Introduction part 2: The Switcheroo

Ok friends, when we last left off, we were talking about how Gudrun is an enthusiastic experimental chef and how my interest in photography goes back at least 15 years. Neither one of us thinks that we are particularly good at these hobbies (Gudrun thinks she can't make basic sauces, and my artistic eye for photography is significantly lacking). Nonetheless, we love our hobbies and invest time and money into them.

...that is, we did, until our hobby equipment was forcibly removed from each of us by the other.

The Camera:

To take it chronologically, we'll start with the camera. I bought my lovely Canon T1i on my last trip to the US - it was as good a time as ever to buy it. I had considered buying it for about 6 months, and things are cheaper in the US. So, I bought the camera, got it home to charge the battery, took it for a test drive of 20 or 30 shots or so, when I heard a "hey, can I try it out?" from Gudrun. I gave her a quick tutorial of the basic camera functions and she took her first shot - a still-life of my Nalgene water bottle using a long shutter speed.

The picture was blurry and the white balance was all wrong (the ambient light looked orange instead of natural). Instead of handing my camera back to me frustrated (like most people do), she started examining the buttons and trying to figure out how to fix her failed still-life. She eventually figured out a solution, and, armed with the confidence of accurately capturing the Nalgene, she promptly left the room to find other light conditions and subjects to take new shots.

After a few trial shots of convenient subjects, she moved on to more insightful compositions and artistic shots. What quickly became apparent was that Gudrun has the natural eye that I never had for photography. This should not surprise me, as she is an incredibly visual person with an astounding attention to detail. I think she would make a good detective or inspector. She would also, it seems, make a good photographer.

Over the next week of our holiday, Gudrun took about 2000 photos, mostly of natural subjects (spider webs, acorns, mountains), and really started to develop her eye.

She has signed up for a photography course in Antwerp, and she is already learning a lot. I think after this course she will know more than I do about digital photography, and maybe she can help me develop my artistic eye a little bit. One thing is for sure, though. I can't call it "MY camera" anymore. It seems that, much like Harry Potter and his magic wand, the camera has chosen her. I now have come to call it "THE camera."

The Cooking Pot:

My intrusion into her kitchen started a little more darkly and more out of necessity. I've been a vegetarian since before I can remember. My Mother remembers the story of me connecting the chicken on my plate with chicken the animal. She remembers the look of disgust on my face as I asked tentatively... "You mean the walkin' around chicken?" I was 2 years old. My parents forced me to eat meat until I was 10 - it was a good decision, considering that until that point, I also hated all vegetables except potatoes. I couldn't really live life on potatoes alone. When I was 10 years old, my Father made fish sticks for dinner, and I remember vividly turning them down in favor of green beans.

Let me stop just here to explain something...because you might be getting nervous. I am NOT, and never have been an evangelical vegetarian. I do not care what your personal dietary habits are, and I will not send PETA after you if you eat meat. I am only telling this story because it is critical to understand what happens next.

Ok, so 19 years after officially being given the green light to become a vegetarian by my parents and pediatrician, I stand before you a healthy and happy person. I am not dying of anaemia or B12 deficiency. I get more than enough protein and I certainly eat well in terms of food enjoyment. I mean, hey, there is always cheese!

Or at least there WAS cheese.... until about 3 weeks ago when I ended up stumbling on a PETA-type website and saw some things about dairy that changed my perspective on milk, cheese, and all things dairy (I already thought that eggs were kind of slimy and gross). I am NOT going to list them here, because, like I said, I am not a proselytizing vegetarian (if you want to know, send me an email and I'll tell you). I did some independent research (off the PETA-type website), and corroborated what I had just learned. And that was that.

Suffice it to say, I have had another "you mean, walkin' around chicken?" kind of moment, and my world view will never really be the same.

So now, faced with the prospect of having to find a way to enjoy food without cheese, I was kind of forced to start cooking. What happened then surprised me. The task that I always looked at as a chore - cooking - has become a delightfully interesting challenge. Recipes become like chemistry experiments, and it is a fun challenge to find ways to adapt my previously vegetarian recipes to vegan.

Gudrun has been standing by my side explaining how to roast peppers or cut onions efficiently, and i've been teaching her how to make the vegan sauces that I learn from my cookbooks or experiments.

Gudrun has been my willing guinea pig through this process, and has been really supportive (despite being a meat-eater herself). I have tried a few recipes out on her including: vegan fettuccini alfredo, butternut squash baked cannelloni, brazillian chilli with mango and sweet potato, squash soup, roasted red pepper "cream" pasta, tahini-maple sytup-oat cookies, and vegan mac and "cheese". Everything made from scratch. So far, according to her, I was a bit too overenthusiastic with the cardamom in the squash soup, and the mac and "cheese" was way too heavy (it really was). However, everything else has passed her approval with flying colors, and Gudrun has even really enjoyed the dishes that had significant amounts of tofu in them (a huge achievement if I do say so myself).

So what is the point of my part of this blog? I am going to report here the recipes that I try out or make up. We'll post my adaptations of the recipes, my notes and ideas, challenges, tips, etc. We'll also post Gudrun's authentic evaluations... being a meat-eating culinary expert, she should be a pretty good critic. I hope you will enjoy hearing about my successes, and learn from my failures and frustrations. I also hope that you will try some of the recipes and let me know what you think of them... which brings us to you.

YOU:

What is YOUR roll in this blog? Comment!

Let us know what you think of Gudrun's pictures, give her suggestions on ways to edit, techniques to use, and fabulous praise on her awesome shots.

For me: try out the recipes. give me tips. tell me your thoughts. send me recipes!! help me problem solve (what made my mac and cheese so heavy?) etc...

You don't have to have any experience to give suggestions... the point of this blog is to learn something from each other and to also involve YOU in the process. Amature help is super welcome (we, ourselves, are amatures). Think there is something else we should include in the blog? Let us know!

Next time we talk, we will have some pictures and recipes to share... in the mean time, leave some comments, and if you live in Belgium, come on over for dinner!