cake

What I made for Easter Sunday:

(Smitten Kitchen carrot cake + vanilla buttercream dyed pink with blueberry and blackberry juice.)

Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Muffins

So...yes, I will be posting pictures of that dress I mentioned. I promise a post is in the works:)

In other news, it has been sunny here all week. That sounds too good to be true if you live in the Pacific Northwest, right? Wrong! All of the (literally) white people like myself crawled out of our houses like mole rats to get 15 minute sunburns. (Note,  under no circumstance google "mole rat." You're welcome.)

The trees are blooming, it's Easter weekend, and life is good.

This week, thanks to my mom, I had possibly one of the best muffins I've ever tasted. She baked them, I photographed them.
These muffins are a variant of the lemon ricotta blackberry muffins found here. 
They remind me a blueberry bar, cake, scone and traditional muffin all rolled into one. And a sugar cookie...because of the sprinkles. The sprinkles work wonderfully on these, as long as they're white  sprinkles. Psychologically speaking, I can only handle colored sprinkles on cookies.

Lemon Ricotta Blueberry Muffins

adapted from twopeasandtheirpod.com

2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup granulated sugar

Zest of 2 lemons

1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 cup ricotta cheese (whole or low-fat is fine)

1 large egg

1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup fresh (or frozen) blueberries

white sparkling sugar sprinkles-for sprinkling on tops

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Set aside.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. In a small bowl, add the sugar and lemon zest. Rub the lemon zest and sugar together with your fingers. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar and lemon zest mixture together until light and fluffy, about two minutes. Add the ricotta cheese and beat until smooth. Beat in the egg, lemon juice, and vanilla extract.

3. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just blended. Using an ice cream scoop or large spoon, fill each muffin cup half way with batter. Add three blueberries to each muffin cup. Top the muffins with remaining batter so blackberries are covered. Generously sprinkle the sprinkles over each muffin top.

4. Bake muffins for about 20 minutes, or until the tops are slightly golden brown. Let muffins cool for five minutes and serve.

Makes 12 muffins

spencer's butte

A 4 mile hike on a Sunday afternoon is the best...

Eugene Tea Party 2011

I debated whether or not to post these, because photojournalism seems out of place here. Since my blog is already so random anyway, here they are:

I've dubbed the group below Coffee Zombies. They appeared suddenly and loitered around for a while before stumbling off down the street.

Interestingly enough, the next three photos were taken exactly one year ago with the point-and-shoot I used to use. I'm continually surprised that (some of) the photos taken with my old camera remain my favorites.

There are three kind of pictures I take, not counting total failures (trust me, I have many of those on my hard drive). The first are "random shots"- I point the camera, hit the shutter and later discover a fabulous image. These don't happen often. Then there are the shots that are carefully planned but turn out totally different. In a good way.

But my favorite kind of shots are taken the moment after a flash of inspiration. I suddenly realize what I want my image to look like and then I create it. I'm still trying to master this. Very few of my photographs are direct copies of the ones in my head. It's getting easier, though.

Can you tell which category each image in this post belongs in? Guess.

Side note to photographers: DO spend time looking at your photos. You'll discover fascinating things. At the moment I'm trying to figure out why there's an image of eight kids wearing Santa hats taped to one of the signs above.

as the sun sets

I love evenings after a day full of sun and rain. The clouds are all delicate shades of yellow or pink and everything else is vivid, saturated, fresh-looking.
Yesterday was particularly busy. After I came home in the evening I knew I had to run outside and capture some of this splendid light. I rode my bike around the neighborhood as the sun set, stopping to take pictures of anything worth looking at. I rarely get to shoot in this light.

Anyway, I thought I'd share these. All the photos in this post are completely unedited. (Not counting my Aperture 3 auto raw adjuster. Love that thing.)

it's spring

For some reason I can't write in real paragraphs today (school claims all my word-creativity) so I'll just give you pictures today. I really do want to start writing more on my blog...

I could tell you about the new tv reality show my brothers and I want to produce starring my grandpa. He doesn't know yet. But trust me, you're going to want to watch this.
I could tell you about my this-close-to-banging-head-on-wall-while-essay-writing experience.
Or how Gabriel taught me the secret to winning Angry Birds.

But I'd rather show you pictures!


Altogether, this was a good week. My family celebrated my mom's birthday, the sun came out a few times, I found the perfect gray sweater, and I photographed (or rather, my brother photographed) my newspaper dress which I'm going to be posting on here soon.

Anyway, today I went to the market with my mom. This time I brought a proper camera:

just a note: my pricing page is actually up now. For real. I'm up for doing seniors, families, and individuals this spring, so if you're interested just send me an email!

flowers in a mason jar

the instagram diaries edition III

I went to the downtown market today with friends. Here's what my iPhone saw:

Good things about this past week:

• finishing the Divine Comedy
• going to a movie with Autumn and wandering around the mall
• finding cute sundresses with my mom
• getting slightly sunburnt  (although I'm not sure if that's actually a good thing...)
• homemade smoothies
•  NOT being pranked on April Fool's Day....
• allergy meds