Friday, July 8, 2016 I've been cooking a lot since my son was born, and even more since my dad had seven-bypass surgery. This way, I can plan and make healthier, more balanced meals than we'd been having before and we don't spend as much income on eating out. Sometimes the meals are pretty and tasty, so I like to photograph them. I'm new to food photography, and I've never been so keen on cooking until this year, so we can say this is somewhat amateur work, but it documents the dishes well and maybe offers ideas for other families.

Here were the first food shots from Duck Donuts that began inspiring my food shots. Of course, those were neither healthy nor baked by me. One of my piano students brought me one and then I had to get some for Brett to try. :)

Here are the Sunday brunches I've been coming up with, they generally consist of ingredients leftover from the week as well as a few produce ingredients from the local farmer's market. One involves a berry clafoutis and lentil soup with peach tea, cream, and biscuit, another involves a cheese omelet with baked bacon and what hash browns we had leftover, and finally there is a braided savory pastry filled with what curried venison meats, onions and cheese we had leftover. I love savory pastries and my husband loves sweets, so it works out for us to have things like that once a week.

This is a venison burger made with ground venison that Brett's paw paw sent us, with sweet potato fries, and I made jalapeño cornbread and Brunswick stew for Brett since he'd never had it. The image isn't the greatest, but those are the leftovers he felt the need to take to work for one of his co-workers to sample. The final image is of squash, cabbage, a bit of leftover ham, and tomato gravy over southern biscuits. Brett hadn't had squash that tasted good before nor had he had tomato gravy and biscuits, so I felt he needed to try this. Here's the Brunswick stew recipe and the jalapeño corn bread: http://www.food.com/recipe/brunswick-stew-georgia-style-chicken-pork-32386

http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/jalapeno_cornbread/

I don't remember where I got the recipes for the rest of it, so...if nothing else, there's inspiration. :)

These are Indian and Pakistani curried meals, and one peanut chicken dish. The Pakistani beef curry was fantastic, and it involved sweet potatoes. Here is the recipe for that: http://wholenewmom.com/recipes/ground-hamburger-ground-recipes-recipes-for-indian/ The Indian curry was not runny enough for our preference, but it was delicious. Those little yellowish-white squares are paneer, which is a hardened cheese made from milk. Brett likes to make homemade paneer, but it can be bought from the local Indian grocery store for convenience-sake. If you're getting Indian spices, I recommend getting them from an Indian grocery store because they are much more affordable than from another grocery store like HEB or Harris Teeter or Lowes Foods or Wal-Mart.

Speaking of Wal-Mart...

Day 260

It's not good, I know, but sometimes we go to Wal-Mart...because budget.

Here is Brett's favorite-slow-cooker chicken flautas--they're super easy to make, and you can get the recipe here: http://www.lecremedelacrumb.com/2014/10/slow-cooker-creamy-chipotle-chicken-taquitos.html

Day 276

And the latest creation--pan-fried plantains, black bean soup, and Cuban-inspired sammiches.

Anyway, that's all for now. I'll add more later just to update the site. Otherwise, it's just been keeping up with the Silas daily photo for a year project: https://silasking.wordpress.com

Until later! <3