camera – Loving Food, Fashion, & Life

Potstickers For The New Year

Posted on January 1, 2014 by LFFL

Pork & Vegetable Potstickers made with dumpling dough, ground pork, green cabbage, celery, onion, and a mix of ginger, garlic, and black pepper.

Well my New Year’s resolution to eat a little healthier went right down the drain as soon as I woke up this morning. The first thing I stuffed in my face for the new year was one of those gigantic plumpalicious cinnamon rolls from the diner—or at least HALF of one.

To be fair, I didn’t buy it today—it was leftover from last night. So is it still technically my fault? Should I have known to throw it in the trash at midnight last night? Isn’t it still considered 2013 food, technically? I did eat a bowl of oatmeal this morning right afterwards to try to wash it out of my system.

PEOPLE, I’M LOOKING FOR SOME KIND OF CREDIT SOMEWHERE!

Let’s move on to my non-homemade potstickers-from-a-box. This is what I resorted to since I spent 90% of my day trying to figure out all aspects of my new camera—so I wasn’t in much of a cooking mood after reading that lengthy instruction manual. Who knew a wee camera could have 252 pages of instruction on CD to accompany itself?!!

And with some of the pictures I’ve taken today, I swear my cell phone did a much better job. I’m sure it was user-error and there was probably a setting I should have left well enough alone. But I’m still in the learning and playing phase with said camera.

Enjoy my first blog photos with the new camera while I still try to get the hang of it.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, spend your day reading a 252-page instruction manual.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Nothing wrong with breaking a New Year’s resolution a few hours after midnight. It happens.

I Finally Got An Actual Camera

Posted on December 31, 2013 by LFFL

I am SO excited! I finally got my very own new digital camera! Now I won’t be solely at the mercy of my cell phone for picture-taking. Of course I chose one of the higher-ranked cameras that Consumer Reports recommended. (Those people help me so much with my decision-making process. I just love them like family!)

This Nikon Coolpix P330 is perfect because it’s just small enough that I can carry it around with me every day without a lot of bulk. But, naturally, a DSLR is next on my list of cameras to get much later down the road.

Now I get to play with figuring out how to work it on every level. Oh, JOY!

So, if you have nothing else to do today, research and get yourself a brand new doodad of a camera. It can really bring a smile to your face.

Take-Away Life Lesson: If anybody’s in my vicinity from this day forward, I’m probably going to find a reason to take a picture of you or with you—so WATCH OUT!

My Fun Outing At Whole Foods Market

Posted on May 10, 2013 by LFFL

Whole Foods Market Bulk Bins — Bulk Bins

So, I absolutely LOVE my Whole Foods Market health food store. I love the layout of the store and how everything is so neat and pretty when you walk inside. It makes you want to buy everything.

Fresh Seafood

This is part of the fun of trying new recipes all the time. It exposes me to ingredients that I’ve either never heard of before or never used before—weird spice names, cheeses I’ve never heard of, produce that sounds like it came from another planet, and more.

Whole Foods Market White Meat — Fresh White Meat

What I’ve found though is that when you can’t find most of these ‘weird’ items in an average grocery store—you can always find them in the Whole Foods health food store. Boy, they carry EVERYTHING!

So here I am walking through the store doing my usual shopping thinking what nice things I could say about this store on my blog. I took pictures here and there (over the course of 3 different days that I did my shopping over a 2-week time period) of how neatly everything was arranged and how nice the store looked—and no one ever said anything to me.

Fresh Red Meat

Now, the meat guys looked at me weird at one point—but that was about it. I just assumed they thought I was a meat inspector or something—but dressed how I was that day, I don’t know how they could have confused me.

And I’m thinking it’s no big deal to do this considering how everyone has cell phone cameras all over the world now. I mean, what do I know? How can you police everyone?

Whole Foods Market Meat Patties — Fresh Meat Patties

Well, I didn’t have a problem until I got to the cheese department. There is apparently a cheese department manager/policeman who had an in-depth conversation with me about what I was doing, you can’t do that, who are you, why are you here, etc., etc., etc. It went on and on and on.

Whole Foods Market Cheeses — Fresh Cheeses

What I didn’t like was that he told me I “couldn’t take pictures at all.” But when I asked him why, he just gave me a blank stare and didn’t have an answer. Then he said it was their store policy. Well, I asked him why it was their policy—what was the reason. He still couldn’t/wouldn’t tell me. He didn’t have an answer right off the bat.

Soooooo……………………..

Continue reading “My Fun Outing At Whole Foods Market” →

So I Guess I Need To Buy A Camera

Posted on January 8, 2013 by LFFL

As you can probably tell, you need to buy an actual camera if you’re going to be a blogger. Being at the mercy of my Android cell phone means taking at least 10 or more pictures of each object in the hopes that at least ONE of them will turn out clearer than all the others. It’s pathetic—especially when I’m taking food pics. It doesn’t go over so well. The food is getting colder and colder and if there are people around I’m cooking for all I hear is ‘not pictures again, are you done yet, I’m hungry, when can we eat, the food’s getting cold.’ (They’re very rude guests.)

Now, it could just be my particular cell phone. I have, after all, seen some fabulous pictures taken with cell phones. So I’m sure I just need an upgrade. But I still think an actual camera is the way to go if you’re going to be blogging for the world. So, until then, you’ll just have to grin and bear the cell-phone-quality pics. It’s all I have to work with for the time being.

In the meantime, I’m reviewing what Consumer Reports has to say about cameras. This is my go-to source for all information anytime I think I’m going to spend big time money (usually anything over $1.75) on something. After all, they went through all the trouble of doing all the legwork for me–saving me the money, time, energy, and effort of doing it myself. The least I could do is analyze their research before plunking down huge sums of money on something just to have it fail on me in a year and trying to return it to no avail. Granted, I can’t always review everything I need in CR before I purchase something—but I try to when I can.

So, if you have nothing else to do today, get to know Consumer Reports and buy yourself something new.

CR and I have an unbreakable bond that no one can tear apart. I appreciate them like no other, they’ve always been there for me and haven’t failed me yet! My heart is theirs.

Take-Away Life Lesson: Subscribe to, thank, invite to dinner, write a love letter to Consumer Reports.

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