The blog has been upgraded to fancier digs and is now available at its permanent home here. You can also reach the blog by going to the portfolio site here. See you there!

Michele

As an initial disclaimer, I am not a vegetarian in any way shape or form. I love burgers, particularly from Fuddruckers. But my husband is a vegetarian and it’s always made sense to just make food for both of us, rather than special food for him and meaty food for me. Making vegetarian food has been tough since it’s difficult to get that extra bit of heft that meat usually adds to a dish…but lately I’ve been spending a lot of time with cauliflower and discovered that it adds quite a bit of that meaty heft to vegetarian dishes.

Here is my latest favorite cauliflower recipe.

2 cauliflower heads
4 cloves of garlic
1 container of mushrooms, white or portabello
8 roasted red peppers
some extra virgin olive oil
salt
pepper

Hollow out 8 roasted red peppers, rinse out to make sure there are no seeds. Brush the peppers with olive oil, sprinkle with Kosher salt and pepper. Turn the oven to broil, and put the peppers in the oven. Wait until the skins are black on one side, and then turn the peppers and wait for the red pepper skin on the other side to blacken. Take the peppers out and wait for the peppers to cool, and then peel the skins off and discard.

Put the cauliflower florets of two cauliflower heads in a food processor, until there are rice like grains remaining. If you don’t have a food processor, do some serious chopping. Put some olive oil in a pan, throw in 4 cloves of minced garlic. Throw in the sliced mushrooms, salt and pepper, and cook the mushrooms a bit. Then, put the cauliflower into the pan and cook, for about 10 minutes, until they seem to be somewhat cooked and soft. Add in half cup of heavy cream and one cup of parmesan. Add in more parmesan to taste and add in more cream if the cauliflower mixture seems dry.

Let it all simmer and cook for 10-15 minutes on low. Add in some freshly chopped basil if you have some on hand

Take spoonfuls of the “rice” cauliflower mixture and stuff it into the roasted red peppers. Place stuffed peppers into a warm oven until read to serve.

One look that I love is the lensbaby. They are these neat lenses that capture one part of the picture very sharply, and then everything around that sharp part is blurred out. People have created amazing effects with this. File Magazine keeps a gallery of lensbaby photos here.

The look that I have completely become ob-sessed with is a look created using toy cameras–a Holga or Diana. Holgas were created in China in the early ’80s as cheap plastic cameras. Because they were cheaply made, light would leak into the body of the camera and expose the film, creating blurred edges in the photograph and unexpected light spots or streaks. Since you can’t tell how much light is being let into the camera, every picture that is printed is totally unexpected. Best part–this is a less than $30 camera….crazy!

Fabulous wedding holga photo here.

If you’re interested in having photographs in fisheye, or done using a lensbaby or Holga, you should talk to your photographer so that they have the right equipment or know how to photoshop/process the pics after they’re taken.

Rather than facing the possibility that I might have a serious blog addiction problem, I discovered the magic of blog readers. In one fell swoop, I could go through all of my favorite blogs, in one spot, and never be in danger of missing a fantastic image or idea again…and I might actually be saving some small bit of time going from website to website.

There are lots of Reader websites out there, but if you have a Google account, Google provides a great and easy to use reader at www.google.com/reader. When you get to the opening page, go to the column on the left, where you’ll see a button that says “Add a subscription.” Click on it and you’ll have the option of pasting in a link to an RSS feed.

You can find RSS feeds by looking for a link to an RSS Feed on your favorite blogs. Copy and past the link into your reader, and you’re all set. You can see the content from all your favorite blogs, and the reader will continuously update your reader with new content from the blogs.

Here are links to feeds from some gorgeous wedding inspiration blogs to get you started:

http://feeds2.feedburner.com/WeddingbeePro (Weddingbee Pro)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/weddingbee/nyc (Weddingbee)
http://bklynbrideonline.com/?feed=rss2 (Brooklyn Bride)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/SnippetInkDailyWeddingInspiration (Snippet & Ink)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/typepad/janiemedley/my_weblog (The Bride’s Cafe)
http://100layercake.com/blog/feed (100 Layer Cake)
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/typepad/Zlhs (Ritzy Bee Blog)
http://kenziekate.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default (Something Old, Something New)
http://etsywedding.blogspot.com/ (Etsy Wedding Blog)
http://nancyliuchin.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default (Brown Bag, Nancy Liu Chin Designs)
http://squarerootofred.wordpress.com/feed/ (Square Root of Red Blog)

Happy blog surfing!

Outdoors
Roosevelt Island
Great Falls, either the Maryland or the Virginia Side (both beautiful)
Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna
Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, MD
US Arboretum
National Zoo
Monuments
National Mall – any of the Smithsonian museums and gardens, particularly the garden behind the Castle
Capitol
Meridian Hill Park
Georgetown (waterfront, canal, everywhere)
Old Town Alexandria
Washington National Harbor in Maryland
Rock Creek Park
Dumbarton Oaks
Haines Point
Lafayette Park with the White House in the background
Bartholdi Park

Indoors
Union Station
Library of Congress
Air & Space Museum
National Portrait Gallery/American Art Museum
Hirschhorn Museum
Willard Hotel
Atrium of the Gaylord Hotel National Harbor

More Edge, Less Flowers and Trees
U Street
Eastern Market
Glen Echo Park
Metro Station
Hotel or Bar Lounge (the Degrees Bar at the Ritz in Georgetown, the Lobby at the Hotel Monaco)
Buffalo Billiards – shuffleboard and pool
Lucky Strike – very modern bowling alley

Nettleton Hollow has manzanita branches, which, if you’ve been scouring wedding magazines for any time at all, you’ve seen as centerpieces, escort card holders, ceremony decorations, etc. Not only do they have the manzanita branches, but they have all sorts of dried branches, leaves, and even dried flowers. Just a basic branch in a vase holding tealights (maybe the LED ones, since those are less likely to catch fire) can create a fairly inexpensive and elegant centerpiece.

The Nettleton Hollow blog provides this inspiring idea, and instructions here:

Some jaw-dropping landscape photography packaged in a very plain website

if you have lots of free time on your hands…seems like a good way to pass the time….

the magic of photoshop: Madonna before and after

Enter stage right: the self-publish photobook.

Keep in mind that this only works if you get rights to your photographs on a CD or some other digital format. If your photographer isn’t willing to give you digital pics, then you’re stuck with only getting albums that your photographer can make for you.

There are a bajillion easy to use options for album making. When going through a website, all you have to do is upload pictures, assemble, and voila! you’ve got a fabulous album that will make your grandparents eyes tear up. The album is easily made, although it can be a bit time consuming.

While it’s hard to tell what photobook service to use, since you can’t see the album in person, there are a bunch of websites that provide reviews of the different options. Tom’s Guide provides a very thorough analysis of different options. Another great one is here.

Here is a link to some options:
Blurb: great for picturebooks as well as books that are more text-heavy
Picaboo: has some higher end gorgeous cover options
iPhoto: although it seems like the program is free only if you own a mac
Shutterfly
Snapfish

Makeup: Definitely, definitely wear makeup. Even if you never wear makeup in real life, you should wear makeup for the engagement photo session. It’s basically a way for you to even out your skin tone and amp up your best features. I highly recommend using, at the very least, foundation, blush (often neglected, but adds the perfect slightly flushed look for pictures), lipstick or some sort of gloss, and a touch of mascara. If you’re not comfortable with putting on makeup, take a trip to the Bobbi Brown Counter where they are great at helping people craft a look. If you’re worried about wearing too much makeup, take a quick snapshot of yourself with your digital camera…9 times out of 10, you’ll find that even though it might look (or feel) like a lot of makeup, it will look perfect for a photograph.

Outfits: Do make sure that the color of the outfit you are wearing does not clash with what he is wearing. Don’t feel the need to match perfectly. Solids are preferable to patterns since usually the world around you will have so many patterns, the solids help you pop out of the picture. If you are wearing a patterned dress/shirt, I highly recommend that he wear solid colors. Don’t be afraid of colors! Frequently people want to wear black because it makes people look skinny, but for the majority of people, this will make your skin look either a touch ghostly or a touch sallow. Finally, heels look great, but usually engagement photos involve quite a bit of walking around, so make sure you bring a pair of comfortable shoes to walk around in.

Accessories: Avoid distracting jewelry–let your engagement ring shine through. Fun earrings or necklaces (although make sure that one of these is the focal point, and the other is a bit less prominent) are great since they are close to your head, but don’t wear watches or bracelets that take away from the sparkle of the ring bling.

Props: Props, even something as simple as a scarf, a balloon, a bright umbrella, can definitely add a great element of fun to engagement pictures.

Think Ahead: Think about what kind of pictures you want, and dress for this. If you want some crazy jump shots and plan on doing cartwheels in a park, you might not want to wear a skirt to the engagement photo shoot. Talk to your engagement photographer about what kind of photos you’re looking for–fun, crazy, urban, romantic, etc., so that you both are on the same page about how the end photographs should look. Send the photographer pics that you’ve seen that reflect what you want in a shoot.

Above all, prepare to have fun!