Posted in Contributing Writer, Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Photography, Publication Updates, tagged family, kitchen, musings, Photography on August 19, 2010| Leave a Comment »
A nice surprise today when I checked email today and saw the latest Orion Magazine newsletter. At the bottom of the page, in the “Places Where You Live” area, there was a link to “a couple of our favorites.” Well, one of the favorites was a link for Somerville, Massachusetts. Since I live in Somerville, I clicked on the link and what did I see? Well, you can see for yourself. I hope you enjoy.
http://www.orionmagazine.org/index.php/place_where_you_live/view/somerville_ma_5820/
Posted in Guest Contributor, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged bread, capers, carrots, food, Photography, red onions, tomatoes, tuna on August 14, 2010| Leave a Comment »
What can you do with one can of tuna, leftover bread, a few veggies and basic condiments? This is what Steve creates.
Open 1 can of tuna. Drain, rinse, then place in bowl. Add 1/2 cup of finely chopped carrots. Toss in 2 tablespoons of capers, 1 tablespoon of spicy brown or Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, 1/4 cup of olive oil and two cloves of garlic that have been coarsely chopped with sea salt. Mix all of these ingredients together. Meanwhile, thinly slice bread then sautee in olive oil until crusty. Rub with fresh garlic. Provide the following sides on the table as people prepare their own mini-sandwiches: finely chopped red onion, fresh basil and thinly sliced tomatoes. Chilled white wine makes a great accompaniment.
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Nature Notes, tagged food, Photography on August 10, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Guest Contributor, Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged color, ducks, flowers, fog, light, nature, Photography, reflection, spider webs, trees on August 1, 2010| 1 Comment »
Pink is not my favorite color, but this July pink flowers kept catching my attention, as did blooms in white,
and in gold.
I love photographing trees reflected in water. But sometimes I was so focused on shooting such images, that I nearly missed the ducks for the trees, like these little fellows sitting silently in the bottom of my frame.
Spiders — yes, spiders! — continued to woo me with their wondrous webs. As imperfect as they are, I cannot help but share these images of spider webs I saw one July night in Maine. Layers upon layers of fog-covered webs illuminated by night lights.
Guest contributors added visual and culinary spice to our lives by sharing recipes and photographs. Links below will take you to recent posts. Expect many more tasty selections in the coming months.
Tell Me About the Petunia Wall
And what does August hold? Hmmm.
* New submissions to writing and photography contests, magazines and other Call for Artists.
* Putting better business practices into place around my creative life, from fun stuff like new business cards to better systems for cataloging and tracking images and articles.
* Following up on recent opportunities to tell other peoples’ amazing life stories.
* Pulling together all my camera gear and giving everything a good cleaning!
* Writing. Writing. Writing.
Posted in Inspiration, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged basil, food, lemon, lime, Photography, strawberries, sugar on July 26, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Ingredients
6 medium strawberries
1/2 teaspoon of sugar, plus extra pinch
splash of red wine
1 tablespoon lemon and/or lime basil leaves, chopped
Hull strawberries. Slice in half. Place in medium sized bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar and splash of red wine. Gently toss until strawberries are well covered. Place in shallow bowl or in center of a plate. Sprinkle with basil leaves and the pinch of additional sugar. Enjoy morning, noon or night.
Recipe and images by Cynthia Staples.
Posted in Kitchen Inspirations, Nature Notes, On the Road, tagged chantrelles, mushrooms, Photography on July 15, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Gather mushrooms in a wooded area. Be very sure of what you are gathering or root around with an expert. With a brush, paper towel or even a pocket knife, clean mushrooms by removing tough stems and dirt. If necessary rinse gently in water. Drain well. In saucepan, warm butter and olive oil. Add chopped onions. After onions cook down a bit, add in mushrooms that have been rough chopped. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste. A lot of liquid will leak out of the mushrooms. Let it cook down. Once most or all of the liquid has simmered away, add a healthy of dollop of sour cream. Cook until mixture bubbles and thickens. Serve with crusty dark bread and chilled white wine. Also good ladled over pasta!
Recipe by Galia
Image by Cynthia Staples
Posted in Guest Contributor, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged butter, food photography, rabbit, tarragon on July 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Warm butter and olive oil in frying pan. Add small clove of garlic that has been finely minced. When butter is browned and garlic perfumes the air, add rabbit loin that has been cut into medium-sized pieces. Toss in coarsely chopped fresh tarragon. Cook until rabbit is lightly browned (or to your preference). Serve with crusty bread on the side.
Recipe copyrighted SFH.
Posted in Guest Contributor, Kitchen Inspirations, tagged bacon, basil, food photography, garlic, linquine, onion, recipe, shrimp, thin spaghetti on June 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »
Stack five to six slices of bacon. Cut along short end into smaller pieces. Then cut those slices in half to make chunks. Toss into cold cast iron pan and cook over high to medium-high heat until brown. Remove browned bacon pieces and set aside.
While bacon is cooking, dice half a medium onion and set aside.
Once bacon is cooked, add 1 to 1 1/2 pounds of large peeled and deveined shrimp to bacon grease. Cook until shrimp are pink, 1 – 3 minutes. Remove shrimp. Add onion to remaining oil, cook for 1 – 2 minutes, then add two cloves of minced garlic. Stir and cook for an additional 2 minutes. Add one 14.5 oz can of diced tomatoes to pan. Stir to mix onions, garlic and tomatoes. Add 1 T tomato paste and mix in. Reduce heat.
Add herbs of your choice (italian seasoning, oregano, etc.) salt and pepper to taste. Add cayenne pepper to taste if you want a little kick. Add in six to 7 leaves of fresh basil, cook over med heat until sauce thickens a little. Add bacon and shrimp and heat through. Add more salt and pepper if needed.
Serve over pasta of your choice. Thin spaghetti or thin linguine are good choices. Or just serve with rice and good, crusty bread to dip in juices.
Photography copyrighted Cynthia Staples. Recipe copyrighted LMM.
Words + Images 