Life

My First Turkey

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Since I am 29 years old, I decided it was time I tried to cook a turkey.  Luckily, we were having people over for our friend’s (Ben McDonald) 30th birthday so this was a good chance to try out my turkey roasting skills.  My whole life, cooking the turkey was a grandparents job, we just brought everything else.  After posting a few questions on facebook and then google-ing a couple of things, I decided to go with Tyler Florence’s Maple Roasted Turkey with Sage Butter.

Here’s the 12.78 pound turkey

Sage, Butter, Salt, Pepper

mix it in…

This was the fun part.  Putting the sage butter in between the skin and breast of the turkey.  Next time I’ll put more.

Tie it all up…

Then layer it with bacon!

Baste it with maple syrup…

Then put a tent over it for the first 1.5-2 hours…

My wife’s decorating skills…

And it’s done!

And carved…

And friends…

Overall, I thought it went pretty well.  I give the turkey a 7/10.  I think I may try this recipe without the bacon but still do the maple syrup.  I totally expect to be a professional the next time I attempt this.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Retreat in BW

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We had a great retreat with our church this past weekend. We’re not a large church (75ish) so it’s easy to go on weekend things like this. I was leading worship for most of it but I did get a chance to take just a couple shots.

Halloween Spooktacular (vol vi)

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So we had our Halloween Spooktacular party this past Saturday night and it was awesome!  We had 66 people actually at the house and a vast majority dressed up!

As usual, vote for your favorite costume!
(sorry if I misspelled anyone’s costume names!)

And I want to thank Charlie and Jamie (Forrest and Jenny) for bringing their ring light for us to shoot through for the pictures this year.
You guys rock.

 

Happy Anniversary Love

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Three years ago yesterday…you’re amazing, sweetie!
(yes it’s a day late but I was busy yesterday people!)

(a Josh Kulak original polaroid)

And my wife has started a new blog!  She’ll be writing about creative, artsy, decor-type things.
You should visit her site and follower her blog!
http://freshentity.com

Our Kitchen

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I know this isn’t a normal post from me, but my wife worked really hard sanding, painting, and decorating our kitchen over the past couple of weeks so I thought I would share! (unfortunately I don’t have a great “before” shot, but this is best I have from when we first moved in)

before…

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after…

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she did a pretty good job eh?

Film Friday – Holga 120N

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So this if my first “Film Friday” post. I recently purchased a Holga medium format camera from a photographer friend (Elizabeth Leighton) in Dallas. Since this was my first round at medium format film (or film in general), I decided I needed some good test shots. Here are a few from the wedding this past Saturday and our Memorial Day festivities (ultimate frisbee) out at Macarthur Park.  The only thing I did post process wise was a little levels here and there.

Let me know what you think!

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Life – Dinner with the Family

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Lately, I’ve started to realize the more and more I take pictures, the less and less I take pictures of the daily events in my own life.  I’ve decided to challenge myself to take pictures when I’m with family, friends, or whoever, because honestly, they’re probably the only pictures that will mean a lot to me years down the road.

So I’m beginning a “Life” series (no not like the Discovery Channel).  It will be pictures that consist of my life and those closest to me.  It won’t be an everyday thing but hopefully it will be fairly consistent (which will be tough with wedding season coming up).

The first is a dinner I had at my parents’ house yesterday.  It’s not normal for all of us to be able to get together, especially outside of major holidays, so we decided to eat dinner.  Of course, in normal motherly fashion, my mom made way too much.  .

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we recently sold my grandparents’ house so we’ve been spending a lot of time looking at old photos

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my wife assisting…

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Chicago!

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well kim and i decided to go to chicago for the past couple of days with nathan and natalie.  we had a great time and it was actually warm!

we drove…

the iphone saved us many times in chicago…

ode to trever hoehne…

two story apple store…

-intelligentsia-

ethel’s gourmet chocolate…

nathan and natalie…

it rained the day we left…

My Friend Justin

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(i think im going to do a little series of posts about certain people that have/are impacting my life)

Everyone…meet Justin
(he’s been mentioned on my blog a number of times before)

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Justin has been a good friend of mine for quite a while now.  We first met in college and began leading worship together at retreats and a college thing called refuge.  He’s been very vital in starting this church and has been helping in the development of it from the beginning.

He’s honest and encouraging (a tough combo) and is probably the best drummer/pad/norde electro player I know (yes he plays all three during our worship services). In addition to serving in the church by using his gifts, he also serves those in need. He works at homeless shelter in town as his full-time job (which isn’t always easy, by-the-way). He’s been teaching the leadership a lot about helping the homeless in a responsible and Biblical way, as well as, showing us which shelters do certain things (which is always helpful to us and the homeless).

Anyway, if you haven’t had the chance to spend much time with Justin (and you live around little rock), you need to. He can give you some great pointers in life and may even change your view just a tad.