Category: Recipes in SC

Poaching Eggs in Water…Is Easy

And they result is that the eggs are so tender and velvety–so much better than the old poaching pans with which I grew up.

You need a regular, pot of water that you bring to a SIMMER ONLY. More than simmer makes the egg white come away from the egg. There should be no bubbles on the surface of the water. Some use a wide flat pan, especially with more than two eggs. The water has to be deep enough, so a wide flat pan might need a cover, with the heat turned off. (See the video below.)

And you need a utensil with holes to pick up the egg when it’s ready to your satisfaction. A flat spatula works well too.

Break your egg into a glass or a ramekin. Ramekins are shallower than this glass, but I just grabbed what was near. Use only one egg per glass/ramekin and don’t cook more than 4 at a time. You can reuse the same simmering water if you want more eggs.

Many add a teaspoon of WHITE vinegar to the water as it helps the whites stay put. I often don’t, but after looking at the video below, I’ll try the vinegar addition again.

Slide the egg gently, gently into the water. The video below uses a cover and a timer to cook the egg to soft boil–and turns off the heat. I just watch the egg so I can tell when it is done to the consistency I like. I can also spoon water over the top GENTLY if the top needs more heat. This pot is smaller; I would use a bigger pot for more eggs.

When done (either decided by eye or a covered pan with the heat turned off and a timer as in the video below), remove each egg gently. I like soft eggs with golden yolks that will run out on my salad. But harder boiled are lovely too.

I needed some protein for this supper salad, so the poached eggs were perfect. And, delicious.

A bit of practice makes perfect.

And this video is excellent to get you started.

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+poach+an+egg+in+a+saucepan+of+water&client=safari&rls=en&sxsrf=AB5stBhMRWYAYmkeh5QYDyxAmUuUL6k-Jw%3A1690200612860&ei=JGq-ZJmTNLvNkPIPoMiMiAc&oq=how+to+poach+an+egg+in+water&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiHGhvdyB0byBwb2FjaCBhbiBlZ2cgaW4gd2F0ZXIqAggGMgUQABiABDIFEAAYgAQyBRAAGIAEMgUQABiABDIEEAAYHjIGEAAYCBgeMgYQABgIGB4yBhAAGAgYHjIGEAAYCBgeMgYQABgIGB5IyJcBUO8GWMtScAF4AZABAZgB3QKgAcUvqgEIMC4yMC45LjG4AQHIAQD4AQHCAgoQABhHGNYEGLADwgIHECMYsAIYJ8ICCBAAGAgYBxgewgIIEAAYigUYhgPCAgYQABgHGB7CAgcQABiKBRhDwgIIEAAYigUYkQLiAwQYACBBiAYBkAYI&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:fa990d7e,vid:mrbyeS98x0A

A Little Cooking Goes a Long Way

And, this bit of easy cooking provided the bulk of two days of meals–given that I eat two meals a day: dinner at noon and something fairly light for supper at night.

Yesterday I wanted fish–which I have not had for some time now. I keep frozen wild-caught fillets in the freezer. And this time I had cod, which I defrosted early in the morning. You can flash defrost meat by putting it on an iron of some type–I have a griddle I use, but a skillet would work too. Just make sure you regrease whatever you use before storing it again. Today I thought I’d use a deeper, heavier pan to make my dish.

I layered the bottom with two small unpeeled potatoes (a little bigger than eggs maybe) into the bottom of the pan–thinly sliced. I added some diced sweet onion, carrot, red pepper, and some frozen corn. Salt and basil from the garden went in on top of the raw whole milk.

I heated the pan on the stove until the mixture was bubbly and put it in the hot oven COVERED for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, I washed and chopped two baby bok choy. I love that vegetable and often flash stir fry it in a good fat with seasonings. I do not like it overcooked–the bigger stem pieces should be al dente.

I layered the bok choy on the top and put the fish fillets on top of the mixture. I added more salt and some butter on the fish. I covered the dish again and put it in the oven for 10 minutes and then uncovered it for 10 more minutes. My oven does not brown well, so I broiled the dish for about 5 minutes–keeping a close eye on it so I didn’t burn it. I wanted a little color, that’s all. The fish were done.

This method proved to be a great way to add fresh greens to a dish–and now I’m wondering about adding frozen broccoli crowns at this step.

I topped my dish with chopped parsley from the garden. And, yum!

While the fish was cooking, I put together a salad for supper. I could either top it with the other piece of fish or add some other protein. If I used the fish, I’d still have a nice chowder to eat–and I could always defrost another cod fillet and bake it for the salad or the chowder.

I wasn’t terribly hungry after the large and rich dinner at noon, so I just soft boiled some eggs in a pan of water–yes, I’ll do a future post on how I do this quick and easy task. These poached eggs are velvety soft, and you can make them as hard or soft as you like.

For dinner today, I’ll have the rest of my fish dish. But there is a lot of the “soup” to eat, so I’ll save some and add it to a soup I took from the freezer to have for supper. I’m always happy to have “assets” in my refrigerator or freezer. I’ll cut up an apple at supper to have something sweet.

And tomorrow I’ll need to visit the grocery store for more fresh veggies and fruits. But NOT today. Today is mine to enjoy without tasks I need to do.

A Meatloaf Twist

I am always looking for ways to use my beef gelatin.

Why not add just a tiny bit to the meatloaf I was making?

I’ve blogged about my basic meat loaf recipe many times now, probably, LOL, more than many want to read about again. But for the moment, I can’t find the last time I wrote about making meatloaf. Basically, I use ground hamburger or bison, to which I add an egg, some oatmeal, some good fat if the meat is too lean, some cream sometimes, some grated veggie (carrot, zucchini), some chopped onion, some cheese (mozzarella for me), some herbs, and salt.

I just sprinkled about a teaspoon or less of the gelatin over the egg and cream before I added all the other ingredients–so the gelatin would soften.

You all know that I cook with what I have on hand for the most part. This time I had half of a red pepper and some fresh basil from the garden.

I added some Annie’s Ketchup to the top as it is the only ketchup I can find that has a few ingredients. Ketchup is the closest I can get to tomatoes these days. I use it only on meatloaf and don’t add it too often.

Yummy!

The gelatin added a nice texture–but no flavor as it is flavorless. When cold, the loaf is very firm.

This one is a win-win.

*I don’t use ground chicken as these days it has added spices I can’t eat. Probably ground turkey does too, but I’m not sure about ground turkey anyway. Experimentation is often not a good idea for me, so…why mess with what is working and working well.

Grilled Flank Steak

Flank steak may be most favorite beef cut. It just has awesome flavor and is tender to eat. And, I don’t know, but there seem to be more of them in stores in the summer than the winter.

Yes, I like rare meat. More of the nutrients are preserved in rare meat than well done, and it is way more tender. You want to cut flank steak on an angle and in thin slices.

Store extra slices with the juice added to keep them from drying out. You can reheat them if you like by putting them into a heated oven and turning off the heat–let them sit, with juice, for about 5 minutes. You could cover them lightly.

Or, you can eat the meat cold.

Red meat is the only place one gets vitamin B12 IN A FORM THE BODY CAN USE. Red meat has been terribly demonized in the past few decades. Yes, CAFO meat has problems–but grass fed beef is more and more available in local grocery stores. Or from small farmers. I just do the best I can and sometimes just buy…a flank steak.

And, remember that lamb is a red meat. And, bison.

PS: that wooden cutting board was a wedding gift in 1966. I just wash it with soap and hand dry it after use.

Rice Salad and Quilty Update

I was so hungry for rice the other day, and I had a package bought locally of a mix of rices. Organic, but not sprouted. I cooked the whole package and froze meal-size containers for later.

I control grains–though you would not know that with the amount of fresh corn I’ve been eating. All I have to do is walk past a rice package to put on weight. I just don’t handle rice carbs well it seems. But, of course, I love it.

I had roasted chicken on hand to use, so made this salad. I also love the tiny petite green peas and had some I had cooked on hand. Yes, another carb. I can’t do beans (which I also love) with the histamine intolerance, but peas are ok. The fresh herbs from the garden really increase flavor in a salad like this one. Ditto the really good Koroneiki olive oil.

I couldn’t find organic sprouted rice locally–not at Whole Foods or Trader Joe’s or the local grocery store (Harris Teeter). So I ordered some from Amazon.

I had to put the 5th set (of 6) of mystery quilt blocks on the rug upstairs as the half-square triangle quilt has gobbled up all the design wall real estate. These blocks were fun to make.

Here’s the big gal. “Bonanza”? maybe. The top border is mostly pinned–and I have only sewn three of the blocks on the left of the border together. I stopped to make more and more and more needed half-square triangles for the rest of the border.

I have no idea about a backing or binding yet. And that’s ok.

I’m sewing on the 3rd border for “the quilt from hell.” Yeah! And I laid out the last border parts to make sure the colors were ok for where each piece would go–in terms of where they would fit in with the quilt itself.

My coffee is gone now, so I’m off to run errands before it gets too hot. And today I’ll sew! Yesterday was too busy, which is rare for me.

Roasted Summer Squash and Chicken Soup

Hello Blog Readers!

I’ve not posted recently, but I’ve been busy and happy over the July 4th period of time.

Recently, I made this roasted summer squash soup. I had bought a package of organic yellow summer squash and green zucchini at the local grocery store. And I hadn’t done anything with it, and it needed to be used. So, I roasted all of it in the oven–cut in rounds, sprinkled with herbs, salt, and good olive oil. I had some for one meal with a grilled steak.

But…

What to do next? There was a lot of it to eat in a few days.

I put all of it in a pot, covered it with water, brought it all to a hot stage, and “boat-motored” it.

Here’s my “boat-motor,” which I truly love. I like that it plugs in so there are no battery issues.

I sautéed the usual suspects (carrots, onion, garlic, celery, half of a red pepper I had on hand), and added the chicken. Of course I used duck fat as my sauté fat.

Isn’t this half of a red pepper pretty? When I cook, as you know from reading my blog, I like to use what I have on hand. I think of these things as “assets.”

I also had some fresh corn I had taken off the cob. When they have multiple fresh corn for sale, like 6 for X dollars, I buy the 6, cook them all, and remove the kernels from the extra cobs.

I also had some collards that needed to be used. I had wanted to blanch them, stem them, and have them as wraps for a chicken salad I had made, but that didn’t happen.

I washed and stemmed the leaves and rolled the leaves together and cut them.

Then I cut those rolls in the other direction and put them into the pot on the stove.

I like this brand of chicken. I was able to get it in Maine too. I was only able to get these boned and skinned breasts on July 4th weekend, so I made do with it. I had wanted thighs which have more flavor. To me, today’s chicken breasts taste like sawdust. They are tasteless.

Here’s everything together now–and I had some frozen/defrosted broth from cooking the chicken for the chicken salad I recently made. So I added that to the pot. I had cooked that broth down a bit for storage so it was strong.

Americans no longer eat nose to tail any more. Instead we buy muscle meats. And we are missing all the glycine we would get from animal ligaments that are not present in lean muscle meat. When I make a soup, I add one scoop of gelatin powder to it. First you put the soup in a short glass (or something like that), add some liquid (I used milk this time). In a bit the gelatin reconstitutes, so I add some of the hot broth to it–BEFORE ADDING IT TO THE SOUP.

The last thing I added was the squash puree.

And here you have it–a gorgeous soup that is FILLED with awesome tastes. There were so many flavors to enjoy–to which the fresh herbs added on top added. I buy dill, but I have basil, Italian parsley, thyme, mint, and oregano planted here. (I didn’t add the garden sage, lavender, rosemary, or chives for this soup.) Go slow with fresh oregano as it is a very strong herb.

And about that practice of having fresh corn on hand. Here’s a salad I made using some of the leftover grilled steak and corn prior to making the soup.

All of this food was so yummy. I don’t mind spending some time cooking as I have food for future meals, which gives me more time to do other things AND the enjoyment of beautiful, tasty food.

It’s Chicken Salad Weather

So, yesterday I made some

And let me say, it is DELICIOUS.

I usually put a whole chicken in a big pot of water (sometimes I add the usual suspect savories if I want to save the broth). This time I couldn’t find the right size of a whole chicken–they were either too big or too small–so I used chicken parts. There was one part with the breast, but the other part was the drumstick and thigh. Basically I think chicken breasts–especially the boned and skinless versions– taste like dry paper, so I almost always lean towards the dark meats. But chicken salad needs SOME white meat, thus the use of the whole chicken when one can.

While the chicken parts were cooking, I set up the veggies: grated carrot, peeled and chopped cucumber, a bit of sweet raw onion diced, and celery diced. I had half of a yellow bell pepper, so I added it too. (Green pepper would be too strong for this salad I think.)

I was already hungry, so I set up a bed of lettuce, raddichio, and some of the roasted broccoli I made the other day on my plate. I have fallen in love with the baby red lettuce leaves in the stores now–the claim is that they have more iron than baby spinach, but that claim needs to be researched.

The chicken parts took about 30 minutes to cook, so I went outside to gather up fresh herbs for my mayo and then made it. LOOK at that beautiful color–due to beautiful egg yolks from local eggs.

Making homemade HEALTHY mayo is dead easy–and if you want to keep some for a few days, just add a bit of whey from your yogurt to preserve it. THIS mayo is super healthy, with its fresh eggs, good olive oil, the garlic, etc. Vitamin E, which makes beautiful skin abounds, and the egg yolks bring choline in to play.

Put two eggs, a tablespoon of good mustard, a tablespoon of something acid (lemon juice is lovely, but any vinegar will do too), and salt to taste into a blender. I added a garlic clove roughly chopped too. Have a bottle of a light olive oil ready to pour into the top of the bender. Turn the blender to a slow setting, start it, and start adding the olive oil in a thin stream. When the mixture has “made” and isn’t absorbing any more oil, stop. Your mayo is done.

If you want to add herbs, which I did, add them after the mayo is made and process it once more until the herbs are mixed in. I used fresh basil, thyme, a leaf or two of oregano (it is strong), and some Italian parsley with the leaves taken off the stems.

Ah, the chicken is done. After it has cooled enough to touch, take the meat off the bones and discard the bones and the skin. I use a pair of kitchen scissors to cut up the meat because that is what my Georgia grandmother taught me.

Pour the mayo over you chicken and veggies–using as much as you like. I like a lot, and the meat will absorb a lot of the mayo when the salad is stored.

Here’s my lunch. Chicken salad is super rich, so I wound up saving about a third of this salad to add to my supper portion–where I’d also have a big bowl of fresh berries (blueberries, blackberries, raspberries) drizzled with maple syrup.

The rest of my salad went into this bowl and is covered by this very nifty top. I love these tops and have written about them in an earlier post. NO PLASTIC here today.

I am only missing some of those tiny green peas I love and can buy frozen at Whole Foods. On the next trip that way, I’ll stock up with a few packages.

Ten Common Food Myths

When I moved to Maine, I encountered a strong bias toward healthy, clean local foods and homeopathic help when needed. Living in Maine changed my life.

One of the first books given to me by a dear friend was Sally Fallon Morell’s Nourishing Traditions. It really changed my life. Morell is one of the founders of The Weston A. Price Foundation, an organization that sells no products beyond books and information based on research, often done by scientists who have specialized in how food works in the human body.

Price was a dentist who traveled the world to find groups of healthy local people in order to identify why they were healthy. He judged “health,” in part, by the condition of their teeth. What each healthy group was eating was a primary question for Price. He learned these groups of people ate healthy, clean, WHOLE foods present in their particular environments. AND, he noted that when they started eating “modern” foods, they became malnourished and sick. He left a most interesting archive of his discoveries.

The Weston A. Price Foundation has a terrific web site that anyone can use to research a food or health question.

Home

Sally Fallon Morell is a nutritional researcher in her own right. In the formation of the Weston A. Price organization, Morell worked with Dr. Mary Enig, an internationally recognized expert on how various fats work in the human body. Enig had published work that said that trans fats were dangerous for humans–in the era when industry was seeking to substitute plant fats for the animal fats humans have eaten for thousands of years. The industry went after Enig, and she lost all research money and never got more. A few decades later, “science” had to acknowledge that trans fats were indeed dangerous for humans. But note that this story illustrates how powerful industries work to create room for their own products: they demonize what they want to replace.

Here’s an article that came into my internet feed the other day. It is based on an interview with Morell. You might find some surprises here that run counter to popular belief.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/10-common-food-myths-that-dumbfound-nutrition-experts_5293235.html?utm_source=Ccpv&src_src=Ccpv&utm_campaign=2023-06-06&src_cmp=2023-06-06&utm_medium=email&est=MHWOiwpuCrMf4IPDh7SDZYSvO2U5%2BtD8JiktsfacqQxQFBkJYQ9tUrtybpJzoLHkOM8G

It should be no surprise to anyone these days that media bombards us with countless claims about what is healthy for humans, much of which is a departure from what has supported humans for thousands of years and much of which is based on “science” supported by industry to “prove” their claims are true.

Living in Maine, with all its farms and clean foods, transported me back in memory to how I grew up. My father was military, and we moved frequently, but lots of time was also spent with my mother’s people in rural Georgia, with access to local foods from the family farm and gardens. Family members gathered food daily, and much time was spent on food preparation and eating together.

After exposure to Morell’s Nourishing Traditions, I promptly reverted to eating the kind of traditional my grandparents ate. And I’ve never turned back from that practice. It is serving me well in so many ways as at 78 I am healthy and strong and have boundless energy and a zest for life. My food is my medicine, and I don’t need anything concocted by industries that do not have my best interests at heart.

Quilty Play Time

Traverse is waiting for me to put her on the longarm to baste her layers, but I’ve digressed to quilty playing for a bit.

Almost two decades ago I bought this kit from the now-closed Mainely Sewing quilt shop. Actually I bought TWO kits as I wanted to make a quilt that was wider than one kit allowed. The main fabrics are Kaffe Fasset RED florals.

The sashing is an Alexander Henry pattern from 2008. And it is fine, as is the above pattern. But why didn’t I make this project back in the day? I don’t really know. I do remember that I wanted to make a RED quilt.

But I’ve moved on and changed with my quilting–becoming much more interested in modern quilts and the modern traditional category–both of which are simpler and often very graphic. So, how to use these red floral fabrics? I’m determined to wipe out all the saved projects I have–and I’m moving right along on that effort.

First, the pink sashing went into the stash–and I pulled out solid scraps that needed to be used. And here is what is growing on the design wall.

The blocks finish at 10 inches. And I’ll use a solid for a narrow sashing. I won’t use borders–I’ll take the blocks out to the border and use the narrow sashing as a finish–with no corner stones. Maybe the binding will be one of the red florals? I have a hunk of one fabric that…strangely…is cut on a bias and it might work. Seven 10-inch blocks by 8 blocks would make a nice-size quilt.

I don’t know the sashing color yet. Maybe a lime green? There is a lot of bright green these fabrics.

Meanwhile, I’m also cutting and making half-square triangles from the solid scraps. And, playing with this idea, which would make a 20-inch block. Perhaps that rose sashing needs to be brighter? I saw a quilt Tara Faughnan made, using this kind of a block, and it is so fun. Her creativity knows no bounds. For sure. The squares on the right are for the next big block so I won’t repeat blocks in this first one.

Yesterday was a grilled lamb chop and roasted squash day–zucchini, yellow squash, sweet onion, carrots sliced thin, and fresh herbs from the garden. I should have added some garlic chopped fine too. Next time. ***I’ve learned from son Mike NOT to roast these tender squashes very long in the oven or they get mushy. Just 20 minutes in a hot oven. Then just broil them for a few minutes.

I can’t wait to get back to my studio upstairs today! But I have some errands to run first. And cooking for the day as well, though I have more of the squash mixture.

Memorial Day 2023

It’s a beautiful day here today–after (much needed) two days of rain and one day of overcast clouds.

I have the porch back for lunch as it has now dried out and the temps are comfortably warmer. We’ve all been in warmer clothes these past three days.

So, I grilled a steak–which will give me three meals.

And I put my dinner portion of steak on a big salad as that just felt right today. In addition to a lettuce medley, I had cooked food “assets” in the refrigerator that I added (corn taken off cobs, broccoli, little green peas). Fresh food additions were carrot, red pepper, sweet onion, cucumber, and fresh herbs (dill, mint, basil) added to a shake or two of a dried herbal mixture. Dressing was my Organic Roots Koroneiki olive oil. And, flaked salt, of course.

The flowers my granddaughter and son brought me a week ago are playing out now. I don’t quite have enough flowers in the garden to fill two pots yet. Hmmm… I’m sure something else can be done about the lack of flowers!

I’m reading The Time Traveler’s Wife, which I somehow missed some years back. There is a movie, too, but I thought I should read the book before watching the movie.

I puttered about in the garden this morning, and Alex was here to mow my lush-looking grass.

About a year ago, maybe more, SIL Maryann took some of the mint in my Maine garden. That mint came from my grandmother’s Georgia garden, and I had had it for at least 50 years. When I moved to South Carolina, winter was encroaching, and I was so, so busy that I did not dig any of the mint to take with me. The mint at Maryann’s is thriving, so she dug me some and mailed it. I planted it this morning. Best of all, if it doesn’t make it, I could probably get more. I planted it well away from the mint I bought here, which is thriving.

I’m making the last row of the Traverse quilt. It’s a complicated row, and a granddaughter spent Friday night with me, and we played for most of Saturday, so Traverse got put on hold. But…maybe today…it will be ready for some pictures.

And that is where I am going now.

I hope you are all enjoying this holiday Monday.