Food Blogger Fail or This Is What I Ate

I don't think I'll ever be a food blogger. Some people are blessed with the creativity to produce innovative cuisine and stage it just right. Good food blogs have more than desirable recipes and clear instructions, they also have delectable photos.

This is where I fail. Photographing food items is tricky! And while lighting is important in any photo, bad lighting for food photography can make something fresh and tasty appear yellowed and repulsive.

Also I'm usually making food because I want to eat it soon. I'm too hungry and focused on what I'm making to stop and think, "oh wait! I need a photo of the chopped onions before I saute them." No, instead while making dinner this week I thought, "oh wait! I could take a photo with my actual camera." (This is instead of with my camera phone.) Of course when I went to grab my very nice 8 megapixel point-and-shoot, the battery was dead. So I borrowed EC's iPhone. The camera on my phone is actually pretty solid, but I have to say the iPhone 4 is better. Shinier. Oh no, I'm drooling again.

So I will possibly, one day, maybe, have a food post in the vein of Pioneer Woman or Simply Recipes centered on a recipe with actual, nice photography. But for today, you get photo hodgepodge (mostly taken on my phone)!

I love breakfast tacos anything in a tortilla. I was thinking about this taco when I went to bed and was very excited to make it when I woke up. I put down a base of guacamole on a wheat tortilla, added some scrambled egg, fresh hashbrowns and sliced tomato. Not sure why the plate is on the edge of the counter. Probably trying to get better lighting. If it fell, I definitely would have eaten this off the floor.

Wow, look. More food in a tortilla. Well, these are just ANY tortillas, people. These are Central Market hatch green chile tortillas. I can eat these plain for breakfast and then again for lunch. I really wish there was more nutritional value to them. Sadly they're only around during the Hatch Green Chile Festival at CM, but no worries. I have a few extras stored in the freezer, and will probably stock up more before the 31st. Above I filled them with refried pinto beans, avocado and corn salsa. The best part of this taco was the roasted corn salsa. I drizzled corn, jalapenos and garlic with olive oil and then baked them in the oven (~30 mins at 400 degrees). Then I cut the corn off the cob and combined it with the jalapeno and garlic and squeezed half a lime over it. Yum.

Caramelized Tofu (Link to the recipe)
It's always nice to find new ways to prepare tofu. I try to be protein conscious since I'm not eating meat. My friends brought this to a potluck earlier this summer and I was excited to make it for myself. Brussels sprouts are a turn-off to some people, but I swear this is very very delicious. (Without spellcheck I definitely would have written Brussel sprouts. Learn something new everyday...)

Photo taken on my actual camera! But these were made from a mix, so it kind of negates the food blogger legitimacy. I'd hope to get up early and make these muffins as a Saturday morning surprise, but EC is an actual morning person (as opposed to me, who is an aspiring morning person) and is regularly up way before me. She was making coffee when I was pulling the ingredients together at 8am.

So this isn't food. But it is related to something I ate! In celebration of what would have been Lyndon B. Johnson's 102nd birthday, the LBJ Presidential Library & Museum was serving cake on Friday. So we enjoyed some awesome cake (lemon filling!) and I learned a few things about our country's 36th president. This photo is a view from the 10th floor where there's a replica of LBJ's oval office.