Sharing the Kishu Mandarins

These orange jewels you see in the photo above are kishu mandarins. David Karp calls them the mighty mandarin “the most delicious of mandarins”. They’re small, seedless, easy to peel and sweet. We call them citrus candy and you can’t just eat one. Because they’re so addicting, delicious and often hard to find, we decided to grow a tree a few years back. Since we’re a little nutty and crazy in the citrus growing realm, we decided to grow a second tree last year because we love kishu mandarins to no end.

Now, you see how beautiful they are this time of year? They’re exploding on the trees and so full of super sweet fruit, we’re dizzy with excitement.

Kishu Citrus Candy!

But then one afternoon we found this…… a thief, clenching a precious kishu. Upon first sight, the little bugger was perched on the wall next to the kishu tree, in the process of  peeling its stolen goods. As we neared with pups in tow, the kishu snatcher raced to a nearby tree, safely out of reach. Normally it would have chirped back at us, however obviously its mouth was too full.

To our shock, these garden thieves were feasting on our kishu mandarins and leaving the peels scattered all across the garden. So rude! Ok, so we’re totally cool with sharing with these critters, but to think that they loved the kishu mandarins as much as we do was a shock. So now what do we do? We start eating the kishu’s as quick as possible and leave the lemons for the squirrels. pttthbt!!!

And in the photo below, you see all this ripe fruit? They’re our super juicy fremont tangerines. The squirrels also seem to enjoy sneaking a few off the tree. So what do we do? Start picking and sharing them before these little beasts get to them!

A gardeners dilemma never ends.

Happy Weekend to you all.

hugs and love,

diane and todd……. and the squirrel *thief*

And here are our exploding Fremont tangerines. The squirrels better stay away!

View the original article here

It’s like giving birth, they say. Sharing news of our very own cookbook.

Hello Friends.

We’ve said this many times in the past and we’ll say it again… because of your friendship and support, our lives are richer in ways that we never, ever imaged. Your messages, comments and encouragement helped us define our voice. You helped us see, feel, understand and do more of what it is that we love so much.

Over the past several years, we’ve been photographing and producing video for other cookbooks, but never really considered writing our own. Perhaps it was because we really didn’t know what it was that we wanted to write about and to trust that our ideas would work in a book. We wanted to find something we believed in 1,000% percent before we poured our heart and soul into printed pages.

Every time you visit our blog and each of your comments re-enforces this belief to be real and honest. Because of your encouragement in us, we’ve found the confidence to finally write our very own cookbook full of garden inspired recipes, cooking stories and puppy pictures!

This whole process is a little scary. Many authors have said it’s like giving birth. It’s a labor of love and one of the hardest, scariest, most gratifying experiences we’ll go through.

We keep asking ourselves, are we ready for this?! Is it really like giving birth but without the Demerol? What will it be like to cradle our very own book in our arms? So many more questions come to mind.

Our stories and unconditional love will be poured over the printed pages through intimate lifestyle photography and brand new vegetable/ fruit driven recipes. Your readership here let us know that you appreciated our fresh, garden inspired recipes. So, we’ll do much more of it and this whole storybook will be laced with plenty of our personal style photos, most of which will be new and original.

Our hearts are racing. We’re anxious, excited, nervous and elated all at the same time. It’s been our little secret for some time now and if you’ve been following our instagram, we’ve been giving sneak peaks behind our #TDCookbook photographs and recipes.

Now, we have the guts to share it with you all.

We’re in the best hands with an fantastic team. Huge thank you goes to our wonderful literary agent Alison Fargis of Stonesong Press for helping make all this happen. Our amazing editor Dervla Kelly and supportive publisher Abrams Books have been incredible in making our dream come to life. Have you seen the gorgeous cookbooks they publish? The Baked cookbooks and Sugar Baby are examples of beautiful cookbooks, gardening books and other works of art published by Abrams Books.

Finally, the fun and crazy journey in all this is that the book is slated for release in Fall of 2013. So much work is ahead of this, but we’re finally ready for this process.

THANK YOU to you all for helping us make this happen. This journey would never be the same without you amazing people.

hugs and love,

diane and todd

View the original article here

Food photography, styling workshop & sharing a meal at our studio #AFundForJennie

You are all incredible, each and everyone of you in this food community. The Twitter hashtag #APieForMikey event appeared to kick start a movement, a staggering response of support and love for Jennie. Now Bloggers without Borders (founded by Maggy, Erika) are working tirelessly around the clock with Shauna to organize #AFundforJennie, a funding raising event to assist Jennie and her two girls.

We’re witnessing something truly amazing here: food bloggers from all around the world are participating in the most community driven event ever. You must visit the auction gallery page to see really comprehend the scope of how wonderful the event has blossomed too. This auction page is filled with offerings from the heart and full of love from worldwide bloggers.

Now it’s our turn. Our offering is a full day food photography/styling workshop, followed by a family style meal that we will all cook together and share. The location is at our brand new kitchen studio that is just 7 days old.

some vintage collectables in our gallery room

All funds from these ticket donations will go directly to Jennie at Bloggers without Borders. We (Todd & Diane) will personally fund the cost of hosting the workshop.

Please join us for a day of learning, friendship & community. Here is the agenda (subject to change): 

Our Studio Location: Orange County, CA. on Saturday October 15, 2011 8am-8pm

Morning Welcome: You will be greeted with a big bear hug, pumping music, light & fresh breakfast, a quick tour of our new studio & dancing (not required).

Discussions & topics: Storytelling, vision, finding your voice, making an impact with your photos, the power of an imperfect photo, lighting, basic principles.

Live demonstration: we will be demonstrating a live shoot, from ideas to storyboarding, workflow to final image.

Hands on time: you will have an opportunity to practice making your food photographs.

Lunch: Fresh meal cooked from our studio kitchen, more music & discussion of morning shoot

Discussion & topics: Basic Food Styling, how to integrate color, texture, movement to make a photo stand out, shooting on location

Live Demonstration: we will be demonstrating some dishes being styled, then photographed & editing

Hands on Time: you will have opportunity to practice styling, playing with props & photographing

Dinner: Family style fresh spring roll feast (gluten free) where we will grill on the table. We will all be cooking and eating together.

********************************************

*** Donation Details: The cost for this complete day is $1,000 per person, all funds go to Jennie.  Space is open to 10 attendees. If spaces fill up quick, then we might open up more spots.

How to sign up (please read carefully) : The workshop is limited to the first 10 people. Go to the Bloggers Without Borders Donation Site Here. Make your $1,000 donation by clicking the square BWOB Donation button on the side bar. Once you make your donation, you will receive a confirmation from pay pal. Send that confirmation to us at: td (at) Whiteonricecouple (dot) com to secure your spot in the workshop.

Thank you again and hope to see you there!

Our 7 day old kitchen studio where food photo/video shoots happen

play with our prop room and with Sierra

Other studio half filled with natural light to shoot in. & studio will be cleaned, promise!

Our live demonstrations will show you how we achieve these food shots

The #APieForMikey Video we made for Jennie & Mikey:

View the original article here