Confessions of a Pack Rat Photographer

Slow-Cooker Banana Nut Bread

DiPietro Portraits — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 02:41:56 +0000

I’m inspired by a friend’s blog, Below Blue Skies, to publish a few of the snapshots I’ve taken of the meals we’ve eaten. My husband and I have been married for a year and most of our relationship we have been less than well-off so we’ve improvised by pretending we’re Iron Chefs and whipping up gourmet meals at home. You can track our relationship by our recipes, so I’m working backwards over the next few months, to see what this pack rat photographer has collected in her love cookbook.

First off, what’s cooking now…

While I love the idea of fresh baked bread, I seldom have the time to make it. Well, now that excuse is gone! Apparently slow-cookers get hot enough for yeast to rise, but more importantly for most cooks today is that quick breads don’t have to be so– well quick. Use your favorite quick bread recipes, like Banana Nut Bread, Cornbread, or ready made muffin mixes and a pan that will fit inside your slow-cooker. For every hour your recipe calls for, cook on Low for 8 hours, or on High for 4 hours. Presto Bango, wake up to bread that’s slightly crispy on the outside and moist and tender on the inside. Almost like pound cake, only minus the pounds on my hips and thighs . Plus, you don’t have to be really strict on how long it’s cooked because there’s so much steam inside your cooker that it stays moist! Go ahead, let those bananas sit a little too long and indulge this weekend. Set the coffee pot’s timer, the slow-cooker, and the alarm. Hey! Looks like we’re not far off from the Jetson’s after all!

Here’s the recipe I use. Straight from my trusty 1959 version of “The All New Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School Cookbook”:

Some like to add 2 tablespoons melted butter to the batter. I like to add Cinnamon and Nutmeg to taste.

Mix in a bowl

3 ripe bananas, well-mashed

2 eggs, beaten until light

Sift together

2 cups flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

Add to the first mixture.

Add 1/2 cup nut meats, chopped

Stir well. Put in a buttered loaf pan 9 by 5 inches. Bake 1 hour (here is where you bake in your slow cooker for 4 hours on high, or 8 hours on low) at 350 degrees F.

And yes, that’s Shamrock Green Fiestaware, by Homer Laughlin, it’s sitting on, part of our wedding gifts! My grandmother painted china for Homer Laughlin and would take home the imperfect pieces of Fiesta, resulting in a rainbow of dishes (that all magically work together, no matter how old or new!). We are slowly collecting our own, and honoring her (Gladys Hilda Hendricks Heiney)

New Slow Cooker Recipes (ask.metafilter.com)
7 Must-Have Kitchen Gadgets That Are Worth the Money (mint.com)
Slow Cooking Surprises! 10 Warm, Gooey, Wonderful Desserts in a Pot – Food on Shine (shine.yahoo.com)
Projects ” How-To’s ” Vegan Banana, Chocolate And Nut Bread (cutoutandkeep.net)
Book Review: Slow Cooker Winners by Donna-Marie Pye (blogcritics.org)

New Blog!

DiPietro Portraits — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:04:57 +0000

Check out my new business blog! http://amandajeanphoto.wordpress.com/

Cars and more cars

DiPietro Portraits — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 15:41:01 +0000

I am playing with the idea of manipulating current images I have of un-restored classic cars. For my gallery series I have been using just straight photographs, edited only for color correction and cropping. Here I have before and after shots. I used Photoshop to create a sort of a cut-paper effect by selecting colors with the Magic wand tool and filling in sections on different layers. I’m not sure how I feel about the results. I mean I think they are really interesting and definately highlight the facial features of the cars but I’m not sure how original the concept is or if it’s worth taking to the gallery level. Maybe I should just stick to straight photography?

One year later…

DiPietro Portraits — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 14:37:37 +0000

It’s been a year since my father was told he had a brain tumor. A year since we thought it had spread from somewhere else, undetected. A year since I got the best news of my life, so far.

Just before Thanksgiving 2007 my father had a really strange experience at work. He found he had trouble spelling the word Lithium. Most of us never even have to think about this word but as a Pharmacist for the Department of Mental Health it’s something he comes across daily. And it’s spelled phonetically so… what could the problem be? He also had trouble writing our last name and as his agitation grew concerned coworkers phoned my mother and I. They feared he’d had a stroke and given that his first heart attack (which resulted in a quadruple bypass) happened when I was seven I was not really emotionally ready for this news. Doctors checked him out… found nothing… we went on with our lives.

Once the holidays were over his health became of concern again and that’s when they dropped the bombshell. Brain scans showed a mass and by all tests it appeared to be a brain tumor that had spread from somewhere else. Surgery was scheduled almost immediately and I think I held my breath for a week. I wondered if I would ever see him alive again, if he would walk me down the aisle and dance with me at my wedding, cook for me again, anything. We prayed to every God we knew of, sacreligious or not we were taking any help we could get.

The day of the surgery came and as I waited for any news from my mother I finally called for an update.
“He’s out of surgery. He’s fine. They didn’t find anything.”

_________________________________________

Time stopped. ”What do you mean they didn’t find anything?” That’s not at all what I expected. When they opened his head and poked around as it turns out there was nothing there. Some dead tissue, evidence of a stroke suffered at some unknown point in time. No tumor. The only explanation being that the mass of tissue and broken capillaries, etc. showed up as a tumor. Or maybe it was a miracle. I like to think that it was. Either way we’re very very very very very lucky to still have him. He stills has trouble spelling certain words and typing some letters, mostly “H’s” and “N’s” for some reason. I’ve included some images of his scars and bruising. He looked like Frankenstein and it was hard not to grimace while I talked to him.

Masktaculous

DiPietro Portraits — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 20:45:48 +0000

My grandparents farm is well known for being home to large amounts of junk that make no sense (particularly in relation to rural farm life in appalachia). My boyfriend and I first found the fencing mask several months ago and I snapped a picture of him immediately. However, I’ve always wanted to use it in a series and with my Large Format Photography class I got the chance. The sandblasting helmet was also discovered on the farm, rotting in an abandoned shed for who knows how long. The goggles belong to the model’s husband who is currently serving in Iraq (and probably needs them) . April, the model, also drew one of the masks on herself with makeup and I only regret that we somehow knocked the camera and lost focus. I think the lack of clothing in most shots helps to generalize the images so that they are not costume-like, and the focus remains on the masks themselves, their many uses and interpretations.

Ocho Foto!

DiPietro Portraits — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:53:32 +0000

New Work by Advanced Photography Studentsat the University of South Carolina

Date:	Thursday, March 27, 2008
Time:	6:00pm – 8:00pm
Location:	City Art Gallery
Street:	1224 Lincoln St
City/Town:	Columbia, SC

City Art Gallery will host Ocho Foto: New Work by USC Photography Students March 27-April 12, 2008. The opening reception will be held Thursday, March 27 from 6:00-8:00pm at the gallery.

This exhibition is organized as part of the Advanced Photography II course requirement in the McMaster College of Art at USC. For the class each student is required to produce a series of images to be included in a group exhibition. The exhibition gives students the opportunity to showcase their work, while providing experience in planning and curating an exhibition. In addition to the completion of new work, students are responsible for securing a local venue, all curatorial decisions, and working to involve the community in the event.

Featured artists include: Marshall Hodge, Tricia Hatfield, Anna Broadwell, Miguel de Leon, Amanda Heiney, Maggie Edmonds, Heather Thomas, and Liz Craft. The exhibition will also include the work of Mike Bryant. Mike is a photography student who was unable to continue work with his classmates after becoming ill with Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Iron Portraits

DiPietro Portraits — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 13:36:44 +0000

There is a slight chill in the air, but the afternoon sun lazily reaches out, taunting me with promises of great adventure and hidden treasure. A maze of sleeping iron beasts stretches in every direction, and my heart races with excitement. The smell of warm rubber and rust guides me around stacks of old tires. Here and there is a glimmer, where the chrome still proudly clings to fenders long ago wrenched from their rightful place and thrown callously into the grass. I stop and start many times, unsure where to begin as my excitement pulls me here and there.

The cars greet me like old friends. I cannot help but wonder what they have seen, or where they have been. Each one seems to look at me with a face as plain as yours or mine, longing for the days when every innovation was exciting and full of potential. They long to race for glory and pride, long to cruise down main-street showing off, long to be a chariot of young love. I long to see it happen again.

I have a love affair with every car in my series. It is love at first sight, though I confess to knowing little more than a name for many. I photograph them as I would a lover or friend, concentrating on their “faces” and the “expressions” I most enjoy. When I am with them this world fades, leaving me with my daydreams and iron portraits.

Here are 6 of 8 Photos that will be part of the Ocho Foto Advanced Photography Student Show at CityArt Gallery in Columbia, SC. The show will open Thursday, March 27 from 6-8pm and will be up through April 12.

Portrait Photography Lighting Techniques (brighthub.com)
Art lends appeal to Philadelphia International Airport (philly.com)
How To Find A Great Memento That Goes On Forever (mydecorarticles.com)

Living Memory

DiPietro Portraits — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:38:59 +0000

As I type my father is undergoing an operation to remove a metastatic brain tumor. They tell us we could know as early as tomorrow where the primary cancer is. That will be a huge relief since not knowing has been the scariest part of this experience. I’m dealing with it through my art. Hopefully I can stay focused through this project but today I decided to forgo classes since I’m freaking out pretty nicely at home. In an effort to stay calm I’ve started looking through the photos I took of him this weekend. No matter what happens he won’t look like this again for a long time.

Bridge Series

DiPietro Portraits — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 15:13:26 +0000

One of my favorite places on my grandparents farm is a wooden bridge. To get there you had to leave the main yard and go into the pasture (sometimes goats or horses were out here, but mostly just rabbits and deer). The grassy path was usually cut fairly short because my grandmother has a horrible fear of snakes. You go almost to the middle of the pasture and then turn down a fairly good hill before the land levels out right up to the creek. It was so far from the house that it always felt kind of magical. And the fact that there was this long exciting trek leading to a bridge with no visible path on the other side made is mysterious. When you get down there nowadays all you hear is the wind in the trees, hounds baying in the distance, echoing off the mountains. Most of the birdsong is hushed and there’s a pleasant tension as if the forest had been waiting anxiously for you all day. My grandmother (who is rumored to be Fae herself) used to tell stories about fairies in the woods, and maybe there are. 2003 Spring 2007 Winter 2007 Winter 2007 Winter 2007 Winter 2007 Winter 2007 Winter 2007

Lions and tigers and…flamingos?

DiPietro Portraits — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 03:16:25 +0000

I had a lovely trip to the zoo today. We went an hour before closing (4ish) so the light was awesome. I had a lot of fun “shooting from the hip” you could say. I took a zillion pictures of everything I saw. Here are my favorites.