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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Croutons are one of those things that my gluten free husband usually has to deny himself.  And inevitably croutons cause him some of the most frequent problems for eating out, as they invariably end up on soups or salads when someone doesn’t understand that croutons are made of bread and thus fall into the “no bread, pasta, or flour because I am allergic to gluten” request that my husband is so well experienced in asking.  This also means asking the server “yes can you please give me another salad prepped in a clean bowl” and “no, it is not ok to just remove the croutons”.

This has always been more of a problem for my husband in the U.S. than in Europe it seems – in Europe, while there may not be many gluten free options depending on the country and their culture of cuisine, it seems everyone we’ve come across knows what gluten means.  In the U.S., explaining that he actually has a problem with gluten, isn’t doing it just for a diet, and yes gluten does include anything made with bread, pasta and flour (including to check the sauces) seems to be a more common occurrence.  It’s almost so laborious to make sure everything is ok dining out that it’s not even worth it.

And on top of that, in the U.S. gluten free is becoming so popular for reasons other than celiac or sensitivities (some even use the word “fad”, despite the fact that for many like my husband staying gluten free will be a necessity for the rest of their lives), that the seriousness of the issue often becomes diluted – it’s been more than once that my husband has dutifully explained his intolerance to gluten at a restaurant and his requests have been ignored or forgotten.  Sometimes I wonder if some restaurants think people use “gluten free” as an excuse to cover up being a picky eater, and thus don’t know to treat an allergy request as an actual health issue could affect the safety of their customers (really, should a restaurant be questioning the motives of the diner?).

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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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It’s Fall. And like a little kid on the first day of school, I have this renewed energy to seek and find myself, create new things, and explore the world.  Maybe it’s the way the yellow Autumnal light shines through the trees or sparkles inside dew drops not yet faded away.  Maybe it’s the newfound comfort in being able to brew a cup of tea and hold it warm against your hands while the cool brisk winds remind us that the Summer has faded.  Or maybe it’s the sudden urge to curl up with a good book in the ever darkening evenings, wrapped up in one’s favorite blanket.  It’s the time of fuzzy woolen sweaters, seeing one’s breath in the air, and stomping through rain puddles.  And then just when the clouds clear, that most amazing light comes through and reminds us of the beauty of this season.

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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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The end of Summer is upon us – some people I’m sure will be reminiscing about times at the beach or picnics and bbqs in the sun with friends, fruits and vegetables from their gardens and holidays.    I am reminiscing about my travels to Germany, Spain, France, and great hikes in the Alps, along with some gorgeous produce in our local markets. This was for sure the year of apricots and berries en Suisse, and we enjoyed all of it that we could.  But I’m not thinking back on Summer with too much sadness, for there is so much to look forward to in the coming Fall – the produce is far from done yet, instead there is just a new set of gorgeous food to enjoy – pruneaux, grapes and mushrooms, chestnuts, squash – I love seeing how all the foods cycle throughout the seasons.  The markets provide endless fascination of inspiration and flavor.

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Back in May at Plate to Page in Weimar, Germany I met an amazing food blogger from Cape Town  – Ishay of Food and the Fabulous.  We had a lot of fun creating a picnic photoshoot together, and her infectious enthusiasm shined through the entire weekend.  Her passion is truly inspirational, and when she suggested that we Plate to Page attendees do a little something for the project We Feed Back, I was more than happy to participate.

I have never known hunger.  I was lucky enough to grow up in a small town in the rural countryside of New England and while money didn’t exactly grow on trees for us, in the grand scheme of things we lived a fairly comfortable lifestyle.  But there are millions who do know hunger, and know it every day.  In the midst of all the craziness of our own lives, it is so easy to caught get up in our day to day concerns – what to buy at the market? should we go out with friends for dinner and drinks this evening? where shall we go hiking this weekend? and we don’t stop to think about the preciousness of the fortunes that we do have, not even giving basic needs like hunger a second thought.  But for nearly one in seven around the globe, that is not the case.  So what if when we went out to enjoy food at a restaurant or have dinner with friends we could give back some of our pleasures to help those in need?

We Feed Back is an initiative of the UN’s World Food Program in which users utilize social networking tools in order to raise awareness and fund raise in order to fight hunger around the world.  Through We Feed Back, one can in essence give back any food or meal that was enjoyed by going to the calculator, entering the dish you ate and its cost per serving, and then donate the number of servings that you wish.  All the revenue goes towards WFP’s school feeding programs to help give meals to hungry children.

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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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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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Fruit deserves to have a place outside of dessert.    Dessert is often shunned for fear of ingesting too many sugar-filled calories and myriad other reasons, and sadly fruit often also becomes under appreciated, associated only with a guilty, and even naughty indulgence – how often do we think of certain fruits only with pies, tartes, scones, cakes and the like?  Such a view not only limits our appreciation for fruit, but I think also forces upon us a paradigm that fruit should be “improved upon” by making it even sweeter than it already is.  Maybe for some acidic fruits like certain berries or citrus this is true, but many are already pleasurably sweet and unfortunately get overlooked as a valid component in other parts of a meal.

What if fruit were the star of other dishes too? Maybe a first course, served with meat, etc?  Some of my favorite dishes involve fruits, and it’s not just for the sweetness – many fruits pair really well with savory items and I think provide a balance to other strong elements.  One of my most frequented pairings this Summer has been to add herbs and the tang of locally made goat cheeses to baked or roasted seasonal fruits – the markets are just brimming with succulent produce, and every two weeks it seems becomes a new mad rush to enjoy in as many ways as possible first the strawberries, then cherries, then apricots & peaches, and soon the plums and other berries will arrive en masse

And you know what? Sometimes I think the taste of fresh fruit is even more enjoyable when it is not a part of le dessert

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