I am totally overwhelmed at the response to both the book and our new column with The Sunday Times.

Over the past two weeks I have been inundated with the nicest emails and messages on FB from people all over the world.

Some of the messages are from people that have bought and read the book, and some are from people who are waiting for their book to arrive, and some are from people that have already started cooking the recipes from the book.

Down below I have included a few screen shots of messages I have received.

I think testimonials speak for themselves. You can see from reading the ones below that ‘The Chef & I‘ is worth your hard earned shekels.Our book makes for a nice summer read and after you have finished the narrative part you can move on to the nourishing part and start cooking up some of the recipes.

The book launch, fast approaching on Thursday, (May 31st 2012. 6:00pm at Cases Wine Warehouse) will keep us busy for the upcoming week and after it has come to pass I will be back to blogging. The Chef and I have a list as long as your arm of food prep ahead of us, starting today and finishing on Thursday around 5:00pm leaving us just enough time for a quick shower and change before heading in to Cases to meet the Mayor of the city of Galway for a few photos.

If you are coming out to support us on Thursday – do let us know…..even though we have been in the restaurant business for years and years and years ….  it is always nice to know how many people to expect!

First up – an email from a lovely lady named Caroline …

This made me cry …

An old friend from my high school days putting it to the test!

Someone already trying out the recipes and posting it on their FB page!

Then a newer friend all the way from Kentucky showing of his new purchase!

An email from a special friend and former customer of ours in Cincinnati ….

This one also made me cry …

Another loyal Facebook fan putting the recipes to the test!

You must try this recipe …..

And this one …. just because of how it made me feel …

This makes me happy …

And this one is pretty nice too ….

Words cannot express the pride I feel …

Now – before you go all thinking it is rosy in the garden … there have been a few ‘meh’ comments too. Keep in mind I am terribly thick-skinned and well able to handle the criticisms ….. and for my own reasons I am not going to highlight ‘the who and why’ these comments have come from but feel it is necessary to share them so you do not think I am delusional. I know this book is not for everyone.

‘It’s an easy read‘  . . . .

Yes. It is. I am a busy Mum and have very little time to plough through a heavy read. I was writing it for ‘myself’ first.

‘It sounds like it was written on a creative writing course‘ …

Bingo. It was written on a creative writing course. I still am not sure what this one means exactly – I think it means that maybe I did not really work hard enough at making it harder to read? I should have tried harder to incorporate bigger words and longer sentences perhaps?

Truth is, I worked very hard at keeping it ‘an easy read’ so that it would not bog the reader down.

I still have my traing wheels on guys. This is just my first book. I expect by the time I get to the fourth book – I will have gotten the hang of it and be only fabulous at the book writing.

Those are, to date, the ‘worst’ things I have heard about the book and to be honest neither of those comments, coming from two very important people in my life, made me cry. Most of all the other comments did.

Going to college to learn how to write is a tough game. You are judged by your peers in college, you are graded by your teachers and your teachers are judged by their peers based on what you produce.

The lesson that I have just learned, now that the book is out in the world, is that none of that matters. All that matters is that last September 5th 2011 I set out to write and publish a book and I did it. From start to finish. And now the people who really matter, YOU – the readers that have been ‘liking’ all my photos and ‘loving and commenting’ on all my stories over the last few years, are all loving our book..

Thank you, thank you, thank you ……..

This author has just emerged xx

WiseMóna

Hello fellow food lovers. As promised here is a link to the recipes published in our weekly column with The Sunday Times.

I will be posting the longer and unedited version of the column contribution every Wednesday.So if you did not get a chance to buy the paper, or, if you do not live on the lovely small green island, then enjoy the read right here on the blog.

You can find the longer version of the original article right here:

PDF “Scrumptious Schnitzel May 2012”

Enjoy and let us know if there are anything recipes you would like to see each week and we will try to include them just for you!

WiseMóna

Sometimes photos speak louder than words so a kaleidoscope of images from Rory’s special day is featured below.

I hope you are having a lovely weekend x

Rory Belle – she who made me a Mama

Granny & Rory Belle

Could not wait to get out of her shoes xx

TWO of our munchkins

Garden salad …. there is always salad on the table

Communion Cake with 'boiled icing' …

Beautiful Bean Salad

Chocolate chunk n' cranberry cookies

Heavenly Ham

If you have already purchased our book you will have noticed that the recipe for ham is a three-pager. Yes, it takes a while to do it right and yes 0 it is totally worth it.

Extra cakes and cookies

Special thanks to all our friends and family who came to spend the day with us, eating drinking and being merry. Extra thanks to Jackie Ffrench for taking such beautiful shots of our family and capturing the fun here at Chez Wise for Rory Belles special day and to Bernie Ffrench for organizing the treasure hunt to keep the kids occupied for so long x

Enjoy the rest of the weekend y’all xx

WiseMóna

AND – do not forget to buy The Sunday Times tomorrow for the next installment of our weekly column. Recipe for Pork Schnitzel tomorrow!

The Chef & I are literally gobsmacked at the whole outcome of the interview and new job as co-columnists with The Sunday Times (!!) guys.

We feel very fortunate to have this opportunity and are excited to have such a prestigious newspaper as our platform to do so.

Enjoy the read if you please and another post coming soon on the book and launch and sale details!

Móna x

The Chef & I at home with the ducks

Click on each link to read the entire interview and see the recipes.

Cover page introduction

Interview and recipes

I think that peoples perception of who we are could be tainted somewhat if they were just to look at the pictures and not read the words that accompany them. I try to always be on the level with y’all about what is going on in our lives – the good, the bad and the ugly.

Sometimes it is good, sometimes it is sad. We work hard at avoiding all things bad.

Right now – my lips are sealed and I can’t really ‘write’. I actually can’t trust myself to keep this secret from exploding …. so I am just going to feed you instead. Ok?

Blogtopia, of the food kind, is being flooded with recipes for interesting things to make and do with the intoxicatingly fresh and free ‘wild garlic’. I see a lot of recipes for pesto floating around and I know for a fact it tastes delicious.

But we wanted to do something a little different with our freely foraged food.

Something a little prettier ….

Because, lets face it, we do love everything ‘green’ around here.

So, and I know this will not come as a surprise to you, we decided to fall back on one of the most photographed items on the blog last year – which was salad.

Lovely luscious garden salad. And what better way to get more salad into those you love, than to entice them with something pretty to camouflage it with, right?

BUT, hold it right there readers, there is no sense in it looking good and green and gorgeous. It must taste fabulous too.

That is why we blanched it in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes. See, those that forage rarely tell you that wild garlic, while fragrant and fine in flavor, is a bit chewy too. You can use it fresh and raw, but I would blanch it. The green colour intensifies too.

Making a salad dressing like this is not brain surgery folks. The whole sugar/honey piece at the end is really a personal taste thing. We like it kind of sour – but that is because we make and use our own buttermilk.

Sometimes – things get messy in the kitchen and it does not always look so ‘organized’. Ah, well. We can’t have it all, right?

But it usually works out just fine in the end.

Give this a whirl this weekend. There is acres of wild garlic to be foraged at this time of year.

AND, if all local readers are looking for something interesting to do on Sunday then you should sign up to go to the

Seashore Forage and Clam Bake Sunday 6th May

hosted by Galway SlowFood.

Ok – ’tis almost feeding time at the zoo here so I must run to the kitchen and help the chef with supper.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned!

WiseMóna

PS – did you register interest in our book? If not – you can do so right here. Should be available for sale my May 19th!

Me. A sitting duck on some big news.

I have such a big secret it is killing me.

I want, desperately, to tell you my secret, but I can’t.

I am also the worlds worst secret-keepr so you should know that THIS IS KILLING ME.

I am being watched … so must stay quiet

And before you all start wondering and and asking if I have been signed with some huge publishing company – that is not what is going on.

I am going to write a lengthy and wordy (using big words too) blog post on why I chose to self publish and why getting a ‘publishing deal’ has never been my dream. I have never even sent my book out to a publishing house for consideration. I can’t handle the rejection of it all. 

This is me, starting from the ground up. learning the ins and outs of the writing, editing, printing and publishing world while I am still in college.

It is like starting of in an office being the coffee bitch. I love my job.

These guys (and there are SIX of them) have kept me SO distracted ….

THIS is a VERY important blog post though – because this is the first of FOUR fabulous giveaways between now and the book launch on May 31st.

I am mostly giving away copies of my new book ‘The Chef & I’ so TWO of you lucky readers will be getting an advance copy.

This competition is open to worldwide readers.

I am using the ‘And the Winner is’ plug-in for this one because otherwise I would want to choose EVERYBODY … and I just can’t give all the books away. A girl has gotta earn a living!

So – all you have to do is leave a comment letting me know that you want a copy of the book and WHAT you think my big secret is.

If you have no idea at all – make something up.

I will pick the winner next week on Wednesday or Thursday – when the books are delivered to my house and ready for shipping!

Bluebells are becoming an endangered flower. Do not pick them!

Have a great weekend everyone,

AND the lucky winners ARE :

AND

Congrats to you both ladies and please send me on your home address!

Móna  xx

I started writing my first book (The Chef & I … a nourishing narrative) on Monday September 5th 2011.

I also started writing a daily rhyme on my Facebook page so I could not use writers block as an excuse. To date, because I have not missed a day, I have written 213 rhymes and have gathered almost 4,000 fans in six months.

I took a week off during halloween break because the kids were home from school and they would not stay quiet enough for me to write.

I finished the narrative part of the story on December 10th, 2011.

A larder of love

I did ‘nothing’ for half of December and half of January.

I procrastinated ALOT about typing up and editing all the Chef’s recipes.

Where it's at …

In February, Annie Atkins came to visit (one Valentines weekend) and we made some amazing progress with the food shots.

I was mentally ready to finish the book.

I found the dream design duo – who were right under my nose the whole time.

In March they got their hooks stuck in and encouraged me to let go. This was not easy.

They knew what they were doing. I did not.

I had to trust them. I wanted to trust them. So I let go.

Making room on the book shelf for a few copies

Today – 48 hours before my university deadline, I picked up a ‘mock’ copy of my first book. It, being a mock-up, is gorgeous in itself so I can only imagine how pretty the finished book will be. On Friday I will be going to the printshop to see the book on ‘plates’ and watch the first lithograph print run come spilling out ‘hot off the press’.

They are letting me take photos so I can blog all about it.

I have not slept for days or even weeks – worried that my final grade for Creative Writing was in jeopardy.

It is exactly what I wanted only nicer …

I will sleep tonight.

The next few posts will be all about the print, publishing and pricing end of my book journey.

I have learned SO MUCH over the last few months and can’t wait to share it with you!

Sleep tight,

WiseMóna – author (finally) emerged

PS – for those of you that are new to WiseWords blog (hello!) heres the deal in a nutshell. 

I am a mature student at NUIG. I have one year left of a 4-yr undergrad (English Literature and German Language studies with Creative Writing as my specialism).

This book was my 3rd year project and there are 12 weeks before Christmas and 12 weeks after Christmas to get your course work done.

I hope I get an ‘A’.

Nettles get a bad rap around here. I am not sure why.

I know they have those hairy hypodermic needle-like bristles that emit a formic acid, which, on bare flesh, causes a sting that can last from a few minutes to 24 hours, (baking soda will neutralize the acid if you get stung), but I do not think that is a good enough reason to steer clear of them.

They are more than plentiful for eight or nine months of the year and they are free. They literally grow along the side of the road. March is the season when they start to surge and you will notice their glossy green heads everywhere you go around these parts. Although I could pick them off the side of the road there is no need. They favour the surrounds of the Chefs polytunnel,  so I had one of the kids rescue me a batch before they left for school this morning.

When I got back from the school run I noticed a small enamel pot outside my front door with a note taped to it. The note read ‘On loan only. Please return when you are finished‘. Filled to the brim with rich yellow cream it was. I am guessing my friendly farmer meant I had to return the pot as soon as I was finished, but taking his message literally, I set about to return the cream to him in a more edible fashion.

Little stingers

If you still need a bit of convincing as to why you should be eating (or drinking) more nettles then take a peek at the nutritional value of nettles so you can make a more informed decision for yourself. And if it is the stingers that are keeping you away wear gloves and use a kitchen tongs and scissors.

I always soak mine in a bit of salted water incase there are any uninvited bugs hanging around.

Beautiful Butter

With all that cream the best thing to do is come up with a way to preserve it. We only use real butter here at chez Wise. No schwag stuff. Receiving a few gallons of fresh dairy cream as a gift gave me the opportunity to make a few pounds of butter that we can keep in the freezer for a few months, or share with friends. If you have never made butter then you are in for a surprise. It is dead easy. Pour cream into the food mixer – using the paddle attachment – and turn it on high until the butter forms. Depending how much cream you have in there it might take ten minutes or longer. When we returned home to Ireland several years ago it took forever to convince the Chef that Kerrygold did NOT add yellow food coloring to their butter. He has still never come across cream with such color. Grass fed = happy cows = beautiful butter.

Once your butter has formed into what might look like very yellow cottage cheese curds, line up a strainer with cheese cloth and a bowl underneath. Pour it all into the cheesecloth strainer and save the buttermilk. This makes a thoughtful gift for a friend that loves to bake. It is very low-in-acid tasting but makes fabulous baked goods.

Now that you have butter all lined up and ready to go you can decide what you want to do with it. I like old fashioned salted country butter so I made one batch with salt – for me. I also made one batch with bacon because the kids love bacon butter on their baked potatoes. What is not to love. …. mmmm bacon.  And the final batch was a combo of salt and stinging nettle.

Essential Ingredients

I dropped the nettles into a pot of (already boiling) ham that is slowcooking for supper later. The nettles sting is stifled the minute it hits the water. As soon as it comes out, shred it with your chopping knife, stems and all.

Steam the sting right out of the nettles

After you have your nettles shredded and your bacon obliterated, then divide your butter into three separate portions and start mixing. I think doing this with your hands is just fine. A lot of butter making folks use the fancy paddles and ice cold water baths etc. but all of that takes time and is, in my opinion, not necessary at all.

The butter will take any form you like and freezes for months. No need to feel bad that you do not have a friendly farmer dropping (illegal) milk or cream on your doorstop. This works just fine with any old shop cream. I expect, were you to use double or heavy cream, your butter might in fact taste better than mine.

Beautiful little butters

Go foraging with friends for nettles and use them in many different ways. Make warm milk with infused nettle and a bit of honey for a bed time drink, add nettles to your bowl of buttered mashed potatoes, to your soup, to your stews. Dried nettle leaves act as a natural anti-histamine and the fresh leaves have been known to relieve pain from arthritis. In the summer infuse a large bunch with freshly squeezed lemons and make a souped up lemonade for the kids.

Oh – and one more thing – they taste great!

We have a date set for the book launch folks. If you are interested in coming along then make sure you get on the mailing list right here!

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMona

HAPPY ST. PATRICKS DAY !!!!

Ok – now that we have gotten that out of the way I can get down to business.

I am a creature of habit. Every Friday we have an after school snack with the kids. We always have fish. Sometimes we have sushi, sometimes we have a piece of smoked fish from The Burren Smokehouse or sometimes we have shellfish, like a big bowl of mussels. We all hang out in the kitchen and we listen to the kids natter on about their week and we usually have a few beers. Good clean fun.

Earlier in the week, one of my blogging buddies, Margaret from Oldfarm, mentioned that it seemed like we got a lot more sun here in Galway than she gets in Tipperary. I am doubtful of this myself. I explained that I just had a Chef-in-residence who is normally more than willing to drop what he is doing to help me fix something for a pretty photo and capture that, sometimes, fleeting sunshine.

This week – our treat was a little extra special because I had procured a jar of Goatsbridge Trout Caviar.

Peter from Cases Wine Warehouse, had encouraged us to try another great Irish Beer. Ah, shur why not? On a side note, because this is not a beer-review-blog-post, this is a food beer and goes exceptionally well with the Blinis and Goatsbridge Trout Caviar. If you would like to buy some of the Irish Trout Caviar you can get buy it direct from LaRousse foods. I think you should treat yourself. It is just delicious. Every little orange orb sits on your tongue waiting for you to put just enough pressure on it between tongue and teeth before it explodes releasing the most delicious essence swirling around your gums. Tastes. Like. More.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:6]

Now, I know what you are thinking. How in the heck did it get so sunny? I know. The sun actually cased a few problems for me this afternoon while I was getting the shot ready. The Chef was making the Blinis and having a beer and I was almost wishing I had curtains. But I do not like curtains. I like the natural light. So we just waited a few minutes for it to get cloudy.  Besides, if I got curtains, then I would have to worry about getting cushions to match and then y’all would be asking me where I go my fancy cushions and the chef might get annoyed that no one would be looking at the food.

So here it is. Our little Happy St. Patricks Day greeting to you guys. We are spending the evening with friends and will be dining on a lovely piece of Garrendenny Goat tomorrow. 

We hope you have a gorgeous weekend with your friends and families!

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today.

WiseMóna

http://verygoodrecipes.com/saint-patrick-challenge

(for all y’all that do not live in Ireland – we celebrate Mothers Day in March (not May like the rest of the world) here on the little green island)

A few months ago  I contacted Sheila, a fellow food blogger, and busy working mother of SIX kids (there are two sets of twins in that bunch so hats off to her!) and asked her if I could interview her about her new book, which is now available to buy on the Mercier Press website.  I hope you enjoy the read and if you are a busy Mum looking for tried and tested recipes that will not break the bank AND food  your kids will eat then look no further. This book is for you.

Also, if you leave a nice comment, and the random gods smile upon you, then you will be the lucky recipient of a copy of Sheila’s new book! So start commenting and tell your friends. We will draw the winner and announce them on Sunday right here on the blog. And yes, of course we will ship worldwide, so y’all are in with a chance to win.

Now before any of you start emailing me telling me how you never win anything and wondering if ‘and the winner is‘ random comment generator is really fair or even random – then here are a few stats to put your mind at ease.

We have had 6 giveaways over the last seven months and the winners have been from USA (twice), Ireland (three times) Canada (once) and the UK (once).

’tis fair and ’tis very random.

An interview with Irish author Sheila Kiely regarding her new book ‘Gimme the Recipe’ which is also the name of her blog!

Enjoy the read.

1.   Tell me about your book. How did you come up with the idea?

‘Gimme the Recipe’ is a book written for every day ordinary busy people like me.  It is written for the type of person who ends up in the aisles of the supermarket surrounded by food but without a clue what to cook for dinner.  It is a collection of recipes divided into three sections ‘What’s for Dinner Mom?’, ‘Baking Day’ and ‘Dinner Party’ with the main focus being on answering the question ‘What’s for Dinner Mom?’

The idea for ‘Gimme the Recipe’ was a gradual dawning that spawned from numerous conversations I had with my running partner Deirdre on the exasperated topic of what to cook for dinner.  I felt that there was a need for a book that was written by a busy person who understands what it’s like to have limited time and choices that determine where they shop and so uses ingredients that are readily accessible.  For most of my peers cooking is often a hurried affair and something may have to be bunged into the oven fairly quickly before a quick dash is made out the door again to taxi a child to their next music/dance/drama lesson or whatever.  There is generally little time to read the ingredients list and do the preparation before starting to cook so I’ve written my methods to include preparation as while it may be admirable/efficient to chop and prepare ingredients into little bowls before you start, for most people I know that’s not how we cook.

2. How did you get interested in food writing?

I’ve always been passionate about food and I am an avid viewer of food programmes and collector of recipes, reading food magazines and recipes wherever they feature.  While I studied English in college and wrote a novel (unpublished) a number of years ago, writing is something that I’ve always enjoyed as a hobby but the food writing only started around three years ago when I got the idea for ‘Gimme the Recipe’.

3. What kind of research did you do for this book?

My research took the form of educating myself in food styling and photography and also food writing by attending numerous courses and workshops in all of these areas.  When it came to recipe writing I was drawing from simple recipes that I use all the time though for the DIY Takeaway section of the book I bought some books on Indian cooking and experimented with various recipes, tweaking and modifying until I was happy that the ingredients were readily available and the recipes easy to follow.

4.  How long did it take you to find a publisher? Are you releasing an eBook version too?

With the experience of an unpublished novel behind me I was well aware of how difficult it is to become published.  However as I had a passionate belief and vision for this book I was determined that it was going to make it to a bookshop shelf somehow and I had more or less decided to go down the self-publishing route. There came a point where I was beginning to incorporate photographs in with the text and I was finding the whole design process extremely frustrating and it was at that stage – about a year into working on the book – that I approached Mercier Press.  Around 6 months after our initial meeting a contract was agreed.  As far as I am aware there are no plans to release an eBook version of ‘Gimme the Recipe.’

5.  How excited are you to be slated in the category of ‘blog to book’ ?

What most people don’t realise is that for me the blog came after work for the book was well underway though undoubtedly without the blog there would be no book.  It was thanks to Sally McKenna (Bridgestone Guides Publisher ) that I started my blog and she gave me positive feedback and direction in my early days of blogging.  The food blogging community in Ireland is an amazingly generous, friendly and supportive one and with the formation of the Irish Food Bloggers Association (thanks to Kristen Jensen & Caroline Hennessy) it has been given a structure and base that has strengthened this community.  I’m naturally delighted to be joining other Irish Food Bloggers who have also been published such as Donal Skehan, Niamh Shields and Lily Higgins.

6. What’s a typical working day like for you? When and where do you write? Did you set a daily writing goal for this project?

I work in the administration side of our food safety consultancy business – Industrial Management Systems – so when I started to work on ‘Gimme the Recipe’ and previously on my novel the writing was done in the evening time and at the weekends.  I normally write in the office which is at the top of the house and well away from the kitchen where all the hustle and bustle prevails.  I found that during the school summer holidays I had more time to write which might sound strange but with the kids taking a break from their after school activities it freed up a lot more time for me in the evenings and at weekends.  I only really began to set daily writing goals when the publishing deal was in place and there were deadlines to be met which really gave a sense of focus.

7. What is the hardest part of writing for you?

The hardest part of writing when it came to ‘Gimme the Recipe’ was paring back and trying not to be too wordy.  I love language and I love how words can flow but when writing recipes you need the methods to be concise and easy to follow so editing the method was probably the hardest part.

8. What’s the best thing about being an author?

Author is a title that I hardly feel I deserve yet and haven’t given much thought to.  At time of answering this I have yet to see a finished copy of “Gimme the Recipe’ and won’t quite believe that I am an author until I get to hold a copy of the book in my hands.  It’s tremendously exciting be getting published and a clichéd dream come true.  Being a published author will mean that someone else likes my writing and that’s a wonderful feeling.

9. What are you working on now? Is there a second book in the works?
It’s been a hectic couple of years and right now I’m enjoying the lead-up to ‘Gimme the Recipe’ being published and continuing to experiment with recipes and publish to my blog.  As far as a second book is concerned I am planning on starting a second novel this summer as an idea for that has been simmering for a while.  I’d like to think that there will be a ‘Gimme the Recipe 2’ at some stage but there are no immediate plans for that.

10. What advice would you give aspiring writers?

I heard an interview on the radio recently in which a successful broadcaster was being asked about their ‘lucky breaks’ and his clichéd response was ‘the harder you work the luckier you get.’  It may sound throw-away but it is precisely the answer and that’s what it takes in writing too.  A lot of hard work, dedication, planning and learning are required to build on your skills to make you a better writer.

11. Do you have any favorite authors or favorite books?

I don’t have time to read as much as I would like but I’ve enjoyed reading The Slap, Room and The Help recently.  My favourite food writer is Nigel Slater.  And my favourite quote is one of his :
“There is too much talk of cooking being an art or a science – we are only making ourselves something to eat.”

12. Sheila, people ask me this all the time so I have to ask as you are mothering six, and I only four, but how on earth did you find the time to work full time, parent and write a book?

I suppose what had to happen in the really busy periods especially this time last year when I was photographing for the book, was a realisation that it was impossible to do everything and tasks had to be prioritized.  This meant an ever increasing mound of unfiled paper on my desk (still there) and a house that could only be described as ‘upside-down’ much of the time.  The necessary was done; kids were fed, kept clean(ish) and loved and I discovered that while it might be nice it’s not actually necessary to iron your duvet covers.  While the hectic phase has passed for now things are slowly returning to some semblance of normality though the laundry room situation is some kind of self-perpetuating nightmare that I know I will never be on top of.

WiseMóna sez:

Thank you Sheila for taking the time to answer all my questions in such great detail. We wish you much success with your new book and will keep an ear to the ground for word on that novel you are writing.

If you are wanting to buy a nice book for your Mum for Mothers Day, why not buy Sheila’s book. 

I hope you enjoyed the read and that you leave a comment to enter the drawing for a copy of Gimme the Recipe.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna