Historical Food of Eastern State Penitentiary: Warning! Photo Heavy!

This weekend, Eastern State Penitentiary hosted a historical prison food weekend. For those of you not from this area, Eastern State was established by an advocacy group, the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, in 1829. The design was radical for the time period. 

Eastern State Penitentiary created the Pennsylvania System of rehabilitating prisoners. At the time, many believed that solitude and reflection in ones own self were the best way to free a prisoner of a future light of crime.

In the earliest times of the prison, prisoners were kept in isolated cells attached to an individual cement exercise garden. There were no doors leading to the cells on the inside of the prison, but each cell had a feeding hole, a small cement box surrounded by a heavy door.

Prisoners were not supposed to see or hear another person until their sentence was completed. Guards and workers wore socks over their shoes so that prisoners would not hear them walking.

Upon being brought in and let out of the cells, prisoners were made to wear sacks over their heads to prevent prisoners from seeing people or their location within the prison. All of this solitude was supposed to inspire repentance. The cells were revolutionary for the time period. Each cell had running water, flush toilets and central heating. They also had a skinny, open skylight.

It was a tourist attraction, even in the 1800s. When Charles Dickens visited in he wrote:

In its intention I am well convinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation; but I am persuaded that those who designed this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentleman who carry it into execution, do not know what it is that they are doing...I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body.

I had only been to the prison once before but it was at night, so I did not get to really look around. It was interesting during the day. Andy and I took an audio tour and then did a little bit of exploring on our own. They had some special booths set up where visitors could try prison food through the ages, starting with a basic cornmeal mush and ending with modern "Nutraloaf." 

P.S: Duval and Co., 1855.

The food prisoners were fed in the early years of the prison was actually considered quite good food for the location and era. They had salt beef and cornmeal mush for us to try. The next thing they served was from the 1940s; it was hamburger steak and beets. The dishes were finished up with Nutraloaf, a tasteless but nutritious, loaf of food, used in modern times as a punishment. 

Al Capone's Cell

Overall, a fun trip. Yes, we paid money to eat prison food. The people of the 1800s, would probably be speechless. :) The only other time Andy and I had visited the prison was a couple of years ago when a concert was held in 7 block 7, pictured above.
    

Secret Life of Bloggers Blog Party Post # 2

Welcome to the second week of the blog party. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's posts! We've had a few new attendees this week, please visit their blogs from the links at the bottom of the post. This week has been so busy, I really had to force myself to take photos. I still haven't learned to always keep some sort of camera with me and was caught off guard once this week. Hope everyone else had better luck.

5-31-2013

I wish I didn't have to post such morbid photos but today I visited my friend for the night. Last month her neighbor's house caught on fire and last week one of Andy's coworker's house caught on fire as well. Both families pretty much lost everything but were safe. With all of the stress our electronics are increasingly putting on out outdated electrical systems in our houses, fires are a huge problem. If you don't have a disaster readiness plan, now is the time to put one together with your family.       

6-1-2013

A shot of my reading list this month. It's probably slightly ambitious and will most likely take two months. I'm a slow reader so as long as I get to at least two books a month, I am happy. 

6-2-2013

Nice day with a tiny bit of rain. Andy and I went to a reenactment meeting with our company to work out all of the logistics for the Gettysburgs this year. I was asked to make some alterations to a pair of pants, which were promptly claimed by this adorable kitty.  

6-3-2013

This really has been a rainy summer. Yesterday was very hot but today it's rainy again and the school has cancelled, which means I don't have to go to work and can finally get some cleaning done. I make lots of "To do" lists and wouldn't have a brain without them. 

6-4-2013

Today was beautiful. It was warm with a nice breeze. It felt like spring. The new baby lamb was out and about prancing with it's little tail wagging behind it. I worked a little bit on the cookbook that I haven't touched in over a year due to school. I can't believe how far I was. 

6-5-2013

It seems that this year is a good year for turtles. We found this one at work but had to find a way to remove it as it is a Snapping Turtle and we were about to have school children show up. After seeing this huge turtle, we started wondering how turtle shells grow exactly. It turns out that each shell has plates called "scutes" and as the turtle grows, each scute grows bigger.
 
6-6-2013 

Weather was warm but slightly chilly. Some people from work went rafting today down a nearby river. On the trip we saw a baby snapping turtle, doggie paddling around in the water. I also saw a snail on a tree. I don't think I've ever seen a snail in the wild before. I've seen plenty of slugs but never a snail with a shell and of course, I had no camera with me to take a photo of it. :) The photo is from my cookbook research which has been going on and off for the last few years. I have a lot more to add to it now.
 

Check out this weeks participants:
 
Andy from Crotchety Drones. 

Andrew from Air Nice-to-Livelands.  

Caroline from Dressed in Time.

Hana from Marmota's Dress Diaries. 

Jess from Musings of a Creative Writer .

Laurie from Teacups in the Garden and Teacups Among the Fabric.

10 Tips to Take Better Food Photos with the Camera You Have

It's no secret that I like to take photos of food. I think part of having an interest about how other people live also have an interest in how other people eat. There is a whole art to food styling and propping, which I won't get into as I am really writing this for people who just want to take better photos of what they cook. I am actually against too much food styling as many techniques you see in magazines and on TV actually make the food inedible.  

I made sure to not use my good camera because I wanted to give tips on how to get the most out of the camera you have. Some of these photos were shot with my phone and some were shot with my micro 4/3 camera. 


1. Start with good looking food. This sounds easy enough but take an extra minute to make sure you use the best looking parts of your meal to photograph.  Some foods get squishy looking or discolored through cooking so look around for the most appetizing pieces. Some people plan ahead and under-cook things that wilt like veggies so that they keep their fresh appearance.

2. Stage your set. If you have a couple seconds free during cooking, plan your shot. Will your food look better on a particular color plate? Do you want to use some props such as forks, drinks, napkins or placemats? Don't overdo it on the props, usually simpler is better. Make sure all of this is set out and placed how you want it before the food is done cooking. It's easier to use a smaller plate with smaller portions than you normally would.

3. Shoot right away. Most food will look less appetizing as each minute passes so try to take your shot as quickly as possible.  

4. Use low angles. Food typically looks best when shot at lower camera angles. This isn't always the case, as some food looks good shot from straight above, but most food looks best using a 3/4 angle or lower to the plate.

3/4 view

Full on can still be appetizing, but is generally not as inviting.

5. Use natural light. The light in our houses tend to give a cast to food that can make it look unappetizing. Try to photograph food using natural light from a window. Place the light source behind the food or to the side.

6. Use reflectors to bounce light back on the food. You can use something as simple as folded sheets of paper or some crumbled up aluminum foil. Place them around the food to brighten up shadows that the food casts on the plate and other parts of the food. Just make sure you don't get them in your photos, unless they don't distract from the food. 

7. Use macro. If your camera has a food setting, use the food setting, but if it doesn't, use the macro setting. The macro setting is typically denoted with a little flower. These settings will show more detail than the regular settings.

8. Shoot close. Some foods don't look look good, no matter what. In these cases shoot in very close. It doesn't solve the problem but it will make your food look better. 

Not even my good camera could make this look appetizing from far away.

9. Take multiple shots. Sometimes we think something looks good on one side, until we move the camera and find out that it really looked better from a different angle. Make it a habit to take a couple of shorts from different angles. You might like them better when you see them on a full screen. 

10. Edit. There are plenty of free editing programs out there, like Pixlr, that can help make your food look its best. I only did editing on the Masala shot, but editing can make a big difference. A lot of time photos just need a little bump in contrast.

 
So there's 10 tips. Most consumer cameras take photos with good contrast and a good amount of saturation so that food generally looks good, right when you take the shot.  

The quality of the photos taken with my phone are obviously not the best, but a reasonably good photo can still be had with the worst of cameras. I assume most people have even a slightly better camera than the one that comes with your phone. Sometimes the phone is all you have, so remember to make the most of it.

The Secret Life of Bloggers Blog Party Post #1

Thank you to all who have chosen to participate! I can't wait to go around and read everyone's posts. I was partly inspired to host this blog party by the journals many Quaker women kept during the Colonial period. Many times, they only gave an account of the weather and a short summary of the events of the day.

Here is an excerpt from the diary of Hannah Callender, a Philadelphia Quaker in the 1750s:

2nd day.--Rode a mile to Preserve Brown's where we passed the morning agreeably in seeing his mill and its works, attending to the fall of the water, pleasing discourse, fishing, &c. till 2 o'clock. Then we set out for Burlington, through Crosswicks, and pleasantly home by six o'clock.

The entries were short and simple but still gives us a lot of insight into their lives. I hope that we can add another, more personal, dimension to our blogs. So without further ado, my photos from this week:

 
5-25-2013

Today I attended a lovely vow renewal ceremony for a couple who has been married for 50 years, which subsequently did not prevent 50% of the couple from tearing it up on the dance floor. :) 

5-26-2013

I went for a nice walk in the woods near a river, where I stumbled upon something of a tent city. Graffiti, fire-pits and impromptu shelters right along the water. Then went to a Memorial day get-together picnic and got to see some of Andy's family.

5-27-2013

Had the opportunity to walk through a submarine while in Philadelphia. I took a lot of nice photos from all of the interesting stuff we saw this day, it was very hard choosing just one. This one was taken in the submarine, Becuna.   

5-28-2013

There's something funny about where I work. There are no gas stations between my house and there so I generally won't get gas until I HAVE to. My dad had to move the car this morning and exploded because he claimed that the gas gauge was on "E." I had to snap a photo of the gas gauge when I was on level ground to prove that I would never park the car in the driveway on empty. He also didn't think it was very funny when I told him I was hypermiling all week on those last few drips of gas like Wayne Gerdes. :)  It rained all day at work and the kids were soaked.


5-29-2013

Today, I thought I'd be reporting on my new camera. Instead, our ox got loose at work today and the gentleman that fetched him sustained a hand wound which I ended up having to patch up in the kitchen. He bled a good deal outside before coming in and I had to do a good kitchen clean up before the kids showed up. I can only imagine the faces of the kids if they saw that in the kitchen. My coworker assured that it "isn't as bad as it looks, I'm on blood thinners." I also went to the library today and got 5 books out to keep me busy.   


5-30-2013

Today I was giving tours of the house at work. It was very hot. As we walked down the hill to greet the students, we were already covered in sweat. Unfortunately something awful happened! A water main broke near us and the water closest to the house was unavailable as gallons and gallons per second were shooting from the ground uphill from us. Luckily, we had some water stored up in plastic jugs.


So far here is our list of our blog party attendees:

Andy from Crotchety Drones. 

Andrew from Air Nice-to-Livelands. 

Jeff from Dispatches from Company 'Q.'

Jess from Musings of a Creative Writer .

Laurie from Teacups in the Garden and Teacups Among the Fabric.


Please visit everyone's blogs and get to know them! Please invite your friends and readers to participate in the blog party too. Fear not if you didn't get to participate this week, leave a comment and I can add you for next week! :)

My Trip on the Amistad: Independence Seaport Museum

For our birthdays, Andy and I decided to spoil each other and go on a trip to Philadelphia to take a sail on the schooner, Amistad which was only docking there for a few days.

Before our sail, we checked out the Independence Seaport Museum and were able to tour the 344 foot Olympia, which fought in the Spanish American War and the Submarine Becuna, a WWII and Cold War vessel.

The Independence Seaport Museum was very interesting. There were a lot of unique artifacts that document a part of history that tends to stay isolated from other museums. Boats played a huge role throughout history from wars and exploration to shipping and travel.


The museum was surprisingly easy to get to and had a nice parking garage, a rarity in Philly. I'd recommend a visit, if you have the chance. It's very picturesque and close to the water.  I might write more about the Amistad and the other vessels in the coming days, but for now I'll just write about the sail.

 
The Freedom Schooner Amistad isn't exactly a reproduction of the schooner that caused a big stir in 1839. The historic vessel was illegally ferrying kidnapped Mende people from Sierra Leone who were brought to Cuba to be sold as slaves. As the slave trade had been abolished, the ship's owner falsified documents claiming that the enslaved Mende people were born in Cuba. During the voyage the prisoners were able to escape their chains and used harvesting machetes to take control of the vessel.They were eventually brought to court in the United States and with the help of abolitionists, were allowed to return to Africa.

We were extremely lucky that it turned out to be a beautiful day. This was the only day Andy and I were both off from work. The two sails before us were cancelled and rescheduled. We feared that happening to us as we wouldn't be able to reschedule. 

The crew was entertaining and the boat is part of an interesting program that teaches students at sea, called Ocean Classroom. The crew encouraged passengers to help with the deck tasks while we were sailing.   

 

   

 

Overall it was a beautiful trip and we had a lot of fun relaxing on the water. It's nice to be on the water without having to hear loud motors downing out the tranquil sound of the water.