Monthly Archives: September 2010

Kitchen Tip: Painter’s Tape and Sharpie

Common in professional kitchens, painter's tape and a good marker should be a part of a home kitchen as well.  It works best on deli cups but it can be used on most surfaces.  Better, it can be removed from them as well, without leaving stickiness behind. (Photo by donna, thanks sweetheart!) I store a lot of stock in a basement freezer and every container gets marked and dated.  Don't even think you'll remember what that stuff is under all that frost.  Don't think you're going to remember how many yolks were left over from making angel food cake. I first saw blue painter's tape at The French Laundry years ago.  Thomas Keller's restaurants now use green painter's tape because, I believe, it's even cleaner when removed than the blue stuff (more expensive too).  I like blue just fine, and ...

Click to Continue Reading

DiggShare
Posted in Kitchen Tips | Comments closed

Consistent Studio Lighting Sometimes A Must

©photos by Donna Turner Ruhlman

After I temporarily moved out of my studio today (our kitchen), Michael realized we needed to photograph the rest of the duck confit process—and he needed it done NOW. Instead of dragging my lights back up to the kitchen I was able to recreate the same lighting situation as the first shot because studio lighting is consistent. You can photograph almost anything with available light and a tripod, but today it is dark with a foggy cloudy sky and,  like I said it needed to be done NOW!  Your lighting doesn't have to be strobes, but the stronger the light, the faster shutter speed you can use (this shot hand-held @125 sec.) and a greater depth of field (f11). This is one of those photographs you don't want a shaky spoon and ...

Click to Continue Reading

DiggShare
Posted in Food Photography | Comments closed

How To Make Duck Confit
Fall Is Here, Time to Preserve Duck!

Duck Confit with Pepper/Coriander Cure, photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman

Football has started, the sky is slate, the air is cold and winter will be here soon. One of the very few excellent things about winter in Cleveland—besides surfing on Lake Erie (see No Rez Cleveland) and Sunday morning fires on the hearth—is the opportunity to eat duck confit all winter long.  Best part about duck confit is, make it once, and you've got it on hand till April—it's always there for you.  Whether for an impromptu lunch or a fancy dinner (I'm planning a cassoulet for an old friend next Friday), or a last-minute appetizer for last-minute guests. On Saturday I picked up 12 gorgeous duck legs from Plum Creek Farm.  Because I was doing a variation on this pickled chillis recipe that ...

Click to Continue Reading

DiggShare
Posted in Charcutepalooza | Tagged , | Comments closed

Choosing An Angle For Your Photography Subject

Vegies at Eye Level—©DTR

I'm getting really tired of photographing this CSA stuff. The assignment for the CSA blog is to show every vegetable that we get so I feel limited to a bird's eye view of the lot.  I would prefer to see this photo but it I couldn't get everything in from this angle. When you go to take a photo of something, after you have the shot you feel is right—spend a little extra time photographing your subject from every angle and side. Sometimes a more interesting image emerges. Happy shooting!

DiggShare
Posted in Food Photography | Comments closed

VEGETABLE LOVE! (CSA Week 17)
Fall: Butternut Squash Soup, Poached Lettuce

Ohio CSA Week 17, photo by Donna Turner Ruhlman (click photo to see her alternate shot)

Yesterday was 92 degrees.  This morning was low sixties, with that wonderful slate sky that descends in fall and the chill wakes me up and makes me want to cook.  There’s still corn the farmers market, fat kerneled and juicy, still very sweet, still aching to be baked.  The green beans are getting big and tough and can be roasted (hot oven, chilli flakes, cumin, smashed garlic, 20 minutes).   The chillis are vivid and the jalapeno plant that Donna planted in the spring is loaded down with fat hot ones.  I got a jar of chilli’s pickling, more or less this recipe here out of this awesome book, only I’m going ...

Click to Continue Reading

DiggShare
Posted in Community Supported Agriculture, Uncategorized, Vegetables | Tagged , | Comments closed
  • Welcome to Ruhlman.com where I blog about food, cooking, recipes and technique, because the world is better when we cook for ourselves. Thanks for visiting and I hope you’ll join the conversation.

    Follow Me on Pinterest

     

     
     

     

     

     

     

  • Kitchen Tools

    Click here to see my favorite kitchen tools.
    Go to my Open Sky store.


  • Recipes

  • Category Archive

watch full movies online for free on watch-funny-movies.com