“Honey do you mind vaccuming today?” I asked Mr NQN last Saturday.

“Errr okaaay….later” he said  looking at me with a measure of suspicion. I’m sure he wondered how a perfectly lovely weekend day had suddenly turned hideous.

About  twenty minutes later, I heard some expletives from the lounge room. “&*(&(&(!!” he yelled and then repeated it for good measure. “I’ve put out my neck!” he said woundedly.

“How? You were just sitting there on the couch playing on your phone!” I asked.

“I dunno, I just did” he said. And with that he limped off to the bedroom to sleep off the rest of the day.

Now, I’m not accusing him of faking it, I think that he had really hurt himself but I couldn’t help noting the coincidence in timing. Our plans to do the grocery shopping were aborted and I spent the rest of the day cleaning. And I was bored.

I decided that the weather was perfect for a spot of baking. If you remember last Saturday in Sydney, it was a summer day that was little cooler than usual so the oven heat wouldn’t be too much of an intrusion. Alas, as it was grocery shopping day, our fridge and pantry supplies were running low and I could only make one item that sat on my “to cook” list. One that I found on Jenny’s blog Practically Perfect.

It fit the brief exactly. I didn’t have any bread so I needed to make some for lunch. I had flour, salt, beer, cheese and green onions and it was a cinch as it didn’t require any kneading or proving at all. Just a stir of everything in a bowl and a stint in the oven and then we had our perfect bread for your Australian male specimen.

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I was just thinking the other day how times change. Call it an end of year reflection but when I was little all I wanted to do was live in the Brady Bunch house and go out with Greg Brady. I wanted to eat meatloaf which was what Alice seemed to make a lot. I never had meatloaf and I was convinced that it must have been haute cuisine. Now, well the idea of dating Greg Brady just sounds so ludicrously unappealing that I chuckled at my former self-the one that used to go to bed hoping of dreaming of him. Now I dream of vampires and True Blood.

How times have also changed from the beginning of this blog. A few years ago, I was sent a legal letter from ACP asking me to take down my recipes that came from their cookbook. Now a few years later I was sent not only a copy of their Retro Cookbook but an invitation to the launch of the cookbook. Alas I was unable to attend as I was travelling but I thought how funny life seems sometimes when you are in the midst of something awful and thinking that you’ll never get out of it. You do, of course, and then life surprises you with a 180 degree twist.

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I was interviewed the other day on the phone and the journalist asked me if I had any tips for any potential bloggers. One of the best pieces of advice I can give is to make use of the medium as much as possible. The advantage for blogs unlike print mediums is that we can lavish photo after photo on our pages. And because of that food photography is really important and honing your skills with photography is really important. I won’t ever claim to be a great photographer, I think I merely do a passable job and most of my experience is learnt through trial and error. And because of that I can always learn more.

Dario Milano

When Mr NQN and I were offered places at Dario Milano’s food photography class we both jumped at it. Neither of us have taken a class in photography but we are both very keen to hone our skills in the area and we wanted to learn from a working photographer with a great portfolio. And food photography is such a specific genre of photography. After all you have to convey the subject and make it look attractive but you have to make it look edible above all else.

At his studio in Waterloo, Dario showed us all sorts of things-he has a slew of interesting props including these wooden boards that simulate tables which he had made up for him and he also told us some great places to rent props from. Most importantly he showed us how to make the most of the manual settings of the camera and photograph things with a softbox and external flash (something Mr NQN has been trying to show me what to do).

It was a four hour class with the second half of the class concentrating on food styling and he showed us interesting tips like how to make a glass of white wine using a tiny drop of yellow liquid food colouring (and here I was opening up an actual bottle of wine!). If you are interested, have a look at his site FoodPixels for the next workshop class.

The photographed, uncropped and untouched photo that I took at the class

The class inspired me to keep taking photos and experiment with things. After all I have four stunning lenses from my fantastic sponsors at Sigma that I am completely in love with and I need to utilise them to their full capability. Dario in particular loved the Sigma macro lens and says that it is one of the best and best value lenses on the market.

This omelette was the first thing I photographed after the class. I knew it was the perfect item to do-well not because it was an omelette and Dario showed us how to photograph one, but rather because it was served on a black plate which is what I often have trouble with-chocolate cakes are another item I find hard to photograph. I know that I need to keep playing with it and that is just half the fun!

Photo taken on automatic setting-the black plate throws the camera off and makes the omelette too light a shade

Photo taken on too dark a manual setting

Could use improvement but a better manual setting

Oh and the omelette? Well it’s so easy and I think the longest you’ll wait is for your pan to heat up. The enoki mushrooms give the omelette a meaty but not tough texture and the green onions and oyster sauce and sesame round out the flavour. It is for those nights where you want a nutritious, healthy meal but don’t have the time nor inclination to order takeaway or slave over the stove.

So tell me Dear Reader, what sort of photography interests you? Food? Fashion? Nature?

5 Minute Enoki Mushroom & Onion Omelette

Serves 2

• 1 tablepoon oil for frying
• 5 free range eggs
• 200g packet of enoki mushrooms
• 1/3 cup chopped scallions/green spring onion/shallots
• A little chilli (optional)
• Oyster sauce and sesame oil to drizzle over at end

1. Heat your pan on a medium heat. Whisk eggs in a bowl and cut the bottoms off the enoki mushrooms and then cut the rest of the enoki mushrooms into inch long pieces.  Heat some oil in the pan and add the eggs and then sprinkle over the enoki mushrooms distributing them evenly. Then scatter over some of the sliced green onions on top, add lid on top and cook until cooked-you can flip this over carefully to cook the other side too.

2. Scatter some finely sliced chilli (large red ones are less hot), drizzle with some oyster sauce and sesame oil as well as extra green onions. I added some coriander just because I had some.