Matkonation

Homemade Soft Pretzels

Saturday 31 Mar 2012 | 3 Comments
Filed under: Side Dishes Tags: baking soda

By: Danya Weiner The Jewish holiday of Passover (the one where you can’t eat bread) is near, and I’m craving carbs now more than ever. I’m already addicted to carbs, so take them away from me for a week and I go into overload two weeks ahead of time. Unfortunately I am aware of the empty calories related to this love of mine, and therefore I try to be careful to precisely determine if the carbs I’m eating are worth it. Pretzels in all forms are considered worth it. In the past few weeks I’ve come across several recipes for homemade pretzels that looked enticing. I’ve never tried making pretzels at home for a valid reason-I was once shooting a cookbook with a chef who told me that “real” pretzels are boiled in water mixed with a small amount of sodium hydroxide (the stuff I use to unclog my sink). The recipes I’d been looking at recently didn’t include the toxic stuff, so I gave it a second thought and made my first batch of pretzels. I can’t say that the first...
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Peanut Sesame Soba Noodles

Saturday 24 Mar 2012 | 2 Comments
Filed under: Entrees, Main course Tags: cilantro, peanut butter, sesame oil, Soba

By: Deanna Linder It is known that human beings are creatures of habit. Psychology often explains this phenomenon as having to do with the brain finding comfort in the known, leaving room to discover new/different experiences. If that is the case than, for 12 years straight, my brain was free for lunch. Every day for lunch, I ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, from the kindergarten through High School. Sometimes with crust, sometimes without; sometimes strawberry jelly, sometimes grape-but that iconic sandwich found its way into my lunch bag. This was definitely not the case of the lazy mom, which some of you may already be thinking. A month and half ago, checking my Facebook feed, I discovered something new. Apparently it was National (US) Peanut Butter Day. Getting nostalgic for my upcoming visit to the US, I thought it would be fitting to make a grown-up peanut butter dish and this one popped right into mind. These days I find myself trying to make my son a variety of different...
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Lemon Poppy Scones

Monday 13 Feb 2012 | 1 Comment
Filed under: Breakfast, Sweets Tags: lemon, poppy seeds

By: Danya Weiner I had a grandmother who lacked the sense of smell. Needless to say, her cooking skills were lacking. My memories of lunch at grandmas are generally pretty negative ones. For some reason though, when I think of scones, I think of that grandma, and am reminded of the positive memories I have of her. I don’t come from a genetic heirloom of wonderful cooks and sometimes I find myself nostalgic for something I never had-my grandma’s cooking (who didn’t know how to cook). When I decided to prepare scones for the blog, I wondered why I hadn’t made them up to now. They are so easy to prepare, and they turn any Saturday morning into a classy one. For me they provide the only positive memory of my Grandmas cooking. One of the most important things to know when preparing scones is that they are best fresh out of the oven. These are not the type of baked good to make ahead of time; they are at their best 5 minutes out of the oven and as the day goes on they are likely to turn...
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Food Photography and Styling Courses- Winter 2012

Monday 6 Feb 2012 | No Comments
Filed under: food photography

One Monday night a few weeks ago was the last meeting of our 4th Photography and Styling course. The week after we held a special one day course in conjunction with the Tel Aviv Farmers Market. Here are some of the fabulous works of those who participated. Photographed: Maya Merom We would personally like to thank all of the students we have met along the way. It’s amazing to meet people whose love for food and food photography is on the same level as ours. Alex Shnitman captures the vibe of the restaurant and his dish, Seafood Shakshuka A special thanks to Oz and the staff at Kitchen Market in the Farmers Market to making us feel so welcome, while we literally took over the place. Chen Shukrun and Inbal De-Paz, 1st course and 4th course graduates, respectively, beautifully capture the market and their dishes Karen Biton and Racheli Ochayon show two different ways to shoot the same dish Idan Adler, 3rd course graduate, captures a delicious polenta and artichoke dish For all those interested,...
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Lemon Cream Tart and Some Expectations

Saturday 21 Jan 2012 | 2 Comments
Filed under: Sweets Tags: lemon, pierre herme, tart

By: Deanna Linder Expectations are an interesting thing. Live with too many of them and you often find yourself let down. Live with too little of them and you can expect the mundane. Having the right amount of expectations is probably one of the golden rules of how to be happy in life and I’m trying desperately to find that golden medium. I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I expect a lot from myself, as I do of others around me. My “other-half” is therefore many times placed in a position of having to fulfill my expectations. Some are typical, while others I admit are probably far-fetched. We became parents this year. We didn’t receive the handbook on how to be parents. Both of us are learning (some faster than others). With the kid turning one today, I wanted to let the other half know that he has fulfilled my expectations in the father category. This tart is a little something that more than fulfilled my expectations. First of all, being that it is a recipe adapted from Pierre...
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Food photography and food styling is what we do for a living. Day in and day out we work for a variety of clients, creating images made to order. This blog gives us the opportunity to work for ourselves, something that truly exhibits our work, through photos and stories.

A love for aesthetics and passion for food… that’s what makes Matkonation.

Enjoy, Danya (photography) and Deanna (styling)