Live Well Photoshoots Week #4
We got a few misunderstandings, and it felt like everything broke, but we found the glue to fix it. I, Ali, tend to have strong opinions regarding the meat and dairy industry, eggs and processed oils.
When we started this book, it was going to be Shauna's book, The Live Well Collection. Along the way, Shauna wanted us to have equal weight in the creative process, so it wouldn't feel like it was just HER book, but OUR book. After all, having a sense of ownership makes you push harder and aim for perfection, even if you never achieve it. For me to agree to make it my own, I expected it to be plant-based and be in tune with my eating philosophy. I already made the mistake of putting my name on the cover of a personal project that I mostly disagreed with, and I regret it now.
The situation is that Shauna's family loves cheese and olive oils, and are used to preparing recipes the traditional way. For example, adding eggs to pasta and plenty of oil to vinaigrettes. So modifying the recipes only to allow me to try them sounded a little off. After all, this book is about her family stories!
After battling for a week and profoundly testing our friendship to veganize recipes, we settled halfway. There will be recipes that include dairy and eggs. But they will include an #alified version with substitutions to make it plant-based. We gave our friendship priority and found ways to compromise. Everyone is happy now! And we hope all of you will be happy with the result as well!
Now onto the proper recap. This week we photographed pasta and pizzas. There is something magical and unique about flour and water, and how simple chemistry and air can create such pleasurable results. There is also beauty in the process. It is pleasing to observe someone knit and shape the dough, watching the flour fly in the air and hearing the crack of the pizza crust straight out of the oven.
Shauna found out that Primavera translates to Spring in Italian and Spanish. She always thought it means a type of dish made with lots of veggies... spring veggies. Makes sense!
Most of our days were long, the power and gas went off a few times, some photos were not turning out as we imagined, we had a few visits from neighbours and in-laws, and the kids were a little challenging at times. On the brighter side, we had the boys from Live Well Builds joining us for lunch, and Shauna’s brother in law to prepare his famous fermented pizza dough. We finished this week exhausted but glad that we could push through the craziness and make up for all the delays!
Join us behind the scenes through our Youtube channel, blog and newsletter, we're doing our best to capture everything about the creative process through video, photos and writing. And we'd love to read your comments and feedback along the way!