Prior to them coming, Diane had sent me a list of things we needed for the shoot – number one on the list was a place to shoot near the kitchen that had plenty of natural light throughout the day. I originally had my prop room way out at a building in the back of the property – it’s a good 2 minute walk from the kitchen, through the living room, across the lanai, out the screen door, dodging the bitey red ants, balancing on large uneven rocks, up the deck stairs, across the deck, tiptoeing across the old (and unused) putting green riddled with more red ants and through the building door.

Can you imagine trying to do that for every single dish? And what if you forgot a garnish? You’d have to trek back and by that time, the food would have been very tired.

So we converted the already converted garage (the previous owners had made the garage a playroom for the kids) that was adjacent to the kitchen into my photography studio. It made sense, there’s plenty of large windows, double glass doors and it was steps from the kitchen.

With new paint and flooring, the space that used to be our junk/laundry room turned into a light-filled, bright, cheerful place to work. Wire racks from a discount warehouse store, Ikea baskets and bookshelves and a drop-dead gorgeous wooden table from Greentea Design, the number one requirement for a photoshoot was checked off.

I have plenty of dishes and props, but since I normally just shoot on white, the second item on my list was fabric.

Here’s a tip when fabric shopping: don’t go when you’re in a bad mood. Otherwise you’ll end up with drab colors.

Blah. So I left the store, went and got some coffee, scrolled through Failblog (hahahaaa!) and went back in a much better mood.

Ta-da! Happy! Bright! Cheerful!

They went organized by color in the Ikea wire baskets on a rolling rack.

Ikea Antonius system – $38.99 for the frame, I bought two of them and stacked on top of each other. Each wire basket was $6. Plop some wheels on the bottom ka-blam! It rolls around, out of the way.

Those are Billy bookcases, $49.99 each. Cheap, functional and even I can put it together. Once Todd and Diane arrived, we first worked on creating a workflow. Normally, when I shoot for the blog, I scout around the house for where there’s a good light. Candidates include: my office, outside patio, dining room table, breakfast nook, family room or the outside kitchen table. It’s a lot of work chasing light, huffin’ and puffin’ moving things around.

Instead, Diane said we were going to shoot in one spot and use white bounce, black bounce and scrims. For the book (i.e. print) we need to shoot tethered to the computer (that itty bitty tiny screen on the camera isn’t good enough!) and we hooked up a 15ft tether cord from my iMac to the camera.

I use Adobe Lightroom to manage and edit my photos, so we shot directly into Lightroom. The computer was anchored to a $159 rolling cart (yes, also from….you guessed it, Ikea) – Scott used 2 clamps and some plywood to secure it, though we’ll be looking for a more um, pretty solution soon.

I highly, highly recommend Lightroom for food bloggers – it helps me catalog and keep track of my photos AND makes editing so super easy. You can try out Lightroom 4 Beta for free right now.

You can see how awesome it is to shoot tethered – everyone can see immediately on the monitor the shot.

Continue reading Cookbook Shoot...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2012. | Permalink | 31 comments

I always screw it up.

So, last Friday, when I had to wake up at 4:45am to be picked up by a car service at 5:45am so that to be at the  CBS Early Show studios in New York City precisely at 5:45:30am (no that’s not a typo), I not only set my alarm on my computer AND my iPhone, but I also made my friend Rachelle set her Google phone too.

Surely ONE of those gadgets would wake me up!

But I was so freaked out about NOT waking up that I don’t think I ever even went to sleep! Please tell me that happens to you too???

CBS arranged to have me, Rachelle and my son, Nathan stay in a beautiful hotel right across the street from Central Park and only a block and a half away from the CBS Studios.

On Thursday, the day before I was to go on, we arrived at the studios to do a quick kitchen walk-through and to choreograph the segment. The producer told me that I was going to be picked up by a car service the next morning at 5:45am.

I’m like, “A car service?! I can WALK faster than it takes me to find and put on my seatbelt!”

But no, it was their policy that all guests of the show get driven to the studio for security reasons. Which I think really was code for “so that we know you’d get your ass to the studio on time!”

Precisely at 5:45am, I step out of the front door of the hotel and was greeted by the driver.

This is what 5:45am looks like without coffee:

The left photo was when we departed. By the time I clicked the shutter button, we had arrived at the studio – which it the blurry lights on the right hand side photo. I even asked the driver if he felt silly picking up people and only driving a block and half….and if he wanted to go around the block a few times just to feel better, I’d be all for it.

He said, “nope!”

Clearly, *I* was the only one with issues about driving a block and half.

At exactly 5:45 and 30 seconds in the morning, I arrived at the studio ready to prep for my segment.

First things first, COFFEE. Ahhhh….things are much more clear after hot coffee. This is the prep kitchen and the very lovely and talented food stylist.

We did all of our prep work here in the back kitchen – the food stylist did all the work, I just was there for answering questions and helping out a bit here and there. She made the Grilled Lamb Chops with Asian Pesto, Miso Mashed Potatoes for the segment and then also the Chocolate Wontons, Shrimp Chips with Spiced Beef and the Passionfruit Chili Martini as the “beauty dishes” — lots of work so early in the morning!

I also got hair and makeup done.

My outfit was all matchy-matchy with the set.

Then everything was whisked away upstairs to the set.

The food stylist and the prop stylist quickly worked during commercial breaks to get everything set up.

Before:

After:

I had a little over 4 minutes to do the segment, and I knew I was going to run out of time and not be able to talk or show everything. I’ve seen food segments where the chef is frantic towards the end because he/she has run out of time and is trying to quickly cram in whatever was rehearsed. Which totally ruins the entire segment because when the chef is frenetic…the viewers become really nervous for the chef.

And this is the one thing that I’ve learned in doing live television for the past 2 years. It’s okay to run out of time. And it’s okay if the food processor gives you a hissy fit! Here’s the clip:

The most important thing is to go with the flow, have fun and most importantly, always have a cocktail on the set.

A big big thanks to CBS Early Show behind-the-scenes staff as well as hosts Harry Smith and Debbye Bell, Lonnie Quinn and Russ Mitchell.

***

MacSpeech giving away 300 copies of Steamy Kitchen Cookbook

MacSpeech is one of the reasons I am still blogging. It’s a dictation tool that lets me talk instead of type…I love talking…I hate typing. I found them via online search for dictation tool, bought their product online and love it so much that I raved about it on ABC News Now.

Well, MacSpeech heard about my rave and wanted to give me some love back. They are giving away 300 copies of the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook -  every person who purchases a MacSpeech Dictation product gets a free cookbook.

The reason I love MacSpeech so much is because the program is accurate and it comes with a powerful headset microphone. I’m on the computer so much that I needed a way to write without typing as I have painful tendonitis and carpal tunnel.  It makes my job so much easier!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 32 comments

Just a short, sweet note — I’m currently in NYC and will be cooking on the CBS Early Show Friday December 4th during the end of the 8am hour. If you’re at home sick or playin’ hooky that day, tune in! I’m making Lamb Chops with Asian Pesto and Miso Mashed Potatoes from The Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.

For this trip, I’ve brought Nathan with me — it’s his very first trip to NYC, and so far….

He’s flown a jet.

The very nice pilot told him to “now remember that ‘JET BLUE ROCKS!’ okay?”

They shook hands, we walked off the plane and Nathan was real quiet. All of the sudden Nathan turned to me looking really worried, puzzled…and asked, “Mommy, why did the pilot tell me to watch out for blue rocks?”

And he’s also jumped up and down and slid across a $250,000 piano at FAO Schwartz.

You think I’m kidding about the price?

And I also brought along my goofball friend and favorite travel companion, Rachelle of @travelblggr. She likes groping superheroes.

See you! I hope you get a chance to tune into the 8am hour (or whatever time it runs in your time zone)  of CBS Early Show!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 38 comments

Of course I missed my children dearly…so much that we’re not gonna talk about that right now. But thank goodness for wonderful friends like Diane and Todd, who generously opened their home to host a party for me. The home was filled with good friends (do you see Matt and Adam in photo #2?), TONS of food (they cooked 8 dishes from my cookbook!) and a magical setting.

I’ve been waiting 3 years to meet this man. THREE YEARS. He’s as crazy as I thought he would be. And that’s his lovely wife to the right – she’s hilarious! Love them both. I told them my boys were going to marry their little girls.

Continue reading Here’s to good friends...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 44 comments

***

Then tonight I’ll be at Omnivore Books from 6pm-7pm with a quick talk, booksigning and jackpot giveaway from my tour sponsors, Scanpan, Chefs Catalog, Earthy and MacSpeech.

Oh, wait til you see the goodie bags…I think I have enough for each event that I’m doing here in SF.

Continue reading San Francisco Book Signing & Events...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 28 comments

By the time I whip out the camera, turn it on, adjust, focus and click,

The moment is gone.

And it’s just not quite the same to say, “hey guys, um…I missed that moment, can you spill that drink all over yourself again?”

So for my very first book signing party in my hometown, I handed my beloved camera to Nathan. He’s almost 5, so of course I duct-taped the camera around his forehead, over his shoulder so he couldn’t drop it. With specific instructions on “take a picture of these lovely people” and “take a pic of this yummy plate of food!”, here is Nathan’s take on the evening.

I love the eyes of a 5 year old!

Right after that party, I was off to NYC, where my first event was the NYC Dumpling Festival. Oh…what’s this coming my way?

Hmmm…closer inspection…

Continue reading Behind the scenes...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 59 comments

Such a tacky image….but I really do suck at Photoshop. My image was supposed to convey that TLC is giving away one Steamy Kitchen cookbook every day of the week — you can enter every day! I’ve also posted one of my favorite recipes from the book, Sweet and Sour Lychee Meatballs. To enter the contest, all you have to do is comment telling me what your favorite comfort food is!

Enter to win a STEAMY KITCHEN COOKBOOK over at TLC!

(not here – enter over at TLC’s site!)

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 7 comments

A real book, done by me. In a real bookstore.

I saw. I cried. I took a photo.

Of course, I’ve seen the book up on Amazon.com and friends from around the world have sent me photos of my book in their bookstores, but since the book has been out, this was my very first time ever seeing it in person with my own two eyes.

Damn. I did good, real good. People around me at the store noticed the similarity between me and the gal on the jacket cover (except the gal on the jacket cover is 10 pounds lighter. That’s what writing a cookbook does to you.) and started congratulating me.

“Oh yes, that IS me!”

“Thank you, thank you very much. I hope you enjoy the book!”

I gushed with joy.

I still had a couple of hours til the event started, so I hopped into a cab to grab some lunch with my publicist and her friend, Maria.

Into the cab I go, still smiling from ear to ear, barely able to keep my happy feet from doing a jig.

And then I looked at the back of my leg.
Continue reading God and Buddha Keeping Me Real...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 87 comments

Well, yesterday officially started Day 1 of the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook book tour with a 5-day stop in NYC! I’ve been to the city 5 times this year already, and I’m hoping that next time I’ll get some kind of frequent visitor perk, like maybe a personal navigator, as the public transportation system is confusing and a bit scary for someone who gets lost even going to the grocery store.

Yesterday, I was the M.C. for the Dumpling Festival (more on that later…lots of pics…)
Continue reading Book Tour in NYC!...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 32 comments

This is my dining room. Which somehow turned into my office, bookshelf, the kids computer room (they were playing a game on Star Wars website) and place for placing miscellaneous doo-dads that you never want found again. The stacks and stacks of cookbooks are essential, while the specific titles on the table change week by week (depends on what I’m cooking), I’m never without inspiration or reference at my fingertips.

It’s not the most ergonomic office situation, but it provides me with an eagle’s eye view on my children, who can cause mischief faster than you can flick whipped cream on the ceiling.

This spot also is just 3 steps away from my front door, my kitchen and my bedroom. In case I need to greet the UPS guy who brings me new cookbooks every day, check on a dish simmering on the stove or go take a nap.

I love working at home.

Well, I’m about to bring my office on the road for three weeks on book tour. I’ve never been away from the kidlets and husband for that long, and I’ve certainly never been that long without my stacks and stacks of cookbooks that I love so much.
Continue reading Sur La Table Cooking Classes...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 44 comments