More Backgrounds

I'm having fun making phone backgrounds. Below is the original that I made the two backgrounds from. I'm pretty impressed that I took it with my Lumix and got that great depth.

Something New

The other day, I wanted a new wallpaper for my iPhone. I have a gazillion images in my library, so I started with the ones that I had in my screen saver. Feel free to use on your phone if you want :)

Yeah, I liked it THAT much.

The End of Summer in Cincinnati. Fireworks!

Summer in Cincinnati goes out with a bang on Labor Day weekend. Since 1977, WEBN, a local radio station puts on one of the best fireworks displays in the midwest (which I still don't know why Cincinnati is considered midwest, since we're neither in the middle of the country nor in the West...). WEBN teams up with Rozzi fireworks for the pyrotechnics and synchronize the display to an original soundtrack each year.

For the past many years, I've watched the fireworks on tv. It's HD, and the sound is really good. On top of that, I don't have to deal with the TRAFFIC. This year, however was different. I was asked to be the photographer at an event, and for four hours, my lighting guy (Roman :) and I shot images of people in front of a fireworks backdrop. It was a long night, and I was pretty much ready to go home since I'd been on my feet for four hours. I told Roman that if I can't get a good view of the fireworks, I wanted to go home. Somehow, some way, I was able to get a prime spot overlooking the city, right in front! I set up my tripod, and following is my first attempt at shooting fireworks with my camera on the tripod. I found that ISO 100, 15 seconds at f12 was a pretty good way to get these shots.

India

I recently had the opportunity to visit India with my company's philanthropic organization, OneSight - a family of charitable vision care programs dedicated to improving vision through outreach, research and education. Through OneSight, Luxottica employees, doctors, partners and other community volunteers give the gift of sight.

My team and I traveled to the city of Jodhpur in the city of Rajasthan. It was a desert city - hot and dusty! We were able to help about 9,500 people see! Below are some of my favorite shots of the city.

Yummy Chicken and Spinach Dinner

Since I've been on the DL and not at work, I've had more time to think about cooking - and more time to actually do it!

First of all, if you like to cook, you need to subscribe to Cook's Illustrated. Period. Stop what you're doing now and subscribe! They cook a meal literally hundreds of times if that's what it takes to get it perfected. I have a magazine subscription, but if you're greener than I am, you can subscribe to their online membership.

Every once in a while, Cook's Illustrated sends me emails with access to a few online recipes, and this past Monday, I made the following recipe, and it was GOOD.

Sauteed Chicken Breast Cutlets in Lemon Sauce with Proscuitto and Sage
Serves 4

To minimize the amount of time the cutlets wait in the oven, prepare the sauce ingredients before sautéing the chicken.

INGREDIENTS

Chicken Cutlets
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts (about 1 1/2 pounds), rinsed and dried thoroughly
1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Sauce
2 medium cloves garlic , sliced thin
15 fresh sage leaves
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 cup chicken stock or low-sodium canned chicken broth
3 tablespoons unsalted butter , softened
1 slice prosciutto (1/4-inch thick, about 1 1/2 ounces), diced fine

INSTRUCTIONS

For the Chicken Cutlets:
1. Generously season both sides of each breast with salt and pepper and dredge one at a time in flour placed in a shallow dish; shake gently to remove excess flour and set aside. Heat butter and vegetable oil in 12-inch heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat, swirling to melt butter. When foam subsides and butter begins to color, place cutlets in skillet, skinned side up. Reduce heat to medium-high and sauté without moving until nicely browned, about 4 minutes. Turn cutlets over and cook on other side until meat feels firm when pressed and clotted juices begin to emerge around tenderloin, 3 to 4 minutes. Leaving fat in skillet, transfer cutlets to plate, cover loosely with foil, and keep warm in 200-degree oven while preparing the sauce.

For the Sauce:
Set skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and sage leaves; sauté until garlic is fragrant and sage crisps, 1 to 2 minutes. Add lemon juice and bring to boil, scraping up browned bits from bottom of skillet with wooden spoon. Add chicken stock, increase heat to medium-high and bring to boil, stirring occasionally, until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 8 minutes. Off heat, swirl in butter, and add prosciutto. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon sauce over cutlets; serve immediately.

I wanted to find a side dish that would also incorporate lemon - preferrably the zest, since I just bought a microplane zester. I did a google search for Spinach with Lemon Zest and found the following, AMAZING recipe. This is from a website that I just found and bookmarked, because it's wonderful: For the Love of Cooking http://fortheloveofcooking-recipes.blogspot.com/

Spinach and Pine Nuts
1 large bunch of baby spinach, washed thoroughly twice and stems trimmed
1 tsp olive oil
1-2 cloves of garlic - minced
Sea or Kosher salt & fresh cracked pepper to taste
1 tsp lemon zest
1-2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
2 tbsp red wine vinegar

Toasted Pine Nuts: In a small skillet over medium heat, add the pine nuts to the DRY pan. Cook for a few minutes, stirring frequently, until golden brown. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Spinach: In a large dutch oven or skillet, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and stir constantly for 45 seconds then add the clean spinach, salt and pepper to taste. Stir frequently for 1 - 2 minutes until wilted. Add the pine nuts, lemon zest and red wine vinegar then mix thoroughly. Serve immediately.

My only tip about the spinach is - cook it in a dutch oven. You need the space because the spinach starts out really big before it shrinks.

Enjoy!