Boston

I returned on Sunday evening from a quick four day trip to Boston.  As part of a group of 150 fellow Reality church members, I got to explore the city from Charlestown to the South Boston and many a neighborhood in between with a more manageable group of 5 friends.  The picture below was taken in the hip, artsy neighborhood of South End just outside a grand brick building that had been renovated into art studios.  Boston is brimming with butterflies and this one waited patiently for me to get just the right shot.  Shortly after snapping this photo we met one of the artists, Silvia Lopez Chavez, who rents space on the fourth floor.  We climbed the stairs to her loft, ooh’d and ah’d over her truly extraordinary work, and learned all about the inspiration behind her paintings. A few days later we’d return to the ground floor of this building for dinner and drinks at a little place called Beehive…a place I’d frequent for sure if I lived in the neighborhood.

With some free time to fill on Sunday morning before the evening flight, we made like true San Franciscans and found the biggest, greenest park, the beautiful Boston Common, to lounge lazily in.  It was a cool 80 some degrees over the weekend – perfect weather to enjoy America’s oldest park for a few hours.

It was my first trip to the East Coast and while I boarded the plane excited to return home to San Francisco, I realized that the pedestal I’d proudly placed this city I call home on was a bit shorter than it was prior to my time in Boston.  If you’ve ever been there (I’m sure you have…I think, or at least I feel, like the last person to experience the East Coast) you know the pristine appearance and sense of historical prestige about the town.  What can easily be identified as the education capital of the country, if not the world, is a stark contrast to the City by the Bay.  Their streets are immaculately clean (no watching your step over unsightly piles of feces.)  I mean, people don’t even throw their old gum or cigarette butts on the ground.  Manicured lawns and lush greenery line the sidewalks of every block.  Even the pigeons are clean.  People are well presented, courteous, and mostly keep to themselves as opposed to wearing their every thought on their sleeve (or the bus stop shelter) as in San Francisco.  And from a single girl’s perspective the men there seem to be a bit more…qualified?  Is that the word I’m looking for?  In any case, my girlfriends agreed.

One local assured us, if you do happen to come to Boston without the desire to go back to school, you will soon acquire it.  It’s in the air here.  So my brain got to thinking…what if this food styling thing doesn’t work out?  What if I’m not doing enough to prepare myself now for a successful transition?  What if I get out on my own and it’s a giant flop?  One mistake and your likely to not get hired again for a long time…if ever again.  That’s a lot of pressure.  What’s plan B?  What else am I qualified for?  Maybe I should think about getting my MBA?  Would that do anything for me practically other than put me thousands in debt?   Ultimately I don’t think a graduate degree is the answer.  Although I can’t say I haven’t been researching programs for the past 48 hours.  It WAS a good motivator to get creative and really get behind the development of my little business that is, well, me.

Had the people been a bit “friendlier” part of me would probably be considering the possibility of making a move someday.  But from what I gather it would take years to develop a community there that could rival the closeness I have with people here.  But who knows…maybe Boston will be my plan B.

On a more lighthearted note, to my absolute delight I came across a printed issue of Sweet Paul magazine in Anthropologie on posh Newbury Street.  For a moment I felt famous and dropped 24 bones for an issue.  And whilst shopping on Charles Street in Beacon Hill I came across these beautiful hostess aprons from Ice Milk Aprons…completely in love.

Til next time!

Latest test shoot…

I can’t format these pages for anything.  On average, eighty percent of the time I spend on any given post goes to formatting and reformatting just to get the page to look like it has some kind of order.  Wordpress is finicky and horribly un-user friendly.  And I might be the most un-technologically savvy person in the greater Bay Area.  It’s a bad combination.  Ugh…alright, enough soapbox.  All this to say that I had this beautiful gallery laid out for you until I started typing and it all went to pot.  So here, in my usual layout, are some images from my last test shoot (these ones taken with my iPhone) with the talented and oh-so-pleasant to work with Meg Smith.

I love the vibrancy of the colors in the first shot, the surface in the second, and the light in the third and fourth shots.  The simple and affordable prep on the mussels is worth passing on.  It goes something like this…

Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium high heat.  Add sliced garlic and red pepper flakes, quantities are a personal preference.  I like lots of both.  Add one can of fire roasted diced tomatoes and a very generous splash of white wine worthy of drinking and bring to a simmer.  Toss in 1-2 lbs scrubbed and de-bearded mussels, cover, and wait until the mussels have blossomed open in all of their provencal glory, about 5-7 minutes.  Consume standing over the pan on the stove with a glass of that white wine and a piece of good bread.

As of late, work has been non-stop.  After a week of star-treatment negated by ridiculously long days in LA while working on a television commercial, catching the seemingly unavoidable airport cold, and finishing out the workweek in SF while battling a relentless runny nose, I needed a day like yesterday.  They don’t come around too often but that makes them all the more sweet:  A leisurely prep day that included running such personal errands as happily dropping off my tax documents to my new CPA (that saved me hundreds), a Costco run where I picked up a new printer (long overdue.)  We skipped out of the studio early, around 3, in favor of pedicures at a lovely little retreat called Milk Plus in Nob Hill.  Blissfully relaxed and loving every second of my brown sugar scrub foot massage, I thanked God for my job.  In the days ahead we’ll be working through the weekends.  On location, no less.  Which essentially means we’ll be schlepping truckloads of tools, equipment, and ingredients far, far away from the studio and into a beautiful home in the North Bay.  Naturally with all of this work stuff going on progress on The Bake Sale slows.  But make no mistake, it’s still progressing.  I’ve found a kitchen, am securing my liability insurance, found a platform that allows me to build a website that can actually pass for legit which saves me hours and dollars of graphic and web design service.  So much has been accomplished in the past few weeks.  So much more to do but it’s been a joy.  Excited to continue to share progress with you.

Have a fantastic week!

Spring Issue of Sweet Paul

So excited to flip through the digital version of the latest issue of Sweet Paul Magazine!  The shots turned out beautifully.  Thanks and congratulations to Meg Smith and Viola Sutanto who are always such a joy to work with.  To view the entire issue, click here.  And here’s the recipe for the Warm Lemon and Shallot Roasted Potato Salad pictured above.  It was my favorite.  Happy weekend!

The perfect chocolate-on-chocolate brownie

At the moment I’m bundled from head to toe, snuggled up under a blanket on my couch.  Knee high socks, a chunky cable knit sweater that drops to my calves, hat, the works.  My hands so cold I can scarcely feel the keys beneath my fingertips.  With old windows, a drop in temperature is never good news.  Especially when the heat fails to come on the night before for some mysterious reason.  Problem solver that I am, I decided to fire up the only appliance with the ability to generate heat at the moment and bake up a batch of these decadent chocolate-on-chocolate brownies.  Genius, right?  A few months back I thought I’d found my go-to brownie recipe.  Laden with chopped, high-quality dark chocolate, it was a ridiculously laborious, not to mention expensive.  Sure, they were delicious and impressive to behold and I told myself the results were worth the hassle but I’m not sure I was ever fully convinced – I haven’t made them in months.  A few weeks back, my eyes were opened to the beauty of simplicity after one bite of these perfect squares.  Dense. Fudgy.  The Warren Buffet of brownies in terms of richness.  If you can finish the first piece you cut for yourself in one sitting I’ll be amazed.  The best part?  Upon securing the recipe I found the ingredient list to be a fraction of the length of my old one.  No messy, knife-dulling chopped chocolate, no fussing with room temperature butter, and a mixing method that couldn’t be more straightforward.  These come together in a flash but bake for a good while (I decreased the size of my pan for a thicker brownie, thus upping my bake time), filling your kitchen (or your studio apartment) with sweet, chocolate-scented warmth.  I think maybe I’m starting to feel my fingers again.  Enjoy!

If you get the chance, pop over to The Bake Sale page.  This whole project is such a work in progress but there’s a bit of info up about what it is and the heart behind it.  Have a fantastic week!