This is for a food photography event hosted by Jai and Bee of Jugalbindi, and the theme this month is Beans and Lentils. For my entry, I used a mixture of beans from Purely American, a local company that specializes in gourmet foods, especially soup mixes. This is from their Colonial Virginia Country Style Bean Soup Mix.

Photo Friday’s challenge this week is Difficult Shot. This was a tough one, all right. We have a bird “condo” on our porch - Dan has nailed up some scrap wood trim at the top of the three porch columns, to make a place where birds can build a nest. Before he added the trim, birds kept trying to build nests there, but the nesting material would fall off onto the porch floor. So now, every year, we have at least two birds making nests there. This year, we have a mourning dove and a robin whom we call Rockin’ Robin.

Rockin’ Robin has four nestlings there, and we find it entertaining to sit on the porch after work to have a drink and watch her feed the babies. She flies up with a mouthful of worms and they go nuts, chirping frantically to be fed. She’ll fly away if I stand up, though, so I had to take pictures while sitting down, which made this a difficult shot to get.

This is for Photo Friday’s Challenge - this week’s theme is Fire. I took this photo at a Fourth of July party we attended at the home of an old college friend in Michigan a few years ago. The kids were burning sparklers in the yard before the fireworks started.

This week’s Photo Friday Challenge is Professional. On my birthday in 2005, Dan and I went skydiving. We did a tandem jump, and my jumpmaster, Mario, had, if I remember correctly, about 7,000 jumps under his belt. I’d call that a professional After all, it was his job to make sure I got down safely. And he did.

Last weekend, Dan and I rented a lodge at James River State Park with two other families (Danny, Sally and Alex, and Paul, Terry, Katie and Nick), our dog Pippen, and Danny and Sally’s dog Cody. The occasion was the Nelson Downriver Canoe and Kayak Race in Nelson County. After the race, we enjoyed a picnic by the river and then medals were awarded. Paul and Nick won second place in the Open Canoe/Father & Son class. Way to go, guys!

The lodge has a fully equipped kitchen, six bedrooms and three bathrooms. There is a back porch with rocking chairs, a picnic table and a large grill. We brought food and drinks, grilled dinner, and generally had a great time. I beat Sally and Terry at Scrabble, Danny beat everyone at poker, and we had a fabulous Sunday breakfast cooked by Paul.

When I have time, I’ll put up a regular photo album of the weekend, but here are some snaps for now:

This is my entry in this week’s Photo Friday photo challenge. The topic is Far From Home.

The furthest I have ever been from home was when I went to Turkey in May, 2001 on vacation with my mom, aunt, uncle, and two other couples who were friends of theirs. It was a wonderful trip - friendly people, great food, beautiful artwork and textiles. We had a wonderful time.

According to this site, it’s 5,282 miles from home in Virginia to Istanbul, Turkey.

One day we toured Ephesus, an ancient city near the southwest coast. This is a photo of the Ephesus Library. Archaeologists believe it was completed in the year 117.

This is a closeup of a statue in a niche to the right of the entrance to the library.

There’s a new food blogging event starting this month: Tasty Tools, hosted by Joelen’s Culinary Adventures. Wow, there was a huge response to this event! The round-up of all the recipes is here.

All crafts require the proper tools, so each month, Joelen will select a kitchen tool and to participate, you make a recipe that requires that tool and then blog about it.

Not being a fan of corned beef and cabbage, I made a delicious spring-green risotto for St. Patrick’s Day this year. One of the ingredients is Parmesan cheese, so I used my (fairly) new box grater to grate the cheese for the risotto.

I used to have a triangular grater, but it was awkward to use and had little feet on it - I’d lost one of them, so it didn’t balance properly and was a pain to use. So with the kitchen renovation, I bought a new one (along with other new stuff - new kitchen, new stuff ).

The new grater has a bottom piece to hold the ingredient you’re grating, and measurements on the side, so you can see how much you have. Pretty cool

And here’s the recipe for the risotto, adapted from Dan’s Ultimate Shrimp Risotto. This is the best risotto recipe I’ve found, and it can be customized for whatever ingredients you would like to include.

Risotto with Spring Vegetables

5 cups chicken broth
3/4 cup dry white wine, divided
6 tablespoons butter
1 to 2 tablespoons minced garlic
1/4 dried crushed red pepper
1 bay leaf
1 teaspoon fresh tarragon
3/4 pound uncooked medium shrimp, peeled & deveined
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 1/2 cups Arborio (risotto) rice
1 1/2 cups steamed spring vegetables such as asparagus tips, peas, green beans
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

Bring broth and 1/4 cup wine to a simmer and hold over low heat.

Melt 2 tablespoons butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add crushed red pepper and sauté for 30 seconds, then add shrimp. Sauté until shrimp begin to turn pink, about 2 minutes. Add remaining 1/2 cup wine. Simmer until shrimp are just cooked through, about 2 minutes. Do not overcook shrimp or they become tough. Drain shrimp, reserving cooking liquid.

Melt remaining 4 tablespoons butter in heavy large saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Add onion and garlic; sauté until onion is pale golden, about 4 minutes. Add rice and stir to coat, about 2 minutes. Add 1-2 cups broth mixture. Simmer until liquid is absorbed, stirring often. Continue adding broth mixture 1/2 cup at a time, stirring often and simmering until liquid is absorbed before adding more, about 20 minutes total. Don’t “drown” risotto.

Add vegetables and cream to risotto.

Cook until rice is just tender and creamy, about 5 minutes longer. Add a final shot of white wine. Stir in reserved shrimp cooking liquid. Add shrimp. Add Parmesan. Remove from heat.

Stir in 2 tablespoons parsley into risotto. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to plates. Sprinkle with remaining tablespoon parsley.

This is my entry this week for the Photo Friday weekly photo challenge. About two years ago, Dan and I and our exchange student at the time, Josi Schroder, went to Fort Story in Virginia Beach to check out the light house. While we were there, we walked the beach and found this guy.

Several years ago, Dan gave me a copy of “The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood” by Rebecca Wells for Christmas, and I absolutely *LOVED* it. It’s a wonderful, can’t-put-it-down kind of book. Toward the end, I started reading it more and more slowly - I didn’t want it to be over.

This past Christmas, I bought “Ya-Yas in Bloom,” Wells’ latest book, and it was just as much fun.

So that’s what came to mind when I saw that Lisa of Champaign Taste and Simona of Briciole were co-hosting Novel Food as a food blogging event. I did a search and amazingly enough, found this site dedicated to all things Ya-Ya, including recipes compiled by book club members.

I’ll definitely be going back to that site for more recipes, but for this, I decided to start with a starter - Artichoke Dip. The Ya-Yas are always having great parties, and artichoke dip is always a hit at parties.

I did tweak it slightly - the novels are set in Louisiana, so Dan and I thought a Louisiana Artichoke Dip was screaming for some hot sauce. Shhhhh - I didn’t have Louisiana Hot Sauce, so I used Texas Pete. I also left out the bacon.

Artichoke Dip

1 can (14 oz.) artichoke hearts, drained and diced
3/4 cup shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
1 (8 oz.) carton sour cream
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 small onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. hot sauce

Preheat oven to 350°, mix all ingredients and spoon into a 9″ quiche dish. Bake for 20 minutes and let stand for 5 minutes before serving. Serve with toasted French bread slices.

You can also cook this in the microwave until bubbly.

For a delicious variation, add a package of frozen chopped spinach (thawed and drained) before cooking.

– submitted by Sister Mary Bad Girl, tweaked by Kim

btw, the Ya-Yas all had pet names for each other, and there’s a Ya-Ya Name Generator on the site. If I use my married name, the Ya-Ya name doesn’t really suit me - Duchess Jokes a Lot. But if I use my maiden name the Ya-Ya name is this: Queen Loves to Cook. It’s karma, man.

This is my entry this month for yet another food blogging event called “No Croutons Required,” sponsored by Tinned Tomatoes from Scotland. The theme this month is spicy vegetarian soups or salads. The round-up of the inaugural event is here.

I love the idea of gazpacho - mixing together the pungent flavors of garlic, onions and peppers with tomatoes - but I don’t really enjoy the sharp flavors of these ingredients raw. So I cook them! Then the flavors are mellowed and I enjoy it much more. So my entry is “Hot Gazpacho.” It’s also good chilled - still cooked, not raw

btw, I left out the traditional cucumber, since it’s a cooked soup. Hm, maybe I ought to try it, though … or maybe I’ll serve a cucumber salad on the side next time. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Hot Gazpacho

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and chopped
1 green, yellow, and red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
Salt and pepper
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
1 14-oz. can diced tomatoes
2 cups vegetable stock
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro or flat-leaf parsley
sour cream
cilantro sprigs

Heat a medium soup pot over medium-high heat. Add 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, jalapeno, bell peppers, onions, and garlic. Season with salt and pepper, then saute veggies 5 minutes.

Add crushed tomatoes, diced tomatoes and stock and bring soup to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and stir in cilantro. Garnish with sour cream and cilantro.