The farmer's chickens are very productive right now and I'm thinking about what to do with them, aside from the usual scrambled eggs, angel food cake (I made one for both Father's Day and Memorial Day),and basic additions to recipes. SO, hunting through my huge recipe collection for something else, I landed on pickled eggs. My husband will LOVE them!!
Anyway, very easy and in fact the sky is the limit to what you can add or change for the right pickle flavoring, really. Here is the one I used, but you can also use the remaining juice from the large pickle jar of pickles stored in the back of your fridge.
Pickled Eggs
9-12 eggs, hard boiled, see Cooking Hard Boiled Eggs
6 whole cloves
1-1/2 c white vinegar
1/2 c water
1 c sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 bay leaf
1 small onion
In a small sauce pan, combine the water, vinegar, salt, sugar, cloves and bay leaf and cook until boiling, then simmer for 5 minutes. Divide the eggs and place in canning jars, pour the liquid evening over all, making sure the eggs are completely covered. Slice onion and top the jars with a slice each on top of eggs, seal the jars tightly and place in refridgerator.
Let stand in refridgerator for several days...2 weeks preferably. slice/chop/in hand, enjoy!!
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Friday, June 24, 2016
Hard Boiled Eggs....Perfect every time
OK, I don't know about any of you two readers that I have, but boiling eggs to perfection so that you don't have that ugly grey/green circle around the yoke as been a goal of mine for years!! Well, I finally achieved it and have been cooking my eggs to perfection for a few years now...no ugly circle!
Here's how:
6 large eggs
Water to cover all eggs
In a medium sauce pan, place (carefully) 6 eggs and cover them with tap water. Heat to boiling from room temperature. When the pot boils turn heat off, but keep pot on burner and put the timer on for 12 minutes.
At the 12 minute mark, remove eggs to a bowl and refrigerate.
Enjoy!
Here's how:
6 large eggs
Water to cover all eggs
In a medium sauce pan, place (carefully) 6 eggs and cover them with tap water. Heat to boiling from room temperature. When the pot boils turn heat off, but keep pot on burner and put the timer on for 12 minutes.
At the 12 minute mark, remove eggs to a bowl and refrigerate.
Enjoy!
Saturday, June 18, 2016
Sunday, April 24, 2016
When and where were you.......
....when you first realized how much you loved to cook? I'm interested, please leave a comment at the bottom here.
When I realized how much I enjoyed cooking and especially baking, I was a teenager...a young teenager at that. My family had gone out for firewood and groceries on a cold and really wintery day in Upstate New York. I wanted to stay behind and keep the fires burning at the house, but I also had a plan. I was nervous because my mother was the chief cook in the house and she had very little patience for teaching her young daughter the tricks of the trade, so basically all I did was watch and listen. Every meal and dessert that came from my mother's kitchen was delicious and truly a work of love and cooking wisdom. I pined for that skill, so on the day that everyone including my mother left the house for a few hours, I got to work. I had planned on doing something fairly simple, cookies. I had never ever baked before, much less on my own without permission, so I was truly nervous, but determined.
The recipe was fairly straight-forward, so I got out all the ingredients, turned the oven on and got to work. Mixing all the ingredients went well, placing each cookie on the cookie sheet using my mother's method of a teaspoon and a knife, I had a bit of a learning curve on that one, but after about 5 or 6 cookie balls, I had it down. The first batch of cookies came out amazing!! as did the following ones, I was a success on my first rodeo!! As my family came in from hours of out running errands in the wintery cold, they were surprised and pleased by the warm kitchen with ginger cookies baking in the oven and the aroma of sugar, ginger in the air. I was smart by keeping things under control as I went along, cleaning the bowls, spoons and putting all the ingredients away as I added them, so when my mom saw me and the kitchen behind me, she was pleased....boy was I relieved!!
There have been many mistakes since then that my poor family has had to endure, but probably 95-98% of my much like my mom's. My children were taught the love of cooking as well. The first thing I taught them each (there are 3 of them) was how to crack an egg properly without dropping shell into the dish. Each of them take pride in their baking and cooking, mostly baking or the girls and cooking for our son....but I am glad that they enjoy being in the kitchen and as the years go by, they, I hope, will continue to enjoy, experiment, and create amazing meals and goodies to please and delight their families and friends!
When I realized how much I enjoyed cooking and especially baking, I was a teenager...a young teenager at that. My family had gone out for firewood and groceries on a cold and really wintery day in Upstate New York. I wanted to stay behind and keep the fires burning at the house, but I also had a plan. I was nervous because my mother was the chief cook in the house and she had very little patience for teaching her young daughter the tricks of the trade, so basically all I did was watch and listen. Every meal and dessert that came from my mother's kitchen was delicious and truly a work of love and cooking wisdom. I pined for that skill, so on the day that everyone including my mother left the house for a few hours, I got to work. I had planned on doing something fairly simple, cookies. I had never ever baked before, much less on my own without permission, so I was truly nervous, but determined.
The recipe was fairly straight-forward, so I got out all the ingredients, turned the oven on and got to work. Mixing all the ingredients went well, placing each cookie on the cookie sheet using my mother's method of a teaspoon and a knife, I had a bit of a learning curve on that one, but after about 5 or 6 cookie balls, I had it down. The first batch of cookies came out amazing!! as did the following ones, I was a success on my first rodeo!! As my family came in from hours of out running errands in the wintery cold, they were surprised and pleased by the warm kitchen with ginger cookies baking in the oven and the aroma of sugar, ginger in the air. I was smart by keeping things under control as I went along, cleaning the bowls, spoons and putting all the ingredients away as I added them, so when my mom saw me and the kitchen behind me, she was pleased....boy was I relieved!!
There have been many mistakes since then that my poor family has had to endure, but probably 95-98% of my much like my mom's. My children were taught the love of cooking as well. The first thing I taught them each (there are 3 of them) was how to crack an egg properly without dropping shell into the dish. Each of them take pride in their baking and cooking, mostly baking or the girls and cooking for our son....but I am glad that they enjoy being in the kitchen and as the years go by, they, I hope, will continue to enjoy, experiment, and create amazing meals and goodies to please and delight their families and friends!
Thursday, April 7, 2016
Steel Cut Oats.....that's what's for BREAKFAST!
Steel cut oats are deliciously crunchy and fulfilling for a hardy breakfast winter, spring,...or whenever. There are many different ways to cook these crunchy goodies, but the way I'm going to show you today is the best so far for this home chef. Since it takes nearly an hour, cook it the night before and put in the fridge for the next day, reheating is a snap and is equally delicious and satisfying the next day!
Here we go:
Steel-Cut Oats
3 c. of boiling water
1 c. Steel Cut oats
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 c. Milk, (I use whole)
raisins and cinnamon, optional
Cook and stir once or twice for 25 minutes,
Then add the milk, then continue to cook 8 - 10 minutes until the milk has been mostly absorbed into the oats, stirring a couple of times so as to keep oats from sticking to bottom of pan. Just as the oats are getting nice and thick, after 10 minutes, pour in the cup of milk and continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes.. At this point, I like to add cinnamon and raisen to the oats and let them cook in the remaining cook time.
After 10-15 minutes, remove the thick oats from the heat, cover and let stand 2minutes. Serve or store in airtight container in fridge for up to a week. Leftovers are wonderful!
Here we go:
Steel-Cut Oats
3 c. of boiling water
1 c. Steel Cut oats
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 c. Milk, (I use whole)
raisins and cinnamon, optional
Cook and stir once or twice for 25 minutes,
Then add the milk, then continue to cook 8 - 10 minutes until the milk has been mostly absorbed into the oats, stirring a couple of times so as to keep oats from sticking to bottom of pan. Just as the oats are getting nice and thick, after 10 minutes, pour in the cup of milk and continue to cook for another 10-15 minutes.. At this point, I like to add cinnamon and raisen to the oats and let them cook in the remaining cook time.
After 10-15 minutes, remove the thick oats from the heat, cover and let stand 2minutes. Serve or store in airtight container in fridge for up to a week. Leftovers are wonderful!
Sunday, February 7, 2016
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Zests, peels, and juices, OH MY!!
What beautiful things these zests, peels, and juices are! Especially as they liven up any recipe, refresh us in the heat of the summer, and create an incredible and healthy addition to our diets. But which to use and what can be a substitute? I want to examine and study this deeply and share it with you.
First, lets define what they are:
Zests are the scrapings of the brightly colored peel, be it yellow, green, or orange. There, we have also handled what Peel is!! Don't go too far, though or you will hit the membrane that is very bitter. To quote "Joy of Cooking" by Rombauer and Becker,
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/preparation/zest-citrus
The Peel of the fruit is just that, the outside colorful skin of the fruit. Zests are made by grating the peel...see above.
Juices, directly from the fruit is the best and only true ingredient when a recipe calls for the juice of "such and such" fruit. period.
True juice is not from concentrate with water added, it is the real deal, squeezed from the actual fruit. It is more expensive, but oh so worth it. Just a little goes a long way here too!
So how much is the right amount and what can be a substitute?
"Joy of Cooking" says
1 tsp of freshly grated zest (peel) = 2 Tablespoons of fresh juice = 1 tsp dried zest = 1/2 ts extract = 2 tsp of grated candied peel(zest).
Hope this helps!!
First, lets define what they are:
Zests are the scrapings of the brightly colored peel, be it yellow, green, or orange. There, we have also handled what Peel is!! Don't go too far, though or you will hit the membrane that is very bitter. To quote "Joy of Cooking" by Rombauer and Becker,
"What better name than "zest" could be found for the gratings of the colorful outer coatings of lemons, oranges, tangerines, and limes - those always available, valuable, yet somehow not fully appreciated ingredients!"Zests brighten up a dish, just a teaspoon of zest can make such a pleasant difference to a dish! Zests, I have found, need a certain grating system to be successful, not just any grater works well. Microplanes are the best, a box grater can work well too. In this video, you can see how they work:
http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/cooking-tips-techniques/preparation/zest-citrus
The Peel of the fruit is just that, the outside colorful skin of the fruit. Zests are made by grating the peel...see above.
Juices, directly from the fruit is the best and only true ingredient when a recipe calls for the juice of "such and such" fruit. period.
True juice is not from concentrate with water added, it is the real deal, squeezed from the actual fruit. It is more expensive, but oh so worth it. Just a little goes a long way here too!
So how much is the right amount and what can be a substitute?
"Joy of Cooking" says
1 tsp of freshly grated zest (peel) = 2 Tablespoons of fresh juice = 1 tsp dried zest = 1/2 ts extract = 2 tsp of grated candied peel(zest).
Hope this helps!!
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