Old Fashioned Fudge Sauce

This old-fashioned hot fudge sauce is a tried-and-true classic: just the way your grandmother used to make it (or, more accurately, the way my grandmother used to make it, since this is based on her recipe).

This old-fashioned fudge sauce is divine drizzled on ice cream, but it’s also great blended into a classic chocolate malt, layered in an ice cream cake or simply stirred into a tall glass of milk.

There are few things more satisfying than a big bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream, drizzled and drenched in rich chocolate fudge sauce.

You’re one cherry away from the ultimate fudge sundae. All that’s missing is a pile of rainbow sprinkles.

There are generally two kinds of hot fudge sauce recipes: the melted-chocolate-and-cream ones (often touted as quick and easy – they are basically a really loose chocolate ganache), and then the old-fashioned kind, like this recipe, that’s no less quick and easy despite the “old fashioned” label that might imply otherwise. Think of the kind of fudge sauce you’d get at a retro soda fountain. That’s what we’re making here.

Based on my grandmother’s recipe, this hot fudge sauce is made with cocoa powder, sugar and invert syrup – it’s liquid fudge, essentially. The lack of dairy in this recipe makes it perfect for gifting or storing longer term (although I highly doubt it’ll last very long at all, it’s that good!)

I’d argue that have a good, classic fudge sauce recipe in your arsenal is essential.

But once you’ve got that mastered, well, feel free to go crazy!

For example, this basic recipe can easily be adapted into a chocolate peanut butter fudge sauce or a maple version that is incredible on chocolate chip pancakes (you’re going to have to buy the book to get that particular recipe!)

Looking for some more flavor variations?

Add a splash of creme de menthe or peppermint extract for a chocolate mint fudge sauce that would be perfect for the holidays.

Add a pinch of cayenne pepper and cinnamon for a spicy Aztec chocolate fudge sauce.

Whisk in a tablespoon or two of bourbon just as the sauce comes off the heat for a boozy chocolate delight.

This old-fashioned fudge sauce is a bit thinner than the thick, scoopable stuff you might find in a jar. The invert syrup here keeps it liquid even at cold/frozen temperatures, which means it’s going to stay gooey and oozy even when layered and frozen in an ice cream cake.

It also means you don’t have to warm it up if you don’t want to, it’s perfectly drizzable in its refrigerated form (but, that said, warm fudge sauce on cold ice cream is a thing of beauty).

Old Fashioned Fudge Sauce

Yield: 1 1/2 cups

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 20 minutes

Old-fashioned fudge sauce inspired by my grandmother’s recipe, with a cocoa-powder base that’s perfect for drizzling on ice cream or stirring into milk.

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/3 cup good quality dark or Dutch process cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 cup boiling water
• 1/4 cup golden syrup (can also use maple syrup or light corn syrup)
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Place sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Sift cocoa powder and flour over top and whisk to combine. Whisk in boiling water, golden syrup and butter.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring occasionally; boil for 8 to 10 minutes or until thickened slightly and reduced by about a third.
3. Remove from heat and transfer to a heatproof bowl; stir in vanilla.
4. Let cool to room temperature, stirring occasionally, for about 30 minutes (don’t refrigerate the sauce until it has completely cooled otherwise it may become grainy).
5. Transfer cooled sauce to a glass jar or airtight container and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks. Warm gently in the microwave before serving.

All images and text © Lindsay Landis / Love & Olive Oil

Did you make this recipe?

Let us know what you think!
Leave a Comment or share a photo on Instagram with the hashtag #loveandoliveoil.

from Love and Olive Oil https://ift.tt/2wt0FBc

How to Make Vegan Nacho Cheese

The Best Loaded Vegan Nachos

Vadouvan Chicken Curry with Smoked Basmati Rice

For a quick and flavorful weeknight dinner, this unique yellow curry is just the ticket: creamy and coconutty and packed with bold, balanced flavor on top of a bed of smoked basmati rice.

It’s a well-rounded, ultra-satisfying meal. What’s more, it’s ready in no time, and makes for some amazing leftovers.

The recipe you see here is certainly not what we started with; changing, evolving and improving each and every time we made it.

After first discovering the brilliance that is Vadouvan (I believe it was a magazine recipe that first mentioned this new-to-us spice blend), we whipped up a deliciously simple coconut curry with little more than chicken and onions. Flavorful, sure, and we definitely made note of its potential, but it was, frankly, lacking in the substance department. We tried adding sautéed spinach, cauliflower florets, and even tofu to give the dish more oomph and substance.

This most recent version, our favorite by far, adds tomato and okra. As it turns out, the hint of acid and sweetness from the tomato and the hearty texture of the okra, not to mention its natural thickening properties, are just what this dish needed.

The okra lends a lovely thick, velvety texture to the curry. Traditionally considered a Southern staple, okra is rather versatile and makes a perfect addition to curries like this one.

Okra is often chastised for it’s slimy texture (once you start slicing it you’ll know exactly what I mean). Here we’ve embraced the slime instead of fighting it: cooked down within the flavorful coconut curry sauce, the slime serves as a natural thickener, resulting in a unique velvety texture that simply can’t be reproduced with traditional thickeners like cornstarch or flour.

That said, the okra can only thicken the curry so much, so please, please use full fat coconut milk here. The lite stuff is simply too thin and watery and you won’t achieve the same rich results.

Can I also just take a moment to admire the beauty of okra? It might seem low-brow, but when you really stop to examine the geometric perfection of this unique pod, you really can’t help but admire it’s beauty. The fact that it’s delicious too, well, that’s just an added bonus.

This particular variety, gifted to us by a food-loving neighbor, is known as Star of David okra. I won’t nitpick the fact that it actually has 8 points, not 6, although I definitely see where they were coming from (since more common varieties of okra only have 5 points).

(more…)

from Love and Olive Oil https://ift.tt/2NlDBL5

Apple Cinnamon Pressure Cooker Steel Cut Oats

Paprika Goat Cheese Spread + AncestryDNA Results

A Week in France’s Loire Valley

After 5 gelato-filled nights in Venice and 2 chocolate-filled days in Zurich, our travels took us to the French countryside, or more specifically, the Loire Valley: land of medieval castles and royal châteaux and vineyards as far as the eye can see. We spent 6 days in this lovely little region of France, exploring castle gardens, wandering flower-lined streets, sipping wine and nibbling on fresh cheese and crusty bread.

It was the middle of May when we were there, and the picturesque little towns were in full bloom. It’s one of the reasons why spring is my favorite time to travel: everything is so much more charming when flowers are involved. It’s also generally less crowded than summer and more temperate too. It was actually a bit colder than I anticipated, and I spent the first few days shivering until our hostess so kindly lent me a scarf (note to self: always pack a lightweight scarf even if the weather forecast misleads you). I eventually picked up my own scarf from a boutique in town, and wouldn’t you know, as I stepped out of the store, the clouds parted, the sun warmed my face, and the temperature continued to go up from there (should’ve bought the scarf earlier in the trip! Ha!)

When we were just starting to plan this trip, Venice was a given, but it seemed logical to make the most of our travel (the flight over being the most expensive part) and see another place while we were over there any way.

My travel bucket list is full of destinations, from Iceland and Portugal to Croatia and Greece, not to mention the rest of Italy and, well, everywhere else (just about). One place that wasn’t on my shortlist, however, was the French countryside (Taylor and I usually preferring to stick to cities when we travel).

After a bit of hypothetical back and forth, my aunt sent me a link to her friend’s chateau in France. When you get an email that says, “My friend has a château in France”… do you really need to think about it?

When I clicked the link and actually saw Maison Dovalle, well, let’s just say I’ve never responded to an email so quickly and confidently. Yes! A thousand times yes! Don’t twist my arm or anything.

So, it was settled, we’d spend 2 weeks in Europe, splitting our time between Venice and France. (We also ended up with 2 bonus days in between, which we spent in Zurich. You can read about that here!)

This is how we found ourselves in the tiny hilltop town of Montreuil-Bellay, about 3 hours outside of Paris, staying in a beautiful 15th century castle chateau overlooking the valley.

(more…)

from Love and Olive Oil https://ift.tt/2o1DwRG

Traveling with a Toddler: Travel Beds, Packing List, & Tips!

Traveling with a toddler? Here are tips on traveling to Europe with toddlers, including toddler travel beds, packing lists, plane activities, and more! Affiliate links are included below.

When Alex and I decided to take our toddler son Larson on vacation to Europe, some people thought we were crazy! Heck, we felt like we were crazy. But with the guidance of several friends who had also traveled to Europe with toddlers, we were assured that yes, we could do it. A dear friend assured us that “Traveling with kids is an adventure, not a vacation!” and we lived by that mantra. And you know what? A few days in and it actually did feel like a vacation! Incredible food, clear blue Mediterranean waters, and ancient ruins combined to make the most memorable adventure ever. Since we’ve returned, we’ve had so many people ask, what are your tips for traveling with a toddler? Good news: we’ve got you covered! All our secrets for the best toddler travel bed, plane activities, and more are below! For our full toddler packing list, skip to the very end of the post.

Important note: Before we begin, please note that there is no right way to travel with a toddler! What we’re sharing here is what Alex and I did to travel to a specific place with a specific toddler. Larson, age 17 months, is an incredibly easy going, adventurous, and adaptable little dude. Please adapt our suggestions to fit your specific toddler personalities, and keep in mind that what works for one might be different than what works with two or three!

Related: Travel Capsule Wardrobe: What to Pack for a Trip to Europe, How to Take Better Vacation Pictures

Our toddler travel bed fit right into half of this suitcase!

Did you use a toddler travel bed?

Yes, we did use a toddler travel bed! In fact, bringing a travel crib for a toddler is one of our top tips for traveling with toddlers! Since Larson was 17 months for our trip, we still did not feel comfortable with him sleeping on a cot or bed. Most of the places we stayed, all of them Airbnbs, were not equipped for toddler sleeping situations. But even more importantly, sleeping in the same toddler travel bed every night was crucial to Larson adapting to the travel. We stayed in many different cities, but each night at the end of the night Larson had the same bed! So by the third night of our three weeks, he was totally adjusted to that travel crib.

What toddler travel bed did we use? This Baby Bjorn Travel Crib Light. We actually bought ours used on Craigslist, which was a steal! We cannot recommend this crib enough: it’s super light, easy to assemble, and fits into half of a large suitcase. The luggage we used was this Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 28″ Luggage. It fit right into one side of the suitcase, which left the other half for Larson’s and our clothes and other items. The only other luggage we brought was this Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 24″ Luggage and it fit everything we needed for 3 weeks! I could even assemble the Baby Bjorn travel crib all by myself, which is saying something (I’m terrible even at putting together Pack N Plays!).

Larson’s car seat, complete with travel bag

What about a toddler car seat for travel?

Good question! We used Larson’s normal car seat, which is lightweight. The toddler car seat we have is the Evenflo Tribute LX. How it works when flying: you’re not charged extra for having a car seat with you. Make sure to buy a travel bag for the car seat (like thi carseat bag). When you get to the gate, the flight attendant will provide separate checking tags for the car seat in the bag. Many times you’ll be able to bring it up to the gate and then they’ll check it there. In some countries, the airport had a special place for “bulky luggage” where we had to take it (the flight attendant will instruct you). In both cases, we typically picked up the car seat with our luggage on the luggage carousel.

Do taxis, Ubers, and car services takes toddlers with car seats? All of the Ubers and taxis that we used did take toddlers with car seats! It’s possible that some might not, so make sure to be up front about it when you order. One tip: Since many cars have a latch system for car seats and you may not have secured the car seat with a seatbelt before. Before you travel, make sure to practice putting in the crib with a seatbelt if you’ve never done it!

For long trips we used our baby carrier, but for strolling we let him run! (Tellaro, Italy)

Did you bring a travel stroller or baby carrier?

For this trip, we ditched the stroller and decided to bring only a baby carrier! Our reasoning: streets in Europe can be rather bumpy and hard to navigate. Also, we didn’t want to have to worry about lugging a stroller around and storing it when we stopped at restaurants. For Alex and me, we preferred the free feeling of just using a baby carrier. Larson falls asleep easily in public in the baby carrier, but not as much in the stroller. However, there are some drawbacks of a baby carrier: it did get rather hot, especially in the summer! Carrying around 20 pounds for a while left huge sweat spots on the back of our shirts. Also, you can’t do anything sitting down when you have a sleeping toddler on your back! It was perfect for hiking and walking through museums with a sleeping toddler, but not so much for going to restaurants.

What baby carrier did we use? This LILLEbaby 3 in 1 CarryOn Toddler Carrier. Like our toddler travel bed, we cannot say enough about this baby carrier! It’s super comfortable and carries up to 60 pounds.

Do babies and toddlers under age 2 fly free overseas?

As you may know, babies and toddlers fly free in the United States if they’re under 2 years old. Score! For overseas travel, we assumed it was the same. Ooops! For overseas travel, the cost of babies and toddlers is up to the airline. On Delta (which we used), it cost 10% of the cost of an adult ticket for a lap child.

Don’t forget to pack swim diapers! (Tellaro, Italy)

Did you reserve a bassinet for flying overseas?

For overseas travel, most airlines have a baby bassinet in the bulkhead seats to give babies a place to sleep. A lot of people suggested this to us, but in the end we decided not to. By 17 months, Larson is pretty picky about where he sleeps, so weren’t sure he’d be into it. You do have to pay an upcharge to reserve the bulkhead seats (around $100), so we decided to have Larson “sleep” with us. Once we got on the plane and checked out the bassinet situation, we were glad we went this direction. However, we do recommend this tip if you’re flying with a baby! If Larson were less than 1 year old, this would have been a perfect solution.

Walking the streets of Rome!

How do you get babies or toddlers to sleep on a plane?

This is a topic of great debate. Many people swear by using Benadryl or melatonin to help toddlers sleep on planes. We weren’t sure what to think, so we asked Alex’s brother, who is a doctor. He cautioned that having a toddler take a drug on a plane for the first time was risky, since Larson had never taken either before. He also mentioned that Benadryl can make babies and toddlers drowsy, which can make it harder to adjust to a new time zone. So, we took the conservative approach to sleeping and did no medications.

So, did Larson sleep on the plane? Yes. Did he sleep as much as we hoped? No. Because Larson was 17 months old for the overseas flight, he was much more aware of his surroundings than on past flights when he was younger. Instead of sleeping, he wanted to explore the plane and chat with other passengers! When the cabin lights darkened for sleeping time, we put on his PJs, gave him the blanket and dog, and even turned on his sound machine at low volume. We tried putting him in our baby carrier hoping the security of the carrier would lull him to sleep. Unfortunately, it was a pretty rough transition because he just wanted to keep exploring!

Eventually, Larson slept about 3 hours of the 9 hour flight overseas. The up side to only sleeping 3 hours was that once we got to Italy, we had a full day and did naps as normal. Once it got to his bedtime, he was SO tired that he slept the entire night! And we did too. The next day, we were all on Italian time. So it actually worked in our favor!

Larson was enthralled by all the dogs and cats (Sibenik, Croatia)

Do you have toddler plane activities or plane toys for toddlers?

Yes! Here are some tips for toddler plane activities / plane toys that we found went over well:

• Bring these sticker books from National Geographic! These sticker books are less than $7 each and HOURS of entertainment! Alex found these at Target and they’re also on Amazon. Each book has over 1,000 stickers and literally endlessly entertained Larson. It’s also light and very easy to pack. There are various different animal themes: we got 4 books and gradually gave him new ones to keep the novelty factor. We cannot recommend these enough for toddlers 16 months and above! (Though we did end up with stickers all over us, it was worth it!)
• Use small snacks as an activity. Eating raisins or Cheerios can last for quite a long time!
• Play hide and seek with a small object. Use a toy car or small animal to play hide and seek. We actually use a sunglasses case to “hide” things; it has a zipper that keeps him busy trying to open it. However, you can do this with just a toy too!
• Use flashcard or drawing apps on your Smartphone or tablet. We used a few flashcard apps on our phone (we like one called First Animals). Larson loved swiping and hearing the animal sounds.
• Read search and find books. Larson loves finding objects in books — and it was on a plane that we actually discovered he knew way more words than we realized! If your toddler gets bored, the airplane magazines in the seat pocket can be good too! We spent hours saying, “Where’s the man? Where’s the tree? Where’s the airplane” and having Larson point to the words.
• Don’t bring too much! It’s easy to overpack, so we tried to bring just enough: sticker books, tablet, a few books, and a few small toys.

A meringue the size of his head! (Cartagena, Spain)

What toddler travel snacks did you bring?

The hard part about toddler travel snacks when you’re traveling for 3 weeks is that you have to buy many of them on the road! Here is what we tended to have onhand for travel snacks:

• Larabars or energy bars: Larson loves them and they’re made with real food and minimally processed
• Yogurt pouches: frozen for travel (this only works on the front end!)
• Raisins
• Cheerios
• Bananas
• Blueberries
• Crackers / breadsticks

Also, Larson drinks quite a bit of milk. We brought along these Stainless steel cups and Silicone sippy lids, which were perfect for his milk. We bought new milk in each location.

A quick change at a rest stop (somewhere in Slovenia?)

Did you bring a diaper bag?

For this trip, we decided that we’d prefer not carrying a separate diaper bag in addition to our camera bag and my purse. So, we got a combination camera bag and backpack that we used as a diaper bag. This way, we didn’t have to lug along a fully separate diaper bag. This is of course up to your personal preference, but we enjoyed not having to keep track of yet another bag!

What combination camera / diaper bag did we use? The Minimalist from Atlas Supply. In everyday life, it functions as Alex’s camera bag.

How many diapers did you bring?

The hard part about traveling with a toddler is that so much of your luggage is taken up by diapers! For our 3 week trip to Europe, we brought enough diapers for about 2 weeks. This did take up quite a bit of space in our luggage! Looking back however, we recommend bringing enough diapers for about 1 week. Diapers and wipes were very easy to find in grocery stores in Italy, Croatia, and Spain, so we could have packed less than we did.

Even Larson was awed by the Sagrada Familia (Barcelona, Spain)

How do you help a toddler adjust to jet lag?

Good question! Luckily Larson adjusted very quickly to the new time zone, but of course it’s dependent on the toddler! As I mentioned above, Larson only slept 3 hours of the 9 hour flight overseas. This meant that when we arrived in the morning in Italy, he was running on pretty low sleep. We did naps as normal, and then put him to bed at his normal time of 7:00 pm. Because he was so tired, he ended up sleeping the entire night! This seemed to immediately adjust him to Italian time. Larson did wake up a few times crying early on in the evening the first 2 days in Italy, which we think was likely because he was adjusting to the new space. However, after a few days he got used to sleeping in the same travel crib every night and slept soundly.

On the way home, Larson slept about the same amount of time on the flight. However, since we returned home in the evening EST, he was then able to go to bed and sleep through the night since he was so tired again. On the returning side, it took several days for him to adjust back to EST, but he was never up in the middle of the night, lucky for us!

Exploring the streets of Frigiliana, Spain

What are the best toddler travel shoes?

For travelling for toddlers in the summer, we love these Toms canvas shoes. We got them in dark gray so they would hide the dirt, and they’ve held up very well! We also brought a backup pair just in case of an accident, but he didn’t end up needing them.

Speaking of backups: we suggest always taking a backup outfit with you in your diaper bag. There was one incident of car sickness and we only had one backup pair of shorts — so Larson ended up having to spend one day in a not so pleasant shirt. Our mistake!

Larson’s trusty Toms in action at La Alhambra (Granada, Spain)

How did you handle naps on vacation?

A big question we got around traveling with a toddler was schedule: how did you handle naps on vacation? On our trip to Europe (and today!), Larson takes one 2 to 3 hour nap in the middle of the day. So on vacation, we did the same thing! And Alex and I found we actually really loved being forced to take a siesta in the middle of the day. During nap time, Alex and I would have downtime and read, catch up on a little work or emails, and relax. It also kept us out of the hot midday sun. Then when Larson was awake, we’d go out adventuring again in the afternoon. Fun fact: This schedule also helps you take better pictures!

Golden hour = almost bedtime (Tellaro, Italy)

What was your bedtime routine?

One of the hard parts about traveling with a toddler is bedtime: once you put your toddler to bed, no more exploring for you! Rome with kids means no romantic pasta dinners for two, and Barcelona with kids has no room for midnight tapas. One of the ways that we worked around this when traveling is that in many of our destinations, we were traveling with other people. In Italy we were with Alex’s mom, brother, and sister in law, in Croatia we were with a dear friend and her husband, and in Barcelona we stayed with friends.  So, usually we were able to juggle having someone stay back with Larson, and the other person would have dinner companions. For 6 days we were by ourselves in Spain; for this timeframe we actually changed his bedtime to 9:00 pm so we could stay out later. Some nights we kept him up a little longer, other days we had a big midday meal and either cooked or had snacks at home.

For the bedtime routine, we tried to keep as many constants as possible. With our travel we had less time for bath time–but if we could, we’d try to do a bath or shower. Then we’d darken his room, turn on his sound machine (we have a great travel sound machine!), and put his dog and blanket in his bed. After reading a book, we’d put him in his toddler travel bed with his pacifier. By a few days into the trip, he went down very easily!

His adventurous spirit made it all worth it! (Cartagena, Spain)

Do you have a toddler packing list?

Yes! Here is our toddler packing list for 3 weeks in Europe in the summer, with links to the items mentioned above!

• Travel
  • Evenflo Car seat
  • Car seat bag
  • LILLEbaby baby carrier
  • Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 28″ Luggage
  • Samsonite Winfield 2 Hardside 24″ Luggage 
  • Passport
• Sleeping
  • Travel white noise sound machine 
  • Baby Bjorn Travel Crib
  • Lovies (he used a blanket and dog)
  • Pacifier
• Hygiene
  • Baby bath soap
  • 1 rubber ducky
  • Child nail clippers
  • Child Tylenol
  • Bandaids
• Eating
  • Stainless steel cups and Silicone sippy lids
  • Water bottle
  • Snacks: Larabars
  • Paper towels
• Toys
  • National Geographic sticker books
  • Search and Find Animal Friends book
  • 2 or 3 other lightweight books
  • A handful of small toys
  • Tablet

• Clothing (for a boy!): 
  • 7 short sleeve shirts, 1 long sleeve (it was summer!)
  • 1 full backup outfit for diaper bag
  • 2 pants
  • 3 shorts
  • 2 pairs of these Toms
  • 2 pajamas
  • Diapers
  • Handful of swim diapers
  • Swim suit

Want more packing lists? Here’s what I brought as my European Capsule Wardrobe.

A Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living

from A Couple Cooks https://ift.tt/2o1DBou

Instant Pot Tacos with Smoky Lentils

Smoky Instant Pot Lentils and Rice (Pressure Cooker)

Pickle Grilled Cheese Sandwiches

If you thought grilled cheese couldn’t get any better… try adding pickles. Golden toasty bread, gooey cheddar cheese and sweet and salty bread and butter pickles combine to make the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich.

The classic grilled cheese gets a flavorful update with the addition of tangy bread and butter pickles. The pop of vinegary sweetness is the perfect compliment to the rich, melty cheddar cheese and golden toasted bread.

I love me a good grilled cheese.

There were few things that pleased me more than a classic grilled cheese sandwich, with toasted white bread and American cheese (yes, I was one of those picky kids who survived on starchy beige food for most of my childhood years). The *only* concession I ever made as far as additions was a bit of sliced avocado, and only then at Boogie’s restaurant in my hometown (paired with a cookies ‘n cream milkshake, well, it was pretty much my idea of heaven).

As an adult, my tastes have matured a bit, preferring quality aged cheddar in place of the processed stuff (just as melty, but without that weird plasticky texture). I’m also more open nowadays to grown-up additions like homemade jam (tomato and apricot being my favorite combinations), bacon (or, better yet, bacon jam!), fresh arugula, ripe tomato slices, or, in this case, bread and butter pickles.

Ok hear me out here, because I know it sounds a little weird. But the hint of salty, sweet, and sour is the perfect compliment to the sharp cheddar cheese and toasty bread. It’s like the missing half of the puzzle you never knew you were missing. I mean, they are called bread and butter pickles for a reason, right? Why not enjoy them with their namesake (just add toasted cheese).

We tried this combination with dill pickles as well, but it really needs that sweetness from the bread and butters (probably why homemade jam works so well, that hint of sweetness really pairs perfectly with the sharp cheddar cheese).

Cheese matters. If you can find it, Tillamook’s Medium Cheddar cheese is our favorite grilled cheese cheese: it’s just sharp enough to give the sandwich flavor, but still perfectly oozy and melty. We shred our cheese vs slice, having found that shreds melt more evenly than slices do.

(more…)

from Love and Olive Oil https://ift.tt/2MmEYN4

How to Take Better Pictures on Vacation

Want to learn how to capture special memories with your travel photos? Here are our photography tips and tricks for how to take better pictures on vacation!

Alex and I recently took a trip to Italy, Croatia and Spain, and man what special memories we made with our 1 year old son Larson! I don’t know if you’re like us, but when we travel we don’t buy a lot of souvenirs: instead our souvenirs are the photos we bring home! When you take a special vacation, it’s even more special to have photos that capture the essence of the trip. And believe me, that’s no easy task! For years we’ve been struggling to figure out how to take better pictures on vacation. If you’re looking to up your game in capturing special memories in your travel photography, we’ve got some photography tips and tricks for you! Below we’ll cover both smartphone photography and how to take awesome pictures using a DSLR or mirrorless camera.

1) Plan your photography gear

Smartphone cameras (including iPhones) have become really amazing over the past several years. Alex and I have Google Pixel 2 smartphones. and the camera in it is downright terrific at taking photos! If you’re a casual photographer, these days you might be able to get away with using only a phone for photos on a trip. However, if you want to be able to take really stunning photos with a lot of precision and have more control in the editing process, it’s still worth bringing a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Here’s what Alex and I brought on our 3 week trip to Italy, Spain and Croatia:

• Smartphone: Google Pixel 2 XL camera. Alex and I each had our phones, and we use the stock camera app on the Google Pixel 2 camera. See Number 8 below for what we use for editing!
• Sony a7R iii mirrorless camera with a 24-70mm lens. This is the camera we use professionally for our food photography. The lens is a fantastic all-around lens for awesome pictures of food, people, and travel.
• Atlas backpack. This backpack worked as a dual-purpose diaper and camera bag. It’s durable, stylish, and perfect for day trips.

Since the Sony camera is pretty large and bulky, it can sometimes be difficult logistically in restaurant settings or when you’re at the beach. So we used this approach: on a day-to-day basis during our travels, we carried the Sony mirrorless camera in our backpack and pulled it out when something really caught our eye. For more informal hangouts and in restaurants, we used our phones for fun snapshots of food and memories of our friends and family on the go. The photo below is from our Google Pixel 2 camera; you can see that even though it’s smartphone photography, the quality is excellent! The remainder of the photos in this post are Sony A7R iii pictures.

A shot I captured of Tellaro, Italy with my Google Pixel 2 XL smartphone(while Alex was taking the first photo in this post!). My other secret to this photo is Number 4!

2) Research locations on Google and Instagram nearby places.

Before we landed in each city in our travels, we researched the city on Google Images and Instagram “Places” search to see if any pictures really struck us. Usually, the most obvious places with a crowd of tourists taking pictures do not make the most interesting travel photos. Take a few hours to research before you travel and you might find some really unique locations.

Me and Larson in Frigiliana, Spain. Alex found this day trip using Google photos

3) Explore and enjoy a new spot before photographing it.

It’s hard to not whip out the camera and starting clicking as soon as you see a spectacular site on your travels! However, we’ve found that if you pause, walk through and enjoy a space, and then thoughtfully spend some time on photos that your photos will really shine. When we discovered the hidden beach in Cartagena, Spain, we wanted to take photos every 10 feet. The water, the cliffs, the sky — everything looked glorious! But Alex forced me to just enjoy the views and keep on walking for a while. Of course like always, he was right! Just around the corner was the most fantastic little cove (below). I’m so glad that we enjoyed the walk and saved our memory card space until we had scoped the full area.

This cove in Cartagena, Spain was worth waiting for. You’ll also notice we’re demonstrating secret Number 5.

4) Shoot in early morning or during golden hour.

Most of the time on vacation, we have this pattern: we wake up a little later than usual, go out during the worst of the mid-day heat, find something to eat in the evening, and then crash in bed exhausted. There are two reasons why this schedule is terrible for travel photos. First, mid-day overhead sun is not ideal for photos. Colors become washed out, shadows overpower your pictures, and everyone looks sweaty and tired. During the early morning or golden hour (about an hour before sunset), the sun lowers and makes for much more vibrant photos. This is especially true in the Mediterranean: taking a photo of the water during the day makes it look desaturated and completely uninteresting. If you wait until 7:00 pm, the true blue and green glimmer of the water really pops.

The second reason why midday is terrible for travel photos is that all the tourists are out during the day! If you take travel photos during the morning or golden hour, you flip schedules with all of the other tourists. On these off times, you’ll find popular plazas nearly empty and beaches all to yourself. So, we recommend getting out of bed and seeing the world as early as you can, returning for a siesta and some food in the afternoon, and then exploring in the early evening. You won’t regret it! It might be our best tip for how to take better photos on vacation.

Alex and I went on a golden hour shoot in Sibenik, Croatia: you can see how the light illuminates the buildings and brings in a rosy, golden color

Me at a golden hour shoot with Alex in Tellaro, Italy. The same shot at noon would have been washed out and have lots of shadows.

Sometimes your travel schedule might not allow for perfect timing! This photo of Cinque Terre was shot at midday when the light was completely direct. It turned out okay, but we had to up the saturation in editing to make the colors pop. We would have preferred the soft colors of golden hour (like Tellaro above), but we were there on a day trip and couldn’t arrange it!

5) Put people in the shot and capture candid moments.

Rather than line the family up and demand that everyone say cheese, we like capturing the beauty of the setting with people in a more candid setup. For example, the shot of the white town in Spain above (Frigiliana) is a wide shot that shows mostly the scenery, with me and Larson strolling up the street. Alex captured the essence of the town at the same time as showing us there, without it feeling too “set up”. Of course, taking this kind of shot does require some re-enactment sometimes: Alex would direct me and Larson to walk down the street often during our trip! But the way that it captures moments is something we prefer to a cheesy family photo — though we did capture a few of those too (including sillie smartphone selfies)! See the examples below.

Larson and I looking up in awe at the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona

At the Alhambra in Granada: instead of a cheesy front-facing photo, we chose to do a more contemplative gaze into the distance

This one was awkward to shoot, but in Sibenik, Croatia Alex made me run towards the camera to get some motion in the shot (it was also at golden hour! see Number 4)

This pose was perfect for capturing my awe at this white village in Spain (Frigiliana)

A completely candid moment at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain (it was crawling with tourists, so patience was necessary!)

6) Be careful not to distort your picture!

This one is especially true for improving your smartphone photography. With the super-wide angle lenses on smartphones, it’s really easy to make buildings look all wonky and distorted. You want to keep the smartphone facing straight and not angled up. This is especially hard in cities where you want to capture entire monuments or buildings. Our recommendation? Back up a little bit, maybe across the street, so that you can keep the phone straight and then crop the image later. We did this in the picture below. We were able to capture the streetlight and yellow building without distorting, and then crop in a bit to focus your eye to these later on. This tip is also true for mirrorless and DSLR cameras, but it’s especially important for smartphone photography.

7) Edit, edit, edit.

Here’s a “secret” for you: we never save or share photos straight off of the camera. We’ve spent years honing our editing skills, both on our phones and on our computers. Many times, the unedited raw images from your phone or camera will not match the colors you saw. That’s what editing is for! Don’t feel shy about bumping the colors of pictures to match what your eye saw (or even to match the color of blue through your sunglasses!). Most digital pictures need some clean up before they are ready to go.

The Sony A7R iii mirrorless camera that we use is able to transfer photos to our phones wirelessly. This was great for our trip, and meant that we could transfer photos for both back-up and editing. For editing photos on our phones, we use the free app Snapseed. On our computer, we use the new Lightroom CC to edit our photos. We occasionally use a preset filter from VSCO or other apps on our photos, but typically we try to achieve a look we want without purchased presets.

The sea in Malaga, Spain looked positively gray before this edit.

8) Practice, practice, practice.

The last in our photography tips and tricks for how to take better pictures on vacation is this: PRACTICE! The best part about digital travel photography is that doesn’t really cost any extra to take more pictures. The more you practice taking travel photos, the more you’ll get comfortable with lighting, angles, and camera settings. Traveling is the perfect place to hone your skills and fall in love with the craft of photography. We use the Google Photos app on our smartphones. It provides free, unlimited storage for all of our photos, so we didn’t have to worry about running out of space (as long as we could find decent Wifi!). We took thousands of travel photos on the road and then chose our absolute favorites when we got home.

One day we took our Sony mirrorless camera to the beach in Tellaro, Italy and Alex got this fantastic motion shot

A door at the Alhambra in Granada, Spain — with door photos it’s imperative to stand as straight on as possible (Number 6)

A hidden beach in Tellaro, Italy

A rare restaurant DSLR picture: we brought out the big guns for the paella in Barcelona! Since it feels awkward whipping out a huge camera at a restaurant, we prefer using smartphone photography for food

What else do you want to know?

Do you have more questions about how to take better pictures on vacation? We’d love to help provide more photography tips and tricks for your travel photography. Let us know in the comments below!

A Couple Cooks - Recipes for Healthy & Whole Living

from A Couple Cooks https://ift.tt/2BcDcZF