I’m getting ready to lead a bus tour down Route 66 from St. Louis to OKC next week, and I needed a good camera to bring along on the trip.
I realize that I already have a Rebel, which is the best camera a girl could want (short of a Mark III, of course), but the Rebel isn’t insured against loss or theft and would be quite expensive to replace, so I’m really not keen on bringing it along in situations where I can’t keep track of it constantly.
I’m also thinking of doing some wedding photography to supplement our income this summer, and I wanted a decent mid-range camera to keep in my bag as a backup in case some unspeakable horror befell the Rebel in the middle of a ceremony.
For less than the price of a decent flash unit, I was able to buy a Fuji Finepix S1000 — a very serviceable little 10 megapixel point-and-shoot with plenty of bells and whistles, including a video feature that allowed me to document Scout’s infamous “talking” trick for posterity.
I’ll be playing with my new toy quite a bit over the next few days and will post a full review once I’ve seen how it stands up to my incessant and generally unreasonable demands. Stay tuned….
Emily
P.S.: If you don’t get the feed, be sure to scroll down, because I’ve put up four entries in the last 24 hours. That ought to make up for all those days when I was too busy to blog….
I made something this evening that’s probably best described as a sort of vegan turnover with spanakopita filling.
As usual, I had one recipe and insufficient ingredients for either, so I made something up as I went along
Vegan Spanakopita
1 box frozen fillo leaves, thawed
2 boxes frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 c. chopped onion
Olive oil
2/3 c. walnuts, chopped finely
2/3 c. fine breadcrumbs
5 cloves garlic, minced
Handful of fresh mint leaves, minced
1 tbsp. dried dill weed
3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 lb. extra-firm tofu (NOT silken)
1/2 tsp. smoked salt (probably fine with regular salt, too)
Preheat oven to 375 F. Oil a couple of cookie sheets. Drain spinach in a colander for a few minutes while you saute the onions in olive oil until they’re clear. Add spinach to skillet and heat thoroughly. Transfer spinach and onions to large mixing bowl. Add next six ingredients and mix thoroughly. Mash smoked salt into tofu. Add to spinach mixture.
Lay one fillo leaf on a sheet of waxed paper. Brush lightly with olive oil. Lay a second fillo leaf on top of the first. Fold in half. Place a small handful of spinach mixture on the fillo leaf, about three inches from the left edge of the fillo. Fold end over spinach mixture. Fold top and bottom edges over about 1/2 inch. Starting on the left, fold dough over and over until you have a neat little packet of filling surrounded by dough.
Place on cookie sheets and bake at 375 F for 30 minutes.
Makes about a dozen little spinach-filled turnovers.
This recipe is kind of a hybrid between two of Mollie Katzen’s recipes: spanakopita and spinach borek. The tofu stands in nicely for the cottage cheese in the spanakopita.
Since March 4, I’ve been so preoccupied with projects and challenges that I’ve quite neglected poor little Joy, my beloved Holga camera.
I finally picked her up the other day, unloaded her, and took her most recent roll in for processing. Out of 12 exposures, I had only four printable shots, but one was a perfect example of why every photographer ought to own at least one Holga:
This stone elephant stands at the entrance to the Showman’s Rest part of the city cemetery in Hugo, Okla., which is the winter home for many traveling circus performers. Pay special attention to the slightly-off-center focus (Joy’s unique “fingerprint,” if you will — no two Holga lenses are alike), the soft distortion in the background, and of course the Holga’s signature vignetting at the corners. This is the one shot in 50 that makes the other 49 worth the frustration and expense.
I’m also fond of the surreal color effects I’ve been getting out of that expired Agfa film Ron bought me last winter:
The first person who can tell me where I was standing when I shot this will get a free print of any Holga shot I’ve posted on this blog — your choice.
We heard this song today at a memorial service for the late Tomato Man, who slipped away to tend Eden’s vines a couple of weeks ago.
Darrell Merrell, better known as the Tomato Man, made a living — and a name — for himself by selling heirloom tomatoes out of his driveway on West 81st Street. We first met him in the spring of 2005, when we saw a promising-looking hand-lettered sign at 71st and Elwood and followed it to his place in search of plants worthy of my salsa recipe. We pulled into the driveway and found hundreds of gorgeous plants in dozens of fascinating varieties. Under a tent sat a bearded fellow sporting a straw hat, overalls, and an encyclopedic knowledge of my favorite nightshade.
We were instant fans, and our annual pilgrimage to the Tomato Man’s place has been the highlight of every spring since we met him.
A baker’s dozen of the Tomato Man’s beautiful plants are basking in the sunshine behind our garden gate this afternoon as I pour myself a glass of goat milk from his daughter’s farm and raise a toast to the only man I’ve ever known whose affection for homegrown tomatoes exceeds my own.
If there’s a vegetable garden in heaven, God is going to be awfully busy putting up salsa come July….
Today’s 10 on Tuesday topic is 10 Places You’d Love to Travel To (That You Haven’t Gone to Yet)
As I told Brigid a minute ago: I’ve got reeeeeeeal refined tastes. Her list is full of places like Russia and Egypt and Ireland. Mine revolves around the Seven Wonders of Roadside America and various other oddities:
We went out to check our hives at Living Kitchen and Nuyaka Natural Farm today. Both hives looked healthy and vigorous, and we even got to see the queen at Living Kitchen. If you look in the photo above, she’s the large bee with a red spot on her back and no stripes. The red mark is not natural; the beekeeper who sold us the hive simply marked the queen for easy identification.
Here’s a frame from the hive at Nuyaka. The queen didn’t make an appearance for us, but her presence was apparent in the aggressive response we got from the workers. If you look closely, you can see them flying all around me, trying to attack me through my suit. (The whole experience made me think of Postelwait’s favorite Eddie Izzard routine: “Heeeelllllllp! I’m covered in BEES!”)
Here we have an up-close-and-personal look at the Nuyaka colony and its brood. If you look closely, you can see the little white larvae in some of the cells. The darker cells contain honey, and the ones with brown caps over them contain older brood — babies that are undergoing the transformation from larvae to grown-up bees.
Here’s a closeup. Nurse bees are responsible for taking care of the babies.
While we were in Nuyaka, we stopped at the “Nuyaka Mall” — an old D-X station that doubles as a general store — to get a soda and a sandwich. The lady behind the counter was unfazed when we walked in with our bee suits on. These tiny hummingbirds were feeding right outside. I didn’t get a very good picture, as I was shooting through the window, but you get the idea. At one point, five of them were zipping around the feeder at the same time. They were SO cute. If you look closely at the picture above, you’ll see three — two perched on the feeder, and one flying in behind it. Below are four of them, enjoying a mid-morning snack together:
I wish hummingbirds would notice the feeder on my window. These little guys were just too cute for words.
It’s not quite the Old Man of the Mountain, but if you happen to be in northeastern Oklahoma, this big stone frog west of Mannford makes a pretty good excuse for a Sunday drive and a silly photo op. (And if you’re playing along at home, that’s 55 down and 65 to go. I’ve gotta rustle up a freelancing gig to pay for some gas and motel rooms so I can devote an entire week of my recently-freed-up summer to finishing item No. 64 on my 101 Things list….)
We popped open our backyard hives this evening to check their progress. The bunch pictured above are from the new hive we got a week and a half ago. It’s a young hive, which is why you see so many empty cells. The capped cells in the picture have bee larvae in them.
Our neighbor Michael saw us tromping around in our bee suits and came out to watch the proceedings. Before he went back in, he offered to take our picture, which I appreciated, because I don’t have a lot of pictures of the two of us together … and I didn’t have any pictures of us together in our suits. (Thanks, Michael!)
Ron’s suit consists of an old set of coveralls and a new Alexander veil that he just bought this year. It works OK but is kind of a hassle to put on. My suit is brand-new — I just got it last fall — and the veil is built right into the hood, which makes it much easier to get into and out of.
Our new hive here at the House of the Lifted Lorax is rearing a new queen. We’re not sure what happened to the old one, but we didn’t see any larvae or eggs, and there were only a few capped cells. Ron thinks maybe the queen died. That’s sad, but the ratio of drones to workers seemed awfully high to me, so I think maybe the old queen’s demise will turn out to be a blessing for the rest of the colony.
Our established hive looked pretty good. The girls didn’t appreciate the intrusion, so we didn’t get too nosy, but it looks like we’re going to need to add another super. They’re not the most docile bees I’ve been around, but they’re very healthy and productive, and they make absolutely wonderful honey. I’m looking forward to a bigger harvest this year.
I had occasion to carpool to Springfield, Mo., today with some friends. On the way back — somewhere between Bois D’Arc and Halltown — one of them decided she wanted some ice cream.
I happened to know that the best Route 66 soda fountain this side of South Pasadena was just up the road in Webb City, so we got off the interstate at our earliest convenience and headed for the Bradbury Bishop Deli.
Unfortunately, it was closed by the time we arrived … but being the resourceful roadie that I am, I also happened to know that Four Women on the Route in Galena, Kan., was staying open late for a cruise-in event this evening. I happened to know that one of the girls had mentioned that her grandson was crazy about the movie Cars. And I happened to know that the truck that inspired the character of Tow Mater in Cars was parked in front of Four Women on the Route … so three women cruised 66 to Galena to see the Four Women.
My friend Donna and I enjoyed our smoothies at Four Women on the Route.
Our friend Jana — whose ice-cream craving inspired this side trip — had a bowl of warm brownie bites with two scoops of ice cream melting on top. Mmmm….
Dean “Crazy Legs” Walker gave us a partial demonstration of his famous foot trick while we posed for a photo op in front of “Tow Tater.”
Predictably, I didn’t have my camera out for the most memorable moment of the afternoon — the moment when the First Lady of Country Fiddle exchanged autographs with the man whose feet inspired Mater’s driving-backwards trick.
I did, however, have my camera out yesterday afternoon, when a trip to Catoosa in search of pond plants degenerated into a pointless drive down 66 to Afton. I started to come back by way of the turnpike but made a last-minute decision to take the Big Cabin exit when I noticed a construction zone looming ahead. I wound up taking U.S. 60 from Big Cabin to Nowata and then dropped south on 169 back to Tulsa, bagging photos of two more Roadsideamerica.com attractions in the process:
Giant Indian chief at Big Cabin.
Bowling ball madness in Nowata. A small, handmade sign that reads “BOWLING BALL YARD ART” directs travelers off U.S. 60 and onto a somewhat rugged backroad to find this bit of folk art.
Oh … and for the record, that brings my tally to 54 down and 66 to go on that list of attractions for Oklahoma.
When I worked at the paper, our vegetarian-in-residence would go out and pick up Qdoba for lunch about once a week. I got totally hooked on their “Mexican gumbo,” which is really just a bowl of white rice topped with black beans, tortilla soup, salsa, cheese, and sour cream.
Qdoba is great, but $6 is a lot of money for what basically amounts to a bowl of rice and beans … so I decided to take their basic concept and improvise on it in my own kitchen. This is what I came up with:
1. Make a batch of white rice and add some cilantro to it. If you don’t have one, do yourself a favor and buy a Black and Decker rice cooker. We got one last night, and it is AWESOME. You just put in your rice and water, turn it on, and ignore it. It automatically shuts itself off when it’s done cooking. It’s like a Crock-Pot, only smarter.
2. Make some black beans (I do mine overnight in the Crock-Pot, but you can just nuke some canned beans if you’re in a hurry).
3. Make a pan of tortilla soup. Here’s my recipe:
1 cube Knorr vegetable bouillon
About a pint of water
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of chopped green chiles
2 tsp. minced garlic
Chili powder to taste
Cumin to taste
Combine all ingredients and bring to a boil. If this were truly tortilla soup, I would cut corn tortillas into strips and fry them at this point, but since I’m just using this as a base for gumbo, I didn’t bother.
4. Put a big scoop of rice, a big scoop of beans, and a big scoop of tortilla soup in a bowl. Top with salsa, finely shredded Mexican cheese, and sour cream. If you want, add hot sauce and maybe a spritz of lime juice.
Great stuff, and very easy. I’ll probably make this next time I have a party. Vegans can skip the cheese and sour cream and still have a pretty good meal.
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