Food... for Thought?

Today, I decided to start experimenting a bit with food photography. I'm not really sure where the inspiration came from with this, but the best guess I can come up with is the fact that I'm stuck in the house every day (until we figure out the car situation, which is a whole 'nother story) and I just really had a strong urge to take some pictures. I'd started out taking photos of the dogs [because they're always entertaining and I love photographing them] and other random things around the house:

Nappy, looking cute as ever!

Guinness and Nappy cuddled up with each other.

 But I got to thinking that sometimes food can look pretty amazing also.

I decided to make some simple Kraft Macaroni & Cheese for lunch, and halfway through boiling the pasta, I realized that I'd forgotten we didn't have any milk. And I HATE mac&cheese without milk... so I figured I would try my best to find a substitute. We had some Velveeta cheese in the fridge, so I cut up some cubes of that to make up for the lack of milk, plus used a little extra butter. Once the pasta was ready, I stirred in the butter first, making sure it was completely melted before adding the Velveeta cubes (at this point, I also added about a handful of shredded mozzarella cheese). After that, about half of the powdered cheese packet that comes in the box. When it was nice and creamy, I poured a serving in one of our bowls  and topped it with more shredded mozzarella cheese. Then did my best to get a good closeup shot:

Creamy macaroni & cheese, tweaked from Kraft's version

I think I did pretty well for my first ever serious attempt at capturing the beauty of food.  It was really good too.  Though I'd peaked my interest a bit, and I was still a little hungry, so I also put together a quick salad.  This time, I captured the ingredients I used as well, just for the fun of it.

I used two leaves of romaine lettuce, baby carrots and olives (chopped) and topped it with what is rapidly becoming my favorite salad dressing: Tuscan Italian with Balsamic Vinegar from Trader Joe's.  It's amazingly good and adds alot to a simple salad.

Quick & simple salad

That photo didn't turn out as well, to me.  Arranging a salad for photo purposes is definitely NOT as easy as it looks.  I kind of ended up getting fed up and just hoping this would turn out alright. I hate the lettuce sticking up in the middle of the picture (at the bottom) but oh well. It was fun taking photos either way.

Planning on experimenting more throughout this week, maybe even including dinner meals as well.

Now I just need some more decorative bowls! =]