a joyful and sunny wedding { frost on flower }

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of photographing a very joyful wedding! As you'll see from the photos below, the union of Sarah and Mike was very special! Honestly I think they may be the happiest and excited couple that I have yet to experience in wedding photography. I had so much fun during the editing process because their emotions certainly made an appearance in every photo!

Sarah and Mike, their wedding party, family, and guests were all such a pleasure to work with. Forecasters were giving us such mixed (and somewhat scary!) information about the weather that day but the rain held off and the ceremony was full of warm sun. This is certain to be a wedding that I remember. :)

Thanks for the opportunity to witness your marriage, Sarah and Mike! I had a wonderful time and, as always, congratulations!! :)

Here are (more than) a few of my favorites:

gluten, sugar, dairy free rhubarb crisp.

Oh my goodness. You have to try this.

I'm not too familiar with rhubarb but Tyler really likes it. I had some strawberry rhubarb pie at a wedding a few weeks ago and really enjoyed it so when we received a little bunch of rhubarb in our CSA share this week I thought I'd make a crisp (I haven't delved into the world of gluten free pies quite yet). Though I've never made a crisp before, let alone a gluten and sugar free crisp.

Yesterday at the farmer's market I bought a second little bunch - I wasn't sure how much I would need but I thought I could at least make two batches if I had enough..

I started with a recipe I found via Pinterest. It's from Quaker Oats circa 1990 something. I naturally had to modify quite a few things to make it fit my needs and was very pleased with the results! I confirmed this with Tyler who agreed that he would be happy to eat it again. So that's a good sign.

You'll need:
3 cups of chopped rhubarb
2 cups of chopped apples with peels removed (or strawberries.. or whatever)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/3 cup agave nectar
1/3 cup maple syrup
1 1/4 cup oats
1/2 cup coconut oil (or butter)
1/3 cup almond flour
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350.

Roughly chop the rhubarb:


And the apple (or whatever):


Combine in a bowl and coat with the cornstarch:


Add agave & maple and stir to coat until you see little to no dry cornstarch:


Place mixture in a baking dish (I used a rectangular one, square would probably be better but I don't have one!):


In the same bowl (I'm a fan of making as little mess as possible) combine the oats, coconut oil, almond flour, maple syrup, cinnamon, and stir to combine:


With your hands drop the topping over the rhubarb mixture:


Bake for 40 minutes... and yum! :)


This makes 4 big servings... or maybe 6-8 smallish. But I'm a big serving kind of girl. Feel free to top with ice cream, whipped cream, or ice milk!

The whole thing is about 2594 calories - so that's 432 calories if you divide it into 6 servings. So.. maybe do that. :)

Sound yummy? Why don't you pin it?! :)

easy summer on the go lunch.. in a mason jar!

A couple of weeks ago I tried to make a veg burger from a recipe I found on Pinterest. I did a ton of substations, because I usually do, and also to make it gluten and sugar free. The consistency did quite work right for frying into a patty. I put it on lettuce and we ate it sort of roll form. I rolled up the leftovers and lettuce and we ate it for lunch on our road trip to Washington.

While making my meal list last week I thought I would try something similar but modify it to be more friendly for our family. What I came up with is gluten and sugar free, mostly fresh and local, healthy, very easy to make, portable, perfect for summer when don't want to use your stove or oven, and is about 280 calories per serving.

I've called it Sweet Jar Lunch, that is sort for Sweet Potato and Cannellini Bean Layered Lunch Thing in a Mason Jar. This recipe makes four jars.

Sweet Potato & Cannellini Bean Thing:


Avocado "Spread":


Chopped Tomatoes:


Lettuce Mix:


Mustard:






Layers, from top to bottom:
1: Shredded Lettuce Mix, about 2 cups
2: Chopped Tomatoes, I happened to have 5 cherry tomatoes waiting to be used.
3: Avocado "Spread" - 1 avocado, some green onion, 2 small fresh onions, 1 tsp lemon juice, dash of sea salt - all smushed together.
4: 1 Tbsp Mustard (per jar)
5: Sweet Potato & Cannellini Bean Thing - 1 medium baked sweet potato (skin removed), 2 cans cannellini beans (rinsed & drained), 3 Tbsp almond flour, 2 Tbsp honey, 2 Tbsp peanut butter (I would have preferred almond butter but didn't have enough), a dash of fresh ground black pepper - all mixed and mushed together using a potato masher.

I'm planning to make this every couple of weeks this summer as we do not have air conditioning so the thought of a good meal without the use of the stove or oven is very attractive. Throw a lid on the jar and it's a perfect meal for a road trip, picnic, or day at the beach!

I'm expecting this to be popular on Pinterest. Because its yummy, fast, easy.. and in a jar. ;) So.. pin it if you please!

elimination communication { update }

mckinley CSA week two

This week's share from McKinley CSA in north Minneapolis, Minnesota includes napa cabbage, mustard greens, rhubarb, snow peas, spring onions, as well as more bok choy and salad turnips. Mint was a part of this week's large share but it wasn't in my box - oops!

Also pictured is a bag of very small lettuce mix - I thinned this while working today and was happy to take it home! I really don't like thinning things... it makes me feel... mean. So this way I'll put it to use. :)

Here are photos of the front and back of the t-shirt that I mentioned last week:



Today I worked. I began the day by waking up at 7:30 when Olive woke up. I went into her room to nurse her but I was still really tired. She has a floor bed so I was laying there while she was playing, then coming back to nurse, then playing, etc. I kept almost falling asleep and she could tell - she would come over and lay with me every so often. Eventually we did fall asleep. And I had a dream that I was late to my CSA shift. And then I woke up exactly when I was planning to leave the house. So I quietly left Olive's room, made breakfast, grabbed a few things, and headed out the door and arrived late to my CSA shift. ha.

I started by photographing some volunteers and staff working in a plot down the street from the CSA headquarters. It turns out one of the million houses we looked at before buying this one is directly between that plot and the new CSA building. Also just a few blocks away from two of the main CSA staff. I feel kind of bummed now... that would have been a neat place to live! It was nice to see the house again - I forgot how similar it is to our current house! It sounds like a couple in their mid to late 20s moved in. I saw a couple of cats resting the windows. The paint is peeling.. just like our house. And the new residents planted some flowers.

After photographing for a bit I worked with Jud to clean up some dirt from the sidewalks around the plot and we began transplanting teeny tiny baby lettuce while talking about basically every topic under the sun, including our lovely little daughters.

I'm really happy to have a phone with a camera now so I can more easily share a photo of our produce with you. Last year I attempted to photograph our CSA box each week but with the lens I had on my big camera and having to upload, edit, whatever it... I kind of dropped the ball. My phone makes it SO much easier. :)

How did I use last week's share?

I sautéed the turnips and their greens and ate as a side with baked tilapia.
I made a skillet dinner with the bok choy and mushrooms.
I made stir fry with the pea shoots and more bok choy. I also added sugar snap peas from the farmer's market.
I bought spinach at the farmer's marker and used a lot of the green garlic and garlic scapes to make spinach and garlic soup.
I sautéed the swiss chard and some onions and scrambled some local eggs to pile on top for a nice breakfast yesterday.
We munched on the radishes.
Last night I made a big salad with the lettuce mix for a solo dinner. I topped it with apple, mango, and avocado.
The onions and garlic made it into nearly every meal.

We still have a little lettuce mix and a few mushrooms that I'm using tomorrow night.

mckinley CSA week one

This our second year with a CSA and my second year working with McKinley CSA. We're so lucky to have a CSA do close, located within north Minneapolis - true urban gardening. And we're so luckily that I have had the opportunity to trade work for our share. Last year Olive came along with me while I pales shares. This year Olive is too mobile to help so I have longer weekend shifts when Tyler can be with her. I'll be helping out by photographing events and such, doing data entry, and more. :)

On Saturday we received our first share.



Green garlic & garlic scapes, mushrooms, Swiss chard, pea shoots, salad turnips, radishes, salad mix, bok choy, and fresh onions. Yum!

Oh, and two CSA t-shirts. :)