Salsa time!

So. I love homemade salsa. It's easy to make and it's about a billion times better than...well, any other kind of salsa (except the fresh, raw kind I also make). Although I should add that I live in the Maritimes, where we're not exactly known for fantastic, authentic Mexican food, so I'm sure it's made different elsewhere. I don't care, because I love THIS stuff! ;) I thought I'd share the recipe, and do it in a fun way.

First, you need 12 cups of peeled, seeded, chopped tomatoes. Look at these bad boys, straight from the Burtt family garden. Nom nom nom.



You also need a lot of garlic. Especially if you are like me, and love garlic.



Mmmm, green pepper. This wasn't in the original recipe, so I reworked it and made it with peppers. I can't have spicy salsa, so mild green peppers it is. One will do.



I'll admit that I love onions. I love the smell of them and the way they pack flavour into anything. Two large onions for this batch.



So, those are the veggies. The first thing I do is cover the tomatoes with boiling water. It'll split the skins and they'll slide right off. Let them sit in the water for a few minutes and then replace the hot stuff with cold water so you can handle them.


You need five cloves of garlic.


Mince those bad boys.


Chop up your onions to whatever size you want. I like my salsa reasonably chunky, so they're not miniscule. Your mileage may vary.


Same goes with the green pepper.


Peeled tomatoes lose a little of their appeal. ;) Seed them and chop them up. I chop them pretty haphazardly, because as I said, I like chunky salsa. Also? I'm lazy.


Dump all of the veggies into a pot. Lookin' good already, right?


Add 1T each of salt and pepper, 1 cup of lemon juice, a can of tomato paste, and a can of chilies and let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Then add 1T each of oregano, cilantro, and cumin. You can adjust those measurements to taste. Generally I use fresh cilantro, but I forgot to get it, so dried it is.


Your salsa is ready to can! Pour it carefully into clean bottles and cover them.



Put them in a large pot of boiling water, cover, and process for 15 minutes.
Voila! Delicious, healthy, tomato-y, flavourful salsa. Enjoy!

Amy and her gorgeous kids.

My friend Amy (we've known each other since fourth grade) was visiting home from Alberta with her kidlets, so when we got together to catch up, I snapped some pictures of them. It was almost too much cute for me to stand. :) I hadn't taken any pictures of an infant (he is 5 months old) so it was fantastic practice for me. And the 5-year-old was pretty much the funniest, most interesting 5-year-old I know. I brought along my son and they played in the water for a good long time. Another of our friends joined us as well (along with her adorable kids), so I guess we made up for all missing our 10-year high school reunion!

Vacation!

I love getting away. It doesn't even have to be far. So when my husband suggested a quick overnighter to Fundy National Park, I jumped at it. It was the first time the three of us went somewhere alone. We had no agenda. We stayed in a little B&B, ate takeout from a roadside fish-n-chips stand, walked on the ocean floor at low tide, and played on a giant playground. It was incredible.

Two days later, my best friend-slash-cousin and I went to St. Andrews-by-the-sea for two nights. We stayed in a creaky old B&B that ended up being charming and sweet. We ate seafood and shopped in little stores and drank yummy lattes. We watched boats in the harbour and walked the length of Water Street many times. We dressed up and had dinner at the Algonquin. We ate candy and played cards and had a blast.

I miss both places, but I'm reminded of how much my own little province has to offer. We traveled no further than two hours away from here, and saw a whole new world.

Calamari in St. Andrews:


Moi on the rocks in St. Andrews:



Checking out the boats:
Sunset by the sea:

Boats in Alma at low tide:


Playing on the ocean floor:


It was a bit windy on the coast:


Waiting for our greasy but delicious takeout:

What a smile :)

Wow, have I been busy! Not really with photography stuff--just life in general. My husband and some of his family have been putting siding up on my in-laws' house, which is time-consuming but, I have discovered, a great workout. And it's worth it just for the amazing meals my mother-in-law serves us hot, tired workers.

Last week I also worked at my church during Vacation Bible School. I took the teen class, and we had an awesome week. I had 9 teens over the course of the week and they were all a joy. We had some amazing discussions and I feel like I walked away from it with some new friends.

In the meantime, I finally ordered a Pentax smc 50mm f/1.4 lens. I have a 50mm lens, but it's an older Pentax version and I'm not terribly good at nailing the manual focus (although on the closeup I am posting of my kidlet, I did a pretty decent job). It's getting easier, but now that I am being asked to do sessions for people, I want a lens that'll perform well nearly all of the time. I don't want to just cross my fingers and hope my own manual focusing is spot on.

Speaking of jobs, I have a few coming up. I'm doing grad photos for my niece next month, and I can hardly wait. She's one of those delightfully beautiful young ladies who looks amazing in every single picture ever, so it'll be an easy, fun job. I also have a couple of family/kid shoots coming up next month. This is all a bit scary to me as I'm not terribly good at figuring out poses, and I'm still learning how to find the right exposure, but it's excellent practice, too.

Some recent pictures of my darling son (who, by the way, is getting increasingly stubborn when it comes to taking pictures; even bribes aren't working anymore!):

A willing model.

I have a very willing model in my best friend, Kris. And she lives in the city on a charming street with pretty white picket fences and lush greenery. Perfect combination! Isn't she lovely?

We went to PEI...

...and, of course, I took my camera. However, I didn't do anything terribly artsy or challenging. I really just wanted to document our trip. It was wonderful! There were nineteen of us who went, all from my husband's family. We stayed in cottages in Cavendish and relaxed for the weekend. Charlie had a blast with his cousins and the whole weekend ended far too quickly. Hurry up, June 2011!

Weeee! Photog jobs!

I've had a couple of photography jobs in the past few weeks.

1. An old friend of mine from school, Patti, wanted some pictures done of her fantastic, gorgeous children. That was the easy part. Since I've been shooting manual, I'm not always the best at figuring out the correct exposure. Long story short, the rain, mosquitoes, and dim lighting meant a great photo shoot turned into a challenging one. My ISO was too high, resulting in noisy pictures. Patti was very cool about it and thankfully, since her kids are so photogenic, we got some good shots, as you can see:







2. I had the opportunity to take photos for some local dance classes. It was a blast! I won't post any pictures from it but I took five classes of dances, ranging in ages from three to sixteen, outside for some quick shots at their last practice before a recital. Haven't seen that much cute in one place in a long time. Thanks for the opportunity, Nicole and parents!

Long time, no post!

Yikes. It has been a while.

We've had a crazy-busy month and while I've dragged my camera along with me, I haven't had a lot of time to sit and upload. I've been doing a lot of playing around with my camera, but oftentimes the results aren't what I'm looking for. I'm particularly interested in getting sharper images with my manual 50mm lens, and it's a struggle. I also began shooting in RAW, which I really like. A few pictures from these practice times, featuring kidlet, my gorgeous niece Violet, and our first red strawberry in our little patch (which has since been followed with 35 quarts of delicious berries):