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Taking photos of food is easy! Especially compared to photographing people. Food doesn’t talk back or move around. It just sits there looking delicious, waiting for you to find its best angle. Food never complains that you are making it look fat or ugly, and it never insists that you play death metal during the photo shoot.

Don’t let all those gorgeous shots in cookbooks and on the internet intimidate you! Here are some tips to making successful food photos, whether you’re cozy at home or out at a restaurant, street fair, luau, or anywhere with good food.

One of my favorite Philadelphia traditions is held during the Bastille Day festival when a drag portrayal of Marie Antoinette stands high atop Eastern State Penitentiary throwing TastyKakes and saying, “Let them eat cake.”

Now for those of you I haven’t completely lost due to maximum Philadelphia reference saturation level or historical inaccuracy (blah blah blah, ‘Let them eat cake has been accreddited to many high ranking women before Marie Antoinette, blah blah blah), there are plenty of ways to celebrate Bastille day without leaving an air conditioned space.

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Forget love: doughnuts are the international language. And they should be celebrated! Though a holiday like “National Doughnut Day” generally implies we should only care about American ones, when it comes to doughnuts, it’s all about spreading the love far and wide. And in turn, everyone else should also share their doughnuts with us on this, our joyous holiday. It’s only fair. If you went on a doughnut expedition (or pilgrimage, depending on your feelings) around the world, what would you see and eat? Here are some of the doughy morsels you shouldn’t miss.

The Good ol’ USA: Since the National Doughnut Day thing started in the USA, we should start our tour there! Head into grocery stores or actual doughnut shops to taste the wonderful fried dough in varying shapes, sizes and flavors. I personally like plain hole-in-the-middle doughnuts with plain glaze, but maybe you’re the type that doesn’t want holes in their pastries and prefers them to be creme-filled.

Or maybe you like bite-sized and powdered. Heck, maybe you want them chocolate-flavored with extra chocolate icing and sprinkles. Whatever your preference is, you’ll find it somewhere. And you must, because, as Krispy Kreme says, you (the consumer) are “the center of the doughnut.” You fill in that void. (d’aww) Feeling extra adventurous? Try a Luther Burger (that’s a burger with doughnuts for buns, for the uninitatied and hungry).

Warm, spicy, and rarely sweet—even when it’s made with sweet ingredients—chutney is altogether satisfying as a condiment but versatile enough to be used on proteins or even a cheese plate. Delicate hibiscus flowers pair well with blackberries, and they are typically in season around the same time.

Have you already stumbled when it comes to your New Years resolutions?

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Chocolate. One of the most beloved flavors in the world. It is wonderful on its own but when the time comes for desserts to become more complex and combinations start to fill the minds of chocolatiers, there is one companion which tops all others.

Its name is mint.

When speaking of mint and chocolate, one of the first things that comes to mind is the ever famous mint chocolate chip ice cream. A wonderful treat for a warm summer day, a scoop of mint chocolate chip becomes a momentary respite from the oppressive heat of the beating sun. It is true that the allure of ice cream is hard to deny, but the power of mint and chocolate does not end there.

So many different versions of chocolate and mint abound that it is almost impossible to discuss them all. The Dutch mint holds a special place for some with its thin candy coating, soft chocolate layer and mint center. Others tout the pros of a mint chocolate brownie. Then there is the Frankenstein’s Monster from See’s Candy known as the Marshmint. This treat is a delicious affront to nature, a perfect example of candy eugenics. A square chocolate cup which contains a marshmallow center and is topped with a mint jelly. So powerful is the Marshmint that it is not carried in stores. It can only be special ordered because the other candy cannot defend itself against the Marshmint’s minty power.

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There is but one more mint and chocolate treat which must be discussed. A dessert which comes but once a year, peddled by the most insidious of pushers. They seem so innocent knocking on the doors of their neighbor’s homes and standing outside the local grocery store, but we all know the evil that comes carried in the dainty hands of the local girl scouts. The Thin Mint, a cookie so delicious, so enticing that it is impossible to decline. The Thin Mint cookie accounts for 25% of all Girl Scout cookie sales. It is not uncommon to find people hoarding the little green boxes, hiding cookies from friends and family alike. If it were not for the fact that Thin Mints are only sold for a brief period of time each year, many American’s would need a twelve step program to stop consuming them.

The only way to make it past Thin Mint withdrawal is to keep repeating, ‘It’s just a cookie. It’s just a cookie.”