Work

Hello, it's Ryo, your beloved photographer and infrequent poster!

Sadly, this is the first post in a couple of months. Also, there aren't any amazingly delicious or beautiful pieces of culinary delight that I have to share with you this time.

The first part of the school year has been hectic for both of us, although my workload in junior year is microscopic compared to Sydney's workload in Berkeley, who has been getting an average of 4 hours of sleep per night.

I have had some time to take some pictures lately, so I'll pick out some of the good ones to share a little later. My Uncle Mark has given me an external flash for my camera, as well as a sweet 105mm Nikkor lens! Still super psyched about that.

We haven't had many amazing food excursions lately (none at least in the same ballpark as Chez Panisse), but we promise to upload any other awesome experiences, food-related or not.

I'll leave you with my first attempt at a time lapse, taken over the summer. (Be sure to watch in HD.)






This particular time lapse was taken over the course of about two and a half hours. It was quite difficult because of the change in light due to passing clouds, but I'm reasonably happy with the result. Next time, I'll use my new neutral density filters (make-it-darker filters) to create longer exposures on individual frames. This should help overall smoothness.


If you want to see absolutely stunning time lapses, check out TSO Photography on Vimeo. His work is the best I have ever seen, even if it makes my own work look like crap.
Have a good day and I hope to post again soon!

So long, summer break

and hello, summer veggies!

School started up again for me last week but before life gets too crazy I thought it would be nice to add something to this poor, neglected blog.

This weekend, a good friend and I had a picnic on campus.  She brought some delicious homemade miso soup and hijiki rice and I decided to throw together some vegetables I bought at the Saturday Berkeley farmers market and make a salad.  Everything was so refreshing and wholesome and it was really nice to start off the year with some quality, home-cooked food.  

Arugula Summer Salad

arugula

red onions

heirloom tomatoes

yellow and green summer squash
peaches

basil

mozzarella cheese

simple dressing: olive oil and vinegar mixed with finely diced clove of garlic and some chopped basil

Just mix the above ingredients +/- any of your choosing and lightly dress.  It's so summery and delicious!

This weekend also marks the 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse so I thought it was very fitting that we cooked our own meal and used some seasonal ingredients.  Then I found out that Cheeseboard was giving out free slices that same night.  Oh well...

By the way, we got to go to Chez Panisse twice this summer.  I think my life is complete.

For dessert I made a peach galette.  I used a recipe I found online for the dough (a Lindsey Shere recipe too!) and just added some sliced peaches, also from yesterday morning's farmers market.

Unfortunately, the oven started smoking halfway through and all of the smoke detectors in my apartment went off.  After running around, madly waving couch cushions beneath the screaming alarms, I called the landlord.  Hopefully we'll have a new oven by tomorrow.  As for the galettes, they just got to sit in the cooling oven for the next half hour.  They probably could have used some extra time, but they turned out all right.  

The recipe for the galette dough can be found HERE.

The original recipe makes one 10-inch galette but I turned it into 4 mini ones.  I'd really recommend the dough because it turns out nice and flaky just like a pastry.  I would not recommend that you bake it in a faulty oven.

On a couple of the galettes I added some diced basil, just to be weird.  I should have added more or omitted it entirely because it wasn't really an obvious flavor and looked a little weird.  But experimenting is fun and I'd definitely suggest you try making these with all sorts of different fruits.  A plum galette sounds pretty good.

Now it's time to start they year off right and actually get some work done!  Hope to post again before too long.

Strawberry Lemon Bars

A delicious summery treat!

Last night Ryo and I went to an elementary school teacher's retirement party.  She was quite an amazing person so it was sad to see her go.  

When we arrived there had to be around 100 people; old classmates, parents, other teachers, all reminiscing about the years past while eating plates full of food (it was a potluck).  100 people, give or take 100.  Ryo approximated 200 people.  Clearly we are great estimators. 

Anyway, back to these bars.

I decided on lemon bars when I noticed the ridiculous Meyer lemons on my grandmother's tree.  I swear, one of them was the size of a grapefruit.  How does that happen?!  I wish I took a picture, but I was too stunned by their gargantuan size and forgot.  So just imagine HUGE yellow orbs.  

The recipe I used was from norecipes.com.  You can find the recipe HERE.

I chose this one because it also uses strawberries which are so pretty and red.  Also, a farm sells some really delicious ones only a few minutes from our house.  See, I also like to promote local farmers and use seasonal ingredients.  It's not entirely about aesthetics.  

The only thing I might change next time I make these is the amount of strawberries the recipe calls for.  No Recipes uses 3/4 of a cup but I think a cup or a cup and a quarter would be even more awesome.  

The bars turned out pretty delicious--not too sweet but so fresh and lemony.  

Ryo and I chatted with a few of our old teachers and when we looked back at the tables of food, most of our lemon strawberry bars had vanished.  Mission accomplished.