Happy Monday to all 
Nothing like freshly roasted coffee beans in the morning. mmm…..
I entered the Epiphanie Camera Bags + Photo Card Boutique Picture It photo contest!http://bit.ly/ITqV5R
Picture It: Photo contest – Morning
May 14th, 2012Bon appétit! | {Austin Food Photography}
May 10th, 2012I hadn’t posted many photos of my cooking lately. I got lazy for a little while there and took pictures only with my phone…and while it’s easy, readily available, and the apps are so much fun it never will have the clarity of a DSLR 
We have a Cook’s Illustrated subscription and I loooooove it. America’s Test Kitchen really tests and tests and tests their recipes until it’s….well…..for lack of a better term, idiotproof. I mean even I can whip up lump crab cakes that are “restaurant quality” (husband said it, not me).
I also have the Best Recipes cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen and it’s equally as good. This smothered pork chops with spicy collard greens and bacon is from there:
SimplyRecipes.com is another place I love getting recipes from – the recipes are well written and tested. Here is Bibim Guksu or Spicy Korean cold noodles. I marinated the chicken in the dressing that’s in the recipe before cooking it in a pan and adding it to the noodles. It was delicious and great dish during the hot summer months.
Pork Mango Picadillo, another one from Simply Recipes.
One of our friends is vegan and I’m quite inspired by the fact that she runs half marathons without eating any meat products. With all the poor care of animals, the food-borne illnesses (although it’s not limited to meat), and the health effects of beef, etc we’ve been trying to eat healthy and focus more on vegetables. I guess with the above examples it doesn’t show…lol.
She introduced us to this website called Post Punk Kitchen and she recommended the Chickpea Piccata with vegan mashed potatoes.
OMG it was SO GOOD!! Mashed potatoes are so unhealthy usually with lots of butter and cream, but this uses unsweetened almond milk and olive oil. The lemony goodness of the chickpea picatta was addictive. Some changes: I would wilt the arugula beforehand though. I used chicken broth instead, because that’s what I had in the pantry
Cooking has become a lot of fun and hopefully, someday, I’ll be able to look at a few ingredients and whip up something using my own creativity.
xoxo,
Maki
Photo Challenge: Hey Girl
May 8th, 2012This month’s I Heart Faces Photo Challenge is “Hey Girl” of Ryan Gosling fame The requirement is that a female face is showing in the photo.
I won’t go into the details of the story behind this family since it’s in my previous blog post from last week.
“Hey Girl,
Thanks for making me raw tripe smoothies for me so I’ll eat.
Especially since you’re vegan.
I love you right back.”
The Pennybacker Bridge | {Austin Travel Photography}
May 6th, 2012I finally got to the cliffs where you can get a fantastic view of the lake and the Pennybacker Bridge (aka, 360 Bridge). If you ever go up there, PLEASE be careful as there have been recent accidents where people have fallen off the bridge. Be safe and enjoy the view!
Meet Travis | {Austin Pet Photography}
May 3rd, 2012I’m not sure where to begin.
Our friend, Amy and John, have the cutest, handsomest, most adorable dog named Travis. He was adopted by Amy from a shelter as a puppy. Then Amy and John got married and Travis officially became a Wages – he’s now almost 15! His baby face makes him look like he’s still a young puppy though and you wouldn’t believe all the ladies coming over wanting to pet him or give him treats. No one would argue that he’s a chick magnet 
He has heart failure, though. Amy and I talked about getting pictures of Travis. She told me she’s not sure how long he has and so we set up a date quickly – as luck would have it we were all available Friday.
For the slideshow (with music!) click here.
Amy is absolutely gorgeous and I love Travis’ one ear perked up like that.
mmm….turkey!
Yup, that’s a Bulldogs collar!
And last but not least, my favorite shot of Travis:
Please cheer this family on and pray that the rest of the days they have with Travis will be happy ones. Travis is truly a rock star.
xoxo,
Maki
Zilker Botanical Garden | {Austin Travel Photography}
April 24th, 2012Last week, a group of Austin photographers got together for a photowalk through the beautiful Zilker Botanical Garden (Admission: $2, free parking) here in Austin. I meant to bring my mother-in-law here but it happened to be closed for festival preparation the day we stopped by. I’ve known that the garden was in Zilker Park for awhile but I guess when you live nearby, it’s easy to think “oh I can always stop by.” and then never do
This photowalk was organized and co-hosted by Juan Gonzalez (Lime Fly Photography) and Lotus Carroll (Sarcastic Mom). These two are amazing photographers and equally as wonderful people. And there’s a nice photography community here in Austin so it’s been a lot of fun following around on Google Plus. {Find me here}.
The Zilker Garden boasts a beautiful Japanese-inspired garden, with a wonderful bamboo forest:
We had fun with the kids
And My Favorite of the Day:
The Zilker Botanical Garden was beautiful and well worth the $2 admission price. If you live in Austin and want to participate in future photowalks with us, come follow us on Google Plus! All kinds of skill levels with all kinds of cameras are welcome – just bring an interest in meeting new people, having fun, and taking pictures! :)
xoxo,
Maki
Texas, our Texas | {Austin travel photography}
April 14th, 2012This past week, Alan’s parents flew in from the northeast, to come see the spectacular bluebonnets. According to the locals who have lived here for several years, it’s been a good 10-12 years since they’ve seen the state flower be so spectacular. The drought has not been kind and after some rain, we finally got a great year.
In my previous post, I was quite excited to see bluebonnets sprouting in our (kinda) backyard – but as we drove around the city they were everywhere. Bluebonnets, Indian Paintbrush, poppies, etc all growing happily along the highways. Unfortunately these are not safe areas to stop your car, get out, and snap photos :-S
This post is what we did and allllll the flowers we saw. Hopefully it’s a good guide for travelers to Austin in search for bluebonnets in future years
RODEO!!! This was the last day of Austin Rodeo so we took Alan’s parents to go see it. I had read on the tickets that no cameras were allowed so I didn’t bring my big camera. I finally got one that looks like a rodeo with my iPhone. It was SOOOOO much fun and I totally plan on going again next year and sitting closer to the action. I was a bit annoyed because the box seats weren’t apparently available but there were tons of empty seats. Stupid Ticketmaster, what are we paying you the fees for?
Not that we needed to go far in search of bluebonnets, but a dear friend (and real estate agent – she rocks! let me know if you need her info!) gave us a tip to head towards Marble Falls, TX. And we did. Man……the flowers were incredible. Not just bluebonnets, but all kinds of different ones in different colors.
Then we saw this. And had to stop. And of course it meant several others had to follow suit
With all the rain, we also figured that there might actually be water in the rivers, waterfalls, creeks, etc. We headed over to a local and beautiful state park, McKinney Falls State Park. We live about 15 min away from it and you can even camp here. The falls were beautiful with people swimming in the pools. Oh, and the bluebonnets!
There is also nice, easy walk in between the two waterfalls. This one was an interesting flower. Looks almost like an alien with two eyes and fangs, doesn’t it? 
And for more driving…..we headed out towards Fredericksburg, TX twice in one week. There was so much to see, so little time – and it was worth the drive
Near Fredericksburg is the Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park. It’s basically his former ranch, where you can take a guided tour by CD in your car – pop the CD in your car, and it talks to you while driving. It’s a great stop and beautiful property – he even had a landing strip for his Air Force One – Half. (The Air Force One would land in Austin, and he’d take his One Half to his ranch). Oh, and the two Longhorns they have make it another worthwhile reason to stop. They’re enormous. And I think they were giving me the “I’m warning you, lady-with-the-huge-camera” look.
There is also a huge nursery called Wildseed Farms where you can find seeds and plantings of all sorts of different plants. Apparently there exists red bluebonnets (both are Lupinius texensis) which are called Alamo Fire (ha!). They also have rare, white bluebonnets too.
We also drove the Willow City Loop – it’s a spectacular drive along a 13 mile loop of private ranch roads. It’s slightly north of Fredericksburg and one of THE places to go for wildflowers. Photos speak a thousand words:
The white poppies were like snow:
It also rained and I love the Japanese maple with the raindrops on them:
Getting tired of flowers yet? Wait, there’s more! Thanks to Lady Bird Johnson (the wife of former President Lyndon B Johnson) we have a fantastic wildflower center in south Austin. They also have acres and acres of land with trails you can walk along but again, time was short.
Found this moth hangin’ with the flowers….blending in nicely.
Austin really does a great job celebrating and supporting nature and the outdoors. Zilker Park is a huge metropolitan park, famous for its Barton Springs Pool, but also is home to the wonderful Zilker Botanical Garden and the Umlauf Sculpture Garden. The botanical garden was closed due to festival set up but the Umlauf Sculpture Garden was a really nice alternative. Charles Umlauf is a well-known sculptor and former professor at UT Austin. His house is right above the garden and home to his studio. It’s a beautiful place and well worth the stop.
an iris growing on the grounds:
and a photo of a lily from home:
Phew. If you stuck with it for this long, thanks!!! That was a LOT of flowers….and I know the boys were quite tired of them by the end
xoxo,
Maki
Happiness Photo Challenge | Austin family photography
April 4th, 2012This month’s theme for the I Heart Faces photo challenge is {Happiness}. Quite fitting with spring’s arrival, don’t you think? And this is why I love portraits…..someone’s smile is so infectious.
After perusing the photos I’ve had, I couldn’t help but choose this particular one from this girl’s 1st birthday party. Grandma was quite serious, looking after her granddaughter – or perhaps she was a bit nervous/shy around the huge camera I was carrying? I was totally waiting for a moment for her to smile. I know she had it in her. Then, there it was:
I love everything about that beautiful smile.
Texas Bluebonnets | {Austin travel photography}
March 23rd, 2012Oh the famous Texas Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis). They are part of the lupine family and are the state flower. Because of drought conditions and lack of rain over the past several years, locals haven’t been able to really see much of them. This year we got a good amount of rain (but not enough to refill our nearly empty lakes….) and the fields have been FULL of all kinds of wildflowers. And of course, the bluebonnets.
For some reason or another they like to grow en masse near the roads and highways. I hear people abruptly STOP in the middle of the highway, pull over, get out and run over to take photos. With their kids. Oy….
Luckily these were walking distance from my house Aren’t they beautiful?
I’m hoping to get out to the Texas Hill Country more and spot a huge field of them.
Stay Classy, San Diego | {Travel photography}
March 15th, 2012We lived in San Diego for almost 5 years. It’s one of those huge cities people have heard about ….maybe because of the perfect weather, the famous San Diego Zoo, Comic-Con….but many visitors stop at L.A. and don’t venture down so far south. It’s a fantastic city and the traffic isn’t as bad as L.A.!
As usual, when we travel, we center it around food. Exploring the local food scene really helps getting to know the real culture of the place, I think. This time we centered it around our favorite Japanese establishments – Austin has a good representation of Japanese food, but authentic casual/street Japanese food is still coming into its own. All of these photos in the collage are from my phone:
Top row from left: Lemon ricotta pancakes from Crest Cafe, yummy gelato from Pappalecco, and the funky wall of Pappalecco. Delizioso!
Middle row from left: Real ramen from Santouka (inside Mitsuwa market), plane coming in for a landing at the airport, and crispy fried teriyaki wings at Raku (formerly Yakitori Yakyudori)
Bottom row from left: some of my favorites from Trader Joe’s (we don’t have one in Austin!), Japanese soft drinks (melon soda, sparkling peach), and a violet cream tart from Extraordinary Desserts.
We also splurged on Sushi Ota…..the best sushi ever.
Alan gets pretty exhausted from work so this vacation was going to be a relaxed one. Nothing really planned (except for friends and food) so we can do whatever we wanted. First stop was Pappalecco for some coffee, gelato, and a panini. While Alan worked. This is what he looks like when he’s working:
It was such a beautiful day outside that we walked over to Balboa Park, with my girly magazine, Alan with his WSJ, and a sparkling Perrier. And we chilled & read. I took some pictures.
And as with any vacation, there wasn’t enough time. I guess we’ll just have to come back again soon
xoxo,
Maki
