and brings you specialty crops like heirloom zucchetta to shoot for the food photography class you are teaching together online.Thanks Ron!

I also highly recommend having a client who grows apples, especially one that has you develop and shoot interesting new recipes with 12 different apple varieties.  

I can’t share those recipes with you quite yet, but I do still have an abundance of apples. First, I made apple scones, just mixing in some diced fresh apple to my favorite cream scone recipe. I also made raw applesauce with peach. Apple pop-tarts with my pop tart recipe from my new book, Real Snacks (which I can hopefully share with you soon too!). And, of course, apple fritters. But, I still have a LOT more apples (Want some? Come on over!)

Today, I pulled out my friend Béa’s gorgeous book, La Tartine Gourmande: Recipes for an Inspired Life for further inspiration. This book is truly a joy. Lovely flavor combinations and visual wow are artfully mixed in with Béa’s charming life stories. Over the past several years, I’ve been lucky enough to spend several days with Béa and her family, and her spirit really rings through in this book. I excitedly await our trip next week to teach a food photography and styling class in France. But, with Béa’s book in hand, I did not have to wait to start tasting her delicious dishes again. There were many choices with apples.

Today I chose to make the Upside Down Cranberry Cake recipe, which she notes that apples work very well in place of the cranberries. The cake pairs the complex flavors of gluten free flours (quinoa, brown rice and almond meal) with olive oil, vanilla and saffron – an intriguing and delicious combination that do taste great with lightly sautéed Braeburn apples.

While Béa’s recipe makes a 9-inch cake, I halved the recipe and made tea cakes in a cupcake tin instead. Delicious!

Of course, after reading through Béa’s book, I really couldn’t resist also making a little parfait as well. Simply sautéed apple slices, topped with honey sweetened yogurt, topped with a pistachio, cashew and thyme crumble. Yum!

What are your favorite recipes for apples?

It’s hard to believe that it’s the last week of the online food photography and styling for bloggers workshop that started in early January! It’s been a great experience. Most of the photography classes I’ve taught have been one or two days events. While the face to face work is great… having 4 weeks to work with someone and see how they take your feedback and apply it to their work has been really amazing. I love to see those “a-ha” moments!

It’s also been great to work with photographers from around the world, and learn about some beautiful new food blogs, like The Winter Guest and AgoisFoto, both Spanish blogs by workshop students.

Here’s how the classes work. Ron Goldman & I craft 4 different lessons about various aspects of food photography, from the lighting, shooting angle and camera aperture to how to pick props and make the food look the freshest. We also cover some basics of how to prep your photos for the web so they look the best online. The lessons are packed with sample photos and setup shots (with natural light as well as with artificial light of various types).

Each week, students download the written lesson (in PDF form), and have the week to study it and practice shooting on their own schedule. Each lesson includes an assignment that introduces new skills to practice (as well as continuing to work on the skills from the previous weeks). Ron and I (and often, other students!) are available to answer questions on a Q&A forum, whether they are questions on the assignment or other aspects of food photography. In January’s class, this message board was very active with questions from everything from how to deal with reflections on silverware to what the best way to manage long term image storage to how to setup a blog.

If you wanted to attend the workshop that Béa & I were teaching in France but weren’t quite able to make the timing or the finances work, these online classes might be a great option for you! Sure, it’s not France, but you’ll have lots to learn from!

The class starts again this Friday, February 3rd, 2012 and again on March 2nd if you’d like to attend.

Hello everyone,

Thank you for your interest in our Food Photography & Styling Workshop! We are opening up official registration today, as of now.

Here’s a little more about the workshop:

Student rate: $2250 US
Non-student rate: $1650 US (includes accommodation, same meals and drinks only as those offered in the workshop). There are limited spots.

Beside soaking in the French culture (hello farmer’s market and village life!), and a lot of hands-on exercices to teach you food styling and photography (we’ll cover from camera basics, use of Lightroom and Photoshop, to lighting), included in the workshop are:

- 5 night accommodation (May 19th to 23d) Note that rooms are shared
- 5 breakfasts
- 4 lunches
- 3 dinners
- Food/drinks we will shoot with the workshop
- Soda, coffee and tea all day
- Wine during critique hour
- Bikes which will be available for your use at no charge Saturday through Tuesday
- Transportation to and from group activities
- A goodie bag from Béa & Lara

We strongly recommend that students who want to attend the workshop own an SLR camera, if their main interest for attending the workshop is food photography.

Update: The workshop is now full, but we are taking names for the wait list if you are still interested.

To register, please send an email to lara AT laraferroni DOT com, that includes:
– Your name (and name of your traveling companion, if applicable. Non-student companion prices are listed above.)
- Your mailing address
- Your blog address, if applicable

(If you are concerned about potential email server delays, you can leave a comment here first, followed up by your email with your details.)

Registrants will then receive an email (and contract to be signed and returned), and details on how to submit a $300 non-refundable deposit to confirm their registration. In case the list is filled, they will be placed on a waiting list.

Confirmed attendees will then receive a detailed (but tentative) itinerary, and more details about how to complete the full registration.

We hope to see you there! We are excited to make this happen with you all.

Béa & Lara

Not so with the books I shoot. I make the hell out of those recipes. It starts because I need to make the recipe for a shot, but inevitably goes beyond that. I often fall in love with those dishes. My husband once accused me of never making the same dish twice; after shooting Dishing Up Washington, that’s about to change. Because now I know how to glaze braised meat.

To be fair, I’ve been braising meat for a while, and I always considered myself pretty successful with it. The meat was delicious and tender. But it never quite had that gorgeous glaze that I’d get in a restaurant. Now I know how, and I’m putting it to pretty amazing use, like with this glazed, braised lamb shank… a little play on Jess’s Beef Bourginon and Glazed Goat Shank recipes from the cookbook. I borrowed a little from one recipe, a little from another, for a dinner that is pretty darn awe inspiring if I do say so myself.

If you are braising, be sure to give yourself plenty of time. It’s not a process you want to rush any part of. You can also do most of the “work” on a lazy Sunday afternoon, and then wrap it all up to finish off just before dinner later in the week, if time is going to be tight.

Start with a really good lamb shank. You aren’t going to get a good braise if your meat isn’t fantastic.

I was lucky enough to be doing a little shoot in New Season’s Market for the Online Food Photography & Styling class that I’m currently teaching, and picked up a hefty shank from Umpqua Valley Lamb Farm in Riddle, Oregon. Umpqua’s lamb is sustainably grown, grass-fed and pasture raised by small farms in oregon. Rumor has it, they even feed their lambs tasty bits like broccoli! This is a farm I’d love to go visit sometime!

Anyway, back to the braising.

Salt and pepper it all over while you get a deep pot heating over medium-high heat with a healthy splash of oil on the stove top. You need a pot, with a lid, that is large enough to allow the shank to lay flat. But you also don’t want a pot that is too big… you need the shank to be submerge in the braising liquid. Trust me on this, find the right sized pot for your braise; it is well worth the trouble.

Once the pot is hot, place the shank in (any side down is fine), and give it a good sear. Leave it in that pot, untouched for a good 2 minutes at least. Then turn it to the next side. Sear all the sides this way. If the meat is still stuck to the pan, give it another minute before trying to turn it. When the meat is braised all over, take it out of the pot, and set it aside on a plate.

Now, you’ll want to add your aromatics & veggies. You can add what you like, but I like the simple combination of onion, garlic, celery and carrot. Pearl onions, leeks or shallots would be good in place of or in addition to the onion. A few sprigs of thyme are a nice addition, or a few stalks of Italian parsley (stems and all). Maybe a bay leaf if you like. It’s not fussy. Just cut some stuff up and toss it in the hot pan that has all the meat drippings (add a bit more oil if there is none on the pan), and turn the heat down to low so all the good stuff slowly cooks and doesn’t burn. Let it go until it’s kind of soft but not mushy. Onions will be translucent and golden rather than brown. Stir often. This will take around 10 minutes.

Get your oven preheating to 325F.

Now add your liquid to the pot and turn the heat back up to medium high. I like to start with wine. About 1/2 cup will usually do it. For lamb you can go with either red or white (I used white this time, but I might try with red, or even a nice dry sherry next go around). When that has reduced, it’s time to add the stock. This can be veggie, chicken or beef broth (home made is best, but the store bought stuff is fine too), depending on how rich you want your braise to be. Add enough to your pot that your lamb shank will be mostly submerged, with just the top 1/4 sticking out the top. The size of your pan will determine the amount, but it’s usually between a pint and 1 quart. Still on the stove top, bring the mixture to a very gentle boil. Once simmering, slide in the meat, and any juices that are on the plate, into the liquid and at top the veggies. Cover, and move the whole pot to the hot oven. Your work for now is done… go find something to do for 2 hours (or a little less, perhaps if you have a really small piece of meat).

When you come back, your meat should be done. It will have contracted and pulled itself off of its bone, and then relaxed again into melty goodness. I always thought braising ended here. In the past, I’d just grab the meat, and the braising liquid as is and serve. I did not know all about glazing. And the glazing is the magic.

So, here’s what you do. You take that meat shank (carefully now because it will be very tender), and set it aside on a plate and cover it with foil.

Then, you run the braising liquid through a fine sieve (careful it’s hot), retaining all the yummy juices and discarding the solids. They are just mush at this point anyway. Put the liquid back in the pot and over medium low heat, start to reduce it. You want it to reduce by a lot, until it starts to have this lovely sheen. This will probably take 10 to 15 minutes. Keep a close eye on it because it’s easy for it to suddenly get nice and glossy and then move past that point the moment you walk over to the other side of the house because nothing is happening. Once the glaze is done, you can put the meat back in, give it a turn to coat, and warm it back up over low heat while you finish preparing the rest of your meal.

You can also wrap up the whole thing at this point for dinner another night. When you serve, pour the glaze all over the meat, or place the glaze in a gravy dish and let folks glaze their own. Delicious!

Let us know whether you are interested so that we can confirm this time slot! We’ve had a lot of interest, so we’ll be opening up the official registration soon! Look for an announcement, and don’t delay signing up, as the class will likely sell out quickly.

We cannot wait to meet you there.

I hope you all had a very merry holiday and a great week leading up to the New Year! Just stopping in briefly to announce the winner of the giveaway of our Food Photography & Styling for Bloggers class. Via random number generator, our winner is Stacy Ernst!

Stacy – I don’t have your email, so please email me for further info.

Happy Holidays everyone!

I’m also happy to announce that we are giving away a free spot to one lucky participant! To enter (see fine print below), all you need to do is add a comment below this post, that contains the text “I want to take your class“. Only one of these comments per person gets you an entry. Additional comments won’t get you more chances to win. Make sure that the email address you leave with the comment is valid so we can contact you if you win!

You can also qualify for a second entry by letting others know about it. Simply post about this give away… on your blog with a link back to this page, on your Facebook page, pin this page on Pinterest, or simply Tweet about it with the hashtag #FoodPhotosForBloggers with a link back to this page. Then, come back here and leave a second comment here letting us know where you posted (with a link please!).

This giveaway runs this week only, from December 18, 2011 until 11:59pm (pst) December 23, 2011. All entries posted later than that will not be counted.

I’ll announce the winner here on December 26th. Wouldn’t this be a great way to ring in 2012?

Good luck everyone!

The inevitable fine print:

Want to know how we pick the winner? All entries will be assigned a number based on the order they are received. The first valid comment will be entry 1, the second entry 2, etc. At the end of the week, all entries will be added up and that number will be placed into a random number generator to select the winning entry.

The giveaway is limited to 2 entries per person.

This giveaway is void where prohibited by law. Winners will be responsible for any applicable taxes and/or fees associated with the receipt of this prize.

If you do not agree with or cannot follow these rules, please do not enter.

A few Wednesdays ago found me somewhere particularly unexpected: on the rooftop of the Fairmont Olympic Hotel with about a million bees. The bees are the project of Chef Gavin Stephenson, who was accidentally inspired after a chance meeting with Corky Luster, Bee Ambassador. I’ve heard that happens. What makes this particularly interesting though is that Stephenson, who shoulders the title beekeeper as well as chef, is allergic to bees, so epi-pens are always close at hand (luckily, he hasn’t had need of them yet).

The bees, I learned, all feast fairly close by, on the maples that are scattered around downtown. The bees all orient themselves by flying straight from the hive in a single direction. So, the best place to get stung is to stand right there. If you stand off to the side, they pretty much ignore you.

They are housing two types of bees at the Fairmont, although for the life of me I couldn’t tell you what kind they were. I was snapping, not taking down notes. The bees naturally segregate themselves into their own hives, and produce very different looking and tasting honey. One type is clear and golden, with citrus notes while the other has a greenish tint and I swear has a hint of freshly mowed sweet grass. Both are delicious.

I’ve been feeling a bit bee-like myself for the past few months. Flitting from project to project, and making the honey. It’s been chaotic and busy and pretty much wonderful. And, now, I finally have some great news to share from a couple of those projects!

First off, the food photography & styling book I began last year is now available for pre-order on Amazon!

I couldn’t be more excited about this book. While there are some great books out there on food photography now, I think this book is a bit different. Sure, there are lots of tips and techniques outlined by me on lighting and exposure as well as food styling basics that don’t require toxic chemicals, but what really makes me excited about this book are the case studies about some of my favorite food photographers and stylists currently working in the field. I had amazing contributions from Colin Cooke, Iain Bagwell, Lara Hata, Sara Remington, Lisa Golden Schroeder, Dennis Becker, Charlotte Tolhurst, David Land, Francine Zaslow, David Clancy, Valery Rizzo, Johan Vanbecelaere, Keiko Oikawa, Diane Cu & Todd Porter, each sharing their personal stories, tips and beautiful work. I know I learned a thing or two from them and I hope that you get as much from their insights as I did!

Right now, I’m just putting the finishing touches on the manuscript of my next cookbook! I’ve kept kind of quiet on this one, mostly because the publishing process is so long and I know that tempting you with something you can’t get for over a year is kind of crazy. But, the time has come to share a little and ask for some help. You might ask yourself what cookbook could possibly follow up one on Doughnuts. More doughnuts? Nope. But, definitely snack food!

But not just any snack food. After doughnuts, I started playing around with more whole grains and better sugars, and my next book is all about that: Real Snacks: Sweet & Salty Treats Made WIthout All the Junk. Think Twinkies, made with whole grains and no high fructose corn syrup. Or Doritos, with no MSG or Red #5. These are snacks that taste great, have the flavors we all crave, but made from real food so you don’t have to worry about consuming all those “ates” and “ites.” For those of you (or those with kids) with allergies, there are all sorts of suggestions for how to make version that are safe to eat, including nut free, gluten free and vegan options. There’s also a whole appendix on DIY pantry staples like powdered sugar, yogurt coating (for pretzels and the like), garlic & onion powder, vanilla extract, evaporated milk and chocolate syrup!

The book isn’t out until next fall (see, publishing takes a long time!), but I am looking for a few recipe testers to help me put the finishing touches on the recipes. If you are interested, send me mail with your favorite junk food and any dietary restrictions and I’ll send you a recipe or two to try.

There’s much more to come, including a little tour of my new food photo studio down here in Portland, and several other great cookbooks I’ve shot over the last couple of months, but now I have to fly!

So for Mikey and Jennie, here is my pie. I hope it brings some comfort.

You might have noticed, I said Northwest, and not Seattle. There are changes coming along my way, and one of them is a move. As much as Cam & I love Seattle, and our house and our friends, change happens. We are moving to Portland! Cam has started a new job at a fantastic new company, The Clymb, which does very cool flash sales of some of the best outdoor equipment available… if you ski, run, paddle or camp, check it out! Right now, they are having a great sale on Jacob Bromwell camping cookware… it’s not too late to get a great camping skillet and s’more skewers!

Did I mention how much we love our friends? Earlier this summer, our good friend & neighbor Marci graduated from nursing school. To celebrate we had a big block party complete with a pig roast. I should clarify, a whole pig roast. After procuring a whole pig from Rainshadow Meats, Cam borrowed a Caja China from another friend, and I spent an afternoon peeling garlic (10 heads!) and squeezing citrus (ever try to juice a kumquat?) to create this mojo recipe.

If you follow me on Twitter, you’ll have seen some of that chaos. We marinated the pig in a large plastic bag in the bathtub. The pig is then slow roasted in the caja china box, with no-peaking for about 4 hours. A quick flip and a stoking of the coals on top crisps up the skin perfectly. I have to admit, I was completely skeptical of the whole idea of the pig roast from the beginning, but I was converted. We ended up with about 30 pounds of the most amazing roast pork I’ve ever tasted.

Here are some shots from the day… warning, the early shots are pretty graphic.

Four hours later, it’s time to flip the pig…

It’s been a crazy summer, and I have much, much more news… but off to another photo shoot now!