Monday Photo Dump Week #10 | Mikaela Joy: Savannah Lifestyle Photographer

Ladies and Gentlemen, it's time for another Weekly Photo Dump! This week was rainy and awful, but the weekend was gorgeous. I spent the weekend outside (yet didn't bring my camera, what was I thinking?) and then spent the rest of the week playing with dogs and eating (hey, my two favorite things.

So without further ado:

3-1-14: Okay so technically this was taken the night before, but since I had to work early Saturday morning, and this is what we were doing the night before, I think this gives you a good idea of how my Saturday felt- sleep deprived.

3-2-14: Sunday was also spent outside, somehow without my camera. Although I wasn't able to get any pictures of my adventures, my hubby did let me take this quick portrait of him and my dobe, Jerry.  I can't believe how big that dog has gotten!

3-3-14: My Monday consisted of work and then hours spent at the car dealership while they figured out that they needed to replace my transmission.  This is how I felt about things.

3-4-14: And then came the rain.  A five minute storm flooded my yard, and then we were stuck in the cold, wet, gross weather for the rest of the week.

3-5-14: I used to be totally scared of raw chicken. It freaked me out. But this chicken is about to be delicious!

3-6-14: Thursday I decided to embrace the rain and play with my friend Sam's dog Sassy.  She was not phased by the nasty weather. She just wanted to play!

3-7-14: I spent Friday playing with the dogs too.  Magnum was so kind as to pose for me.  He looks so dignified here!

After my missed photo opportunities this weekend I decided to take my camera with me more places, and I am much happier with this week's photos because of it.  Sticking to this idea, I already have some great photos for next week including a day at the shooting range.  I'm excited to bring some new life into this project and see where we can go with it.  Stay tuned!

Eating With Your Eyes: A Matter of Perception

"That looks delicious!" It's a phrase you hear all the time. I use it every time I pass an olive bar drooling, or whenever I see a piece of tiramasu. Its the visual appeal of a food that often leaves our mouths watering.  Why do you think people spend so much time on Pinterest pinning recipes that they never actually make?  Why do I spend my afternoons watching Food network? It's the way the food looks.

But what exactly makes a food "look" tasty?

The first thing that pops into my head is frosting, fluffy decadent frosting-- clouds of sugar draped over a rich red velvet cake. Or flavorful vegetables steaming over a pot of grainy rice, each object in sharp contrast from the one next to it.

These foods will look good, regardless of how they taste.

But what about the foods that aren't exactly visually appealing?

Quite frequently  I visit the Asian market with my friend Sam who is from Thailand.   Every time we go there she introduces me to some interesting food that I have never had before.  Have you ever cooked with Thai soy sauce (and actually known the difference between the multitude of types of soy sauces?) or eaten fresh lamyai? If not you are missing out.

But there are lots of foods there that honestly freak me out.  To me, the jars of fermented meat and fish look like scary science projects gone wrong.  To Sam they look delicious.

Yet she is completely grossed out by the thought of gravy.

On my most recent trip she introduced me to Basil Seed drink which, when I asked her to describe, she couldn't.

"Just try it," she said.

I was instantly thrilled by the contents of that can. The drink is sweet with little balls (aka basil seeds) that fill up your straw and can only be described as squeaky because of the wonderful sound they make when you bite into them (Sam thinks they are crunchy, but I don't think that's quite right.)

Later that night I opened the contents of a can into a glass to see just what basil seed drink looks like. One word: scary! It would have been tough to stomach if I had seen it the first time I tried it. The basil seeds make me think of little amoebas swimming in my drink, or, as Sam described it, frog eggs.

But how could that be? This stuff is delicious, like, I want to go back to the Asian market and buy a case full, delicious. That made me wonder, what other wonderful foods am I missing out on just because the look or idea of them bothers me? It's not hard to think that Sam is missing out because of her aversion to gravy, but what about me and liver, tripe, fermented foods? It took me at least a year of convincing to try sushi before I realized how delicious it is.  A friend got me to face it head on and go for some sashimi, despite my head and gag reflex telling me it was a bad idea. Now I love sushi.

Sam thinks that a blindfold is all that it would take before I'd be eating all the strange-to-me foods that she loves, and she's probably right.  That may be a bit of a extreme way of handling things, but I will try to approach each new foods with an open mind.  I'd suggest that everyone do the same.  We wouldn't want to miss out?

But before I go cook up the weirdest foods I can find in my fridge (while sipping on basil seed drink,) I will leave with a parting question.

What's the weirdest food you've ever tried? Did you like it? I'd love to hear your experiences in the comments below.

Superbowl Party Homemade Pretzels

For me, Superbowl weekend is all about food, friends, and commercials.  I could care less about football, and especially so this year, since the game was awful.  This game bored me more that football normally does. Seriously. Luckily, my lovely hubby saved the day by deciding that he wanted to try to make homemade pretzels.  It was a random idea and it turned out to be amazing one.  The game may have sucked, but I was consoled by the delicious food.  Yum.

So I thought I'd share the recipe with you fine people.

Let me just start out by saying that this is not my recipe.  I found it here at Sally's Baking Addiction.

We didn't quite follow her recipe though.  I can't seem to stick to a recipe 100% in anything I make.  It stifles my creativity or something.

We made two different batches, since one of our friends is gluten free.  The first batch we made with regular all purpose flour, the second was with King Arthur all purpose gluten free flour.

The process is pretty simple.  The dough is a basic bread dough with flour, water, salt, and yeast.  You don't need to let it rise or anything, just roll it out and bake it.

I usually mix dough with my kitchenaid, but Robert wanted to do this old school and mix by hand. It didn't really take much kneading, so this wasn't a bad choice.

And so we have a nice little lump of dough to work with.

We cut it into pieces, rolled it out,

and shaped it into pretzels (some recipes recommend you to dunk these in a solution of baking soda and boiling water at this point to get them to brown up nicely, but due to laziness, we just cooked them on broil for a few minutes to get the brownness). We brushed on some butter, sprinkled on some course ground sea salt,

and then we baked them.  And devoured them.  Seriously these were amazing.

This was our gluten free batch, which didn't puff up quite as well and refused to brown, but still tasted quite good.  I know nothing about gluten free baking, so I just used the same recipe with different flour, but I'm pretty sure that you have to use something extra to get them to rise. That said, I'd eat these just as they were, and the friend we made them for like them, so I guess that's what counts.

And there you have it: homemade pretzels!

After all that work baking (not really, they were actually super easy) we were too lazy to make any sort of sauce for them.  Luckily for us, the pre-made cheese (or cheese-like) sauce that you can get at the grocery store was a perfect pairing.  You could also do mustard, or just enjoy the pretzels for the buttery goodness that they offer.  Either way.

If you aren't like me and you actually like the structure of a recipe, you can find it here. Or maybe my loose descriptions are good enough.

Either way, give it a try and let me know how they turn out!