'Losing The Plot'

Possibly coming somewhere near you this summer, especially if you live within striking distance of one of England's inland waterways, is a theatre production telling the tale of the gardeners of Thistledale Allotments. A 'rag-bag bunch of diggers and dreamers', realise that they must unite following a visit from the council, or risk forfeiting their cherished allotment plot forever. 'Losing The Plot' will be touring nationally until October in a diverse range of venues including pubs, allotment sites, village halls and fields. The theatre company behind the production is Mikron, a small touring company, which travels on a narrowboat 'Tyseley' (built in 1937) in the summer and by road in autumn. Details of tour dates and venues for 'Losing The Plot' can be found here. Sadly from what I can see the production is not scheduled to appear locally, despite our almost on the doorstep canal, so I will have to try to persuade himself to take our camper van out for an outing! It sounds like great fun as well as being a serious story of the deep love that people have for the land and growing.

I am back…..AND cooking….come taste.

Yep…got the computer all bandaged up.

We are feeling better {today}…floated in a crystalline pool. Life is good. Thank you for all your warm thoughts .

SO…

Figured I would whip up a bit of a tropical…touch of exotic as son number three called it…right after he politically mindedly said ‘ I’d give it a 9….IF I liked that kinda stuff’

How about some coconut encrusted chicken breast

with a little tangy sweet apricot and English mustard glaze.

put de apricot in the coconut….and shake it all up.

No…I am not on pain killers. Promise.

With a curried cous cous with dried cranberries and toasted walnuts….’cause I felt like it.

bring on the cous.

Both are easy peasy….and lovely on their own. If ya like stuff like that.

Ps…food styling and me…not the best buds.

But…..dayum…it was YUM.

Coconut encrusted chicken

4-6 chicken breasts

2 eggs

1 1/2 cup of sweetened coconut

3/4 cup of flour

salt and pepper to taste

a smidge of powdered chipolte…if you have it

1/2 cup of unsalted butter, melted

Apricot Jam ( I like low sugar)

Colemans english mustard (the wet…not the dry…also fantastic on steak…we learned this from our friend Darren. Thanks Darren.)

Turn oven on to 400 degrees. Whisk the eggs in a shallow bowl. Mix coconut, flour, s&P and chipotle in another shallow bowl. Pound breasts to an even size…about 1 inch. Dip breasts in egg….and then dredge into coconut mixture. place on a silpat (or parchment lined) cookie sheet. Drizzle melted butter over evenly…Place in oven for about 23 minutes…turn with spatula…and cook an additional 20 minutes. Oooh and inhale the intoxicating aroma of coconut butter and just a hint of chipotle. uuum.

While it is baking…and tropically scenting your abode…stir together the mustard and Jam…warm it on the stove. Don’t burn. When chicken is done and sufficiently browned add the glaze….and taste. Go ahead. Let your eyes roll behind your cabeza, It is natural. promise.

Cous Cous salad with dried cranberries and toasted walnuts

1 cup israeli or Med cous cous (bigger little balls)

olive oil

juice from an orange

1 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar (or agave syrup)

1 cup of dried cranberries

6 scallions sliced on the diagonal…fancy like.

handful of fresh chopped parsley

juice of one half of a lemon

A whisper...ok maybe a teaspoon or so...of sweet curry powder (I LOVE Penzeys)

1 cup of toasted chopped walnuts (toast in oven at 400…or on stovetop in stickproof pan only for a few minutes. You want toasted…not burned)

Cook cous cous…I added to boiling water with a touch of salt and olive oil…let simmer for 10 minutes…but if using a box…follow directions.

drain…add juice of the orange, salt pepper, agave, dried cranberries and chopped green scallions and parsley…stir…taste…taste again. add juice of a lemon for some brightness….and your toasted walnuts and the curry powder. Taste again…I give you permission.Add a few drizzles of olive oil. THEN… Add anything else your heart desires. Anything. I like to add LOVE. Umm Hmm.

LOVE to you all. truly…truly. Truly.

Books, Movies, Dates and Jake's - Ice Cream, That Is!

It's been a big week and not just because of work.   This was one of those weeks when there were lots of activities scheduled every day and the summer has barely started.   The week started with a book signing event and not just any book signing.  This was the release party for the long awaited release of Mary Kay Andrew's new book Spring Fever.  I went to the book signing with my good friend Ginabeth but low and behold who was in line right behind us?  Sue from Rue Mouffetard!!  

 We all lined up waiting for our time with MKA which was made all the more fun because of being in line with good friends. 

  Sue was kind enough to take a picture of me and one with Ginabeth - thank you Sue!!!!

I love going to the movies and recently while seeing Exotic Marigold Hotel (love), I saw the previews for Bernie and given that it appeared to be VERY southern and funny, I made my husband take me out on a date to see it.   We loved Bernie (well, according to the movie, everyone loves Bernie) and I can't wait to see it again.  There were too many funny lines and at times I laughed so hard that I couldn't hear everything.  It is at times like these that I would love to have a pause buttons.

Before the film we stopped for an appetizer at a nearby restaurant called Rain.   Don't you love how restaurants prepare such fancy presentation?   That tray was so well decorated  and just for a few bits of food. 

And the good times just keep on coming.  

My grandgirls came today!  They brought a friend with them so we have three sweet girls at our house  and the girls and my son will be here for a week.  

With the girls here it seemed like a perfect time to stock up on ICE CREAM!  If you've been in Atlanta for any period of time your bound to have tried Jake's Ice Cream and the unbelievably great Slap Yo Mama Chocolate.  Well Jake delivers in my neighborhood and you should have seen the girls go running when I said the ice cream man was here.

It's a bit more pricey but well worth it.

The girls were still a bit puzzled by Jake's Ice Cream truck.  Somehow I think they were expecting some popsicles to show up.  Did you notice the little green bag in my granddaughter's hand? 

 That's the ice cream bag.

 In addition to the Slap Yo Mama Chocolate, I decided to try some of Jake's homemade Georgia Peach ice cream.  The perfect way to celebrate peach season.

Someone's looking very happy.  Today I'm joining 

The Tablescaper to celebrate some Seasonal Sunday fun.

Small Speedlight Studio Setup on a budget.

Don't have enough for those very tempting studio lights down at the camera store, but have a couple of Speedlights in your camera bag? Well then you have pretty much all you need to take some pretty cool portraits!

This is my friend Chinedu, and he just wrote a book. Once I get the details of where to buy it I will post a link right here.

I took his portrait in my small home studio in the corner of our lounge and the set-up looks more or less like this:

That's a Nikon sb700 on the stand shooting into a black backed umbrella and throwing back oodles of beautiful light onto the victim model. On the chair at the back is a Nikon sb600 with a home crafted gobo made from a corn-flakes box covered in silver duct tape which is spitting out light onto the white wall behind the previously mentioned model. The end result is quite satisfactory, at least that's what I think!

Boy with Agfa Isolette

Same details as the previous photo posted below.

Girl with Agfa Isolette

I recently purchased a used but mint condition Agfa Isolette camera in a second hand store, the same one used in this portrait. When I get around to it I will post better pics of the camera, but first the details of this shot!

This was taken with a Nikon sb700 bounced into an umbrella camera right and about 45 degrees up and to the side of the model. Second light is a Nikon sb600 down, behind and left of model with a corn flakes box front cut to become a gobo to prevent light spill onto the back of the model but splash oodles of beautiful light onto the white wall behind her. It worked.

The lights were triggered by the popped up flash on my Nikon D90 via Nikons nifty CLS system. The pop up flash had the handy IR filter doodad that Nikon produces to keep light from the onboard flash influencing the lighting on the subject, but still allows the camera to communicate via IR signals with the off camera flashes.

Nikon D90, Nikkor 50mm f1.8D "nifty fifty", ISO200, 1/60s, f8.0, hand held, one sb700 Speedlight and one sb600 Speedlight, processed in Adobe Lightroom 4.

Dom Kyrka in Lund Sweden

Nikon D90, Nikkor 35mm f1.8G DX, ISO800, Aperture Priority mode, f1.8, 1/80s, hand held, edited in Corel Paintshop Pro X4.

This lens is remarkably sharp wide open and it is such a pleasure to have that beautiful shallow depth of field in a small sensor camera. Also, at ISO800 the images from the D90 are still great, I hear the new D7000 is miles better. Can't wait to get my grubby little hot sweaty hands on one! ;-)