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

Penny shoots for National Geographic Magazine, Saveur and Martha Stewart Living. Check out her portfolio – the photos will leave you breathless.

The 3-day course hosted by Creative Live is FREE to participate online live beginning 5/13/11 at 10am PT, or if you can’t watch live, the recording is only $99 to to download. If you’re interested in ATTENDING the class live in Seattle, Penny is looking for a few audience members – watch her video below and see her post for more details.

I’ve just purchased my “ticket” as I’ll be in California for a couple of days that week (though I’m so tempted to fly up to Seattle and attend the class if just for a few hours)

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 16 comments

At one point, I owned 120 domain names. So I guess you could call me a domain-name hoarder, but seriously they were silly domains that people wouldn’t ever think of or want in the first place. Every time I think of a cool phrase or idea, no matter how strange, dingbatlike or just plain stupid, I’d go and buy the .com, reasoning that “Oh one day this would make a fun site!”

Silly me.

I’ve only used 3 of them: Steamy Kitchen, Food Blog Forum and one that I can’t tell you about because then you’d read all my deep dark secrets.

My husband’s threatened to sell my collection of vintage Pyrex bought one by one from ebay if I don’t get rid of these domain names. Clearly, it’s gotten out of hand. I’m willing to part with a few of them (my hands are shaking as I’m typing this)….as I’m already experiencing domain withdrawal.

Keep in mind I’ve owned some of these for several years and hope to at least sell some of them for market value.

As the Hoe Turns (www.asthehoeturns.com and other various spellings) – great for a gardening blog

Bistro Go Go (www.bistrogogo.com) catering?

Go Go Bistro (www.gogobistro.net)

Deliciously Delightful (www.deliciouslydelightful.com)

Dinner To Door (www.dinner2door.com and www.dinnertodoor.com) catering or delivery service?

Diva of Delicious (www.divaofdelicious.com)

Food Fight TV (www.foodfighttv.com and www.foodfightv.com) great idea for TV show

Gourmet For Dinner (www.gourmetfordinner.com)

Gourmet For Everyday (www.gourmetforeveryday.com)

Mommy Blog Forum (www.mommyblogforum.com)

My Gourmet Chef (www.mygourmetchef.com)

Smoking Hot Fire (www.smokinghotfire.com and www.smokinhotfire.com)

Spicy Spy (www.spicespy.com)

Digital Doctors (www.digitaldoctors.com, www.digitaldrs.com) this is an old company we used to own. I’m currently getting a professional appraisal for this one.

If you’re interested in any of these domains, email me (my contact form is on my Contact page) and send over an offer!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2011. | Permalink | 10 comments

I always say that the best way to learn is to do it while vacationing with friends…preferably with a pina colada in hand, lounging on a hammock and lazily gazing at the crashing ocean waves.

If only college was like this.

Well, if you’re a food blogger, come join our 3rd annual Food Blogger Camp! This year, instead of the Bahamas, Ixtapa Mexico, this year we’re headed to Riviera Maya in Mexico at the Grand Velas resort.

Food Blogger Camp 2011 Sessions

Jaden Hair from Steamy Kitchen – Two sessions on The Business of Blogging: How to develop a personal brand around yourself and your blog & monetization strategies

David Lebovitz from David Lebovitz - What’s my Blog About? How to break out from the crowd and get noticed

Elise Bauer from Simply Recipes – Build traffic while building the blog of your dreams

Adam Pearson from Adam Pearson – Food Styling: Learn the greatest hits of food styling

Matt Armendariz from Matt Bites- Food Photography- Learn how to photograph styled food and yes, bring your camera!

Diane Cu & Todd  Porter from White On Rice Couple – Food Photography – Understand light and how to use it (hands-on workshop photographing on resort)

Diane Cu & Todd  Porter from White On Rice Couple – Food Photography – Capturing your food story from a storytelling, lifestyle or photojournalistic perspective (hands-on workshop photographing chefs and food)

And plenty of food demonstrations, wine and tequila tastings by resort Chefs

Read the full schedule of Food Blogger Camp Agenda.

Read Bios of the presenters & Speakers.

Complete info at FoodBlogCamp.com

How to Sign Up: All Info can be found on FoodBlogCamp.com:

• Food Blogger Camp Tuition is $1200 (based on double occupancy), covers the all-inclusive stay, activities, gourmet meals, alcohol/beverages and seminars.
• All bloggers interested in attending the camp should complete a brief application.
• Those who wish to bring a guest will receive the $1200 food blogger rate.
• The camp runs five days, four nights, January 5-9, 2011 at the luxurious and all-inclusive Grand Velas Riviera Maya in Mexico (close to Playa del Carmen).
• Prices are based on double occupancy. Bloggers traveling alone find a roommate. Price is all inclusive – room, meals, activities, seminars, beverages, alcohol.

You can read about the last Food Blogger Camp from January here. And if you have any questions please make sure to visit the website!

Read about our past Food Blogger Camp adventures

2010: Food Blogger Camp in Ixtapa

Moments that Matter (Steamy Kitchen)
Food Blogger Camp: sad goodbyes (White On Rice)
Food Blog Camp (Michael Ruhlman)
Camp Tips & Insights (FoodWoolf)
Matt’s Top 10 Moments (Matt Bites)
Great Round-Up of Workshops (Recipe Girl)
Ixtapa Nights – (Good Food Stories )
Food Blogger Camp Re-Cap (Wasabimom)
Food Blogger Camp, Part 1 (David Lebovitz)
Food Blogger Camp, Part 2 (David Lebovitz)
All I Got From Food Blogger Camp… (Steamy Kitchen)
Food Writing, Photography & Styling Tips (worc)
Food Photography, Getting a Cookbook Deal & Zihua Market (worc)
Food Blogger Camp at Club Med Ixtapa (Dianasaur Dishes)
Clicking the Mental Refresh Button in Ixtapa (Foodspiration)
Food Styling with Adam Pearson (FoodSpiration)
Food Blogger Camp Part Uno (A Beach Home Companion)
Food Blogger Camp Part Dos (A Beach Home Companion)
Food Blogger Camp Part Tres (A Beach Home Companion)
Kickin’ It at Food Blogger Camp (Dianne Jacob)
Food Blogger Camp Tips & Insights (Dianne Jacob)
Sensuous Writing with Corn Pops (Dianne Jacob)
Eating in Paradise (Frantastic Food)
Sunset (Frantastic Food)
A Day at the Beach (Frantastic Food)
And He Said, “Let there be light” (Frantastic Food)
Constants (and Tequila) (Vanilla Garlic)
Zihuatanejo Market: A Short Tour (Vanilla Garlic)
Food Blog Camp Flickr Pool (Photos)

2009: Food Blogger Camp in Bahamas

From Jaden of Steamy Kitchen:
My blog will be heavier
What happens in the Bahamas stays in the Bahamas
When the chef’s fish shipment doesn’t arrive
HotAsianChicksMassageYouLongTime
Here fishy fishy
Stephanie Izard’s Steamed mussel and fennel escabeche (recipe)
Mahi Mahi with Pineapple Brown Sugar Glaze (recipe)
Dr. BBQ’s Coffee Crusted Pork Tenderloin (recipe)
Club Med Ixtapa: A Week of Gluttony
Club Med Ixtapa: Salsa Mexicana and Guacamole (recipe)
Club Med Ixtapa: Grilled Fish Tacos with Roasted Corn and Pepitas (recipe)
Club Med Punta Cana
Club Med Punta Cana (family vacation)
Club Med Ixtapa: The Hotness Will Blind You

From Elise of Simply Recipes
Elise’s Club Med Bahamas photos
Chef Sean Bernal’s Sweet Potato Mash with Mint (recipe)

From Diane of White on Rice Couple:
Bahama Mama Cocktail (recipe)
Photoshoot crazy
Blogger pics and mango gazpacho recipe (recipe)
Fish and Cockburn Town
Green Flash Cocktail (recipe)
Deep sea fishing

From Matt of Matt Bites:
Bahamas
Walking around Cockburn Town, Bahamas
A Lebovitz Isle
Tan and Happy
Catching dinner in the Bahamas (video)

From David Lebovitz:
Coasting la Cote
Blogger Boules
The ones that didn’t get away
With Sprinkles on top
J’adore the beach!
Lost

From Deb of Smitten Kitchen:
Columbus Isle Bahamas

From Top Chef Stephanie Izard:
Club Med Chef Invasion!

From Steve-Anna Stephens:
Club Med Bahamas

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2010. | Permalink | 16 comments

It’s week 2 of the Summer Fest! Last week we played around with herbs and this week it’s time for fruit from trees. If you haven’t yet heard about Summer Fest, it’s a four-week celebration of fresh-from-the-garden food: recipes, growing tips, even tricks for storing and preserving summer’s best with my co-hosts White on Rice, Away to Garden and Matt Bites. Of course, It’s not a party without your participation! And I’ll tell you how in just a bit.

My contribution to this week’s “fruit from trees” is a warm salad made with juicy, sweet caramelized plums… barely sauteed fresh chanterelles, crumbly blue cheese and crisp savory bacon. This was a recipe that I made two nights in a row…it was such a hit.

Chanterelles may be hard to find, but any type of mushroom would do…from sliced, meaty portabello to velvety white button mushrooms.

And of course any type of stone fruit would work in this recipe. Please don’t limit this to just plums but experiment with peaches and nectarines.

The bacon? Oh honey, there’s no substitute for the bacon. Do 10 push-ups tomorrow.

My Friends at Earthy.com surprised me with a pound of beautiful trumpet-shaped Michigan chanterelles.

After trimming the ends, the smaller ones get halved…and the larger chantrelles are quartered.

Chanterelles are so beautiful that I’d hate to drown them in any type of sauce. Michael Ruhlman suggested that I keep them pretty simple with minimal ingredients so that I would enjoy the full flavor of the wild mushrooms. Simple? Sure, I could do that. Sauteed ‘em in bacon drippings. Can life be any simpler than warm bacon drippings?

Okay I’m going to teach you how to cut stone fruit into nice, even wedges. The problem with stone fruit is that there is a pit in the middle. And sometimes it’s a bitch to get out without tearing up the flesh. So here’s how I do it. Listen good, because it involves a highly technical term called plum asscrack. Find the plum’s crack – STOP LAUGHING – and hold your knife parallel to the crack, about a little more than 1/4-inch to the SIDE of the asscrack. See the crack? It’s just to the left of my knife.

Now cut. The The seat of the plum is oval-ish and cutting it this way is the most efficient method.

Now turn the plum around to the other side and 1/4-inch to side of the plum asscrack, cut again.  Now you’ve got two nice, big, plum asscheeks.

Cut these babies into wedges.

Oh but we’re not done yet! That middle section with the seed? Angle your knife and cut around the seed for two more wedges.

Can you imagine me trying to explain this process without photos? You think I was nuts!

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Chanterelle, Plum, Bacon Salad with Blue Cheese

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Click through slideshow to see how I got my money shot (this photo)

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What did my co-hosts make for the Summer Fest Party?

Margaret Roach of Away to Garden ditched the flour and made a super simple Peach Clafoutis, that old friend Martha Stewart taught her.

Marilyn of Simmer Til Done shows us her gorgeous Ginger Peach Pandowdy…what’s a pandowdy? Go find out!

Paige of Hey Little Sister tells us a tale about The Perils of Pie…oh the pie crisis!

Only Matt of Matt Bites can pull off an Apricot Ice Cream while RAPPING to Supersonic.

Peach Cooler! Look at those perfect peaches from White On Rice’s garden! It’s even kid friendly (sshhh…I’m adding a bit of rum to that drink!)

While Shauna is on vacation, Margaret snuck into her blog and pulled out a Gluten Free Fruit Crumble from 2007!

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©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 46 comments

Update 12/8/09 I’m thrilled to share that I’m a featured blogger for Oprah’s Holiday 2009!

Looking at this photo, you can only come to two conclusions. Either I had way too much to drink the night before, and this was my hangover cure… or I must be pregnant. Sadly, neither are true. I was just hungry. They say never to go grocery shopping with an empty stomach, and I’d like to add to that rule. Never go blog surfing with an empty stomach.

I was looking around for some inspiration, a dish to cook for live television segment shot at my home. I asked my Twitter friends for some ideas and promised to make one of their dishes. The moment I saw Alice’s Breakfast Pancake, I knew instantly that I had to make it. How can you not resist layers upon layers of fluffy pancake, stuffed with ALL of my favorite breakfast foods?

If you can’t decide what to make for breakfast, why not just make all? I say it solves many problems, as I’m sure each of your family members like different things. Plus, this is a show-stoppin’ breakfast for realz.

The Fox 13 television crew arrived at my home at 6:00am. That early in the morning, I’m not pretty nor am I completely functional. But one thing I knew for sure – I’d be the gossip topic of the block. I love stumping my neighbors.

We were broadcasting live, so they brought out the big news van with a 60 foot tall satellite thingy. So my neighbors either thought something scandalous happened at the Steamy household or I finally got arrested for posing as Rachel Ray.

The Ultimate Breakfast Pancake Segment

How to make the Ultimate Breakfast Pancake

It’s best to make all the layers fillings ahead of time. In fact, you can make EVERYTHING ahead of time, use the microwave or oven to warm up and assemble all at once.

The first layer is the roasted potatoes – it’s a nice solid base.

Because I’m a dork and I paid attention during underwater basket weaving class in high school, I weaved my bacon when I made the cake for the photoshoot. Totally unnecessary, because only YOU will know that the a bacon has a beautiful basket weave. To make straight bacon, lay the bacon slices on a rack, then on a baking sheet. You’ll cook them 10-15 minutes in the oven and they stay pretty flat. Plus much of the grease drips down into the pan (the rest just blot off) which makes it easier to pour the grease out into a little bowl.

Not for health reasons.

I save my bacon grease.

To dip pretzels in.

You know you’re totally going to try it.

Then use a pair of kitchen shears to cut the bacon nice and neat if you’re anal like me. But watch out for little hands who come swooping by and stealing the little bacon pieces. Andrew likes bacon too.

Then after the bacon, is the egg layer:

Then whipped cream, and an assortment of fresh fruits:

The Photography

This was a hard one. I wanted to take the photo outside to get the beautiful natural light hitting the fruit. But I was using fresh whipped cream, so I only had 5 minutes to quickly shoot. Here are more photos of the final product, with some photo commentary…which is your favorite?

The Ultimate Breakfast Pancake

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Floating pancake. Hmm..I like to have some of the plate showing so it doesn't look like pancake floating in the clouds

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A big thanks to Miss Attitude for making this whole thing happen and to Alice of Savory Sweet Life for the inspiration!

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 56 comments

nobu-lobster-carpaccio-064.jpg

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This recipe is from chef Nobu Matsuhisa, a man whom I respect so much but damn, I can’t afford to eat at his restaurant in Los Angeles! When I was in college at UCLA, I had to drop out for a semester just to afford a meal there. And to think…all the learning that I could have had that extra semester in school I could have probably gone to graduate school, earned a piece of paper that says “MBA,” then gotten a fancy job somewhere in a big tall building with $3,000 expresso machines. THEN after 25 years of climbing the stupid ladder working 80 hour weeks, I’d retire with a ‘do of grey hair, stressed to the hilt and finally have time to stay home and pursue my passions….

which is cook, eat and blog.
Continue reading Nobu’s Lobster Carpaccio...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 25 comments

I’ve been so excited all weekend that I just couldn’t focus or concentrate on anything other than making the pile of chocolates and wine in my home disappear as quickly as possible, leftover from this segment last week on CBS:
Continue reading Steamy Kitchen on Daytime TV!...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 53 comments

Today I spent a half hour at one of my kids’ favorite Italian restaurants called Gio’s. It’s run by four of the hottest brothers in town. Like SERIOUSLY HOT. All of them. But that’s not the reason why we went there. I write a monthly column for a small community paper and listed some of my favorite eateries in town. Gio’s was one of them, because my kids’ like their pizza. It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the hotness factor of four brothers.

Anyways, it took about 10 minutes of click-click-click to get the perfect food photography shot.

Wait. It was more like click-repositiontomato-click-drizzleoliveoil-click-morecheese-click – food photography interspersed with food styling. By the way, I scheduled the photoshoot appointment with the Gio brothers when the restaurant was empty. Don’t ever be rude and try to do this in midst of your dinner and every one else’s dinner.

I’ve created a nifty slideshow with commentary on the food styling and photography. See how I got from this:

Continue reading GETTIN’ THAT MONEY SHOT
Continue reading Food Styling and Photography: Gettin’ That Money Shot...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2009. | Permalink | 46 comments

Update 12/8/09 I’m thrilled to share that I’m a featured blogger for Oprah’s Holiday 2009 where this recipe is being featured!

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While I love to make my own pizza or flatbread dough from scratch, sometimes I just don’t feel like getting my hands all messy with dough. I cheat a lot and buy packaged flatbreads from the supermarket and throw them on the grill or under the broiler for a quick pizza. One of my favorite fall recipes is Warm Fig, Apple and Gorgonzola Flatbreads, briefly grilled on our barbeque grill.

The creamy gorgonzola with specks of blue-black cheese melts, the warmed slices of Granny Smith Apples and wedges of juicy figs cradle the shaved slices of Parmegiano-Reggiano. But we’re not done with it yet, sweet, sensual honey drapes each slice, some oozing over the edge, onto your fingers.

Continue reading Warm Fig, Apple and Gorgonzola Flatbread...

©Steamy Kitchen Recipes, 2008. | Permalink | 54 comments