Dish-o-the-Week: Greek Pasta Salad

Nothing says simple and delicious to me like a pasta salad.  It's refreshing, filling, and super easy to put together...which is why there are no put together pictures here.  You just mix it, I think you guys can figure that out without pictures.  But by far, this is one of my favorite pasta salad recipes I have made.

You can view the full recipe HERE.  I use Allrecipes.com a lot, especially when I'm in a rush or just stuck on what I want to make for dinner this week.  It's a great site, and easy to use.  I love this pasta salad because it's got so much in it!  We're talkin' pepperoni, olives, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms, and green onions.  My only tip for this recipe is that I would definitely let it sit over night to let all the flavors mix.  And although it won't make your breath smell good, it's well worth it.

The Twin

Two weekends ago, I went home for a busy weekend away.  While I was there I teamed up with my wonderful friend The Twin.  She wanted some lovely portraits done, so we headed to the river and had a grand ole time.  I even stepped in for a couple cameo shots with my best bud.  The Twin and I have been friends for a long time, so it really meant a lot to me to be able to do some portraits for her.  And here is the end result.  Happy viewing!

Hello, Georgia.

So here I am, sitting in my fluffy hotel bed in Dohlonega Georgia.   I conquered hunger, I conquered twisty roads, I didn't get lost.  And now I am ready to enjoy this awesome bed. I'm here in Georgia to help the lovely Mrs. Rebecca Claire shoot her brother's wedding.  We're staying at The Smith House and I have to say, it's pretty snazzy.

It's been a long day and tomorrow is going to be even longer, so it's off to bed with me.  I wish I was at home with Speed Racer but this lovely down comforter will have to keep my cozy instead.  Happy Labor day weekend everybody!  Stay safe!

Dish-o-the-Week: Steak Shish Kabobs and PW Twiced Baked Potatoes

Since it's fair well to summer, I thought we'd do a little grillin' tonight.  It's still hot as Hades here in the South, so we went with some nice marinated steak shish kabobs and some delicious Pioneer Woman twice baked potatoes.  I went a little over board though, so Speed Racer and I are pretty stuffed. There's nothing like some fresh veggies roasted over a fire to make your mouth water.  I used onion, green pepper, steak, cherry tomatoes, and mushrooms on our shish kabobs.  First I marinated the steak, green pepper, and mushrooms in some red wine vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic, and lemon pepper.

I decided to go with PW's twice baked potatoes for our side.  They are fantastic, although I should have cooked them longer.

Then I got the bacon and fixin's ready for the twice baked potatoes.

Next cut up all your veggies and layer them in order on your skewers.  Note!!  Make sure you soak your skewers for at least 20 minutes before you grill...or they will catch on fire...and that's no good.

Next be sure to take a bite of your extra twice baked potatoes fixin's while you think no one is looking, but really your husband is taking embarrassing photos of you really looking your worst.  But then go ahead and post them on the internet...because we like to keep it real here.

Once your shish kabobs are done, and your twice baked potatoes are all cheesy and gooey...go spend an evening watching the movie Star Trek with the hubby, because you know that's how you roll.

I love September

It's hard to believe that today is the first day of September.  Fall is upon us and I don't feel quite ready.  I love September.  It's my favorite month...also because it's my birthday month, and well, quite frankly I LOVE birthdays.  Especially mine.  But this year it has snuck up on me, and I'm not quite sure what to do with September. I woke up Saturday morning at my parents house, to a foggy field view.  (Thus all the pictures.)  To me, it's a magical time when the seasons begin to transition.  Everything changes, and seems full of mystery...and there is fog.  I love fog, it reminds me of fairy tale books for some reason.

But I woke up, eyes still blood shot and exhausted from the day before to this beautiful view.  I stumbled out of bed...found my shoes...mumbled something about photos as I passed my Mom and went out the back door.  While I shot, I began to wake up.  The cool crisp air made me realize that summer is gone...and somehow I feel like I missed it.

I am determined not to do the same with September.  Don't get me wrong, it's going to be a busy month.  I have two, possibly three, weddings to do with Rebecca Claire Photography.  I have to get my tonsils removed.  And I have several senior portraits lined up.  Not to mention just the day to day working.  Speed Racer also has a ton of travel ahead of him this month, so that just makes us busy.  So I already feel like I'm letting it slip by.

Usually by now I already have my birthday list sent out (at times I have sent it out in July...yeah, I'm that kid).  But I haven't done it yet, and each time I try to I just seem to get discouraged.  Speed Racer wistfully asked what I wanted for my birthday this year, and for once I said, "I just don't know."

Unlike most people who say that who are modest and not greedy people, I did not say it because I don't want presents, I think I said it out of exhaustion.  There are MANY things that I want, but none of them seem to come in gift form...or affordable gifts at that.  I want time away.  Just for me and Speed Racer.  I want to buy practical things that make dumb presents.  I want to figure out things.  I want to be surprised.  Stuff like that.

But the great thing about fall is that it always seems full of new prospects to me.  Unlike Spring, fall to me is a time to hunker down with a good book outside, and spend some quality time.  Even if this fall is busy, I know it's going to be a good one.  I'm taking fall back.

Friday. Friday!

Happy Friday everyone!  I'm headed back to the land that I love, the land of my youth, the land where everyone knows my name!  Well, maybe not that last one, at least I hope not, that would mean I'm in trouble. I'm headed back North to Virginia for the weekend.  It's going to be a fun time of get together, and actually lots of photography as well!  My friend The Twin and Preacher are in need of some photography skills, and I am happy to oblige them.  Lots more to post when I get back of the photo sessions.  Have a great, safe, weekend everyone!

ABCs

E is for Elephant.  I don't know how many times I said that this morning.  Learning the alphabet is an important part of children growing up, but it can also be a helpful exercise for photographers.  Not just because, "Me photographer, me need to know how to speak and write," but for many reason.

The other day I went out and about Knoxville and tried to find letters.  I had a specific word in mind because that helped me focus a little bit more.

But you would be surprised how hard it is to find letters, "in nature."

I love this exercise because it makes you look at the world differently.  It's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

I encourage you to try this, even without a camera!  It really helps you "see" objects not just how they are but as how you would like them to be. (Deep, right?)  So in the end I ended up with the word I wanted.

I'm still going to play around with the letters more, and also try to find some more letters.  Feel free to share what you find!

Dish-o-the-Week: Chicken Casserole with Biscuits

Who doesn't love biscuits in just about everything?  Mmmm...buttermilk biscuits.  The other name for this could be soup in biscuits.  It was a little runny, but once you mush up all the biscuits it thickens right up. As always, I kind of combined a couple recipes to go with what I had in the cupboard.  The recipe I used for the casserole called for store bought biscuits, but I had everything to make from scratch buttermilk biscuits.  So I did that.  You can find a great recipe for buttermilk biscuits in the Pioneer Woman Cookbook and it may be on her website as well.

As for the casserole, in a large sauce pan just add chicken, peas, mushrooms, salt, pepper, onion, and cream of chicken soup.  Heat it all up until bubbling and then pour it in the a casserole dish.  After that add the biscuits, store bought or not, on top and pop it in the oven for 25-30 min at 375.  It's great because it really is a simple dish, that will be great in those chillier months.

The Good, The Bad, The Ugly

It's a beautiful evening here in Knoxville, TN.  It's that time of year when you can feel the change in the seasons.  Summer is on it's way out and autumn is pushing it's way in.  I love summer, with all my heart, and I'm always a little sad to see it go.  I also love fall.  After all, my birthday is in the fall.  I love birthdays too.  I would be perfectly content if it would just go Spring, Summer, Fall...Spring, Summer, Fall...and skip winter all together.  As I was sitting on the back porch, pretending that I was not getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, I was thinking of how this week so far has brought a little bit of everything.  There's some good...there's some bad...and there's some ugly. Let's start with the good.  Good thing #1, pretty weather and beautiful evenings.

Good thing #2.  Speed Racer in a fit of "I'm tired of mowing around this," last night, demolished our little weird patio thing we had going on.  Now it looks like this....

So that's some progress.  I too hate mowing around that thing.  Good thing #3.  Speed Racer passed his motorcycle course and is now road worthy on this lovely piece of machinery.

I think it's hot.  Nuff said.

Good thing #4, and I have no pictures for this one, is I got a part time job!  Just call me Nanny McPhee, or yeah, something like that.  I will be babysitting/nannying two little ones each morning.  I start tomorrow, so as always, I'm a little nervous, but excited all the same.

The Bad.

So it's really not that bad, the bad and the ugly are going to be kind of combined in this section.  One "bad" thing is that due to my new job, etc, the blog might be a little crazy here for awhile.  I am still totally dedicated to it, and will desperately be trying to write every day, but if I slip...don't blame me.  Okay, well you can blame me, but don't point your finger at me.  Not a finger!

The Ugly.

I have chronic tonsillitis.  I have to have a tonsillectomy.  I have to have it two days before my birthday.

Like I said, the bad and the ugly kind of mingle on this blog.  And I swear, this is the least gross, but representative of what I have, photo I could find.  It's icky.

So, still more good than bad or ugly.  I'm not looking forward to my surgery but definitely want to get it over with.  I'll keep you posted, and wish me luck on my first day as a nanny.

Vision

copyright James Chance What is vision?  What inspires us to take a closer look at what is around us?  Why do certain ideas grab us and take hold, while to others they hardly matter?

I ran across this article on pdnonline.com, about Photographer James Chance winning POYi's new Emerging Vision Incentive grant.  It's a $10,000 grant that helps artists achieve an idea or vision.  The idea is reviewed by a board and they determine whether or not it is deserving of the grant.  James Chance's vision was entitled, "Living with the Dead."

James Chance ran across an article about how poor people were living in Manila's North Cemetery in the Philippines.  Chance will use the grant money to fund several trips to continue working on the project and documenting families there.  Officials said that his project was chosen because of the depth of the project.  Not only did it speak of poverty, how countries handle poverty, but generational issues, and public health as well.  I think it's fantastic that we still have grants and other financial support so that people can pursue their visions.  ARTICLE

Vision is defined in the dictionary as:

1.the act or power of sensing with the eyes; sight.

2.the act or power of anticipating that which will or may come to be: prophetic vision; the vision of an entrepreneur.

3.an experience in which a personage, thing, or event appears vividly or credibly to the mind, although not actually present, often under the influence of a divine or other agency.

4.something seen or otherwise perceived during such an experience.

5.a vivid, imaginative conception or anticipation.

6.something seen; an object of sight.

7.a scene, person, etc., of extraordinary beauty.

It has been my experience that vision in the art world is an idea that possesses your soul.  So often I have ideas that flit in and out of my head about great bodies of work that I could create, but there are few that truly keep me occupied to the point where I think about them constantly...and those are the ones that matter.

I think the second part of vision is the ability to act on your vision.  It's easy to jot down ideas but to actually start to create is the hard part.  How long did it take James Chance to be able to go to the Philippines?  But obviously this idea was important enough to him that he realized he would need grant money to help fund it.  Making a vision into reality is something that artists have struggled with for years.  How can you make others see what you have seen, feel what you have felt, and experience it as you have?

The third part of vision, and this is under the belief that you want to share this vision, is relaying it in a way that it is important to others.  Ideas that involve crisis, or social-economic struggles of the human race are themes that everyone wants to care about and relate to.  We all struggle, we all have hard times, and we can come together through that.  More abstract visions are harder to get across, at least to me.  And sometimes they are good in the fact that different people might see different issues in them.  For example, for some time now I have wanted to do a series of pictures of older churches in the South.  Why, personally?  I'm not sure.  Maybe it's because I see them changing.  Little back water churches have been over run by the mega church, and are slowly failing.  But when I take those pictures, what will others see in them?

Think about your own visions today, whether they are photographs, stories, writing, personal, career, crafts, or visions you have for your family.  Vision really is about hopes and dreams, as well as goals.  What is your vision?  How are you going to make it happen?