Guest post: Eating with Andrew

Hello everyone! This week's post is a special guest post for one of Andrew's blogs, Eating with Andrew! Be sure to visit his page as well because I'll be posting additional images there.

Just to make sure we're covering all the bases, let me tell you a little bit about his blog! It is actually one of many that he has in an effort to cover a bunch of his interests. His most popular is Drawing with Andrew, although he hasn't updated it in a little while. I've been attempting to encourage him to continue it, but we've been busy with a lot of other things. In Eating with Andrew, he cooks a large meal for a group of friends and has someone (in this case, me) photograph the cooking process as well as the finished product.  Andrew then gives a rundown of his process and shares the finished photos.

I was quite pleased when he asked me to take photos for him on Labor Day. We invited some friends over and had a fun cooking and hanging out session. Andrew made some delicious burgers and an impressive vegetable spread. It was very attractive and fun to photograph.

Homegrown cucumbers! Courtesy of my garden :)

The afternoon started off with the cutting of the vegetables. He picked a lovely selection of onions, mushrooms, red peppers and tomatoes, as well as cucumbers from my garden. Just to be clear, only the cucumbers were home grown, the rest of them came from the store. It'd be amazing to have a garden like that someday though!

Andrew chopping the cucumbers. 

The cucumbers were divided between the large tray of vegetables to be grilled and a dip that he prepared from a recipe he found online. I don't have a photo of the dip, but it turned out nicely. It was light and thin and tasted very fresh. Since he made it we've used it as vegetable dip, salad dressing and sandwich spread. Very diverse!

The finalized grilled and seasoned vegetables.

The tray of vegetables were set aside to be grilled in a new wire basket that we bought from Crate & Barrel. Andrew was very excited to use it, and it served us well. We consider it a good purchase. Between preparing the vegetables and starting the patties, he mixed up a delicious and fruity concoction for everyone to drink while we socialized. He fancied up an orange to put into the new pitcher (also from Crate & Barrel!) and added all manner of random fruits, juice, soda and alcohol. He's such a good host, and was sure to refill it whenever it ran dry (which was often haha).

Partaking a bit for himself! haha

As the vegetables slow cooked on the grill and the cucumber dip thickened, Andrew began preparing the burgers. He prefers to buy ground beef and shape them himself. I'm used to pre-made patties, but shaping them is nicer because we can cater the sizes and thicknesses to suit our current needs. For his birthday he made sliders, which was great for how many people came over for the party. On nights when it's just the two of us he favors patties that are a bit heartier, and for our cookout and guests he made plump, slightly smaller than average burgers.

The main course cookin' away!

The next step for the decadent spread that he created for everyone was potatoes! Oh how I love potatoes. He made an enormous amount and we have been eating them all week. They held up well over the days and he's been re-grilling them each night so they retain their flavor and consistency. They were particularly wonderful on the day they were made, of course, seared on the oven top and seasoned to a light flavor.

Andrew gettin' fancy with the frying pan.

Once the potatoes were finished there wasn't much to do except for chat, drink and wait for the burgers to be finished. When they were, we had a large and beautiful spread to choose from. Everything was so fresh and vibrant, I really love to photograph produce! The whole endeavor was fun and satisfying, and perhaps the best part was the amazing dinner afterward! I'm really pleased with how the majority of the photos turned out. The design of our kitchen made for the occasional lighting issue, but I think I was able to fix most of the problems in post.

Believe me, it was as tasty as it looks. I'm hungry.

I hope you'll tune in for his next Eating with Andrew post!

-MJ

California keeps me busy.

Alright! I have a lot to say! I will try to keep this post from raging out of control and becoming excessively long.

Also, in the interest of keeping on track with all of the things I have to do this week, these photos have been batch edited which means they don't look as good as they could. Regular posting quality to resume next week!

Andrew had a table full of gifts for me, including 

these very beautiful and fragrant lilies :3

I truly had every intention of blogging last Sunday in order to keep with my once a week schedule, but it simply did not happen. Since my arrival to California and Andrew I have been super busy. He's been on vacation, so we're using up all of our time to run errands, go places and do as much stuff together as possible before he's back to work on Tuesday :[

He is an excellent grills-man. Lots of burgers over here!

Cinnamon muffins, yum. Also, dirt cups a.k.a. 

mud puppies, as Andrew had decided to call them.

I've been compiling pictures all week to put into this post. I'll do what I can to remember all the good stuff, but so many good things have happened that I'm bound to forget something! Currently I am being face attacked by a weird form of allergy. I was really hoping that I wouldn't have allergies down here, but alas, that is not the case. I have been sneezing a lot for the past few days and my nose has been hurting as though I was punched in the face. Yesterday I went to bed with my entire face hurting from sinus pressure, bleagh, and this morning the back of my throat hurts and feels swollen. I know it sounds like I have some sort of head cold, but I'm 95% sure it's allergies. We'll see I guess.

The pool table, very classy in blue felt. I expect

that I'll be taking many more photos of it.

Andrew is highly encouraging of me taking photos constantly, yay!, so I've been bringing my camera everywhere again. I haven't done that in a while because my back and shoulders were starting to hurt from carrying so many items at once. In an exciting turn of events, Andrew is willing to carry my bag when we go places, meaning I am free to bring my camera and my back won't hurt! Happy days!

One of my gifts was this spectacular

orange moose, and I quite like him.

In immediate camera related news, Andrew has a nice Canon dSLR. He's interested in video, but has encouraged me to use his camera as much as I want. I have a Nikon and I have for the past four years. I have sentimental feelings for it and I don't like the idea of abandoning it for a Canon. With that said, his camera is undeniably nicer than mine. It's a newer camera in general, and Canons have bigger sensors and his does video, which would just be nice to have from time to time.

In front of Disneyland and the construction 

area of California Adventures.

Last year (after returning to Washington from visiting him for my spring break, actually) I dropped my camera bag and it broke my camera, which was terrible, and also damaged my 80-200mm lens. I had the camera repaired, but never got around to fixing the lens. I have a mid-range zoom that came with the camera when my mom bought it, a 17-55mm that has served me well. I usually use my 50mm or my 24mm anyway. I've been using the 17-55mm a lot though because I've been in a variety of new situations where I won't know where I'll be in relation to my subject. Anyway, sometime while in Ireland my 17-55mm started to act up. Sometimes it wouldn't zoom out all the way, and sometimes it wouldn't telescope back in. It also started to experience issues with focusing, in that it simply wouldn't. Removing and reattaching the lens to the body of the camera fixed that problem. I just dealt with its sometimes inability to zoom in and out.

He thought I'd really enjoy the jellyfish of the Sea series of these Disney Vinylmations, 

and he was right! He waited until my arrival to actually get it for me though, just in 

case I preferred a different one. It's so neat! Also, me looking deranged in the 

eatery area of the New Orleans district of Disneyland!

While Andrew and I were in Disneyland on Wednesday the lens decided to quit for good. The focusing mechanism is completely gone. I can't even get it to manually focus. That was a severe bummer in terms of timing, to say the least. I'm sure I can get it fixed, but at this point I'm not sure if I'm going to. My camera still works, but now two of my lenses are gone. I don't have the higher end of the 50mm and 24mm options, and I'd like to upgrade everything anyway. I wish I had a camera that did video, and a larger sensor and higher ISO tolerance would be simply wonderful. Andrew already has those things... in Canon.

Ice cream from the Burr-bank place in California 

Adventures. I love it so much, and it was really hot out!

He mentioned us consolidating to Canon a while ago, and I've been agonizing over the thought ever since. I love my Nikon! I've had it for so long! I'm so familiar with it. But Canon is better for video, and he wants to do video, and he already has the nicer equipment. It's a daunting thought. I will continue to think.

Since my lens broke this is the only picture we have of the two of us 

together in the park on my first day as an annual pass holder!

Yesterday we went to a camera shop that he thought I would enjoy (and boy did I) and he bought a used 50mm 1.4 for his Canon. Holy. Crap. I have a 1.8 for my Nikon, and wow oh wow, the 1.4 is just that much different. It was very exciting. I spent the day with his Canon just getting used to it. The controls are different enough from Nikon that I have to stop and think way too hard to do what I want to do, but that's just a muscle memory thing. The pictures are so nice... >.>

Really tasty mini cupcakes from the supposed best cupcake

place in the world. These flowers were outside of Sammy's

Camera, where he bought the 50mm 1.4

I have a lot of pictures of around the house. We spend a lot of time in the kitchen because it has a lot of windows and doors; it's a great open space, and it also has the pool table. It is a very pretty pool table. We've played fairly regularly and I'm not great but I'm not oh-my-gosh-horrible. They all played at college and Andrew is generous with tips and advice. I enjoy myself!

Flat, wide, huge roads.

On Wednesday the 25th Andrew and I went to Disneyland! I am now the proud owner of an annual pass! We can go whenever we want :D He had a pass holder invite to ride the new Star Tours ride early (it opens on June 3rd, I think?), so we went that day and got my pass and enjoyed the park. I've never been in Disneyland with a lack of urgency before. We were able to wander leisurely and do whatever we pleased without concern about missing anything. We can go whenever we want! He has been enjoying the park for the past two or three years, but it's quite new to me!

Andrew writing down our extensive order for the 2nd floor cafe of Ikea.

They were having an 'eat for free' event where the cost of your meal

would be deducted from the total of your home furnishings purchase.

He had big plans to take advantage of that in a serious way.

It's off season so the park is only open until 9 pm right now, but we stayed the whole time. Near closing we sat on the bench down Main Street and people watched. Andrew likes to sit there and look around but it's usually occupied. It was really nice. By this time my stupid lens was broken, so I have no photos of that. We ended up walking back to the parking structure instead of taking the tram. I sound so redundant here and in person because I keep saying, 'It was nice' but it was. It was nice to walk down the dark and quiet street of Disneyland with Andrew. I'm really glad to be in California.

Food.

Our bedroom here is in a serious state of flux. He did as much as he could before I got here (he and his housemates moved in in March or so) but he also wanted to leave a lot of things until I arrived so we could decide on things together. Very sweet of him. We've just about finished hanging photos, and my bookshelf is now painted and next to my desk! He gathered a lot of great little items so that we could start a bunch of craft projects. He paid attention while I talked about all of the things I was finding on pinterest. So sweet. We've started a few projects but haven't finished any yet. Pictures will follow!

More food.

I can hardly keep my brain on any thoughts right now even though I'd love to fill in the whole week. I'll do better next Sunday :)

Drinks and even more food.

-MJ