an iphone photo a day::number two

Posted by marne on March 3, 2011 in applesauce, cook, photograph | 3 comments

Taken with GorillaCam, edited with TiltShift Generator and Labelbox

This post is a combination of iphoneography, app review and cookbook review. Three for the price of one! The iphoneography part is self-explanatory. I try not to overdo the TiltShift Generator, but I really love that app. You don't have to do the whole depth-of-field blur thing with it, like I did here, it's equally handy to quickly lighten and brighten just about any photo. I think it's an iphoneography staple, so you should just get it.

Today's review is actually the other app I used above, Labelbox. Labelbox is free, and super fun to use for adding tape-style labels to your photos. It's easy-peasy, too. Just choose your tape style (there's 8 included, and a pack of four more you can purchase in the app for 99 cents), slide your finger across your image to apply the tape, and type your label. If you're not happy with the result, just tap and hold the tape and it will disappear. 

There are some limitations that I would love to see addressed, like the ability to resize or move a label once it's applied, but I can live without that in a free app. It does save your image at nearly full resolution (1435 x 1920), which is a big plus. This would be a lot of fun for digital scrapbookers, and it's also great for sharing photos on facebook and twitter. It's a fun little app well worth the download.

Let me tell you about that salad now, because it was delicious and I will probably be craving it regularly. I've still been working on my quest to eat less meat and more vegetables. I haven't been cooking much of interest lately, and eating out way too much, so I thought it was time to step it up a bit and start bringing my lunch to work more often than not, and cooking dinner on weeknights and not just the weekend. I recently picked up Appetite for Reduction, about which I've heard lots of good things, which might surprise a lot of people, since it's a low-fat, vegan cookbook. I don't plan to become vegan, and I have no fear of oil (particularly olive oil, yum!), but this is a really great book and I pretty much want to try everything in it, that's how good it is. 

So far I've made the Vietnamese Noodle Salad with grilled tofu that you see above, and the Quinoa, Kale and White Bean Stew. Mr. HeyLucy, a soup aficionado and carnivore, loved the stew and requested that it be put into regular rotation around here. I also caught him nibbling at the grilled tofu as I was packing my lunch this morning and had to swat his hand away. I kind of didn't blame him, though, because darn, that tofu was delicious, as was the whole salad. The dressing is a simple, oil-free blend of soy sauce, sweet chili-garlic sauce, agave, lime juice and some water. It's just the right blend of salty, sweet and tangy. The tofu is marinated in the dressing, and then grilled, which gives it a nice texture and a lot of flavor. I think that's one of my favorite things about the book actually, it doesn't try to make "fake meat" replacements, it's about eating good food that doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is. Everything looks really flavorful, and there are all sorts of herbs, spices and interesting ingredients used, but nothing that seems like it would be difficult to find at your local grocery store. Most stores carry quinoa now, right? 

Appetite for Reduction my be billed as a low-fat, vegan cookbook, but really, it's just a whole bunch of real, good, and good-for-you food.