Archive for category First Year of Marriage

Spicy Turkey Sausage

May 27

Posted by Lauren Allen in First Year of Marriage, Photos

The other night I made what is now one of our favorite quick and easy (and delicious) recipes for dinner. It’s great for a week night since there are minimal ingredients and it cooks quickly

Spicy Turkey Sausage With Black-Eyed Peas and Spinach or as we call it “bean and weenies.”

The recipe came from one of my (recently) favorite cooking magazines “Sunset.” I’ve cooked probably 50% of all the recipes in their “2010 best recipes” edition so far. I’m usually more a fan of fresh/natural ingredients (not canned), but I gave this one an exception. It calls for turkey sausage (which I originally was disgusted by the idea of buying it.) I actually returned it to the shelf once before purchasing, because I’m skeptical about sausage. I’ll just say that this is my favorite sausage. Ever. Oh gosh, it’s so good. So good that we’ve had it probably once a week (plus left overs) for the past 2 weeks. Anyway, it calls for a can of black eyed peas, a can of diced tomatoes (I used Mexican seasoned), a bag of spinach leaves, garlic and a few other goodies over a bed of jasmin rice. It takes about 20 minutes total before it’s on the table.

Tags: Cooking, Dinner, food

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Photo Station at our Wedding!

Apr 30

Posted by Lauren Allen in First Year of Marriage, Photos

Here is a Flickr album of the photos from our fun PHOTO STATION I supplied for our wedding last month.

It consisted of a fun yellow patterned background (specifically selected because it was yellow and my main color was yellow) with a background support system, one Profoto D1 air strobe with umbrella, and lots of fun costumes. I had one of my cameras set up on a tri-pod with a shutter sync chord so that guests could walk up and take their own photos. My wonderful brides maids helped set all of this up while I was getting dressed (for the wedding) and they did a great job. Somehow the air remote (for the strobe) was turned off and wasn’t firing as I had wished, but it worked none the less… the photos are just a little yellow/greenish. I didn’t really edit the photos- just batch brightened them and adjusted the contrast a bit. So, nothing over the top… that’s why they’re still a bit green.

I’m shooting a little baby’s 1 year birthday party this weekend (and it’s going to be awesome). There is apparently a petting zoo involved – so it should be legit. I’m going to bring another fun gray and pale blue patterned backdrop to create a little photo station for the babies and their moms. It should be fun!

Enjoy our wedding photo station photos! You can also view the album over at Flickr.

Tags: Lauren Allen Photography, Photo Station, wedding

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New waffle maker = Waffles for Breakfast & Dinner

Apr 21

Posted by Lauren Allen in First Year of Marriage, Pets, Photos

We got to use our fun new waffle maker this weekend. I researched “best waffles ever” recipe and whipped ‘em up. Note to self: Don’t try to hand-beat egg whites to form stiff peaks. It. takes. way. too. long. Lesson learned.

Since I’m a photographer & enjoy cooking/trying new recipes, I’ve always had a desire to photograph the cooking process and final result. However, this isn’t always “convenient” so I rarely have, or it’s with a simple point & shoot. Well folks, I’ve decided to make a conscious effort to photograph the food I prepare/cook!

So, after a wonderful (if not perfect) Sunday… dinner time rolls around and we get home from Church hungry and scurrying around for dinner food. We both looked at each other and threw out the idea of maybe having waffles again. Within one minute, I had all the ingredients out and ready to whip up a second round of waffles. Needless to say, we definitely felt the waffles (and 8 extra pounds we gained) on Monday morning. It was worth it.

Here are some shots I got of our Sunday morning waffle adventure. You can view the set on Flickr.

The evil egg whites…