June: The Month of Food Photography

I take a lot of pictures that often don't get posted here, and are instead posted on Instagram, which is usually what I post at the end of the month. This month however, I'm going to share with you some of the photos I've been taking of food I've eaten this past month and have neglected to share anywhere. This is a very exclusive set, not seen anywhere else!

Until after the cake was gone after my mom's birthday a little over a week ago it seemed like we weren't in short supply of treats around here. (Which is probably why I'm abstaining from now.) My dad surprised us with these gorgeous chocolate cups filled with mousse near the beginning of the month and I just had to photograph them. Then there was national doughnut day after that. I'd like to say I've been evening out all the sweets I've been eating with fruits, but that would just be a lie. (However I have been photographing them as well!)

Most of these photos can now be found in my Flickr Album: Food Photography
The bottom two donuts on the left are on my Instagram

As soon as I got my first camera with "macro" capabilities, I have been obsessed with capturing the up close and small world and capturing the little details. I was so happy to find out that my phone camera on the Galaxy SIII also was able to do macro too because of that. All of these were taken and edited on my phone! Some day I'd like to do a post about my favorite free editors that I use. These days I use Photoshop only when I need a heavy duty job done. Most of the time I just add a filter and whatever else needs tweaking on my phone. Simple as that!

I've been meaning to share more of my pictures but sometimes I feel more like keeping them to myself. Partly because once when I first started my instagram someone took my button picture and didn't give me credit. I'm sure there's no stopping anyone from taking any picture they want even if I think it's not the greatest picture ever, but the thought still worries me.

Along with all these food photographs I've been taking, I have a whole bunch more of flowers in macro that I haven't shared either. 

If you're a photographer, what is your favorite thing to photograph?
Do you have a favorite editing program?

P.S.
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Another week in review with Pieces of Happy

So it hasn't been that much of a busy week, but some things have happened that I wanted to share! So I'm linking up again with Kenzie at Chasing Happy for her Pieces of happy link-up.

(I know I do a lot of these and not so much anything else, but that's mostly because I like to spend all my time with this little family!)

(p.s. I'm spending most of my social network time on Instagram and Twitter!They're the easiest to play around with on my phone. So if you want more from me, or want to see things first, I'd suggest you follow me! I usually follow back too.)

1.) I guess the first thing would be that right after I wrote my last post for the Pieces of Happy link-up we went out and bought a Wii U at the PX! I'd never played on one before, so it was pretty awesome. I love my hot pink controller! (Alex surprised me with it! And no one has to fight me for it, because they don't want it.... hah!)

After that I decided to celebrate our Mario victory by baking a Yoshi chicken pot pie.

2.) I started (trying) to teach the kiddo how to crochet. We've gotten so far as chains, so while she chains, I crochet little outfits for her stuffed animals to keep her motivated.

So she made the chain necklace and I made the dress from this pattern.
She has made two chain necklaces so far! I am so proud of her :) Going to try teaching her single crochet soon. I hope she's up for it!

3.) We play outside enough, but finally our apartment's pool opened up so we were able to have some fun in the sun and swim!

I got a horrible sunburn though because I put my sunblock on too hastily and forgot to re-apply it. Oh well, I will pay the consequences, but it won't stop me from going in again, especially now that we have these adorable floaties!

We got matching rafts from Target

4.) Yesterday I finally faced the music and got my hair cut! I found a place that was cheap with good reviews and I was not disappointed! It still looks good day two!

5.) Finally, the last thing I have to mention is ALONE TIME! You don't really realize how much you valued it before (even though I spent the whole day, every day, alone before the kiddo came to visit) until it's GONE! But I have gotten enough of it this weekend to get me through the next week. (Even if it was just doing dishes while listening to Pandora radio, lol).

So what were your Pieces of Happy?

Chili-Crusted Chicken Recipe

To me, it's funny how the first thing I make new for my blog is a recipe instead of a craft. I had plenty of DIYs planned, but ever since my birthday dinner I've wanted to try and re-create the yummy dish I ate! My version is mild enough that children would probably enjoy it too. So without further ado, I give you: Chili-Crusted Chicken

 Chili-Crusted Chicken

Ingredients: 

• 2-3 chicken breasts
• 1 cup bread crumbs (any kind, including cornbread)
• 2 tsp chili powder
• 2 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp cumin
• About 1/8 tsp each of salt and pepper
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 tbs vegetable oil
• 1-2 tbs butter

Sauce (all to taste, but this is what I used): 

• 1 cup ketchup
• 2 tbs Sriracha sauce
• 2 tsp brown sugar

Directions: 

1.  Rinse off chicken and flatten a little, if you like, for a more consistent size. Cut each breast in half. Set aside. 
2. Combine bread crumbs, chili powder, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper in a large bowl and mix.
3. Dip chicken in eggs; shake off the excess. Then place it into the breadcrumb mix making sure to coat it very well. Set aside.
4. Heat oil and butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chicken and cook both sides until a dark brown. 
5. You can continue to cook the chicken this way until done with no pink in the middle, or you can place in a casserole dish and bake at 350° for 20-30 minutes or until reaching an internal temp of 160°
6. Combine the sauce ingredients and try it as you go along. Some people like more Sriracha, but I'm not that big a fan of spicy so I didn't add as much. Serve alongside the chicken for dipping. Tastes great on the green beans too!

During cooking, prepare your choice of sides. In my case, I made scalloped potatoes (from a box) and some French green beans. Then pour yourself a glass (or two) of a nice white wine (I had Riesling) and enjoy!

I have to admit that coming up with this recipe was a bit of a challenge. I did a search for it beforehand just in case someone had already made it. The few that I looked at gave me a couple of ideas, but they weren't quite right. These are the two that were closest to what I was looking for and gave me the best pointers: Chili and cornmeal crusted chicken and Chili-crusted chicken from Recipes for moms. I made a few mistakes, but I know what they were (mostly adding too much oil to begin with, which I remedied in the recipe.) But at the end of the day, it turned out to be alright :)

Oh, and it's boyfriend approved, so that's a plus! 

Please let me know what you think of this recipe if you decide to try it out! Also if you make any changes or substitutions I'd like to hear about that too. Let me know! :)

Thanks for stopping by ♥

Wordless Wednesday: Leaves

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Adventures in Baking- Star-studded Pot Pie

I first got this idea when I saw it posted on Be Different Act Normal, originally from The story Of Kat. Gorgeous right? (Click, you won't be disappointed!)
So when I pulled out the cookie-cutters to decorate our chicken pot pie with, my mom picked out the star. And so this delicious pie was born!

It was a lot of fun to make :) I think it's very obvious which ones were made with the leftover crust material, haha. Our recipe is simple, and it changes every time we make it because we tend to forget how exactly we made it last time (We're just cool like that). But to give you the gist, it's ready-made pie crust, frozen veggies, cooked chicken, and peppered gravy mix.

I am definitely going to be on the lookout for pastry presses so that I can make prettier pies and pie crusts when the holidays roll around.

Thanks for reading! ♥

Adventures in Baking- Pseudo Cauldron Cakes

I had a couple of friends over to watch Harry Potter 6&7 part 1 and for some reason I felt the need to make cupcakes. Earlier I had found a recipe for making "Cauldron Cakes." They said it was basically the same as this recipe for making home-made Hostess Cupcakes only adding some coffee. I haven't been able to find the recipe since then, I feel bad about that, but I'll keep looking. Anyway, my dad had been trying to convince me to make these cupcakes (pictured).

I finally decided to yesterday, because it says "just add water." So convenient because I felt like adding coffee to it. And even more conveniently the amount of water it called for was the same for some instant coffee that we have.

That's when things started getting weird. I don't know if it was the coffee, or the cake mix, but it started getting "foamy" and mousse textured very quickly. Even after I added all the water, it just wouldn't calm down! I decided to also add some cinnamon, vanilla, and more cocoa powder to it.

Then trying to get the mix into the cupcake cups was tricky, to say the least. Sticky stuff that mix was.

When they were finally done and I sunk my teeth into one of them, the texture was sooo weird! I mean, the flavor was great, but the texture is odd. Not creamy like mousse but it has all the light and airy properties of mousse. And not cake-like, but more like a brownie. A light moussey brownie?

I vaguely remember the recipe then suggested that you color regular frosting green... so I did.

Neon green.

I dunno, they look less like cauldron cakes (which after further research were supposed to be placed upside down and then iced) and more like Slurm cakes. I almost added lime to the frosting, and now I'm thinking I should have gone for it! Lime and Chocolate coffee cake... it could be interesting! Well, with that being said, I don't think I should be put on Cupcake Wars any time soon!

Thanks for stopping by!