Bring on the Eyes!

Now that my wonderful weekend with Nick has ended, I am sad, but also happy to have my time to myself back. It's always so hard when he comes home because we have to run around and make sure we see everyone (family, friends, etc.) in a matter of a few days, which definitely gets tiring. It's also hard because with him being away all of the time, I am very used to being able to do whatever I want. Whenever I want. This is not the case when he is home because we want to spend all of our alone time actually hanging out - different than a couple who sees each other all of the time.

So anyway, as much as I didn't want Nick to leave, I am excited to work on some things that I really need to get done. My cousin's wedding invitations for example. They are basically done and now that there are only a few minor changes to make in order for them to be printed, I'm putting it off until the last minute. More about these in a later post - when they are printed! And assembled ;)

As for today's post, I have an amazing picture of my niece that I have made even more amazing - if that was even possible because she is perfect to begin with!

The first photo below is the before, which I actually cannot take credit for capturing. It just so happened that the few minutes I actually let Nick use the camera on Sunday he was in the perfect position for this shot.

The second photo is the after shot with cropping and actions applied. I did a series of things to get the look I was going for. First, because Addy has gorgeous blue eyes, I wanted to make them stand out more than they already do so I applied the 'Bring on the Eyes!' action from PW. Next, I wanted the photo to be black and white so I applied the 'B&W Beauty' action. However, I didn't actually want the entire image to be black and white. I wanted her eyes to stand out and be blue. How do you do that you ask? Well, I made sure that I was on the black and white layer in my photoshop file and then clicked on my eraser, selected the corrected size circle and erased out the B&W area from Addy's eyes to reveal the blue. The result is what you see below! Also, just an FYI, if you apply the 'Bring on the Eyes!' action and then the 'B&W Beauty' action on TOP of that, you will still have brighter eyes, just in B&W form so it really is worth it to layer actions.

SOOTC


ACTIONS: 'Bring on the Eyes!' and 'B&W Beauty'

New Posts on the Way

Thanks for the feedback, Caili. :) I was actually thinking of posting a 'how-to' on these amazingly delicious STUFFED (working on getting that part right) s'mores cupcakes that I made over the weekend. When I get another chance to make them (possibly this weekend...), I will most definitely post a 'how-to' because EVERYONE needs to know how to make them.

Also, I will be doing more photography posts in the very near future, hopefully outlining how I utilize PW's action sets.

In the meantime, however, please ponder the logos below. I am FINALLY starting my own etsy shop (site not yet ready) to sell my photography, stationary, monograms and invitations. If you are checking this out, please take the time to provide feedback. It's MUCH appreciated!!!!

We Believe!

Photo: 'We Believe The Movie'

Ok, so this is a shameless attempt to get a song by my cousin's band into a movie. It called 'We Believe The Movie' and is about the Chicago Cubs. There are currently 30 songs in the running to be in the movie, but only one winner will make the cut. Please go this page on the 'We Believe The Movie' website and vote for them!

Their band name is Inchworm and the song in the running is 'Silent Observers'.

Keep your fingers crossed that they win!!!!!!!

P.S. My cousin is the drummer.... he's awesome!
P.P.S. Please vote early and often ;)
P.P.P.S. Click on the star farthest to the right to give them 5 Stars!!!!

Thanks!!!

Oh, and one more thing:
GO CUBS GO, GO CUBS GO! HEY CHICAGO, WHAT DO YOU SAY? THE CUBS ARE GOING TO WIN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lusting for Le Creuset

With the weather warming up, I am once again finding the desire to be domestic. I wandered onto the Sur la Table website today looking for a cover for the fancy knife I got for Christmas. Much to my disappointment, I did not find the knife cover, but was welcomed by something beautiful on the main page.

I have been in love with Le Creuset ever since the first time I laid eyes on one of their pieces. The enameled finish, the steel, the stoneware. In all forms, it is beautiful. To cook with Le Creuset, is to cook with a high quality product that just makes you smile while using it. Or at least that's what I imagine it would be like because I don't yet own one.....*sigh*

However, after spotting this stockpot for a mere $39.95, I think it might be time for me and Le Creuset to unite in cooking harmony :)

Le Creuset Enameled Steel Stockpot - $39.95 at Sur la Table

photo: Sur La Table Website

Oh, and of course I also spotted another Le Creuset gem I've got my eye on. It's an adorable little spice jar that I'm thinking I could use for sea salt. Because it's so pretty, I can leave it out on the counter where it would be most useful, and not have to worry about trying to hide it.

Le Creuset Spice Jar - $17.95 at Sur la Table
photo: Sur La Table Website

Now, I just need to decide on a color. I'm debating between cobalt and caribbean blue. But I also really like the red.....

i am a posting MACHINE

Ok, so I CANNOT stop playing with these Photoshop actions. I had this picture, also taken at Houston Zoo, and decided to try applying some actions to it. After trying a few different things, I came up with the two options below, which are just the beginning of endless possibilities. I mentioned before how easy actions are, but something else really cool about the actions is that you can modify the layers once the action has been applied. Soooooo, even though these are Ree's actions, they are mine, too because I modified the layers to give them the effect I wanted.

I think either modified option below could look really cool in a black wooden frame with a cream photo mat. I also really like the SOOC shot, but I think it's harder to put full-color photos on the wall and make them look right. But that just might be me.....

Thoughts?!?!

ORIGINAL: Straight-out-of-Camera (but cropped)

ACTION: Soft & Faded
ACTION: Sepia

Looking a Little Jaundice?

So when I was happily applying actions to my photo from yesterday, I thought I had enhanced it by applying both the Fresh & Colorful and Warmer actions. However, the more I look at the final photo, the less I like it. I think it looks like I accidentally gave my poor little niece Jaundice. But I also don't know if I like the original photo either - it seems to be a bit on the reddish side. I think I'm going to rework the photo, maybe only trying the Fresh and Colorful action and see what I come up with...

I might even try some other actions as well, probably just one at a time for now though. I think I was getting a little ahead of myself with this layering business.

Anyway, stay tuned for what I come up with next. And even though I only have one follower (thanks, Kelly) and one other reader (thanks, Caili), if you have any tips, suggestions, etc. let me know. I would loooooooooooooooove some feedback because sometimes I am my own worst enemy and look at my work with a more critical/ judgmental eye than other people do. So tell me, what do you think??????

I looooooove me some Photoshop actions!

As much as I like to think I can "design" and am "creative", I always seem to struggle with one of the best design programs out there. Photoshop. It might be all of the different options and me never having taken a class or reading the manual, but I'm just not the biggest fan. I MUCH prefer working in Illustrator and InDesign. HOWEVER, as I mentioned in my last post, PW's Actions are the GREATEST! And even to someone who is not the most well-aquainted with Photoshop, the actions are E-A-S-Y, which is the best part. You can apply an action to a photo just by pressing the 'play' button. And Ree has even made it easy to remove an action if you don't like the effect by pressing the play button on another action that's sole purpose is to undo already applied actions. Genius. I've been spending a lot of my free time lately playing around with all of the different actions on all different kinds of photos. I've even LAYERED actions. Ohhh. Ahhh. I know. Crazy.

I've also been working on cropping my photos, trying to create the most eye-pleasing composition. I don't know if this is the best crop for this photo, but I really liked it and didn't know what else to do with it because of the white column in the way.....

ORIGINAL: Straight-out-of-Camera (SOOC)

ORIGINAL: Crop

CROP with ACTIONS: Sunshine, Fresh & Colorful, & Bring out those eyes! (at least I think those were the three actions I used....)

What do you think????? How would you have cropped the picture? Oh, and that's my niece. Isn't she just the CUTEST?!?!?!

Bloggers Block

Every time I think about my blog, which happens to be EVERY day when I catch up on all of the wonderful blogs I follow, I want to post. However, it all seems good in theory, but when I sit down to write, I've got nothing. Part of my problem is that I come up with ideas, but usually decide people will think they are stupid posts, so I ditch the idea, thinking I will come up with something better later. Well, I've decided that I have to stop being so judgemental of myself and just post when/what I want to without worrying whether people will find it interesting or not. I realize that not every post will appeal to all people, but you can't live to please everyone, everyday.

While I don't post on my own blog very often, I read a number of blogs on a daily (well, almost daily...) basis. One of my FAVORITE blogs is The Pioneer Woman. Ree Drummond, the woman behind the fantastic blog is probably the epitome of who I hope to be someday. She is a witty and well-composed writer who is also a fantastic cook, AWESOME photographer and creative. I am so lucky to have been pointed in the direction of her blog because she often posts photography and Photoshop tips. One of the GREATEST things she has done was to create different Photoshop actions and post them on her blog....FOR FREE! It makes it so easy to take your photos and quickly apply different affects to them.

I've been doing a little playing around with the actions on some of the billions of pictures I took while in Houston a little over a month ago. I had some shots from the Houston Zoo that I was really proud of and although I liked them straight out of the camera, I wanted to see what Ree's actions could do for them.

Here is just a sampling of what I've been up to.

ORIGINAL: Straight out of the Camera

ACTION: Fresh and Colorful

What do you think??? Pretty sweet, huh?!?!?!?!?

Drinking lots of water = good. Lots of bathroom breaks = not so good.

Ok, so this whole posting two days in a row is new to me, but I HAD to share with you one of my greatest purchases ever.

Saturday when Jen and I were on our very long, food binging walk, we wandered into Uncle Dan's on Southport where I picked up the GREATEST water bottle ever. I had been wanting to get a SIGG ever since hearing that my beloved Nalgenes could possibly cause cancer. However, seeing as though I own 6, yes, 6 Nalgene's, I wasn't jumping at the chance to spend $25+ on a water bottle. Although, now that I have, I will never go back. I love the beautiful purple metallic and the smaller mouth opening of my SIGG. So much so that I had countless liters of water yesterday and believe I have already consumed about 3 liters today as well. Which leads me to the second part of this post. I am so excited to drink out of my pretty water bottle that I have already gone to the bathroom over 4 times today! That is just not normal. I think I may have to layoff the water or just train my body so I'm not spending the better part of my work day in the bathroom :)

Oh, and another bonus of the SIGG versus a Nalgene, even when the 1 liter bottle (what I bought) is completely full, it is still LIGHTER than my Nalgene. Ahh, now I actually won't mind lugging my water bottle around with me. That and it's pretty.

Stay hydrated!

Newly Revamped Blog and a New Post to go Along with It

I'm so excited to start posting about all things I love and not just food and cooking. Although, I have to admit that this first posting does involve food. But nothing I've made, only consumed :)

I woke up yesterday SUPER excited for my Hot Doug's date with Jen. I had been dreaming about those duck fat fries and what hot dog I would have since Thursday when we made our plans. After I FINALLY got ready, I hopped in the car to pick up Jen. Well, that was all great until I was driving down Belmont and all of a sudden heard a huge *CRUNCH*. Yeah, that's right, I got in a car accident - something I don't love :( After swapping insurance, going to the police station to file the report and then contacting my insurance company it was almost 4pm, so we decided to go somewhere a little closer to the house that we could walk to :)

As disappointed as I was for not being able to indulge in those duck fat fries, I am very glad we decided to take a walk to Rockstar Dogs instead. Besides them being out of The Yardbird, which is a turkey dog, the food was DELICIOUS! After stuffing our faces and FINALLY having food in our stomachs, Jen and I were happy campers. Although be careful because the girl working when we went wasn't the peachiest, but that didn't affect the taste of our food.


As happy as we were after Rockstar Dogs, we were even happier when we came upon Swirlz Cupcakes on our walk home. After reading about Swirlz in a Daily Candy email when it first opened, it has been on my list of places to try. Now that I have finally made it there, I can't believe I waited that long, but it was definitely worth it! I had a hard time deciding between the vanilla and the carrot cake cupcakes, but am so glad I ended up choosing the carrot cake. The cake was soooooo moist and the frosting, which is an Italian buttercream cream cheese was so light and fluffy with the perfect amount of cream cheese flavor. O-M-G! Just reliving that experience has me pining for more. However, I think I have to give the vanilla a try next time, which will come a lot sooner than my first visit. These cupcakes were perfect after a day like yesterday, but I can see myself just making excuses as to why I need a Swirlz Cupcake.


So although my day didn't start out the way I had planned, it ended up fantastic, having added two places onto my list of those that I need to visit again. Frequently :)

STUFFED.

Ok, so the last time I posted I thought my next entry would be much closer to the last. HOWEVER, as usual, life got in the way and I hadn't really cooked anything worth talking about until tonight. I've had the recipe and the ingredients in my fridge for about two weeks now, so it was about time that I made these LASAGNA ROLL-UPS. All I have to say is YUM!!!! Oh, and STUFFED. I ate two of these roll-ups and I feel like I will be good for days. :) Now, for even better news......I GOT A NEW CAMERA!!!! My posts will never go picture-less again! Yea!!!! Well, without further ado, here is the recipe, complete with pictures!

Spicy Italian Sausage Lasagna Roll-Ups
(original recipe: Shrimp Lasagna Roll-Ups, Annie's Eats)



Ingredients:
6 lasagna noodles
1/2 package Johnsonville HOT Italian Sausage
salt and pepper
15 oz. ricotta cheese
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1 egg, lightly beaten
2-3 tbsp. chopped fresh basil
pinch of nutmeg
1 3/5 cups marinara sauce, divided
shredded mozzarella for topping

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to boil over high heat. Add the lasagna noodles and cook until al dente, about 8 minutes. Drain and set aside.

White the water is boiling/noodles are cooking, heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the Italian Sausage to the pan and brown. At this point, I did add some garlic because I love it, but the sausage is plenty flavorful on it's own to leave it out. Once the sausage has been browned, remove it from the heat and let cool. Mix the cooled sausage into a bowl with 1 cup of ricotta cheese, 1/4 cup parmesan, the egg, basil, salt, pepper and nutmeg.

In another bowl, combine 1 1/2 ups of marinara sauce with the remaining ricotta, to taste - stirring until smooth. I accidentally used ALL of the leftover ricotta and it was surprisingly good! However, the next time around, I think I will add less so it is more marinara, less ricotta. However, with my little mess up, I ended up with a lot of left over sauce/ricotta mixture that will go great later in the week with my leftover sausage and some pasta!

In a baking dish, spread the remaining 1/4 cup of marinara sauce so the bottom is covered. Lay the noodles flat on a cutting board and spread the sausage/ricotta mixture evenly over the length of each noodle. Once the mixture has been divided evenly over each noodle, roll them up and place seam-side down in the baking dish. Top the roll-ups with the sauce/ricotta mixture and shredded mozzarella.

Bake the roll-ups until they are heated through and the sauce begins to brown, about 25 minutes. I'm not sure if my oven temperature is off or not, but I had to cook the roll-ups longer then 25 minutes even though my oven was more than pre-heated. I think they baked for about 35 minutes in all.

Wait a few minutes to cool and then dig in! Each recipe makes about 3 servings, but if you're serving sides, you can probably get even more servings. I actually think 1 1/2 roll-ups per person would be the perfect serving size. Too bad they get messy when you start cooking into them.... Although, if you're not worried about presentation, you could probably get 4 servings out of one batch, but that all depends on who you're feeding ;)

I'm BACK! And I've got MAC :)

Ok, so after a little over 2 months of being MIA and having a few people constantly reminding me to post, I'm back. But don't expect it to be very regular, I just don't work like that :) Anyway, I don't want to waste anymore time as I know the real purpose of this blog is to talk food and post recipes. So without further ado, here is my ABSOLUTE favorite mac and cheese recipe - adapted from Martha Stewart and Paula Deen.

Ingredients:
2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (an 8-oz. box isn't quite 2 cups) - I actually use a little over 2 cups of cellantani b/c I like the bigger noodle, but either work
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, cut into pieces - I use margarine here, but that's b/c I never buy actual butter
2.5 cups (about 10 oz.) grated sharp Cheddar cheese - I've also mixed in some mozzarella b/c I only had 2c. cheddar and it was just as delicious so feel free to mix it up with your favorite cheeses!
3 eggs beaten
1.5 cup sour cream - I started off using the full fat version b/c it was a Paula Deen recipe, but I've switched to fat-free with no difference in taste
1 (10.75 oz.) can condensed cheddar cheese soup - are there low-fat versions of this in existence???
1/2 teaspoon salt - I think I usually add a bit more (I don't always measure)
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard - I think I usually add a bit more (I don't always measure)
1/2 teaspoon black pepper - I think I usually add a bit more (I don't always measure)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper - I think I usually add a bit more (I don't always measure)
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg - I think I usually add a bit more (I don't always measure)
1 cup whole milk - I haven't tried an alternative here (skim maybe?), but if you do and it works, let me know - I would LOVE to be able to make this recipe as healthy as possible as I am ADDICTED to it!

Cooking Directions:
•Preheat oven to 350 degrees
•Boil the macaroni in a 2 quart sauce pan in plenty of water until tender - Drain
•In a large pot, mix butter and cheese - Stir until the cheese melts (don't let it sit too long w/o stirring b/c it will brown/burn and stick to the bottom of the pan)
•Add the eggs, sour cream, soup, milk, salt, mustard, pepper, cayenne pepper, and nutmeg to the cheese/butter mixture - Stir well
•Add the drained macaroni and mix well
•When well blended, put mixture in a 2 1/2 quart baker (or larger)
•Bake 30-40 minutes until the cheese gets bubbly and the top starts to brown - This is all really a personal preference. I sometimes bake it for up to an hour depending on my mood ;)

**This is actually a slow cooker recipe which is supposed to take like 3 hours, but I am impatient so I adapted it for the oven. Also, I often put bread crumbs on top, but it is definitely not a must. I made it just the other day without them and they weren't even missed. In any case, if you would like to add them, I've written below what I usually do.

Bread Crumbs:
I usually don't measure the bread crumbs, just kind of eye ball it. I also eyeball the amount of margarine I use, but it should be enough that when melted in the microwave, it should evenly coat most of the bread crumbs. So, melt the butter in the micro, add it to the bread crumbs, mix well and then add over the mac before putting it in the oven.

Now, go on, make this mac and leave me some feedback.....haha. Ok, probably not funny, but it was to me. Whether you leave feedback or not, just make it and ENJOY it. Once you try this mac, you will never go back :)

Oh, and sorry for no pics AGAIN. My camera is still out of commission and I had to delete the ones off of my phone b/c it was messing it up :( I hope to have some soon, though.