Ciabatta Attempt= Quasi Success

Well, it tasted good, but was NOT the light and fluffy texture ciabatta ought to be. Why? Cuz bread just don't rise in this here house! (said in a hillbilly type moonshiner's accent).
My husband has been clamouring for his 'favorite summer meal' since we've had all these tomatoes draped everywhere in the kitchen: tomato and mozzerella sandwich on ciabatta. We went to the store to buy the mozz and the bread and i thought to myself "9.50$ for a little ball of mozz! I can do that for way less." Normally i'd be right. In this case i was wrong. I got the milk too hot before i added the rennet and the curds just wouldn't congeal. I added more rennet and finally got some curds, but added them to too hot of water for the stretching part and ended up with completely dissolved and disappeared cheese that i salvaged some semblance of curd from that was at least salty and tasted LIKE mozz. Sigh. Plus my bread didn't rise and we ended up with some seriously filling and dense bread that tasted like ciabatta on the outside at least.
I will master this skill if it kills me! Today i'll be utilizing the yummy whey to make some herb bread (i will succeed, i will i will i WILL succeed at baking!), use it in my cranberry nut bread for the holidays, and maybe add it to the chilly i'm making today to tenderize the beans. Not sure if that works or not. Ha. Maybe it's time to make some mayo as well....

Anyway, may not have risen or congealed, but the flavors were still good and these sammies were a filling and great combination with the season finale of Dexter. What an episode!

 

Not light, fluffy, or full of air holes. At least the crust is perfecto.

 

 Is there a technique in the kitchen or any other homesteading skills you just can't get the knack of?

Wholesome Wednesdays: Bulgar Wheat

I've been eating a lot of bulgar wheat lately, all due to a happy accident. I used to be rather diligent about setting out a jar of grains to soak overnight to be made into hot cereal in the morning. I've been busy in the studio lately and not moving around a ton, so homemade yogurt has been my preferred breakfast. However, a few months ago i set out some bulgar wheat in a jar missing its rubber seal. The next morning i had fluffy, perfectly moist but still rather dry grain: tabouli!

Tabouli is so easy to make, now that i know all i have to do is add some warm water to the dry grain and wait an hour or so. I am notorious for hating mint with a passion, so as is the norm around here: Miranda's tabouli is her own thing, not the traditional chopped mint and bulgar grains. I usually pick whatever fresh herbs i have growing and toss in any other ripe veggies as well. The usual suspects are garlic chives, lemon basil, hot peppers and maybe some kaffir lime. The last week or so has been a resurgence of summer veggies: tomatoes and cucumbers coming out my ears! I'm loving it. And i've been doing some new things with my bounty. Instead of gazpacho or cucumber salsa, i mix up the chopped veggies and herbs with a bit of bulgar wheat. Much like my veggie and orzo salad, this salad is much healthier because the bulgar has a ton of protein and fiber, unlike its pasta counterpart. I tossed together what i had on hand yesterday, including a giant 1 pound cucumber! This Marketmore cuke hid from me and grew to hugeness, and yet wasn't bitter at all! Thank you cool night temperatures!

• Chopped cucumber
• Chopped tomatoes
• Finely diced jalapeno (drought = hot hot hot!)
• Diced fresh cilantro
• Diced Smoked Tillamook Cheddar
• Dried and ground kaffir leaves
• Salt and pepper
• Cumin and chilly powder
• Splash vinegar
• Handful bulgar grains

So - how about that nutritional content? One serving of bulgar wheat has a whopping 8 grams of dietary fiber (33%) and 6 grams of protein. Bulgar is very high in vitamin and mineral content due to the lack of over processing. Bulgar is essentially just whole wheat with all its goodies in a more easily prepared and eaten form: it's been steamed and dried already which cuts down on prep time in your kitchen. All that fiber is great for keeping the ole' system working and the high protein content and relatively complete amino acid structure fills the protein gaps without the need for a ton of meat or tofu. Much better than useless pasta!

Get your hands on some bulgar today, and while you're at it look at the nutrition labels on the bulk bins of all the various grains: bulgar, cracked wheat, barley, etc: i think you'll find the bulgar has some of the best specs with the lowest calorie damage.

What's your favorite bulgar dish?

Chicken Salad

As an elaboration to my earlier post on using all the bits and pieces from a cooked chicken, here is the chicken salad i made. Super delicious, and a great way to use those not-so-pretty chunks and shreds of chicken salvaged from a boiled carcass. This blend was super simple, relying mostly on the great flavor of my recent batch of homemade mayonnaise.

First, for the mayonnaise:

• 1 freshly laid egg, one fresh egg yolk
• Pinch salt
• Half a spoonful of dijon mustard
• 1 ice cube whey
• 1 ice cube meyer lemon juice
• Olive oil

If your egg is freshly laid, it's warm and ready to be processed. Never try and use a cold egg from the fridge. One of my eggs wasn't just laid, so i placed it in the hot water left in the bottom of my canner - also placing the bowl of the food processor in the same water to warm it.
Drop in all the ingredients except the oil and process until froth, about 30 seconds or so. With the attachment that lets you process and add stuff at the same time, slowly add the olive oil. SLOWLY! Start with a drop - ONE DROP. Then slowly pour the skinniest stream you can. The slow addition is the key to good mayo. My mayos of the past have been delicious, but dark yellow. This mayo has been properly emulsified and is a lighter color, more reminiscent of store mayo. I leave my mayo out for the rest of the night and then store in the fridge (as per the instructions in Nourishing Traditions). I find there is still always some seperation of oil at the bottom of the jar - i'm unphased by this. This mayo is super delicious and makes me want to make french fries to dip in it, evil nom nom nom nom.

For the salad:

• Chicken salvaged from a boiled carcass - could also use rotisserie chicken, but it'll be greasier to begin with
• Homemade mayo - i used all that wouldn't fit into the little jar i keep the mayo in. Maybe a full half cup. I wasn't skimping!
• 1/2 cup or so of finely diced jicama
• 3 cloves roasted garlic
• Pinches salt and basil
• Pinch diced fresh garlic chives

Just mush together and enjoy! I served mine on a cabbage coleslaw (with no mayo, just vinegar and mirin) and served the husband a nice, fat sandwich with a side of carrots and cheese.

Here's to using every last bit!

And don't forget! The winner of my $50 GIVEAWAY will be announced this coming Tuesday, my blogversary. Check out the post and enter for your chance to win a giftcard to CSN stores. I will choose the winner Monday night, so you have until I fall asleep to post a comment and i'll announce the winner Tuesday afternoon! Yay!

Soup Recipe, with a kick!

I looooove tortilla soup. Though, actually i've never actually HAD tortilla soup - i just make up soup recipes that i refer to as being tortilla soup. There are never tortillas involved.

Usually i throw together some hominy, Rotel, chicken or turkey meat (or no meat) and some stock and spices to make a yummy, brothy, spicy soup refreshing on hot or cold days. This evening i created a soup full of ingredients from the garden and homemade turkey stock. I formed ground turkey into balls for a little textural excitement, and served with a dollop of sour cream. This made the perfect amount for two hungry humans - could be spread out to 3 or even 4 servings as a side dish.

Zesty Summer Soup with Turkey Meatballs

• 1/2 pint condensed turkey stock
• 2 or so pints water
• Several small red onions (garden fresh onions really make me cry!)
• 2 cloves diced garlic
• 2 serrano peppers, red ripe and diced
• 3 kaffir lime leaves roughly torn
• Double handful Porter Improved (could use roma) tomatoes, quartered
• Salt, pepper, cumin, hot smoked paprika - season to taste
• Ground turkey
• 1 package ground turkey
• Splash Worchestershire sauce
• 1-2 T taco seasoning (i use Colorado Spice Company, no msg)
• Salt, pepper, cumin, chilly powder
• Handful of whole wheat orzo pasta

Place  all veggies and liquid into a medium pot and bring to a boil - simmer, covered until broth takes on some kaffir taste, about 15-20 minutes. Add meatballs and cook until they all float and are cooked through, about 10 minutes. Add orzo 10 minutes before serving. Be sure and dip that ladle all the way to the bottom to get even dispersal of goodies.

You could add many other veggie options, and sub the ground turkey for shredded rotisserie type chicken leftovers or even beef or pork meatballs. I just love making soup - it's really so much easier than you would think, and just about anything is possible. I really see no reason to buy canned or cartoned soups from the store - make your own! It'll taste even better!

Egg and Tomato Salads - Bounties of Summer

Today is the last official day of my venture in kid friendly, low heat recipes (thank goodness!) but i will have one more recipe next week that is sure to please most kids, and my desire to avoid processed foods. One of our few food vices are Morningstar Farms' 'chicken' nuggets. They're vegetarian and taste just like chicken, without the grease, nasty animal parts, or other questionable textures of real chicken nuggets - but clearly they're highly processed. So, next week i'll be trying my hand at homemade nuggets using ground turkey. One day we'll have our own poultry and goats to grind up into nuggets and sausage, but baby steps, baby steps: my first try will be with store bought ground turkey.

Anyhoo, today i've got two recipes, both utilizing my Summer's bounty. This is the time of year i long for all Winter! The time of year where i can walk into my yard, suffer a million mosquito bites, and enjoy a fresh dinner comprising solely of homegrown veg and herb. Since it's never quite the same, thrown together based on what is ripe, i don't usually post the recipe - but last night's dinner was just so yummy and beautiful i thought i'd post it. All the veggies can be interchanged to some degree, but what's better than freshly picked homegrown tomatoes and cucumbers??? I can't think of anything.

Summer Salad

• Freshly picked homegrown tomatoes. I used Porter Improved and Japanese Black Trifele (which tastes a lot like Cherokee Purple, very rich and meaty, but is way more productive. Always pick at blush or with green shoulders, and eat with green shoulders or they taste almost rotten)
• 1 freshly picked lemon cucumber. Could use 2, i only had one ready.
• Nice bunch of lemon basil
• Pinch garlic chives
• 1 small  red onion
• Several cloves of  garlic
• Salt and Pepper
• Cayenne and Chilly powders - could use fresh or dried peppers
• 1 cob fresh corn, boiled lightly, kernels removed
• Splash balsalmic
• Very light drizzle olive oil
• Optional chunks of homemade cheese, or feta or mozz

Simply chop all the ingredients - finely or chunky depending how you like it. Add vinegar and olive oil and seasonings and stir it up. I served mine with some pieces of sausage - mostly for the husband. I just can't get enough of dinner stirred up from Summer sunshine!!
This is similar to salsa, so if your kiddos like salsa you could chop all of these ingredients finely and serve as such, or just add cucumbers to all your favorite salsa recipes.

Egg Salad Plus

• 4 boiled eggs, chopped and mushed
• 1 very small onion finely chopped - may omit for kid friendly version
• Pinch of garlic chives, scallion, or one clove garlic - may omit most of the raw veg for kid friendliness
• Fresh Genovese basil, about 3 leaves finely chopped
• Dash cayenne
• 3 strips turkey bacon cooked and chopped fine
• Smoked paprika - hot or sweet, good pinch
• Spoon full of homemade mayo (which tastes very mustardy)
• Two spoons of mustard - dijon or brown
• Note: you don't need much mayo or mustard and can omit the mayo completely and just spread mayo on the sandwich bread for mayo likers
• Salt and Pepper
• Sundried tomatoes would also be really good

Cook the bacon to desired blackness. I added half the onions in with the bacon to absorb the bacony goodness and cook a little which both softens and mellows the onions. In the future, i may do this with all the onions as the raw onions add an in congruent crunch and a little too much zesty-heat. Mush all together and mix in bacon. That's about it! Will keep a few days so you can double the recipe to have more on hand in the fridge. We're going out of town this weekend, so this batch is for travel lunches or snacks on crackers. I love how brightly colored my egg salad is - gotta love those Summery hens - prolific layers! I'll miss those fresh eggs when they stop laying as much later in the season.

So, off we go to celebrate our first anniversary as a wedded couple! It's been a wonderful year so far, and i look forward to many more in the future. It is so wonderful to spend ones life with ones best friend: especially when he loves my cooking as much as he does! Have a great weekend, everyone. I'll be back to posting on Tuesday.

Recipe: Pizza Toasties

No hot pockets here! My dad has long been enamored by hot pockets. I don't understand it. They don't taste real, they have palpable oozing grease, and they're chaulk full of preservatives. No thank you. They aren't even quick! Frozen, you have to stick them in the microwave, turn occasionally. It takes as much time as this following recipe, and mine's made from food, not whatever is in hot pockets. I don't see how anyone could not like this recipe, so let's hope the niece agrees.

Pizza Toasties

• Bread. Preferably whole wheat, but go with the favorite variety on hand. I use pepperidge farm's calorie light whole wheat bread: it's thin and soft, full of nutrients but only 45 calories a slice
• Cheese. Cheddar, Mozz, Swiss - sliced, shredded. Doesn't matter: go with the favorite or what's on hand.
• Pizza Sauce. You can buy canned 'pizza sauce' already seasoned, but i make my own:
• 1 can tomato paste.
• 2 cloves finely diced garlic - may substitute with garlic powder or garlic salt, or omit entirely if the toastie recipient isn't too keen on garlic
• Salt and Pepper - not too much, but enough to balance the sweetness of the tomato paste
• Pinch dried oregano, 3-4 finely diced leaves of fresh basil, or generous pinch dried basil

• Generous dash cayenne - again you may omit this if the recipient doesn't like heat, but i find it to be less spicy than it is balancing to the sweetness of the tomato past.
• This sauce is good for several days, and in fact has greater flavor after the ingredients have hung out for a while together - so you may want to make the sauce the night before. Or just make it for these toasties and then enjoy the fruits of your labors the next morning with some freshly fried eggs on toast. Yummmmmmm.
• Optional fillings- chop so as to reduce the chances of inner molten ingredients snapping back onto chins or lips, or falling out all over the plate or lap:
• Black olives
• Pepperoni
• Onions
• Peppers

For these toasties i filled with homemade pizza sauce, cheddar cheese - sliced, and pepperoni. I found this pepperoni at the store that tastes just like pepperoni, but isn't greasy and disgusting or made from cattle (or swine or whatever pepperoni is usually made from). I'll probably find out that Hormel is part of the evil conglomerate of America's food business, but i don't have the tools to make my own turkey pepperoni, so this will have to do for now. I cooked two toasties using two methods: A toastie maker, and a fry pan. Both have their ups and downs:

Toastie Maker

• Quick and easy
• Low mess
• Even melting
• Burns only at the edges if you watch the time - adding a nice crisp without char
• Makes the toastie all squished - could be a pro or a con
• No hot stove to stand over
• Have to own a toastie machine, and have a place to store it

Fry Pan

• Easier to burn the sandwich
• Quick and easy, but requires turning and monitoring
• More mess
• Less even melt, though a lid over the sandwich helps to increase melt
• Have to know what temp to set: i like to start on high, then decrease to medium when i put the bread in. Still, i tend to over char the bread a bit. Sticking to medium all the way may be better, but it takes longer.
• Takes longer than the machine.
• Most people have one

Either way, the basic procedure i use makes for quick, easy, low mess toasties:

1. Gather ingredients.
2. Set out bread on plate, stacked
3. Slather sauce, then pepperoni, then cheese on the top slice of bread
4. Meanwhile - heat pan or plug in toastie maker, spray with nonstick
5. When surface is warm, carefully place loaded bread slice onto surface, centered
6. Top with second slice of bread (you may choose to butter the top of this slice of bread, i just use more nonstick - if using the toastie machine that isn't necessary as you pre sprayed both surfaces
7. Close machine, cover fry pan with lid
8. Toastie machine takes about 5 minutes, but check ever 2 or so until level of cooked has been achieved. Fry pan takes a bit more time to ensure even melt - check underneath after 2 minutes and flip when desired char has been reached. Second side takes about half the time. Fry pan is trickier as ingredients may leap out when flipping.
9. Ta - Da! Enjoy your toastie, but be careful: the inner pocket is hot! (and so much better than Hot Pockets!

There you have it! Tasty Toasties fit for a family. From gather and chop to melty delicious in about 10 minutes. And no preservatives necessary (well, except for that pepperoni... we'll have to wait until we build our pacific northwest native american smoke house for our own version of THAT ingredient)
:)

Pasta Salad for Moms and Kids

Okay - this one turned out grrreat, in my adult opinion. I will post the recipe A. as i made it B. with lots of swappin/adding alternatives.

As i made it, this recipe took about 15 minutes to put together, including cooking times. I DID use both the stove and the oven (sorry) but the real goal of this recipe is to utilize leftover grilled items: you have a fun barbecue with friends and family over the weekend and grill more than you need to have leftover veggies/meat for weekly lunches/dinners. Grilling veggies is a great way to use the last heat of the coals after the meat is all done. In short: do not feel limited by this recipe, instead think of it as a spring board for whatever meats/veggies you like - as well as herbs/seasonings/sauces. As cooked by me this was delicious warm and cold ( i think next time i'll make this as a sauceless summer spaghetti instead of a cold salad ) and appetizing to our adult buds - so alter as needed to make it more kid friendly.

Orzo Salad with Olive Oil and Grilled Veggies/Chicken

Ingredients:

• Whole Wheat Orzo, 1 cup. (1,560 calories! wowee, that pasta packs a punch - but it's mostly protein and fiber, and a whole lotta carbs. Check the Serving Suggestions at the end of the post)
• 2 zuccinis and one onion
• 3/4 T Olive Oil (90 calories of good fats)
• Diced raw carrot
• Fresh herbs: rosemary, oregano, garlic chives
• Black olives
• Salt and pepper
• Diced garlic, 2 cloves
• Tiny splash of balsamic vinegar (keep it spare to enunciate the olive oil, add more to make it more zesty)
• Fresh tomatoes - i used 4 porter improveds

Method:

• Set toaster oven to broil
• Set a medium pan with salted water to boil.
• Zuccinis and onion: quarter, season with olive oil (or spray) salt and chilly powder - or whatever seasonings you like! Broil 10 minutes - the length of time to chop the rest of the ingredients and get the pasta going.
• When water is boiling add orzo, stir, boil 8 minutes, drain, place in bowl which contains:
• Fresh herbs and diced garlic. I feel adding the hot pasta to the rosemary and garlic mellows the garlic and brings out the essence of the rosemary - so aromatic!
• Add Olive oil, seasonings, black olives.
• You may choose to wait and add the onions to the very end on individual plates so as not to offend any youngsters, otherwise remove the veggies from the broiler (remember to turn it off), chop into big chunks and add to the pasta to toss.
• Toss in leftover meat: chicken, shrimp, tuna, whatever. I used grilled chicken.
• Save tomatoes and garlic chives for the end once pasta has cooled a bit. (Hint: fresh tomatoes are so full of flavor they tend to take over. If you want to capitalize on the earth essence of the olive oil, you may want to be more sparing with the tomatoes)
• Cover and stick in fridge to serve as a cold salad, or serve it now! It's delicious!

Alternatives:
This recipe is super versatile and can be changed depending on the seasonings or veggies you like or have on hand. It should be treated as a 'what's ripe in the garden' salad, or 'what's left over from this weekend' salad, or 'what will my child eat' salad. The veggies are cut quite large so they're easily picked out, and the orzo is quite small so it's easily avoided.
Perhaps the kiddo hasn't taken a taste for olive oil yet? Replace with Italian Dressing, Balsamic and white wine vinegar, lemon juice, pesto, skip the dressing and just add your favorite salsa or even (eek, gasp) ranch dressing.
Replace or add any veggies/proteins/seasonings you like, raw or grilled:

• jalapenos
• bell peppers
• corn
• a can of Rotel
• shrimp
• ham
• tofu
• cheese
• cucumbers
• taco seasoning
• You Name IT!

You can even replace the orzo with bigger pasta. I like the orzo because you can focus on the veggies and just get a little pasta - but bigger pasta goes a lot further if you need to serve more folks.

Serving Suggestion:
For those of us who do not need to be eating a bunch of carbs for dinner, pick out the veggies to serve yourself. The orzo will come along for the ride in much smaller portions, and you'll get a nice big serving of veggies and protein. Alternatively - serve yourself and your child similar portions, and allow any 'pick outs' from his/her plate to adorn yours in a much appreciated acceptance of rejected tasty vegetables.

Total calories as prepared: 1,750 give or take. Most of those calories are the pasta. I served myself mostly veggies with a little orzo, and served the hubby second plus added some homemade cheese to his plate. I gave the hungry man a huge helping, myself a normal helping, with a lunch amount leftover. This could easily be made 4 servings for less hungry folks.

I hear tell Raina turned her nose up to yesterday's post. Cross your fingers for this one!

Do you have a favorite dish to cook for kids, without using heat producing stoves or ovens?

Recipe Week!

Okay, i'm on task and this week is officially kid (Raina) friendly recipe week. I'm working with limited ingredients that are hopefully palatable to my little niece, as well as being relatively sustainable and/or budget conscious that also don't involve stoves or ovens.

First up is a Summery snack/lunch. Light, sweet, salty, fruity, meaty - all around good. Inspired by high end appetizing fare "prosciutto and melon" these little chunks of yum are accessible to most budgets and taste buds.

Ham and Cantaloupe Wraps

• 1/4 cantaloupe, rind removed, sliced rather thin and cut into chunks. Cantaloupes were on sale this week for $1 each! How's that for a value!?
• Boar's Head Maple Cured Ham, thinly sliced. Could use any flavor of ham - i liked the idea of the maple sweetness jiving with the melon sweetness. I chose Boar's Head because unlike most deli meat, it is minimally processed and contains only 'real' ingredients. Not the cheapest, but i only bought a half pound ($8.99 a pound) and a little goes a long way when it's sliced very thin - sliced thin but staying together, not falling apart.

Simply wrap the ham around the cantaloupe and you're done! Eat with your fingers or put on toothpicks to make mini kabobs. I was surprised, as meat and melon sounds like an odd combination - but as the ingredients are still separate (careful not to cross the 'things mixed together' line) enough that the flavors co-mingle, but remain individual to some extend. You first taste the meatyness of the ham, then a burst of rich, sunny sweetness, followed by an accent of salty. Pretty awesome, actually. You could do a variation of this by stacking chunks of melon and ham on kabob skewers to be picked off one at a time.

Recipe: Black Beans and Corn

I've posted recipes similar to this a few times, but wanted to reitorate how TASTY AND EASY this is to make. Great to have on hand for vegetarian snacks or lunches - or to serve plated up as a main course for dinner.  I always get very excited when my garden is producing enough to fill otu a nearly complete meal. If i'd grown more black eyed peas last year i might have been able to do it - but this batch uses soaked and homecooked store bought black beans. I grew the rest of the ingredients, though! I think that makes it taste better, personally.

Zesty Black Beans with Fresh Corn

• Dried black beans, probably about 2 cups. Soaked over night and cooked for about 3-4 hours with kaffir lime leaves and a diced garlic clove
• Lightly boiled corn on the cob, cut off the cob. Equal amount to the beans.
• 3 finely diced garlic cloves
• 1 finely diced red onion
• Finely diced jalapeno
• Dashes cumin, chilli powder, cayenne powder, pepper
• Liberal salt
• Splashes of white vinegar, lime juice, and a light drizzle olive oil
• Teaspoon or so of habanero sauce
• Some cilantro (cut off a block of frozen cilantro)

Mix it all together and refrigerate. I served mine with some chopped black olives and a side of cabbage i experimented with. Was attempting to make kale chips with cabbage - it almost worked! I'll keep you posted if i succeed.

Could also be great as a condiment to a meat dish, tacos, or atop a green salad.  Make a big batch and feed a big family on the cheap, or have some stocked in the fridge for easy, healthy snacks. I personally have a hard time keeping my hubby from eating it all in one sitting.
Enjoy!

Recipe(let): Mexican Corn Salad

I make a salad such as this often, and with assorted seasonal ingredients. You could make it with black beans, green beans, peas, even lentils or barley or quinoa. The point is to create a complete protein by combining a legume with a grain: in this case Fava Beans and Corn. The favas were a bit tough as i'd left them on the bush for a while to let everyone mature enough to pick all at once - this might have been nicer with a quick blanch or just fresher favas. This also would have been great with jicama, but i had none on hand. This is a great salad by itself, or as i served it on top of salad for me and hot black beans for the husband. You can make a big batch of it and keep it in the fridge for quick lunches or snacks: it only gets better in time. Here's the recipe as it appears, followed by suggestions for ingredient alternatives of additions:

• Fava beans 
• Corn (about 1 part corn to 2 parts beans)
• Finely chopped spring onion: white and green parts
• Pinch diced cilantro to taste
• Minced garlic
• Dashes cumin, chilly powder, cayenne, salt & pepper
• Light drizzle olive oil
• Heavy drizzle lime juice: 1-2 Tablespoons or more to taste
• Splash raspberry balsamic vinegar

Alternatives/Additions:

• Exchange Fava Beans with Black beans, white beans, pinto beans, lentils, quinoa, or even orzo to change it to a pasta salad (no longer a complete protein)
• Red onions
• Diced fresh hot peppers: serrano, jalapeno, habanero, etc
• Diced fresh bell peppers
• Diced tomato
• Chives
• Jicama
• Change the spices from "Mexican" to "Indian" by adding curry, more cumin, cardamom and subbing mint for the cilantro

Voila. Quick and easy meal. I was actually not so hungry after doing an evening step aerobics class so there is leftover salad waiting for me for lunch today. Not too shabby!

What is your favorite use for fava beans? Do you prefer them fresh or cooked?

Egg Salad Recipe

My egg salad is a little different every time, depending what i have on hand and what my mood is. It tends to be a bit crumbly and escape from betwixt the sandwich bread every so often. This weekend i will mush it with my potato masher to reduce this effect some.

The basics revolve around these elements:

• Boiled eggs, 1 or 2 per serving depending on hunger
• Finely diced onion
• Finely diced pickle
• Salt
• Mayo
• Mustard
• Dried basil
• Cracked pepper

Added elements:

• Other dried herbs: turmeric, oregano, thyme, cumin
• Finely diced garlic or garlic powder
• Paprika, sweet or smoked
• Bacon bits
• Smoked salmon
• Cayenne/ pepper flakes
• Sun dried tomatoes

I like to finely dice up the onions and garlic first and place in bottom of small bowl. After cooking the eggs, i burn my little fingers peeling them while still hot, cut in half on cutting board and place cut side down onto onions. There, i cut with a knife into little dices, then mush a bit, mixing the egg with the onions. Repeat with as many eggs as you plan to use.  Let's base the amounts in this recipe on 2 eggs.
Mix the eggs with the onions, add pickles if you're using them and a good spoonful of mayo. I usually use about equal amounts of mayo and mustard, and not a ton of either. I can always add more mayo to my sandwich bread, right? Mix well and add whatever herbs/spices you like to taste. Finally, throw in any special touches like bacon bits or smoked salmon at the end and serve on some soft bread: my favorite is a soft oat bread from orowheat, or those delicious Oregon breads i used to have back when i lived in the Northwest. You could also serve on toast, a waffle as in this photo, or eat out of the bowl with a spoon!

I love egg salad. I think the most important thing is to be sparing with the mayo, don't forget the mustard, and taste as you mix as too many flavors can muddle things up a bit.

Enjoy!

My First Poached Eggs

Well it's lunch time after 2 classes at the gym, which means i'm starving. I made some hummus the other day and have plenty left, but the girls have been churning out the eggies so i guess i should eat some of them. Already had toast for brekkie, so i'd rather not do an egg sandwich - so i attempt my first poached eggs.

A big like egg drop soup, but the goal here is to keep the eggs holding together.

I brought a small pan of water to a boil with salt, turned down to a less rigorous boil and cracked the eggs carefully into the water. The first one went into simmering water and seperated some, you can see the little extra tail of eggwhite in the first photo. I turned the heat up a bit and added the second egg which turned out perfecto.  What i liked about this technique was A, no oil B, i could lift the eggs up out of the water a bit with a slotted spoon and see through the white to the yolk to tell how done it was. I like a little bit of runny yolk, but don't want any runny white. I find if i fry and egg, to take the time to cook the white through, then flip, the yolk gets too well done.

I'm sold. Sorry for the steamy lens, i like to eat my food while it's hot!

Yum, delicious carnage.

One note - quite a bit of water got onto my plate, despite draining of the the water a bit. I think next time i'll drop the eggs on a towel before placing them on the plate.

Spicy Curry/Turmeric Hummus and a satisfying lunch

I love hummus. It is so easy to make, versatiles, and can be made with an infinite variety of ingredients. Today i picked some things from the garden, grabbed some garbanzos from the cupboard and whipped up a delicious lunch with hummus left for a week or more in about 10 minutes.

• 2 cans garbanzos, one drained
• 3 onion greens (or two green onions)
• about a dozen shakes of curry powder
• pinch of turmeric
• salt and pepper
• 5 cloves garlic
• 1 thai chilly peper
• pinch cumin
• small sprig of fresh parsley
  
• drizzle safflower oil

Dump it all in a blender and blend until well mixed. Easy as that! Have with salads, on toast, on veggies, whatever you like.

My lunch:

Celery sticks with labneh (strained yogurt that is cheese like), srirachi sauce, hummus and toast.