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A Gluten Free French Omelette

Jenn — Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:06:30 +0000

Ha, I know what you’re thinking – duh, of course an omelette is gluten free! Why are you calling something that never had gluten to begin with a gluten free recipe? Well, there’s a reason and a story to go with this one, I promise.

It all started with a discussion on the merit of naturally gluten free recipes – by naturally gluten free, I mean recipes that never required any alterations in the first place for a GF person to be able to enjoy them. Take, for an example, the recipes I link to in my naturally gluten free roundup posts. But do GF people actually find such recipes valuable? Do you really want someone giving you “yet another freaking salad” recipe (as my husband so lovingly refers to green salads with little else in them….)? What about other dishes that are naturally gluten free?

It may seem like a simple question but it is not – after a bit of a side tangent discussion on Dianne Jacob’s recent post about recipe adaptions, I decided that this topic needed a bit more attention. Flo made a comment about recipe originality in respect to gluten free recipe development – how she has seen people take something that never had gluten in it to begin with, such as an omelette, and claim it as a grand new GF invention. And from there people got talking about what exactly is the place of naturally gluten free recipes? Do they belong on blogs? What about in cookbooks? If you are GF do you actually want to see and read such recipes to be shown easy and practical ways to live a GF lifestyle, or do you consider them trivial and a waste of space?

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Creamy Cauliflower Soup

Jenn — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 22:04:54 +0000

Cauliflower – a vegetable I grew up with, and wasn’t often thrilled about. Mom you know I love you, but I do not love the way you like most of your veggies cooked.

However, on my quest to enjoy more fresh produce this Winter season, I’m giving it a try again. Cauliflower seems to abound in the markets right now and as fortune would have it, my friend Simone chose a lovely cauliflower recipe for this month’s Donna Hay Styling and Photography Challenge (DHSPC). I enjoy participating in these challenges because they always make me reach and do something new that I might not otherwise try. In this case, that meant not only the photo but also the recipe featuring heads of cauliflower! In fact, in the near four years that this blog has been on the interwebs, today marks the first time cauliflower has ever even appeared on Jenn Cuisine, let alone received a spotlight feature.

This month, Simone challenged us all to make a creamy cauliflower soup, which appeared in Donna Hay issue #51 (June/July 2010) and was photographed by Ben Dearnley. The soup was wonderful – cauliflower and potatoes cooked together in broth and milk and puréed until velvety smooth. A perfect Winter bowl, better than plain boiled veggies. And even naturally gluten free!

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Herb Roasted Root Vegetables

Jenn — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:39:35 +0000

I have hit the ground running with my expedition into the land of root vegetables. This week I have eaten celery root, parsnips, jerusalem artichokes, and there are even carrots sitting in my fridge. My first foray of the year into root vegetables was to try them simply – I wanted to taste their flavor, with mere accents to the palate rather than covering them up by drowning them in butter or cheese (as tempting and always tasty as that may be).

I believe in understanding the true flavor of an ingredient before getting too inventive with it – after all, what is the point of a food that cannot be tasted? How do you ever really know if you will like it or not if you cannot identify its inherent flavor? I think roasting vegetables is a great way to try new ones, because it’s an easy cooking process and yet still preserves the texture unlike boiling something forever. I grew up with enough over-boiled veggies (well, at least I consider them over-boiled) in my day to know that boiling is not my preferred method for cooking vegetables – well except maybe beans. So when I have no idea what I am going to do with something, oven-roasting is usually the route I tend to go.

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Amateur’s Food Photography XIII: White Bean and Ricotta Salad

Jenn — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 22:24:26 +0000

What defines a photographic style? Is it the light one uses, the props, the angle, the composition, the settings? I kind of think all of the above. It’s part of what makes style so hard to describe. How does one look at a photograph and see the signature of the photographer within the image? All of my favorite photographers have a distinct style, and I can look at any single image and instantly recognize it as theirs. But as an amateur who is still learning, it’s hard to find a voice. How do you figure out how to represent your vision to the world in a way that speaks only from you? And determining of what that style comprises can become quite the soul searching process.

For me, I have always been in love with color. Bright vibrant color. Ha I remember when I was 5 I had this pair of shorts I loved, bright pink with bright green fishies (yeah I was stylin in the 80s, ha). My mother for better or worse always let me choose my own clothes as a kid, and I was always a fan of bright colors – turquoise, pinks, greens, ha even my prom dress was a hot pink satin ball gown (and I totally rocked it lol). So while I may not be the most fashion forward person, it doesn’t surprise me that as I’ve involved myself more and more into photography that I would still be in love with bright vibrant color. Maybe too much. I’ve been trying to tone myself down a bit (and even done some black & whites oh my!), but the truth is, I will always be a sucker for color and contrast. And I think that’s definitely part of my style. I also like to be close. Really close. I want to put you right there in front of the plate ready to dive in (well, that’s my goal!). I think I just see the world close up in technicolor, and so that’s how I express my vision of it.

And that’s really what style is about, isn’t it? How one expresses their vision of the world? I remember a couple years ago while I was still floundering and guessing as to how to create an image, desperately seeking out my style. But really, a style is something that evolves and happens naturally. And it wasn’t until I got a better grasp on the technicals of what I was doing that I was able to sit back a bit and watch mine evolve. I love experimenting with different ideas and techniques and finding out what is or isn’t me. I’m not quite sure where I am headed but I see it developing and forming, and hopefully turning into a unique way to present the world with a vision of food and nature.

One thing I love about photographic styles is how individual they are. No style is defined by a single aspect – it’s not about the angle of the camera, the color of the background, the softness of the light, the editing on the computer. It’s about all the aspects of photography all combined together. And that’s why a style is so personal – every style reveals a bit about the photographer’s soul, because it is part of how they perceive the world around them. And it’s why at first I was hesitant to participate in this new photo challenge.

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Creamy Zucchini Soup

Jenn — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 20:23:21 +0000

I’ve always dreamed of having a garden. When I was very little, my mom used to have a vegetable garden in the backyard – I remember sunkissed days with tomatoes coming out our ears, along with peas, lots of peppers, even once we tried growing corn (that didn’t work so well)… But one of the sacrifices of apartment life is giving up the chance for a garden. A meager balcony with all the wrong sunshine is not an ideal setup for an urban oasis of greenery.

So instead of being outside amongst the bounty of nature taking care of the plants and growing our own dinner, we venture up to the trails, to see the mountains and landscapes before us. We eagerly set off to get away from all the concrete.

And ironically, there is my husband, admiring the beauty of nature standing next to a large wall, ha!

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Mustard Roasted Potatoes

Jenn — Sun, 14 Aug 2011 23:01:24 +0000

Photography and food, as art forms, are a bit of opposites. Food – grown, prepared, cooked, eaten, enjoyed – like all the good things in life, is fleeting; the moment is there, the bliss happens, and before you realize it is all gone, forever. Food is the medium through which our senses become alive for an instant or two and we learn to touch the universe in new ways – through flavor, aromas, and friends.

Photography however, much like our most wishful versions of ourselves, fights the ephemeral quality that is the very nature of such moments in time, doing its best to keep and hold on to every moment and treasure it forever, lest our memories become feeble and weak and forget those experiences that mark and define not just our lives, but our very identities. Each precious instant of life builds upon the last, and we become the culmination of all of those experiences put together – and maybe, just maybe, if we can capture and preserve those moments in some way, we can slow down time, make it stop, and keep those moments alive in some form forever.

Food and photography together seem a bit counter to each other because they live in such opposing interpretations of time – but I think that is one of the reasons why food photography is so beautiful – it can do the impossible and turn a mere instant into a lifetime, as well as the other way around, transforming an entire state of being into a mere morsel to be consumed. It is the dichotomy between these paradigms for me that brings so much interest and fascination with the idea of one, photographing food to preserve its memory and two, creating photos with food in order to recreate those infinitesimal experiences in time.

Time is a funny yet heady thing. As Americans, we have a peculiar fascination with all things old and ancient, simply because the idea that something from earlier than that famous day the Mayflower first landed on the shores of Cape Cod can actually be seen and touched is a bit abstract to us, especially those of us who grew up in “old” towns that would be considered “new” in other countries, and where risk of obsolescence incessantly plagues nearly everything in our society and culture. I’ve seen my fair share of old buildings and châteaux living in Europe now, and yet stepping into a 600 year old candlelit cave while visiting La Bourgogne en France last week I still feel was a bit of an otherworldly experience. How is it possible that time was literally able to stop for this place, all these hundreds of years and stay as it always was? How many moments transpired between these walls below the ground? What stories I am sure could be told…

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Mountaintop Rösti with Ham, Tomatoes and Fried Egg

Jenn — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 21:41:50 +0000

Sometimes we need to let go of the world around us, our daily cares, issues that cause stress, and get away for a few days – relax, recollect, and come back ready to face the world with new resolve and vigor. This Summer my husband and I have been doing just that, in a series of short little trips. Last weekend we went to the top of the world (well, it felt like it to us) to slip away for three beautifully brisk and sunny days in Zermatt. It was majestic, incredible, awe-inspiring, and magical. It was pure escapism as we explored the fantasy-like region around Zermatt and the Matterhorn, and all of our day to day cares floated with the clouds that sailed on past the mountaintops. No worries, no stresses, nothing but pure meditative existence, scenery, and a sense of childlike exploration. What more can one want in a holiday?

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Early Morning Poached Eggs & Tomatoes

Jenn — Tue, 24 May 2011 21:06:13 +0000

Are you a morning person??

I’m a reluctant morning person. Usually doing my best not to throw my ipod across the room as the purposely annoying ring drags me out of the sweet nothingness that was sleep, leaving me to stumble out of bed and fumble for the buttons on the coffee maker, totally useless until taking a hot espresso down in one giant gulp – only now willing to make myself aware of the world.

But then there are some days that present themselves a bit more pleasantly – sunlight slowly streams into the room as the birds start up their chorus of hymns to greet the day – on these days I find myself full of energy, rushed with the sudden urge to go outside and say good morning to nature and her beauty, even if she decides to hide the sun for a bit once I actually make it outside – no matter, the mornings are still preciously awe-inspiring as soft light kisses the tops of all things green and flowering:

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White bean tuna salad for a picnic in the park

Jenn — Sun, 17 Apr 2011 17:34:11 +0000

Ha, I told you we’ve been loving salads lately! I’ve been all about “no cook” these days, and so when our friends organized a potluck picnic in the park yesterday I thought a flavorful salad would be the perfect dish to bring (so did everyone else, we had a lot of salads – just goes to show they are so well suited for this time of year ). It was a picture perfect day – literally; the park was holding La Fête de la Tulipe – the festival of tulips – and we all sat in the grass together amongst over 300 varieties of the most gorgeous tulips all in bloom dancing in the warm afternoon sunshine. We enjoyed some wine, some stories and laughs, and some delicious food all together.

But I could not get over these gorgeous tulips!! My camera and I went for a little walk through the park, would you like to join me?

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Savory Buckwheat Groats Breakfast with Spinach, Sausage and Celeriac

Jenn — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 10:16:51 +0000

My husband is an 8 year old boy trapped inside a near 30 year old body (eek we are getting old!). It’s one of his most endearing qualities, because he is so completely expressive and playful with everything. He never lost his childhood wonder about the world (even when he tries to act like a grown-up), and I hope he never does. With that comes his major sweet tooth. The man would eat cookies and cake for breakfast every day if I let him. My last buckwheat breakfast of pure sweet maple fruity heaven? You can probably guess that one was mainly for him, and all the pears, currants and maple syrup really made it taste like a warm comforting morning candy delight – it certainly brought me back to my childhood memories of piping hot oatmeal But that same morning, while the snow laid unmelted on the streets and the Alps were capped in their familiar white vestiges, I cooked for myself a different sort of breakfast. A savory one, with spinach, celeriac, sausage and eggs.

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