I love my French class at school. French language, culture and food has always intrigued me. But je suis américaine.

American food? Not my favorite. But today, my lunch was an sad attempt to bring together a few American favorites. It is the complete opposite of the oily, nasty fast-food for which my country is [unfortunately] known - this lunch is healthy and tasty. Potatoes, corn, peas & carrots seasoned with salt & pepper served as my vegetable. Next to them is a raw mini apple pie (protein & fruit.) It was a satisfying lunch that was easy to prepare the night before.

And the promise...I know that my photography is sometimes downright awful hideous less than appealing. I have plenty of excuses (volleyball is keeping me busy, my family makes fun of me when I take pictures of food, I haven't had time to cook, I only have an inexpensive compact digital camera.) All of these excuses are true, but I am ignoring them and making you this promise: I will improve my photography.

I have been inspired to improve by many different blogs, but La Tartine Gourmande is, to me, food blogging perfection. I can spend hours drooling over Béa's recipes & photos. I want my blog to be as desirable and tasty and irresistible as hers. So I promise to do better. For you and for me. And with this in mind, I am wondering if I should switch to Wordpress. It seems that Wordpress is better with photos than Blogspot. Any thoughts?

I've thought about switching to wordpress too...

Love the mini pie!

The mini pie is so cute! I love it.


Your photography is amazing, I don't think you need to improve at all, it all looks flawless to me. I really don't think I've ever seen a horrible picture on here =)


I've also had thoughts on moving to wordpress, with this silly blogger not letting me post at times and the many other options on wordpress.

Thanks for showing us a great - not greasy - American dish :o)

I love Wordpress! I find it's pretty easy to load in my pictures and change the size. I also think it has a lot to offer in terms of extra features - I highly recommend it!

I love your promise - and thanks for the link to La Tartine Gourmande - WOW!

Your photography is great, don't apologize! Geez, when I take pics of my food I have kids screaming because they are ready to eat and I just snap and run! Veggies look good, I love veggies!

I like the look of your non-greasy healthy alternative lunch! I also like yur photos, they look good to me. I don't know much about 'wordpress' blogs but I really like the look of a lot of the 'typepad' ones. However, I've seen some awesome foodie 'blogspot' blogs too. I'm a big fan of foodie blogs :)

i think your food photography skills are great! my favorite in this post is the first one.

your lunch looks so yummy! i just love how you pack raw pies in there.

you can totally get by with a cheap camera and have great photography! all you need is some good natural light from the sides or behind, and read up the camera manual about how to focus in macro mode. i have a cheap camera myself, a fujifilm finepix A400. you have some really gorgeous pictures on your blog -- i love the kitty photos and the sunrise smoothie ones a lot a lot!

If you're going to switch, you might want to switch now. It's too late for me, but you should go for it!

This looks like a delicious and healthy lunch.

I love that apple pie! (and for the record....I don't think your photos are yucky!)

To answer the question you asked me - I am in Brussels, Belgium. I have been here for just over a year. I came for a job at the International School of Brussels (from a job as a prof in Toronto). They do speak French here, you are right, but they also speak Flemmish - which is Dutch with a different accent, and in the south they speak German. It is an uber cool country! But the weather is a little bit of a killer if you don't like rain. Personally, I don't mind it. The markets are great Katie, seriously, they are amazing. And the cafes, and the dogs...everyone has a dog!

Anyway, if you have any more questions, just ask! Good luck with French!

I'm with you on a love for all things Francaise... I even have French language tapes playing in my car :) Love the cheese, the movies, the language and the people. It is also my favourite country to visit!

I think the top photo in this entry looks great and you are silly :)

you're doing great Katie! I am totally inspired by your enthusiasm and ideas.
American food can be wonderful when prepared with fresh and wholesome ingredients like you used in your lunch. In Vermont I had good old mac 'n cheese- that was made with such fresh local dairy products that it was a revelation!

Katie- I get made fun of for taking pictures of my food too! It's okay, really it is. That's the only way you get better.
I can totally relate to you because up until 1 month ago I also had a very inexpensive point and shoot camera (lucky me- my husband bought me a very nice SLR for my birthday). Just do your best to shoot in natural light, avoid using a flash. . . . Your photos already look very good.
As for blogger versus wordpress, I can't really comment (I use typepad). However, I know you have a flickr account. I actually host my photos on flickr and then write the html into my posts. If you want me to email you instructions on how to do that, I would be happy to. Let me know!
Oh- and I agree with you on La Tartine Gourmande- she is fantastic.

I love your pics Katie... they are great as they are :) As for switching to wordpress, I've thought about it as well, but I'm pretty comfortable with blogger and they are constantly upgrading and provides some great features that wordpress doesn't have.

Gorgeous! Test out Wordpress before making the switch. I like to use Wordpress for professional stuff and Blogger for personal. But that's just because I don't know how to work with Wordpress as much. LOL. :o)

La Tartine Gourmande is my inspiration too. Your photos are already good, and it will just keep getting better ;) I'm not sure how wordpress is better with photos than blogger, but I personally prefer wordpress engine ;) You may want to run it on a test site b4 making any switch just to be sure :D

I love the pie!

And I think you're way to hard on yourself. Your photos are pretty darn good by my standards! I too have a digital point and click, and I dream of getting one of those fancy DSLRs but when you have an infinte number of bills and a finite bank balance...

I'm with Blogger but didn't realise Wordpress had better pictures. Why is that, do you know?

I really like your photos and writing.
As for wordpress, I'm really happy with it but I haven't really used any other platform.

That raw apple pie sounds delicious!

The meal looks so good! I love the apple pie! Does it taste more like a food bar?

I've thought about the switch many times to Wordpress myself but my blogspot one is so "established" I mean with my template and everything. However, the issue with photos always drives me insane!