Photo editing

It's like painting without the imperfections, mess and fun smells. I started teaching myself how to use some new photo editing software yesterday, after my dear friend and amazing photographer lovingly chided me, calling me a "booby" and told me to get with the program. How did I do? Is the first one totally overkill? This is a photo that I posted recently from Laguna, edited with 2 different programs. I tried to play with the saturation, but when placed consecutively, the top one looks a little Disney, and the bottom a little pasty (this was posted previously). Hmm. What do you think?

Chicken pita

Was feeling a bit lazy and a bit Mediterranean the other day... made a chicken pita sandwich with all the fixins. Grilled kabob-flavored marinated chicken, sliced up some marinated artichokes, roasted red bell peppers, kalamata olives, feta cheese, spinach, tomatoes, seasoned with a little balsamic vinegar and oil, and a little salt and pepper. All that was left to do was grab a warm pita, slice it in half, peel it open, and stuff away! Yum.

Top of the World

Or just Laguna, that is. I am enjoying the mild fall season in southern California... the days are great, and the sunsets too.


The ocean is teeming with life!


Me and my partner in crime on this beautiful day. He's kind of shy.


Gratuitous sunset shots.

Carne Asada

So it looks like I'm back on my cooking run- hold onto your drool! I am still encountering the same issue of photographing and cooking and eating all at the same time... the photos are not quite what I would hope them to be. In all my eagerness to swiftly capture the visual essence of the food before satisfying the rest of my senses, I find the minor imperfections that could easily be forgiven with a little finger swiping and licking in all other cases linger on in the photo. *Sigh*

Let there be carne asada!



There are probably more than 100 ways to make carne asada, to marinate the meat, and the toppings that can go on top are plentiful. If you'd like to know how I made mine, here is the general recipe. I eyeball my measurements in almost all of my cooking, so not much can be said for accuracy in the recipe, but I'll do my best to provide general estimates:

Take 1 lb. of ranchera steak/skirt steak, and place in bowl. Dice a quarter of an onion finely, add to the meat. Sprinkle garlic salt lightly over each piece of meat, add in the juice of two limes, 2 pinches of cumin, a few splashes of Worcestershire sauce, freshly ground black pepper, and if you're feeling a little gringo, a splash or two of A1 sauce- the kind with cracked black pepper flavoring is nice. Mix it all up, let it stand- the longer the better, then grill it all up till done, chop it into pieces, and there you go. Put the meat on some warm corn tortillas, add a dollop or two of Mexican cream, a little pico de gallo or salsa of some sort and you have a delicious, and very affordable little meal. 1 lb. of meat serves 2-3 people.

Open breakfast sammie

I love this breakfast snack! It's simple, flexible, and oh so tasty. I use Trader Joe's Four Cheese sourdough bread, but have also used regular sourdough from anywhere else, and it works well too. Toast the bread lightly, spread on some cream cheese, add a layer of tomato slices, and dust the top with a little salt n pepper, or even better, some lemon pepper, or Goya's adobo seasoning- the ones with the red or yellow tops are tried and true in my book. :) Yummy in my tummy.

The incredible, edible egg.

I'd never run across this before... but I think I had twins! The two yolks that are attached to each other hatched out of the same egg.