Food

Happy Thanksgiving

  It's a little bit late, but I wanted to share some photos from Thanksgiving and say how grateful I am to have had the time to spend with my family.  At the end of the day, I know that what I am most grateful for are a supportive family, a loving husband, and the time I get to spend with them.  But I'm also grateful for good food.  It's a close second :)  And nothing is better than Mom's cooking.

 

 

Amazing vegetables - Green beans sauteed with garlic (and butter of course!) and Asparagus lightly sprinkled with salt and sugar.  Unusual, but it's fantastic!

 

 

 

Roasted potatoes, sweet potatoes, and yams.

 

Fruit salad,                                                                                                                            Cucumbers and tomatoes with vinegar.

 

 

And not your traditional Thanksgiving meat, but since my Dad's from New Zealand, we grew up eating lamb with mint sauce for our fancy dinners and he was happy to cook it for us while everyone was in town.  It took a few hours to drive around and actually find a store selling it, but definitely worth it.

 

 

 

Happy (Belated) Thanksgiving, and Merry Christmas!

 

 

 

Mmmmmm...

   

 

  We interrupt this engagement series for a very important message.  It's been a very long week, and I'm ready to go to bed.  But I gotta say...

 

I loooooove creme brulee. 

 

Creme Brulee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Devereaux Mansion Reception

  The Devereaux Mansion has got to be one of the coolest reception locations in Salt Lake City.  It's in the very heart of downtown, right next to the Gateway Mall, and you could walk by it without hardly even noticing.  It's far enough back from South Temple that it feels set apart and private, and it is one of the most gorgeous pioneer-era homes I have ever seen.  Here are a few of my favorite detail shots from Kara and Chris' wedding reception there.

 

 

 

 

Thomas worked in a cabinet and carpentry shop for a couple years when he was in college, and he kept freaking out about all the woodwork in the mansion.  I don't know much about moldings or other things like that, but I do know it was all fabulous!  

 

Not much beats an awesome patio for an indoor-outdoor reception.  I thought this location had the perfect mix of space inside and outside.

 

 

   

 

 

 

The catering from Temple Square Hospitality was superb.  Truly amazing food....

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cool place, cool day, cool clients. Stay tuned for the rest of the photos from the reception.

 

 

 

 

 

Heidi & Steve Reception Details

   

 

So sorry for being incommunicado!  We headed out to Austin for a wedding this weekend, and the blog was shamefully neglected.  But never fear!  New and exciting posts will be shared!  First up- a few favorites from the details gallery from Heidi and Steve's wedding at Sleepy Ridge.

 

 

 

  

  

 

 

Gotta love the porch outside the Garden Room during the blue hour!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Heidi & Steve Dinner

   

 

 

Heidi and Steve had a pre-reception dinner in the Garden Room at Sleepy Ridge.  The food was catered by Marvelous Catering, and it was fabulous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

It might be an odd thing to rave about, but one of the best things about the dinner?  The lemonade!!!  I have no idea what they put in there (probably a combination of sugar/more sugar/crack), but it was quite possibly some of the best lemonade I have ever had.

 

 

    

 

 

I loved all the florals they Heidi had picked out.  Beautifully bright colors, and in combinations that I thought worked really well together!

 

 

  

 

 

Sammy's Cafe: Pie Shakes = Heaven

  So here's a little background for this shoot:

 

A little over a week ago, we had to the opportunity to photograph Danica and Ryan's wedding. It was an awesome day, and one of the most relaxed wedding days I have seen as a photographer. However, it was HOT. Hot hot hot hot hot. We blazed through family group photos at the LDS Salt Lake Temple and got a few newlyweds, but then headed on down towards the Springville Art Museum for the reception. The reception was lovely, relaxed, and full of happiness- my favorite kind of event. One of the highlights for me was the catering.

 

As you might remember from the engagement session, Ryan and Danica spent a lot of time at Sammy's, one of the best burger places in Utah, and home of the Pie Shake. Of course, we made sure to get some fun shots showing off their favorite hang out spot.

 

  

With such a special place in their hearts for Sammy's they actually had the crew cater their reception.  All throughout their reception Sam, his lovely wife Nikki, and other Sammy's staff were handing out ice-cold happiness.  Thomas and I loved it!  Not only did we get some tasty treats to keep cool while we were working, but we got to chat up the big man himself (who, coincidentally, is cousin to our other favorite caterer, Ethan from Rockwell Catering).

 

Funny side note:  As we were driving down to the reception (and cooling off with the A/C on full blast!) and talking about what we'd do when we got there a bit early, Thomas all of a sudden says "PIE SHAKES."  I look at him confused, and said, yeah, they're going to be there (thinking about the fact that Sammy's was going to be catering it).  Thomas just replies, "We should get one."  Still confused I tell him that they won't be set up for a bit.  Turns out that Thomas had completely forgotten about who was catering- he just all of a sudden wanted a pie shake.  It was hot, we were driving south, Sammy's is in south Provo off the freeway and is sorta on the way to Springville.  It was all very logical, right? :D

 

But I digress....

 

As we were chatting, Sam and I got to working out the details for a product shoot for his food.  One thing led to another, and so the next day Thomas and I found ourselves holed up behind the counter in the restaurant busily setting up different burgers and shakes for their moment in the spotlight.  We'll likely need to do another shoot (Sammy's has too much food for just a couple hours to do it justice), and I haven't finished editing all of them, but I just had to share some of the photos from the session.

 

  

 

I literally got home about an hour ago from Provo.  I met up with my current intern Abby, and we had a business coaching session at Sammy's.  I had a burger, I split a pie shake with Thomas, and we had some of their awesome sweet potato fries.  I was full.  I am full.  But looking at these.... kinda makes me want to drive back and get another shake.

 

  

 

Stay tuned for another update with Sammy's goodness in the next month or so...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's the little things that matter

  More photos from the reception will follow, but the details at Alexandra and Tyrel's wedding reception were so involved and so beautiful I felt I needed to dedicate a post just for them.  The reception was at Alexandra's house in Las Vegas, and her backyard was perfect for it.

 

Someone must have climbed up into these trees and spent hours hanging all these little crystals.  The whole effect was breathtaking!

All the perfect touches.

 

 

 

 

 

I LOVED the fruit skewer bouquets! I'd never seen something like them before... beautiful, colorful, and delicious!!

 

 

With all the lights they has placed around the yard, things just got better as the sun went down!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gygi

  A few of you have been asking for the recipes from the Chinese New Year cooking class that Thomas and I went to a few months ago at the Gygi cooking school.  Thomas loves to cook, and we both loved going to the class and making (and eating!) all the different dishes.  So now that we finally got to scanning in the recipes I figured I'd post the photos along with them here!

 

 

Orange Chicken

This was Thomas' favorite! The fresh squeezed orange juice and the zest make all the difference in the world.

 

Fire cracker shrimp

Stir Fry Noodle

Pot Stickers

I love pot stickers, and these were just great!

... and for the grand finale, my favorite from the day!!

 

Mongolian Beef

 

 

 

Saffron Valley

Hey, here's a few photos from the Grand Opening of Saffron Valley, a new Indian street food restaurant in South Jordan.

The restaurant is described as more "Indian street food", but it's more fusion with a few American elements as well (ala "naan-wich" etc).

Overall, I liked the aesthetics of the location, and the chicken was amazing!