Memories of Great Meals - A Breakfast from "Used to Be"

A breakfast from the past. A waffle with fruit - cherries?, two eggs, and yellow summer squash. I can't eat many eggs and no wheat flour any more. Ah, well. Good memories. :-)

The Thousand Word Project - Expectations

 

Robin's nest that was in a bad spot and ended up abandoned, but I got a lovely opportunity to take photos. (It was photo edited.) Tennessee.

Looking Back - Favorite Kitchen Things – Electric Egg Cooker

I am going to try cutting back on my posts here at least for awhile. Because of that I will be trying to post my mid-week posts all on Wednesday and they will vary widely. There will still be photo posts but not every week any more, but they will be interspersed with other things. We have had a lot of thunder storm days this spring when I am off the computer entirely. This may not continue, but at present responsibilities with my parents and other things we desire to do means that I have more things to think about and juggle. For today I'm reposting a review of a kitchen gadget. :-)

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Five years on and I'm still using this same cooker. I have looked at buying a stainless steel model for health purposes (no plastic leaching), but so far have not done that. It is perhaps not quite as accurate as it used to be, but I can still guess on the water amounts close enough. :-)
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This little electric egg cooker was given to me by my Texas sister-in-law.  This one is called an EggGenie™.  It is very handy and since it uses a minimal amount of water for cooking boiled eggs (really steamed), it also does not waste water – something we think about quite a bit in Texas these days (and should think of more).

Although I’m not exactly thrilled to cook my eggs in a plastic cooker, this is still one of my favorite kitchen appliances.  The electric egg cookers my mom had when I was growing up all involved aluminum in their construction – something I want to avoid.  This one is plastic and stainless steel.  I don’t make boiled eggs terribly often, so it isn’t like I use it all the time.

It can cook up to 7 eggs at once.  The measuring cup that came with it gives exact amounts of water for the level of done-ness for various numbers of eggs.  It’s pretty accurate if you don’t leave the eggs sitting in the cooker too long after turning it off.  Ahem! :-)



Also, before cooking the eggs, you have to poke a little hole in the large end of each egg.  There is a sharp pin inside the cooker for this purpose.  It usually works fine, but occasionally there is that weak shelled egg or something goes wrong and then there’s an clean up job to deal with. :-/  The purpose in the hole is to allow the air to escape from the little sealed chamber at the large end of the egg.  If you don’t do this the egg can crack and even leak during cooking.  Apparently this is more of a problem when steaming eggs.

One complaint with this model is that it doesn’t have an on/off switch.  When you plug it in, it’s on.  So, I have to remember not to plug it in before it’s ready to go – something I forget regularly.  It also doesn’t have a very loud buzzer to let you know when it’s done, and it does not go off till you come and unplug it – really Not Good!

Nevertheless, I’ve used it and found it very handy since I can get the eggs cooking and then tend to other things without giving them much more thought – except to turn them off and rather promptly remove them. :-)

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First published in March 2014.

The Thousand Word Project - Abundance

This picture was taken in 2011 or so, when we had a lot more chickens.

The Thousand Word Project – Cackleberries

 

Sour Cream Raisin Pie

My poor dad has been hankering after sour cream raisin pie for years.  The recipe is in my mom’s “write-in cook book” in his hand writing, but I think she said she’d never made it!  Well, last February, I decided to give it a go as a surprise for his birthday.  He was very happy. :-)

Sour Cream Raisin Pie

1 C. raisins, finely chopped
1/2 C. sugar
1 1/2 Tbl. flour
1/8 tsp. salt
2 eggs, separated
1 C. sour cream
1 tsp. cinnamon or lemon juice

1 9” pie crust, baked

Combine sugar, salt, flour and cinnamon (if using).  Beat egg yokes and add dry mixture.  Pour into a large sauce pan.  Stir in chopped raisins and sour cream (and lemon juice, if using). Cook over medium heat till it thickens, stirring often at first and constantly at the end.

Pour filling into the baked pie crust.  Preheat oven to 325F.

In a mixing bowl beat egg whites till stiff peaks form.  Add 4 Tbl. of sugar and mix in well.  Spread egg whites on pie.  Brown meringue in oven for 10-12 minutes, or till lightly browned on top.  Remove from oven and cool.  Serve at room temperature or refrigerated.

Note: You could probably get good results from this recipe with dried cherries, cranberries, currents or blueberries in place of the raisins.

It’s a rhinoceros.  Well, anyway….I just want to say I don’t actually remember if I followed the recipe exactly or if I looked up a more ample meringue recipe.  It looks to me like it may be more than two eggs’ worth of meringue, but I can’t remember.  February is too long ago and I failed to take notes if I did change it.  So, do whatever you think you’d like. :-)

If yours doesn’t look quite like mine, I think I used our own free range eggs.  This would partly account for the dark golden color.  If you use store bought eggs it will probably be lighter in most cases.

Four Salads

Do you get hungry for salad in the spring?  I do!  I think our bodies want the fresh green lettuce and veggies as part the clearing out process after winter.  That’s my theory, anyway.  But, I know that the fresh fruits and veggies taste extra good in the spring time, especially when you have homegrown lettuce! :-)
Here are four salads that I especially like.  Three are very simple.  If you sometimes forget or struggle to eat fresh fruit, three of these salads might be some help to you.
Blueberry-Melon Salad
This is a summer salad and probably my favorite.  I love the colors and the fresh berries!

As you can see, it only has three ingredients – leafy green lettuce, blueberries and cantaloupe.  I usually serve it with a sweet-sour dressing, honey-lemon is the best.  (I will try to share some dressing recipes later.)
Festive Banana Melon Salad

This salad is quite pretty.  It isn’t much different from the one above.  It has bananas instead of blueberries, and a maraschino cherry is put on top to decorate it.  This, of course, is optional.  (It’s hard to find maraschino cherries here that don’t have high fructose corn syrup in them.)  I serve this with similar dressings as I do the blueberry one.
Another variation of this is to leave out the bananas and add plain cooked chicken breast.  This then becomes a “main dish” salad.

This was an interesting one, but it was actually quite good.  As you can see I sprinkled some toasted sesame over the top of the sweet-sour dressing.  This would be so refreshing on a late winter day, I think! :-)
Chef Salad

This is one to two servings.

This salad is the not-so-easy one.  But, it is almost an entire meal.  All you need to add is some carbohydrate of some sort – bread, chips, biscuits, etc.  How about croutons?
When I make this I layer it.  Lettuce on the bottom.  Next some mixed veggies – cucumbers, carrots, etc.  Then the “julienned” ham slices and the grated cheese.  On that I sprinkled some black pepper.  The tomatoes (cherry or wedges of a larger one) and quartered boiled eggs look decorative around the edges.  Black olives rings would make a nice addition to the top as well.  If you don’t eat ham, try turkey or roast beef deli meat.  It’s good served with a savory dressing – Ranch, bleu cheese, Russian, Italian, Thousand Island, etc.
By the way, with attention to the ingredients these can all be made gluten free.  :-)  Just use a safe dressing and adjust some things in the Chef Salad.

National Egg Day

In honor of National Egg Day I thought I’d post a photo of eggs from our own free range chickens. The “girls” are real rascals sometimes, but they do know how to lay a fine egg!

The eggs that look white are actually pale green-blue. They are from our Ameraucana chickens.

Cleaning Up Dropped Eggs

A few weeks ago while working in the kitchen I managed to drop an egg on the floor, or rather part of an egg. I caught part of it still in the shell, but there was still a good amount of egg white on the floor. I hate dropping eggs! It makes such a mess and they are so hard to clean up. It really does tend to spread all over the place as you work on it and it makes it seem like a lot more egg white than it really was!

This time, though, I happened to remember reading something about sprinkling flour or corn meal on a mess to clean it up. I think that was corn meal on an oil spill, if I remember correctly. But, I decided to try some flour on the egg white and see what happened. I used some of my white flour (cheaper) and carefully sprinkled it over the egg white. After a few minutes it looked like it needed more, so I added some and kind of spread it around. I left this for a good long time (something that probably wouldn't be practical with small kids or pets around). Later, when I came back to clean it up the flour had soaked in quite a bit and it was much easier to wipe up than the plain egg white would have been!

I realize that some would not consider this a good use of their flour, and that I can understand, but for those with limited strength or difficulty in cleaning up such messes this might prove useful. Anyway, I wanted to share it. Eggs on the floor are a nuisance and anything that will help clean it up more efficiently is good news to me!