Fork Knife and Spoon

Things being pregnant have prevented me from doing

2012-02-02T21:28:49Z

Tonight, I begged my fellow Heavy Table photographers to take my place at a celebratory Sausage Fest, a fundraiser for Twin Cities Daily Planet. Copious amounts of free sausage, a good social and networking opportunity and plenty of gorgeous pictures to be taken hold no candle to recovering from a long week of working hard (well, hard for a 26 week woman pregnant with twins) while parking my ass on the couch and letting Kyle cook dinner for me and the boys. Fortunately others couldn't resist (or really, are just very sweet and are taking pity on me) and my ideal night has come though. It's also my dearest friend Claudia's birthday celebration, which I will also forgo for a relaxing episode of Law and Order: SVU. Truth: kids do change you.

Cornbread stuffing... and a bit of news.

2011-11-23T13:16:00Z

So, if you're anything like me, you're a stickler for specific thanksgiving recipes. Generally there are a few things on the table I can't stand, and a few others I wouldn't change for the world. The former includes candied carrots (yuck!) and cranberry relish (or standard cranberry sauce... neither of which ever find their way onto my plate). And even, honestly, I don't really care about the Turkey! I do enjoy a crunchy wing, some turkey skin and a bit of thigh meat, but when it comes to turkey day, I live for the carbs. Mashed potatoes are a must (with or without gravy, really, I'm not picky) some brussels sprouts for good measure (I will post my "brussels sprouts for people who hate brussels sprouts recipe one day, perhaps) and of course, stuffing! Now, I'm not talking about that goopy substance that sticks to your fork as a byproduct of milk soaked bread. I'm sure your mother makes a delicious version of that, and that's great, but the stuffing I grew up on is moist but not gelatinous, flavorful, good with gravy or without and works well stuffed into a bird or out, depending on your opinion on the matter. Oh, and it includes two of the best ingredients on earth; cornbread and sausage. Not that "cornbread" that comes in stuffing mix bags, but freshly baked, home made cornbread. Yum. So yum in fact, that Kyle suggested I make my family's stuffing for dinner last night, two days before Thanksgiving. This sounded perfect to me, given that since finding out I'm pregnant, my desire to eat meat has been limited to pieces of it being mixed in with things. Oh, did I forget to mention, I'm pregnant?

Okay, this was really a scapegoat of a post for me to tell you in my own weird "I'm not good at big announcements" way that I'm pregnant. I will still give you a picture of the cornbread and recipe at the end of the post (what, food is important too!). But first! Let's focus on the babies, and yes, that would be children, plural. The twins are expected to show up next year on May 9th, and we couldn't be more thrilled, and quite frankly, a little scared. But mostly, thrilled! We've been wanting this for a long time and every day we grow more excited about expanding the Sommers clan. Today marks my 16th week of pregnancy, and I'm definitely starting to look the part.

Left to right, weeks 10, 12, 14 and 15

The first trimester was a mixed bag of being excited to be pregnant, scared of miscarriage, feeling like SHIT and being unbearably tired. But my energy is back (to a degree) and my appetite is quite healthy. I still haven't had a hamburger in over 3 months (sad face), but for the most part my eating habits have returned and then some. If more than 2-3 hours go by without a bite of food WATCH OUT! Kyle has been an amazing partner throughout, taking care of me and not judging me when all I could eat was Mac and cheese for days on end (Kraft is what I wanted, but I settled for Annie's blue box to give me peace of mind) and allowing me to live while barely lifting a finger. Now that I'm in my 2nd trimester I try to make compromises with myself so that he doesn't have to do everything, but sometimes just getting up for a glass of water takes more energy than I can fathom.

Otherwise, things have gotten a bit "boring" on my front, which I love. Wedding season is over, and I've been focusing on ME, which I hope to continue throughout. Staying at home on weekend nights watching movies and making dinner is just my speed, and my 9-10pm bedtime is pretty much set in stone. We plan to find out the sexes next month (regardless of the many opinions out there regarding this decision) and can't wait to start decorating the designated baby room as soon as we clean all the shit out of there (it's been serving as an enormous walk in closet for about 2 years now...) I've gone to prenatal yoga once, and have been working out with a trainer to build up my strength. Since I'm considered "high risk" becaus of the multiples factor, I go into the Dr every 2 weeks for an ultrasound to make sure my body isn't doing anything it shouldn't be. While some people might find this annoying I LOVE seeing them move around every two weeks! It's amazing how fast they're growing in there, and I love watching my body change along with them. At this point, it makes me so grateful to have a twin pregnancy, because I love that i'm changing so rapidly. Ask me again at 30 weeks and I'm sure you'll get a different story.

Week 16, heads together

So... that's that! Here's that stuffing recipe for you*:

Cornbread Stuffing From Time Life Foods of the World: American Cooking

8 T butter
1 1⁄2 c finely chopped onio
1 lb sausage meat
1⁄2 t salt
freshly ground pepper
2 t fresh thyme leaves
1⁄4 c finely chopped parsley
1⁄4 c dry madiera or sherry
1⁄4 c heavy cream

Instructions:

Cornbread for stuffing

1 ½ C. yellow cornmeal
1 C. all-purpose flour
1 t. salt
1 T. baking powder
2 eggs
½ C. melted butter
1 ½ C. milk

Preheat the oven to 400º. Sift dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Beat the eggs lightly, stir in the milk and add the melted butter. Pour into the bowl of dry ingredients and beat together for about a minute, or until smooth. Do not overbeat. Lightly butter an 8-by-12 inch shallow baking pan and pour in the batter. Bake in the center of the oven for about 30 minutes, or until the bread comes slightly away from the edge of the pan and is golden brown.
While your cornbread is baking:
Melt the butter in a large, heavy skillet, add the chopped onions and cook over moderate heat for 6 to 8 minutes, or until they color lightly. Scrape them in into a large mixing bowl. Add the sausage to the skillet, now set over medium heat, and break the meat up with a fork as it cools. When the meat is lightly browned, transfer it to a sieve set over a small bowl and let the fat drain through. Combine the drained sausage meat, cornbread crumbs, salt a few grindings of pepper, the thyme and parsley. With a large spoon, gently stir the ingredients together, then moisten with the sherry and cream. Taste for seasoning.

(The original recipes calls to brown the turkey liver in butter, then to chop and add it as well, but my mom always puts it in the gravy. I on the other hand usually end up with a Kosher Bird which doesn't include the innards)

*It seems I've posted this recipe before. But perhaps that reiterates how much I love it. Plus, this picture is WAY better

Another Season, Another Sale

2011-09-30T11:00:00Z

I can hardly believe it's been a year since my friends Rae and Meghan started up their IMMEDIATELY successful Mighty Swell Vintage pop up shop. Mighty Swell is the number one reason I've all but stopped buying clothes at regular retail outlets (aside from the occasional tank top, tights or jeans) Their clothes are adorable, in great shape and stylish, not to mention very kind to the pocketbook (unless of course you're like me and buy bag loads at every sale). Here are a few pictures I snapped for their First Anniversary Sale sneak peeks on Facebook, (styled by the lovely Rae Alexis Danneman) Make sure you swing by their spot at 3109 E 42nd Street in South Minneapolis Saturday or Sunday to spruce up your fall waredrobe! Oh, and fellas, this season's sale has LOADS of Mens Wear too!

Hello, Gorgeous!

2011-09-13T21:19:23Z

Oh, what? You thought you'd never hear from me again? Well, it turns out the kitchen remodel took a little longer than expected (three months), and if you can't cook on a food blog, what's the point. Does that mean I'll blog with regularity again? No promises there, but I've definitely had requests to post pictures of our 99.5% complete kitchen, so here it goes.

First off, i would definitely recommend you check out this post before reading any further. You definitely need a reminder of how gross our kitchen started compared to how it looks today.

Okay, did you check? Because really, you need the reminder. Here's that link again.

Alright, now I trust you remember the crappy laminate covered by crappy ikea flooring. and the ugly cabinets. and the sink to the left of the window. Are you dying of anticipation? Good! Behold, heavenly kitchen:

Not too shabby, right? I'm really happy with the way everything turned out. I of course have a few wishes, and we ran into a few issues along the way but damn, that looks magazine worthy... well maybe if we didn't cook so we didn't have so much stuff on our countertops.

Things that had to chang/things that will change/things I wish were different:

The floors. It was sad sad day when we realized the white stained floors weren't going to cut it. The beautiful greyish color and all the character went to hell when the poly cured and turned yellow. Now don't get me wrong, I like yellow. But not on floors that are meant to be white/grey. And not the color yellow that immediately makes you think about urine. Yeah. Sorry guys. So the floors have been painted white and hot damn, white they are. Guess what! That means everything shows up on them. This also means I clean the floors 3 times a week, so that can't be a bad thing, right? I tried to find a good solution to the cleaning, starting first with a Shark steamer (you can read my review of that piece of shit here) and now with the Bona system recommended by my mom. Is it perfect? No. Does it work better than anything aside from scrubbing the floors on your hands and knees? So far, yes. And if you think I'm EVER going to clean this floors on hands and knees you are SORELY mistaken my friend. Maybe if we'd found a more natural/water based poly for the stained wood they would been okay, but as far as I'm concerned, that route is not for me. And hopefully, since the floors ARE made of hard (well soft) wood (pine) they'll shift and give me a little more of that rustic look we were going for. They'll definitely get grooves in them as they wear, and I'm totally okay with that. Groves = character as far as i'm concerned.
The shelves. I love the open shelving we went with. I think it keeps the space nice and open, and we do have lots of pretty things to go on the shelves. But also, some not so pretty things, or things that don't match. Now on my list of things to buy are water glasses, about 500 new pieces of pyrex, fiesta and le cruset (okay, not quite that many, but more... that match). I also envisioned them being darker (reclaimed?) but cost was starting to become an issue so we went with raw bitch (real birch, not ikea birch). I think that with time they'll darken a bit, but i might also like to stain them one day. We'll see!
The Laundry station. Totally temporary... and by temporary I mean i will probably stay that way for 10 years. I'd like to replace that 110 year old drafty window with one at the same height as the sink window, so we can put the washer and dryer side by side and enclose them. Imperative? Definitely not. Right now the clothes on the station are what's holding up that vintage table cloth (which is hiding our recycling). We obviously need a more permanent solution for that in the meantime.
The counter height stools. West elm has our stools on backorder until Mid october (jerks!) but they're pretty. (The ones with backs. As far as kyle is concerned, a stool is not a seat unless it has a back. He clearly doesn't have the perfect posture I do from 13 years of Violin playing)

Oh, look. The design of those kitchens are QUITE! reminiscent of ours. Obviously I should be an interior designer. I'm sure they're lots of room for that in a down economy, right? The stools we have in place now are from ikeas "as is" section (30% off, already assembled!) and I figure they'll be helpful when we have people over and are all hanging out in the kitchen.

The light fixture. It's exactly what I wanted but because of weird wiring (thank you 115+ year old house) we can't JUST turn the light fixture above the sink on. Which means all the recessed lights are on when it is, and the pretty edison light bulb isn't a focal point. Whatevs.
Spice racks. Right now our spices are either hidden or hanging out by the open pantry. Left of the fridge there is wall space waiting for me to hang spice racks I got from ikea. I plan to "hack" them a bit, because I don't really like the dowl

Things I couldn't be more happy about:

Ikea cabinets. Way cheaper than pretty much any box cabinets, and they definitely have great functional abilities. We need to rearrange the interior some of them so we can put a garbage can and compost bin inside, rather than having it in the far corner of the room (very convenient).
Bowling lane countertops. They are SO PRETTY! And easy to clean. We did decide we're not going to cut on them (!) because they're just too pretty. we have some rements in the garage that will eventually turn into nice butcherblock cutting boards for use on the concrete countertops, but for now, that bamboo one, and our many mini ones do the trick just fine.
Concrete countertop. Also: GORGEOUS! adds a slight industrial edge to the room without being too grimy. Also, super easy to clean
The sink. Also ikea. lovely, functional and seemly far more expensive than it was
The faucet. am i a lame ass or what? I wanted to stick to chrome for a more 'authentic' look, but EVERYTHING is brushed nickle these days. I'm sorry, but i'm not 50 and i don't live in the suburbs. BRING ON THE CHROME! the head of the faucet pulls down and functions as the sink sprayer too. Huzzah!
Subway tile. I love it, and that's all you need to know
The drawerpulls, $4 a piece. I searched and searched for vintage drawer pulls, but found nothing the style i wanted, or enough of the same style.

I obviously have plenty of work to do regarding decorating, window treatments and organization, but what do you think? Is it your dream kitchen? What would you have done differently?

Bang Trim

2011-06-03T00:13:30Z

30 Days of Creativity

2011-06-02T00:07:31Z

Well friends, no the kitchen is not yet done, but I'm hell bent on doing something with this here blog to resuscitate it before it is pronounced DOA.

Enter 30 days of creativity (or if you will #30daysofcreativity). Since I'm not about to lug my d700 with me everywhere I go, and since I haven't yet been able to get my hands on a Fuji X100 I've become quite accustomed to shooting every day images with my iPhone 4. Is it the best camera in the world? No, but it's convenient and ALWAYS at my side. And is taking pictures every day really "creative?" Again, no because I almost do everyday anyway. To amp up the challenge to myself I've decided to stick strictly to pictures looking downward. This is actually one of my favorite ways of composing, and I'd like to think doing one (or 10) shots a day of looking down will help me fine tune this process, and have fun in the meantime. I doubt I'll get around to posting a picture on the blog daily (though apparently, I CAN blog from my phone) but it's worth a shot!

Peace Coffee Shop/"Stripes"

Photography for fun

2011-05-05T10:19:00Z

It's not often these days that I get to take pictures just because I want to. Sure, I did that when we vacationed in Mexico, but taking the time to edit and color correct all of those pictures always seems like a daunting task when I have PLENTY of other pictures to sort though for, you know, pay. When I was invited to a photo walk with my friend Erin and her co-worker, I decided it might be a nice time to take a handful of pictures that I could quickly and easily sort through. Quick and easy was right, I only took around 30 pictures, and I like about half of them (amazing!).

Since I was taking time for me, I gave each image two looks. Some of them I like both, some only one, and a couple I did so quickly that they just look over processed, but this is for FUN so, who cares.*

Doesn't the color of the river just make you want to grab some lunch?

That's better

Classic

I seriously could not get this image to do what I wanted and what I was left with reminded me of a business card. Voila!

I couldn't really get the composition on this one the way that I wanted because of a hard sun behind me casting a shadow on the dandelion field.

This is definitely my favorite of the day. I like the 2nd version a tiny bit better, even though it's amost exactly the same.

I added a layer to create a bit more softness on this one, an I think it makes the water/lines/bokeh a little more magical.

Oh, I do like this one a lot too. I have to admit I blew out the sky in post and got rid of some clouds, but it was pretty close to this to begin with

I might make a print out of this one. I love adding a light pink hue to otherwise industrial or manly things. It adds just a touch of romance (because I'm such a gushing romantic)

I am happy to admit I totally went overboard in post on this one. But if I spent time on making this look perfect, the blog post would never happen, and then Erin would be mad at me.

I like the B&W version of this SO much more

I was kind of sad Annie didn't have her hair in Pigtails today, but her adorable shirt and cardigan combo totally made up for it. I would wear this outfit in a heartbeat.

Another one that feels SO different in color and B&W. I like them both, but the B&W reminds me of my days in the dark room.

The only reason I like this one is the vantage point. Usually you just see the stone arch bridge with downtown in the background. This way you see a modern boring office building!

One of my biggest challenges as a wedding photographer is taking pictures in well known Twin Cities locations and getting those pictures to look different from everyone elses. Certainly we all have our own aesthetic, use different settings, lighting and poses, but the stone arch bridge is always going to the Stone Arch Bridge. I tried to approach our walk with the same mentality. How'd I do?

Many thanks to Janelle for organizing the walk! It was great to finally meet you and be the subject of your portrait lesson :)

*Since I wanted to get all of this up on the internet, I did all of my post work on my laptop which I would NEVER do for paying clients. My apologies for muddy and inconsistent colors.

In the mean time...

2011-04-29T11:10:00Z

In between eating out, eating frozen food and lots of yogurt while our kitchen slowly but surely becomes workable, I've kept my shutter busy taking picture of things that aren't food OR wedding related (I know, right?). My friends Rae and Meghan have been busy setting up their amazing vintage pop-up shop, Mighty Swell in South Minneapolis. When they asked if I would shoot their promo pictures, I jumped at the chance to try something new and they turned out amazingly! I'll soon be posting a more complete post about the shoot and some samples over on my "official" blog , but a few images were featured in the City Pages and Vita.Mn this week because the sale is going to be amaze-balls!

Mighty Swell

April 30th and May 1st

3109 East 42nd Street

Minneapolis, MN

mightyswell.com

Demolished

2011-04-12T00:40:00Z

When we started shopping for houses back in February of 2008, it was more for "fun". I mean, it's kind of hard to take purchasing a building seriously. The biggest factor of this purchase was for me, the kitchen. Of course there were other parameters that I found needed to be addressed too. Hardwood floors were a must, and plenty of space so that we wouldn't have to move out when we decided to start a family (I really hate moving) charm, of course. But the biggest factor of our purchase was potential. We saw an adorable 900 square foot house that was in perfect, ready to move in condition, complete with updated kitchen. But we want kids, and we have a pretty terrible tendency of collecting stuff, not to mention it was listed at $179,000, the very top of our price range.

I have a distant memory of walking into the house we now call a home today. Empty and carpeted, the only thing I really remember liking was the backyard, the high ceilings, and the size. It was one of the first (if not THE first) house we visited, and the only object in the house was a dried chili pepper on the counter top, which Ephraim pointed out, suggesting we find one object or feature of a house that stands out to help us remember all of the things we'd see that day.

My memory continues to fade regarding the next few details, but I beleive we went out and looked at houses another day, but decided to look at the large carpeted farmhouse a second time that day. on the car ride home, decided we would figure out how to get our money together and make an offer. We ended up paying the asking price, with stipulations that certain aspects would be taken care of before we moved in, including the tune up of an inefficient furnace, venting an air vent outside (instead of into the attic, what the hell?) and the stainless steal garbage can located in the mudroom off the back entry. We never did get that damn garbage can...

Now, back to priorities. The kitchen was UGLY. Drop ceiling, florescent lights, vinyl flooring and hallow vaneer doors, not to mention very little counter space, ridiculously high set cabinets and no storage to speak of. But it was BIG. Hovering just around 300 square feet, I could envision the possibilities that one day could be the kitchen I've always wanted.

(we still have the tire swing)

And thanks to my booming photography business (the same thing that keeps me away from this blog) this year we actually had the money to remodel. Three quotes and six months later, the kitchen is underway! I cannot tell you how exciting this is to us! Granted, it sucks not even being able to boil a pot of water, I feel so fortunate that we're finally able to do the project we envisioned since day one.

You can see that we had already made some changes. The drop ceiling was the first to go (along with those horrible lights) and new floors put in. Sadly, we had a less than positive experience with our ikea click and lock bamboo floors. I think part of the issue was installation (having learned to install them at my friend Claudia's house, I don't believe the put in the spacers that prevent the floors from separating from eachother in the dry winter months. Not cool) but they also chipped and warped in a few places. Not to mention EVERYTHING SHOWS UP ON DARK FLOORS! Except maybe coffee grounds. Otherwise, you might want to save the dark floor for a room you keep immaculately clean ALL THE TIME! (ie, not us and definitely not our kitchen).

What? You thought I would sweep and clean the day before demo started? Not likely my friends.

First things first, Micah (the genious behind the kitchen remodel) ripped out the "new" floor and took off the remaining cabinet doors (Kyle had taken some off one day... to see what it looked like. We never put them back on) It also turns out dark colors make things seem smaller, and suddenly the room was huge again (could be because we took all some of the junk out too)

Some more cabinets make their way out...

The framework goes in for the pocket door (!!!) This was the first real "construction" Very exciting!

Thank god for that dishwasher. It's currently hooked up to the sink in the bathroom

It was quite the change of scenery when we got back from vacation!Brand new floors! and Where did the radiator go?

New, reclaimed door for the pocket door in the bathroom

Gorgeous old door replacing shitty laminate door. Win!

Still no radiator, but those black things sticking out of the ground on the right will be the feed and return for our newly repainted (and sadly previously hidden) radiator

Stained and poly-ed floors. I swear I do NOT try to get the cats in all of these pictures.

The floors are a knotty pine, stained white and polyed. The grain and knots show through, which makes the cat hair INVISIBLE!

That's pretty much where we're at today. New drywall is up, paint selected and trim being hung. We bought all of our appliances yesterday (aside from the range hood, which I still have to research) and they're being delivered in a week! I'll keep you posted!

Shameless

2011-03-11T20:36:54Z

Ladies and Gents. I know you're jonesing for some of our beautiful eggs. Well, we're totally jonesing for a new couch in our livingroom. And Blu Dot is totally willing to give us a couch for eggs... well maybe. Only if you deem it worthy! Head to our site, and click the "swap-worthy" button. And click on some of my friends proposals too!