Photographs only lately...

Nonna Silvia Brandi

I have spent hours creating recipes based on the little knowledge of cooking I have acquired through the years.  My nonna who was an amazing cook, my mother and friends have filled me with little bits here and there.  I am not a recipe book cuisiner...never have been and probebly never will be.  What I love, love, love...is to create my own.  That is the whole fun and love of cooking in my humble opinion.  My family always participates graciously as my food testers and critics.  My husband a kind and humble man, is not one to boost my ego by telling me a dish is good, when he doesn't care for it much.  Along with my daughters who all know good and well how a three and four year old can be quite picky.   We have a little family ritual, if a dish is good the girls give a thumbs up...bad...a thumbs down.  Lately, I am on a winning streak with them!

This blog started because I love to cook and cared to share my recipe discoveries.   Lately though I have a burning passion to take photographs of food, so I cook, create a dish and I photograph it.  Though recipes on many of my photos lately are not included in the blog.  For the reason being that I am beginning a program in Professional Photography where my main focus is to create "good" photograghs.  Therefore, all my focus has been there for the past few months.  To build a portfolio, to learn, to mess up, to improve and perfect with the strong hope that someday I will be the photographer for the cook book you buy, or the magazine in the newsstands, or even publish my own cookbook.  I enjoy very much photographing food.  It is oddly strange to me how it inspires me so much.  Somedays I ask myself and wait to see if I will tire of it...but so far, not.  The inspiration of food is endless and brings my back to my roots of summer days in Italy spent watching my nonna cook.  When I cook I feel close to her.  When I am behind the camera...I am true to myself.  I know she is proud and looking down on me saying "brava Nicole".

In conclusion to my drawn out reason for writing this evening, I want to mention that if anyone views a photo of a dish and the recipe is not posted..PLEASE PLEASE...let me know and I will share with you.