13 posts tagged “photography”
American coffee was the biggest culture shock we had on our first visit to the US. I almost gagged at my first sip of the Starbucks Roast. This was not coffee. Where was the milk? The sugar? The sweet stickiness that was supposed to coat the back of your throat?
Several packets of Equal and half-n-half later, we ended up discarding the coffee.
These days, I drink several cups of black hospital coffee to get through the day. But at home, the old cravings tend to come back.
Indian style whipped coffee
- 2 1/2 tbsp instant coffee (yes, I know)
- a few tbsp water
- 3 cups milk (or an equal mixture of milk and water)
- A sprinkling of drinking chocolate
- In a small glass or metal bowl, mix together the sugar and coffee.
- Now with a spoon, add a few drops of water at a time, until you have a paste of toothpaste consistency. Tilting the bowl, start beating this paste with the spoon. It will change color as you beat it, becoming lighter and increasing in volume. When it starts feeling tight, add another few drops of water.
- After ten minutes of wrist and elbow exercise, you'll end with the whipped cream seen above. (If you've ever beaten butter and sugar for a cake, you know what I'm talking about.)
- Boil the milk. Add a generous tbsp(or more) of the cream into a mug, and pour the boiling milk from a distance into the mug. Gently stir with your spoon until the cream is dissolved. A fine foam will rise to the top. Sprinkle with drinking chocolate if you like. Share with loved ones.
The picture above goes to CLICK July 2008. This month's theme is Coffee and Tea. I'm super-excited because they asked me to be one of the judges for this month's event...makes me feel all grown-up and important. :)
I've been wanting to do this ever since we moved here.
To your right is the riverfront park with an amphitheatre that seats 2500. To your left is the Amtrak station. A double-click on the picture will reveal the second bridge up front on the river. And I'm standing right behind you. :)
The river picture is my entry for Photo Quest #20. Welcome back, WPG!
We stayed in the 1916 farm house, a classic
Craftsman bungalow with lovely views of
the Olympic Mountains.
The last WWII Aircraft
Lookout Tower in the United States once stood on this property.
I could have stayed there forever.
We're back in Seattle now, and spent the morning today at Pike's Place market. What a wonderful place..the sight, the sounds, the smells. People everywhere. It was fun, but there was a nagging sense of unease, of feeling alone in the huge crowd. I hope it goes away soon.
No pictures for Photoquest #10, unless I miraculously find time to go out with the camera tomorrow. New apartment buildings do not interesting doors make.
However, I did find a couple of interesting doorway pictures from our trip to Blackwater falls last year.
The macro setting has to be the single most used setting on my camera. There is always a macro version of all photos I take; its amazing, the things that show up. These are the things the camera found in our living room.
All the pictures were taken in natural light, no flash. I had written down the shutter speed, lens aperture and that kind of thing on a scrap of paper, but I lost it.
This picture also goes to Click-Au Naturel, at my favorite food blog.
The last leaf from our purple tulips.
And finally, something discovered accidentally.
..for Photo Quest 8. We've had a couple of beautiful days, sunny, but still cold. I wanted to take pictures of the tree in the parking lot, which has started to flower.
The branch was swaying a little, and I fuzzed the edges of the picture to downplay the background structures.
Then we took some pictures of the church across the corner.
Kuli paniyaram or appey is what you get when left over idli batter goes into an Aebelskiver pan. Crisp like a dosa on the outside, soft like an idli on the inside. Delicious with left over coconut chutney.
This picture goes to the good folks at Jugalbandi for Click 2008- metal.
So I applied the rule of thirds to the chickpea pictures.
I suspect it has improved the focus of the picture. The pictures were taken on the manual setting, with the aperture set to maximum. I adjusted the shutter speed until I got the right amount of exposure, if that makes any sense. :)
I remember my parents bringing in a whole green bush from the market, leaves and all. Somewhere in the bush, there were lots of green chickpeas in pods. The bush was thrust in the hot clay tandoor as it was, and we would find perfectly roasted chickpeas in the ashes a few hours later. They were sweet and smoky and everything good.
Finding fresh chickpeas still in their shells at the International market made my day.
They were so pretty. We roasted them in the oven with some sesame oil and lemon juice.
