Monday, January 30, 2012

Day 30/Jan 30: Pan-roasted lemon chicken

So, I decided to make one of the recipes from pinterest. Here's the url in case you want to
try it. http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/browse-all-recipes/pan-roasted-chicken-lemon-garlic-green-beans-10000000780291/index.html

I made a few tweaks to the recipe and it tasted great. But I think I will do a few things differently next time; cover with aluminum foil for the first 35 minutes, then cook uncovered the remaining time, make sure ALL the green beans are underneath the potatoes and chicken so they don't get burned (had a few charred ends), add a little bit more adobo or some red crushed peppers for heat next time.

All-in-all it was very tasty and I love lemon so I really liked it. Oh, one more thing, make sure that it's served as soon as it's cooked since the chicken is so nice and juicy.




Tweaks I made:
I baked it at 425 for 45 minutes, took the chicken out, then returned the potatoes and beans in the oven for another 10 minutes
I used skinless and boneless chicken breasts
I used approx. 8 garlic cloves (I love garlic... the more, the better!)
I used 4 1/2 tbs olive oil (versus the 6 recommended)
I added a couple shakes of my badhia adobo
I added about an extra 1/2 tsp kosher salt
I did not use the lemon slices since everyone said the green beans were bitter
I only covered the chicken and the potatoes with the mixture (I covered the potates first and placed them in the pan, then I coated the chicken and left it in there for about 5- 10 minutes before placing it on top of the beans and potatoes)
I used the aluminum foil for easy clean up and sprayed it with pam
I made a quick mix of 1 tbs olive oil, 1/2tsp kosher salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp thyme, 1/2 tsp basil and mixed that together and tossed the green beans in that instead since I knew the lemon would overpower the beans.
I also sprinkled basil on the potatoes after I placed them in the pan

I know, lots of changes, but I'm the type of cook that has to add my personal flare to everything. I use recipes as a general guide and add my personal touches to it. :0) I always tweak recipes until I get it just right, then I write it down the way I made it and it's set! :0) I really love to cook. Just wish I wasn't so chunky from it. LOL

BTW you can drool... it was yummy! LOL

Day 29/Jan 29: TeChNoLoGy

So, as I was uploading other pictures and playing around, I figured I would snap a shot of the things that seem to surround us all the time. It's amazing how many gadgets everyone has nowadays. LOL I'm guilty of it! :0)


Day 28/Jan 28: Recycling

One of the things I really like and respect about Germany is their recycling rules. Even though it's a bit of a pain, the concern for helping the environment follows along our (hubby and I) way of thinking. We each have a part to play and if everyone contributes, our Earth will be a better place to live in. :0)

In our home, we recycle 4 ways: Paper, Bio, Glass, and Plastics/Aluminum/Styrofoam. Paper is self-explanatory (i.e. cardboard, paper, etc). Bio is for scraps and yard foliage that can be compost (i.e. veggie/fruit peelings, leaves, egg shells, and even a small amount of newspaper and paper towels are placed in this category). We use yellow Gelbesaks (recycle bags) for anything containing aluminum, plastic and styrofoam, etc. And glass, such as wine bottles, empty jars, and so forth. Everything else goes in the regular trash.

Sounds like a lot, right? Well, at first it's a bit difficult figuring out what goes where, but within a couple of weeks it's second nature. We always rinse out things before placing them in their corresponding places (we do this for our sake... don't need things stinking up our home LOL). Also, pick up is on a calendar schedule... only thing is, for glass, there is no pick up. Most towns have some glass recycle dumpsters where you take the glass and place it in the corresponding can.

Soooooo, long story short, my two shots for today are of the glass recycling I threw away and of the glass dumpster. :0) Please, if you have the option in your area or if there are recycling centers near you or on your way to work, please, please, please, RECYCLE! We all need to do our part for our sakes, our children's and our children's children's sake.

This is some of the glass about to be recycled. I had a small bag with more glass jars in it. I do this about once per month.

Even if you can't read German, the colors on the signs should help. Green glass, white glass, brown glass. :0) 

Sunday, January 29, 2012

Day 27/Jan 27: Cool door

I thought this German door to an abandoned farmhouse (at least, I think it's abandoned) would be a cool shot. Just one of the many random things I see each and every day when we're out and about here in Germany. LOL I also like how I got the second door on the right in the picture. Sorry I'm not elaborating too much, but I'm playing catch up on uploading pics.

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Day 26/Jan 26: Winter Road

I was out and about today with my son after his swim class and I decided to take some detours before we went home. On my way up this hill (on a very narrow road... very typical of Germany) this view made me literally stop the car, put the emergency lights on and step outside to snap some shots (this is a very solitary road... zero traffic the entire time I was shooting (about 3 minutes... I was scared a car might come... LOL). I did a few b&w shots and I placed the color ones in as well so you can see the contrast. Oh... and I know... yet another tree. Sorry, I'm an Earth sign... trees call my name. LOL

I added a textured overlay in this picture... reminds me of a postcard picture. Almost added the vignette, but decided against it. 


Unedited (only the watermark)




Unedited with the addition of vignette.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Day 25/Jan 25: Sunshine

So, it wasn't quite as bright today, but I somehow got lucky and caught a break in the clouds. I'm posting this picture of a tree mainly because I like how the sun did the reflection balls (as I call them... not sure what the technical term is for this... LOL amateur over here). The second picture of the same tree is just at a different angle, but not the same light effect.


Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Day 24/Jan 24: Power Lines

On my way to the base I pass these power lines and I always wanted to take a picture. So, today I stopped and snapped a few shots. Nothing special or unique, but I wanted to do it. LOL  I wanted to get closer, but my baby boy was in the car and getting cranky. Plus, due to all the rain, everything was MUDDY and I was afraid I might slip then, bye-bye Angela and camera! LOL I snapped other shots of random things, but this is what I chose for today. 



Monday, January 23, 2012

Day 23/Jan 23: Schwedelbach


Schwedelbach is the small village we reside in. It's a very cute and cozy village. I was on my way to one of the German stores in the next village over, and as I drove around the roundabout I noticed the sculpture and village shield (all villages have a shield with different things on them that represent the village, so-to-speak). So, I came back later this afternoon to take some shots. Now.... I have soooo many good pics and I don't want to leave any out, so bear with me, I'm posting quite a few of them and I'll try to add a caption on each picture instead of writing on and on about them. I hope you like these shots of the village roundabout entrance.

The sculpture that caught my eye... not sure what it is... must find out.
This trail leads from the roundabout to the next village. On the right is a small park for tots.
Another angle on the bike/walk path.

I couldn't resist snapping some pictures of these berries (even though some are clearly bad).
Schwedelbach shield.
On the left is the Wilkommen (welcome) to Schwedelbach sign.
The Schwedelbach shield in the center of the roundabout.
Really cool plant... the yellow caught my eye. 
Had to capture the sunlight STRAINING to peek out... unsuccessfully.
Silhouette shot.
Little bit of water in the rock bed.

Day 22/Jan 22: Cel pics of Us

So, was still sick on Sunday, but was able to take a couple shots with the camera phone. One has just my son and I and in the other picture my hubby is peeking over us ;0) Sorry it's late, but at least I was able to get a pic in. :0)





Sunday, January 22, 2012

Day 21/Jan 21: Bubbles

I know it's a day late, but I've been very sick. Ugh... I really don't like colds. LOL Yesterday, while giving my baby boy a bath, I decided I needed to take pictures of something, so I decided on the bubbles. Funny thing is, I didn't realize there was a photo challenge to shoot bubbles. LOL Funny how things happen. :0)

 The turtle thermometer looks happy as a lark floating around. LOL


Pretty color tones to make the bubbles stand out.



My son's toys peeking out of from under the bubbles. (It's the rim of a sand pail, in case you're wondering.)

Friday, January 20, 2012

Day 20/Jan 20: The Sun

I was going to post a picture of my son's new haircut, but after he took his nap, it looked crazy! He gets such awful bed head after his nap. Maybe tomorrow I can get a shot of it... or find inspiration to shoot something else. Having this cold is bringing me down a bit. Blah.

Well, it's the sun... sort of. So, nothing special about this picture. We bought this really cool wrought iron sun from a Moroccan vendor during Weihnacht Markt (German Christmas Market). The center feels like plastic, but it's actually leather that's been stretched VERY taut. In the back is a holder of sorts where you're supposed to slip a lightbulb attached to a cord and it lights it up. We haven't done that yet. LOL

I've taken pictures of it various times at various angles, but the straightforward is what I'm posting today. Maybe later on I'll do a post of the side view.


Thursday, January 19, 2012

Day 19/Jan 19: Rings of Relief

I have been going to physical therapy on and off for more years than I care to share (due to a herniated disc). Last year, I re-injured my back and started going back to physical therapy. I really like my physical therapist (he's German) and he has different approaches to helping out my back, one of which, looks like a torture chamber from back in the dark ages (but, in a modern, metal and screws type of way). LOL ;)) I asked him the other day if I could take some pictures of it since a few angles struck me as really cool.

The first one is one of my favorites, since it's centered and I like the way the ring looks. The other 2 show different focuses at an angle. I had MANY other pictures of more parts, but this was the angle that initially made me want to take pictures of it. :0) Welcome to a part of my weekly torture...ahem... healing therapy. LOL

By the way, zero editing (except for adding the watermark).

Here's the 1st picture. The focus is on the ring and I did a pretty straightforward shot.


In this one, I angled the camera a bit and focused on the front ring. I really like how the metal shines in these pictures.


And finally, I changed the focus to the hooks in the back that hold the ropes. 

Day 18/Jan 18: Ramstein Village

Sorry for the late post. Was feeling pretty sick last night and really tired. Still under the weather (my son's cold is starting to go away, but mine is a little worse). Ugh. Hopefully, we'll be better soon. Anyways, I snapped these shots on my way in to drop off some paperwork at my physical therapist's office. I used the scene setting on my camera and chose the sunset option. It turned the sky a nice color. No editing (other than the watermark was done). :0)




Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Day 17/Jan 17: Decisions, decisions.

Ok, so today was an absolutely GORGEOUS day here in Germany. I actually carried my camera around all day and I had so many shots of so many different things to choose from, that I'm literally overwhelmed with choices! Ugh! I was struggling so hard the passed few days trying to figure out what to shoot, and today, well, I had too many things to shoot! I even got some nice ones of the sun setting with my camera phone, but I'm not even trying to look at those right now for fear of being completely overloaded with choices. Ahhhhh!!!! Decisions, decisions!!!

With that said, I made some collages of some black and whites of my son and I'll probably end up uploading those to my fb page along with many other pictures I took, but to choose one for this blog, I decided to go simple. So, here goes.

In this first picture, I decided to take my son to the park (since it was such a nice day and we've been cooped up since he's had a cold). Mind you, we only stayed out for less than 10 minutes because it is cold and I don't want him to get worse. I changed it to black and white and I LOVE the angle of this shot. For some reason, it makes me nostalgic, thinking about myself as a child, and thinking about how my son is growing so much, so fast. And the way the sun rays were shining down on him, made me think to myself how I always pray and hope that the sun will always shine on my son and illuminate his way in life.

So, here it is!



Love that shot! On to the next one.

So.... I didn't realize how far passed my son's nap time we were, so he got very cranky, very fast, so we got into the car and I gave him a cookie (he was also hungry, Bad Mommy! Don't worry, he had lunch soon thereafter and promptly passed out in the car and proceeded to take a 3 hour nap at home!) While he was munching on the cookies, my hubby came over and was trying to calm him down a bit. Since they were hanging out, I took that opportunity to snap a few shots of a berry bush that caught my eye on the way back to the car. Now, I have the full color picture, but I love, love, love, this focal zoom effect with the black and white background and had never tried it until now.

I hope you like it!


Monday, January 16, 2012

Day 16/Jan 16: Giraffe in a Tree

My husband loves the African and Mediterranean themed home decor, so one of my favorite figures is this beautiful giraffe we have. I placed him next to the windowsill where I have this cute curly leaf plant and it looks like the giraffe is out in the wild eating some leaves. It's too cute! I used macro mode and had a good time getting the details of everything. And, for another day, Yay! to sunlight! :0)


Day 15/Jan 15: Hearts and Sunlight

Sorry I didn't post yesterday. I was feeling very blah and went to bed early. I did get this shot in during the day, but never got around to doing a little editing and post it. So here it is, a little late, but what can you do. I really love the reflection. There are actually 2 reflections of this heart and crystal window deco we have. I really enjoy the sunshine we've been having the passed couple of days! Too bad we don't feel too well to truly enjoy it.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Day 14/Jan 14: Dinosaur Party

So, today we went to a dinosaur birthday party and I had fun taking tons of pictures (all candid) and since it was indoors, had to just use auto pics due to lighting issues. It was fun not to think about everything and just snap shots of the kids playing. I don't want to post pics of my friends kids on here since it's a public site and I don't have permission, so I'm uploading a picture of the cupcakes (which were so yummy!) and one of my son that I did some editing and I love the green balloon!

Friday, January 13, 2012

Day 13/Jan 13: Sunset and German Field

The sun was actually shining today, so on my way home from my appointment I snapped a few shots of a field near our house. But I also couldn't pass up a sunset view behind our house. So I decided to try to make a collage of the pictures.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Day 12/Jan 12: This little piggy...

So, my son really loves when we play, "This little piggy..." Soooooo, while he was sitting in his Tonka truck (he just loves climbing into it, but struggles getting out), he was pointing at his toes and wanted me to play with his piggies. :0) I couldn't resist snapping a few shots. I had some more of him in the truck, but I really like this close up of his toes. :0)