I suppose you think I’m talking about shooting rabbits, right? Making booyah (as they call rabbit stew around here, even though Wikipedia says it’s made with beef, chicken or pork). Or maybe you think we’ve shot a deer and we’re dining on venison?
Oh how wrong you would be! We are talking about photographing our food tonight. And then eating it.
(Which tonight happens to be Orzo Stew and Spinach Salad.)
Spinach salad. Add a little poppyseed dressing. You'll like it.
Here’s why. Scott–over there at Views Infinitum–posted his Photographic Assignment a few weeks ago. You can guess what is was. Food Photography. I–hesitantly–agreed. Thinking: well, if I fail, it will be a fun story about failing. I can write a good story. I can’t always get the camera to focus, but I can usually write a good yarn.
Grape tomato
Fast-forward to yesterday. I was still hemming and hawing. Told Robin–over at Life in the Bogs to forget it. The light in our kitchen was awful. There is never any sun. How can you show off food without light? C’mon, it’s impossible. Let’s forget our promise to attempt the photography challenge.
I whined to Barry about it.
“We don’t have any light! No sun! It’s impossible to do a food photography challenge,” I said.
He just looked at me.
“That’s what a flash is for, Kathy,” he said patiently. “Just give it a try!”
OK, OK.
Meet Orzo. Orzo, meet any unaquainted Blog Readers.
Here goes. Here’s our dinner tonight. Orzo stew and Spinach Salad. What, you ask, is Orzo? It’s a tiny multi-colored pasta. It looks like rice, but plumps up and tastes like pasta. The secret to this recipe–(OK, dear reader, I do not follow a recipe–I make it up) is the stock.
Save these scraps for your next Vegetarian Broth. Please.
Whenever I buy celery, I shear off the leaves and ends and toss them in a pot with water. Then add whatever other vegetables are hangin’ around the frig. Carrots and onions and parsley and mushrooms are good choices. Simmer for maybe ten minutes and then whir in the blender. Freeze in quart containers. When needed for soup or other recipes, thaw. An excellent base for anything culinary! Vegetable stock can make ordinary recipes shine. I guarantee it.
In tonight’s stock I tossed carrots and celery and green onions and orzo. That may have been it. I can’t fully remember. Oh, yes, Italian seasoning. Then miso-vegetarian broth. That’s it, readers! That’s our dinner.
Our orzo stew. After we eat our spinach salad.
No need to get your gun and find dinner. Simply get your camera, photograph your dinner, and post it on your blog tonight. Before midnight tonight. Then head over to Scott Thomas’ blog and announce “I DID IT!” You can do it. Ready, set, shoot!
Lake Superior Spirit 
Ok, now my stomach’s growling! It looks DELICIOUS.
Tonight it’s leftovers, Laurie… Hope you enjoy your dinner tonight!
Yummy! Good idea about the vegetable stock…I will do that next time. I love the taste of celery leaves in soup…
I had the same issues trying to photograph food. It’s harder than it looks! And light seems to be the whole secret… loved your spinich salad with the bright red tomatoes!
Vegetable stock is the best. I was quite satisfied with these photos. (You should have seen the quinoa and veggies I tried a few weeks ago. YIKES!) Glad you know the challenges and successes of this.
One of these days I’ll have to try Orzo because your stew looks wonderful. But it has to wait for awhile – Hub has issued a request that we eat “plain” food for awhile and stop the “fancy” low-fat cooking. He’s lost a couple of pounds and is not happy about it.I think he has no sense of adventure.
He’s not happy about losing a couple of pounds??? I’d be thrilled! 🙂
Oh my goodness, I think he should be thrilled, too! Isn’t it wonderful when we start eating healthy we often naturally lose weight? Hopefully his sense of adventure will increase. If not–you can eat Orzo and he can make his own food! lol…don’t tell him I said that.
Aw-RIGHT! I was surprised to see orzo in many colors and then equally surprised to see it all turn to ivory in the end. Changeling orzo! I should make vegetable broth more often. I don’t think of making it and freezing it–I just think about making it when I need it, and then good luck finding eligible scraps in the refrigerator. I’m going to try it your way. An excellent treat.
Changeling orzo! I never thought about it like that. Yes, you might want to consider making stock. It makes things really delicious. It does.
Simply YUM! Beautiful “shot” food 🙂
Susan, I think I liked the title better than anything else. It made me smile all last night! Thank you…
Plain un-colored orzo is eaten regularly here in my version of Libyan soup which some family members say is addictive. There is something about soup that is more soulful than other foods.
Now I am wishing for your recipe for Libyan soup, Amy-Lynn. Is there any on-line recipe for it? Addicting soup sounds wonderful.
I had no idea orzo came in such appealing colors. Nothing like a hearty stew/soup to fend off winter’s chill. I’m usually so hungry, there is no time to photograph the food! (Also, I’m a very messy cook – you are an immaculate one, judging from the pics.)
no no no no, Barb, I am NOT an immaculate cook. Laughing! Really had to clean up major league in order to present these photographs. You and I are the same on that score. Barry is the clean cook. He is always wiping up as he goes. I wait til the end for that.
Looks wonderful – perfect for a cold day!! Take a look at your celery photo – when I first scrolled down to it, the stalk standing up in the left side of the bowl looks like a figure with 2 arms and no head!!
HOLLY you are RIGHT! The celery was a ghost!! It was haunting the Orzo Stew! Who would have known if you hadn’t spotted it??
No way am I admitting to what I had for dinner tonight!
Your meal was much healthier than mine!
Did you have pizza or lunch meat, Gigi? lol!
I had no idea on the colored orzo either! My orzo is off-white like all my other pasta. I use it in a very yummy rice pilaf recipe.
I’m glad you slipped in to finish up Scott’s challenge, but I’ll have to say (and please don’t shoot the messenger here, LOL!)I think the flash does unfortunately take away from your beautiful food. And believe me I understand your lament about no good light, especially at dinner time! Your writing TOTALLY makes up for it though! 🙂
(If you have any plans to buy your Ms. Rebel any new toys in the future, a 50mm f1.8 lens can give you the ability to shoot in lower light than you would have believed with no flash!)
You must try colored orzo, Karma. (Even though it really tastes the same, probably.) You think the flash takes away from the food??? Ohmygoodness you should have seen the flash-less photos! They made the food unrecognizable! You couldn’t even tell what it was. As for new camera toys…that is a distant dream. A distant, distant, distant dream…
The f1.8 is $100 – much more affordable than so many lenses. Maybe a birthday gift?
“I can’t always get the camera to focus, but I can usually write a good yarn.” I laughed out loud when I read that line. I’m so pleased you showed us last night’s meal – it looks delicious. I’ve never seen orzo on the shelves here… I definitely have to check out the pasta section of the next couple of shops I go to around town!
I still love writing more than photography, Ms. Reggie. It delights me. Photography is fun…but there are nothing like wonderful crazy delightful bouncing sentences and ideas to warm the heart. Just as good as orzo stew!
This looks like a very tasty, healthy and colourful dinner, Kathy ! One that makes me hungry as I prepare breakfast 🙂 What beautiful pictures too ! Congratulations for all of it.
I remember eating wonderful breakfasts in Switzerland, Isa. Thank you for stopping by for dinner. 🙂
I’m very pleased to meet you, Orzo. Now I’ll have to look for you in my supermarket. I’d like to get to know you better. 🙂
Thanks so much for the introduction, Kathy. Isn’t orzo a pretty colour? Is it man made? Grown in fields? Your soup looks delicious! Great shoot. 😉
Good luck finding Ms. Orzo in your store, Joanne. I am thinking that pasta is usually man-made…but I don’t know for sure. It was very good soup, thank you!
I’ll let you know if I find it, Kathy. I’m really curious to taste it and find out exactly what it is! Can you imagine any man making those tiny little rice grain looking segments? Perhaps there’s a machine designed specifically for making it…who knows!
ummmmm… the grape tomato made me ‘tchhssss’, so tempting. I wonder the taste of orzo stew! It looks delicious. hungry me..time fr dinner now, but I shall definitely, post some pictures of delicious indian cuisine, sometime! 🙂
Isn’t it interesting how something so simple as a grape tomato can tempt us? Let me know when you post those pictures of Indian cuisine, please! I would love some so much.
lol! Love your title for this post.
You did great!! Your food looks delicious. I am addicted to orzo. Addicted. I want to reach into your photo and try that stew. It looks and sounds wonderful, and I can almost taste it.
Bowing deeply, Robin. It was a magnificent challenge and I am proud to have fulfilled the pledge. 🙂 Please come by for stew any time.
Yes, flash is great for filling in for the light that is missing. Kudos to Barry for nudging you along. Flash is fun to learn and you did great. I know you wouldn’t but I certainly would like some nice sausage thrown into your stew. Or, maybe, some rabbit. 😉
Shooting without a flash is like eating orzo stew without seasoning! It’s like streusel without the cinnamon. It’s like pumpkin pie without the cloves! lol…yep, I’ll bet you meat-eaters would love some sausage (or rabbit) tossed in. 🙂
Yummy! I’ve never seen colored orzo before… I bet your kitchen smells good!
It is usually a good-smelling kitchen, Barbara. Last night we had a colorful stir-fy with at least six different vegetables, plus shoyu and sesame oil. Over rice. Magnificent!
If you have the luxury of a large freezer then all you have to do to achieve brilliant veggie stock is freeze the veggies bits you would normally throw away (the thickest part of the broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower stems) , celery bits, the root part of onions.(washed) DO add leftover fresh herbs bits that would otherwise be found in a very sorry state in the back of your fridge next week.
When your have a mass of stuff big enough to fill your crockpot, add water and freshly ground pepper (NO salt!!!) and cook all night whilst you sleep. Next morning you will have great veggie stock (pour into kids plastic beakers and freeze) and your leftover veggie residue can be tossed into the compost knowing that you wasted nothing.
… and add me to the list of people who’s never seen coloured orzo either.
Kiwidutch — I saw your comment about veggie stock (I subscribe to Kathy’s blog and comments) and had to come by and say thank you! That’s a wonderful idea. I’m going to start doing that. Thanks again. 🙂
Great idea, Kiwidutch! Thank you for sharing it. I haven’t done it that way, but it sounds very handy. Love these ideas!
No problem Kathy,
Good ideas are made to be shared don’t you think?
You are vegetarian yes? so the chicken stock version won’t be for you, but if you know people who eat meat and buy chicken stock then at least you can tell them how to save a lot of money by making their own.
Thanks Robin, very glad to be of help!
Here’s a link to a post I made about taking short-cuts in your cooking (good ones LOL) http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/keeping-all-the-balls-in-the-air-healthy-home-cooking-shortcuts/ and it shows the plastic beakers of (chicken stock in this case)ready for the freezer. For chicken stock, shove all bones in a bag from a roast chicken carcase, freeze and when you have a crock-pot full of bones, add water and fresh pepper and let it do it’s stuff all night. Next morning, great chicken stock! (How easy is that?!!!!)I know.. stunningly lazy, that’s me LOL!
kiwidutch, yes, we are mostly vegetarian. Sometimes I eat some chicken or turkey when out, but not usually at home. We do eat fish! Thank you for sharing your shortcuts and your blog link.
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I was skeptical about flash also, but sometimes it does its magic. 🙂 Love the look of your orzo stew, looks very healthy. I feel guilty of how I have been eating.
thank you, Nye. You will have to try some healthy orzo stew. You will like it!
Great photos! And, I see eating dinner before reading Scott’s recap of the assignment didn’t help at all! Everything looks delicious!
Dear Daily click, I am soooo full right now I’m afraid to come over to your blog. But am headed over there right now…thanks for visiting.