Its been a great year at the studio, we have a lot to be thankful for! We captured some beautiful imagery this month with a rustic, DIY, Holiday theme. We might have snuck a puppy picture in there too, but with good reason. We’ve also included our favorite Holiday Hot Chocolate recipe and a quick “how to” to make some unique ornaments. I’m thinking of making it a tradition every year to make ornaments with my family after Christmas dinner, that way we’ll have some memories to hang on the tree next year. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Styling by the lovely Alicia Buszczak, Art Direction by Steph Fowler and of course all photography by Mr. Lew Robertson.

The recipe below calls for white chocolate, but you can substitute milk chocolate too!

The sweet dog pictured here is Twiggy. Chrissy our Producer, volunteers at A DOGS LIFE RESCUE You can call and ask about Twiggy, or go to her page on their website to find out more info. She is a little lover and needs a good home. Chrissy often brings her to the studio for the day on little field trips, and we all love her here.

And Below, a little behind the scenes of making our sheet music ornaments. These are so easy, all you need is some sheet music (can be printed from pinterest, we found Holiday songs!) A couple of paint brushes, old christmas bulbs (or cheap plastic ones from the 99 cent store), Mod Podge, and glitter! Tear strips of the music paper, paint on mod podge (front and back) stick onto the bulb and keep repeating until your bulb is covered in paper. Take one last brush of mod podge over the whole bulb, and then cover with glitter! Have fun!

We picked up a great book called Aunt Sandy’s Medical Marijuana Cookbook. She has quite a few pages that give step by step instructions (with photos) on how to make cannabutter, cannaflour, cannabis oil and tinctures. This last one I had never heard of, in the book it says, “Marijuana tincture is a great additive to enhance your favorite beverage. Adding a dropper to a cup of tea can make for a relaxing and holistic experience.”

And let’s get back to basics here with a tried and true pot brownie. I found an amazing recipe in the Stoners Delight cookbook, its called The Ultimate Chocolate Brownie.

These images and recipes are to educate and entertain, we do not in any way condone the use of prohibited substances.

Prop Stylist Alicia Buszczak, Art Direction Steph Fowler

Start your morning out right with “baked” eggs.

I found a great popsicle recipe on the NUG Magazine website, its called the NY Diesel Icesickle. You can make any flavor you like, they are super easy, and the marijuana is optional. We also made a pomegranate shaved ice!

Cheesecakes in Mason Jars are a unique way to serve a dessert at a party, and who doesn’t love a macaron?

Marijuana can be added easily to any of your favorite foods to transform it into a healing recipe. Marijuana has been known to relieve pain, nausea, vomiting, anxiety, and the loss of appetite. You can read more about its healing qualities on the National Cancer Institutes website HERE.

These images and recipes are to educate and entertain, we do not in any way condone the use of prohibited substances.

Prop Stylist Alicia Buszczak, Food Stylist Karen Gillingham, Art Direction Steph Fowler

Chicken Dumpling Soup!

If  you’re thinking about cooking with Marijuana, I stumbled across this website, The Stoners Cookbook they give really detailed instructions, including how to make butter, cooking oil and flour!

We will be posting more beautiful imagery with this theme all week!

These images and recipes are to educate and entertain, we do not in any way condone the use of prohibited substances.

Prop Stylist Alicia Buszczak, Food Stylist Karen Gillingham, Art Direction Steph Fowler

We had the opportunity to work with prop stylist Alicia Buszczak again on this gorgeous shoot. We were inspired by 18th century still life paintings. This particular shortcake recipe can be found on 101 Cookbooks, one of our favorite sites for recipes. We did however add blackberries to our version. We also added a whipped cream filling, which is optional.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Make the shortcakes: Sift the flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar into a large bowl or food processor. Using a pastry cutter or 25 quick pulses of the food processor, blend until the mixture resembles tiny, sandy pebbles. If you are using a food processor transfer the mixture to a big bowl and using a fork stir in the milk until just combined.

Either drop directly onto a parchment-lined baking sheet (like drop biscuits), or turn the dough out onto a floured countertop, knead just once or twice to bring the dough together, roll out 3/4-inch thick and stamp with 1 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. Brush each shortcake with egg white and sprinkle with just a bit of coarse sea salt (and a bit more sugar if you like). Bake on the middle rack for about 12 minutes.

Make the syrup:Put the honey and sugar in a small saucepan over low heat and stir until the honey loosens up and the sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and whisk in the champagne and fruit juice. We squeezed our blackberries through a cheese cloth to get the juice.

Makes about 12 medium-sized shortcakes.

Happy Holidays!

We really got into the spirit of the Season with this shoot. We were especially excited to find Labrador retriever cookie cutters! Enjoy the recipe, these cookies are delicious! Prop styling by Alicia Buszczak, art direction by Steph Fowler & production by Chrissy Cassidy.

There’s no better time like the heat of the summer to cool off with some refreshing lemonade. We have a little garden outside our studio, and the mint is growing like crazy. We also have a little lemon tree, and tons of strawberries. It’s so rewarding to make fruit or herb infused drinks with items from our garden. Here are two of our favorite lemonade recipes and of course what would a photography blog be without some pretty pictures? We hope you enjoy!

Mint Lemonade

Ingredients

1/2 lb strawberries trimmed and halved
1 1/2 cups fresh lemon juice
1 cup sugar
3 cups cold water

Purée strawberries with 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a blender until smooth, then force through a fine sieve into a bowl to remove seeds. Stir together strawberry purée, remaining lemon juice, 1 cup sugar, and water in a large pitcher until sugar is dissolved. Taste, then add more sugar if desired. Serve over ice.

We’re really excited to finally start blogging over here at Lew Robertson Photography. We’re a studio specializing in food and beverage photography. We have a lot of exciting things planned for this blog, some behind the scenes shooting, how to organize props, interviews with some amazing food and prop stylists, thoughts on stock photography, some beautiful imagery that hopefully inspires, and recipes! I should mention now, we’re a studio that LOVES dogs, we have 3 that live here full time, and many friends that stop in along the day. Look for some fun photos of our furry friends!

Now onto our first Recipe ever!

CANDIED FLOWERS

These are super simple and can be used to decorate any dessert!

Ingredients:
egg whites, beaten until frothy
coarse or super fine sugar
100 proof vodka

Use edible flowers and petals (preferably organic and not from a flower shop or garden center, as they are usually sprayed with pesticides.)

Add a few drops of vodka to the beaten egg whites (this will help the flowers dry more quickly), then paint each flower or petal individually with mixture. When coated, sprinkle sugar evenly over flowers, and let dry on wire rack.

When flowers are dry, they will be stiff to the touch.

For a more delicate look, use superfine sugar; or opt for a more textured look using coarse sugar.

Store dried petals in an airtight container and freeze for up to a year. They are wonderful to keep on hand to dress up a simple store bought cake.