Golden Honey in a Mason Jar

Lovely fresh local honey photographed in natural light in my kitchen. I placed the honey and the old silver spoon on the coolest red wooden tray. Found the tray in an uber dinky town in Arizona.

Love those weathered woods!

Chevre Cheese with Chives

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Originally uploaded by pixelish

Visited the wonderful Harley Farms in Pescadero California. Obsessed with the light there! (Not to mention the cheese)!

Oh - also wanted to mention that my book is ALMOST out! It's called Food Styling and Photography for Dummies. Here's some info on my pride and joy - http://www.dummies.com/store/product/Food-Styling-and-Photography-For-Dummies.productCd-111809719X.html

Lemon Tart with Photoshop

The original setup for this unique lemon and cranberry tart was, starting from the bottom - a white table cloth covering the table, followed by a grey linen napkin (love!) followed by the plate and the tart itself.

When I looked at the final images, the brightness of the bottom white tablecloth was bugging me a bit. Tried burning it in, but that looked a little meh.

So I did something I rarely do. I used the pipette/eyedropper tool to sample the color of the lemon tart. Using the color picker, I lightened up the lemon colored tone considerably. Then I used the bucket tool to paint that soft yellow over the white of the tablecloth. Better!

Brown Bread Loaves

Playing around with brown yesterday. I found these beautiful loaves at a little market and decided to really focus in and become one with the brown. So I had two brown loaves of bread placed at differing angles on a brown rustic wine barrel table. With some brown walnuts thrown in for good measure.

And about those walnut accents... When you style food, sometimes no matter how carefully you place accents, they photograph as a little staged. When you get stuck in that rut, just grab the accents in your hand and let them fall out naturally. Better.

Simple Poached Pear on White

And speaking of nice light... I used uber diffused studio lights for this shot. The poached pear was lit with two Lowell ego lights and a small softbox shooting across the back of the scene. I love the feeling of lightness in this image as well as the texture of the pear itself. Not to mention that the dark spiced red wine sauce is a great counter to the whitewashed look of the photo. Simple. Elegant. Yum.

Colorful fruit jams

Caught some absolutely lovely natural northern light on these fresh fruit jams. The quality of light near the coast (or any body of water) acts as a natural diffuser. Pretty Damn Awesome light!

Petite Pavlovas

Made these lovely little mini Pavlovas recently. What a sweet and succulent dessert! And they are amazingly easy to make.

• Purchase or make large meringues.
• Split the meringues horizontally with a serrated knife
• Spread an abundance of homemade whipped cream on the bottom layer and top with the berries or fruit of your choice
• Place the top layer of meringue back on the pavlova and enjoy!

Just so freaking good : )

Ode to Fennel

Had a lovely and delicious dish with fresh sauteed fennel today in Palo Alto. Such a unique flavor. Also found out it is one of the key ingredients in absinthe. So of course I thought I'd write an ode to fennel. Or maybe even a haiku!

Crisp green fennel bulbs
sauteed, baked, roasted and raw
darling of the chefs

et voila!

Saturday is Pizza Day!

These lovely wood-fired pizzas are from Moonside Bakery in Half Moon Bay. And rather scrumptious looking, I think. Oh heck with the New Year's resolutions, I'm hungry!!