Oh No, she didn’t!  Oh yes, she did!!

If you know nothing about me, you must know this.  I am cut throat competitive.  I just can’t help myself – this other being comes over me and I’m going to get there first, fastest and smartest.  Of course, that rarely happens but I give the good fight all the way down to my crumbling demise…  So, when one of my photographer friends saw this paper mache, feather coated, chicken in my mother’s kitchen and challenged me to take a fine art photo of it, which if I was successful she would hang in her house – you know the game was on!!

I spent a lot of time, to much time, trying to come up with the perfect location.  I issued a call of help out to my Facebook Fans.  Nothing resonated.  A trip to Baltimore found the Extraordinary Funky Chicken and I on our first road trip.  (pic here)  Still nothing – really how hard could this be.  Finally I got up one morning and decided this was the morning.  Extraordinary Funky Chicken and I headed up to Nehantic State Forest – Uncas Lake for the locals.  Location be damned this shoot was happening right then and there.

It’s a most interesting experience to be standing on the access road in the middle of the forest at 6:30 in the morning with a fake chicken.  There I was, thinking how ridiculous I am and seriously couldn’t I ratchet down my competitive nature and the need to make this spectacular! (obviously not!!)  Fabulous… now I have an audience….  I swear the man is home telling people – “Well I never saw anything like it.  There was this woman in the middle of the forest with a camera and a fake chicken….”  Seriously the things I do in the name of art!!

So here it is – the fabulous Extraordinary Funky Chicken’s Fine Art shoot!

Update:  I won! I won!  Got an email from my friend asking when she’ll be getting her print!!  Ok yeah, all I got is bragging rights – but hey I still won!

It was back in January, the UnKitchen Diva was having coffee (hot chocolate in her case) and discussing the finer points of Twitter with a friend, when she first heard about Tsp Spices.  She was explaining the cooking project/challenge she had set for herself and the upcoming year when her friend almost literally jumped out of her seat and said “I have the perfect company for you!”

Tsp Spices is a company that was created by two girlfriends, who lamented the fact that no matter how much they loved to cook, their spices would turn before they could use a whole jar.  Their amazingly brilliant and simple solution – package spices by the tsp.  You love it already right?!?

Back to the coffee shop –  she was telling her friend how fantastic their idea was and couldn’t believe she hadn’t heard of them earlier!  The UnKitchen Diva was also thinking what a perfect product this was for her challenge!  Her girlfriend was getting more and more excited. “You have to meet them!  We have to find a way for you to meet them.”  Now, she thought that would be really cool, but couldn’t see how it would actually happen.

Well… you see… life is a funny thing.  Between her girlfriend knowing someone, who knows them, and a cousin, who has a friend who works with them, she actually DID get to meet them!  Crazy, right?  She met Katie and Sara, along the rest of their crew, in their offices in Towson, MD.  They couldn’t have been nicer and she completely enjoyed her time with them.

As she was leaving, they gave her a tin of cookie spices and a tin of cardamon.  The UnKitchen Diva hasn’t had a chance to work her magic with them yet.  She’s thinking she’ll save the cookie spices until her nieces and/or nephews come to visit and is a little stumped on the cardamon.  She loves cardamon, but associates it with the traditional Norwegian Christmas bread and cookies she grew up with.  She needs your help!!  She’d love if you’d send ideas/recipes on how to cook with cardamon!!  We promise to feature the dish here too!

*disclaimer – I have offered to help the Tsp Spice ladies spread the Tsp Spices story – it’s an amazingly brilliant idea and I love their story!*

Hi All – I’m trying something new and would love your feedback.  I’ve reset the blog to view only one post at a time.  Previously 10 posts were brought up on the front page.  Since my posts tend to be long and obviously full of photos I thought this might streamline the experience for you.  Let me know if you love/hate, would rather see 2 posts, etc…  I’m really curious to see what you think!

Thanks!! – Jennie