Friday, July 31, 2009

Bliss comes in all forms

0 words to the wise

I am photographing my first (second really, but the first one was a catastrophe) wedding soon on Pawley's Island, SC. I'm super excited about it. To add to my small collection of lenses for the event, I've reserved/am renting a 17-35mm wide angle lens. That's right folks, I'm putting a lens worth more then my camera body on my camera. WOOHOO!! I figured this was the perfect excuse to try this one out. I can't wait to use it and see the photos. I'm sure I'll share some here (with permission of the bride and groom of course).

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Monday, July 27, 2009

Photo of the Day - Gaze-go

1 words to the wise

I snapped this with my phone last week and had forgotten about it until just now. I was making my normal trip home and had to do a double take. It's not everyday one sees a gazebo driving up Duke Street.

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Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Kids Exchange - State Fairgrounds, Raleigh

1 words to the wise

I know I have a few moms and future moms that read my blog so I wanted to pass this info along. This weekend the Jim Graham building at the state fairgrounds will be housing the annual (I think) Kids Exchange sale. I am actually selling all my daughter's newborn and 0-3 month clothing in the sale. Yesterday when I went to drop everything off, I was treated to a preview. This sale is MASSIVE. I love being able to re-use other's clothing and for others to use mine. I've quickly learned that babies grow so fast that some of her clothing has never even been worn by the time she outgrows it!

I had no idea as to the enormity of this sale before yesterday and I cannot wait to go to the seller's pre-sale on Thursday!! It's absolutely not just clothing and everything looks so well organized (down to toys being sectioned by gender and type). The public sales are:

Friday, July 24 9am-6pm

Saturday, July 25 9am-5pm

Sunday, July 26 10am-5pm 50% Off Day

I loved that they give you the choice to either pick up your unsold items at the end or donate to charity. I'll let you know how I make out. I'm hoping to just break even, but I secretly know there's no way that will happen!!!

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Monday, July 20, 2009

Lifecycle of a blog - a reflection

5 words to the wise

I don't post here much anymore, and even when I do, I rarely document my cooking. At one point, I was posting here daily about my kitchen activities. Especially in the summer. The farmer's market is bursting with fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs. How tasty and inspirational!

Yet here I sit, in silence.

The funny thing is that I still do cook good stuff, but mostly just on the weekends. Take last night for example. We had a lovely roasted pork tenderloin served on top of risotto with sweet corn and cherry tomatoes. It was delicious. I didn't even think to drag out my camera or write down one bit of what I was doing.

I have to ask myself, has the excitement of my blog worn off?

I believe it has. I still have a love affair with food. Maybe I just have less of an interest in sharing it online? Or perhaps it's that I want to spend what little of my free time I have, with my family or trying to catch up on sleep or relaxing?

Life has changed. With change comes adaptation.

When my daughter was born in March, I quickly realized I wouldn't be able to keep up with this blog in the manner I had. I promised myself I would try to post about my weekend cooking adventures. I failed miserably. I don't know why I felt this pressure to blog. I know it was all in my own head. This was supposed to be a creative outlet for me to share my love of cooking. I think I've finally come to the realization that now is not the time for that. I blog avidly for my daughter on her own little private blog and perhaps that's all I need as a creative outlet right now.

I think I'll continue to post here about life, but probably a lot less about food. I have no idea who would be interested in reading such drivel, but I just can't bring myself to kill this blog. I like having a journal I can look back on and a nice collection of my recipes. So for now, this blog will live on. Not in the fashion that it had, but in the way that it fits in with my life. Adapted.

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Monday, July 13, 2009

Blueberry buckle and a quest for the past

2 words to the wise


When I was growing up, we lived in what used to be known as the country. Of course that's not the case now. The only thing that was even remotely close by was a small health food/general store called Sunrise Farmer's Market. Odd combination, I know. At any rate, when I earned money (which I did in any number of ways, I was very entrepenuerial), I chose to ride my bike down to the market and spend it on a treat for myself. I was brought up in a healthy house where sugar was only around in very limited quantities. Even our cereal was unsweetened.

I always bought one of three items at the store to reward myself for my hard-earned money. It was either a Dove ice cream bar, a Ben & Jerry's brownie bar (good luck finding one of those now) or a piece of blueberry cake. When I say cake, I mean it more in a sheet cake fashion with no icing. This was made by Ninth Street Bakery. I've never been a fan of blueberries, but wow was this cake good.

Like anyone else, I occasionally crave food from my childhood, probably because I know I can't have it. Ninth Street Bakery is still very much in business, but they mostly make bread and my guess is that this cake/bar concoction is long gone.

Skip to Sunday, I was at the grocery store and spied blueberries on sale. I decided I was going to attempt to find a recipe similar to the cake. I found a recipe here for blueberry buckle and it seemed to be close to what I remembered and relatively healthy and easy to make.

The only modification I made was that I used salted butter instead of unsalted and I baked it in a 9x9 square pan instead of a spring form pan. I don't keep unsalted butter in my house. Whoever dreamt up such a thing!?

The cake was delicious, but sadly, wasn't quite what I was remembering. It tasted a bit more like coffee cake because of the cinnamon streusel topping, but it was still excellent. If anyone knows a good recipe for something that sounds like what I'm describing, or where to get a Ben & Jerry's brownie bar, please let me know.

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Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Breaking news!

1 words to the wise

I've just eaten an entire full size snickers bar for the first time in probably 3-4 years.

It was just as good as I remembered and worth every bit of 280 calories.

So, do you have a rare indulgence?

For me, I'd say ice cream, but I indulge in that very regularly. So I guess it's the occasional candy bar.

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