Roasted Red Pepper Dip

When asked to bring “something Hors D’oeuvre-y” to a Pot-Luck Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow (Yes, I know it’s October, I’m Canadian) I decided to make my Roasted Red Pepper Dip that mom always makes me bring to dinners (to humour me, I think). Here’s the tried and true recipe:

This is best made the day before you plan on wowing the world with your mad dip-mixing skillz, as it allows time for the mixing and softening of the … I don’t really know why, it just tastes better the second day.

You’ll need – 4 Red Peppers, One 500ml container of sour cream, 1 small jar of mayonnaise, 2 Tbsp dried parsley, 1 Tbsp dill weed, 2 cloves of garlic, Salt and pepper to taste

1. Realize it is one hour before all the stores close on thanksgiving weekend and panic while you run out the door for ingredients, forgetting the grocery list so you have to return home to get it. This step is not required, but it makes the process more exciting.

2. Realize all your knives are in the dishwasher. Wash one off, cut off the tops of the peppers and remove the seeds. Slice peppers in half.

3. Roast peppers on a baking sheet with melted butter drizzled on top at 350 degrees until the skin starts to blacken. The internet says roasting a pepper should take 20 minutes, but it took about an hour in my oven, so what does the internet know. It needs to be pretty soft and if the skins are a bit black all over it makes it easier to peel off later. I have actually done this in the toaster oven before and it works fine.

4. Mix all other ingredients in a big bowl. No, a bigger bowl. If you think your bowl is big enough, go one size bigger.

5. Cool off the peppers, if you like your fingers. If not, go ahead and burn them off while handling hot peppers. Peel the skin off the peppers as best you can. Try not to think of how they look like prune-y feet that have been in the bath too long.

6. Dump the peeled peppers in the bowl and mix with one of those stick blendy things. You know what I mean, right? Here I’ll show you.. It’s gloopy from the dip, but I hope you can see what I mean…

(Stick Blender Thingy)

7. The dip will turn pink when you do this. Mix until you see no pepper chunks and the dip is a consistent colour. Taste test and add more garlic if it “needs something.”

8. Find something to dip in the dip. Fingers work, but the guests look at you funny if you do that, so maybe use pumpernickel bread cut into cubes, pita or naan wedges.

9. Sit back and enjoy your new status as king or queen of the world.

The Wedding Files – Project #1 Guest Favours

We’ll start with an easy project, but something you need to get started making early since you have to make so many.

For our wedding favours we decided to make coasters for each guest to take home – 2 per guest or four per couple so that even people who came without a date would still have a matching set. We were told that if you have good wedding favours you will have none left over after the wedding and we think we did okay because there weren’t any left for us – I had to make some more for ourselves later.

The coasters we made from bathroom tiles from the hardware store. A box of 75 tiles cost about $70, giving us a final price of about $2 per guest. We bought 5 boxes and tried to carry them home ourselves since we only live across the street. Don’t do that. They are damn heavy. We almost died.

The only thing else we needed to buy was a roll of cork lining. Then came the fun task of cutting 1400 cork circles – one for each corner of 350 stone coasters. It wasn’t as hard as you’d think. I had a cork cutter from work, but a 3/4″ punch would work well – or you could cut grids and use square feet for the coasters.

Here’s where hubby-to-be comes in. You can either use the “if you loved me, you’d do this for us” or “you can either do this or sign all the thank you cards by yourself,” but whichever you choose, set him up with the tiles, some epoxy glue (the kind you mix together – or some other glue for tile surfaces) and the 1400 little circles. It’s better if you don’t let him see all the tiles at once, just keep bringing in more little piles, or else he may refuse at the beginning. One cirlce per tile corner and you’re good to go.

Then you can package them in little bundles of two. I printed little tags (using black chancery font – like I used for all the wedding stationary) and cut lengths of 1″ wide velvet burgundy ribbon. I attached them with antiqued brass eyelets and used the eyelets to string thin black ribbon to tie the coasters together and place them on each place setting. Ta-Dah!

Photographic Evidence…

The best way to make yourself sub-conscious about your photography skills is to marry a photographer. But despite the self-doubt, there are also some upsides to having a skilled eye and a $2000 camera around the house. And you get to use the “if you can spend that much on a camera, why can’t I spend that much on a kiln?” speech. In lieu of this, I advise a digital camera at the least. They don’t cost an arm and a leg anymore; you can get a decent one for only part of a shin, maybe a tibia or two. Adam uses a Canon Digital Rebel and I also have a Panasonic Lumix for back-up (like, for when Adam is inconsiderate enough to use his own camera that he paid for when I need it) and I find I can take decent pictures with it, though it took a bit of practice to get used to composing a picture on the digital screen without the aid of a viewfinder.

But, remember, before you start shooting, put the camera strap over your head. I can’t really see how this will improve your pictures, but Adam swears the camera will blow up if I don’t have the neck strap on and swears it has nothing to do with the fact that I drop nearly everything I pick up.

There are a million articles about lighting, DIY light boxes, and how to place your products. But I have found that one of the keys to god pictures is to be careful about how you compose the final shot. The following are some different types of shots that I try to include in every listing, if possible:

The Full Product Shot
Obviously, you need to have at least one of these per listing. This is like a pictorial summary. The full item is shown, composed pleasingly, and the basic shape and form are presented.

The Macro Shot

From this shot alone it is impossible to tell what this item is. But it looks interesting and pretty curious and attractive so people will be drawn to it. I highlighted the intricate patterns of the beads, the twists of wire and the joints of branches. It doesn’t matter if I can tell what the object is at a glance because you will have at least one full product shot in your listing.

The Low Angle Shot
This shot emphasises the texture and depth of cut for this woodburned decorative map I made. Not only is it a nice looking picture, it gets you looking at the detail of the piece and makes you want to run your hands over it to feel the texture you see in the picture. This is a shot taken along the horizontal plane of the piece, either across the top or along a side, and it will not be useful for every product (such as clothing or bags) but works great for highligting the beauty of the leather covering a handbound journal, for instance, or the texture of a dynamic cabochon. Again, not evident what the full product looks like, but it will be used in conjunction with the full product shot.

The Size Comparison Shot
This can be tricky. Almost everyone seems to use money, but that is not practical on a site that caters worldwide and may be reaching buyers that are unfamiliar with the size of your money. I have also heard it said to use something from nature since that will be universal but I find it very hard to find something natural that grows or forms to a consistent size every time. Acorns, leaves, pine cones all have enough variability between individual samples that the size comparison could be misleading.

There are a few things that will be more or less consistent the world-over. A wine cork is a good bet, or sometimes even a beer cap (not recommended for selling children’s items – the beer cap might throw people off as to your true intentions).

The Product-in-Use Shot
This one is hard for me to demonstrate since my items are mostly home decor so when I take a picture of it sitting on the table that is what it looks like even when it is in use. This is more important for jewellery sellers and clothes & Accessory designers

The Shot of Your Cat Sleeping on It
Whether or not you want to, you’re bound to get at least one of these if you have a cat and look away for one second.

I hope these tips will help you take shots that will draw the eye to the artistry of your work and hopefully get people interested enough to want to buy it so they can see the true mastery for themselves.