A Very Important Blog by a Very Important Person

Costa Rica

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:00:00 +0000

It was heavenly. Everything I expected and then some. I swam in the deep cool pool at the bottom of a giant waterfall, was woken up by the deep roar of howler monkeys each morning, saw a teeny tiny baby lizard scurrying on a table and saw a dog chasing a giant iguana. The dogs here are so happy, so free. Sleeping in the middle of the road, on the beach, loving life. How can they not?

I snorkeled and visited a charming little island, where fresh fish was cooked for us on the spot. I swam at the most amazing beach I have ever visited, miles of serene unspoiled and almost barren beach, save for a few people who were laying under the shelter of palm frond huts that are there for the taking. The waves were huge and fun, and my friend Melissa said that it was the closest to feeling the way she did when she was a kid, in the ocean.

And yoga in a shady bungalow with open walls, letting in the sea breeze and the startling contrast of green green green trees against the blue ocean. And the food, oh the food. Everything organic and healthy and absolutely delectable. Our one splurge at an expensive beachside restaurant, Lisa's chorizo appetizer and Melissa's red snapper stealing the show, until the cat that hopped up and curled up with Melissa on her chair decided to steal the show from them. Delicious Typico breakfast of eggs, beans and rice with 'magic' sauce was my favorite meal of the trip. And the batidos con leche, oh my god. Mango shakes, delicious like mango lassi, I drank so many.

That little dusty hippie town is probably the best secret I've ever been let in on. It's hard to get to, but so worth it. The people are so kind, so chill. It was far and away the most relaxing vacation I have ever had, and I'm already contemplating going back for my birthday, next year.

blogging is dead. to me anyway.

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 21:29:00 +0000

I'm addicted to twittering. It's just so much easier than blogging, so simple and quick and clean. So I've been doing that instead of this here thing. If you want my twitter name, email me at karastokes at gmail.com and I will hook you up.

A friend just made me a logo for my website, and I am focused on trying to get a portfoilio website up. I'm sure when that happens, I'll have a photo blog up there to post new images (without having to constantly update my portfolio.) So that will be at myname.com, and possibly also mynamephotography.com in the near future.

One other thing I want to share is this site, which I think is pretty awesome. It's basically a way to share and bookmark cool food related blog entries on the web. I made an account a few days ago, and while I haven't submitted any good stuff yet, I have bookmarked/starred quite a few entries. Today I'm trying this, based on one entry I bookmarked there:

300 minute egg

Kinda gross, but kinda cool. Other finds from that site:

2 ingredient cookies!. I have filo dough thawing at the moment to try this too.

Garam Masala Roasted Chickpeas

Passionfruit Poundcake with Orange Mango Glaze. Oh yum.

Ok so maybe I might end up making a food blog. Who knows. It just won't be here, so drop me a line if you want a link. Otherwise, see you on the flipside...

making bland ricotta with melissa

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 18:23:00 +0000

Wednesday night I went to a yelp event at Via Matta, and even though the food wasn't as abundant as we'd have liked we did try some delicious bites. One thing I managed to snatch off of a tray was a toasted baguette slice heaped with homemade ricotta and drizzled with chili oil. Right before leaving work on Thursday, I looked up a few recipes for homemade ricotta. I unwisely went with a random recipe I found, rather than the one used by the ladies who write at 101 cookbooks and chocolate and zucchini. The one I used just called for whole milk, cream, a pinch of salt and some fresh squeezed lemon juice, and the one that those two much admired ladies used just called for whole milk and buttermilk. While my experiment was fun and the outcome was edible, I wasn't wowed. I have a feeling that the buttermilk recipe will be more flavorful, so I will try that one next.

The greatest thing (aside my friends allowing me to hijack their kitchen to do this experiment) was that the people at Formaggio Kitchen, near Melissa's South End apartment, were so enthusiastic once they heard what we were planning to do. They even went out back and found us a big roll of cheese cloth, and let us cut some for our project. They also had an addictive, tangy goat cheese on their sampler table that I need to buy soon. So if you live in Boston and love a good cheese, go and ask for the new goat cheese that they had samples of recently (if you don't see it out for samples.) It was probably the best soft cheese I've ever had. It really is an amazing store worth a visit, if you are into food and/or entertaining.

Above is a picture of the giant lemons we bought at Formaggio's, which contained an insane amount of juice.

Heating our milk and cream mixture until it got frothy and almost boiled.

Right when we added the lemon juice, the mixture immediately separated into curds and whey. It was pretty awesome to watch. I switched to a wooden spoon, because I love wooden spoons.

After we let it sit for a few hours, we then poured it into a colander lined with the cheese cloth and squished the liquid out.

Then we hung the ricotta ball BY WAY OF A HAIR TIE to the kitchen sink, to continue to drain while we ate delicious buttery hummus from Lionette's (another amazing little market in the South End) and watched trashy tv.

And the finished product, topped with a quick chili oil I made with some crushed red pepper flakes and olive oil. When I try the other ricotta recipe, I want to make a chili oil to go with it that has a chance to really marinade for a good long time. It looks pretty, even if it wasn't the most successful outcome in world.

Lost In Paris with Cortazar

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 21:00:00 +0000

In case you don't know, I'm a photo researcher. Today I was looking for portraits of Julio Cortazar to put in a book and I stumbled across this film, apparently shot by Cortazar and his third wife in Paris in the late 70s, early 80s. I am in love with archival footage of New York City in the 60s and 70s, and I think I'm equally enamoured by this footage of Paris.

They both died in the early 80s, not long after this film was shot.

October Roll #1 - Brooklyn not Europe

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:40:00 +0000

So. October roll #1 finally reemerged, but ended up being one of those stray rolls that I threw in with my study abroad photos. These were taking with a fish eye lomo, which I bought at the ICP in New York when Tina visited. These pictures were taken in Cobble Hill, my favorite neighborhood in Brooklyn.

Which reminds me, I need to take off some Saturday soon to spend the day wandering around MoMA and eating delicious food. In the meantime, I will be picking a November roll this week and dropping it off for processing.

October roll #2

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 21:12:00 +0000

One roll came back, the other is either not ready or lost. Roll #2, the roll that was processed, had a lot of images on it that I would never take today; unremarkable buildings, boats and swans in Galway harbor, groups of people with no real focus, etc. The shot above is the only one that really wowed me, the only one I feel is worth keeping. It's the arm of a street performer, one of those guys who paint themselves gold and pretend to be a statue.

I'm in the process of building a website for my wedding and portrait photography which will have a blog component. Most likely this blog might take a back seat for a bit, while I get that going. So there may be little activity here until I pick a November Roll of film to process, just a friendly FYI.

time travel in corporate america

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 18:44:00 +0000

The project I'm working on at the ole day job is wrapping up, and is very stressful. Lots of last minute things to do, I feel like my head is spinning. I often have to click the finder icon in my dock, to pull up this or that folder I have open somewhere on my computer. Here is a visual, for non-mac users who are scratching their head at the word 'dock'

That's my dock. And so I often go so quickly to click on the finder, that I accidentally hit that funny looking orb next to it. What is that, you might ask? Not exactly sure what it does, it was on my dock when I was upgraded recently. So when I accidenally click it instead of the finder, this pops up:

And then, if I'm really tired, I sit and stare at that prompt and I think "what if?" and envision some time warp tunnel or worm or whatever they call it to open up in the center of my monitor and just slurp me up.

I'm very, very tired. I can't wait for the next two weeks to be over.

deceptively delicious

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Sun, 19 Oct 2008 03:45:00 +0000

While the eggplant croutons above might look like a big regurgitated mess, it was actually insanely delicious. It is a recipe from the Chez Panisse Cooking cookbook, which I'm slowly trying to cook my way through. If you like this recipe, you should seriously consider picking up this cookbook. I dream of someday eating Alice Waters' food at Chez Panisse, but the cookbook is a delicious alternative, for now.

Eggplant Croutons

salt and pepper
1 large globe eggplant (12 ounces), peeled and cut into 1 inch dice
2 tbsp olive oil
2/3 cup water
1 large shallot (1 1/4 ounces), minced
1 clove of garlic, pounded to a paste in a mortar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 baguette
1 tbsp chopped fresh Italian parsley

Seriously, it's so easy. You just salt and pepper your eggplant, then mix it with 1 tbsp of olive oil. Then throw it in a small baking dish, and pour in the 2/3 cup of water, and cover it tightly with tin foil. Bake at 400 degrees for 45 minutes, then transfer it to a colander to drain/cool. Then put it in a bowl and mash it with shallot, garlic, vinegar, and the other tbsp of olive oil, so it has the texture of a course puree. Add more salt and pepper if needed (I didn't need it.) Chill for a few hours (I chilled for just one).

A few hours later, slice the baguette and brush with olive oil and then toast it at 350 degrees until golden brown. Top it with the chilled eggplant puree and enjoy!

(Oh, you are supposed to mix the chopped parsley into the mixture before you top the crouton, but I'm lazy and decided to omit that part.)

little metal tombs

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 21:13:00 +0000

I studied abroad in college on the French Riviera, part of a painting program that Umass Amherst takes part in. After our painting portion of the trip concluded, we traveled together through different regions of France, visiting museums and castles, sketching in our Art History sketchbooks, which counted as an entire class/grade of their own. After that arrived in Paris, where we stayed for almost a week, taking in the museums together. When everyone flew home, I stayed and traveled around alone. It was one of the most exciting times for me, the first time I felt completely independent and able to take care of myself.

That was 10 years ago this past summer, and I still have a plastic bin full of rolls of film I shot while I was there. So I decided to start developing two rolls a month, until I have all 22 rolls developed.

October roll #1:

No idea what is on this roll, it wasn't labeled. Quite possibly it could be some random roll not from that summer, as I did throw some other rolls in with my travel rolls, accidentally. I love that history is captured in that little canister, moments I caught 10 years ago and am just cracking open now.

October roll #2:

I picked this one because it was one of the few that was actually labeled. It was from the tail end of my trip, when I was wandering around Galway and Doolin, in Ireleand. I figured it appropriate, since I've been spending a good amount of time with an Irishman and since he recently berated me for putting off developing these rolls.

Check back in here in 5-10 days and I will post some of these images.

Eat Well

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:22:00 +0000

At a bachelorette party recently, I got to talking to someone who works for Farm Aid. I was telling her how I love restaurants that use local and seasonal produce and ingredients, and she told me about The Eat Well Guide, which allows you to plug in your zip code and find local/sustainable/organic food in your area, both from purveyors and at restaurants.

Plugging in my zip code, I found that in a 20 mile radius of Somerville, there are:

2 butchers
62 farmer's markets
22 restaurants
2 caterers
3 educational centers
33 stores
2 co-ops
4 farmers
4 organizations

...that qualify to be listed on the Eat Well site. Pretty awesome. The restaurants included some that I would expect (my beloved Oleana, Henrietta's Table, Hamersley's Bistro) but also some I would not expect (The Independent in Union Square, No. 9 Park, even Fresh City, a take-away lunch spot was on the list).

The Eat Well site also has some downloadable food guides for different cities in the US and Canada.

Also, I found the Slow Food Boston events list and The Greater Boston Food Bank events list. Enjoy!

aloft and element

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:46:00 +0000

This weekend I went to a wedding in Lincoln, MA and they got a great deal at some new funky hotels in Lexington, so I opted to stay over, even though I live about 9 miles from the wedding site. I'm so glad I did. The hotels are kind of a modern offshoot of the Westin Hotel. Aloft, where I stayed, was super modern, almost ikea-ish in it's style. The downstairs was a funky lounge, which was perfect for post-reception fun. The rooms all had giant flat screen tvs and super comfy beds with puffy white duvets. I'm a hotel snob, and require a puffy white duvet to be happy. Old school floral bedspreads are no friend of mine. Do you hear that, Holiday Inn?

The Element is the other hotel, across the parking lot from aloft. It was gorgeous. It had a green/earthy vibe, and the downstairs lounge was much more relaxing than at aloft. Whereas the public space at Aloft felt kind of like it would be a hotel bar in Los Angeles, this one felt like the lounge area at a spa. The rooms were soothing and clean, bright and airy. Many had full kitchens, too, making it a great place to stay if you were house hunting in the Boston area. Other cool features:

Both hotels had a mini indoor pool, across an outdoor courtyard from the lounge area.
At Aloft, there was a glass encased fireplace between the lounge and the outdoor space, so you could enjoy it from both spaces.
They have this pantry of goodies in the lounge, full of everything from penny candy to microwave dinners, available for purchase. You can tell that the items were arranged by an interior designer, because the display itself was so pretty.
Element has a complimentary breakfast that was low key and delicious. Egg white and salsa wraps and ham and cheese breakfast sandwiches for the taking, fresh juice, cereal dispensers.

I was telling The Bride the next day how it's bittersweet to experience such a cool hotel near home because (sweet) it's so fantastic, and made for a great weekend but (bitter), it's hard to justify coming back, since it's so close to home. That's when she filled me in that the Lexington locations of Aloft/Element are the first, but that a ton more are opening in the next two years, in places like Atlanta, Chicago, Toronto, New York City, Las Vegas, and Houston. It's crazy to me that Lexington, of all places, was the first to open. So if you are planning to ever visit Massachusetts and want to do the whole Concord/Louisa May Allcott/Henry Thoreau bit of sight-seeing, then you should stay at the Element, Lexington. You will be happy you did.

(Photos are from Starwoodhotels.com)

the most delicious and easy chicken you will ever cook

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 01:57:00 +0000

I found this recipe by way of the buzz box on epicurious.com, a feature that shows you the most talked about recipes on the site, which features all the recipes from both bon apetit and gourmet magazines. Usually you have to look at what the talk is, sometimes a recipe will be on the list not because everyone is raving about it, but because people are arguing about some obscure food fact. But this recipe was there because review after review just raved at how great it was, how it is now a staple in so many epicurian's kitchens. I had wanted to save the recipe to make for my man friend, but I decided I should test it out first, to make sure it's worth sharing.

What got me is how damn easy it was. It really took no work at all, just the slicing in half of some cherry tomatoes and chopping of cilantro. Everything else is so effortless, mixing oil with spices, draining chickpeas, seasoning chicken. And man oh man it was delicious, everthing roasted to the perfect flavor and texture.

mexican hot chocolate cupcakes

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:39:00 +0000

Monday morning I got up at a ridiculously early hour. Why? To bake cupcakes! I intended to bake them Sunday but got busy and lazy. So I got up and made them, to celebrate a coworker buying her first home.

I decided on Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes, and as usual did extensive recipe research. I couldn't find a cake recipe that appealed, so I just made my standby devils food cake recipe and added a table spoon of cinnamon. For the frosting, I used this recipe, from the food network. The only change I made was to use 1/2 tsp. of chili pepper, instead of a full teaspoon. The outcome was great, everyone at work seemed to like them a lot. Halving the pepper was a wise choice, as the spice was just right. It crept up on me after the sweetness subsided, a subtle little kick in the taste buds.

(Please excuse the bulbous nature of the cupcake, I haven't made them in a long time and got a little overzealous when filling the cups. Oops!)

I had taken a break from the cooking, and from painting/drawing/knitting/etc. I was doing a lot of hiking and biking this summer, spending time in the sunshine. But now that the cold weather is back I am getting back to it, so there will be many more very important posts to come.

meet my neighbor, the letterpress

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:53:00 +0000

I live across the street from a brick building with 23 Firefly Press painted on the side of it. It was one of the things that made me fall hard for my neighborhood, but until tonight I never googled it. I randomly decided to tonight, and this is what I found. It kind of makes my jaw drop. I have no idea if he's still at it and if the press is still running, but I hope so.

did you know?

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 00:33:00 +0000

I didn't even notice until just now, and I drink volvic all the time. For every 1 liter bottle you buy, volvic (in partnership with UNICEF) will donate 10 liters of clean water to to children in Africa. I mean, if you're buying bottled water anyway, you might as well do some good while you're doing it. Plus, volvic is a very crisp, bright flavor. And yes, water does have flavor.

Here is more info. Now buy a bottle tomorrow. Or any day before September, when this campaign ends. That is your homework.

portrait of isabelle

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 01:55:00 +0000

I'm very much a natural light photographer. I tend to shrink from flashes and lights and fanciness, it just has always overwhelmed me. But lately I've been reading a lot about flashes and how to utilize them to accentuate natural light, as opposed to replacing natural light. So I spent a lot of time this weekend experimenting with my speedlight. I exposed for the sky and then used my speedlight as a fill flash on her face, with a gary fong diffuser. I love how it came out. Thank god I have such amazing little ones to pose for me.

Lots of interesting stuff on lighting here and here.

this is how my garden grows

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 19:39:00 +0000

I posted a while back about the plants I was growing, and how I planned to replant them all from the grow bed to a square foot garden. Well I spent a sunday a few weeks ago in the backyard replanting, and I can't believe how much is growing. I guess I always assumed I'd have a black thumb. Don't we all sort of assume that? Well, despite the fact that I kill houseplants like it's my job, I'm good at growing veggies in the backyard. I think the difference is that I'm invested in food plants. I want to reap the benefits of taking care of them. What are the benefits of taking care of a house plant? If I can't eat it, I don't care!

So this morning when I got back home, I replanted a few zucchini plants which were smooshed and growing over the edge of the square foot garden. I also pulled out my rosemary, as it wasn't growing. I also got a tomato cage for my second tomato plant, as it was getting so big and heavy that it was going to start falling over. So after I did my garden chores, I grabbed my camera and took some pictures of the fruit and veggies that are growing. I counted about 10 zucchini flowers that started, and even more buds. My plan is to pick a couple of the bigger ones to make stuffed fried zucchini blossoms. Yum. I have two nice big jalapeños growing, and a ton of little budlings about to grow. My first plan for those is to make the white chicken chili that I saw on America's Test Kitchen today. And I have a ton of cherry tomatoes growing. I don't need a plan for those other than picking them, washing them, and eating them like candy.

Be warned. If you are friends with me, I may show up on your doorstep with peppers, zucchini and tomatoes. Because I have no clue how much my little garden will yield.

my biggest cluster of tomatoes, so far

one of the bigger peppers

baby peppers. awwwww, so cute!

one of the first zucchini blossoms

I <3 my backyard!

mother's day portraits

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 17:24:00 +0000

A while back I posted about going to the shelter a friend works at and shot some portraits of the kids for the moms, as mother's day gifts. I didn't want to post any of the portraits until I delivered their prints. I just did sent them last week, so I can finally post some photos.

I *love* shooting stuff like this, because no money exchanged equals relatively little stress. So if anyone who reads this has any kind of non-profit type event at which they'd like a photographer to shoot portraits*, lemme know. I'm your girl.

Here are some of my favorite shots:

*preferably kids. Adults are not my forte.

Four Stories, Take Two

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 02:41:00 +0000

I posted a while back about a monthly event at a really great bar in Cambridge, where four authors read excerpts on a similar theme. Back in May Ravit's husband Ted was one of the featured readers. So of course, since I knew someone reading, I didn't just take a dinky camera phone pic this time. This time I brought my SLR and my little gorillapod tripod and took some nice long exposure, natural light shots. I was waiting for the mp3 audio of his reading to be posted on the four stories site before I posted the pic. So here you go. Enjoy!

glosoli

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 16:29:00 +0000

hungry for change?

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:50:00 +0000

This coming weekend MoveOn.Org is organizing a 'move on for change' bake sale. I'm so excited, because a) I love baking and b) I'm 100% behind Obama! I am making some devil's food cupcakes with raspberry buttercream for a bake sale at work on Thursday, and if those go over well I am going to make them for the MoveOn bake sale too. If the responses at work are just so-so, I'll figure out something else to bake.

The bake sales are going on all across the country. Click the link above and plug in your zip code to find the ones closest to you. They also are looking for people to man the tables, if you want to get involved but can't cook for shit. You can also just go buy some goodies to support the cause! Yum.

garden party!

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:32:00 +0000

I was telling Tina about the garden I'm growing out back this year, and she responded with "pictures!" so here you go. I labeled all the goodies I'm growing from seed. I also have a few cherry tomato plants, a pepper plant, a basil plant, and a head of boston butter lettuce that I bought as little plantlings. I'm still in awe of how easy it is to grow from seed, and how rewarding it feels. I love the ritual of watering them every morning, checking on them like I check on my cats. It really makes me feel productive and good to see how much they are growing each day. I love the "I did that!" feeling you get from gardening.

Here is my advice for growing plants for the first time: Buy a self watering grow bed. It really makes seed starting a million times easier than having to water those puppies by hand. They need a LOT of water, and with a self watering seed starter/planter, you just need to make sure the basin of water under the growbed has sufficient water.

I just ordered a 3x3 foot square foot garden, to replant my seedlings into. My zucchini is desperate for more space, I feel like a bad momma for not replanting them yet. But hopefully that will come this week and I can replant them all in their own generous space sooner than later. I also ordered more seeds, because I'm obsessed!

So this is my head of boston butter lettuce. It's doing so well! It was so wee when I started. I can't wait until the day it's ready to harvest, when I will make an amazing salad with it!

sweet, sweet, sweet sweet potato

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Thu, 29 May 2008 23:24:00 +0000

Last weekend Mary, Elana and I went to Crema Cafe, the new cute cafe in Harvard Square. I had their sweet potato sandwich and almost died, it was so good. So last night I decided to bake some sweet potato slices, and today I brought all the fixins to work and made myself my own version of the sandwich. While it wasn't quite as good, it still hit the spot.

So here are the details, if you want to try to recreate it. Top to bottom:

Toast
Layer of Goat Cheese (I used my new favorite, caprino)
Layer of thinly sliced red onions
Layer of thinly sliced apple
Layer of 1 inch thick slice of baked sweet potato
Layer of Goat Cheese
Toast

Yum.

Kara's Test Kitchen

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Mon, 26 May 2008 04:36:00 +0000

Tonight Mary and I made three recipes for deviled eggs, to test them out and figure out which would be best to make for the bbq extravaganza I’m having next weekend. Yes, I take my party menu very seriously, clearly. The eggs we used were from Chip In Farm in Bedford, and the eggs were laid yesterday. While peeling them, I stopped and just said, "Isn't it weird that these eggs were inside a chicken yesterday?" It's bizarre and disgusting and awesome, all at once.

When we were done, Ilya came over and we all ate way more eggs than anyone should eat in one sitting. Ever. The results were unanimous. We felt like were going to puke. Just kidding. We all agreed on which we liked best:

1. Paula Deane’s recipe came in first! Not only were they flavorful and tangy, we all liked the slice of pickle and pimento that topped them.
2. The allrecipes.com recipe for “special deviled eggs” were a close second, at least for me. They had horseradish in them, which gave them a nice tangy kick.
3. The epicurious recipe for deviled eggs with capers and tarragon was awful. Just awful. And I like capers, usually. I want to barf just thinking about them, that's how great they were.

So there you have it. I’m curious if eating so many eggs at 11:00 pm will give us weird dreams, I have a feeling it will.

Blatantly Stolen from Tina!

noreply@blogger.com (Kara) — Tue, 20 May 2008 23:49:00 +0000