follow me - the blog is moving!

I've been working hard for the last few weeks to change to wordpress for my blog and would love you all to follow me in the move!  It's been a lot of work, late at night while the little man sleeps but this is SO much better.  Larger images, less distracting text and a cleaner format. 

Please update your blog reader to the following link:  www.juliabender.com/blog

and head over to check monday morning for a bunch of new images this week including an adorable 1st birthday party, and my first time being published in a magazine! 

fig & goat cheese pizza

we made this with friends a few weeks ago and have made it twice since.  i think this was my first time making pizza with no sauce and it was still so good.  

i have recently learned a few tricks with pizza dough:

1. keep bubbles in the crust by just pulling it out under the dough w/your fingers and not pinching.  

2. put your pizza stone in the oven while pre-heating and then slide your pizza on top on parchment.  

3. when you bring it out, slide it directly on a cooling rack so the bottom stays crispy. 

mine was tweaked because the store was out of what i needed, but here's the original recipe: 

plain pizza dough (i used trader joe's)

sautee: 

red onions

sliced figs

sprinkle on:
crumbled goat cheese 

bake.  eat.  so good.   
 

sneak peak : birthday party

bubbles make parties kind of awesome. 

torrance: military parade

we went to a military parade in torrance a few weeks ago.  because of j's job we were allowed access into the vip section, away from all the crowds.  when i first met j, he was finishing up active duty in the marines, now we are getting ready to send him to OCS (officer candidacy school) in june for 2 months for the national guard.  

i am officially a military wife and am still processing what this means.  it's scary in a way, but mixed with pride.  i watched these men & women in uniform and was proud of the people that have served and continue to serve our country without question.  we saw older men who had been held captive at some point during their service, the wives who waited patiently, and scouts standing proud next to marching troops. we truly live in a blessed nation because of these people.  (although jan & i did both notice that the marines were the only ones that walked with their bodies locked and in perfect formation)

petting zoo

we went to the smallest zoo ever a few months ago south of anaheim. it part of a big awesome park, and was free, so at least we didn't feel jipped.  the petting zoo was the best part but we were done w/that in 10 minutes.  

{shot w/35mm fuji film}

santa barbara

we took just a quick trip, to hit the farmers market and check out the missions.  we also stumbled upon a park with a little creek, which made j feel right at home.  

wouldn't this make an awesome print in the kitchen? beautiful scraps of tasted food. kinda weird. but kinda awesome.

my handsome men...

it helps when there is a wood cutout of a pope helping direct the tour

through the gates of a tomb

probably the raddest photo of the trip and possibly a holiday card

(yes, he's slightly sucking on the fingers)

ice cream sandwiches : the new awesome

lately i have been pushing to make things from scratch, but when we were low on time, we focused on tweaking store bought and presentation.  if you want an awesome dessert, and you're short on time, do the following.  

buy

1 half gallon vanilla ice cream

1 half gallon mint chocolate chip ice cream

nutella (hazlenut chocolate)

1 roll slice & bake sugar cookies

1 roll slice & bake chocolate chip cookies

then

pick one meyer lemon off a tree (ok, you might not have a tree, so you can buy one)

direcs:

bake cookies (try not to burn like i did), adding cinnamon & sugar to the top of sugar cookies to make snickerdoodles

soften half container vanilla ice cream and add one lemon worth of rind and juice, refreeze

cookie 1: snickerdoodle / meyer lemon vanilla ice cream

cookie 2: chocolate chip / mint chip ice cream

cookie 3: chocolate chip / vanilla ice cream (plain) with a layer of nutella

then, prepare for people to be totally impressed.  

the next time i would make the chocolate chip cookies from scratch.  toss that nestle and use my trusty ghirardelli.  but the rest - totally not worth the time and energy since this was so incredibly good w/o all the fuss.   if you don't have time for any of this, and it seems daunting, please just do this one thing.  buy vanilla (the one w/bean flecks) ice cream.  buy a meyer lemon.  add them together and serve just that as dessert.  just that discovery in itself made my life. 

enjoy. and try not to eat them all before they make it to the party.  

(apologies for the bad lighting in all my food pics - my kitchen lacks itself some good natural light)

7.9 months old

my sweet little boy is almost 8 months.  i took some photos this morning before tomorrow hits.  he has learned so many new tricks this month, he can sit up, feed himself baby snacks, army crawl, and his first tooth is popping through.  he continues to bless our lives each day and we couldn't be more in love.

it's also my little brother's birthday - happy birthday jonathan! 

my relations are pretty

going through old files and found this image i shot for blush undershirts. i wore their shirts through most of my pregnancy, and they are quite wonderful. 

{model is my sister-in-law, alicia}

commercial shoot : cosmetics

remember that shoot i did awhile back for sunrider?  i finally got around to posting some of the images.  it was a really long day, with lots of waiting, but it was fun to watch the makeup artist work her magic as she applied neutral day makeup to glam over the course of a few hours.  

we shot all of these outside in the building's own asian garden, and in the atrium which had beautiful lighting. i placed watermarks on the images because i want to add extra insurance that they don't start floating around the web. 

btw - we had the peach herbal tea with our lunch and it was as good as she makes it look.  

(note: none of these are ready for press - they will be clipped and edited before use in their ads - i just did a basic color adjustment and posted them as is)