ROC - That Vermonster....

That's right, we did it. We ordered a Vermonster. We took the challenge! (And we kinda lost..)

So for our last e-board meeting of the year, my club planned pretty early on that we wanted to take on the Vermonster and Ben&Jerry's. Just some slight background information, as en e-board, we eat. A lot. Traditionally theres 5 positions in our e-board and but by second semester, when we see that there are some of us graduating, we start up re-elections and whatnot and as a way for the new e-board and old e-board to bond, last spring we decided we would eat together. A lot. So we did. E-board meets every other week, and by spring semester we liked each other a lot and decided that we would spend those e-board meetings, discussing, planning, bonding, and eating (and getting me to watch scary things like American Horror Story.. but thats besides the point).

So, by the end of the semester when it came time for the last e-board meeting we all decided this is what we wanted to do as a sort of last hoorah transitioning from old e-board to new e-board. So the old 5 and the additional new 3 settled in. (One of the members had previous obligations and she ducked in an out of our attempt at the Vermonster so lets say there were 7.5 if us working on this thing). A Vermonster, for those of you who aren't familiar, is 20 scoops of ice cream, 4 bananas, 3 cookies/brownies, hot fudge/carmel, whipped cream, and more candy because that wasn't enough sugar already. Now we didn't have banana's in ours because Ben&Jerry's was out that day but that's okay! even without the banana that Vermonster kicked our asses. 3.5 girls and 4 boys and we still had a bit of melted ice cream and what not at the bottom of our bucket... But in our defense, midway through the bucket, a nice girl from the college activities board walked over and offered us pizza.. and when you're a broke college kid, you don't turn away free food, especially pizza. Even if you're in the middle of a Vermonster! I like to think that the pizza actually helped. We needed a break from all the diary, what better than nice pizza carbs to soak that all up in our stomachs. And I can't vouch for everyone with me, but those two slices from the sheet pizza gave me a second wind! (Emily the bottomless pit strikes again!!)

I'm fairly certain, come this May, Vermonster attempt 2 will rear it's head. Maybe we'll be able to beat it this time!! (Especially if we don't have that darned chunky monkey contaminating the whole bucket with an overpowering taste of banana!) Moral of this story? My e-board is cooler than yours.. or at least hungrier....  

I swear I do shoot...

Spring semester of third year was when I really started to buckle down and shoot more food. My photo interest stream has been all over the map but once I switch to advertising at the beginning of second semester I quickly learned that making portraits was not for me. I learned that I am not the fashion photographer type which is completely fine. I love shooting food and still life. I get focus and problem solve and use my tricks. Much more fun for me. 

This shoot was really fun for me. It's a spinach cheese dip I found online (Thank you interwebs always). The end of third semester was a real late night cooking and baking semester for me. I felt comfortable in my kitchen and I must've had time tuesday nights to bake stuff to shoot in class Wednesday mornings. I wonder if I'm remembering my schedule right.... 

Anyhow, this shoot was fun and I loved it and it was great. I actually ran across the final image today and remembered it, of course 9months later I'm still working on it. This shot has a design element that goes along with it that I still need help with. Gotta make some calls to my designer friends, not like everyone is busy buried in school work... poor shoot... you were so good.. hopefully one day soon the final image will be complete and up on my site. One day! 

Funfetti = Fun Times

Funfetti = fun times always. Period. End of Story. 

My friends from high school and I love funfetti. It is our cake mix. Our tradition. Every birthday, holiday, rainy day - is funfetti day. Funfetti is perfection, and it will never stop being something that is good and love and friendship.

This night I was baking for a photoshoot. I have a cute little cookies and milk shot I planned out and I had to do funfetti cookies because I found a recipe online. And while I was at it I happened to make a funfetti cake too because why not! I've mentioned I'm a night person, and obviously by the glow of the stove light, I was up a little late baking, which sounds funny if you don't know me and completely normal if you do. Baking is cathartic, and baking at night when I can't sleep is just downright perfect. Throw in some funfetti and my night is made, it almost doesn't even matter that I can't sleep! 

Through all of high school we made countless funfetti cakes and cupcakes but this was my first batch of funfetti cookies and I loved the way they turned out. They're beautiful and made for a shoot I was happy with. Small kicks of color in a neutral set. Funfetti still hasn't stopped meaning love. Even at 21. 

Bacon Pancakes

That's right I said it, BACON pancakes! I'm all on board the bacon train, I haven't had crazy bacon things yet but honestly, if I was offered a chance to try bacon ice cream or something along those lines, I'd take it! 

This isn't from my hunger games cookbook. I took a break from it after the first three sections of the book, but not to fear, the catchy hunger games related recipe titles will come back in a little bit, I haven't give up on the book completely. 

This recipe came from the internet. Oh magical internet, so full of random recipes and knowledge. Now, I'm not a huge pancake fan. I explained the whole breakfast thing, and while pancakes can be quite savory and whatnot, they're not my thing. This isn't a waffle v. pancake debate either. I have neutral feelings towards both of these things. They make awesome 'breakfast for dinner' choices but as a breakfast item, totally not my thing. I know I said my dad used to sit is down for breakfast when I was little but I can honestly say I don't think I had my first pancake until high school. Remember, I'm a first generation American and my dad is a chef at a chinese restaurant. I grew up eating rice porridge and soup for breakfast as well as left over dim-sum food items dad picked up from work. That might explain why I don't really have a hankering for sweet breakfasts.. 

Anyways! This was my first attempt at making pancakes on my own and it was interesting to say the least, but when bacon is involved, where there's a will, there's a way! One of my roommates last year had these great little pancake stencil things you use to make cute shapes out of your food. I figured hey, it'll totally be easy to use these guys. And it probably would've been! If I was using a griddle.... instead I made pancakes in my little frying pan with higher edges that doesn't bode well for flipping pancakes in a stencil that has a handle and I struggled a little bit, hence the semi burnt pancake.... but it really was only semi-burnt on that one side!! and the pancakes were actually really great! The bacon was so good and the salty-sweet combo with the syrup was a pretty great idea if I do say so myself. I'm not gonna lie, I've only made these the one time but if someone asked, i'd totally do it again! (But I'd probably cut up the bacon this time...) 

Raging Wild Mushroom Ragout

I'm not really sure what I was expecting when I read the word Ragout in this cookbook but I can tell you, this was not what I what I imagined. Still, this dish ended up being really great. I never liked mushrooms growing up and avoided them at all cost but first year of college I started eating salads and mushrooms were suddenly really not that bad. By second year I went through a mushroom kick and cooked them in pretty much everything. Third year when I made this, it was perfect! This guy had probably 5 different kinds of mushrooms in it and it tasted great! However, by the time I got the to the end of the batch a week later, it wasn't as amazing anymore. This was when I figured I should probably pay more attention to the serving size unless I want to spend weeks eating 4-6 servings of the same ragout before it completely goes bad...