Today the children and I went to one of our favorite haunts, the library. Twenty-five books, fifteen dvds and a handful of Archies later we were merrily on our way. So few books. We’re obviously easing back into school. Rachel and I were especially gleeful to pick up books we had reserved online.

Normally I spend the precious free moments of my day on the computer: perusing blogs, reading and writing e-mail, and working on various other computer projects. Not this afternoon. Not once I had this book in my hands.

Author, Scott Kelby, is the editor of Photoshop User magazine and the training director for Adobe Photoshop seminars. He’s written over 20 books and has an informal, easy-going writing style that makes his work highly readable.

After five minutes of reading (only at stop lights, I promise), I was hooked and prepared to spend the rest of the day devouring the Photoshop Elements 5 book. If you own Photoshop and have been too busy/overwhelmed/scared to dive into the editing experience, head straight to the library or Amazon.com and check out this excellent book. Don’t be intimidated by its thickness, there are hundreds of step by step instructions and illustrations.

Included in the book is an entire chapter on retouching portraits - removing blemishes, whitening teeth and eyes, lessening wrinkles, and even giving a digital nose job. I am only a Photoshop novice, an amateur at best, but I thought it might be interesting to tackle some basic steps using a sweet picture of Sarah.

Here is the original photo:

My flower girl.

The first thing I did was to remove some mild blemishes (freckles, a small scar on her forehead, etc). I used the Healing Brush tool. This is a fantastic editing tool as it allows you to easily make very subtle changes.

Next I thought it would be interesting to try softening the circles under Sarah’s eyes. Kelby’s book had a helpful section on this topic (offering three different ways to approach it). I tried the Clone Stamp but couldn’t get a natural look and went back to the Healing Brush tool.

Circles under eyes softened and few blemishes faded.

There are instructions, in the book, for whitening eyes and teeth. I tried both on another picture and it found them to be incredibly easy. Select the area to be lightened (using the Lasso tool) and then go to Enhance — Adjust Color — Adjust Hue/Saturation. For eyes select Red in the Edit Box and then slide the bar all the way to the left in the Saturation field. After making that adjustment, you change the Edit Box back to Master and then slide the bar to the right in Lightness field, adjusting it slightly. This will brighten eyes beautifully.

To whiten teeth, select the teeth (being careful not to include the gums or lips) and then follow the same procedure choosing Yellow in the Edit Box of the Enhance — Adjust Color — Adjust Hue/Saturation function. Slide the bar all the way to the left in the Saturation field (removing the yellow tints) and then switch the Edit Box back to Master and brighten slightly with the Lightness guide. The Preview feature in the editing panel immediately reflects the changes made.

Note to self: Be careful to use a deft hand and light touch in photo-editing.

After whitening Sarah’s eyes slightly, I decided to soften her skin tone. For this procedure I went to Enhance — Adjust Color — Adjust Color for Skin Tone and selected a spot on her skin. I liked the overall color change this edit applied to the picture so I didn’t adjust it further. There are controls within this editing box that allow additional alterations in the colors — Tan, Blush and Ambient Light — and a wonderful Reset button. I was able to fine-tune and modify as much as I liked, nothing like a handy “reset” button.

This is probably the most dramatic change - warms and deepens the entire picture.

There was a detailed chapter on color correction. Much of the editing in Photoshop can be accomplished using the Quick Fix application. I didn’t use it with this picture because I wanted to explore some other, more complex techniques. Sure enough, there was a a complicated process of color correction in this chapter that involved setting the values of target colors for the shadow areas then using those default numbers to adjust the overall picture. I don’t exactly understand the mechanics behind the various steps (okay, I don’t understand them at all) but Kelby outlined each stage so clearly and with full-color illustrations that I had no trouble following the directions.

I saved Sarah’s picture after each step of editing but some of the differences are so slight, I didn’t include them here. As it is, this is a LOT of focus on one picture. By the end of this post we’re all going to be bored to death of Sarah and her flowers.

I thought it would be nice to heighten the color in the roses and Sarah’s blue shirt so I used the Magic Wand tool to select the pink flowers and blue shirt. It took several clicks (holding the Shift key down) to be sure everything was selected. There are other ways to select a portion of the photo, this just happens to be the one I used for this step. After I had the areas selected I clicked on Enhance — Adjust Color — Adjust Hue/Saturation and then increased the Saturation just a bit by sliding the bar to the right. I might have made her shirt too bright. It’s hard to find the line between enhancing and transforming.

Note to self: Keep working on that gentle touch. Don’t be afraid to use the undo button and start over.

What pretty roses, Sarah, and such a nice, bright shirt.

Scott Kelby says most (okay, all) pictures need a bit of sharpening after the colors have been adjusted. Who am I to argue with an expert? I followed his instructions for sharpening a portrait. Kelby explains the reasons behind the various settings and includes numbers for basic sharpening, sharpening soft subjects, portraits, as well as moderate and maximum sharpening.

I’m telling you, this is an awesome book!

Again I went over to that wonderful little Enhance menu (seems like I spend much of my time there) and clicked on Unsharp Mask. I set the numbers to Amount 75% — Radius 2 — Threshold 3. Now that I look over the pictures I don’t see very much change after applying the sharpening (or rather unsharpening) tool. Interesting. Of course, subtle editing is theoretically the goal in this operation so I should be pleased.

I thought Sarah’s lips looked a little pale so I selected them and darkened the saturation level just a bit. Too much and she looked like she was wearing makeup. I wanted to try out one other tool in Photoshop’s portfolio so I decided to give Sarah a few highlights. I used the Dodge tool to “paint” some lighter streaks in her hair. I’m not sure it looks natural so I probably wouldn’t use this in my final picture but it was fun and certainly more affordable than going to the salon.

Would you people STOP looking at me, please.

So there you have it, a nice little tutorial on Photoshop Elements 5 from someone who knows little but can obviously read and follow directions.

Here’s a set of before and after pictures, side by side:

Tune in again for another unique modification of this picture.

Kathy

I read a wonderful article in the June 2007 issue of Good Housekeeping this week. It was all about making vegetables more palatable and had a catchy title that would definitely appeal to my family, “Learn to Love the Veggies You Hate.” Of course, they would probably more likely appreciate something like, “How to Keep Your Mom from Fixing Vegetables EVER” but so far that one hasn’t made it to the major magazines.

Sarah finishes up the last of the Baked French Toast from Tuesday.

Now I like most vegetables but they managed to pick a few that don’t even make it to my “hey, let’s try this” list. To be fair (ie put myself in a better light) two of the veggies are favorites and eaten almost daily in our house.

I’m an adventuresome soul and always ready to experiment on my family with new, healthy, weird concoctions (they love me for this, I assure you) so I determined to try out one of Good Housekeeping’s veggie recipes. To be safe I started with something that looked down right acceptable: Broccoli Gratin. It has broccoli (something we already eat regularly) and potatoes. How can you go wrong? I figure I’ll ease them into these slowly and then hit them with one of the others like Shredded Beets with Celery and Dates (oh yeah, that’s gonna go over well here).

Broccoli Gratin

Boil potatoes and broccoli until tender (17 to 20 minutes)
Drain vegetables, reserving 1/4 cup cooking liquid. Mash veggies, adding some reserved cooking liquid if mixture seems dry. Stir in nutmeg, 1/4 cup Parmesan, 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper.
In shallow baking dish, spread vegetable mixture; sprinkle with remaining Parmesan.
Broil 2 to 3 minutes or until Parmesan is browned.

I did have to make some adjustments to the recipe. I didn’t have any Yukon Gold potatoes. I cut up a small bag of red potatoes to use then changed my mind. I ended up drizzling them with Olive Oil, salt and fresh Parmesan and baking them in the oven. I decided to use instant mashed potatoes instead. I cooked the broccoli (didn’t measure) in water with some salt and butter until soft (and mushy, I mean very tender). I saved the liquid and pureed the broccoli in the food processor. I added some milk and a little more butter to the water and mixed up some instant mashed potatoes. I stirred in some sharp cheddar cheese (couldn’t resist) and then added the broccoli. I put the whole mixture into a Coring Ware dish, topped with fresh Parmesan and popped it into the oven with the roasting red potatoes.

It was delicious! Everyone liked it (well, everyone who likes mashed potatoes). It would also work, I think, with cooked cauliflower (although don’t tell my family or they’ll start to get suspicious). Tim thought it was a fairly painless way to eat broccoli. Joshua wasn’t sure about it as he couldn’t tell how many potatoes and how much broccoli he was eating. I think he likes his food separated out. It’s just proper, potatoes should be on one side and veggies the other with meat in the center.

On another, sweeter note, I made some yummy carrot cookies for an after dinner treat. It was so healthy I didn’t even charge the kids for a dessert point.

I LOVE this cookbook!! It’s one of my current favorites. If you like to bake and get excited about wheat germ, lecithin granules, and soy flour and recipes that unabashedly use these type of “exotic” ingredients, then you simply HAVE to check out this book or one of the author’s other selections.

The Smart Baking Cookbook: Muffins, Cookies, Biscuits and Breads by Jane Kinderlehrer

A friend introduced me to the author’s books, Smart Cookies and Smart Muffins. I found the Smart Baking Cookbook at the library. It has a collection of the muffins, cookies, and bread recipes all in one. I’ve gone to Amazon.com several times to buy the book but keep resisting (I mean, library rentals go for 3 weeks so I have time). Tim and I are a serious budget these days so there isn’t a lot of extra money available for “frivolous spending.” Still, I do have some anniversary money kicking around and definitely MUST own this book. We have Amazon Prime this year which means all of our Amazon shipping is FREE (if it is an Amazon sold item and not through another seller). How tempting is that??

Tonight I made:

Golden Carrot Molasses Gems

Bake 350 of 12 to 15 minutes.

These were delicious! The kids all loved them. One thing I especially appreciate about the author is all the additional information she incorporates in her recipes. She gives tips on when and what to serve with the goodies, what kind of nutritional value is emphasized in each recipe, and so on.

I did have to make a list and buy some things not normally found in my pantry. Most everything was found in the bulk food section of one of our local grocery stores so it wasn’t too difficult.

There you have it. Two new recipes to try and one book recommendation. Enjoy.

Kathy
Project 365 - Day 158

It turns out when you stay home and actually spend some time homeschooling, an incredible amount of learning goes on. Hmmm. I’m going to have to ponder this a bit more. I went to the store for a few groceries but otherwise, spent the rest of the day focused on the children and school. Perhaps it is the contrast from yesterday’s busyness that makes today seem so productive. Or maybe it was our utter lack of progress Monday that spurred on our productivity today, whatever the cause I was very pleased with all we accomplished.

Look at these boys, eagerly poring over a computer screen. No doubt they are working on math drills or spelling words. Oh, wait, that’s Snoopy fighting the Red Baron. Oops, not school at all. Not pictured in the background is Tim fighting scoundrels on his Pirates game. Definitely a computer moment for the men folk.

David did his table work (Horizons math, Explode the Code, and Italics) and then sat down for an hour of reading with me (and Sarah). Points for doing school with the little ones. I love the Bible study/devotional book we are going through these days. It’s called My ABC Bible Verses - Hiding God’s Word in my Heart by Susan Hunt. Each letter of the alphabet has a Bible verse and a short story applying the scripture. The discussion section has you recite the verse three times and then go back and review the previous verses. Tonight David and Sarah went over the verses with Tim and were able to remember almost all of them. Definite points for children actually remembering something from school. Double points for scripture memory. We’ll have to keep working on the whole application thing.

Rachel and I checked math lessons. More homeschooling teacher points. Joshua and I caught up (well, tried anyway) on dictation tests. Loss of points since we are very behind and didn’t finish both quizzes. Daniel and I worked on our China log. No points as this should be done every day and we missed yesterday. We read two (long - I know this because the kids tell me, in dismayed voices, how many verses in each chapter) chapters of the Gospel John as well as Chapter 13 of Proverbs. Points for scripture. Double points for extra passages are canceled out by the fact that these are chapters we should have read over the weekend. We read several books on China and pulled out the Ancient China Treasure Chest. Points for hands on activities. Don’t we sound like a model homeschool!

Does anyone else keep score in their head like this?

By the end of it all, Rachel was begging for a break and Daniel had already slipped off to see the end of David and Sarah’s movie. Since they were watching Barbie Fairytopia, you know he was desperate. Ah, it was still good day with lots of homeschooling teacher points.

Too bad it ended with Sarah and Rachel both getting sick.

I don’t know if Sarah felt unwell or if she just sat down to read and Daniel decided to set her up with a cozy little reading nook. Whatever the case, she ended up with this snuggly spot and fell asleep by dinner time. Sleeping in the middle of the day is NEVER normal for my bunch of rowdy, rabble rousers.

Rachel ate a little dinner and rallied thanks to some meds. She came down around 11 pm, asking for a water bottle. She looked flushed and felt feverish so I presume the meds have worn off. I don’t think she’s going to be up for a piano lesson tomorrow morning. Did I mention that we have been incredibly healthy, as a family, for the past six months, maybe year? Tim and I are praying for a quick recovery for the girls and protection for the rest of the family. We’re greedy that way.

Rapid change of topics (hence the ‘rambling’ title).

Joshua and David have this wonderful friendship. I love to watch them together. They wrestle and fly paper airplanes and read books on Big Blue. Lately they have been slipping outside for Swing Ball and storytelling. Joshua is weaving, for David, an elaborate tale of several kings and their exploits. I don’t know the details except for a few names I overheard, Fred and Schmedlap (sp?) and something about a chicken. The stories and game usually come to a halt when I come outside. Obviously I’m the “wrong kind” of audience for Joshua’s stories. So I content myself with looking out the window. I watch them laugh and play together and marvel at the special bond between brothers.

One day he might catch up to you in height, Joshua. Watch out!

Just another piece of our crazy, precious life. As Tim often says, “This is the BEST family in the world.” With no offense intended to the rest of the population, I’m inclined to agree with him.

Kathy

I’ve been thinking about the subject of cooking these days. I’ve known average, good, and excellent chefs in my travels through life’s meals but have often wondered what is it that determines their status. Is it presentation? Variety? The ability to follow a recipe? Creativity?

Some illuminating (or at least amusing) quotes:

“The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went.”
Saki

Recently I’ve been enjoying two new cookbooks and sensing, in them, the possibility of becoming a better cook. Also I have been blessed by some creative chefs in my acquaintance. One of whom came to my home and prepared this amazing salad (Thanks Jennifer!!) that introduced me to several new wonderful green vegetables.

Name this vegetable!

Jen’s delicious salad.

After enjoying the leftovers of this salad for several days, I went to the grocery store today and bought large bags of fresh fruits and vegetables. The kids were thrilled to have the fruit bowl stocked again and snacked on strawberries all day.

For dinner tonight I put these greens together to make a yummy salad. I’m afraid it was a bit stretching for my (”I would be fine with iceburg lettuce”) family but at least two of them ate a big plate full. Jen introduced me to bok choy and I am already a HUGE fan. It’s sweet and crispy and perfect in salads. I haven’t tried it cooked but I read at this organic greens site that it is also good in stir-frys.

I have been so bored and frustrated with vegetables lately. I eat a fairly healthy diet that includes a hearty serving of vegetables at both lunch and dinner. After almost two years of following this food plan, I’m a little tired of the vegetables I’ve been preparing. How lovely to discover some new things to add to my repertoire. Several of the greens are ones I’ve avoided, fearing they would be bitter in a salad. Instead, I was thrilled to discover swiss chard and kale have subtle, pleasant flavors; perfect for a green salad.

I’ve already mentioned this cookbook but I want to bring it up again in order to share a recipe or two. Perfect Recipes for Having People Over by Pam Anderson

I’ve made the cornbread muffins twice and they have been a huge hit each time. They are easy to prepare and cook beautifully.

Moist Savory Corn Muffins
1 can (14.75) creamed corn
2 cups yellow cornmeal
1 cup buttermilk
2 large eggs
8 tbs butter, melted
1 cup flour
1 tbs sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Heat oven to 450 degrees. Set 12 cup muffin tin in over to heat while you make batter.

Put creamed corn in microwaveable dish and heat until comes to a full boil. Stir in 1 cup of cornmeal to make a thick, pasty mush (if not stiff, microwave another 30 seconds). Whisk in buttermilk, eggs and butter.

Mix remaining 1 cup cornmeal with flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Pour wet ingredients into dry ones and stir until just combined.

Remove muffin tin, spray with cooking spray. Fill tins. Bake 15 minutes (until golden brown). Serve.

This evening I made the Yorkshire Pudding/Popovers recipe from the same book.

1 1/2 cups instant (quick mixing) flour, such as Wondra
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups nonfat milk
4 large eggs
2 tbs butter, melted

Mix flour and salt in medium bowl. Mix milk, eggs, and butter in small bowl. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture; stir until smooth. Spray muffin pan with cooking spray. Fill 3/4 full.

Set oven to 425. Bake for 35 minutes (starting with cold oven and w/o opening oven door).

These puffed up so beautifully I had to call the children in to come and see the yummy sight.

The pictures I took of the popovers while they were baking in the oven didn’t come out and I was too busy putting the rest of dinner together to capture the finished product on film. Unfortunately I thought they looked like they were browning too fast in the oven so I took them out before the 35 minutes were up - they rose beautifully and then fell just as beautifully. Thankfully they were absolutely delicious and no one seemed to mind their fallen state at all. I will try these again soon.

The other cookbook that is the focus of my attention these days is Sunday Suppers: Informal American Home Cooking by Melanie Barnard (who seems to have also written several cookbooks for William Sonoma). My aunt (one of those excellent chefs that I noted earlier) gave me this book for Christmas. I believe when someone whom you admire gives you a present regarding their talents and gifts you should give it some careful consideration. I spent a good portion of the day reading/devouring the recipes in this cookbook (at stop lights, while waiting for the children at the Y, when I should have been making dinner). This book, in particular, carries the unique distinction of personal, hand-written notations from my aunt in the margins of her favorite recipes. What a precious addition to an already yummy book.

I am eager to get into the kitchen and start mixing and stirring. I hardly ever cook with lamb or pork and there are several delicious looking recipes featured in these two in the cookbook. My family is in for a real treat.

Kathy