Egg-a-plant-a Parmegianna!

Oh man oh man... what a splurge day I had this weekend! Here's a rundown of how my splurgeday went:

8:30 AM (Slept in!) - Started the day off with Oreo Cookies and Milk! OHHHH YEAH.
8:55 AM - Costco brand Asian Snack mix.
9:00 AM - Cheetos (while checking email)
9:30 AM - Jenny and I went to the Denver Diner. I had eggs, hash browns, bacon, snausage, coke (two refills), pancakes and bizcuits.
11:00: Bugle corn schnacks and Gatorade
2:00: QUESO! Jenny made some fab queso. Accompanied with fritos and corn scoopz.
3:00 - 8:00 Constant Schnacking. (More oreos, chips, etc.)
8:00 - Eggplant Parmesan!

Before I continue, I am going to teach you how to make Eggplant Parmesan. I tried a new sauce recipe from a photographer friend of mine, Randy Kepple, from Washington! Thanks Randy! Surprisingly it was almost an exact match to my family recipe. WIERD. Oh and Randy is an AMAZING photographer and I am glad he is in Washington, and not CO or AZ.

1. Get some fresh parsley and garlic, and about a half of a large sweet Walla Walla onion. Chop it up!

2. Sautee it up in EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL!!! Don't get cheap olive oil, people, you're killin me! The garlic is tricky. If your olive oil is too hot, your garlic will burn, producing a strong, bitter, NASTY flavor. Dont do that.



3. My sauce for eggplant never has meat, but I was dying to try Randy's recipe, so I added ground lamb and italian snausage. It was soooooo good! But, I think I'll use that sauce for pasta and lasagna only for now on. The meat kind of covered up the delicate flavors of the eggplant. It was great, but I think the sauce is more intended for lasagna and pasta. Add a good glass of Cabernet. Then add some sugar (or like they call it in Mexico, "Choogargh") to sweeten it up a little and reduce the acidity from the tomatos, some sweet basil, large dash of salt and I add a dash of red wine vinegar, too. Add a small can of Contadina tomato paste, and 1-2 cans full of aqua. Randy and I agree that Hunts makes the best sauce. Add a large can of that. Stir, and turn to LOW.



4. The fun part... bring out tha EGGPLANT! Slice it about 1 cm thick. Too thick, and it will be too firm after it's been fried up. Better too thin than too thick. Dredge in this order: 1. Flour; 2. Eggs and a little milk (to make em fluffier); 3. Bread Crumbs.


I always thought this was a wierd order to do it, because the flour makes it hard for the egg to stick to the eggplant, but that's how Nonnie does it, so I don't ask any questions.


5. Fry em up! Again, in good, extra virgin olive oil! BE CAREFUL. I cook em up at less than "medium-high". Just between Medium and Med-High. Too hot and your eggplant will brown too fast and they will be too firm. Too low and it will take forever and your eggplant will taste more like oil, than eggplant. BE CAREFUL.

In a casserole dish, layer the eggplant and a tiny bit of sauce, a good layer of mozzerella cheese. Do this until you're done and then dump as much sauce as you can on the top and add more cheese.
Toss it in the oven, preheated at 350 for about 15 minutes, or however long it takes to make a side dish of Penne.



7. Remove from the oven, serve, garnishing with fresh basil and parley and grated parmesan cheese. Bon Appetito! ...or BAM! ...or "Dinner's Ready" ...or "come and get it!".


8. Jenny was hard at work in front of her computer while I was slaving away. So I made her close her eyes and stand behind the table. I put the eggplant right on the table, under her nose and made her smell it for a while. I could tell she was getting excited!


9. OK! OPEN YOUR EYES!!! Let's EAT!




Check out what I did to our water! Added fresh rasberries and some canteloupe and mint leaves. It was pretty and refreshing!

The end result:

10:05 PM - Jenny and I went to see the movie "Cars". LOVED IT. And even better, Jenny (ahem, I mean, the "Splurge-Fairy") surprised me with a Cars Pez Dispenser! We had popcorn and sody-pop and those mint cream things that are covered with chocolate (I forgot what they are called) and Sour Patch Kids!!! WEW!
11:59 PM - more oreos and milk. Splurge day was officially over. :(

SushiDen!

I have a little tradition of mine that started about a year ago, I suppose.

It started one evening when I was shooting a wedding in Cherry Creek at the JW Marriott. I was done at around 10:00ish and right next door is Hapa Grill, a pretty decent sushi place. I dropped in for some sushi, and it felt so good to sit, relax, and have a little Saki and Sushi, that I have pretty much made a tradition out of it!

Now, I eat sushi after just about every wedding I shoot. In fact, as soon as the bride tosses the bouquet, I start dreuling because I know I'm getting close to sushi time!

Saturday I photographed a beautiful and FUN wedding for Mina and Robert. I'll post those later. They hired me for my unlimited coverage package, so I decided to do my sushi after their rehearsal dinner instead, at my favorite sushi spot in Denver, Sushi Den!

I called Jenny and invited her and bless her heart, she got all dolled up and we made a really nice date out of it! After sushi, we walked by a creepy costume store and I got some shots of their SCARRRRRY storefront!
Let's see here... there's Unagi (eel) in the back left. FIRECRACKER Tuna Roll (with the jalepeno), can't forget the traditional California roll (back right), Salmon (front, orange), and tuna (front, red). For those of you non-sushiites, the little green blob is WASABI! (I like that word) and ginger (front left, yellow).

Ginger is like soap for your mouth so that you can taste the next piece of sushi for the total sushi experience. WASABI! is a Japanese horsey-sauce with a lot of BITE.



For starters, we ordered... shoot, I forgot the name of this. It's a common cold dish of tomatoes, cilantro, onion, and other stuff, mixed with seafood (calamari, shrimp, etc.). It's gaspacho, basically, but a lot better! Jenny likes to talk to her food before she eats it. In this particular incident, Jenny and her food got into a yelling match with each other. They totally caused a scene and it was really embarrassing. I always tell her to leave politics out of her conversation with food. Here she goes!

Here are some shots from this creeeeepy costume store near Sushi Den. Here's a creepy unicorn and a woman.

Here's a creepy girl costume. Isn't it adorable? NO, actually it's FREAKY! I don't know why anyone would want one of these costumes. It reminds me of creepy porcelain dolls that you find at grandparents homes. Thankfully I think my grandparents are too cool for those dolls. They always look like they are watching you.

This lady isn't as creepy. In fact, she's almost attractive. Nevermind, I take that back. CREEPY!

Uncle Mark!

I like the sound of that!

Oh... wait, I'm already an uncle to Jay, Gina's son, but I just got news today that Gina is PREN again!!! (My nonnie pronounces pregnant, "PREN").

I am really excited! Gina is the best mom I have ever met, too. She could be the next Nanny 911. She sets firm boundarys, doesn't cater to poor behavior, such as whining and tantrums (I was the kind of tantrums when I was a shortie), yet she showers her son Jay with love and compassion when it's due, and it just totally fun. And now she's got another bun in the oven!! SUHWEET!

Here's to my older sister Gina. Jenny told me that I need to post a nicer photo of Gina because the last one was "mean". WHATEVER! It was hilareous! But I will.

Here's a shot at my younger sister's wedding. Gina is upper right. Not my style of photography anymore, I've become a little more contemporary since then, but Geenie looks very nice, so does Katherine (center)... anyway, CONGRATULATIONS, GINA!!!

Ben & Stefanie, Denver Country Club!

Last weekend I photographed the wedding of Ben and Stefanie, two school teachers who are IN LOVE!!! Sometimes you can really feel it at a wedding and theirs was no exception. So here's their story. I threw in a bunch of extra shots, since I didn't get these up the following day, which is what I usually shoot for. I'm a slacker! No I'm not!

These were photographed at the Denver Country Club and I want to give a special shout to Amber, who was their catering manager. She was AWESOME. She got me everything I needed for the reception slide show and otherwise... and was so accomodating that I thought I was in some sort of great dream. Thanks Amber!!

Nice shoes!


The wedding programs. I LOVE outdoor ceremonies!!!!


Stefanie is happy because well, she's gettin hitched! She looks great, even before her make up!


Beautiful flower girl in anticipation!


I never got a chance to see who the dress is by, but it was very elegant!





BOING!!!!!


Mom, putting an antique necklace on Stefanie.



Bridesmaide puts on Stefanie's garter, while others keep her upright!

Trying to get a sneak peek of the wedding site, awaiting her arrival!

These are music CDs, party gifts for the guests.

Groomsmen, doing what they do best... horsin around.

Here comes the bride!


I Love it when there are rose petals in the aisle!



Ben's dad's reaction to "the kiss"

I took probably the largest group photo in my life at this wedding. I'll put up the grand daddy in another post, but here's a close-up with my Canon 70-200 2.8 IS L Lens.

Let the party begin!


It's like artwork that you put in your mouth...


NOT to put in your mouth. This is for smelling and looking at.


Ben and Stefanie, listening to toasts...



The engagement photo I took of them last winter in Breckenridge!


Guess what song they are listening to, and you win a prize!


OK... as I was packing up, I realized I didn't get my famous mirror shot that my peeps like so much. So I decided I better not let down my peeps, so here are a few before going home. My dawgs were barkin, but I can't let down my peeps!


OK, so I got a little carried away!


...OK REALLY CARRIED AWAY. I was havin fun!

Published!

Hey, I got published again, this time in The Knot Real Weddings, CO. So if you find yourself at the book store or grocery store, look for this and see if you can find my schtuff!

MC Paparazzi

A couple years ago I was visiting my cousin Laurie in the Bay Area, CA. She lives in Palo Alto, but we went out to San Francisco. YOU ARE NEVER GOING TO GUESS WHAT HAPPENED.

...which is why I will tell you. Anyway, we were walking through town and went by this huge park. There were all these really nice studio lights set up. So I told Laurie to stand in the light so I could get a nice portrait of her. Of course I just happened to have my Canon EOS 1D Mark II Camera and my 70-200mm 2.8 IS L Lens with me. I took her photo and then got yelled at by this movie director guy. Turns out we were on the set of a movie that Reese Witherspoon and Mark Ruffalo was in. Somehow we managed to get by security and were hanging out on the set of this movie! As soon as I found out that I was among celebrities, I got into Paparazzi mode.

We saw Reese and Ruffalo on the set and so I started to take photos. I wasn't the only one doing this. Every passer-by with a camera stopped. Just happened that I had a long professional lens. I got singled out. Reese's bodyguard or something smacked my camera and broke my flash! I didn't know it was broken until later or else I would have put the guy in a strangle hold. Maybe not. He was twice my size.

Here's the damage done to my precious Canon Speedlight 580 EX, a'la REESE WITHERSPOON and company! Cracked my LCD!



I toyed with the guy and would casually walk away, then quickly I'd point my camera right over to Reese and Mark! Then he'd start walking briskly over to me, which is when I'd start casually walking away. I did this for a good half hour. It was hilareous!

Anyway, here are the shots. :)

Mark Ruffalo. Not to be confused with Mark Cafiero.

Oh man, Reese is lucky that Jenny was not there to see her trying to kiss me!

Here are some shots of Reese and Mark, chillin out. Reese is a GHOST in this movie. Don't be scared though. She's a happy ghost and doesn't want to hurt anyone. I just noticed in the background of this shot, you can actually see Mr. Meat Head, glaring at me! (upper right hand corner!).

Here's a few other people with Reese and Mark. I never saw them in the movie. But they had sushi on the set. Maybe they were bringing Mark and Reese some sushi. Mark and Reese are happy.

The title of the movie at the time was "If only it were true". That's what was embroidered on all the directors chairs, but they changed it to "Heaven Sent" or "Heaven only Knows" or something like that. Jenny and I rented it last week. It's a chick flick, but I actually enjoyed it! I saw the exact scenes that these shots are from.

If you look close enough in the movie, you can actually see a big meat head of a bodyguard smacking an innocent wedding photographer's camera! ;) You owe me, Reese!

Big MAC

I'm playing catch up on my blog! Sorry peeps! I've been busy this week. I am writing an article right now for Rangefinder Magazine... I'll tell you what it's about later... it's a SURPRISE!

And I've spent many a late night putting together an outline for the 2007 Wedding and Portrait Photographer's International convention. As you know I was a Master Class presenter this year. While I was in Vegas, I got to hang out with Jim Kennedy, who's quite possibly the largest wedding photographer out of Orange County, CA. He's literally making history in this business, so I am excited at the opportunity to speak at the next WPPI Convention and Trade Show in Vegas. I sent out our outline this morning.

This week for Splurge Day, Jenny and I got a Big Mac. A big MAC. Here I am, stealing the mac from the Apple store. Photo courtesy of Cherry Creek Mall Security Camera.

I've been so busy though, it's been set up, but only turned on once so far.

I'm excited about it for many reasons, one that pertains to my peeps is my new upcoming iBlog! It's not just another silly ol' blog, guys... I'll be able to post slideshows to music after every wedding I photograph! It will be cleaner and more custom!

Also, get ready for CafieroBride.com. It's my new web site, not to replace Cafierophoto.com, but that's a secret, too! You'll see!

Say What?

I am dry on ideas for a fun blog post tonight, I'm busy editing images from all of my weddings from the past few weeks, but I love this blog, it gives me such a great excuse to take a little break and recharge!

The television in on in the other room and I heard one of Volkswagon Jetta's new commercials. I think it's hilareous and genious. It shows a 20-something year old guy picking up a girl at her parents home for a date. The girls dad, who looks like just a really nice guy says, "hey, the weather is great today, maybe you two could go on a little hike!".

The guy gets FURIATED and says, "YOU go take a hike! Not every Jetta owner likes hiking ya know".

The girl is all, "Daaaaad!" and her dad is like, "What?"... totally dumbfounded. It makes me laugh every time.

(Oh by the way, sometimes I type things like "she was all" and "I was like". Etc...) Just me being silly, folks. I don't really talk that way. On a related note, in college I broke up with a girl because she decided she wanted to start talking "baby talk". That's not very attractive.

The genious part is that there really are stereo types about Jetta owners. I was shopping for a Jetta, but I'm not a "metro" kind of guy. People think I am because I wear "product" in my hair when I go out with people. Anyway I got an Audi instead and now I REALLY get made fun of by my "uber" friends. Sometimes you just can't win. Fact is, I'm a mountain man, but I don't think my wedding clients would appreciate me parking a muddy lifted jeep via valet at the Four Seasons for their fancy champagne wedding.

This is Derek Zoolander. When I talk "Metro" this is what I mean.
When I first got started in the business professionally I didn't even have a studio. I'd meet clients at Starbucks and would hide my Jeep, parking it WAAAAAY in the back. The door fell off of it once and I had to drive to a wedding with no driver side door. I thought I could hide it, but the bride saw me as I hopped in. At the reception she said something like, "nice jeep." and not in a complimentary way. It wasn't long before I sold the Jeep for $1500 bucks and got a nice Audi A4, which I LOVE.

All the fellow Ski Patrollers make fun of me now and call me "metro-boy" and my good friend, Matt Norfleet said I am officially metro now because I style my hair, wear fancy lookin jeans, and the clencher: "muscular, but not strong". Ouch. That one hurt. I guess it's true. Whenever I go to the gym I can't seem to bench nearly as much as all of the no-necks around me.