Brought to You by the Letter P: Photography, Pancakes, and Pickles

Food photography just gets me in a mood sometimes. I love getting a great photo, but sometimes it can be painful to get what I want. The pancake shot above was nice and easy, I think its my favorite photo so far. Recent shoots though, have been more difficult. The shorter days mean not much natural light, and then combine that with trying to snap a dinner photo. Sometimes I just want to eat after all that work and before it gets cold! Baked goods are so much more relaxing for me to photograph, so that explains my lack of dinner photos. A better understanding of my camera would help, but I'm also looking into artificial lighting.

Finally we're feeling some fall weather down here in the South. A few weeks ago, when temperatures were still in the upper 80's, I wanted to get into the spirit. My brother was visiting and I realized I didn't have many breakfast recipes. Specifically I had pumpkin pancakes in mind, so as I normally do when I don't have the right cookbook, I head to the computer.

I already had a box of Bisquick so I found a recipe for Spicy Pumpkin Pancakes on Betty Crocker, and boy did it ROCK! It was easy and the pancakes tasted so good. Don't let the "spicy" in the name fool you, it's actually a gentle flavoring. Eating them was like snuggling under a warm blanket when your house is freezing cold. There is something comforting to me about breakfast in general, but also the pumpkin pie spices. Perhaps because pumpkin pie makes its appearance to kick off the holiday season and time spent with family. The pecan syrup is really a must and only takes seconds. Mmmm, I think I should make these again this weekend.



Well then, how about those pickles? I thought I knew what "Zesty" meant, but I guess I was wrong because these pickles really kick you in the mouth. Maybe I should rename them "Kick You in the Mouth Pickles". I used the recipe for Easy Zesty Bread and Butter Chunks from my Ball cookbook. This was my first experience making pickles so I wanted it to be simple. This recipe keeps in the fridge for up to 3 months, so no canning is involved.

While the method was simple, measuring out the tons of spices was a little time consuming. I chose to make my own pickling spice instead of a prepared one, so I was using spices left and right. The kick comes from the turmeric, ground ginger and prepared horseradish. I really was hoping for more of a bread and butter flavor but I think these are so punchy its on another taste level. I think they'd be good as part of a relish tray, or maybe on a simple pulled pork sandwich.

As a crafty final note, I made my jar labels with twine and paint sample cards cut into tag shapes.

Pancake recipe: Betty Crocker
Pickle recipe: Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving

Reflections, Banana Muffins and a Pupcake

Recently I've been reflecting on my cooking habits and wishing I had more of a pattern. I have a credit at Shutterfly to make a photo book, and I've been thinking it might be fun to make a little cookbook of my favorites. As I was making my idea list, I had a hard time narrowing things down. I realized that my husband and I don't eat a lot of repeats, even when something comes out great (unless of course we need something fast and easy). Because I cook new dishes often, I never get a feeling that I've mastered something. I'm going to try and work on that more by revisiting some past favorites that are tucked into my recipe box. I think to really get a feel for cooking something you should make it at least three times.

Repeats are for another day though since I've got a backlog of food photos to blog on. Most of the new recipes came out well, but I had a bad cupcake experience last week when I wanted to make a treat for my brother who was visiting. (Note to self: Don't test new recipes for company if you really want it to come out, even if you're feeling invincible.) My husband and my brother ate the cupcakes like they were fine, but for me every attempt to give the gross-cakes another try ended with most of it being thrown into the trashcan.

Several days before that disappointment we had some bananas that weren't looking too happy. I did a quick Google search for Banana-Chocolate Chip Muffins and found a promising recipe. The initial plan was to make my recipe for Spelt Almond-Banana Bread, but it was after dinner and I wanted something fluffy with a little chocolate. Well, I ended up loving the recipe so much that I wrote it down on one of my super cute bakery-themed Snow & Graham recipe cards.

I was distracted by the television while the first muffin pan was in the oven so they got a little too brown. If you make them watch them closely because they should still look kinda yellow instead of golden. I tried using both paper liners with a traditional muffin pan, as well as using a greased mini muffin pan. I found that I preferred eating the mini muffins though both were great!



Lastly, Lulu turned 3! While we didn't have a party, as we did for her first birthday, I did feel the need to try baking a dog cake again. I'm afraid I won't be repeating this recipe though it did look pretty! (I love an excuse to use my pastry bags and tips!)

This cake recipe was copied onto a card a few years ago and I'm not sure of the source. The main ingredients are rice flour, canned pumpkin, mashed banana, safflower oil and a tiny bit of honey. The icing was my own experiment using natural peanut butter, carrot baby food, low fat cream cheese, and safflower oil. I only frosted the top to cut down on the fat I was adding to the cake. Though Lulu loved eating it (in very small portions for only a few days), I wasn't happy with the gummy texture. Next time I'll find a recipe that uses an egg.

Muffin recipe: Bon Appétit