Day-to-day food action at home was too good to miss, so I set up a small studio-away-from-studio to capture it. Even with high-end equipment in my workspace, I try to keep it simple. When I shoot at home, I use natural light as much as possible. 

Our family relies on Marty’s cooking talent to keep us healthy and satisfied. He was away, but my son had to be nourished to take his SATs. So, I needed to cook! Fortunately I had some healthy food items in the pantry so I could make a vegetarian Indian stew with carrots, lentils, rutabagas, turnips, and coconut milk. Some of these items were actually repurposed from a WebMD shoot last week. To spice it up, I added cumin, corriander, garam masala and ginger. I used Madhur Jaffrey’s Indian Cooking for inspiration, which was a gift from Lisa.


I also had some great San Marzano canned tomatoes that Marty found at A. Litteri, a fantastic old-school purveyor of Italian specialty groceries in DC. And, I made a small salad with the last of this season’s arugula and fennel from our garden.

On Sunday I took advantage of the outrageously beautiful Indian Summer weather, and really got my exercise, walking down to Dupont Circle Farmer’s Market with my friend Leslye. Making our trip heavier on the uphill return trip was a good haul of produce, including some shiitake mushrooms.