In 2020, we all have had a lot of challenges to face. To make your businesss work in this environment we've been nimble, cut unneccessary expenses and found ways to deliver our clients something remarkable against all odds. Or so it felt at times. The American Egg Board and Razorfish Chicago office tapped us to help revamp a website. It was the peak of the early pandemic when everything was shut down, supply chains were almost nonexistent and shooting with a team was unthinkable. Considering that there are two of us with unique talents outside of just photography we were able to make a compelling case for creating the work. Rebecca has lots of prop styling and hand modelling experience, having done both for Nordstrom in the midwest product photography studios. In many ways she has more experience hand modelling than anyone else in Kansas City. Caleb has the food styling knowlege to not only plate things properly but also concieve and execute technically challenging dishes. Normally for a shoot of this magnatude you'd want a team of 6-10 people but that just wasn't going to be possible. We not only made due with our circumstances, but exceeded client expectations. We were two people working from their homes, sourcing props and building spaces with a tight deadline and high expectations. This year had the potential to break us but it made us instead. Sure we had lots of "learning moments" but we want to share it all here moving forward.

In this new year we're going to dedicate some time better telling our story. We spend lots of effort planning, strategizing and executing content for our clients but have realized we need to apply some of that creative effort towards what makes our business special. We're a team of two with lots of unique talents and have found lots of ways to make a mark. We moved to Kansas City in December of 2021. Since then we've shot the cover six times for Kansas City Magazine, and 4 times for Feast. Our photos made it into Esquire after our return client Fox & Pearl was placed in the top ten restaurants across the US. We landed big commercial work and are on the preferred vendor list for two of the top agency groups worldwide. We bid a job with more zeroes than ever and only missed out because we nailed the creative brief and the client changed directions midstream (the agency creative was 100% behind our proposal deck). While it hasn't been all roses and we definitely don't feel we've made it, we're living our best lives trying to see how far we can take our ideas. Feeling you've made it is maybe a bit dangerous anyway. There's always something else to achieve, new stories to tell, and adventures to yet experience. We hope you follow along as we do our best to show you what we're about and share our adventures as a creative endeavor.

Living in Chicago was amazing. The food scene is always evolving and changing. Something that never did, thankfully, is the classic Chicago hotdog. Over time the same toppings and the actual hotdog have remained, like some statue in the middle of a city square reminding us all of times past. Living in Iowa now, I find myself in a quandary. Whereas in Chicago everyone honors the tradition of using only Vienna beef dogs, bright green dill flavored relish, mustard, onion, dill pickle spear, sport peppers, tomato slices and the lightest dusting of celery salt on a (most times) poppyseed bun. In Iowa that's not the case. I've run into a few adherants to tradition but then a couple of wildly agregious examples, using such tyranny as cheap tubemeats (a vienna beef dog costs so little already!) and the worst offenders tend to be the $8 hotdog joints. What's even worse about that is in O'hare airport where a bottle of water costs $3, a proper dog for $4.50.

Rants aside, http://theflyingwienie.com/ is an oasis in Cedar Rapids, harkening to times past. With the same bright red aesthetic as many of the classic chicago fast food spots, complete with wood panels and an airplane on top of the building but most importantly the FOOD IS GOOD. In Chicago even the diviest of mom and pop spots will nail what they're doing. There's no room for bad food in cities like that. You'll get laughed out of a business. Recently Rebecca and myself went to feed a craving for the ubiqutous tube meat and were totally blown away but it's perfection.

Amidst the new wave of restaurants we see day in and day out, don't forget the classics. Eventually our favorite new spots will hopefully last into the decades and if everyone gave up on them we'd be missing out on tradition. Some things need no innovation in food, or rather should remain as they always have to provide needed contrast to the new ideas as a sort of standard for which the new is measured against. An almost reference like quality that's needed with an ever more fast moving culture.

That brings me also to a new business in Cedar Rapids that has Chicago fast food as it's centerpiece, http://giannasbeef.com/. Having lived in Chicago as well the owners as well as many of the workers lean on experience to bring some pretty authentic italian beef, dogs and other classics to the downtown area. When they first opened up we gave it a shot (we need to come back more often admittedly) and were pleasantly suprised by the food.

Getting italian beef right is an art, and takes patience. The meat is cooked until it becomes insanely tender, normally around 30+ hours and topped with gardinera and the delicious liquid that results from that amount of cooking time. The decor may not be classic and is updated for a more modern aesthetic but the food sure is. It's great to see new places staying true to classics and carrying on the traditions in American food. The United States carries a tradition of immigrants coming to it's shores and making new foods. Some of these foods are our heritage and the Italian beef sandwich is one of them. Much like BBQ there are new ideas mixed in but the attention to detail and patience present in much of european cooking, there's a real center to this food. Briny, spicy relish on a deeply flavored meat on a soft roll. While you'd never find this in Italy, you can see how this would come from the same minds when presented with a different set of ingredients and audience. Food comes from culture, and recognising our past helps us celebrate that past with context and nuance.

The owner pictured above, Adam Hadjis, comes from a family of restaurant owners. His parents ran the Greek Vernon Inn for decades. It was where I first had Greek food on prom night in high school and was part of my early obsession with trying new foods so I'm glad to see the torch carried on by their son who named his new place after his daughter who passed in a tragic accident. The history is rich there and I hope that if you're here you give them a shot or if you're visiting and are craving some Chicago style fast food. You won't be let down.

Lake Macbride is one of my favorite places. I remember going there as a kid and swimming at the beach, and coming home for the summer during my college days and taking one of the paddle boats out for a joyride at midnight with some friends (we put it back and didn't damage anything, don't worry friendly park ranger). It's where I caught my first big wiper, a striped bass and white bass hybrid that fights like nothing else in fresh waters. I have serious cabin fever this week since the real cold has finally hit Iowa and while looking through our archives to find images of the Czech Village for a website, I ran across this series of images that's just nice too look at. I was scouting for locations to shoot portraits and ended up having a great time soaking in the sunset. Enjoy!

January in the midwest is typically full of snowstorms, new year's resolutions to work off the holiday overeating, fly tying and a huge dose of cabin fever for me. This year we were blessed with a saturday that hit a high of 50 degrees out and seeing the forcast ahead my buddy Matt asked for a last minute day off. I was wanting to shoot some footage for my outdoor lifestyle reel and specifically make something on fly fishing so I asked to tag along with him and Ryan.

We headed to a park that's maybe one of the more beautiful locations in the Driftless region of Iowa, Backbone state park. The park is defined by the huge bluffs and ridges, one called the Devil's Backbone. We had unfortunately entered the park from the west side which leads you about 2 miles from the trout streams with a huge bluff in between the area that the Maquoketa River cuts through and where the stream is accessible. There actually are trout in the Maquoketa but we'd travelled to fish the creek. I quickly cast out into the river while Matt tended to nature's call and ended up catching a small but strong rainbow trout on my second cast and was given a bit of hope for the cool winter adventure.

After catching that first fish my left hand was terribly cold and I'd not brought any gloves to warm up with so I just stuck my hands into my waders and walked up stream after the guys to see what the plan was. Matt had taken off up stream to try his hand at the river but after a few holes with no luck, Ryan was intent on crossing the park to where the streams were. We figured we could get to the other section in 20 minutes or so of walking and we took off over the hill. After chatting about the huge deer herd that we bumped into multiple times and a few dumb jokes we finally saw the stream and decided to go towards it's inception to some of the better holes that we had both frequently hit. Along the way there in the tail ends of pools in very calm water we saw small trout taking some Baetis or small blue winged olives that were hatching and started fishing up stream from them in the riffles. One of my favorite holes had been silted in a bit from the terrible fall flooding and there weren't really that many trout present in the typical spots. It made for a very different fishing experience than I was used to on these waters but we persisted with some small flies and lots of jokes.

While we didn't get any more fish to hand there were enough missed takes or fish that spit a hook after the take on a jump to keep us invested and eager. Matt finally crossed over into our area and gave me a call to find our location and we all tried our hand in the more scenic sections. The sunny 50 degree weather was great, the salami and jerky we'd packed in kept us fueled but most of all the comradery of being in wilder country with trees, water and a hard walk really made it all worth it. After being in even a small city for any period of time you're struck in nature by the peace of it all and also the focus allowed by the lack of stimulation. Being a bit struck by ADHD, nature is a place where I'm free to focus. There's no extra stimulation of a social media feed, no passing sound of cars, no flashing lights. Normally I'm out on a walk just observing, foraging, fishing and occasionally sitting very still leaned against a tree hoping to see a deer. Those activities are some of the oldest human endeavors and it feels just as much when you're participating in the long tradition of human existence alongside nature.

While I enjoy a great restaurant, killer live music, museums and so on, I get so much peace from participating in the natural order presented by nature. If there's one thing I'm hoping to share with you all is that passion for the outdoors and conserving as much of the wildness around us as possible. For every dumb loud person on social media ranting about something just remember there's another ten of us using all the tools available to ensure public land stays public and do things like buy hunting and fishing licenses or gear to do said activities with an extra high tax rate to make sure the wild stays wild.

The taxation of these activities goes directly to conservation, in higher numbers than any other activity or group currently in America. While there has been a somewhat divisive set of topics put forth by the media in regards to outdoors people (trophy hunters in Africa comes to mind), dig into the ethics of those harvesting wild creatures and the conversations currently being had. I started out having really bad feelings about both activities and the more I investigated the more I found that people are more complex than you see on the surface. Trout anglers, especially the fly fishing community, mostly catch and release and only keep a small number for eating. They seem to be a pretty passionate group looking to maintain and improve the rivers, not degrade and pollute. It's not about taking from nature it's about being a part of nature and preserving it for generations to come.

An american classic I love cooking on new years day is a dish called Hoppin John. Originating in the south, and most likely in the Creole country of Lousiana, it's thought to bring good luck to eat black eyed peas on New Years Day. The French Creole word for pidgeon peas (a similar legume to black eyed peas) is "pois a pigeon", pronounced like "pwah peeJon" which likely sounded like Hoppin' John to anyone not well versed in french. I can just hear the lovely Lousiana accent saying the word right now. Rebecca and I have been to New Orleans together and it's a really special place so this dish has become a part of our regular cooking routine. In fact, now when I make pit beans with my BBQ I always toss in a bit of bacon and cabbage in homage to the dish. Another important influence in my cooking is mexican food, especially the bean dishes. This year I decided to take a little twist on my favorite New Year's dish and add in some new flavors. If you're some sort of stinky food purist maybe skip this post. I'm going to lay out the dish in a loose process recipe and list my ingredients at the end. I feel like explaining the concepts and process of cooking is as important as the ingredients. I want people to learn to improvise and substitute where possible and know what's the core flavor and what can get a new substitution when maybe you're out of something, don't have access or just want to try a new idea. So much good food over the years has come from people making do with what's available to them so feel free to riff on this idea.

First I wanted to create my stock and secure the basic essential flavors of the dish. I started out by making a sofrito. I cut up some bacon in big chunks that I'd smoked and sauteed it in a bit of lard. The tradional recipe calls for ham hocks but I had to use bacon as that's what was available to me. Tasso can also be a great substitution with all the dried spices on the outside of the cured meat. While that was getting rolling I chopped up my celery, onion and carrots. Once the bacon started to brown I tossed in my veg, let those get a bit of color, let the onions turn translucent (a key signifier that flavors have arrived, that sugars have been extracted from the onion) and turned the heat down to a low setting. Now that the sofrito was ready I added in a liter of chicken stock and about a liter of water.

With the stock I added 3 cloves of garlic. It wasn't nearly enough so later on I added in 4 more to balance out the strong smoky flavors the bacon was putting out. Along with the garlic I added a couple dry Guajillo chiles. The original Hopper John calls for cayenne but I don't really use them and had Guajillo on hand. I also have some mexican smoked chili paste in my fridge so in it went.

For christmas my brother in law Louis gifted us one of his favorite spice mixes that smelled like it might add some complexity so in a tablespoon of the mix went as well. I then covered my dutch oven and let the stock cook, reduce and gain a depth in flavor that only time gives.

The other thing to get going that you could even do in advance is cook your beans. For this recipe I decided to go for a different bean because it's new years day and I didn't want to go out and grab the black eyed peas. I have lots of dried black beans so I decided to give it a shot and see how that would go. To prepare dried beans you can soak for a few hours or overnight to get them more tender before you start cooking but I didn't plan ahead so I just boiled them 3 times, rinsing after. The 4th time I brought them up to temperature I added a bit of salt (adding salt too soon breaks down the bean so it's best to wait until later to add).

Once my beans had softened appropriately I added them to the stock, cut up an inch off a cabbage head, diced the veg and tossed it in as well. At this point I added a couple small banger size links of smoked pork sausage as well. This link I THINK (I'm bad at labelling sometimes) is one that has some spicy tomato jam added to the pork and will be a nice zing. I let all of this cook for another hour to really come together as a dish. I normally start this dish right when I wake up on New Year's day so we can have a big lunch as we stay up celebrating our anniversary every NYE. The final garnishes on this years pot are cilantro and truffle oil I recieved as a gift. This dish may be a classic and will hopefully be something I mess with for years to come. ¡Buen provecho y feliz año nuevo!

Ingredients:

1 cup dried beans

1 small onion, diced

6 stalks of celery from the inside of the bunch with greens intact, diced

2 carrots, diced

2 cups of cabbage, diced

1/4 lb of bacon, cubed - if you can acquire it unsliced to make into 1/2" cubes even better

smoke ham hocks can be subbed in for the bacon if you can find them

2 bay leaves

2 dried chiles, guajillo, ancho, hatch or other larger dried peppers are best. They're hot but not insane.

6 cloves of garlic, smashed then chopped

1 liter of chicken stock

1 liter of water (you could also just use 2 liters of chicken stock)

1 sausage link per person

1/4 cup cilantro, rough chopped for garnish

1 teaspoon truffle oil for garnish per bowl (optional)

hotsauce for people like me who want it spicy