V.K.Rees Photography

I love bread. I love pumpkin. And I love sage. All three of them together is just ridiculously good.

You will want to get a loaf of bread that is at least a day old for this recipe. If the bread is too soft cutting it into this pattern becomes tricky. I bought a loaf two days before making this and let it sit out on the counter until it got a bit stale. If you are too impatient to wait, just look for a harder bread when you are at the store.

Ingredients:

• 1 Tbs olive oil
• 1 can of pumpkin, no flavoring
• 3 Tbs fresh sage, chopped
• 1 loaf of bread
• 1-2 cups of vegetable broth
• 2 cloves of garlic, diced
• 1 big pinch of salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Meanwhile, heat a the oil in a medium size skillet.
3. Once the oil is hot, add the garlic and sauté until fragrant.
4. Stir in the pumpkin and 1 cup of the vegetable broth and heat till warm. You may need to add a bit more veggie broth. The pumpkin mixture needs to be thin enough to pour between bread slices.
5. Stir in the salt and sage. Season to taste.
6. Set the pumpkin mixture aside to cool.
7. Cut the bread lengthwise and then widthwise. Don’t cut through the bottom crust. The widthwise part can be kinda hard so be careful.
8. Place loaf on a foil-lined baking sheet.
9. Pour or scoop the pumpkin mixture between the cuts of bread.
10. Brush the surface of the bread with a bit of olive oil and sprinkle with salt.
11. Wrap the bread in foil and bake for 15 minutes.
12. Unwrap the bread and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Or until the bread is toasty.

I’m in a bit of a hurry so I don’t have time to say much but I wanted to take a minute to thank everyone who took time to write such kind words in my last post. I’m so touched and overwhelmed by how kind and supportive everyone is! Thank you!

I had a ridiculously good time doing the photos for this one. And, seriously, this bread is delightful. I highly recommend it. If you aren’t a big fan of pumpkin and/or sage, feel free to swap out the gourd/herb combination!

Oh, and I post a lot of in progress photo on my facebook, instagram, and twitter account. So, if you are at all interested in seeing how photos come together, check it out. =)

Till next time!

After wrapping a photo shoot for BUST magazine (check out the Feb/March issue of BUST to see what we worked on!), amazing food stylist Lauren LaPenna and I decided to do a test shoot. For those of you who may not know, a test shoot is basically when photographers and stylists collaborate on their own project to build up a portfolio and test out ideas. No one gets paid for this.

Side note: I’m always up for testing! Just shoot me a message if you have an idea.

I was stoked when Lauren told me she wanted to do a shoot with dips. She ended up making a White Bean & Sage dip, Olive Tapenade, and a delicious hummus. For me, a vegan, this is classic bar food (am I right fellow vegans?). I knew almost immediately I wanted to do a rustic bar scene with fun lighting and lots of textures. With that in mind I channeled my inner Anna Williams, KQD, and Anders Schonnemann (specifically his breathtaking drink shoot in Issue 29 of Jamie magainze).

Lauren and I turned on some good music, cracked open a few beers, and got to shooting…

Lauren is not only an amazing food stylist, she is an incredibly sweet person. Whenever we work together she goes out of her way to set some food aside for me to try. These dips she made were downright delicious. I’m not going to post the recipes here since they are her own creation but they are up on her blog! You can find the recipe for the Olive Tapenade here. The hummus here. And the White Bean & Sage dip here.

I’m going to talk about myself for a second. Feel free to just ignore this paragraph if you could care less!

If you read my blog regularly you may have noticed that the look and the vibe of the photos in my past few posts have been really inconsistent. You could even say they have been drastically different. Lately I’ve been feeling very eager to narrow down and define my aesthetic as a photographer. To be clearer, you know how sometimes you see a photo or a painting and you can say without hesitation who the artist is because all of their work has a similar aesthetic?  That is what I’m looking for. I am proud of the work I do but it’s admittedly inconsistent in its overall tone. I find it difficult to nail down a look because there are so many things I still want and need to try. The point of this ramble is to say that the month of October is all about me trying all the things I’ve been wanting to try and figuring out what works and what doesn’t. What I like and what sucks. I think the only way to find what I’m looking for is to make lots of work and try different things. So bear with me and my inconsistent photography for the time being! I’m going to be experimenting like crazy.

I think that is the most I’ve ever said about myself on this blog. Back to food photography…

The fun thing about doing test shoots is you can try a lot of different things. Here is an entirely different approach to the same food.

I’m in a bit of a hurry today so I’m not going to be able to say much. I will just let the pictures speak for themselves! These are pears poached with vanilla pods served with chocolate sauce and ice cream. This was my first time poaching pears and it did not disappoint!

Ingredients:

• 3 pears
• 1 split vanilla pod
• 3/4 cup sugar
• A pot of water deep enough to cover all 3 pears
• Dark Chocolate chips
• Coconut Bliss Vanilla Ice Cream

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat the water and sugar until the sugar has dissolved. Add the vanilla.
2. While the water is heating, peel the pears.
3. Slide the pears in.
4. Keep the liquid simmering (not boiling) until the pears are cooked through. It took me roughly 30 minutes.
5. Take the pears out of the water and let them cool for a bit.
6. Meanwhile, melt the chocolate chips using a double broiler.
7. Once the pears are ready, cover in melted chocolate and serve with a scoop of ice cream.