foodie.

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Kitchen Makeover Thanks to Finish Coat Painting

Here are the before and after shots that I took and wait until you see the transformation thanks to Finish Coat Painting! Our kitchen was a dark sage and on one side we had the original oak cabinets which are nice but they really darkened the room.



Here they are now a stunning bright white! Now the crummy paint seam along the top is no longer bugging the heck out of me.



Here you have my kitchen on a bright sunny day before the painters came. Now there was a slight off-white tinge to the light but in general, this is very close to what my kitchen regularly looks like. Notice how the light barely comes into the room? On rainy days you can barely see the cupboards at all! 



That won't be a problem now... What a difference!!! Now light bounces around everywhere! I just know this is going to make a huge difference to my photography.



Notice the difference in whites between the cupboards and the microwave and fridge? I always knew that they never looked clean no matter how much I scrubbed and it bothered me so much. A clean kitchen is a happy kitchen in my world.



I mean it is just such an amazing transformation, I can hardly believe it.



Finish Coat Painting was the third company I invited over to my house to give me a quote on my kitchen, as well as most of the top floor of my house. I had phoned dozens of companies and they were one of the only ones who did the following: answered their phone, answered their phone professionally with a receptionist, would call me back, if they were running late called me to let me know they would be late, showed up to the job on time (a little early actually) and gave me the most competitive rates for their work.



In just a day and a half not only did they paint the walls, the front of the cupboards, the ceiling and the trim of my kitchen they also did our entryway, living room, dining room, hallway, trim and ceiling. If we had attempted any of that ourselves it would have taken forever. It was amazing how fast and professionally they worked!



The painters were friendly, professional and helpful. Every now and then they would call to us and we would come upstairs to see the amazing progress which just got me more and more excited. We could not be happier. When we paint the rest of the house next year we will definitely be using their services again.

Sure, we could have saved money doing it ourselves but it would not have looked this good and would have taken us eons. The physical pain I endured just from moving my countless knick knacks out of there would have made any effort on my part minimal. I have been recovering from all of this for days now.

I have had a hard time finding professional services around here and hit the jackpot with Finish Coat Painting. If I could, I would give them ten out of five wooden spoons. 



Now everything is so nice and clean! Perhaps a little sterile to some people but I look forward to finding bright and beautiful art to hang on my walls for dramatic splashes of colour. This room is now all mine, a fresh start, a new canvas. My kitchen studio is open for foodie adventures!