3 Quarters Today

My Life, my photography, my passions

365project

Day 83/365: Egg and Sausage Breakfast Casserole

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Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole
Day 83: Breakfast Egg Casserole

I don’t know why I procrastinate in posting to my 365 Blog, I really do take pictures everyday. But, I seem to wait until the end of the week and post everything at once and try and catch up. This leaves me with an empty blog for several days and my statistics crash and burn.  Since I’m goal oriented and like to challenge myself the decrease in viewing numbers is not a pretty site.  So now I’m going to spread out the posts to just once a day and do a better job of twitter updates and lets see how that works.

Today is another recipe. I had teenage boys over for an Xbox Black Ops party last weekend, which means they stayed up until 4 am, something like that. It also means they slept until almost noon. To help wake them up I prepared an breakfast egg and sausage casserole. Not only is this is easy to make, but it’s a great way to use stale Italian/French bread and there are so many variations that you can create your own variety every time.

I used a silicon pan, just got this last year, haven’t decided whether I like them or not. I’m a traditionalist and silicon cookware doesn’t have the rigidity of metal. But there are benefits, as I learned from the Shakin N’ Bakin blog, silicon bakeware doesn’t need to be greased or oiled and it cools down quickly after being taken out of the oven. It’s also not supposed to stain, but mine did. I do have a few other pieces I’m going to try out. I’ll let you know how I like them.

Egg and Sausage Breakfast CasseroleRecipe

Ingredients

  • Sausage (ground, link, or patties, ham can also be used)
  • Bread (I used Italian, but stale bread works best)
  • 1 cup cheese
  • 8 Large Eggs
  • 1/2 Cup Milk
  • Dried Mustard
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Onions (other veggies can be added, tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms)
  • Sweet Basil (optional, I like sweet basil on everything)

Directions

Cube the bread and place in the bottom of a casserole dish, layer the sausage pieces, cheese, and vegetables, until ingredients are gone. Sprinkle each layer with salt, pepper, dried mustard, and sweet basil.  Scramble the eggs and milk in a bowl. Slowly pour over the layered ingredients making sure to soak the pieces of bread. Bake in a preheated 350F oven for approximately 25 minutes or until the eggs are set.

Photoshop Notes: general layers and resizing, brightened and added slight contrast. Biggest edit was cleaning my stove on the computer. Thought it was clean, but had grease splatters from cooking the sausage, so I cloned out the spots.

Day 82/365: The Story of A Puppy Mill Chihuahua

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Day 82: Hallee in her new coat

Here is my friend Hallee, isn’t she just the cutest little Chihuahua? Her Mom is a friend of mine in Lincoln Nebraska who has been so helpful in many ways this past year. Evie lost her beloved Boxer Princess the past year and Hallee came to fill that hole in her heart.

Seems that Halee’s life didn’t start too well, she was a result of finding an ad in a newspaper and when Evie and her friend went in late October to pick her out the place was a puppy mill.  Hallee and her litter mates were in an outdoor pen without shelter, she weighed less than two pounds. Supposedly Hallee was 6 weeks old at the time, the bones in her head hadn’t even begun to fuse yet.

Hallee was scooped up and the two friends stormed out of there and immediately reported the breeder. Hallee then became the most pampered pooch. She got a clean bill of health from the veterinarian and started accompanying her neighbor chihuahua friend Prissy to assisted swimming.

Because she was so tiny, insecure, and young she spent the next few weeks swaddled in a blanket cuddled up with Evie for security. As she grew she started to explore her surroundings, play with toys and become socialized. But she was still young, uncoordinated, and afraid of people. She would stay glued to Evie’s feet, hiding under her housecoat.

After much love and guidance from Evie, Hallee  is a bundle of energy who loves to zip around the room, chase tennis balls, play with toys, and gives puppy kisses to just about anyone who comes to visit. She’s about four and a half months old now and it’s been so fun to watch her grow and develop.

By the way, the cute little jacket I picked up for Hallee at my favorite thrift store, Bits and Pieces. Only $4.00 and it was part of the Elmwood-Murdock High School FBLA consignment booth. There was a small collection of dog clothes, along with the homemade doggy biscuits and treats, and I thought this one was perfect for Hallee.

Photoshop Notes: After the standard actions of layers and resizing the only thing I did was clone out a toothbrush that Hallee was standing over that distracted from the picture.

Day 81/365: Antique Buttons Under Glass

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Day 81: Buttons in a Jar

In my continuing Photoshop CS2 theme here is my latest experimentation. The original shot of antique button in canning jars was blurry, but I really liked the composition. So I decided to play with it to salvage my photo of the day. The other pictures I took today were glorified snapshots and I’m trying to push the envelope when I have the time.

Once again this photo location was Bit’s and Pieces thrift store (Elmwood, NE) in the antique consignment area. If I ever run out of ideas for photos this is where I will head. There is an never ending supply of interesting objects that will satisfy my creativity.

Photoshop CS2 notes: Action (Standard adjustment layers), desaturated about 25%, increased the red, green, blue, +43 , +36,  +78 in Color Adjustment and Added a Crosshatch Filter Brushstroke filter

Day 80/365: Colorful Gumballs

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Day 80: Gumballs & Playing in Photoshop

Yes, my photo opportunities disappeared with the setting of the sun so I went into my daughters room for inspiration. This led me on a 30 minutes exploration into different Photoshop effects to brighten images and make my images “Pop”.  What better image to try this on than a container full of gumballs. All the colors of the rainbow.

I tried the Shadow/Highlight function which works well, and also adding a select color layer. I like that layer and might add it to my actions. You can tweak just certain colors in an image, like make the green or blue deeper or richer without affecting the whole image.I have another gumball image that I’ll post in my Flickr account. Should show up below in the right hand border soon.

I welcome Photoshop tips, I have CS2, no light box or anything else fancy, but I am looking to stretch.

Can you tell my kids aren’t home tonight? Otherwise I wouldn’t be on the computer.

Day 79/365: The Wind in a Pup’s Ears

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Puppy Spring Day

What a gorgeous day, called for a short walk with my pooch Brody before supper. The sun was shining and there was a light breeze at the elementary school playground. Enough of a wind to blow his ear back, they don’t normally stick up. He was so happy sitting with his face to the sun and running around.

He normally wears a harness and I use a 16 foot retractable leash, but you can’t see it here. I wonder why? Smile. I’m getting better at PhotoShop. Smile.

 

Photoshop Notes: I have set up actions that automatically duplicate the background, add adjustment layers, resize, and smart sharpen to 11%. All with a click of one button. So easy and fast! Love it! With this image I adjusted the brightness , contrast, and reduced the saturation on Brody’s white fur. I also adjusted the exposure and the shadow/highlight slightly. Oh, and last but not least I cloned out the black chest harness and leash.