today with 3 random photos *edited to add recipes*

The day began in a fury of wind, blowing and gusting and shaking the tree branches.  Wind gave way to rain, falling in fat, heavy drops.  And all day the sky has held onto it's gray.

I will only fuss slightly over this storm as I couldn't get out with my camera.  So instead I train my eyes on the sights and record them in my memory, and here, in words.

Gray stormy days are perfect for hanging out at home, puttering about.  I got some housework done and spent some time in the kitchen.

I whipped up a rich vegetable broth with 2 leeks, lots of garlic, an onion, carrots, celery, herbs, and a splash of cider vinegar.  I'll use part of that broth in a cauliflower bacon soup this evening.

There is some bread dough rising under a dish towel.  I'm going to try to turn it into baguettes.  Or maybe round loaves to serve the soup in.  Probably the latter because guys dig that kind of thing and I regularly feed three of them.

The other thing I crafted in the kitchen this afternoon are a variation on a no-bake cookie dough bar.  It's still chillin' in the refrigerator so I'm not sure if they've even turned out but it was my first time using almond flour and coconut flour.  Coconut flour smells AMAZING!  I want to roll in it.  If these do indeed turn out then I'll probably share the recipe.

Now I'm sitting here with a mug of hot tea and my Charlie dog curled up at my side.  He was excited when he saw that I was sitting down, he's always down for a cuddle session.

This week ought to be a good one.  I've got some work scheduled with a new client.  Yay!  We have an exciting date planned in Seattle.  Yay!  Of course, this is finals week for Blake so I'm not sure that he shares my enthusiasm for the week ahead.  And sub-regionals begin on Friday.  Sub-regionals lead to Regionals the next weekend which culminates in the State tournament the following weekend.  It's a bit of a whirlwind.

In the in-betweens there is work and school and business and yoga (I'm working on my forearm stands - almost there!). 

I totally don't have any photos to post with this blog.  Blame it on the rain.  Ha!  Milli Vanilli anyone?  But seriously.  It is the middle of winter.  And the sky is consistently gray.

So...  here are three random and unrelated photos that I took recently.

#1  a Heron from yesterday, he was pulling up grass from the water and running it through his beak

 

#2 My eldest son, looking dapper and adult-like, whatever

 

 

#3 The restaurant I work at, just before the dinner rush

 

 

 

There you have it.  Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I have some bread dough to shape and a soup to craft. 

 

Until next time!

 

-Edited to add the recipes!-

 

 

So I just can't leave you hanging.  The bacon cauliflower soup turned out incredibly.  And the cookie dough bars were also quite good.  I made the bread dough into boring loaves but it was perfect dipped into the soup.

 

 

Here is what I did to make the Cauliflower Soup:

 

Combine these in a soup pot and cook on med-high for about 10 minutes:

• 1 T. oil (olive or coconut would work)
• 8 slices of bacon, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 celery stalk, chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 onion, chopped

Finely chop 1 head of cauliflower and add to the pot

Add 1 14oz can of coconut milk to the pot

Add 3-4 cups of broth to the pot (I made my own vegetable broth - very easy!)

Add fresh ground pepper and 1 t. sea salt

 

Bring to low boil then simmer for 20 minutes

 

Mix 2 T cornstarch with 1/3 c. water and pour into the soup.  Stir until thickened.

 

That's it!

 

 

 

Here is how I made the Cookie Dough Bars:

 

In a large bowl mix 1 1/4 c. almond flour and 5 T. coconut flour, and a sprinkle of sea salt, set aside.

 

In a small bowl mix 2 1/2 T melted coconut oil, 1/3 c. honey, and 5 T. nut butter (I used cashew).

 

Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well. Add 3/4 c dark chocolate chips and mix.

 

Line an 8" square pan with parchment paper.  Press the dough firmly into the pan, flattening and pressing well.  Place in the freezer for about 20 minutes.

 

Meanwhile, melt 1 c. dark chocolate chips with 2 T. nut butter and 1/2 T. coconut oil in the microwave in 30 second intervals, stirring well between.  When the dough is chilled pour this chocolate topping over the top, spreading evenly.  Let chill for 1-2 hours.  Remove from pan, cut into squares and serve!

 

 

 

Do you like to try new ingredients?  I love trying out new things.  This was the first time I had used coconut milk in SOUP.  And my first time using both almond flour and coconut flour.  Cooking can be such a simple adventure so long as you're not afraid to mess up sometimes.  I'm always doing new things and I can tell you, they don't always turn out. 

 

Isn't that life though?  It's ok to mess up.  It's ok to not know everything. 

 

Stay humble friends. 😻

the woods

A simple walk through the woods, drawing out of my soul memories, joy, reflection.  The woods will do that, just kind of uncover the layers you have and expose a little something.

For me, the woods expose the tomboy inside.  She's there, buried deeply, wild eyed and fearless. Sometimes I forgot her.  But the woods remind me.  And for awhile we walk, this wiser, careful version of me and that young, spirited girl.  And I wonder, is she proud of me?  And she wonders, is it as wonderful as I dream?

I reflect on my childhood as a spirited tomboy and mind fills with scenes:

• Wandering through sage brush covered hills
• Wading in the creek and catching minnows
• Riding my bike down gravel roads
• Cutting through a neighbor's field, dodging cow pies
• Jumping from a tree fort in a walnut tree
• Eating plums fresh off the tree
• Making forts out of tumbleweeds
• Building cars with an Erector set
• Walking through a fresh green alfalfa field out to the barn
• Carving roads for Hot Wheels in a ditch behind the house
• Shooting BB guns with my brothers
• Going to school with mud up my backside from riding my bike

When I was eleven we moved away from the open fields and the sage brush and the gravel roads.  I really didn't know that I would miss it like I do.  The most tomboy part of me lives there, fearless in the face of ticks and rattlesnakes and thunderstorms.

I grew to love the woods and the river, finding solace from the difficult years in adolescence.  The woods always had the sweetest, damp smell and I could inhale deeply and feel the cool air.  And still, when I'm in the woods I inhale deeply and it's there, that smell so comforting and reliable.

Now I live on an island in the Puget Sound.  I find solace on beaches, with the tide and the salty air. Yet still, the woods welcome me with open arms, layers of decaying leaves softening my foot steps, mosses displaying their texture in the most brilliant greens.  And for a few moments I revel in what will always feel like home.

 

I took a walk in the woods and came out taller than the trees.

Henry David Thoreau

authenticity

It's a blustery, Dorothy-blown-out-of-Kansas, kind of day.  As the wind blows, I sit here eating some leftover pizza, Charlie sits watching the back yard, chickens huddled up away from the wind.

There's so much I want to write about.  Musings of my soul.  It's just a matter of getting what's inside out, and that's like fitting a camel through the eye of a needle.

It does seem that each week of this new year has given me a new lesson.  I began with gratitude in place of complaint.  Building on that, I purposed to be aware.  This week I'm learning all about authenticity.  I wasn't really given the choice, it was more a matter of soul survival that led me to this realization that I must approach the things I'm doing with utmost authenticity.

Here's what authenticity looks like:  showing up and being real, allowing yourself vulnerability to be seen as who you are.  And the thing is, this is really hard to do.  A person spends so much of their life living up to expectations, trying to be perfect, to maintain an image that somewhere in the middle of it all they forget what is even real.

For me, this has become evident in my art.  Ok, I'm not an artist.  I don't paint or draw, not really.  I don't have a studio with palettes and easels and brushes in water.  But I do create.  Since I was a kid I've been stringing together words in meaningful and powerful ways.  When I was 11, I picked up a violin for the first time and it is one of my greatest joys.  As I sit at my piano and play, I feel the music deep in my soul.  For years I have been capturing pictures of things that make my heart skip a beat, the first I remember when I was teenager and I caught my dad in his signature overalls sitting and talking with his little grandson, my nephew, in a glow of sunshine.

These things have been a part of me all along but it has only been just recently that I learned how authenticity fits in amongst it all.

This past year I set out with purpose to turn the things I love into the things I do.  Photography, I love.  Thus, a business was born.  And here is a glimpse of raw authenticity, I have no idea what I'm doing.  But each day, one foot in front of the other, I build a business.

Here's the thing, when you start a photography business you learn how many other people are out there doing the exact.same.thing.  And these people, they get out on mountaintops and shoot amazing images of goats standing on ledges in the glow of a perfect pink sunrise.  And suddenly, my simple flower shot seems, well, simple.

So, I change.  I frame my shots with these professional photographers in mind, hoping to measure up.  I try to capture things I think others would like.  I compare and compete.  I scramble to make what I'm doing worthy.  And just like that, I've lost my authenticity.  I've lost the eye that saw beauty in that moment between my dad and my nephew.

And, really, this realization came to me in a moment, a lightbulb moment I suppose.  I just decided, no more.  I decided that my photography needed to come from the deepest part of me, it needed to be raw and authentic if nothing else.  I would rather take beautiful pictures that no one sees than create some cookie-cutter images that mean nothing.

Every time I put pen to paper, or sit at an instrument and make music, or lift my camera to my eye I have a choice to expose my inner self, to be vulnerable and real.  Whatever I create is a reflection of my heart.  If not, what is the purpose?

This is my lesson.  Be authentic. 

This is, perhaps, the greatest risk that any of us would take: to be seen as we truly are.

 

-Cinderella

distraction

It is a Wednesday afternoon.  The dishwasher is running.  There is a cup of Roobios Chocolate tea next to me.  And I'm in need of a little distraction after a couple of hours of adulting.  I came across this little ditty on FB the other day.

Favorite smell:  used books, fresh baked bread, spring, the Plumeria on Kauai

Last time I cried:  I choked back tears in a movie we watched last night as the yellow lab in the movie reminded me of our Gracie and I was just kind of overcome with missing her.  She was a good one.

Favorite pizza:  pepperoni but I love a lot of varieties, equal opportunity

Favorite flower:  Iris

Favorite dog breed:  I'm smitten with Dachshunds.  I do believe Weimaraners are the most beautiful.

Untie laces before shoes come off:  sometimes? You know if I'm not in a hurry or they are my best shoes I'm untying.  If they are just my beat up hikers you better believe I'm kicking them off.

Roller coaster:  Probably.  I'm not sure.  It's been a long time.

Favorite ice cream:  Chocolate chip mint, but it has to be the green kind, not the white kind.

Pet peeve: those who make conversation just for the sake of talking without actually caring to hear your heart

Shorts or jeans:  Both.  I'm an equal opportunity wearer.  I'll wear jeans, jeggings, shorts, yoga pants, skirts, whatever fits the situation and weather.

Color of your vehicle: white

Color of eyes: blue

Favorite food:  carne asada tacos

Favorite holiday:  Christmas

Night owl or morning person:  I'm more of a mid-day kind of gal.

Favorite day of the week: um, Tuesday?  I feel like I'm at my best on Tuesdays.

Do you have a nickname:  my name IS my nickname but I also respond to El, or Sis, or Babygirl (my mom and my husband only!!)

Favorite music:  probably cello music in all it's forms.  I like the lonely cello, haunting in it's refrain.  I like the upbeat cello playing a cover of some well-known pop tune.  I like classical cello.  I like when cellos are featured in songs.

Favorite grocery store:  I shop Haggen a lot because my son works there so I get a discount.  Our little town only has 3 groceries stores to choose from and I do use each one for different things.

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So, there you go.  All the things you didn't ask and didn't really need to know about me.

 

Until next time!

grateful, aware, and eating soup

It is midwinter.  Holidays are past.  And we settle in to the next few months.

 

I set some intentions at the beginning, one of which I shared here.  To complain less and be grateful more.  Perhaps it is shameful how often I have caught myself mid-thought or mid-sentence and had to backtrack to find the good. 

 

Crummy things happen.  People don't measure up to what we feel they ought to be.  We can't control situations or people but we can control how we react or don't react.  I choose to not complain because what does that even accomplish but to make me feel worse and spread that negativity on to whomever I'm speaking with.

 

Another intention that is closely related is to be aware.  Just be aware.  In awareness we can almost step back from a situation and see it from all angles without coming to any conclusions or responding in any way.  That doesn't mean that we won't ever respond but it allows for a time of reflection outside of our preconceived notions.  Approach a moment in time without any thought of how or why and just see it.  Be aware of the people around you without placing any expectation on them.  Be aware of yourself without expectation.

 

To live in this practice of awareness is to let go of control.  Did you know that we don't have to control every little thing?  We don't have to control the people in our lives.  We don't have to control our every second.  We don't have to control the world. 

 

Maybe you've realized that even if you try to control, it is impossible.  That lack of control can often lead to anger because things aren't going the way you think they should.  But be aware.  In a conversation you don't have to have all the answers.  Slow down and just be aware of the other person, what they are actually saying, rather than how you are going to respond.  In a situation, slow down, step back, and just notice the details instead of reacting.

 

Be grateful and be aware.

 

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If you need something yummy and warm to make this week, please make this soup.  I have eaten it three days in a row and I'm not sorry.  It is vegan, if you care about that.

 

Mexican Lentil Soup

2 T. olive oil

1 onion, chopped (I used sweet)

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 jalapeno, seeds removed, finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 small zucchini, chopped

1 T. cumin

1/4 t. smoked paprika

1 t. oregano

1/2 t. pepper

2 c. diced tomatoes (I used canned)

4 oz. can diced green chilies

2 c. green lentils (green lentils have a firmer texture and don't get mushy)

8 c. vegetable broth (I made my own)

cilantro and avocado for serving

 

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium heat.  Add onion, carrots, celery and jalapeno.  Saute for 5 minutes.  Add garlic, zucchini, cumin, paprika, oregano, and pepper.  Saute for 3 minutes.

 

Add tomatoes, chilies, lentils, and broth.  Bring to a simmer.  Simmer, covered for 30-40 minutes, until the lentils are tender.

 

Serve topped with chopped cilantro and avocado.

 

You can also serve this with corn chips, sour cream, and cheese but of course, it would no longer be vegan (if that matters).

 

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Do you follow my photography Facebook page?

 

www.facebook.com/elinormcbridephotography

 

Or my photography Instagram?

 

www.instagram.com/elinormcbridephotography

 

Have you seen my website?

 

www.elinormcbridephotography.com

 

I'm doing things and creating things and sharing things and I really want you to be a part of it. 

highlights and page 1

We had a really monumental year in 2017.

A few of the highlights:

Austin traveled to Alabama and competed in the NJROTC Nationals, with his team taking 8th place.

Blake wrestled at the State Tournament earning 6th.

Austin was invited back to shoot at the Junior Olympics and made the trip to Colorado with his dad.

Blake turned 16 and got his drivers license.

Austin turned 18 and graduated high school.

Blake got his first job and bought his first car.

We traveled to Kauai as a family and had an amazing experience.

We stayed with family at a cabin near Mt. Rainier.

I began building my photography business.

We celebrated our 20th anniversary in Astoria, Oregon: the place where our story began.

Aaron reached 40 and we celebrated with dinner and bowling.

Blake was diagnosed with Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome and we walked that road together.

That was our 2017.  I'm thankful for all of it and all the things in between.

Of course 2018 holds so much promise. 

There are big things happening this year. 

I step into it with all gratitude and joy, looking forward to the changes, looking forward to what is planned, looking forward to living and growing and being.

This is page 1 of 365.  Isn't that a fantastic thought?