Today I’m showing you another little piece of Philadelphia.
Rittenhouse Square.
The day I was there? Warm and sunny. A little breezy. A Tuesday. People walking, talking, reading, guitar playing, people watching. And me, capturing it.
Here are some of my favorites from the walk.
I love dessert. I always have.
And I’m not too picky, either. I will say though, that I’m partial to homemade. When someone makes something from scratch, I just know I will love it.
I got a desire to make dessert one day over my spring break while at Greg’s.
I wanted something hearty, but not loaded with butter and sugar. I wanted the dessert to use simple ingredients and be pretty simple to make.
I came up with this bread pudding.
I bought three raisin walnut rolls from a local bakery, combined them with a sliced fresh apple and let it all soak in a cinnamon vanilla custard.
This bread pudding uses all real ingredients. Not much added. There isn’t a ton of sugar. It’s simple. And it’s really delicious.
Topped with fresh apple butter, this simple dessert was just what I was looking for!
Method:
Start with:
2 c. cubed cinnamon raisin bread (I used three medium cinnamon raisin rolls)
1 medium apple, sliced thin
Grease a medium loaf pan with butter. Place a layer of cubed bread on the bottom, then a layer of sliced apples. Continue until ingredients are gone.
Next:
2 eggs
1 egg yolk
Vigorously whisk eggs and egg yolk in a bowl. Set aside.
1.5 c. whole milk
1/3 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. apple butter
Place milk and sugar in a medium pot over medium heat. Stir, until sugar dissolves, and let come to a simmer. Once the mixture simmers, remove from heat. Add vanilla extract and stir.
Temper the whisked eggs with a small amount of the milk mixture — making sure to add only a small amount of milk, slowly, so that the eggs do not cook. Continue to slowly add and whisk the rest of the milk mixture into the eggs.
Pour the milk mixture over the layered bread and apples. Cover and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350*. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and spread 2 Tbsp. apple butter on top. Bake for an additional 5-10 minutes, or until firm and golden brown.
Enjoy!
Happy Saturday everyone!
I am on a mini vacation in Washington, D.C., today following a week of spring break (my last one ever!) spent in Philadelphia. I had such an enjoyable time and while there were so many wonderful things about my week, here are five special things I’ll share with you.
{This. Because it was a success.}
{This window sill. Because I love these plants and their owner.}
{This breakfast. Before and after.}
{This little guy.}
{This place. A preview of what’s to come.}
What little things made your week?
Today I want to share some thoughts with you on photography.
I am taking a photography class right now and one assignment was based on levitation photography.
For anyone who isn’t quite sure what it is (as I wasn’t about a month ago), I will explain.
Levitation photography aims to make people (or objects) appear as if they are floating in a scene in a photograph.
You will not see a good example of it here. You will, however, with a quick Google search.
I was to produce two levitation photographs. Here are the images I came up with:
Honestly, they are not great. I am happy with them, for it being my first levitation experience, however, they are just not good examples of what can really be done with this type of photography.
This type of photography takes a lot of planning, a lot of knowledge of Photoshop and a great desire to edit and manipulate photographs.
What I described is not me.
I don’t particularly love planning photographs. I feel like my photographs of people turn out better when unplanned. When it is candid and shot because the moment is something that you feel you want to capture. Because it is something beautiful to you. Something that doesn’t need editing, let alone heavy manipulation.
It does seem that people are able to produce absolutely beautiful levitation shots. And that is such a great thing. It takes a lot of talent. And I’m so glad that some people are good at that. We get to see some beautiful photos because of that.
I am grateful for the experience of taking this class, and grateful for the fact that I will leave knowing more than when I came. I know that when it comes to photography, I will never stop learning. But what I’ve learned from this, I don’t love levitation/heavy photo editing.
I shared with you a couple of weeks ago a before shot of one of my levitation photos. Here it is again. I like it so much better than the edited one above.
When it comes to people, I love candidness. And when it comes to food, I want to show you what the food I eat looks like. With places, I want to show you how beautiful they are, naturally. That’s what I like. And that’s what I’m going to stick with for now.
What are your thoughts on photography? What type do you enjoy? How much editing do you like to do?
Another thought: today marks one month since my first post as The Dreaming Foodie.
I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing my thoughts, ideas, food and photos with you for the last month and I thank you for reading!
You know what my mom and I always say?
We always say — we can’t imagine that we used to eat canned soup and we can’t imagine ever doing it again.
Are you the same way?
Once you go homemade, you can just never go back, I suppose.
This mushroom soup is so, so good. It’s creamy, savory, warm and comforting. It’s great with a side of crusty bread for dipping. It’s satisfying.
You can find the recipe we use here.
Enjoy!