the traveling cupcake: family

Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Photo project - Childrens Photography part 4

During much of November and December I was a busy bee building my Children's photography portfolio. Our friends were kind enough to let me invade their home one afternoon and take some pictures of their two beautiful kids, Mia and Luke. The family had recently returned from a trip back to the US so everyone was a little jet-lagged - or so they claimed! The kids were running around playing like crazy, only towards the end did Luke show signs of fatigue (by laughing uncontrollably - I hope my kids are like that when they are tired).

*read more*

Tuesday, December 06, 2011

Photo Project - Childrens Photography part 3

WARNING!

This post is very picture heavy and full of adorable children.

Consider yourself warned.

*read more*

Monday, November 21, 2011

Why I have been MIA...and some big news!

Last week I sent out a tweet apologizing for being such a bad blogger lately. I'm sure you've noticed that my posts have been somewhat lacking lately. I went from posting 2-3 times a week to barely once a week, if I was lucky. Hopefully you'll forgive me though, now that I can finally share my exciting news!

I'm pregnant!

15 weeks!

I am just about 15 weeks now and into my second trimester. Wondering why my food posts went from 100 to 0 in no time flat? Blame that on the nausea which has finally (and thankfully!) subsided. Curious as to where my Friday Favorites and travel posts went (apart from the couple that I managed to squeeze out from our weekend in Italy)? Blame that on the lack of energy and constant need for sleep that I had for about eight weeks straight. I could barely stay awake long enough to eat dinner let alone troll the internet for hours like I normally do. I can now make it through (most of) a full day without needing to sleep under my desk from 2pm-4pm, though just barely.

Baby is growing big and strong and all of our appointments have gone smoothly so far. We have our 16 week appointment next week and we can't wait to see our little one again! Baby is about the size of a medium apple this week and is growing bigger every day.

If you're interested in keeping up with our babys progress and other exciting (well, at least for me as a first time mom!) updates please visit my NEW blog - the mini traveling cupcake! If you would rather not know all the details (I totally get it, it's not everyones bag of chips) then stay right where you are - now that I have my energy back I will be posting as regularly as possible.

Apart from being pregnant and adjusting to that huge awesome news, I have also started a new day job and my weekends have been booked up with children's photo shoots - so I have lots of exciting recaps from those to share with you. We also have some awesome trips coming up (including the ultimate Christmas Market trip) and I can't wait to fill you in once we are back! And now that am back in the kitchen making something other than a bowl of cereal (seriously, I have consumed so.much.freakin.cereal in the last nine weeks) I'll be sharing what I've been busy baking - just in time for the holidays!

Thanks for staying with me while I was so MIA. Here's to a great winter, fantastic holiday season and a healthy mini cupcake!

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Risotto with peas

Growing up my father always had a big garden in the back yard. It occupies the back right corner of the yard, its size varying from year to year depending on how much time my dad had and how many vegetables he wanted to grow. Now that it's just him and my mom in the house the garden has gotten so big that sometimes I think it is going to take up the whole yard. But back when I was a kid I was fortunate enough to have grown up with an abundance of fresh vegetables during the summer months.

It would start with asparagus. The asparagus bed had its own separate location apart from the rest of the garden, seemingly posher than the humble potatoes and corn. As soon as we saw their little tips peeking up from the soil we knew the season was in full swing. It took many, many years for me to finally like the taste of asparagus (without a pound of melted velveeta cheese slathered on top, oh the horror). The same goes for peas.

One of the most vivid memories I have of growing up in my parents house was picking fresh peas from the garden. As a child I loathed the taste of cooked peas - somehow the only ones that I could remember were dull and brownish from being cooked too long in the microwave (sorry mom). But fresh peas, oh those were something different. My parents would send my sister and I out to the garden with a plastic bag and we were to fill it with peas. They were lucky if they ended up with half of the bounty that was growing, the other half in my belly with a trail of empty pods stretching out behind me. I'd seek out the perfect pea pod - not too big (as that meant the peas were too starchy and slightly bitter), not too small (you wanted to actually be able to eat something out of the pod) but just right - the peas would be sweet and tender, and I would gobble them up like candy.

These days I have a better appreciation for the taste of cooked peas, but even now I find it hard to get them cooked just right when we are dining out. And of course now in my life there is the British staple of mushed peas served with fish and chips. But even that is a tricky dish to get right. I don't have the luxury now of picking fresh peas from my parents garden, so the farmers market is my next best option. When I saw a bag of fresh peas last week I knew I had to do something remarkable with them.

I have (slowly) been reading through The Silver Spoon (the holy grail of Italian cooking) and noticed a recipe for Risotto with Asparagus. And that's when the lightbulb went off - Risotto with Peas and Mint. It was my first time cooking risotto and I am hooked. These something so methodical and hypnotizing about stirring a pot for 25 minutes, slowly adding stock, stirring, stirring, stirring. This dish requires very few ingredients so it is critical to use the freshest, best quality ingredients that you can get your hands on.

Risotto with Peas and Mint
Inspired by a risotto recipe by The Silver Spoon cookbook

1.5 litres (2 1/2 pints) of vegetable or chicken stock (homemade or low sodium from the store)

40 grams (1 1/2 oz) butter

3 tblsp olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

350 grams (12 oz) risotto rice

1 cup fresh peas

1/2 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese, plus more to serve
Fresh mint, chopped, to taste (I used 10 leaves, about 1 1/5 tblsp chopped)

- Bring the stock to a boil. In a large sauce pan melt the butter and olive oil, add the onion and cook over low heat until the onion is slightly soft and starting to turn translucent. Tip in the rice and stir until the grains are well coated.

- Add a ladleful of the hot stock and cook until the liquid has been absorbed, stirring constantly. Continue to add the stock, one ladleful at a time, making sure that all liquid is absorbed before adding more, stirring constantly. This should take around 20 minutes, give or take a few minutes. After the last ladle of stock is added tip in the peas. Once all of the liquid is absorbed add the fresh grated parmesan cheese and chopped mint and stir just to incorporate.

- Add a few fresh mint leafs and grated parmesan cheese to serve. Makes four generous servings.

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

Project 52 - week 9 and 10

For once...I am submitting my Project 52 before the last day I can turn it in! Procrastination - I'm done with you!

Lies. Thats a big fat lie.

I'm sorry for lying to you.

Before we get to week 10 I'll back track to week 9. Actually, you've already seen this photo. Hopefully it didn't make you drool too much...

The theme for week 9 was Express Yourself. I think the best way I express myself is through my baking!

The theme for week 10 is Childhood Toys.

This was a hard for me (I feel like I say this a lot!) - since we don't have any kids of our own, and don't really have any friends who have kids (in London at least), I didn't really know what to take a picture of.

On Saturday I walked around Hampstead Heath with my friend Emily to take some photos. She wanted some practice using her dSLR and I'm always game for a photo session. We ended up in a semi wooded area just as the sun went behind the clouds. I shot a picture of this amazing tree - this area looked like we were in some kind of fairy book forrest.

I was uploading my photos on Sunday and was thinking about this weeks theme. When this photo popped up I immediately thought back to my parents front yard and how my sister and I used to climb the trees, in particular the one right in the middle of the front yard. I usually didn't make it past the first level of branches (guess this heights thing has been with me for a while) but I love those trees. We even take family photos in front of them (see below).

I'm not sure if a tree counts as a "toy" but they sure are fun (and make good backgrounds)!

Like what you see?