salad

My food weekend

After noticing the lack of roast beef sandwiches on Dreamstime and confirming with iStock the same, I decided to do a sandwich shoot.  I thought it would be my first “easy food” shoot.  I mean..how hard can it be to style a sandwich? 8 toothpicks and 2 frustrating hours later I can honestly say it’s WAY harder than it would appear.

The second part of my foodie weekend was a birthday party / dinner party.  We combined an adult-based dinner party for the family with our 14 year old’s birthday party to come up with a menu of: pizza bites (slice in between each and every pepperoni) and tomato skewer appetizers, one huge tossed salad and saute of chicken and broccoli over penne as the main course.  We followed that with birthday cake of course!  Since we technically had my birthday to celebrate as well and 15 guests, we made two cakes.

Here are some quick images I shot this weekend – not the best of the best but at least a few I have already edited.  I’ll post the recipe for the chicken and broccoli on my MattAntonino.com site later today.

salad

Apple Walnut Rice Salad

This is our first attempt at posting a recipe online and our second attempt at food photography ever so please be gentle! We’re going to be posting recipes and photos at least twice a week.  This is a recipe I found on an Indian foods site. After eating it as shot, I’d replace the brown rice with basmati but choose the rice that suits your palette.  This is best served warm.

Apple Walnut Brown Rice

1 cup brown rice 2 tbsp extra virgin Olive Oil 1/4 tbsp grated orange peel 5 tbsp orange juice 1 tsp vinegar 1 pinch nutmeg 1 pinch salt and pepper to taste 1 whole apple 2 tbsp raisins 3 tbsp celery chopped 2 tbsp toasted walnuts, chopped

Instructions 1. Cook a cup of raw brown rice and keep aside. 2. In a bowl, combine 2-3 tbsps olive oil, 1/4 tbsp grated orange zest, 5 tbsps orange juice, 1 tsp vinegar, pinch of nutmeg pwd, salt and pepper to taste. Mix well. 3. Add the cooked brown rice, one chopped apple, 2 tbsps raisins, 2-3 tbsps chopped celery (both stalks and leaves). Toss all the ingredients. 4. Finally add 2 tbsps toasted, coarsely chopped toasted walnuts.

Nutrition Facts Nutrition information calculated from recipe ingredients. Serving size: 1/2 of a recipe (8.6 ounces).  Servings: 2 Percent daily values based on the Reference Daily Intake (RDI) for a 2000 calorie diet.   Amount Per Serving Calories 358.26 Calories From Fat 169.4 % Daily Value Total Fat 19.49g 30% Saturated Fat 2.56g 13% Cholesterol 0mg 0% Sodium 13.07mg <1% Potassium 356.69mg 10% Total Carbs 44.54g 15% Fiber 4.46g 18% Sugar 15.56g 10% Protein 4.21g 8%