I’ve been dying to make a ceviche ever since I got cracked out on them 3 years ago at Victor’s Cuban Cafe in NYC.  They are very easy to make, so I’m not sure what took me so long but it was worth the wait!

This recipe is very refreshing in flavor, color & texture, which will be great for our 1st spring dinner party.

Ingredients:
1lb Red snapper – skinned, deboned, & cut into ½” pieces (I got mine fresh from Monahan’s Seafood Market!)
½ Cup of fresh squeezed lime juice
¼ Cup of white wine vinegar
1 Cup of mango diced
½ Cup of shallots diced
1 Jalapeño finely diced (remove seeds)
1 Avocado
¼ Cup of red pepper diced
Watercress
Ginger powder
Salt
Pepper
Potato sticks

Mixing & Marinating:

- In a medium sized mixing bowl, combine your red snapper, fresh lime juice, white wine vinegar, shallots, jalapeño & a few dashes of ginger powder.

- Once mixed, cover & refrigerate for 2 hours stirring ever half hour to ensure that the fish is covered in your marinade.

- During the marination/”cooking” process, you will observe your fish transition from a translucent white to an opaque white as the acid from the lime juice & vinegar “cooks” the fish.

- After marinating, drain most of the liquid (also known as Tiger Milk) then add in mango, cilantro, red pepper & mix well. Salt & pepper to taste.

- Serve chilled with fresh avocado slices and watercress.

According to my friend Chef Eve Aronoff (former Bravo TV “Top Chef” contestant), it is traditional to serve ceviche with something salty/crunchy on top, so I decided to serve potato sticks with my ceviche.

History of civeche:

Ceviche, which is often spelled seviche or cebiche, depending on which part of South America it comes from, is seafood prepared in a centuries old method of cooking by contact with the acidic juice of citrus juice instead of heat.

The origin of ceviche is disputed between Peru and Ecuador, and as both countries have an amazing variety of fish and shellfish, it could easily have come from the ancient Inca civilizations of Peru and Ecuador.

Every Latin American country has given seviche/ceviche its own touch of individuality by adding its own particular garnishes. In Peru, it’s the national dish & is served with slices of cold sweet potatoes or corn-on-the-cob. In Ecuador, it is accompanied by popcorn, nuts, or corn nuts. (Source | What’s Cooking America)

I’m anticipating a good start to my weekend one day early & I hope to share some really great news Thursday evening.

If my things go as expected, it means that one of my bright ideas has manifested & will help move my photography career in a great direction.

Stay tuned!!!!!!

In other news:
- I ate two too many cookies tonight
- I totally blew my finance midterm
- I’m watching “Cinema Paridiso” (one of my favorite foreign films) this weekend.

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UPDATE:

Well, it jumped of today & my news is that………………….

I NOW HAVE STUDIO SPACE! Yes me!!!

It’s actually a shared space with the “Detroit League of Photographers” at the Russell Industrial Center (east side of Detroit), which is a hub of creativity that hosts a variety of artists.

I plan on being set up at the Russell in April, which is perfect because I have a shoot at the beginning of the month.

With this space, I can grow my business, not have to scavenge to borrow space & attract a wider variety of clients.

I’ve been dreaming of having a space at the Russell Industrial Center for the last two years but timing, opportunity, & resources were not aligned. Good thing I have some patience because this venture with the Detroit League of Photographers is right on time!

I’ll give this a try for several months & reevaluate. If all goes well, then great! If all is blah, then oh well.

Overall, I hope this will be my field of dreams. I’m building it & I want them to come. Whoever they may be.

In other news:
- I’m gonna eat another cookie tonight

After seeing all of the 2010 Oscar nominated short films, I was pulling hard for “Granny O’Grimm’s Sleeping Beauty” to bring home the gold for best animated short but it was not meant to be. The award winner was Francois Alaux and Herve de Crece’s “Logorama,” which is still a great thing!

I was going back &  forth between who I wanted to win, so was still excited to see this very clever gem win.

According to the directors,

“Logorama presents us with an over-marketed world built only from logos and real trademarks that are destroyed by a series of natural disasters (including an earthquake and a tidal wave of oil). Logotypes are used to describe an alarming universe (similar to the one that we are living in) with all the graphic signs that accompany us everyday in our lives. This over-organized universe is violently transformed by the cataclysm becoming fantastic and absurd. It shows the victory of the creative against the rational, where nature and human fantasy triumph.”

The awesome thing about the win is that now, “Logorama can now be viewed online! Yes!!!!

Enjoy…

I will not confess to loving Judge Joe Brown, however if I did, this video would be a great representation why.

I’m still laughing at how Judge Joe Brown broke the photographer down with her entry-level equipment. Classic!!!!

Entry level camera, slow kit lenses, Walmart prints & a lack of planning sealed the deal for a bad job in this case.

And whatever happened to customer service?

New photographers – Be cautious with how you present yourself & services. Having a camera doesn’t make you a professional. Skill, knowledge, abilities, & practice go a long way.

Brides – Sometimes you get what you pay for. Ask for samples, referrals etc! I’m just saying.

Judge Joe Brown – You are the man! And next time you’re in Detroit, lets go out shooting.

I had all the best intentions of waking up at 9am today to fix myself breakfast, & prepare for my 1pm photo shoot with Detroit rock group Fluxphonic.

In my head the plan was solid! Well, it all went to hell when I woke up at 11am.

I jumped out of bed, rushed to get dressed, packed my camera bag, gathered light equipment & loaded the car. Before you know it was 1150, everything was in the car & I was on my way to the set with a very empty belly.

I totally had no time to stop for a quick bite. Oh my!

I HATE working while hungry!

Well, none of that mattered because I had to make it happen.

Then… I get to the set & realize that I left a vital lighting accessory at home. Bummer! So I improvised like one should.

The clock tics & tocs & the shoot is going great; before you now it, we wrapped about 4:15.

Before heading home, I stopped at Popeye’s for a quick meal, which I later suffered from. BIG TIME!

Lessoned learned from today:

- Set 2 alarms, maybe 3
- Triple check the equipment checklist
- Pack snacks no matter what
- Never eat a Popeye’s spicy 3 piece on a totally empty stomach

With all this said, my clients never saw me sweat or heard my belly growl (I think).

Pictured above: Fluxphonic (Steffanie Chris’tian (Left to Right) Kris Wilson, Danny Lecours, Russ Dobson)

If you’re in the Detroit area Saturday March 27, you can see Fluxphonic at the Charles H Wright Museum of African American History “Black Women Rock! A Tribute to Betty Davis”

Side Note: Who is Betty Davis?

A wildly flamboyant funk diva with few equals even three decades after her debut, Betty Davis combined the gritty emotional realism of Tina Turner, the futurist fashion sense of David Bowie, and the trendsetting flair of Miles Davis, her husband for a year.

It’s easy to imagine the snickers when a 23-year-old model married a famous musician twice her age, but Davis was no gold digger; she turned Miles onto Jimi Hendrix and Sly Stone, providing the spark that led to Miles’ musical reinvention on In a Silent Way and Bitches Brew, then proved her own talents with a trio of sizzling mid-’70s solo LPs.

See a few more out takes from my shoot with Fluxphonic here.

The other night, Suite Suzy was going through boxes of her old photos when she stumbled across some of her high school photos.

This was great for me because I hadn’t seen any of these particular photos in all of the time that we have been together (13 years).

Thumbing through the images inspired many good chuckles from the early 80’s fashions, wild mulatto girl hair, interesting eye brow arches & “sexy wanna be model” poses. It was a Suite Suzy that I’d never seen. And it was almost like unlocking a mystery. Not like she was keeping secrets but it was like a time capsule of sorts.

The photo above is from her 1984 high school senior portraits. I found this image to be so beautiful. And until I saw it, I never thought that out daughter Olivia favored Suzanne but this image makes them appear to be twins.

I asked Suite Suzy if I could hold on to the photo for a while & she obliged. The next morning I woke up, picked up the photo again & smiled at it.

Have you experienced the deliciousness of Mexican Coke yet? I’m still so hook on this stuff?

I love when Negro pop culture blogs do those “who rocked it better” posts & always wondered if I would do that here. Well I’m not exactly out looking for fashion trends etc but I couldn’t pass this opportunity up.

So anyway, I ask you, who rocked “Island Life” best? Is it a toss up???

Behind the Island Life album cover:

Grace Jones’ former lover & photographer Jean Paul Goude took this photo of her in 1978 for a New York Magazine model profile.

Of the image, Goude has stated in his book “So Far, So Goude:”

“…unless you are extraordinarily supple, you cannot do this arabesque. The main point is that Grace couldn’t do it, and that’s the basis of my entire work: creating a credible illusion.”

The image is actually a composite of several photos stitched together to make this iconic image. Awesome work from the pre-Photoshop days!