New tea set

I got this at Hibari Market in Lexington, Kentucky on my way home from spending Christmas with my family. I hope to shift my home office to a blue scheme, so this will match perfectly!

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Picture roundup

I wanted to link to some galleries I’ve posted in the last few months, to give blog readers an idea of what I’ve been up to.

Brick Pond Park and Alligator – September 22, 2009

Henderson Heritage Preserve – October 17, 2009

Work Halloween Party – October 22, 2009

Riverwalk – November 3, 2009

Aiken State Natural Area – November 7, 2009

Augusta Riverfront Marina and Skyline – November 9, 2009

Gasping Gobbler 5K – November 21, 2009

And there’s more to come…

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Lunch outside

Tandoori chicken and spinach; rice and peas; steamed broccoli; and tomato slices.

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My first meal of the day

Somehow I managed not to eat until 1:30pm. I don't consider this a good thing.

Regardless, for now I'm having a mango and some whole grain crackers with cheese.

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Ruby Tuesday: Avocado Turkey Burger

I ate the side salad and then realized I hadn't taken a picture of it. It had the best croutons EVAR. They were some sort of dark brown bread.

Edit: Kelly says the croutons are pumpernickel. :D

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Baked tilapia with mango salsa

So here’s what I did with most of the rest of the salsa:

baked tilapia with salsa on top

I still have a little left, which hopefully I will eat today, in some form or fashion.

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Mango Salsa

Since joining Oasis Garden‘s CSA, I’ve had more and more interesting produce to try and create dishes with. It’s forced me to be more creative with what I have on hand.

The past two weeks there’s been a mango in my box. I still had both of them as of tonight, so I decided I’d better use the oldest one.

A recipe for Avocado-Mango Salsa was included in last week’s box. I didn’t have all the ingredients so I omitted some and substituted others. Here’s what I ended up doing–and it’s amazingly delicious! I’m going to eat some with chips tonight and save the rest to go with fish tomorrow.

Mango Salsa

1 mango, peeled, seeded and diced
1/2 tomato, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
3/4 c chopped onion
1 T white sugar
1 T olive oil
2 T white wine vinegar
1 avocado, peeled, pitted and diced
1 tsp salt

Toss first seven ingredients together, then fold in avocado. Season with salt.

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Shooting in RAW and color-correcting for the first time

I’m busy getting ready to head to the airport, so I don’t have a lot of time, but I wanted to go ahead and slap up these shots I took at the Canal the other day. Below you’ll find the original, unedited image, and then how I tweaked the image in Photoshop. I mostly used Saturation and Levels. I may have overdone it a little…but it was my first time. I’m allowed.

Savannah River Headgates Savannah River Headgates: color-corrected

Augusta Canal trail Augusta Canal trail: color-corrected

Augusta Canal Augusta Canal: color-corrected

Ant on Leaf Ant on Leaf: color-corrected

The last two pictures came out the best, I think.

There are tons more photos from the Canal, but I won’t have time to go through and edit them until I get back from England. I don’t have time to upload them unedited, either, so you’ll just have to wait ;)

Breakfast

There's something about the still solitude of the early morning that calls out for Waffle House.

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What a great view

Charles and Heidi have a gorgeous backyard!

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Thai Chicken Salad

At the "new" White Elephant. It has three pieces of tempura-fried chicken and a glob of mango sorbet.

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The Best Salad Ever

Today when I got home from a lovely hour-long bike ride at the Greeneway I was in the mood for a serious salad. I immediately started pulling all the fruits and vegetables out of the fridge. A little washing and chopping, and voila:

salad

In this salad:

  • spring mix
  • locally-grown, fresh English peas
  • 1 locally-grown tomato
  • seedless red grapes
  • strawberries
  • baby carrots, sectioned
  • 1/8 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
  • a handful of celery stalks

I intended to use a packet of Berry Balsamic Vinaigrette from Chick-fil-A, but that turned out to be completely unnecessary. The salad was absolutely amazing just as it was. I enjoyed it at my desk with the blinds open while working on my laptop:

salad at my desk
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Chocolate Banana Bread and Muffins

chocolate banana bread and muffins

A couple weeks ago I made chocolate banana bread and muffins. I promised at the time to post the recipe, but then never got around to it. This post is a product of my recent energy and motivation!

I got the original bread recipe from allrecipes.com, here. I made a couple of changes to the already light recipe to cut out more calories and fat. Also, since I didn’t have two loaf pans, I used half the dough on a loaf and the other half on muffins.

They turned out extremely well–moist and delicious! I brought the bread to work and no one could tell it was “light”.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup margarine, softened
  • 2 cups baking Splenda
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 egg beaters
  • 6 bananas, mashed
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 cup light sour cream
  • 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9×5 inch loaf pan and one 12-cup muffin tin.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, Splenda, eggs, and egg substitute. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Scoop batter by 1/4 cup into muffin cups; pour rest into loaf pan.
  3. Bake muffins in preheated oven 15-20 minutes. Bake loaf for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

mixing the ingredients baking the muffins the finished product yum!

More pictures of the baking process can be found here.

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Pimiento cheese sandwich

Jeff very kindly brought me back an official Masters Tournament pimiento cheese sandwich. This is as close to the Masters experience as I am likely to get. I look forward to seeing how it compares to Grandma's…pretty sure it won't come out on top (because what could?) but here's hoping it makes a good showing ;)

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