Category: photography

Last week Oakland decided it wasn’t summer anymore. The temperatures dropped, and Friday was grey and downright cold. Oh fickle, fickle Bay Area.

Our week started out with a cookout at Roberts Park, welcoming some friends back to the lower 48 (they have been living in an isolated area of Alaska, and are now heading to Vermont). It was great to see friends, and to spend some time swooning over a very cute little one:

July 8 – Who knew a pen could be so exciting?
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-Nine

We are halfway through this year, and, well, I’m not doing much better at remembering to fully document my life. I think some of my photographs are getting better, but I still have a lot to learn about light. That’s why I am REALLY looking forward to the Joy the Baker and Tracy Shutterbean Food Photo workshop I’m going to in just a few weeks. In the meantime:

July 1 – I made salad dressing, and took pictures in some really unflattering light. Unflattering to shallots, anyway.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-Eight

At the beginning of last week, I was still at ALA in Anaheim. As it turns out, I missed one of my favorite food bloggers, Adam the Amateur Gourmet, who was giving away cupcakes in the exhibit hall. Worlds colliding! And I missed it. I was probably in a meeting somewhere. Sigh.

I did get to spend some time in the exhibits, where I usually find about a bazillion books I want to read. Since I can’t bring them all home, I take pictures of the books I am most intrigued by. So for two days, those are the only pictures I took. So exciting.

June 24 – This one looks awesome. I grew up eating Mexican Food in San Diego and it is serious comfort food to me, even more so than mashed potatoes, I think. I can’t wait to get my hands on a copy of this.

June 25 – There weren’t as many cookbooks in the booths as I had hoped, but I did see a few beautiful specimens. This one was intriguing, even though I don’t usually like cookbooks from magazines. The photos were great and the recipes looked easy, healthy, and creative. I’ll keep my eye out for this one.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-Seven

Wowza. I’m a little late on this one. Also, I took almost no pictures last week. Whoops. I was in Anaheim at the American Library Association conference, and even though I swore to myself I would take it easy this time around, and not exhaust myself trying to attend all the events, I was still busy, and at the end of it all, pretty tired.

And now I’m in San Diego with the family, taking care of my way-too-cute niece during the day and relaxing with the family at night. These things all conspire to keep me away from my computer.

Here is a tiny glimpse at last week, in photos:

June 17 – We picked up a big bag of meat, and we grilled steaks. This rib-eye is from Olivier’s Butchery in San Francisco.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-Six

Last week was kind of exhausting. All-night road work and early summer heat conspired to ensure I wasn’t sleeping well, which meant that I was only half awake during waking hours, too. I wish I had more to say about the week than that, but let’s take a look, shall we?

June 10 – Sunday night we made tacos. We grilled some Trader Joe’s steak and I mixed up a quick lime and cabbage salad. This was our dinner after a totally butt-kicking hike, which means all the short-cuts involved (pre-marinated meat, pre-made salsa) were so worth it.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-Five

This was my first full week back at work in a little while. It felt so long! I don’t think my mere two days of weekend were enough to feel rejuvenating and ready to start all over again. But I’m here at my desk, anyway. It’s going to be another busy week.

It’s hard to believe that it was only last Sunday that we were saying goodbye to our beautiful beach campsite and driving back down to Oakland.

June 3 – The beach at MacKerricher State Park in Mendocino.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-four

May 27 – It is summer, and it is on. I started things off right by enjoying my first Tinto of the year. This has been a signature summer drink for a few years now. I’ve you’ve never heard of Tinto de verano, it’s time to rectify the situation. Tinto is a Spanish drink, which is kind of like a poor man’s sangria. Just mix a little cheap red wine with sparkling lemonade and you’re set. Summer has been inaugurated.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-two

Last week was a week bookended by loveliness, with lots of work and busy-ness in between.

May 20 – We started the week in Santa Cruz, with a big breakfast, a hike in the redwoods, and post-hike beers at this funny little biker bar in Felton. Not a bad way to spend a Sunday.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty-One

Whew, week twenty. Week twenty was…hard. Thankfully, it ended with a three days in Santa Cruz, one of my favorite places on earth. The trip was relaxing and fun and full of nostalgia, laughter, and insane amounts of natural beauty. Just what I needed.

I’ll share my (many) Santa Cruz photos in a separate post. But here are some images from my week, and from Santa Cruz.

Last Sunday, May 13, we were driving back from a family weekend in Upland. My memories of driving from the Bay Area to Southern California were far more pleasant than my recent experiences have been. It is a LONG drive. But it was totally worth it to have brunch with my parents and aunts and uncles on Mother’s Day. No pictures, though. Oops.

May 14 – I did make a roast chicken dinner on Monday night. Because I’m super traditional like that.
Continue reading 2012, Week Twenty

We had a full and busy week that ended with a loooong drive down to San Bernardino county and back for a big fun family gathering. It made me so grateful to live here, to be able to attend things like graduations, to be able to see my mom on Mothers’ Day, to be able to be part of regular family life again, and to be able to get to know my aunts and uncles now, as adults. The traveling, and the hectic pace of the week leading up to the travel, do mean that I am tired.

Sadly, it also means that I missed three days of photos. I stupidly neglected to take any pictures during our trip, which makes me so sad. I am not that great at capturing images for posterity. At least I have a ton of awesome memories. And the week leading up to our mini-break was full and beautiful.

May 6 – I made a cheese souffle! I was so nervous about this one, as I’ve heard that souffles are hard, and I’ve never worked with whipped egg whites before. But it was spectacular, and it turned out perfectly. Of course, I have to thank Dorie Greenspan for an excellent recipe. I’ll post my version here soon, promise.
Continue reading 2012, Week Nineteen