No recipe today

Forgot my written recipe today so y'all are all forced to suffer through more random photos. Try not to cry will ya'. Not a lot for you today; no rantings, no ravings, no Jew jokes, no nuthin'. I am just in a stoic and unimaginative mood. I have class today... should be good though my pictures are not all that great. Again, it is hard as hell to get good pictures when shooting subjects all over a park and having your setting be on manual. I would take some what I thought were great shots only to see that they were completely under- or over-exposed. Its enough to make me want to cry. I'll get over it. Oh and FYI my lazy ass has barely worked out in the past 2 weeks so if you see me out and about call me a fatass and tell me to get to the gym pronto. Thanks a bunch!

Not part of the group homework but I love Sauly peeking out between Matt's legs. What would be better is if I hadn't cut Matt's head off, but I was working with a 50mm prime lens that has no zoom in/out function so I had to take the shot as soon as he did it.

One of my slowww shutter speed pictures. I sort of like it since the car in fronts lights make the car behind give the weird effect of moving but I think the picture is way too busy.

I like this picture of "Running Man" as I prefer to call him. I especially like that his veiny leg is close to crisp (would be better if it was fully crisp). I am going to have to work on my blurred action shot and I really need to use a tripod at all times. I am way too shaky to hold the camera still for long.. long being 80th of a second or more.

This picture is also not for class. I like it because of the extreme graininess which i made more pronounced in photoshop. I don't like it because, again, I was using a 50mm fixed lens.

This shot is showing long depth of field (f14). Not a favorite, but I really like Tracy's expression. It must have been something Sarah said.

Another depth of field shot, this time showing a much shorter depth of field (f4.5 or so), which you can tell by the blur out of Theo in the background. I had some other funny ones of them to with Tracy in front and Theo blurred but they were too close together to really make the photo work so being the impulsive person I am I deleted it without thoughts towards the future. Oh and check out Tracy's rock.. her and Matt are tying the knot soon. Saul will no longer be the bastard child that he is at the moment.

One last depth of field shot. This was taken with the 50mm fixed lens again at a really low ap setting, f 1.8, which made even some of Rory fuzz out.

Hilarious Flickr Groups

So I have a flickr account but right now I only have a few pictures on it. To find me search in people and enter moke076 for my screen name. I will hopefully post all of my pics as soon as I feel like dropping $25 for an unlimited account. Right now I am feeling cheap towards flickr so I am just going to wait out the only-allowed-to-download-a-certain-amount-of-megs-per-month free account, but you never know when I am feeling un-jewish and will pay so I can begin adding all my pictures. Anyway, the reason I bring this up is because I was talking to some friends about how one of my favorite blog sites mentioned some crazy groups on Flickr. I belong to some groups but they are ones that fit in with my pictures' themes so they can get more exposure. For instance some of my groups are Nikon D80 Users, Nikkor 50mm f1.8, and, of course, Dog Days. I do not, however, belong to groups like Granny Panties or Clowns Eat People nor would I have ever known about these groups had List of the Day not posted an enlightening post on hilarious Flickr groups. I ask you all to please go and check out this post. It is rather funny and oh so disturbing.

More Dog Pictures

It seems as though I am turning into my dog parks historian. It is one place I know I can work on my photography skills so I bring the camera a lot with me. I then feel obligated to give the owners their pictures so I feel I am now the sole provider of cute action shots. Its fun though I and I am working on manual mode in my cam so its teaching me a lot about putting setting aperture and shutter speed to get the best picture. The problem is trying to get a good and well laid out shot of a moving dog. Well, composition can wait until I get the basics down. Funny how much harder it is shooting in full manual vs aperture or shutter speed priority or program mode which I LOVE!

Full speed ahead

Someone needs to control their foot fetish

Tag, your it

Look at that concentration

Resting

Also I wanted to let you know that I got a Flat Screen LCD TV. I am pumped!! No, I did not get cable. I knew you were going to ask that. I did however get a fabulous flat antenna so I hope that baby pulls me some mega channels. If not, I will survive. It will be sort of odd if I get more channels because I am so used to watching "that's so raven", "Hannah Montana", and "the suite life of zac and cody" while getting ready on Saturday mornings. Speaking of Saturday mornings, I met up with my bro and nephew this past Saturday morning and we took a fast jet to the plains of the Serengeti and the wilds of China. Isn't it grand to be jet setter like yours truly? I will post pictures of our grand and extremely short trip either today or tomorrow depending on how the mood strikes. I also wanted to let you know that I am sorry for the lack of recipes lately. My goal was 2 to 3 a week and it looks like I am not going to get anywhere near the quota. It's because I have been a lazy sack o' shiz these past 2 weeks and have been eating out almost exclusively. So now cooking=no pictures= no recipes. I am going try and stop this vicious cycle though so I can hope to provide you with some great new recipes soon. Also in the works is Dip Week 2009. Where I will be throwing out a dip recipe out at you, one per day, for a week. You're pumped right. Well mark it on your calendars but that is coming soon. Also had a fabulous meal at Fontaine's in the Highlands yesterday. Ate some deeeeelicious and huge raw oysters, freshly fried okra ( which was in dire need of some seasoning), and perfectly made hush puppies. This food was topped off with some Yuengling, the hot new cheap beer on the Atlanta beer scene. It's no porter or stout but it is cheap and tasty.

Crappy Blogger

I have been a sort of crappy blogger this week. I have had no time to do anything it seems. I did go to Photography class yesterday and learned some new stuff I didn't know. I am going to be doing my homework this weekend and will post the results next week. I will also give y'all a couple of new recipes next weekend. I am now going to leave you with some soothing nature shots so relax, turn up the bird call cd, and focus. Have a grrrrrrreat weekend.

*All images were taken at Sope Creek in Marietta

The Tudors

My dad loves history. He only reads non-fiction books about historical events. He loves traveling to places and reading every historic plaque in sight as well as seeing every historic site that place has to offer. I distinctly remember going to Canada with my dad, mom, and brother and my dad dragging us from the oldest church on this side of the hemisphere to the largest church, to the church with the most windows, to the church with the tallest steeple etc. The fact that my dad drug us to all these places is ironic since we are jewish. I dont know of many jews who go on Church tours, but my dad will gladly fill that niche. My brother and I would whine, bitch, and complain but to no avail. We still saw every intriguing church that Toronto and Quebec City had to offer.

Fast forward to high school. History was my least favorite subject.

Lemon Spaghetti recipe

I told you I would hook you up with this recipe. I had been meaning to make this recipe ever since I bought Giada De Laurentiiss’ cookbook last year, but it seems that I never had fresh lemons or I always would use them before I got to this recipe. For once, I bought a lot of extra lemons and had all the other ingredients on hand (rare for me) so I decided to try this recipe out. The one thing I didn’t have was spaghetti but I did have a package of rotini and I figured that would be good to hold the sauce. The one thing I forgot to do when making this recipe was reserve some of the pasta water. Oh well I think it turned out pretty well anyways.

This recipe is very quick and takes very few ingredients which is always nice. Be sure and use the freshest ingredients because of the simplicity of the dish. If you use less then a pkg of pasta then tone down the rest of the ingredients. If you don’t like overly acidic foods, then either use less lemon juice or don’t make this dish.J This would be a great dish to accompany fish or just throw some cooked shrimp or chicken in with it. Good eats my friends!

Ingredients
-1 pkg of spaghetti or any noodle you prefer
-2/3 cup olive oil
-2/3 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Regiano
-1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
-Salt and freshly ground black pepper
-1 tablespoon lemon zest
-13 cup chopped fresh basil leaves

Directions
-Cook the pasta in a large pot of boiling salted water until tender but still firm to the bite, stirring occasionally.
-Whisk the oil, Parmesan, and lemon juice in a large bowl to blend.
-Drain the pasta, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid.
-Toss the pasta with the lemon sauce, and the reserved cooking liquid, adding 1/4 cup at a time as needed to moisten.
-Add salt and pepper to taste.
-Add lemon zest and basil and toss.

Braves Game

Bark in the Park @ the Braves Game. Always fun, much cooler this year than last.

Eating through the world

Actually, I was eating through Atlanta. It was fun, but I gained about 5 lbs or so. Never mind, I would prefer to say I gained 2.3 kg, it make me sound less fatty. I think I am going to start telling people my weight in kilograms too because it makes me sound so tiny. For instance, 150 lbs = 68 kg. Isn't that awesome? Ah, what we ladies do to hide our real weight. Too bad mass converters are all over the Internet.

Getting back on subject now: my weekly eating went as follows (I would just like to add that I ordered multiple dishes for you people so that you (and I) could get a full flavor of the regional cuisines eaten. I still have leftovers in my fridge because of this) Say Thank You Stephanie:

-Mexican chicken soup at Caramba Cafe on Monday (no Pictures)

-Vegetable plate at Cottage Ethiopian Restaurant (no Pictures)

-Lemon spaghetti from Giada's Italian cookbook (recipe this week)

-Chicken Rendang at Hot Spice Malaysian Restaurant

-Hae Mool Paejon (seafood pancake), Bibimbap (rice/vegetable dish), and various free accoutrement's at So Kong Dong Korean (no jokes please;))

-Stir-fried Peruvian chicken and seafood ceviche at Machu Picchu Peruvian Restaurant

-Falafel sandwich and hummus appetizer at Mediterranean Grill

All in all, a delicious and pricey week. I think I will be eating/cooking in for the next month. Hope y'all enjoyed my around the world eating adventure. This should inspire you to get out and try some new regional cuisines.

Jack Handy Quote of the Week

"If you define cowardice as running away at the first sign of danger, screaming and tripping and begging for mercy, then yes, Mr. Brave man, I guess I'm a coward."
-Deep Thoughts with Jack Handy

Around the World

Yesterday, while I was driving home from work, I realized how very hungry I was. I had only eaten a piece of Banana Bread for breakfast and a lean cuisine sandwich for lunch, delicious but not at all filling. While I was driving home I racked my brain for what I was going to eat for dinner. I was so hungry that I wanted to get takeout because I didn't think I could handle waiting to get home and then having to cook a meal. What type of take out to get was now the big question? Mexican- no, had that Monday. Ethiopian (my new addiction)- nope, ate that Tuesday. Italian- no, cooked up some lemon spaghetti on Wednesday. Thai/Malaysian- mmmhhh sounds good. Thai/Malaysian it is. I called in the order to Hot Spice near Ansley Mall so I could drop by and pick it up as I drove past. After placing the order, I was sitting in traffic and my mind wandered back to what I had eaten all week.

I had a delicious bowl of steaming hot mexican chicken soup at Caramba Cafe on Monday. Caramba Cafe is a tex-mex family run joint on Highland across from Alons. I only ever get their soup because it always clears my sinuses out and everything else is pretty fattening. I like Caramba alright, my good friends LOVE it, but they have the shittiest service of any restaurant ever. I have been there dozens of times because of said friends and have always had the same service problems there. On Tuesday, I went to Cottage Ethiopian Restaurant for dinner. Cottage Ethiopian is in an old Burger King spot and looks sketch on the outside. The inside however is fairly decent and the veg plate is very good, especially the shiro (spicy ground chickpeas). I am a new fan of Ethiopian thanks to my friends Matt and Tracey. They introduced me to it a couple of months ago and I now get cravings for it just like I do with Vietnamese food. Wednesday night I actually cooked at home and made a dish out of Giada De Laurentiiss' cookbook. The dish was awesome and I will be posting the recipe sometime soon so look forward to that.

Thinking about these dinners as well as the up-n-coming chicken rendang dish I was about to go pick up made me realize that I have had 3 different ethnic meals this past week and I was about to eat another. This made me come up with the idea that for the rest of the week I am going to continue in the spirit of eating around the world. Since I have already covered Mexican, Thai/Malaysian, Ethiopian, and Italian I now need to finish the week and weekend off with 3 more ethnic meals. I will be posting a blog and pictures on my upcoming meals. The only ones I don't have pictures of is Ethiopian and Mexican and I might have to revisit Ethiopian on Monday to get a good photo in. I already have a semi-plan formed for today and the rest of this weekends food. For lunch, my co-workers and I are going to So Kong Dong, a Korean restaurant on Buford Hwy. I am excited about this because I have never had Korean. For this weekend I am going to make one meal Mediterranean and the other one is a toss up between Indian or Peruvian. I will let you know on Monday as well as post pictures of my food travels. That being said, I think that you, my reader, should also try and make a day this weekend to go out and eat some unamerican food. Its always fun to try new things and I guarantee that you will like something on the menu.