Isn’t Carnival in Rio?!  Not in a million years did I expect to experience it in a small seaside town in southern Portugal.  Yet here I was, following costumed children down the cobblestone streets of Tavira:  fairy princesses, flamenco dancers, pirates and clowns all coming out of every street and alley, funneling into the town center.  It felt more like Halloween in the U.S.  Carnival usually conjures up thoughts of huge Samba parades in Brazil, thousands of people, a lot of bare skin and revelry into the night.  In Tavira, a lovely coastal town not far from the Spanish border, Carnival is a family affair.  Maybe not as crazy as Rio, Carnival in small town Portugal is still a fun, fascinating look at the celebration of Shrove Tuesday.

Shrove Tuesday (otherwise known as Carnaval, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras and even Pancake Day, depending on where you are) is the day preceding Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent and the Christian observance of the six weeks before Easter.  The consumption of luxury items in the days before Ash Wednesday, such as the rich food and drink that the faithful sacrifice during Lent, is said to be the origin of Carnival.  Some of these celebrations may have even originated during pre-Christian times from ancient Roman festivals.  Carnival parades and masquerade balls were first recorded in medieval Italy, from there spread to the Catholic nations of Europe, and then on to Latin America and the Caribbean.  Carnival partygoers most likely reveled in the ancient town of Tavira long before they moved on to the beaches of Brazil.

So out of pure coincidence, at the end of a week in Portugal last March, I found myself in the middle of this mini-Carnival.  From young to old, everyone in the town came out to celebrate on this fabulous, sunny afternoon.  Music, dancing, confetti – it was all there, but on a very small scale.  As I watched all the floats going around the town square, I realized that they repeated their circuit several times because the town is so small!  Afterwards, the crowd dissipated to various cafes and homes to continue their celebrations, while the lone street sweeper was left to clean up what was left of the afternoon’s festivities.  This Carnival parade may have been short, but it will live long in my memories.

Happy Carnival and Mardis Gras!  No matter what your faith, I hope you enjoy the day with good food and friends!

More about Tavira and the rest of my Portugal trip to come…

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

It’s no secret that chocolate is one of my addictions.  Something about it warms my soul, especially on a chilly winter night.  I’ll always try any new recipe that includes chocolate, including cocktails.  So, in honor of Valentine’s Day, here are a few recipes for the kid and grown-up in you.  Enjoy!

Frosted Chocolate-Buttermilk Cupcakes (from Martha Stewart) – Makes 12

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

1 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

6 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder, preferably Dutch-process

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

6 Tbsp. buttermilk

1 large egg

1 large egg white

3 oz. reduced-fat cream cheese

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line standard 12-cup muffin tin with paper liners.  In a large mixing bowl combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside.  With an electric mixer, combine cocoa and 3 Tbsp. hot water until a thick paste forms.  Add butter, buttermilk, egg and egg white; beat until combined.  Whisk in flour mixture until smooth.  Scoop batter into prepared tins.  Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean, about 20 minutes.  Transfer cupcakes to a wire rack to cool completely.  With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and confectioners’ sugar until light and fluffy.  Spread icing over tops of cupcakes; decorate as desired.

Raspberry Chocolate Kiss Cocktail (from Martha Stewart)  - serves 1

1/4 cup mint-infused syrup, plus more for rim (In small saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1 cup water, and stems from 1 bunch of fresh mint.  Place over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until sugar is dissolved.  Remove from heat; let cool.  Strain through a sieve.  Syrup can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 2 weeks.)

3 chocolate cookies, finely crushed (or dark chocolate shavings, which I prefer)

10 raspberries

1/4 cup vodka

2 Tbsp. cranberry juice

Ice cubes

Fill a shallow dish with enough simple syrup to just cover the bottom.  Place crushed cookies (or chocolate shavings) into another shallow dish.  Invert a martini glass into simple syrup and then into crushed cookies to coat the rim of the glass.  Place raspberries in a cocktail shaker; crush with a muddler.  Add simple syrup and muddle again.  Add vodka and cranberry juice; fill shaker with ice.  Shake until well chilled.  Strain into prepared martini glass.  Serve immediately.

Bailey’s Chocolatini

2 oz. Bailey’s

.25 oz. vodka

.25 oz. chocolate liqueur

Place ingredients in cocktail shaker, hake with ice and strain into martini glass.  Garnish with chocolate shavings.

Enjoy!  Cheers to a Happy Chocolate-filled Valentine’s Day!

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

Updating my portfolios means wading through thousands of photos on hard drives, but while I was searching, I started to notice a lot of spiral images in my collection.  Okay, I admit I have an obsession with spirals.  They’re all over my house, too numerous to count:  on my dishes, flatware, mirrors, jewelry, artwork.  I can’t tell you why I love this shape/symbol so much (maybe it was because I liked dancing, twirling around and getting dizzy as a kid!) but I notice them everywhere and have to photograph them when I see them.  Recently, I was photographing some cinnamon sticks and, again, was drawn to the spiral shapes on the ends.

Start looking around and you’ll start to see them everywhere, especially in nature.  Hurricanes, tornados, shells, flowers, and even our own DNA – all in the shape of a spiral.  It doesn’t appear to be by accident. Spirals in nature are associated with logarithmic spirals, the Fibonacci sequence and the Golden Ratio.  There’s a mesmerizing little video called “Nature by Numbers” that shows this in action.  I won’t even attempt to explain the math, but I do enjoy the visuals.

From Celtic art to Native American petroglyphs, Arabic architecture to the Nazca lines, the spiral symbol shows up in almost every culture.  It appears to have a positive meaning associated with it, depending on who you ask: the cycle of life, feminine power, spiritual journey, learning and growth, and the cosmic force.

Whatever the reason we find spirals so compelling, I will continue to make the images I do, including this last one of the hay bale spiral, which I exaggerated by spinning the camera while on a low shutter speed.  (ISO 100, 1/5 sec. @ f18)

To see more spiral images, check out my Flickr set – Enjoy!

How do we get “in the zone”?  It seems like it would be simple.  Watch any kid engaged in an activity they love and they lose all track of time, neglecting to hear any calls for dinner…

My daughter has a Perplexus.  It is a 3-D maze locked in a sphere, with a hundred levels to get through without dropping the little metal ball off the track.  True to its name, it is indeed perplexing and will drive most adults insane.  My child, however, becomes a zen master, blocking out any and all activities around her in order to complete the puzzle.  She has laser-sharp focus, and patience enough to continue her quest to get through the maze.  Not only did she finish the original Perplexus within a few hours on Christmas Day, but she is continuing with the more difficult “Perplexus Epic” now, picking it up whenever she needs a break from her grueling middle school homework.  In contrast to math homework, she has no anger, no frustration when the Perplexus ball drops — just perseverance and picking up where she left off.  Pure focus.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi calls this “The Flow Experience,” a sense of profound mastery, when one is completely absorbed, effortlessly focused and unaware of all sense of time.  He studied thousands of people with regards to their happiness and productivity, among them, artists, scientists, engineers, monks, athletes, and CEOs; and he found that, regardless of culture and education, there are various conditions that must be present for flow to happen: clear goals, continuous feedback, balance of challenge and skill, and uninterrupted times of concentration and focus.

These past few weeks have been so full of business and marketing plans, that I really needed some time for photography.  So I gave myself an assignment.  It was frustrating.  I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere.  Finally, I let go and just started to play with the camera, different lenses, different angles.  In the process, I got “in the zone.”  I became completely focused on creating.  I lost all sense of time.  I didn’t realize I was hungry.  It was as if I was working outside of myself, a state of effortless concentration and mindfulness.  Sometimes that is the only way to work through a problem, to let go and let it flow.  I have to be careful when photographing on my travels – sometimes I’m in such a state of flow that I have found myself in some unsafe situations!

I experimented with color, light and shutter speed with snow melt dripping down to a wooden deck. 1/800 sec @ f/2.8, ISO 100

How can you achieve flow?  Here are some ideas:

1) Pick a challenging activity.

2) Set some realistic goals.

3) Commit yourself to the time and put it on your schedule.

4) Turn off the TV – no one achieves flow with the TV on!

5) Remove all interruptions – lock the door, turn off the phone and email and let everyone know you are not to be disturbed.

6) Find a way to track your progress and celebrate what you’ve accomplished so far.

7) Enjoy the experience!

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

2011 has been a year of learning and growth.  It was somewhat of a catalytic year, a precursor to what I intend to accomplish in 2012, and this is what I’ve learned:

1.  Getting rid of clutter gives you clarity.  This has been a big clean-up year for me -physically, mentally, emotionally. Toxicity is a bad thing to have around, and I mean that in more than the environmental sense.  I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff that I don’t need: toxic relationships, things I “should” do, and stuff that just takes up space.  It is amazing what that does to you.  I suddenly feel that I can really breathe and have a clear vision of what I want.  Get rid of “stuff” and you make room for wonderful, new experiences.

2.  I can’t please everyone.  There will be people who don’t like my work.  I value my vision, my work, and my artistry;  it will find the right venue and touch those who appreciate it.

3.  Failure is okay.  In fact, it’s more than okay because it’s how we grow and learn.  As long as I keep trying after failing, and growing from the experience, I know I’ll be okay. Watch the movie “Rudy” for inspiration.

4.  There are some amazing places, people and things in my own backyard.  I have passed by (and passed over) many things that I perhaps thought were insignificant, only to find extraordinary beauty in them later.  Take a second look around – you never know what you might see.

5.  That being said, I need to get out of my comfort zone, go to different places, do challenging things.  When I push myself to create new work or move in a different direction, I get energized and amazing things start to happen.

6.  I like slow travel (and slow food).  Two hectic back-to-back trips to Europe in March, in multiple locations, really made me appreciate the times when I can stay in one place for more than a few days.  I am a gypsy girl at heart and love adventure, but sometimes I just need to slow down and really get to know a place, its people, food and nuances that I may not necessarily see at first glance.

7.  I need more “me” time.  So many of us have been taught to be unselfish and put others’ needs before ours, but it’s not the healthiest thing to do all the time.  When I do take that time, I am a better person all the way around, for myself, my work and my family.  However, you can’t just say it.  You need to own it, claim it, schedule it in.  Turn off the phone and email and do your thing, whatever that thing is that will recharge your soul.

8.  It’s okay to ask for help.  I am proud of my independence.  I do not care for valets and people to help me with my bags when I travel.  I can carry it all myself (especially my heavy camera bag), thankyouverymuch!  However, there are times, when life weighs you down and it’s okay to ask for help.  I am lucky enough to have people in my life that I can rely on when I need them, who support me and won’t judge me when I don’t always have it together.

9.  Imperfectionism is a gift.  I am a recovering perfectionist.  Perfectionism can sometimes lead to procrastination and inaction, and it can be an enemy to creativity. Sometimes it’s better to do something imperfectly rather than not do it at all.  So, forgive my mistakes, but I will continue to send out imperfect blog posts!

10.  Life is short.  Live your dreams now.  We all have a limited time on this earth and I don’t intend to waste any more of my precious time.  Here’s an great little post about Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012.

What have you learned in 2011?

Cheers to the experiences we had in 2011 and to new adventures in 2012.  Have a safe, healthy, creative, Happy New Year!

Eat well.  Travel often.  Live your passion.

I am a freelance Food and Travel photographer, based in the foothills outside of Denver, Colorado. This blog is a way to share my passion for anything related to food, travel, and creativity. I hope you enjoy the images and musings, and feel free to comment and subscribe with the links below. Thanks for visiting!