Pictures of Dogs and Food

This week Jin ran away. I actually had a long blog story ready to post about it, but Jin running away feels like such old news that I couldn't quite bring myself to click "publish." Still, he spent nearly four hours running around in the rain, which was enough to wear through his paws, and he spent the next two or three days limping and exhausted. It served him right, but he was kind of cute in the aftermath. I couldn't quite capture the post-neighborhood-adventure cuteness on my camera, but I tried.




Speaking of taking pictures of dogs, about an hour ago my roommate Stephanie and I were sitting on the couch when Jin began barking at people walking outside our window. (I'm trying to train him not to do this, but we're only about four days into the training.) It was our neighbors, a Korean couple with a very young son. The father had his video camera out and the little family stopped on the sidewalk in front of our sliding glass door where the father turned to our apartment to capture Jin barking at the baby, as Jin is wont to do, and then back to capture the baby's bemused reaction to the barking dog. They stood there for a few minutes documenting the scene and half-smiling at us through the glass, and then walked back to their apartment. It felt a little odd to be filmed inside our apartment like that. Especially when I realized that they had actually come over this way for the purpose of getting Jin's barking at the baby on camera. He always barks at the little boy. I find it both annoying and funny that Jin feels threatened by the baby, and apparently the Barking Dog Next Door is a significant enough part of our neighbors' life experience that they wanted to make sure they got it on film. Digitally speaking.

As long as I'm talking about taking pictures, I read an article about people taking pictures of food the other day, and doing things like posting them on blogs for all your friends to see. Taking pictures of food, apparently is the thing to do in this day and age, and this evening as I was, yes, taking pictures of food to post on my blog, I realized that I don't really know how to do it. At least not well enough to join the craze. Try as I might to play with my camera settings, and the lighting, and my angles, I can never make my food look pretty. Take this dish for example:




I look at the picture and I don't think it looks very appetizing. But trust me (and Stephanie) that it is. It's the kind of dish that makes me think that people should want to be friends with me. In spite of the less-than-appealing picture, I thought I'd still share the recipe in case you want to bypass the whole friendship and make it for yourself. Enjoy!

Artichoke Spinach Lasagna

9 uncooked lasagna noodles
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 (14.5 ounce) can vegetable broth
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 (14 ounce) can marinated artichoke hearts, drained and chopped
1 (10 ounce) package frozen chopped spinach, thawed, drained and squeezed dry
1 (28 ounce) jar tomato pasta sauce
3 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided
1 (4 ounce) package herb and garlic feta, crumbled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Spray a 9x13 inch baking dish with cooking spray. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add noodles and cook for 8 to 10 minutes or until al dente; drain.

Spray a large skillet with cooking spray and heat on medium-high. Saute onion and garlic for 3 minutes, or until onion is tender-crisp. Stir in broth and rosemary; bring to a boil. Stir in artichoke hearts and spinach; reduce heat, cover and simmer 5 minutes. Stir in pasta sauce.

Spread 1/4 of the artichoke mixture in the bottom of the prepared baking dish; top with 3 cooked noodles. Sprinkle 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese over noodles. Repeat layers 2 more times, ending with artichoke mixture and mozzarella cheese. Sprinkle crumbled feta on top.

Bake, covered, for 40 minutes. Uncover, and bake 15 minutes more, or until hot and bubbly. Let stand 10 minutes before cutting.