Here to there
How’d I get here? In the absence of anything else, I shoot cat portraits. Simple. They pose?!? Nope. I put the camera in their face and point the lens straight at their eyes. It works.
Finally, a new oven! The old one – dead. Built-in obsolescence. Better one? It had to fit the hole of the old one. Pain!!! Major pain, supply chain issues, we snagged a clearance model at less than half price from retail. Lucky! You bet!! It clearly said on the box – in big black and white letters – the oven was too large for the hole – ¾ inches too large. Really!! So, it fit right into the hole of the old oven. Go figure.
And, within moments – carrot cake. I add (my mom did it) a cup of grated carrots; the cake rises…. And, a few days later… a sour cream apple walnut pie. We wasted no time in making up for lost time.
Pizza? Well, I gotta say, “Who doesn’t like pizza?” Gluten free crust. ??? Oh! Well, Colleen is also vegetarian (off and on), so, two pies – mine had sausage. It was a good pie! Yeah, it’s good to have an oven again.
One more step – to product. I spin – wool. We process. … ‘cause I don’t wash. The one and only time I washed, I felted. (If you don’t spin, the joke went right over your head.) Straight off the sheep, the fleece is polluted – grass, dirt, poop, etc. The fleece is opened up – picked. Then, it is washed, carded and prepared into bats, ready to spin. Spin, spun, it looks rather fine and refined, ready to go – cloth, shawl, scarf, and so forth. This would be here to there. Yarn!
Mmmmm….
Things sit in our childhood memory. They are recalled fondly. The leftovers after Thanksgiving bring different recollections to Colleen and me. I recall hot turkey sandwiches. My mother made them open faced and covered in hot gravy – on white bread. No? Not the thing you remember with fondness? Got it. Colleen recalls a completely different sandwich scenario. Leftovers! We had enough to satisfy dinner and the memory of the day after. Day after pumpkin pie? Well, we were too stuffed to tackle pie on the day of. (Don’t forget the whipped cream!!) Potato cakes? Colleen’s specialty. It holds no significance to me. But, delicious! Food photography? It’s not the pictures. It’s not the food. It is all about tasting the fond memory of meals gone by and the love mom put into our lives.
Do you believe this
This is hilarious: Colleen posing over my head in a selfie. We bike ride a trail that gives us spectacular views. Remember? The trail, yes; the selfie, no! Nope. I do not remember taking this picture. Sure. It’s in the photo archive. Wow! The picture is right beside a house Colleen want to buy somewhere up in Milford. I passed – too much work to restore an old house. But, boy was it a beauty with lots of potential. Pie? Yes, those pics were right nearby in my catalog too. I can say for sure I made the sour cream apple walnut pie. Colleen and I had been chasing that recipe forever, in order to faithfully recreate it. Ok! I/she/we made a pumpkin pie too. But! The kiwi pie? Nope. No recollection. It’s right there next to the other pies. There is no sign this pie was store bought. So, Colleen made it! That’s my story and I’m stickin’ with it.
Baking
I don’t bake. Yes, I’m a scientist – of sorts. I cook. It’s largely undisciplined – like me! But baking? That’s a whole ‘nother ball of wax. We had leftover egg whites from making pie. Yes! It was a stunning Atlantic Beach pie from the NYT. Imagine it covered in whipped cream – but then you’d not see the pie.
Meringue cookies! Yes! Brilliant! A disaster even by my humble standards. Mix, measure, match, bake. Utter disaster! We trashed a sifter, egg beater, mixer, and a stand mixer all within one bake. No sh*t Sherlock! Yes, that would be a record for ‘round these parts. And the cookies were flat! Tasty but flat. The egg whites needed more beating! Duh! I’d write in all CAPS!, but you get it. Too funny. It cost me. I had to buy one each… and yes, this time it was a Kitchen Aide stand mixer. I register protest here and now. I wonder how the next batch of meringue cookies will turn out?
Pie – Suprise!
Sometimes things look better than they are. I made a lime meringue pie. It was completely unintentional. We had a half box of graham cracker crumbs leftover. It was enough to make a single crust. The filling? Well, we settled upon a “found” lime pie filling mix. It would have been lemon meringue, but you get it, right? The meringue was two egg whites – whipped to stiff frothy peaks. Wow, it really came out looking rather appetizing! And indeed, it was a show stopper and disappeared rapidly at the conclusion of the pot luck supper. It looked better than it was but who’s to tell? Easy? … as pie!
photobackstory 