Epicuriosity: Olive + Maple Granola

Our new installment of "Epicuriousity" brings you our yummiest picks from the food blogosphere. We'll drop some recipes for breakfast, lunch, and dinner to get your savory and sweet tooth on!

This morning's recipe is:

NEKISIA DAVIS' OLIVE OIL AND MAPLE GRANOLA
 

courtesy of Nekisia Davis, maker of Early Bird Granola. This particular recipe found its way to our friends at Food52, a community that started with the aim of creating the first crowd-sourced cookbook in 52 weeks (hence the 52 in Food52). 

What they have now is a strong community of contributors and cooks, like Ms. Nekisia Davis.

At Food52, they draw up imaginative cookbooks, tackle the latest debates in the world of food, provide insight and commentary to help other folks.

So, if you've got a craving for a hearty breakfast, try this:

Makes about 7 cups

3 cups old-fashioned rolled oats

1 cup raw pumpkin seeds, hulled

1 cup raw sunflower seeds, hulled

1 cup unsweetened coconut chips

1 1/4 cup raw pecans, left whole or coarsely chopped

3/4 cup pure maple syrup

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar

Coarse salt

The Process

Heat oven to 300 degrees.

1. Place oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut, pecans, syrup, olive oil, sugar, and 1 teaspoon salt in a large bowl and mix until well combined. Spread granola mixture in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Transfer to oven and bake, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until granola is toasted, about 45 minutes.

2.  Remove granola from oven and season with more salt to taste. Let cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container for up to 1 month.

Follow the Early Bird -- Founder Nekisia Davis on Twitter.

Each bag of granola purchased helps the anti-bullying LGBTQ Organization, GLSEN!

Image courtesy of Early Bird Granola

Check you in a few for today's lunch special!

Love, 

3rd Ward

Q&A: 3rd Ward's Max Kelly On The Flavor of Food Photography

All photos by Max Kelly

With 3rd Ward's Culinary Incubator on the horizon, food has been on our minds quite a bit (read: nonstop--someone make us something now.) Anyhow, as we yearn for that mouth-watering future, we've been busy feasting our eyes on the food photography of 3rd Ward member Max Kelly. We caught up with him to find out more about how it all began.

You can check out some of Kelly's delicious shots both below and on his new website--but first, our Q&A:

3rd Ward's John Ruscher: So how did you get into food photography?

Max Kelly: I've always known that I wanted to work in a field in which I could physically see my accomplishments at the end of a day's work. Before food photography, I worked as a camera operator on commercial film sets, and realized that while I enjoy video, still photography is where my true passion lies.

The thing I love most about photography is that it's a gateway to any other subject matter that you find you're passionate about. I'm fascinated by the mechanics of cameras, the ways in which light can interact differently with a subject, and the effects of composition on a viewer—and it's a privilege to explore my other interests through this lens.

JR: Where's the passion for food come from?

MK: I grew up in Brooklyn, in a very food-minded family that cooked and traveled often—so I had the benefit of being exposed to many different flavors and cultures at an early age. Food is a vast topic, and one which is universally shared. I'm captivated by the fact that there are infinite possibilities and variations for any dish, and that two people from different parts of the world can look at the same ingredient in totally different ways.

JR: Does food photography require a different approach from shooting other subjects?

MK: Still life photography is more focused on creating an environment than other types of photography. Sometimes, this means rearranging or adding props to a real-life location, while in other instances, "locations" are fabricated from scratch. Creating environments and choosing props that impart visual cues about a dish is a large part of food photography.

Beyond that, there is of course the factor of having a small window of time to photograph the food before the ingredients wilt, dry or otherwise lose their fresh appearance. For this reason, communicating well with your team and having a clear vision of the final product before beginning to shoot is essential.

JR: Did anything at 3rd Ward influence your work in particular?

MK: I found 3rd Ward's classes and coworking space to be a great help when I first struck out on my own as a freelancer. The Branding Your Vision class for photographers drove home the point that it's essential that your work have a unique and consistent look. It helped me create a style that was my own, and not rooted in what I thought was "popular" and "marketable". 

The Business of Photography class gave me insight into how publications hire photographers, as well as the most effective ways to get my work into the hands of photo editors and creative directors.

...and now for some of Kelly's gorgeous attempts to make you eat your laptop:

-- John Ruscher

Help 'Baker Movie' Bring the Culinary Olympics to the Big Screen

Maybe you caught wind of 3rd Ward's upcoming, new location--as in: our very own Culinary Incubator.

It may be a little way's off, but any time we think about it, our hunger drive starts to redline. Which is why the campaign to fund the documentary Baker Movie has particularly struck our fancy.

When the folks behind the Baker Movie Kickstarter campaign describe the Coupe de Monde de la Boulangerie as the World Cup of baking, they're being modest. It's an international, invitational artisan baking competition held only every three to four years, which makes it more like the baking Olympics. Teams from twelve countries must move up the ranks in regionals to be considered for an invitation to face off against the world's best bakers. Each team is made up of three members who specialize in Baguettes & Specialty Breads, Artistic Design and Viennoiserie, sweet, puffy, buttery goodies that fall somewhere between bread and pastries (think croissants, brioches and beignets). There's also a fourth category, Savory Selection, for which members must team up to create a sandwich.

Yes, we're salivating now too. But we're also a bit curious: With all the cook-offs and cake wars created for reality TV--what's a real-life, bonafide and insanely high-level baking competition like? If you want to know what it takes to bake the world's tastiest, crustiest baguette or the flakiest pain au chocolat, then go ahead and support Baker Movie on Kickstarter. The film will follow Mike Zakowski, a member of Bread Bakers Guild Team USA in the Baguette & Specialty Breads category. The actual Coupe de Monde de la Boulangerie's website is one of the most underwhelming we've seen in a while (have they never heard of food porn?!). So,if you want to get an inside look at some high stakes butter and yeast action (and clearly, we do), then you know what to do: support Baker Movie and then we can all try not to eat the movie screen together.

-- Perrin Drumm