Mille Lacs: driving on the edge of the middle of the sea

Yesterday Truman and I took a field trip to lake Mille Lacs, a huge lake just under an hour away (yes, we live that far north =). The lake is so huge, you can't see the other shore if you look directly across the water, making it look eerily like the ocean. But even with wind blowing it was calm, so I kept getting this odd sense that I was driving on the edge of the middle of the sea.

My first good look at the lake:




I thought it was weird to see someone taking panels out of this sign at the casino:




It took me a while to find a good picnic spot, so ultimately we ate in the car parked near a giant golden fish.
















The fish:













The lake:





(don't worry I was holding tightly to him)




Then we headed to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park where we saw a deer:




and took a short hike:






















This porcupine bid us farewell:

Pirate-Lincoln

This is probably the weirdest thing I have ever seen on money. My Brother-in-Law James pulled it out of his wallet while we were on the way to a yet-to-be-blogged (awesome!) Andrew Bird Concert April 11.

What's the weirdest fore-father graffiti you've seen?

"My shoes came in on my hands"

When Joe said, "my shoes came in on my hands," he meant he carried them in the house. But this is what I pictured:











I like my version best. It's much more entertaining. Hope you had a happy Easter; we did!

Utah

I've been digging through old pictures this evening. This one was taken in Utah on our honeymoon. Every time I look at this picture I feel relaxed and happy. I remember the warm, dry air and the cool silk shirt I was wearing when I took it. I remember the crunching of coarse sand and pebbles under my tennis shoes and the story I heard several years before when I first visited Zion about how amazed Victorian-era Americans were when they first set eyes on the red rocks in Southern Utah but how it's not quite as amazing to us because by the time a modern-era child is four they've seen thousands of images of the rocks in the backgrounds of advertisements.

Regardless, it's still always breathtaking to me, even in photographs on chilly spring evenings that are far removed from a summer sunset in the southwest.

Then I remember the state of mind I was in then and the person I was. It makes me feel old in a good way. It makes me realize how much I have grown as a person and as photographer since then.

For these reasons, and others, I love this photograph.

Margot Jean

My good friend Vanessa gave birth to a beautiful Margot Jean March 21st. Here are a few images I made visiting them on her second day out in the world. Welcome, little one!

I love photographing newborn babies.

Congrats Milaca Speech Team!

Joe has been helping coach Milaca's speech team. Today I headed to their sub section meet to grab some team photos of the lively bunch. The team took second at the meet! Good work!

















Truman getting in on the action:

In which I become technologically lame

(What does this picture have to do with this post? Nothing. Think of it as a mental pallet cleanser.)


Let me start off by announcing that my cell phone became a phonesicle, but it still worked. However it has been MIA since last Saturday. So, if you are trying to reach me, please use email.

I have, thus, spent the last week partly unplugged and, much to my surprise, loved it. When was the last time you left the house without a cell phone? Do you remember what it was like to just exist in the world without spending every spare second calling, texting or playing a cell phone game?

I do. It was glorious! Without the phone-mistress to tempt me, I spent my time just existing.

So I've been thinking about my other techno-ties and wondering what else might trap me more than expand my horizons.

I'm talking about you, Twitter. And don't look so smug, Facebook, I'm talking about you, too; your status updates are just less aptly-named tweets.

Sure, I could catalog my every waking thought for all the world to see. But who is going to read it? And would my life be enhanced by the practice? Twitter seems like an overflow of information to me, particularly for bloggers.

To me, there are two kinds of stories, the kinds meaty enough to blog (or write, or tell someone) about, and those too small or insignificant or with too limited an interested audience to blog. So twitter either robs blogs of good content, or is created from blog waste — the soy pulp of the internet, if you will. I like the challenge and formality of blogging.

And so that is why I haven't tweeted. Feel free to convince me otherwise.

I should note it took me a long time to hop on the blog train because I liked the formality of institutional journalism. So, who knows, I may be tweeting before you know it.

March 9 Rally For Better Birth

(Photo of Me and Truman taken by Sarah F.)


Yesterday I marched with my good friend Sarah and many mothers, fathers, doulas, midwives and even grandmothers through downtown St. Paul to the capital to bring attention to the cause of helping women and their children have better births.

A haunting fog permeated the air as babies bobbled in wraps along the 1/2 mile path. See more photographs on smugmug.

Photographing pregnant women, laboring mothers and new babies is an incredible experience that always makes me feel as if I've witnessed something otherworldly and blessed.

I am currently working on a birth photography project. Please contact me for more information, or for samples of my birth photography.

Vanessa's Maternity Portraits

Last week I shot maternity portraits for my good friend Vanessa, who is expecting her second child to arrive next month. We headed to St. Paul to the Como Conservatory to soak up some warmth and humidity among the beautiful plants.

More from the shoot can be seen on Smugmug.

Cooking with Brooke: Shrimp Vindaloo

My first Indian dish went so well, I decided to tackle one of our favorites, Shrimp Vindaloo. Here is the recipe taken from myrecipe.com with my additions (not as many this time). We thought it was delicious, though I will be tinkering it in the future to get it just the way we like it, which is exceptionally hot. You, of course, can make it as hot or mild as you like. I served it with Basmanti rice.

Shrimp Vindaloo:

2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt (as I said before, I just eyeball salt)
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard (I used mustard seed and crushed it; I'd suggest buying already crushed)
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper (I used Cayenne once again because it is what was in my kitchen.)
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (I used white vinegar, which led to this funny exchange:
Joe: I thought that was poisonous.
Brooke: No, it's just vinegar.
Joe: Well, we keep it with all the poisonous cleaning supplies.
Let it be known white vinegar is a magical substance that will clean your diapers and floors then make you Shrimp Vindaloo.)
1 tablespoon canola oil (I used olive oil)
1 1/2 cups chopped onion (I pulverized them into a mush because Joe HATES onions and it turned out fine.)
2 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/4 cups fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
2 tablespoons golden raisins, chopped (omitted)
1 pound medium shrimp, peeled and deveined

Combine first 9 ingredients in a small bowl. Add vinegar, stirring to form a paste; set aside.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add onion, and sauté for 2 minutes. Stir in 2 tablespoons ginger and garlic; sauté for 20 seconds. Add spice paste; cook 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Stir in broth and raisins. Simmer, uncovered, 10 minutes. Add shrimp; cook for 4 minutes or until shrimp are done, stirring occasionally. (As you would expect, I was not focused on the exact times for each step, except the shrimp. Over cooked shrimp is gross.)

Yield: 4 servings (serving size: about 3/4 cup) It fed me and my food-camel husband with the left-overs pictured above.

For fun, here is what it looks like sitting in a lightsphere, aglow in wonderful spiciness:

Cooking with Brooke: Khichri

Last night for dinner I made Khichri, which just a version of Indian lentils and rice. I'm terrible at following recipes and generally don't like to use timers, so my version was certainly slightly different than the recipe I am about to share, but even with all of my additions it turned out fabulously, making me assume this is a recipe you can't mess up (as long as you stay in the same flavor neighborhood). For fun, I'll include all of the changes I made in this color.

Taken from Extending The Table:

In a large sauce pan ( frying pan) heat 2 tbl. oil; I just eyeballed the oil amount.

Add and saute 2 minutes: (I sauteed longer to better enhance and combine flavors, and because I was busy organizing the spices)

1 large onion, chopped
2 green peppers, sliced (I used 1 orange. Two would have been nice)
2-inch stick of cinnamon (I didn't have a stick, so I used ground, eyeballing and, mostly, smelling how much)
4 cardamom pods or 1/2 tsp. ground cardamom (omitted)
4 whole cloves (again, I substituted ground spice here, being careful not to add too much. Cloves can be powerful.)
2 cloves of garlic, diced
Curry powder
Cayenne to taste. I actually only put a little in and added the amount I wanted to each bowl so Truman could eat the un-spiced version.

After two minutes (or more) add:

1 cup uncooked rice (if brown , soak 30 minutes and drain first) I missed that instruction because it was at the end of the recipe, so when my rice wasn't done at the end, I simply boiled the whole thing until it was done.

1/2 cup lentils. I chose to do 3/4 cup for both rice and lentils because the ratio seemed off to me.

Stir-fry for 5 minutes, then add:

1 1/2 cups of potatoes, cubed
1 cup cauliflower (omitted)
1 large tomato, chopped (omitted)
1 1/2 tsp. salt (added random amount of sea salt that was almost certainly less than this)
4 cups water

Bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover and simmer until rice, lentils and vegetables are tender, 20-30 minutes. Consistency will be like stew, not dry or fluffy.

The recipe also suggests using any vegetables you want, especially dark green leafies. I suggest garnishing with cilantro.

If this post hasn't scared you away from ever cooking with me then you should try this. It was delicious and, really, It would be hard to mess it up, as you have seen. Next time I am picking up the missing spices and adding in the cauliflower and maybe some carrots.

Side note: The book says "Khichri is one of the foods that Hindu people serve to the gods and goddesses during Pujas (prayers). It is also one of the first solid foods offer to babies."