French Black Bottom Pie

Hello and happy Thanksgiving dear readers,

I hope that this post finds either you full of turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie or waiting with anticipation for the meal ahead!! Today I would like to share the story behind my dear friend Cathy's Black Bottom Pie. The recipe was published by Wolftree Magazine in their e-book "Five Pies and a Sugar Cookie" which you can find here. Anne and I worked on compiling stories and creating images both for the e-book and for a series of holiday posts that Wolftree will be releasing in December, and I'm rather pleased by the result. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the tradition behind this wonderful family recipe.

French Black Bottom Pie by Cathy Field

            I have been lucky enough to have both my grandmother and my great grandmother actively participate in my life.  While these women have inspired me in many ways, none is more prevalent than in their style of cooking.  All of my holidays and family visits have been dominated by food, specifically good homemade Russo-German food.  This style of cooking is hearty and centers around two things, meat and dough. 

            My great grandmother Lillian lived her whole life in South Dakota.  She grew up on her parents’ farm and then, after marrying my great grandfather Henry, settled on her own farm just a few miles away.  Lillian’s sister Betty, however, married a military man and lived quite a different life.  Before WWII Betty lived with her husband in France, but when tensions began growing in Europe she was forced to return.  Luckily, she brought back this recipe for black bottom pie with her.

            The recipe has a fancier name that has long been forgotten by my family.  However, once you’ve made the pie and seen the beautiful distinction between the white fluff and the creamy chocolate, you won’t think twice about an inelegant title.  It has graced every family Thanksgiving I can remember, a fact that was insured by my refusal to eat any of the other pies my grandmother baked.  In fact this is the only pie I actually like (I am much more of a cake girl).

            While this recipe can be a little finicky, it turns out beautifully with a little patience and a few messy bowls.  French black bottom pie is just the thing to impress your friends, and will speak to those in your life who don’t traditionally love pie or the numerous pumpkin treats which populate the season.  I wish you the best in your baking endeavors and a merry holiday season.

 -Cathy Field

Outtake from Wolftree shoot :)

Have a fabulous rest of your Thanksgiving week(end)!

-AK

No-Shame November

Well hello dear reader,

Happy Friday! Most Friday's I post a photo on my instagram in which I share a random fact about me with the #thingsYouMayNotKnowAboutMe hashtag. I began this project because I wanted to allow people to get to know me, the person behind the camera, and also to challenge myself to trust you- the users of the interwebs- with personal details about myself. Well today I am going to devote this post to random details about my life and participate in No-Shame November.

"What is No-Shame November?" you ask. Well, I had no idea either until I read the post Molly Yeh recently created discussing the concept. From what I can tell, No-Shame November is a concept that encourages you to take the month of November and celebrate those guilty pleasures or behaviors that might normally lie south of the propriety line. So I've decided (perhaps unwisely) to participate in No-Shame November by sharing 10 slightly odd and possibly embarrassing details about myself. 

1) I spent my Wednesday night buying Christmas music on Amazon and Itunes.
2) I ran out of shampoo almost two weeks ago, and I've been too lazy to drive to Target and buy more. So I've been using the men's body-wash that my brother left behind when he moved out as shampoo instead (sorry Mitch). 
3) I also tried using dawn dish soap as shampoo- if you haven't tried it, and if you have another option, go with the other option. It will clean your hair, sure, but it takes ALL of the oils with it (including the nice ones that your hair needs).
4) I cut myself shaving for the first time ever this week.
5) I clearly spend too much time in the shower (3 out of the first 4 options are shower related... whoops)
6) I had a food fight in a bar last night, and we didn't get kicked out. 
7) Centipedes and millipedes creep me out- too many legs *yuck* 
8) I have been recording reruns of House to watch in the evenings in an attempt to lessen my addiction to the BBC show Sherlock. It hasn't been the most successful strategy.
9) I think dystopian novels are awesome, but I only read one a year (roughly) because they make me sad and I get so emotionally distressed over the characters and the society that is being portrayed that I literally get ill- my tummy starts to hurt and I get moody and tired.
10) I am terrified of the thought of people judging my grad school applications and expecting me to have aspirations to change the field of library sciences. I don't have huge, field-changing aspirations. I want to work in a library because books excited me, the inspire me, and they challenge me to view the world differently. For me knowledge is precious, and the idea of spending my days being challenged to learn and helping others locate information that will further their own quests for knowledge thrills me. The idea for my ISBN project occurred to me while I was working at the Chester Fritz Library, and many of my photographic inspiration comes from both fiction and non-fiction literary works.

What about you? What will you use No-Shame November to celebrate? 

Outake from a project I collaborated with Molly, Anne, and Wolftree Magazine on. Taken with my Nikon D60 and edited using VSCO film.

Long Live Libraries ;),

AK 

P.S. You can read more about No-Shame November here (Molly Yeh), here (Anne Gillie), and here (Free The Leash Children). :) 

P.P.S. UPDATE!! I DID GO BUY SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER TODAY! :) I thought you should know. ;) 

Brianna on Film

Hello my fantastic readers,

It seems that winter has finally settled into the Red River Valley, and we received our first snow fall that didn't melt last Sunday! I know that many of my fellow North Dakotans are less than pleased by the chilly temperatures and frosted windshields, but I find myself humming Christmas carols and rejoicing in my ability to wear my thick sweaters again! Winter is my favorite season, and as the holidays draw nearer I find myself smiling more and more at the grey skies and the cold sting of snowflakes melting upon my nose. 

You may remember the blogpost I published earlier this autumn featuring images of my handsome best friend Bob! Well, on that same roll of Kodak Portra 400 I was fortunate enough to capture some stunning images of the lovely Brianna! (Can a girl get any luckier?!) These gems were taken while we were working on Brianna's image for the ISBN Project, and were totally unplanned. They were all shot on a Pentax K1000 using Kodak Portra 400 film and were processed by the FIND film lab. I hope you find them as special as I do. 

Drive safe and keep warm,

AK

Sleepy Saturday

Hello again,

I am writing you today from the Minneapolis area, and I just wanted to share a quick shot that I took this morning in between taking a nap and working on some images for Wolftree Magazine. If you haven't checked out Wolftree's new website you totally should! The series they published in V. 2 is now on their website! I hope that you are all having a nice, relaxing Saturday! Today Bob and I have done nothing but shoot, eat, read, and watch the wild game and Sherlock on Netflix. It has been fabulous and perfect day, just what Bob and I needed after the crazy busy (but amazing) past few months! :)

Till next time,

AK