Le Dîner en Blanc, SF style

I believe Le Dîner en Blanc started over 20 years ago in Paris, where guests dress in white and meet at a secret location to wine and dine and make new friends. It has since spread around the world, with SF holding their own last year. I saw it on Eye on the Bay and was eagerly awaiting its return this year.

When the announcement came out, I pounced on the tickets. And then awaited for the location, which was not revealed until 3 pm the day of the event. The weather all week had been spectacular in SF, but of course, the day of the event, Karl the Fog rolled back in. I guess it was appropriate that Le Diner en Blanc actually have a white foggy backdrop.

Honestly though, it was still quite beautiful! It was held on the Marina Green and to see everyone wearing white was such a pretty sight! And people went all out with their meals and table decor. I thought mine was all spiffy...

until I saw the chandeliers, tents, streamers, and amazing centerpieces. What the what?! So amazing!

Unfortunately, night photography is not my forte, so I couldn't capture the meal I made for my friends. We started out with a potato and leek soup with a bacon jam. I kept it in a thermos and it came out piping hot! Perfect to ease the chill of the night. 

The best I could get of the soup

For the main course, I made a butternut squash and spinach pie with pancetta. I remembered to take a quick photo of it before leaving the house. Unfortunately, I was initially going to use phyllo dough, but my stash in the freezer was not fresh and I had to toss it. So I made a quick crust with olive oil. I guess healthier, but it was dry. Still pretty though!

Also on the menu was a quinoa salad and chocolate cupcakes with a coconut buttercream frosting. No photos, boo.

Casualty of the evening suffered by my friend.
We MacGyvered a dressing with twine.

Overall, the evening was a success. The setting was such that most people brought a ton of friends, so getting to know each other was not really in the cards. But it was still fun and I would totally do it again!

Napkin Wave

A little blur on purpose 

Weeks 41 and 42, oops, I made a boo boo

I'm totally off! This week is Week 43, but I'm behind and only up to posting Week 42. Blah!!! I really hope that when I hit the end of the year, I actually have 366 photos.

281: Spent another day in the city with friends watching the Blue Angels and other festivities. Winded down with some beer and fish tacos at Rogue.

282: Feeling all healthy making some salmon with tofu and veggies. 

283: Not much in the fridge now so TJ's to the rescue again with a cornmeal pizza. Not planning on buying that again.

284: Cut up the butternut squash and made a vegetarian chili with lots of cheese. Mmm, cheese.

285: Headed to our neighborhood pub to watch baseball. Not a good night for the A's.

286: Took a work lunch at Osteria Coppa. Affogato after lunch is the perfect midday pick-me-up!

287: Needed some fuel before a run, so aebleskivers and sausage were it!

288: On a baking kick, so made some beet chocolate cupcakes. 

289: Went to dinner at mom's the night before, and got plenty of leftovers. Lova ya mom!

291: Skipped Tuesday (went out on a date and didn't want to interrupt the moments with picture taking.... Should've taken the pictures.) Wednesday was homemade, with purple long beans from grandma's garden and mom's pepper sauce.

293: Lost another day, I think I had leftovers as I spent most of Thursday night cooking for Friday. Took part in Le Diner en Blanc in SF. So much fun and maybe I'll get around to even writing a blog post about it.

294a: Caught up on the photos by taking three on Saturday. Took part in a Food Styling Course with Joy the Baker and Tracy Shutterbean (yet another post to do). Made some bourbon pumpkin milkshakes, oh yes we did!

294b: Lunch at the course was a lovely catered meal of roasted eggplant and tomatoes and a light quinoa salad.

294c: Met up with a friend for dinner at Wood Tavern, on my list for a long time. Apps were delicious. Had the lamb as the main course, but it needed salt. Some restaurants don't put salt on the tables, but this one did. It's as if they knew...

Weeks 40 and 41, trying to have some fun!

Does blog posting ever start feeling like a chore? Is that a sign you should stop blogging? I've realized that I've had this blog for over a year now, but I'm not sure why I do it. Initially, it was to chronicle things in my life and create something similar to what I used to do with scrapbooks and old photos. But now I have Instagram to do that. And while I love taking photos of food, I also like taking good photos. Some days I eat just to live, and other days I live to eat. When I live to eat, I want to capture that on film! At 8 pm, when it's dark out, and my photos look crappy in the artificial light, I don't really want to showcase it.

Just some rambling thoughts as I post my food photos. And I'm still a week behind...

267: Went to my folks for a belated birthday dinner, courtesy of mom. I don't think we talked during dinner since we were just stuffing our faces with food.

268: Made some homemade tomato soup and turned it into a tortilla soup. Good way to use up stale tortilla chips.

269: Mussels and pasta, courtesy of leftovers from mom.

270: Some days call for some In-N-Out, usually bad days

271: Another stressed out day. Soothed it with some take out Thai and wine.

272: Finally Friday! Called up a friend to get some pizza and cocktails.

273: Started the weekend with a really long run (which is something I need to go do right now). Followed that with a few hours in the office catching up on work with a super duper healthy salad and Advil.

274: Sunday breakfast and made some pancakes. I love that plate.

275: And yes, now I've realized I switched the photos around in my mosaic. Oh well. Where were we? Oh, Monday. And pasta. A huge bowl of it with sausage. I ate more than I should have, as usual. Didn't I run 8 miles a few days ago?

276: Ok, back to the healthy eating. When I tell people I love salads, I don't mean just lettuce. We're talking big and meaty with all the fixins'

277: Blah day deserves comfort food in the form of a Trader Joe's lasagna. I may or may not have eaten the whole tray.

278: Healthy eating, healthy eating. Same salad, different day. It's what happens when you buy a tub of shrimp from Costco.

279: Friday night with a friend, some wine, and bruschetta. Let the weekend begin!

280: Out in the city this weekend. Ceviche and bottomless mimosas... dangerous. It was a good weekend!

Just thinkin...

that I would love to be a photographer professionally. I am always honored when friends ask me to photograph an event or their child. I keep thinking it's something I can do on the side but it takes so much time! So for now, I'll just do it every now and then. But maybe one day it will become something more.

It also helps when your subjects are ridiculously adorable!!

September Mood Board

Well, hello October! You have come in with a bang haven't you?
It's hit 90 degrees..
What?!?!

It was pretty warm in September, but the nights were cool. The leaves were turning, but now they are confused.

It will be interesting to see what October brings. Bye September!