Pretty Pictures.

There are a fair number of people out there that turn their noses up at food blogging. I know! Crazy right? They criticize food photography and food staging for being contrived.

But it is...

I'm not going to show you pictures of what I actually did with this rack of cookies or this plate of cake. That would be weird. Who really wants to see pictures of me stuffing my face messily, repeatedly and, dare I say, uncontrollably?

When you make something yummy your first thought isn't to place it artistically yet casually next to some perfect strawberries or pair it with a jug of milk that you'd never really drink from. And, admit it, some things we make aren't even that pretty.

This is why I spend hours in the kitchen just to bake a simple batch of cookies. 90% of this time is spent making sure my cookies don't look like junk and the other 10% is spent actually baking them.

Food photography can be a tricky business. There are tripods, expensive lenses, reflector panels, all the digital editing and cropping and let's not forget how hard it is to find photo-worthy dishes and utensils.

So yeah, it's contrived. But it's pretty. I'm all about making things pretty. Food bloggers go through a lot of trouble to bring you pictures worthy of mouth watering and stomach grumbling.

These pancakes are pretty. I didn't even need to do much to them. For reals. I just slapped them on a pretty plate, dusted them with powdered sugar, dropped a handful of raspberries on them and slathered them in syrup. Some things are just naturally beautiful.

And after turning off my camera I inhaled them, natural beauty and all. Can you blame me?















Raspberry Cottage Cheese Pancakes

Makes about 1 dozen medium pancakes.

Source: Adapted from Martha Stewart's Cottage Cheese Pancakes with Lemon.

6 eggs, separated

Pinch of cream of tartar

2 cup cottage cheese

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Powdered sugar for dusting

Raspberries for topping

Maple syrup for topping













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Heat a large frying pan on medium heat.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat the egg whites until they're foamy then add the cream of tartar and beat further until stiff peaks form.

In a separate bowl stir together the egg yolks, cottage cheese, sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Whisk in 1/3 of the egg whites the, in two batches, gently fold in the remaining egg whites with a spatula.

Coat the preheated frying pan with cooking spray then, using a ladle, spoon about a 1/2 cup of batter for each pancake onto the pan. Flip it when bubbles start to form on top and cook them until they're golden brown, about 3 minutes per side.

Serve them with powdered sugar, raspberries and maple syrup. Enjoy!