Photoshoot #2

Sistercom: Looks like rigamortis has set in! nice meringue though . . . Ingrid

Although I quite like this, it wasn't wasn't what I was after! Shooting landscape but thinking portrait for the front of a card can be challenging!

The studio (back porch) wasn't behaving its self this particular day and frequently we were challenged by bright and harsh light! We also had stuff everywhere - props, food, sarongs, saris, sheets, baby/toddler stuff - you name it we had it! This is meant to be FUN but somehow our precious Saturday time slot was bring us down...

Hmmmm we need a studio!

We need organisation!

We need control!

Plan B - we are going to turn a spare back room into a studio and store all our beautiful props aesthetically around the place and invest in some lighting. Well that was the plan a week or so ago! I have been reading on the net and food photographers in cyberspace promote natural lighting where possible.... food for thought.

My weekend challenge is to get some amazing shots of something delicious...

Vanessa X

Stressed spelled backwards is desserts. Coincidence? I think not! ~Author Unknown

kids n food

My chubby boy Rhys hanging out on our photo shoot for handcut chips and aioli

When Vanessa and I began foodopera, my son, Rhys was only three months old, and so long as we didn't plan a photoshoot anytime between 4p.m and 7p.m (his witching/ warlock hour) he was quite happy to play along with the fun. He didn't understand food then, and he didn't want a piece of the action, he was perfectly happy just observing us.

But 7 months on, its a different story - he's growing into quite an eater - he seems to have a well rounded palate - pureed and bland are definately out, and roast pork and apple, and meatballs are in. We also found evidence of the cat's biscuits in his mouth as well as coffee granules mixed with rice that had been put in the rubbish bin from the night before. I don't quite know what to say, except that it makes me laugh and cry at the same time.

I have been trying out different recipes on Rhys, ones that I can freeze and have on hand at a minutes notice. My boy isn't one for patience! so I thought I would share a quick and easy recipe I made for him the other day. Ingrid

Creamy corn fritters (9 months and up)

1 cup self-raising flour

2 eggs

1 can of creamed corn (no added sugar - make sure you check the can)

3 tbsp plain yoghurt

bunch of chopped coriander

Method

Whisk eggs in bowl, add flour and yoghurt and mix to form a batter. Fold in corn and coriander.

Heat vegetable oil in a pan on a medium heat, and spoon a heaped tbsp of mixture into pan, and fry until bubbles appear, flip and cook until other side is golden.

Easy to freeze, but defrost naturally - don't microwave, they go really hard and chewy. If you want to heat, do so in oven. My son shovels food in his mouth, so I break these up into bite size portions, basically to slow him down.

Ideas for brunch: If you want to make these for yourself, just add salt and pepper to the batter. These are a great idea for brunch with an avocado salsa, or topped with crispy bacon and sour cream.

I'm trying out an avocado salsa recipe so will post as soon as I get it right! Ingrid

What a beautiful world...

The view from home and work this morning...

The shoot!

9am - it was all on! Jake was delivered at daycare, Rhys was freezing his toes off in the car in an attempt to keep the iceblocks from melting and Ingrid and I were in dire need of COFFEE!
The studio for now is my back porch! The set up has amazingly given us pretty professional results. We have been draping a variety of fabrics around to manipulate the light and have the camera set up to the laptop and are using a programme to give us the correct dimensions. The annoying thing for 2 busy mums is the set up and tidy up! Time is so precious at the moment and every minute counts.

We were shooting iceblocks, meringues, cute cookies cut into shapes and lemon tarts - hmmm maybe a little bit adventurous for the 9-4 slot with a crawling baby and challenging lighting conditions.

Hurray - the iceblocks works a treat - great vibrant colours, very summery considering we were chilly and even better - they didnt melt on us unlike our previous attempts with icecream.

The meringues were another story - our vision was pretty/white/pink/romance/vintage. The challenge was everything white look grey. The pics looked acceptable (see previously posted image) but we want them to look amazing and devine so back to the drawing board.
The cookies also gave us dramas. How do we make these delicious morsels look as good as they taste? How to we focus on making the cookies shine and not the beautiful background? The sisters decided to "re-group" and "re-evaluate".
We need a studio so we can have more control over the lighting and be able to shoot indoors day or night as well as a space for our increasing array of beautiful objects used in our photography.
Ideas and options - we are a step further towards our dream!

Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness,heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of; the heck with sugar and spice.

Bethany Hamilton
greatest female surfer of our time

What is cream of tartar anyway?

http://www.wisegeek.com

Before baking soda and baking powder were available, how did cooks keep their baked goods from being heavy? They frequently used cream of tartar. Cream of tartar is the common name for potassium hydrogen tartrate and is essentially an acidic salt. It is manufactured by mixing potassium hydroxide with tartaric acid. For centuries it has been formed from the sediment left over in barrels after the winemaking process. Thus, cream of tartar has been around for a long time.
Cream of tartar is found in some baking powder, and is often used to help stabilize egg whites, or to produce creamy frostings and candy.

OK so it sounds like I could have used it when making meringues!!!
So what other uses are there for it?

It can be used to clean brass and copper cookware. It is also helpful in removing stains from sinks and bathtubs. Cream of tartar and hydrogen peroxide can remove even the most stubborn rust stains, without scratching a delicate surface.

Oh dear! - all the uses are to do with cleaning!

She'll be wearing pink pijamas...

After a fab day out in the country with family, I headed home via the Warehouse in search of a mid-winter heater sale. The temperatures in Auckland had been around 2 degrees the previous night and I was fed up feeling cold. "Fantastic", a heater sale was on so I walked out with a 2 1/2 year old sitting under 2 HUGE heaters, a pair of half price pink spotty PJs and a new Thomas the tank engine train (Henry for those in the know).

The following day was our first photoshoot for our new range of cards and despite feeling exhusted, put on my pink PJs and my "lets get motivated" hat and set off in search of the perfect meringue recipe. Now, I had never made meringues before but did hear that with a pav you had to cook it for quite some time and then wait for it to cool over night. Groan, with it getting late I hoped the meringues were different.

Lesson 1 - always read the recipe!

I googled meringues and discovered that I needed cream of tartar. Having never used this before it wasn't in my pantry so out of the PJs and into something rather unflattering for a mad dash up to the local supermarket.

Whilst there I did a quick check in with sis and discovered that the Edmonds recipe didn't require cream of tartar. Hmmmm here now might as well get it ($5 NZD) !
On my return I realised that in fact the recipe I was reading was for meringue cookies and not basic meringues so a wasted trip to the supermarket! Oh well back into the PJs.
Meringues - they sounded frightening, reading the various recipes they all stated clean and dry equipment otherwise the egg wont beat to stiff peaks. They also suggested a glass bowl rather than plastic. Good advice.

The recipe I used was...

4 medium/large egg whites

1 cup caster sugar

All I did was beat untill peaks soft but not sharp, gradually added the sugar and pipped them onto a tray lined with baking paper. They cook in an oven 120-150 degrees for about 45-1 hour. Keep an eye on them as the try I had on the upper rack browned a wee bit hence 45 minutes was fine for me. I left them overnight in the oven and the next day they we delicious, sweet, crunchy and chewy. They looked great as well.

Lesson 2 - hot sugar and coconut dont mix!

After the success of the meringues and keeping with the white/pink and white theme in my mind I decided to make coconut ice. I love this sweet as well as fudge and have had many a disaster making it but last night in my pink PJs and with one success under my belt, I thought I would churn out some amazing stuff to wow sis the next day.
The recipe only required sugar, water, coconut and vanilla. Like many sweets of this nature the recipes said to boil untill the sugar surup forms a ball in cold water. I have never managed to get this right but knew enough to know not enough boiling and it wont set and have that biteability and too much it burns. So acting like a pro, I thought when the sugar started to crust around the edge of the pan I would crack on on finish this delicious pink and white treat.

Next step was the coconut - OMG what a disaster - my beautiful white coconut burnt on impact with the sugar surup! It was a cuppuccino brown colour. It looked interesting so like an impatient kid, I stuck my finger into the mixture to taste. OMG **** needless to say I spent the rest of the night with a very sore finger BUT with perfect sugary clouds to greet me the next day.

Vanessa

The ****, the bad and the ugly

Our goal, we thought, was simple! To create 10 funky recipe gift cards that look delicious, would sell well, and would start us on our path to our cookbook.

But along the way, we also created some real kitchen nightmares - who would have thought cheesecake would end up looking like an omelet or our bloody brownies would fail to shine. It's not as easy as we thought! Check out some of the ones that didn't make the cut below. Ingrid

How do you make a stack of brown(ies) look delicious?

This would be perfect if we were opening a Cheese shop, but failed to excite us on a gift card - a shame because it was a yummy recipe

Is Opera really your name?

Yes, It is ! I know it sounds like a stage name but it really is our name, I'll let you in on a bit of history. Our surname was once Opara, but Great great grandfather so and so (or rather Nonno so and so from Trieste, Italy) loved the Opera so much he changed it. So four generations on, we are now The Official Opera sisters - the only ones in NZ by the way, but NO we can't sing, you can't live by your name alone.

We also aren't long lost children, or cousins of Oprah, unfortunately, but somehow, everybody still refers to us as The Oprah sisters.