i want your healthy recipes!

I've always been a  big foodie - show me anything with chevre, truffle oil, or carmelized pear and I'm so sold - but I've never really cooked.  Actually... that's kind of an understatement.  I've completely avoided cooking.  I kept telling myself it was because I was inherently bad at cooking, or because I didn't have time, or because I just didn't like it, but I recently realized that the reality is, I'm scared.  I have a macho streak a mile wide and I've been worried that cooking would suddenly turn me into a barefoot-and-pregnant, flowered-apron-wearing, full-on domestic 50's housewife with a vacant Stepford smile who tosses back handfuls of  "pep pills"  and ends up vacuuming the same spot in the carpet all day.  Rational thinking at its finest, obviously.So here's the deal.  I've recently been in a face-my-fears and shape-up-my-entire-life sort of mood, so I've decided I'm going to learn how to cook.  I would love to get my hands on your favorite recipes!

Two caveats:

1. I'm a vegetarian.  Eggs and milk are okay, but unfortunately I can't really do meat.  Things like chicken broth are fine, though.

2. It's gotta be really, really healthy.  I'm not really looking for Double Chocolate Cream Cheese Cake or Seven Layer Bean Dip sorts of recipes, although I'm sure they're delicious.  I'm very interested in anything you've got that incorporates tons of fresh veggies and not tons of fat or sugar, and if you have some amazing raw food, gluten-free or vegan recipes, I would love those, too!

I'm trying not to be too scared of domesticity and I just have to keep reminding myself that it's okay to blast Rage Against the Machine and cook in my combat boots.  Thanks so much in advance - I can't wait to hear what you come up with! If they're shorter recipes, you can leave them in the "comments" section below.  If you think they might be too long for that, you can email them to me at: molly@cedarhousephotography.com

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

way too many pictures of costa rica

We just got back from an amazing trip to Costa Rica with my family, and I miss it already!  Those of you who know me or my family can imagine what a feat this was... all four of us kids are the most randomly accident-prone people in existence ...yeah... (injury stories to come later). I love traveling with my family!I loved being in the jungle around all that green.  I love San Jose because of / in spite of what a huge, bustling, dirty, colorful city it is.  I loved seeing all the creepy-crawly creatures in the tidepools at dusk.  I loved the food.  I love all the sweet, wonderful people we met.  I loved all the hand-painted signs and murals.  I loved translating and trying to answer our taxi driver's questions about what driving in the snow is like.  I love being on the road.

And, as the title of this post suggests... sorry.  I couldn't help myself.

So, we get into San Jose in the morning after a loooong overnight flight, and first thing I do?  Explore the graveyards!

Blue Morpho butterflies - they look really exotic, but dude, they're everywhere.

I fell in love with all the small creatures that both are so elegant and so poisonous...

All these bright yellow pit vipers made me happy... I've always had a thing for snakes.  So cool!

We visited a butterfly garden!  It was so cool to watch the butterflies hatching from cocoons.

On the right are pitcher plants:

My two cutie brothers at Playa Negra in Puerto Viejo.

One of my favorite walls I have ever seen:

These guys were just posing for me.  I swear.

My lovely sister.

Agapi, our little place, staffed by the best people ever.

I always wondered if they meant "snake bite specialists"... I dunno, maybe there are some super treacherous worms out there...

I suppose now's a good time to explain how accident-prone my family is.  We went on a 2 day rafting trip, and we stopped on the shore for lunch.  My dad was trying to take a picture and slipped and fell on some rocks, cracking a few ribs and getting a nasty head wound.  I'm mostly fluent in Spanish, but on this trip I got to learn some new phrases, like, "Please wear this lead vest while you translate from inside the x-ray room".

Next injury: my little sister crashes her rented cruiser bike riding to the bar.

Next injury: my little brother crashes his rented cruiser bike riding home from the bar.

Next injury: I get stung on the lip by a wasp. Twice.  This happened at night as I was getting ready for bed, and my lip swelled up so much I looked like a cartoon character.  I could barely talk, my lip was so big.  Regretfully, I just laughed and went to bed without taking a picture of myself in the mirror, and it was better by morning. I looked so awesome and ridiculous, but you'll just have to take my word for it.

Boa constrictors: this is why you don't wander around the jungle at night.

Best restaurant menu ever.

I look just like Tarzan.  Obviously.

My mom at the market in San Jose:

telluride wedding sneak peek

I'm headed out of the country for the next few weeks, but before I go, here's a quick sneak peek from a gorgeous, cozy Telluride wedding I shot last week.

I won't be checking email or voicemail while I'm gone, but I'll get back to you when I get back into the studio on January 20th.  Happy New Year!

christmas

A few quick shots from a lovely Christmas at my parents' house...(well, this first one was actually on the way out of town :)

i still miss thailand.

Zach and I lived in Bangkok  for 4 months or so in 2006.  We were watching some Thai movies the other night and I started missing it hardcore.  So, I got all nostalgic and went back and unearthed some photos.  Most people who travel through Thailand use Bangkok as a stepping stone to the beaches or to the jungles up north and are surprised that we loved the city itself so much.  We adored Bangkok - the food, the temples, the people, the night markets, all the random little neighborhoods.  We  lived on the outskirts of one of the Middle Eastern neighborhoods, and one of my favorite restaurants in Bangkok was a Lebanese place :)

One of the things that I love about Asia is discovering all these random fruits and vegetables that I never even knew existed.  Meet rambutan.

During monsoon season, it rains in biblical proportions.  I loved it.

I took some Mandarin classes at Assumption University, which has such a beautiful campus:

One of the days it was raining too hard to go outside, I sat in the little lobby of our apartment / guesthouse and watched the Discovery Channel.  They had a show about monks in Thailand who take in sick tigers and rehabilitate them.  I was really fascinated, and then I remembered that we were IN Thailand.  So we went!

So... I'm pretty much just looking for an excuse to go back.  Anyone wanna come? :)