Birthdays and Israeli food

These past couple of days have held birthdays of a few people close to Chris and me. On the 28th, it was my parents' 28th anniversary and my aunt's 54th birthday. Last night, we celebrated our good friend Wes' birthday at an Israeli restaurant in Philadelphia called Zahav.

Five of the six of us had never been to this place before, and we were all pretty much blown away by how good the food was. Plus, it was tapas style, so we were all able to taste a little bit of everything. My favorite presentation, though, had to be the starter salatim, which had eight different salads.



While the portions were small, we had so many dishes that we were all stuffed after the meal...but not stuffed enough to decline dessert! Cashew baklava, yum...



And here's Wes blowing out the candle from his dessert (the Halvah mousse):


Happy birthday!

Binh & Chen: Engagement

We had the pleasure of shooting Binh and Chen's engagement photos this past weekend at their alma mater, Rutgers University. We were pretty excited, as this was our first e-shoot, so THANK YOU, Binh and Chen, for trusting us with your photos!

These two were in the same physics class when Binh was a freshman and Chen was a sophomore. During an after-exam review, Binh and her roommate noticed Chen, and they referred to him as "The Physics Guy." They ran into each other randomly on the Rutgers bus, but Chen never noticed Binh sneaking glances at him as they rode to class.

One day, Binh's roommate intervened and dragged her to the computer lab (where Chen worked) under the guise of making photocopies for a class.

Finally, a year later, they met, and the rest is history.















After walking around campus, we headed to the famous Rutgers grease trucks for lunch, followed by I's Cafe for bubble tea (we on the west coast call it "boba").

Slow-roasted salmon

I absolutely love seafood. I can eat it raw, roasted, baked, broiled, fried (although not my favorite prep unless it's calamari), sauteed, you name it.

I recently found a recipe for slow-roasted salmon from the Cooking for Friends cookbook from Williams-Sonoma. My friend Steph is an avid cook and she and I like to scour the internet for recipes and trade. I saw this book at WS, fell in love with the photography first, and realized that this was a book we BOTH needed.

Chris and I decided to (and by Chris and I, I mean I decided to...he just agreed) try out this new recipe. It sounded healthy, very simple, and absolutely delicious. I paired with smashed potatoes from Simply Recipes, using red potatoes instead of new.

Verdict on the salmon was...well, let's just say Chris bought 1.8 pounds and we ended up eating 95% of it. It was THAT good (and good for you). Rubbed with olive oil and seasoned with only salt and pepper, it was simple enough to let the freshness of the fish shine through. We did squeeze some lemon on, after garnishing with chives and parsley, and pair it with a little bit of creme fraiche, and that just catapulted us into a whole other level of bliss.