Every once in a while, photographer and dear friend Maria Robledo emails images she has made in-the-moment, in response to whatever was going on around her. They are invariably startling and illuminating; Maria sees like no one we know. Her way has opened our eyes over the years. This time, she showed us the marvels of root vegetables.
Cooking with Essex’ offerings means cooking with the seasons, and since it’s deep winter, Maria was cooking mostly with root vegetables, which are pretty gnarly at this time of year. While she was cutting the vegetables for soup (recipe here), she turned them into little still-lives with an unexpected whimsy…
…a homely turnip is dressed in a wondrous adornment of parsnip, onion and cabbage…
…beet, carrot, onion: balanced…
…turnip, celery root, potato, onion, parsnip look like they are wearing hats…
…potato with a carrot in a chive dress…
These are beyond wonderful. Thank you for showing us new ways to see, Maria. And thank you Sally for making sure we see how to look differently. I love any day that allows the ability to find new horizons in the ordinary. Simply fabulous, and a perfect way to start a day. THANK YOU!
I made this soup this afternoon right after coming home from our winter farmers’market. DELICIOUS! Maria, I love the way you presented the recipe – quantities as well as measurements – and best of all the overall proportions of vegetables to liquid. Talk about an open door to improvisation…but I don’t want to leave out the photos. I found myself looking very differently at all the root vegetables at the market and bought some extra to make my own still life to bring this evening as a hostess gift. Our hosts are friends to whom we recently served the roasted pears – another great recipe, made irresistible by a wonderful photo. Thank you, Improvised Life!
SO glad. I love that soup because you can riff on it no matter what the season. Maria took the beautiful photo of the soup in the tureen for a column I wrote for Food & Wine about 100 years ago (we gobbled it down after)….then the other day she surprised me with her a la minute photographs made while she was cuttting up winter root vegetables. In the decades I have known her, she has never ceased to surpise me, and show me new ways of seeing…