It’s been quite awhile since I’ve shared any photos besides food.

So, today I wanted to share a little snippet from the week we spent in Costa Rica with our good friends, Ann + Chris. You can read more about their big day and see the highlights over at my photography blog, ashley mclaughlin photography.

I was thrilled when Ann said she wanted to do a trash the dress session. My goal was to capture the happy + calm mood of the evening with the setting sun as the backdrop.

The session lasted only about 15 minutes and Ann + Chris were such troopers. It is not easy to walk through waves with a wedding dress on!

I absolutely adore these two.

I’ll be back with something in a jar tomorrow!

Ashley

I haven’t done nearly as much soup making this fall as I had hoped. Luckily, there is still an entire winter to make up for it. Although, it doesn’t really feel like winter around here. Who else is having unusually warm and dry weather right now?

This recipe came about when Dana + John, of Minimalist Baker, asked me to be a part of a blogger e-cookbook for Charity Water. I instantly agreed and started thinking about things I could make. Charity Water is a non-profit group working to bring clean + safe drinking water to developing countries. The work they have done is mind blowing, which I urge you to check out. My husband and a few other friends have worked with similar non-profits for this exact cause and it is something I feel very strongly about supporting.

The idea for the e-cookbook was to keep the focus on water and use at least 1 cup in whatever recipe we submitted. I instantly thought this was the perfect reason to make a gigantic pot of soup.

This soup is chock-full of veggies, both gluten free + vegan, and packed with quinoa and lentils. Sometimes I like a good creamy soup, but sometimes I prefer soup with a lot of texture.

And this is definitely full of hearty texture. I highly recommend pairing it with a buttery-golden grilled cheese sandwich and putting it on your to-make list this winter along with the other recipes in the book!

So what will you find in the e-cookbook?

Nine impressive recipes with photos from Dana + John of Minimalist Baker, Kate of Cookie + Kate, Erin of Naturally Ella, Kristin of Iowa Girl Eats, Kelsey of Happyolks, and myself. I was thrilled to work on a project with this list of extremely talented bloggers. You’ll find a fun + delicious compilation of recipes from hot chocolate, to soup, to mousse, to pizza, to quinoa salad, and more.

The e-cookbook is FREE to download!!!

You can get yourself a free copy by clicking the link to 1 cup water | a charity:water cookbook. Donations are incredibly appreciated and can be done by visiting the Charity Water E-Cookbook campaign page.

Thanks so much for checking it out! And a HUGE thank you to Dana + John for all of their hard work organizing, designing, and executing!

Ashley