A Strange Land

The fuel for late night ventures.

Earlier this year, sometime in February or March, I was finally nagged into taking pictures of the jewelry I make with the intent of putting it up on a website and finally giving my work some exposure out there on the world wide web.  Dutifully, as the nagging proceeded unabated, I spent a weekend taking pictures with my all purpose Canon digital point and shoot.  While the results were surprisingly good.  Well, at least they were sufficiently adequate to start posting pictures.  Nonetheless, the focus wasn’t particularly sharp and there wasn’t a decent was to get a very detailed close up.  Clearly I needed to venture forth into the more complex field of the DSLR and I needed a macro lens.  Happily, I have a friend who is a professional photographer who was willing to listen to my ruminations about what I might need, my whining about the cost, and ultimately directed me to his source at Adorama.  The lovely people at Adorama introduced me to the world of used and refurbished camera equipment.  And so it was that I came to own a new Nikon D90 and two used /refurbished lenses.  I would have gladly gone with a used D90 as well, but there simply weren’t any.

Spiral Necklace, the latest project.

The problem when acquiring a very fine piece of equipment is that one encounters the vertical learning curve, also known as banging ones head against a brick wall.  So, I settled in one weekend with the Nikon guide and better yet the “Magic Lantern Guide”, which in my humble opinion, and based on the advice of my photography friend, one cannot afford to be without.  After fumbling around with the Nikon guide for awhile and not being able to get the camera to work, I finally switched to the Magic Lantern Guide and found answers.  Although briefly cited here, the actual process took several angst filled days rife with emails back and forth to New York and complaints, on my part, regarding the general worthlessness of the Nikon manual.  (The Nikon manual is actually quite good, I was just missing or overlooking an essential piece of information regarding setting the aperture on the lenses that feed information to the camera.)  Basically, the lenses are smarter than I am and I need to play catch-up.  Sigh…sad, but true.

The unabated desktop clutter.

So, at long last, camera functioning, it is time to play with my lovely macro lens.

Rediscovering “depth of field.”

Higher aperture number, smaller aperture, greater depth of field - get lights and a tripod!!

I brought the chocolate cake, R made Picadillo.  Ancient history resurrected.  Well, some parts of it in any event.  So, at long last, after much harassment of R by me, the original Picadillo recipe from Berkeley, circa 1976, plus some thirty years of evolution.  A handful of this and a handful of that.

The parts in parenthesis are my preferred changes or additions.  I never could leave well enough alone.

Picadillo

2 lbs. ground beef (1 lb. pork, 1 lb. turkey)
2 onions (3)
all of a bulb of garlic
3 green peppers
3 jalapenos
6 Roma tomatoes
2 small cans Contadina tomato paste
6 apples ( sometimes less depending on how full the pot is)
2 jars ripe olives (green olives)
2 handfuls raisins (or more, to taste)
2 tbsp. vinegar (more or less to taste)

Rough chop everything that can be chopped: onions, garlic, green peppers, Jalapenos, Roma tomatoes and apples.  Leave the olives and raisins whole.  Using a big stew pot, start by browning the meat.  Add the onions and garlic while the meat browns.  Add the rest of the ingredients more or less in the order given.  Cover the pot, reduce the heat so that the conglomeration burbles gently and let it stew for at least two hours.  Letting it cook longer does no harm and generally improves the flavor.  This freezes really well, so when I make it I have frozen leftovers for months.

There were two chocolate cakes actually.  One with a lovely raspberry sauce between the layers and the other, a darker chocolate, was laced with rum and frosted with Mocha frosting.  Both were delightful.

Sadly, the cake was not reciprocated at the appropriate date in April!!  Hmmm….or at any other date appropriate or not, now that I consider the matter.