Copyright ©2022 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Nikon Df| Nikkor 35mm f/1.8G@f/4| PS CC 23.2.0
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Wordless Weds. Satisfying cravings
Category: Food Photography
Summer Is…
Copyright ©2021 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Easy summer dinners.
Nikon D810| Nikkor 105mm| PS CC 22.4.3
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Summer is…
Copyright ©2018 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
PEACHES!
The Handsome Surveyor ( Baby Girl’s Fiance) has a peach tree that is brimming with ripe peaches. He picked a bag of them for me on Monday. We ate quite a few, but they were ripe and I feared we’d have to toss several, but I decided to make a cobbler and use them all up.
I got a nice deep dish cobbler out of what was left after removing all the bruising, and soft spots.
Sliced, prepped, and ready for the topping…
Right out of the oven. It was juicy!
Ready to eat…à la mode of course! mmm good!
I hope you all have a peachy week-end!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 24-120mm| Lexar Digital Film| PS CC 2018
more too come…
Peanut Butter Chocolate Triple Layer Cake
Copyright © 2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
A little more than a month ago Jodi from https://lifeinbetween.me/2017/10/16/peanut-butter-chocolate-triple-layer-cake/posted a cake that checked all my boxes for decadence, and had my son’s aka Big Baby Boy’s favorite candy bar in the world as its theme/ingredient.
Right then I was inspired to make this cake for Big Baby Boy’s November birthday. Mind you. He hasn’t actually been at home on his birthday since he was 17 yrs old. He went to college out of state when he was 17, so we’ve been celebrating his birthday when he comes home for Thanksgiving since. A long time. He won’t like me telling you how old he is now. It makes me feel ancient just saying that I’m the mother of child that age! So, we’ll just say 29…again. 🙂
The cake. Okay, mine came out a little uneven, and my chocolate ganache was a bit too thick to drip as nicely as I wanted it to, but OMG! It’s so delicious, and it looked pretty good despite its flaws. 🙂
Jodi said she saw the recipe over on the blog called Life, Love, and Sugar here which inspired her to make the cake. Jodi is a very accomplished baker, cook, and artist so she’s always changing up the recipes she finds. Me. I like to make the recipe as prescribed the first time, and make changes if needed on the next go round. I headed over to Lindsay’s blog to check out the original recipe, and decided to use hers b/c she used 8 inch round cake pans which I have, and Jodi’s version had 9 inch ones which I don’t have, and she used milk for the cake rather than half and half which shaved a few calories plus there’s a frosting/decorating video at Lindsay’s which helped me a lot since this cake looked really challenging to frost.
I’ve linked to both Jodi, and Lindsay so you can read both postings.
Thank you so much Jodi for the inspiration it was a HUGE hit with whole family! Thanks for sharing Lindsay’s link too the video was great for me!
I would definitely make this again. I’d add a wee bit more heavy whipping cream to loosen up the Chocolate ganache, and figure out how to level my cakes better. This cake was gone in 2.5 days! 🙂
I hope everyone in the States had a lovely Thanksgiving, and I hope everyone everywhere has a lovely week-end!
Nikon D810| Nikkor 50mm f/1.8G| Hoodman Digital Film| PS CC 2018
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Not so Wordless Weds. 47/52 Thankful
Copyright ©2014-2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Psst! (Deborah whispers): over here. come closer. Closer. CLOSER! I have a secret. It’s supposed to be wordless today, but I feel the need to talk a bit. Would you mind terribly if I added words? Phew! I’m so glad you don’t mind! I just knew you were kindred spirits and would understand!
I would like to share one of my life’s mottoes with you, okay? This is the one that keeps me humble. Are you sure you don’t mind? Oh, thank you! I hope sharing it resonates with you. Okay, Here it is…
“There is always, always, always something to be thankful for.”
— Author Unknown
Count your Blessings! Reflect on the good things in your life, and move forward …ever forward with hope and faith. Believing always that it will all work out for the best. Until next week be well, be safe, and have a wonderful, and blessed Thanksgiving!
Nikon Df| AF-S Nikkor 50mm f1.8g| Hand-held| Natural light
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Thursday Doors: Ventana Grill
Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
In March He-Man and I went to Pismo Beach to celebrate our 36th Wedding Anniversary which you can read a little about here. After unpacking and wandering around the hotel grounds we decided to stay close and have dinner at Ventana Grill which was right next door to our hotel. We could have drinks with dinner and not worry about getting back to our room; we could just walk. The menu looked really good, and the dinning room was filling up when we arrived.
We ordered cocktails, and took them out to the balcony to watch the sea and talk while we waited for our table. Blue Moon for him, and a Margarita on the Rocks w/salted rim for me.
Dinner: It’s Latin American Seafood fare here. We ordered a meal in a stone pot. It came with Crab legs, clams, white fish chunks, a Ginormous pepper that He-Man liked, and shrimp, and the sides were rice, beans…
…and corn tortillas made right there on site. They were so tender, and tasty!
We entered through a side glass door that was pretty ho-hum, boring, but we left…nearly had to be rolled out; we were so fat from dinner through the lobby where there were more tables, and a wall displaying vintage surf boards. I like the hanging lamps as much as the surfboards. 🙂
We exited the entrance doors, and the waiter called us to come back b/c He-man had forgot to pick up his credit card. That’s only happened twice! It was a pretty tall Blue Moon, and I like to think he was distracted by me. (Fluttering eyelashes coquettishly) Anyway, 🙂 I waited outside and when we turned around to see and engage the waiter about the card look what I saw.
The waiter, He-Man, and those doors couldn’t get out of my way and close fast enough for me and my camera to start framing and making images! There were a couple of other couples entering I had to wait for too. 🙂
This venue really checked off a lot of our boxes…beach, rose pedals on the bed, a bottle of wine in the room, a gorgeous sunset, a fantastic dinner, a quiet room, comfy bed, plenty of cuddle time, late check out, and even Doors! 🙂
This anniversary week-end is going down as one of the best in our years together.
This post is part of Norm 2.0’s Thursday Doors. If you love doors and would like to see the doors others are posting, or post doors you’ve photographed and join other door lovers from around the world click here.
At the end of Norm’s latest Thursday Door post is a little Blue Link-up/View button click it to be taken to a page with all the links to view all the posts, and add your own if you’re a door enthusiast too.
I hope you all have a wonderful week-end!
Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| SanDisk Digital Film| PS CC 2017
more to come…
Roasted Chicken with Herb Butter & Root Vegetables
Copyright ©2017 Deborah M. Zajac. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
It’s been awhile since I’ve shared any food images so… this Hen was tender and juicy. It’s a super easy meal to make, and since it’s a one pan meal clean up is quick.
Serve it with a salad, and some good bread.
Roasted Chicken with Root Vegetables and Herb Butter
Ingredients:
1 4-5 lb Hen-
1 bag baby carrots, or 2-3 whole carrots cut up
2-3 potatoes- cut up I used russet
3-4 cloves of garlic- I left mine whole w/skin on
1 onion cut into wedges
1 lemon cut into wedges
Rosemary, Sage, and Basil mince enough to make a mixture of 4-6 tablespoons.
3TBS Butter – room temperature
salt and pepper
Olive Oil- enough to lightly coat the vegetables
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 475 degrees.
Rinse and pat dry the Hen. Salt and Pepper both the cavity and outer skin.
Next mince the rosemary, sage, and basil. In a small bowl add the minced herbs and butter. Mix with fork until well combined.
Cut lemon, and onion into wedges set aside. Smear half the butter mixture into the cavity of the Hen. With the remaining butter mixture rub some under the breast skin being careful not to tear the skin, and rub some on the outer skin of the Hen.
Add a wedge or two of lemon and onion into the cavity then truss the bird, or tie the legs and set aside. My trussing is all wrong! And, I don’t know how to tuck the wings correctly either. But, whatever works right. 🙂
Clean and peel the carrots, potatoes, and garlic. Cut the carrots and potatoes into bite size pieces. Mince, chop, or leave the garlic cloves whole. Put all the vegetables into a roasting pan. Drizzle olive oil over the vegetables, salt and pepper lightly then mix until all the vegetables are lightly coated with the olive oil.
Place the Hen in the roasting pan then put it into the oven.
Roast uncovered for 20 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 400 degrees and cook for additional 40 minutes stirring the vegetables now and then.
A hen this size will take anywhere from 1 hour to 1h15m to cook. The internal temperature should be 165 degrees.
Rest for a few minutes then serve. Option: make gravy with the pan juices while the bird rests.
Are you hungry yet? 🙂
Nikon Df| Nikkor 28-105mm| High ISO (1600) cause I hand-held it without additional lighting and I thought I could manage it sans a tripod| Delkin Digital Film| PS CC 2017
More to come…
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