In Germany, the potato salad is a staple of any party especially a birthday party. It’s easy to make, is cheap (which is super important), it’s filling, and it’s looks pretty good on the buffet. There are quite a few variations in potato salad recipes, especially between the South and the rest of Germany. The most common recipe consist of you guessed it, potatoes, mayonnaise, and some kind of meat. Usually some pink baloney. Pickles and onions are also common additives.
potatoes
Wash your organic potatoes, if you’re want to make a rustic looking potato salad, scrub the skin and the rest the brush to remove all the dirt. It’s best to get potatoes that a good for salad. At the store, they most likely will be labeled as salad potatoes or waxy potatoes. Floury potatoes will break apart once cooked. The potatoes until soft, let them cool, cut them into bite sized pieces.
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meat
We don’t need to serve our guests some unidentifiable meat mix. Smoked tofu has the perfect consistency to be used in a potato salad. Get yourself a block of smoked tofu, cut it up into thin slices, then cube it. There is no need to cook the tofu, you can use it as is or fry it in a pan if you like to just like you used to fry cubes of bacon.
mayonnaise
The typical potato salad dressing it’s just tons of store-bought mayonnaise. For Eliza Virgina yet like to use some soy yogurt, plain, and adding a little bit of simple vegan mustard.
add-ons
Have a great add-ons for the potato salad or pickles, oops oops herbs, fresh or dried, fresh veggies like cucumber, bell pepper, or radishes. Onions, pies, and corn are also a great add-ons.
mixing the potato salad
Make sure the potatoes are fully cooled down, not even warm! Mix everything together and serve.
Welcome to Rawismyreligion! I'm Ina. I love having you here, sharing my lifestyle with you, getting to know you better. You can get in touch with me here on my blog by leaving comments under the posts and on all my social media.
Do you need an amazing food photography background for you Instagram or Pinterest pictures? But you don’t wanna buy five different kitchen counters just to photograph your food? Don’t have to. Instead of buying me a heavy marble or concrete table, you can make your own concrete looking awesome food photography backdrops. Almost all food photographers use fake backdrop for their photography most of the time. Specially if they don’t work from home exclusively. Usually they would buy vinyl backdrops authentic food photography backdrops.
Buying hand painted and backdrops can be really pricey, but the vinyl food photography backgrounds are almost the same price as a big job would cost you to make. There’s a simple difference, you can make your own food photography backdrop much larger than you can buy a vinyl background, for the same price.
In this mini tutorial I will show you how you can make your backdrop using simple materials you might even already have in your home or you can easily get into local hardware store.
This or similar materials were used for my food photography backdrop I am showing you hear in the video
Natural body care sponges are amazing, get the biggest one you can find. Natural sponges can be quite pricey, but you can definitely use your old body wash sponge, dad is not good enough for showering anymore.
Seal the painting
Matt acrylic finish, make sure it’s MATT!
I bought two big thick plywood boards. In the hardwood store doors there around 10€. If you already have wooden panels at home, for example the back walls of old cupboards, then the background will be a lot cheaper than me.
I spent additional ten euro on all the other material, i.e. 20 euros for the boards and around 10 euros for the paint, roller, sponge and the vanish. In total, on backdrop was less than ten euros, around like 7-8 euros.
First, I mixed colors. I wanted to make two darker and two lighter backdrops. I mixed black paint with some white paint. I then diluted the paint with water and applied it to the plywood in a thin layer with a paint roller. I had to apply two coats for good coverage. If the paint was diluted, one coat would have been sufficient, but I might have wasted more paint.
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You can see sponges that I can choose from for the sponge technique below. This time,I will only use the natural sponge. These natural sponges are not that cheap and cost around ten euros, especially if you buy larger ones. You can find these at the drug stores or online. This sponge is sold as a bath sponge and can also be used for a while for the bath, and if it no longer looks so beautiful, it can then get a second life in the design of photo backgrounds.
To dab on the color, I mixed a slightly lighter color with a little water, the color should not be too liquidy, but also not too thick, you don’t want 100% of coverage. It is best to start on the edge to see how opaque the color is. Then work your way to the middle. The backdrop starts to looks like a cloudy sky.
After each dab, the color becomes less intense and can be layered easily. When the first layer is finished, you can see whether you want to use a darker or lighter color to make the whole thing a bit more homogeneous. Photo backdrops are not about a high-contrast, beautiful picture. But rather a random pattern, that is almost lost on the backdrop and looks like a natural stone surface. The less beautiful the “picture” looks, the better it food photography backdrop it will be.
I left the backdrop to dry and sealed the picture the next day. It’s crucial to use and that vanish and that the water dilute bar is so that I only applied a very thin layer. The background is now water-repellent, but I wouldn’t put anything wet on it or put any food directly onto it, because the paint is probably not food-safe. A preferably use my backdrops for the background and less an underground. He can put the food on the plate onto it, just not the food that I cannot wash and have to eat street of the backdrop.
The backdrops always come out slightly different, even though we 2 of them using almost the same paint. One more reason to make a few.
Food Photography
Food photography is the biggest of my passions at the moment. I collect props and try all the new food photography techniques for you.
By the end of the week I had almost no fun food left to photograph. Luckily, I remembered I still had some purple potatoes in the fridge that I needed to photograph. The Lightroom preset for this photo will be available here soon.
I have and you set up in my office which has a north facing window which allows me to play with the shadows a little bit better than in the studio is the south facing window. I feel like it’s the perfect set up to photograph simply other foods, props and backgrounds. And I have so many props I brought from Japan two years ago which are still waiting for their appearance.
Get your Lightroom Preset for this shot
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The two round bowls are from Dirk Aleksic, a Brandenburg based potter. I have been buying from him for years and I have quite a collection of his beautiful plates and bowls. He studied his craft in Japan, so all his pottery blends super well with Japanese cutlery and pottery.
Skinny hammered forks and spoons. By Yuichi Takemata.
I found this beauty on Pinterest as he started it, big then I have no idea I would have to chance to go to Japan and really find and get it. Finding specific handmade items from Japan can be a huge struggle, even if you are in Japan. I have a huge page on buying food photography props in Japan, check it out if you are looking into buying food photography props in Japan.
For sure there are some online shops you can order Japanese cutlery and plates from. And there are also some local businesses/stores in Europe and in the United States that import Japanese kitchen stuff. But, as with all unique handmade items, they are sold out super quickly. And importing them is really expensive. Prepared to pay double the price for an already really expensive item. Here is one (Analogue Life), I never ordered from, not sponsored! They have an amazing selection, which is selling out super fast.
Collecting food photography props for almost 10 years, I have some great tips I would love to share with you. If you’re just starting out with food photography, you might be lacking some essential food photography props such as good cops glasses plates cutlery and trays.
Buy cheap essentials
You can get amazing cheap basic plates and glasses from pretty inexpensive places like IKEA, Muji, or the dollar store. The absolute basics like plain white or black cleats or sunglasses look almost identical whether cheap or branded.
Invest in a set of non-shiny white, black, gray plates. Basic props the last you a very long time and distance any upcoming trend in food photography. This plates, bowls, and glasses, get them all on a smaller size, they will be easier to fill his food.
You can also get some inexpensive wooden boards, black stone plates, and marble boards at the stores mentioned above. Also Zara Home, and H&M have great cheap essentials. In Germany, there are also Depot, Strauss, and Butlers. In Spain: Muy Mucho.
Don’t get multiples
You will start buying the more expensive props to make your collection a little bit more interesting, don’t get huge sets. Unless you are photographing huge table settings, one or two plates, glasses, bowls and so on are usually enough. Rather than getting multiples, I like to get different sizes of one kind of an item.
Never use your props in your own kitchen
You will see if I turn off money if you make your props last longer. Therefore, never use your props to eat out of them, not in your own kitchen, but also don’t eat the food out of the mobile photographing the food. I’m done shooting, I usually transfer the food onto a different plate and eat it out of that. It avoid scratching. Don’t wash the dishes with harsh chemicals and also don’t scrub them with any sharp sponges or brushes. It’s also better never to put the dishes into the dishwasher, always handwash your food photography props. Don’t use any harsh chemicals, like acids or soaps to clean your dishes.
Try not to break your props
It doesn’t happen a lot, but I managed to break some expensive props by just not being careful enough. It usually happens while transporting or storing, but sometimes also while shooting.
If you have lots of props, you definitely need to think about our practical storage solution, always store all the props into reusable wrapping material. You don’t want to props to get dusty, to scratch, or to fall down while storing them.
After one of the pizza shoots, my model couldn’t hold the plate anymore and it fell down. I wouldn’t do risky photo shoots with the expensive plates in the future. Lukely, it was a half-off plate, I will tell you how to get your props for half the price.
You get tons of basics but also some unique antiques at the flea market for a fraction of the price you would to have to pay at the store. There are some better, some cheaper, and some disillusioning flea markets. Buying props from a flea market is adventure and years long hobby. You will never be able to find what you are really looking for, but something you might need in the future. Are usually only go to the flea market if I really have the time for it and it’s not huge of an effort. It’s a lot of fun for us to going to flea markets while traveling. We get to go to the parts of the city we go to usually not have gone, and usually find something really amazing to take home.
Buy flawed props from your porter
The last trip for buying amazing props for a fraction of the original price, it’s to ask your favorite Potter if they have some slots pottery they would usually not sell for the full price or would not be comfortable selling. Depending on the flaw, I usually get a 50% discount. Here is an example of cake stand, a normal person would probably not buy it. It’s pretty disfigured on the top, but it doesn’t matter to me so much, as I can always cover it with food. So it works for me pretty well for me and I can get two instead of just one item. The potter are also happy to get rid of their hard-to-sell stock.
Build up your collection slowly and keep your future projects, or what you would laugh to photograph in mind. This way you will have enough time to buy food photography props on sale or the flea market.
We came here especially for this cutlery and found some great small black metal plates. Looking back, I would have taken so much more home with me, and some of the wooden plates I laid on board Chavis you.
When you pay for a cup of coffee at Starbucks or any other coffee shop, you might pay around $3 or up to $10 for a single drink. The farmer only gets under 10 cents, usually around 5 cents. According to fairtrade.net farmers earn with $1 per pound of coffee only half the living wage. With 1.40 per pound the farmers operate under the poverty line.
What can we do to help the farmers? The easiest thing is to buys fair-trade coffee, even at the coffee shop. It’s not always more expensive, as the coffee price itself makes up a very small portion of your drink.
For my part, I invest only in organic fair trade coffee. If it seems too expensive and I cannot afford it, I simply don’t buy coffee. Coffee is not a necessity, even though the coffee addictions would not subscribe to it. I would rather buy something else, that is worth the money to me, like cacao or cashews, and the farmers can live of it.
I only order fresh produce once a week. Ordering products online is certainly a bit more expensive than going to an organic supermarket here in Germany, but it has many advantages. I save time, I don’t have to drive to the store, I plan my meals a little better in advance and am more organized overall.
In the video you can see my organic produce picks for this week. During the autumn season I try to buy local seasonal products that don’t come from far away. Especially the watermelons, honeydew melons, grapes and the kale are in season and on sale where I order from.
I'm in love with the raw vegan recipes. For me, it's the freshness of the ingredients and the ease of the food prep. And the recipes turn out so yummy (most of the time;), especially the desserts. Try some of my simple recipes here.
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I enjoy eating raw corn in salads. It makes especially the kale salad a bit creamier. In addition, the sweetness in the corn balances out the bitterness of the kale quite a bit. The lemon juice also softens the kale taste a little. Not that I don’t like the kale flavor. But, I sometimes like a milder salad with all the good nutrients from the kale. I especially make sure to buy organic corn. But all the other ingredients as well.
Heute gab es Papayas, Bananen, viele Kokosnüsse, Biriba und Kalesalat.
How I try to eat more bell peppers
Unfortunately, I don’t eat bell peppers enough. I don’t automatically grab bell peppers when making a salad. That’s unfortunate. When cut into small pieces, bell peppers tastes particularly good in a kale salad. Especially red and yellow bell peppers. The paprika-corn combination is particularly tasty.
I'm passionate about eating the best food possible. I always buy organic and try to shop zero waste, in bulk and to support local farmers. For me, the people and the planet.
Mushroom season is approaching and there are so many beautiful mushrooms in the woods. While it might be tempting to pick the mushrooms you, not all mushrooms you are finding are edible.
Some mushrooms might be just bitter and not very tasty, but many are really poisonous and consumption of just a piece might be lethal, especially for small children.
The deadly mushrooms are distributed throughout Europe and might be mistaken for edible varieties. Almost every edible variety of mushrooms has it’s poisonous doppelgänger. Accidental consumption of poisonous mushrooms leads to severe liver toxicity and can have lethal consequences if immediate treatment is not provided.
The safest way to consume mushrooms is to only eat store bought mushrooms. If you are really enthusiastic about picking your own mushrooms in the forest, reach out to people who are very knowledgeable about mushrooms. They better be true experts. In some places around the world you can find guides, who offer paid excursions and will teach you to recognise edible mushrooms.
Try to learn one or two very common varieties of edible mushrooms and pick only those. Make sure you know all the poisonous doppelgängers of this varieties. So you can distinguish poisonous mushrooms from edible ones.
Never ever except mushrooms other non-experts collected, for example while camping or from your neighbours.
There are so many accidents and even death caused by consuming poisonous mushrooms each year. It’s even possible to consume a deadly mushroom by accident, for example by accepting a dish someone made with fresh or dried self-picked mushrooms. Or when children eat a mushroom in the forest when not supervised. Poisonous mushrooms and edible mushrooms can look a lot alike so you might eat a poisonous mushroom even if you are pretty sure you know what you are doing.Be especially careful when you are far away from the hospital and cannot seek immediate help if something goes wrong. If you cannot afford going to the hospital, this is one more reason for not eating wild mushrooms.
Here is the video depicting some of the poisonous mushrooms you should not be eating. But there are so many more poisonous mushrooms out there.
For the ones who came for the raw food recipes, consuming wild mushrooms raw is not safe for so many reasons. Better even thinking about eating wild mushrooms raw at all.
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Food Shopping
I'm passionate about eating the best food possible. I always buy organic and try to shop zero waste, in bulk and to support local farmers. For me, the people and the planet.
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