with king oyster bacon. and pistachio pesto.
I did it, guys. I finally gave my site a new look. In fact, it even has a new domain: I’ve been asked so many times why I named my blog “le jus d’orange”, which was mostly an impulsive, sentimental reason due to drinking my mom’s freshly squeezed orange juice all my life, but let’s be honest – who can pronounce this? I still remember when I met Yossy on location on a shoot, and she asked if I had a blog. I barely squeaked it out – “um, le jus d’orange???” My face turned red and I berated myself mentally for having such an obscure, weird name. Well, that’s all in the past – and now, my blog name is still le jus d’orange!!! Why? More sentimental reasons. I feel like you all know me by le jus d’orange, and there’s something special about continuity. I’ll just have to learn how to pronounce it, and pronounce it with confidence. However, you’ll notice that the domain name changed. I’ve decided to put everything under the umbrella of “bettysliu.com”. I’m a professional wedding photographer by trade, and from the beginning my blog has always been visually focused. There’s a certain elegance in photographing food that I can’t turn away from. I joke with my blogging friends that sometimes the photography motivates and inspires me more than the food does. Well, now on my homepage you can see my personally curated selection of food documentation. Redirect is in full effect, so previous links to lejubdorangeblog.com should automatically redirect – if you see any broken links, please let me know!!! Please update your readers, RSS feeds, etc. And if you have any feedback – I’d love to hear it :).
WordPress followers / subscribers: I’m not sure you were all imported to my new mailing list – please take the time to enter in your email address so that you don’t miss any recipes. Sorry about that!
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I’ve always had this image of summer – picnics with a lovely dainty basket (tied with a bow), a bright blanket, a bottle of wine, sandwiches, potato salad, pie, sun, intimacy, a light breeze with no humidity, and flowers. Can’t have a picnic without a bright bouquet of flowers, wildly picked or brought. In reality, the picnics (a rare happening in Boston humid summers) usually consist of a cloth shopping bag, wrapped up sandwiches, and our rambunctious canine companion Annie. When Alanna and Sarah came up with the idea of a picnic-themed collaboration, I jumped on it. Unashamedly. We each made a different hand pie. I made miso corn and bacon hand pies. This can’t be surprising- you all know my 
Yesterday I finally spent some time to decorate the apartment – the apartment I moved into about a year and a half ago. Where did this time go? We moved in the essentials – bed, some shelving, a dining table that is our pride and joy, all of my random kitchen necessities, two aeron chairs and a desk that holds our working desktop, and a clothing rack. We moved our stuff in and organized haphazardly, enough so that our working space and dining space were clean and functional. Boxes, remnants of a not-so-distant past, stacked up in our closet. I’ll get to it, I thought to myself. Walls remained white, unadorned except for a large, framed Breakfast at Tiffany’s poster I picked up from my previous rental in St Louis. We ordered prints from our wedding. I added more books to my already toppling library. I bought more props. We acquired more gear. Our guest book, consisting of hand written notes on individual instax photos, stayed hidden in a zip lock bag, good wishes and congratulations waiting to burst out to bless our home. Stacks of moleskins collected dust, reminding me of a past that pops up here and there. I flip through them and am instantly rammed with memories: sketching the bund and stopping midway because locals, with no sense of personal space, kept pressing close to me and staring over my shoulder, bestowing remarks that I understood and did not appreciate; going on my tiptoes to peek at the David, the legend we all know about; gulping down gelato on a hot day by the duomo, wondering why we didn’t have grapefruit flavored cold treats at home;, and more recently, annoying my girlfriends as I attempted to resurrect my sketching skills at the Temple of Athena Nike, and then actually infuriating them when I tried to do the same with the Parthenon – how could I not?! Yesterday I pinned them up on my blank, white wall, which brought up another batch of memories, with mixed feelings – pinning up my projects, stabbing my thumbs with sharp thumbtacks, paranoia over smudging, and of course, the never-ending critique that is the nature of architectural reviews.
I’m back in Boston and currently melting in my apartment. I feel a bit hypocritical posting a pie recipe, because nothing can make me turn on the oven at this moment. Nothing. However, cherry season is quickly slipping through my fingers and nothing says summer like cherry pie, so here it is. A sweet cherry pie accented with ginger and bourbon. On a skillet, which makes everything so much better. I served this over
I get restless in this humid weather. I grew up in comfortable California, with dry heat and no humidity. My only brushes with humidity was in China, so when I’m faced with this heat and blanket of moist, I’m instantly transported back to China. I can just taste the ever-present scent of tobacco, brace for the rush of traffic and horns, and listen to the steady, almost musical flow and ebb of Shanghainese. I texted my sister to wish her happy birthday, and we started chatting about updates, etc, and eventually became a festival of complaints about the weather (she’s in CT). We both agreed we were just restless. Just last weekend I brought Annie over to a friend’s place, and she has two beautiful dogs as well. We had lovely dinner (I made my mom’s 
When it comes to cake, I’m a bit boring – I prefer cakes that aren’t too sweet, too fancy, or too frilly. I love looking at a beautiful, intricately decorated cake, marveling at the baker’s talent, but when it comes to baking my own cake, I always find myself veering towards the simple. Part of it is, I admit, my own disastrous experiences with making fancy cakes, but that’s neither here nor there! I’m so happy to share this matcha swiss roll with you – it’s kind of a hybrid between a sponge cake and the classic swiss roll. A whipped meringue is gently incorporated into the batter, giving it its signature light and fluffy texture. This is an incredibly versatile recipe. I’ve done variations both in flavors and form: you can switch out the matcha and add in… ground black sesame seeds, for example, to make a 
Somehow, it’s July. Half of 2015 has gone by, speeding around the corner and disappearing out of sight. Somehow, half the summer has vanished, tucked away in the form of wedding photos and hand-written notes. To put it tritely, the past several weeks were a whirlwind. Consecutive weddings, engagement sessions, rehearsal dinners, client consults – everything that excites me yet simultaneously drains me. Finally, this past weekend, we were photo-free: on the weekend of July 4th, possibly one of the most festive, crowd-drawing holidays of the year. However, at the risk of sounding boring , we decided to turn down friends’ invitations to celebrate. It was actually our only free weekend until end of August. Sometimes I just have to take sit back and take a breather. Go to a place where all I can do is sit down, cuddle with my pup, and close my eyes. Most amusingly, though, we found a few friends who were also staying in the city and somehow obtained 3 racks of ribs and made asian-style oven-baked ribs. We threw napkins on the table and just used our hands to dive in. No stress, informal dinner. Perfect for this weekend. I had a lot of fun slow roasting ribs for over 6 hours and doing three versions: a five-spice rub alone, a spicy gochujang sauce, and soy garlic sauce. The sauces were inspired by Bonchon’s chicken flavors 🙂 and worked so well with the tender ribs. Would you be interested in a recipe for that?
I fall into this cycle over and over again. I start collecting stress like I’m foraging wildflowers – inhaling its essence, inspecting each one carefully, keeping them close and hoarding them like a special collection. Except I end up with my mind jumbled. Every incoming to-do or worry or event just hovers around me like a dark cloud. I need to remind myself to step back. To assess. To compartmentalize. To learn to prioritize and make more lists. To relax. I used to wake up early to do yoga, or go for a leisurely run with my dog (despite the fact that she is lazy and ends up slowing me down) and then brew some matcha or drip coffee for myself: a quite morning to cherish. I’m going to start trying to do this again. Mornings recharge me: a moment of peace and silent reflection to organize the rest of the day. They say breakfast is the most important meal, and I believe it is, for me. Not only for energy but also for a mental recharge.
The best laid plans always seem to go awry, doesn’t it? I try to stick to a blogging schedule… but when that fumbles and I’m up to my arms in the best ice cream I’ve ever made that I just know would be perfect for this holiday weekend, I have to wipe my hands of this pre-made schedule and just hit publish. I love this holiday, not only because it celebrates America, but also how communal it is. BBQ parties, seafood boils, watching the fireworks explode across the sky, giggling as you see who actually coordinates their outfit to be red/white/blue… but of course, what interests me more is seeing the beautiful red/white/blue treats that permeate the blogging community, like 
This ice cream is entirely inspired by 
I’m really giddy because today is a super special day – exactly one year ago, to the day, I married my best friend. My confidant, my biggest supporter, and the one who can always make us smile. While this day marks our first year as a mr & mrs, we’ve actually been together for 7 years! Seven years!! I love him so much – I never knew that I would meet the man of my life in high school (who thinks that these days???? In fact in high school my mom was so whatever about meeting him because she never thought I’d meet the one so early). I fully realize I gush, unnecessarily, on this blog so I’ll stop this for now. We had a pretty typical weekend – date night on Friday, photographed a wedding together on Saturday, and then yoga (me) + taking Annie to her first nose work class today. Then of course, Alex made steak, his favorite dish. We drank some cab sauv and danced to our wedding song. Then we finished editing our New Zealand trip photos (finally), 
Two other happy things: 1) we all know about the 
June 14th was a beautiful Sunday morning. It was kind of morning that made you want to take your dog out for a long walk- crisp, clear, sunny, with no humidity but a light breeze. It was the kind of morning that invited you to spread a picnic blanket out on a field and sip on wine and gaze at the clouds. At 8am, our attendees began to trickle in, clutching cups of coffee, because who gets up at 8am on Sunday?? However, they arrived, smiling and enthusiastic, a group of wonderful foodies who wanted to learn about food photography. I’m not going to lie – 
I’ll also be sharing recipes for half the menu here – specifically, 
le jus d'orange | food & photography 