Acres of Cherry- 10/13/10

I had to shoot a large selection of various foods this night. This cherry torte happened to be one of the better looking items I shot. So, here it is! Look, drool, yearn and hunger!

Sweet Potato S'more

Leave it up to the rich and imaginative to take the simple things in life and raise them up into the realm of artful masterpieces. My cousin took this picture at my uncle's house in Chicago. It's a sweet potato s'more and not the kind you would cook over a campfire. I am still trying to get a recipe for this. I couldn't find one online.

Pork Chop Night at My Place

I got fancy with some pork chops a friend gave me as he was moving out of town and wanted to give away extra food he didn't feel like packing. I let these pork chops sit in a mix of apple juice and chicken stalk over night. Then, I breaded them and cooked them in white cooking wine with some sauerkraut and black pepper.

German - 9/23/10

This was one of two German nights I shot at Derby. I just wanted beer that night!

German Chicken • Spaetzle Noodle & Cheese Bake • Potatoes with Bratwurst

This was the raspberries and baked apples they served on Oktoberfest- the following German night! The apple had a sugary cinnamon sauce that tasted like melted candy. I wish I had a recipe for it.

Anything is Good Between Bread - 10/2/10

I wish I could remember what these sandwiches are. They were served as part of Derby's bread menu. I waited too long to post them. Just gaze and drool...

Frozen Purple Pride

Everything at Kansas State is purple, even the ice cream. Call Hall serves a flavor of ice cream that's probably unavailable anywhere else. Purple pride ice cream. To be honest, I don't know how to classify the taste of this ice cream. It's just.... purple!

Keeping the Cats Healthy (Healthy Willie Week) - 09/12/10

It's been a long time- too long- since I posted on here. All I got are the usual excuses! Work, school, work and work.
It seems there have been quite a few health awareness displays at Derby I've been scheduled to shoot. This is just one of them. It covers picking the right food to eat and maintaining healthy decisions in other areas of student life, aside from food. Other displays I've shot included healthy food portions and counting the numbers found in various food items.
Nothing too exciting! Personally, as much as eating healthy is unarguably important, it's also expensive. How do colleges expect students to eat well when it's common knowledge that college students are naturally poor. And it sure doesn't help when schools charge every last dollar out of students in parking fees, campus fees, book fees and other fees for each letter of the alphabet! Typical! I might as well grab something off the value menu at McDonald's. What else can a student afford to eat? School has all my money!

Yogurt and Granola displayed as part of "Healthy Willie Week" at

Derby Student and Dining Hall

Brick Oven Pizza...Who Needs Delivery?

As the school year comes to a close across America and the summer season approaches, the weather in Kansas is getting warmer and warmer. People in the neighborhood are, once again, keeping their ovens off in the kitchen and pulling out the backyard barbeques.

The smell of hamburgers and chicken waft through neighborhoods- another sign of summer. In my neighborhood, however, the smell of pizza has wafted through the air like a gorgeous gypsy girl wandering for innocent prey.

Of course, I don't think my neighbors would phrase it that way. They welcomed friends and neighbors on Saturday for home made pizza, prepared from scratch and baked in their backyard brick oven. The occasion was high school and college graduation.

Aside from taking pictures, my assistance in the process was the cooked sausage- a very important ingredient for meat lover's pizza.

My neighbor's, the Bryan's, pizza as well as their fire-brick over are well known in town.

A high school buddy of mine came down from North Dakota for the grad ceremonies. He did most of the actual cooking. Very well done! And happy Memorial Day!!

Mrs. Bryan and Clare Bryan prepping

Chopped garlic, sausage, green peppers, mushrooms, fresh basil, onions, tomato sauce, and white wine...molto bene!

Martin from North Dakota doing the cooking...

Mr. Bryan is checking the oven temperature with Tim Bryan...

"Goood morning Vietnaaaaaam" - 04/15/10

The title catch phrase from Robin Williams may be slightly misleading. It wasn't actually morning. I'm sure that's obvious from the plate items. The Vietnamese items included someone's cat served with a turnip, a deep fried squirrel, and something in a glowing, luminescent sauce. Just kidding!

If you're still reading, the menu really included Vietnamese spring rolls with chili sauce, pork riblets simmered in caramel (pronounced "care-ah-mel" for confused people who don't know how to properly pronounce it...you know who you are!), grapefruit and jicama salad. There was supposed to be some chicken pho noodle soup but I couldn't find where they were serving it. Vietnamese cuisine was quite a change of pace from the dishes normally served.

So, despite the meal being a dinner, "it's always morning in America, even in the afternoon", or so I've been told. If that's true, then surely the same goes for Vietnam. So, "gooood mornin' Vietnaaaaam!"

...And It Comes on a Stick- 03/25/10

The dinner looked alright but it was the sweets- the "good stuff"- that made tonight enticing. If I was there to eat, I would have forgone the shish kabob...

...and indulged in the chocolate fondue, s'mores, and cotton candy!