2012: Let's Kick It Off With Breakfast as Seen Through Hipstamatic - My New Love

Missed you all!  Since Christmas I have been on a steep, fast learning curve going from Blackberry to iPhone, Windows to mac, and learning how to use some fun new camera accessories.  It's meant hunting for my photos and figuring out how to, well, do everything differently.  I'm very happy with the "move," though.

iPhone: I am in mad, mad love Hipstamatic. 

I haven't gotten as into Instagram as the rest of the universe. But I am still playing around with it and learning.  Though the thought of joining yet another online community makes me feel overwhelmed.

I also love CameraBag for its simplicity.  

As my friend Ashlee always said, "Wakey, wakey, egg and bakey!" 

This is also now the name of my morning alarm.  The small pleasures of iPhone ... I can name my alarms.  (If only it always meant there were eggs and bacon waiting as soon as it went off *sigh*)

Uber fresh eggs from Tom's Amish Store at the Del Ray Farmer's Market.  His eggs come form an Amish farm a few hours away.  The taste is so rich and amazing.   Tom told me that he bought Eggland's Best and measured them with a loop and they were all exactly the same size ... what happens to the others? Ew.

Baked at 350 for about 15 min.  Came out beautifully! 

 Thomas' English Muffin Light Multigrain

Frozen spinach, thawed in microwave

I keep a hunk or two (or three) of Parmesan in the fridge and grate fresh.  There is no substitute for that taste!

Really, this simple breakfast is made spectacular with the truly fresh, local, organic eggs, tomatoes, Parmesan (not local, but definitely fresh)

All photos below taken with Hipstamatic app 

(except very last one).

This particular lens makes things come out rather yellow, probably not the best for food, but I am still learning how to change the lenses (literally to shake the iPhone ... it's so wild).  But I still love it!

These heirloom cherry tomatoes are shaped a little like hearts.

Below is another photo of the above taken with the normal camera on the iPhone.

The regular picture.

All photos taken with the iPhone 4S with 64GB storage for all my photos!

And, yes, breakfast was not as warm as I would have liked once I finished playing with my my new photo toy!  (Ok, not a toy, but it sure feels like one!)

Happy New Year, hope it is wonderful already.

Yours, in photo-fun,

Julia

Fun with Leftovers -- Chili Eggs Benny and More! (Duh, Did You SEE all That Tuna Casserole I Made?)

 

{Note for those of you signed up for email notifications:  I do not know why Blogger sends out the email sometimes as long as 24 hours after I (or other blogger, too, I've noticed) actually publish the new post, but it happens way too frequently.  Sorry and I am trying to figure out how to add feed and other buttons so you can follow that way.  I'm publishing five days a week now so please check back. And, again, my apologies.  I'm hoping, someday to find a human to speak with at Blogger. Current research show no live humans work there.  Wherever there is. Out in the Blogocyberspherical Interwebs?} 

Enough with the disclaimer, on to important matters. 

Food.  Duh.  

{What did you think I was going to say? My usual melancholy over the same old abysmal turnout in Tuesday's Elections?  The ripple effect of the financial meltdown in the Mediterranean (which has been going on way longer than the last few weeks it has finally made above the fold p.1), how cute and ridiculously entertaining my cats are? Nah, you know all that already.}

BEHOLD (above), friends, the magic of leftovers! Remember last week's easiest chili ever?  Here it is again, on an English muffin topped with perfect poached eggs (I am seriously proud of my egg poaching prowess, it should be on my resume) and I will do one post soon on the secrets of the perfect poach.  I make good Hollandaise, too, but, well, I do not really like the stuff.  So, at home I do cheese, usually Parm.  But chili benny calls for dipping into hubby's taco blend.

{above} Everything I need (except chili and cheese, still in fridge).  Toasted muffin, gorgeous Amish eggs from the Del Ray farmers' market, vinegar (the giant jug I keep under the sink to clean everything), beloved mini long handled strainer (no idea where I got these but I use them all the time), wooden spoon to stir up a vortex int he water and to be nice to my pans, and a tablespoon for the vinegar. On my favorite blue and white dish that hand I hand carried back from Japan. (I think it was $12, in the restaurant district in Tokyo, and made IN Japan, unlike many other dishes there which were made in China.  Seriously.)

Large pan, shallow water. And yes, my kitchen is the size of a postage stamp.  Best use of nine feet of space. Ever.