Studio Update

So we started on my studio.. here are photos of our progress..
This is the empty basement.

Our HORRIBLE windows WITH carpet inside.

Got all the carpet out!

Went to pull off the baseboards and found water damage!! The water shut off valve wall was all rusted! So they had to cut off the drywall.

The hallway has two different styles of carpet seamed together. I HATE it.. so we tore it out. 

 

The ceiling was also a HUGE disaster. The basement was previously remodeled but they did a HORRID job meshing it all together. So before I could snap a before picture, they boys tore down the ceiling and the ONE door frame that was on the corner of the wall.

 

 Then we tore out the hallway carpet...yes, part of the it painted red.

 

 Then my bro in law Tyler patched up the terrible window framing and the rest of the walls!

And here's my basement thus far! (Minus primer. We primed the floors to keep moister from coming up!)

Ian starts summer school tomorrow.. so I'm not exactly sure when it'll be done. We've had so many surprises with this house that we weren't planning on! I'm just hoping it'll be done soon. But I'd rather get it done the right way than regret it later down the road! :)

Dear today...

I am SO excited this day has finally come! In about 9-10 hours Ian will wake up and start ripping out the carpet in our basement. Why you ask?? Because we're going to turn it into my very own studio!!!
We bought wood floors to put down there and I have a list of new backdrops and props I'd like to eventually get. I'm so excited that we're finally doing it instead of just talking about it! :)
I hope to become AMAZING in the studio. I'd love to photograph more newborns and maternity portraits. There is SO much competition in this category. I've seen so many amazing newborn photographers that charge $250 for 5-10 images! But they CAN charge that because they are so great at what they do. Although I've found that this is their ONLY area of expertise. I on the other hand photograph EVERYTHING.
My goal is to create a beautiful studio that will help me create even more amazing photographs, which will lead to more clients, which will eventually help us make more money. With this money.. I want to remodel my house! haha
Anyway.. I'll take pictures along the way. Ian says it'll be a lot of work. I'm hoping he's wrong. One of our walls is badly damaged and needs either a lot of patch work.. or to be ripped out and redone. We'll see how that goes!
Happy days ahead!!!!

Beef Taco Ring

I felt bad for Ian that I haven't made food for him yet this week. I guess it is only Tuesday, but 2 days without a homemade dinner to eat at work is probably no fun. So today after a bridal shoot I came home and put together this Beef Taco Ring just in time before Ian left for work at 2. Here's how you make it.. luckily I had all of these ingredients from the past couple meals :)

It was super tasty.. like a taco salad! Hope Ian enjoyed it for dinner because there's a lot of left overs now that Kyle doesn't live with us!!
Here's how you make the ring....although I haven't figured out how to make it as perfect as this picture.

Sorry, nothing clever to say about anything tonight.

White Chicken Chili & Wheat Bread

My sister Richelle is famous for her amazing wheat bread and chicken chili.. so I decided to try her recipe out!

First we'll start with the Wheat Bread
In bowl mix:
1 T yeast
1/4 c warm water
In mixer mix:
2 1/2 c warm water
1/4 c brown sugar
3 1/2 c wheat flour
1 T salt (last time I made bread I put in TOO much salt... so I was scared and maybe put in half a tablespoon. But what I forgot was that last time I put in 2 tablespoons instead of 2 teaspoons. I guess the full one would have worked out after all)
1/3 c applesauce OR vegetable oil (I didn't have applesauce for the healthy version).

Mix ingredients together. Add an additional 2-3 c wheat flour. Kneed 4-10 min. Place in greased bread pans. Raise till double. Bake 38 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes 2 loaves.

This time around everything mixed so nicely!! And rose so fantastic as well. I only have one bread pan, so the other waited around on the cutting board (bad idea. When it was time to put the 2nd loaf in it deflated when I picked it up and looked so ugly after I baked it! haha)

 See how pretty it looks this time??! Yay!

Now for the White Chicken Chili
2 large boneless skinless chicken breasts
1 small chopped yellow onion
1 - 7 oz can diced green chilies
1 - 15 oz can great northern beans
2 - 15 oz white beans
1 lb ground turkey

Boil chicken breasts in about 2-3 cups of water flavored with 2-3 chicken bouillons. Add salt and pepper to the taste. Remove chicken, shred and place back in broth.

Since I made it earlier in the day Ian was able to help me out and shred the chicken :)
Next..
Saute chopped onions in oil till tender. Add ground turkey and cook till no longer pink.

After taking this picture I realized pink ground turkey doesn't look appetizing! hah
Then add to the broth. Add diced green chilies, Drain all beans and add to broth. Mix and cook till warm. Serve topped with grated cheese and sour cream (optional).

It was SO yummy. I mixed it all in time for Ian to take to work tonight. Then I gave my brother in law some for helping us move Kyle out. THEN Kyle and I had a bowl and I still had 2 servings left over! So needless to say.. this serves 6 people!

But yes, my brother moved out of our house today. I'm seriously SO sad. With Ian at school and work all day and night I've really enjoyed my brothers company. I cooked for him, watched tv with him.. and actually had someone to talk to. I'm so sad he left :(
Guess it's time for him to be a grown up!

Asian Lettuce Wraps

I decided to be adventurous today and attempt to make Asian Lettuce Wraps. I had NO idea what was involved until I looked up the recipe... there's a WHOLE lot of stuff!


Ingredients:

2 t vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 T  fresh ginger, peeled then minced
1 lb chicken, chopped (about 2-3 boneless, skinless breasts)
3/4 C  mushrooms, minced
1/2 t  salt
4 C cabbage, chopped (about 1/2 a head)
8oz can water chestnuts, minced
1/2 C green onions, minced
1/4 C soy sauce
2 t sesame oil
1 lemon, zested
1 t hot sauce
1/3 C cilantro, chopped
1 head iceberg lettuce

I had a heyday at the store trying to find everything on that list. I NEVER knew what fresh ginger was. I actually had to have someone point it out to me at the store. It's one nasty ugly looking root! I should have taken a picture... Sorry I didn't! 

As you can see... pretty much EVERYTHING needs to be minced. I am SO glad I have my little Pampered Chef chopper thingy. 

Here's everything I chopped up (there are two to three different things mixed in some of the bowls).. plus Kyle cutting chicken in the background..

I don't know why I didn't take very many pictures tonight! But anyway... after you brutally chopped everything to pieces you heat up a large skillet. Seriously, a super large one, this makes a TON. Put in vegetable oil and when it’s hot add minced garlic and ginger. Saute for a minute just until it’s fragrant and then add in the chicken, mushrooms, and salt. Cook until chicken is cooked through.

Then add in the cabbage, water chestnuts, and green onions. Cook for a few minutes until cabbage starts to wilt. Add in the soy sauce, sesame oil,  zest from the lemon, and hot sauce. When everything is cooked through, remove from heat and stir in the cilantro.

To serve, carefully separate the whole leaves from the lettuce. This was an amazingly difficult task!! Wash and keep them in the fridge beforehand so they’re nice and cold. Spoon chicken filling onto the lettuce leaf.

TIPS: I pretty much bought everything fresh. If you want to save some mincing time, buy some canned mushrooms.. actually.. that might be the only canned thing you can buy.
Next tip... chop your cabbage MUCH more fine than I did. A blender probably would have worked.
Another tip.. I think it called for too much cilantro and not enough water chestnuts! Just something to think about :)
And my last tip.. they are MESSY. I ate mine over my rice so that when it dripped my rice had some good flavoring :) hah

EDITS: I didn't buy any sesame oil. It's was like $9 for a small bottle! But the lettuce wraps were missing a flavor.. and I think it was the nutty taste the sesame oil gives.
Next edit.. I bought TWO heads of lettuce thinking 1 wouldn't be enough. Well.. 1 worked out perfectly fine. Plus I have a ton of other veggie left overs since it only asked for less than a cup of each thing pretty much.

Anyway.. it didn't quite taste or look like PF Chang's, but it was still super yummy!

Southwest Taco Pie

While I was flipping through the cook books yesterday I came across this recipe. Unlike yesterday, I was more willing to go to the store to pick up a few things. Here's how you make it, and here's how I did!..

I think my so called "dough" hated me. I swear I put everything in it called for. I couldn't roll it out big enough or pretty enough. The edges just kept crumbling!

After I got it in the pie pan and made it as pretty as I could (even though the dough didn't reach the edge) I put the meat, salsa and cheese in.

Popped it in the oven....

And here's how it turned out!

 

It was pretty tasty. Too bad Kyle and I weren't very hungry! Hopefully it taste just as good as left overs as well. Poor Ian, never gets anything homemade the day of! hah

I'm super lazy today - Manicotti

Obviously I haven't been cooking much lately. It just takes SO much work... and money. Although today I insisted on making dinner, but I REFUSED to go to the store. I looked through cook books, nope, didn't have ANY of the stuff the books called for. Then I remembered I still have a box of Manicotti noodles. I checked out the recipe on the box which is this.... (click the photo to see it larger)

Last time I made Manicotti it called for some crazy ingredients. Plus it just didn't taste very good. So I just went with what it said on the back of the box... with a few changes.
I don't have ricotta cheese and like I said before, I REFUSED to go to the store. So I used hamburger meat instead. THEN I realized I didn't even have mozzarella cheese, but I did have String Cheese! haha, so yes, I cut up string cheese and used that instead. And lastly, I didn't have "fresh" parsley, but I had some dried stuff in my spice rack.  This is how it all turned out with the changes!

Then I popped it in the oven and here's how it looked with some peas and pressure cooked pears!

Pretty eh? It was good too. I LOVED the big chucks of string cheese. Almost reminded me of pizza cheese from The Pie. It was 100 times better than the previous manicotti I made :)

Sunny Day!!!

Warmest day of Spring thus far! I was so happy, my babies and I hung out in the back yard.

 (Remind me to pull that giant weed later)

Silly Kitty, being allowed to roll in the dirt still has its consequences. . . .

Happy Sunny Day!!

OWL CITY!

As soon as I heard Owl City was coming to Utah I bought my tickets RIGHT AWAY. I think that was back in December or something. At the VERY last minute I thought to myself  "self... does Saltair allow professional cameras??!"  well... myself didn't have an answer, so I emailed Saltair. Come to find out.. NO pro cameras allowed. ALLLL I wanted was photos of the ever so beautiful Adam Young (singer of Owl City) in my band portfolio. So..... I worked my magic and somehow managed to get a photo pass!!! With this photo pass I got in for free :) I gave Kyle my ticket so Ian would have someone to hang out with just in case we wouldn't be by each other the entire show.
When we got there I got in early, before the HUGE rush of people who had to wait in the wind and rain (including Ian and Kyle). Come to find out.. I was the ONLY photographer that night and apparently I had been talking to the OWNER of Saltair! :) She said it's hard to find house photographers because people just want in shows for free and never end up taking pictures. It made sense, but I was shocked. Why would photographers NOT want photos of these amazing musicians in their portfolio??? Crazy stupid people. But she told me if this works out, maybe I'll be their official house photographer! Soo exciting :)
Anyway.. moving on. When I got in I worked my magic yet again and got Ian and Kyle VIP passes! They were able to go upstairs, out of the crowds that made everyone look like sardines, and watch the bands from above. They were in HEAVEN. Now, I do believe that none of us will EVER be able to sand in a crowd after experiencing that!
Here's Ian and I before the show started... I'm pointing at my amazing Owl City photo pass!

Close up of my cute pass..

Here's a photo after the doors opened.. hard to see.. but the cars are backed up on the freeway!!

Here are some of my favorite photos of Adam Young!!! He totally sounded different live than on cd. A little more squeaky if you will. And he pranced and danced around and it kinda reminded me of Pee-Wee Herman! haha! I still love Owl City though. I was set on meeting him, but Kyle and Ian had to get up early for work, soooo we left right after the show :(

While I was down by the stage shooting DAVID ARCHULETA ended up in the same VIP box with Ian and Kyle! Ian sent me a text and I was soooo mad I wasn't up there to take a picture with him. I don't even listen to his music, but I'd love to be in a picture with a famous person. By the time I got back in the VIP box he had moved to a different one. I'm sure I could have gone in the other boxes to find him, but I didn't. They said he was running around screaming like a teenage girl or something. But he's young.. he's allowed to ;)

You can check out my photo blog to see more photos from Owl City and the other bands that were on tour with him :)

Soft Sugar Cookies

I got another recipe from church a few weeks ago and decided to try it out to bring to today's Gailey family dinner. I've made sugar cookies before with babysitting kids and they're always thin and crunchy. I've been told it takes a perfect recipe to make AMAZING sugar cookies. I was hoping this was going to be just that!

Since my family is HUGE I doubled the ingredients. After a HUGE mess and squeezing 12 cups of flour in my new kitchen aid I realized it wasn't big enough.

Sooo Ian and I cleaned up the stove and I had to kneed in the rest of the flour by hand. Although, I thought it tasted amazing and didn't need anymore flour. So I just added in 1 more cup and kinda sprinkled some on here and there so it wouldn't stick.

I flattened it out and tried rolling it flatter with my tiny mini roller (I totally need a REAL rolling pin) and cut out circles using a cup.

When they were done baking I swear they still weren't finished. But I guess I tend to burn things and that obviously makes them darker. I tried putting them in longer and longer each time... which resulted to this...

From left to right ... 9 minutes, 12 minutes and 15 minutes. 9 and 12 ended up being the best. I had to throw away the 15 minute batch. The bottom was horrible (good thing there were only 6 cookies on that tray! hah)! Oddly enough here's the tops of all three... They all look the same!!

I made over 40 cookies today. I ate so much of the cookie dough the cookie itself just didn't do it for me. It wasn't that AMAZING sugar cookie I was looking for, but it was soft! I thought they were a little bland and could use some frosting, but I ran out of ingredients to make it. Luckily we threw Sarah (my brother Kyle's fiance) a kitchen bridal shower and she got a TOOOON of frosting! So I frosted them at dinner and they ALLLL got eaten! Success! :)