Anna Mooney's Food Blog

The Spread at Willa’s 1st Birthday Party Ham, Salami,...

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:57:47 -0400

The Spread at Willa’s 1st Birthday Party

Ham, Salami, Cheeses, Cucumbers, Strawberries, Blueberries, Blackberries, Breads, Crackers, Mustard, Honey, Apples, Lemonade

The party was a few months ago so I can’t remember everything. By preparing all of our snacks instead of buying party trays, we saved quite a bit of money.

Willa’s First Birthday: Strawberry Cupcakes It was really...

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 22:36:53 -0400

Willa’s First Birthday: Strawberry Cupcakes

It was really hard to find a recipe that called for fresh strawberries. They almost turn out as muffins if you aren’t careful.

I think I used this recipe for the cupcake part:

Ingredients:

for cupcakes—

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cups pureed fresh strawberries (from about 2 cups whole strawberries—puree in a blender until smooth)

1/2 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla

2 tsp lemon zest

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

2 cups sugar

2 eggs

4 egg whites

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line or grease 24 cupcake tins.

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Set aside.

Whisk together the pureed strawberries, lemon zest, milk and vanilla in another bowl. Also set aside.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and egg whites gradually, beating after each, until combined. Alternate between adding the dry ingredients and the wet strawberry ingredients to the butter mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Scoop batter into prepared cupcake tins, filling up 2/3 to 3/4 the way full (depending on the size of your tins…I have really small cupcake tins so I filled mine up all the way). Bake cupcakes for 25 minutes or until golden. Be sure to test using a toothpick to make sure they are completely done in the center. Let cool.

from eatliverun.com

I made a strawberry cream cheese icing. Powdered sugar, strawberry puree, cream cheese, or something to that effect.

More from our DIY wedding: Perhaps Joseph waited until the last...

Sun, 07 Oct 2012 17:38:20 -0400

Well, I promised a few blogs about our DIY wedding. I would have...

Tue, 21 Aug 2012 10:51:00 -0400

Well, I promised a few blogs about our DIY wedding.

I would have posted the entries as we went along, but as some of you may know already our wedding was a surprise.

On April 1st 2012, we invited 80 or so of our closest friends and family over for lunch. 40 of them came since they thought it was just a lunch.

After everyone was here, I went inside and slipped into my wedding dress.

A close friend presided over the ceremony.

The guests hummed the bridal march.

We had a great sushi spread brought to us by our friends at Aya Sushi. They also did an excellent job with the photos. Shoin Fukui is a master photographer.

None of this has much to do with these photos. These are the cake stands that I made for our cupcakes. We tried to keep everything simple and did as much DIY stuff as possible.

For the cake stands, I went to a thrift store and bought candle sticks, vases, and plates. I used Gorilla glue to attach the plates to the vases or candlesticks by laying the plates face down and centering each candlestick or vase. Heavy books made excellent weights to hold everything together while the glue dried. In hindsight, I would have been more careful about wiping the excess glue.

Then, I just spray painted them all white.

The cost for the vases, plates, and candlesticks was about $8. I think I used 2 cans of spray paint which was about $12.

photo credit: top photo by Melinda Haines, TN

These photos are so old that we can’t remember the...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 23:40:28 -0400

These photos are so old that we can’t remember the dishes.

Pretty sure this is when Joseph was going through a raw foods stage, which was, of course, short-lived.

I believe this to be and Avocado and Heirloom Tomato Salad of sorts with what we think is Pecorino.

I think it had lemon juice and fresh pepper. Sorry guys.

Asparagus Risotto with Pine Nuts Baguette with Chevre and Fresh...

Mon, 20 Aug 2012 23:30:29 -0400

Asparagus Risotto with Pine Nuts

Baguette with Chevre and Fresh Strawberries

Catching up on the old blog. Apologies.

Lol half of your followers are on tumblrdatinggame(.)com

Wed, 16 May 2012 10:14:17 -0400

fantastic.

Angry Man Dinners: Rebuttal: A Complete Guide to Hipster Racism

Sat, 28 Apr 2012 22:20:53 -0400

Angry Man Dinners: Rebuttal: A Complete Guide to Hipster Racism:

angrymandinners:

I recently shared a music video on my friend’s Facebook wall for her birthday. I’ll share it with you, it’s called “Indianer” by Birdcloud. If you recently read Lindy West’s article “A Complete Guide to Hipster Racism” and watch this video, you’ll no doubt identify the lyrics, the background…

My boyfriend works in a funeral home and writes books. ...

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500

My boyfriend works in a funeral home and writes books. Here’s a video of him at work for your viewing pleasure.

If you are excited by the idea of a zombie romance novella that comments on big agribusiness, then make a pledge to help fund his book, Kill Town, USA. If you aren’t interested in making a pledge, you should still check out the Kickstarter website. There may be something out there for you.

Anyway, here’s the link:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/391896136/kill-town-usa-novella

Also, this was Joseph’s and Willa’s joint costume. ...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:39:00 -0500

Also, this was Joseph’s and Willa’s joint costume. She looks so sad to be a monster! But she had a good time.

We had lots of fun at ConNooga this weekend while we promoted...

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 14:36:00 -0500

We had lots of fun at ConNooga this weekend while we promoted Joseph’s book, Kill Town, USA. There are only 6 days left in the fundraiser and we are at 30% of our goal. Check it out and make your pledge today!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/391896136/kill-town-usa-novella?ref=live

Roasting a Chicken: One of my favorites. I don’t have a...

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 22:51:00 -0500

Roasting a Chicken: One of my favorites.

I don’t have a recipe for this, but I do have some tips for you if you’re interested…

Put butter under the skin where you can.
Dry heat is good.
Pat dry the bird really well after washing it.
Use fresh herbs when you can.
Take the time to truss the legs and wings.
Don’t put liquid in the bottom of the pan.
Wash your hands.
Salt the inside of the bird well.

I’m pretty sure I used fresh thyme, rubbed sage, salt, pepper, and butter to season my chicken. I stuffed the cavity full of onions and thyme sprigs.

CALAMARI I mentioned in my last post that Joseph and I just took...

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 12:53:57 -0500

calamari

beer

spread

CALAMARI

I mentioned in my last post that Joseph and I just took a trip to K & S, our favorite international grocery in Nashville. Since we went on a whim, I didn’t have meals meticulously planned out so we just bought new and exciting meats and grains to mess with. It was great except that we spent $125 and didn’t have a complete meal in the cart. The next day Joseph had to go to the regular old grocery store and pick up practical ingredients to complete the meals.

One of our purchases was squid tubes. Calamari has a special place in my heart because it harks back to the time when I worked at a pizza place and spent all my money at the sushi bar next door. Every day, I had udon soup and fried calamari.

The Recipe:

1/2 C Flour
1 T Salt
1 T Coriander
1/2 T Black Pepper
1 T Chili Powder
2 Squid Tubes (Cut into rings)
Lemon Wedges
Oil for Frying (1/4” or so in the pan)

Always start by heating your oil since that takes the longest. It is ready when you drop a pinch of flour in and it sizzles. Mix together the flour, coriander, black pepper, salt, and chili powder. Dredge the squid rings in the flour mixture; make sure you pay attention to the inside of each ring as they tend to stick together. Slide them gently into the oil. I let them cook for 45 seconds to 1 minute and flip them over. Wait another 45 seconds or so and remove them to a paper towel to drain. A good indicator that the calamari is done is the browning of the flour. Easy enough? I thought so.

I served the calamari with udon noodles that were tossed with fresh grated ginger, green onions, lemon juice, and Sriracha. You can just serve it alone with the lemon wedges as an appetizer.

I also paired this dish with sunomono (Japanese cucumber salad), kimchi, miso soup, and Sapporo. The best part was the lack of prep work. I am a tired mom.

Thai Coconut Soup with Curried Cod

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:29:00 -0500

Last week, Joseph, Willa, and I went to dinner, and we shared a bowl of this fantastic soup as a starter. So a few days later, I went to my favorite international market in Nashville and picked up all the ingredients that I THOUGHT I needed to recreate this soup.

Joseph and I spent an hour or so prepping everything, and all my taste tests were going fine. While not exactly the same as the dish we’d tried, our soup base had a good, round flavor. Joseph cleaned and deboned the fish and cut it into bite sized pieces. When I went to add the fish to the soup to finish it up, I noticed that it had a tougher-than-usual texture, but I didn’t give it much thought. Instead, I tossed it in.

Apparently, the cod was salted. The soup was ruined. Joseph suffered through his bowl, but I threw mine out. I had leftover barbecue instead. IT WAS THAT BAD.

I thought I’d share.

Kill Town, USA. I have recently started using the Kickstarter...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 20:53:55 -0500

Kill Town, USA.

I have recently started using the Kickstarter website to help fund projects. It’s such a feel-good thing to do. YOU can help someone achieve their life goal. In turn, the project that you have funded can inspire, help, change, or benefit many others. It’s a perfect chain reaction.

Anyway, Joseph Love is funding a self publishing project for a novella called Kill Town, USA. Joseph works at a funeral home, and he wrote a book about zombies. Does it get any better than that? His goal is $2000, and every dollar counts. As it goes with Kickstarter, he doesn’t get any of the money if he doesn’t reach his goal.

Kickstarter - The Accidental Artist

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 19:18:06 -0500

Kickstarter - The Accidental Artist:

Only 40 Hours Left… Just donate a buck if you can. His work is amazing.

Spring Rolls I purchased some rice paper a couple of weeks ago...

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:30:22 -0500

Spring Rolls

I purchased some rice paper a couple of weeks ago and decided to give making spring rolls a try. Rice paper is a little bit daunting to work with because it’s easy to tear, but I knew that they were going to be delicious whether they were torn or not.

Joseph and I rolled our own. I tore mine 2x. Finally, I just rolled the little tear into the roll. Joseph’s rolls turned out better than mine, but he was already eating them when I was ready to start taking pictures.

For the filling, I used braised cabbage in soy sauce, sugar, rice vinegar, and salt. We also had some cellophane noodles, aka mung bean vermicelli, and of course carrots, green onions, and garlic. In other news, I bought some duck sauce for dipping.

I found this recipe on the Epicurious website. It was a good...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 14:11:23 -0500

I found this recipe on the Epicurious website. It was a good find. I’m pretty sure it’s from an Italian street vendor in Philadelphia.

Primanti’s Sandwich

3 cups very finely shredded Savoy cabbage
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 teaspoon celery seed, crushed
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
1/4 teaspoon sugar
2 small russet potatoes
Vegetable oil, for frying
4 ounces capicola, sliced
4 ounces provolone, sliced
4 thick slices Italian bread (ideally, about 6 by 4 inches, not too crusty)
1 ripe tomato, sliced

Toss together the cabbage, vinegar, olive oil, celery seed, salt, and sugar in a large bowl. Let the slaw sit and the flavors mingle while you make the fries.

Cut unpeeled potatoes into sticks about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick. Heat 1 inch of vegetable oil in a deep skillet over medium heat. The oil is ready when the tip of a potato really sizzles on contact. Carefully slide the potatoes into the oil to fry over moderate heat, turning occasionally with tongs, until crisp, golden brown, and cooked through, about 8 to 10 minutes. Don’t let the fries brown too quickly! (They might remain raw on the inside and burned on the outside if they are cooked too fast.) Drain on paper towels, and season with salt.

Heat another large skillet over high heat. When the skillet is hot, sear the sliced capicola until crisped on both sides, about 1 minute per side. Remove skillet from heat, and make two stacks of capicola on a side plate, laying the sliced provolone on top, to get it started melting while you assemble the sandwiches.

To assemble, lay two slices of bread on your work surface. Top with the capicola and melted cheese. Top with the fries, slaw, and sliced tomatoes.Top with the remaining bread, cut in half, and serve immediately.

Southern Food, Food for Poor People We were broke last week so I...

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 11:19:54 -0500

Southern Food, Food for Poor People

We were broke last week so I decided to make homemade biscuits, red cabbage, pork with rosemary, white beans, and mashed potatoes. I think it cost us around $6, and we managed to squeeze 3 meals out of it. In fact, we still have biscuits in the freezer and white beans in the fridge.

As an added bonus, we had some homemade muscadine jelly from Joseph’s mom.

I wish I had some recipes to post, but they would just be arbitrary measurements since I didn’t use any recipes or write anything down. Southern cooking at its best.

I made Willa’s stocking for her first Christmas. How...

Sun, 01 Jan 2012 15:25:22 -0500

I made Willa’s stocking for her first Christmas.

How to:

1) I drew a stocking shape out on paper and used that to trace the fabric and cut out 2 stocking shapes. Be considerate of the seam allowances and also of the width of the stocking. You want to be able to fit stuff inside.

2) Type out the name or initials (if you prefer) in large font (200-300 point) and printed it. Next, cut out all the letters very carefully. Make sure that they are going to fit by comparing the printout to the stocking.

3) Then, tape the first letter with a piece of packing tape that completely covers the letter to the white felt so that you can cut the letter out of the felt. This part is delicate. Repeat with each letter.

4) Sew the first letter to a piece of red felt. Cut out the letter leaving a small border of red felt to achieve the outlined effect. Repeat with each letter.

5) Sew the letters to the front of the stocking. Regularly check the spacing to ensure that you have enough room for all of the letters.

6) Sew the stocking pieces together by placing the side with the letter inward. Leave about 1/4” seam allowance and don’t sew up the top. Turn it inside out and attach a small piece of ribbon or string at the top left corner to hang the stocking.

I just used initials for my stocking and Joseph’s.