Posted in Eats, Photographs, tagged Dennison's Family Farm, food, Huntsville, iPhone, photograph, strawberries, summer on May 13, 2010| 1 Comment »
I used to think the best strawberries in the world came from southern Louisiana. That was before I found southern Tennessee.
Sorry, Louisiana. You have been dethroned. These strawberries are like candy, many so sweet that it seems like somebody has already dipped them in sugar.
I found them at the Dennison’s Family Farm strawberry stand on Hughes Road in Madison. There are a few more stands around the Huntsville area; check out Dennison’s Facebook page to find one near you.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged animals, cats, cropped pants, iPhone, photograph, spring on March 8, 2010| 1 Comment »
Forget about March 20. When the small cat casts a shadow at 7 a.m. on a Monday and the temperature approaches 70 degrees, spring is declared. Cropped pants shall ensue.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Photographs, tagged animals, ducks, Huntsville, iPhone, photograph, TiltShift on February 1, 2010| Leave a Comment »
This photograph didn’t turn out the way I had intended, but it still holds some charm for me. One day I’ll find the perfect image for TiltShiftMaker.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged animals, cats, fight, home, iPhone, photograph, sleep, ToyCamera on January 17, 2010| 1 Comment »
When they were younger, Yin and Yang used to curl up and sleep together almost every day. They’ve spent the past few years carving up territory and sleeping in separate rooms, however.
This photo was taken recently during a particularly busy weekend of what we’ve come to call “It’s on.” A fight in the morning, a fight in the afternoon, and maybe a bonus fight at 10 p.m. I guess when they fight that much, they’re just too exhausted to find separate sleeping quarters.
Posted in Christmas, Eats, Photographs, tagged Bakerella, cake balls, Christmas, food, gloves, holidays, iPhone, kitchen, party, photograph, red velvet cake, whistling on December 28, 2009| 2 Comments »
I don’t make pretty food. (I also don’t seem to be able to make pretty photographs of light-colored objects.) So why I zoned in on Bakerella’s Red Velvet Cake Balls several months ago is up for discussion.
Whatever the reason, I decided they were the perfect dessert for wherever I was going to spend Christmas. Red velvet cake, mixed with cream cheese frosting and coated in white chocolate, seemed to be the most festive food I could contribute.
I had seen plenty of attempted cake balls on last year’s holiday party circuit. Most were delicious, but they were also about the size of ping-pong balls, making them difficult to eat. Most also suffered from a common rookie mistake: The balls hadn’t been properly chilled before they were dipped in the chocolate mixture, and thus coverage was spotty. Picture big, unruly wads of cake with about 75 percent chocolate coverage.
From the moment I hauled out the mixer, I knew this project was going to turn into a big mess. My old, scratched-up countertop has lost any stain-guarding properties it may have ever had, so I had to be ever so careful not to drop any (OK, much) red batter. Luckily, I had food-safe disposable gloves in the cabinet, because I don’t think I could sell bright red palms as part of the charm on Christmas morning.
Part two of the mess was the actually coating of the cake balls with melted chocolate bark. Bakerella says to use a spoon to dip and roll each cake ball in the chocolate. This didn’t work out for me, and I was left with uneven coverage. A couple of comments on the post recommended using a toothpick for the dipping and rolling; this worked out much better, only it left a tiny hole in the top. A tiny hole that looked way worse after my futile attempts at re-dipping or filling. (I realize now that a little creative drizzling would have upped the wow factor substantially.) And if I didn’t remove the toothpick soon enough, it left a huge crack in the top, leading to a small pile of discards. Tasty, tasty discards.
The non-discards were also delicious. And I guess they looked good enough to eat, since I don’t have that many left.
I’m almost sad to see the holidays end, since now I don’t have much reason to turn the kitchen into my own experimental lab. My solace is the hope that the office Whistling Guy will take the Christmas songs out of his repertoire.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Photographs, tagged cats, home, Hotmix, iPhone, photograph on December 22, 2009| 4 Comments »
Just another Monday night at the Haggerty compound: two 13-year-old cats (brothers) posturing for domination of a towel-filled basket. Shot with the iPhone and stylized using the Hotmix filter on Vihgo.
(No cats were harmed during the making of this photo. Even as the basket kingdom was taken by threat, an under-the-bed kingdom was being formed.)
Posted in As Pictured Below, Cats, Christmas, Home, Photographs, tagged animals, cats, Christmas, decorating, iPhone, TiltShift Generator on December 8, 2009| 2 Comments »
This is the most complicated Christmas display that I’ve dared to put up since obtaining two rambunctious cats 13 years ago.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Photographs, tagged cats, iPhone, iTunes, lake, Photographs, photography, water, winter on November 26, 2009| 1 Comment »
Inspired by fellow blogger SevenDead, I’ve been playing around with TiltShift Maker, an online application that manipulates images to look like model photos.
Inspired by actually being able to remember my iTunes password, I have added CatPaint to my iPhone’s photo arsenal. Happy Thanksgiving indeed.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Huntsville, Photographs, Travel, tagged animals, fun, Huntsville, iPhone, safari, ToyCamera, weekend, zebra on November 10, 2009| 2 Comments »
Harmony Park Safari in South Huntsville: If you live here and you’ve never been, GO. It’s a riot.
More pics TC.
Posted in As Pictured Below, Home, Photographs, tagged American Dream, bathtub, cursing, drywall, heights, home, husband, iPhone, leaks, phobia, photograph, real estate, renovations, repair on October 5, 2009| 3 Comments »
So what the real estate agent doesn’t point out when you’re buying a two-story house is the blatantly obvious: The second story is awfully far from the ground. Far as in go buy a 32-foot ladder far.
Luckily, the husband and I aren’t afraid of heights (these kind of heights, anyway), so we were able to caulk a leaky bathroom window this weekend. Tragically, it doesn’t seem to have been the leak we were looking for. To find that one, it looks like we’ll have to remove the bathtub from the master bath a few months earlier than planned.
The American Dream: It involves more drywall dust, cursing and soldering than you think.
Entirely Adequate 