Baked Eggs

Baked eggs, bacon, and conserves sounded like the perfect dinner to me. Mister is, a bright eyed and bushy tail type of fella, in the morning. I'm a.... get out of my way and let me drink my coffee type of gal. On occasion, I will cook a nice breakfast, at breakfast time. Brunch is cool. Breakfast for dinner is even better.

 I removed the toast cup and egg from the ramekin. Or, serve them right in the ramekin, that's your call.

Easy.

Ordinary Baked Eggs

preheat oven to 350 derees

One slice of bread (I used whole wheat)

Roll the bread thin with a rolling pin

and butter one side

Place the slice of bread in the ramekin, butter side out.

Bake for 5 minutes and remove from oven to add remaining ingredients.

Drop a dab of butter into the newly formed toast cup, and break one egg into the toast cup. Season well with salt and pepper. Top with cheese of your choice and bake until desired doneness.

I like hard cooked, so mine baked for about 15 minutes. Experiment with the time until you have your idea of a perfectly cooked egg.

It seems to me that this dish will be played around with.

Mister likes hot sauce on eggs.

Umm. a little pesto drizzled over.

For tonight, I hauled out the Fruit and Walnut Conserve that were canned

 last August.

Marvelous!!
L.O.V.E. this combo of sweet fruits and nuts. The orange portions with the peel  intact, is out of this world. Mister found it to be a bit much for him, he does however have a taste for basic flavor components.

My taste buds relished the salty bacon, peppery eggs, and sweet, sticky fruits. A little dab of each all scooped up into one delicious bite. Bite after bite that is!

The jar is still half full of conserves, maybe a nice topping for pork chops. One day when we have dinner food for dinner.

  

Presidential Gardens

Tucked away, two centuries ago, I discovered more than a history lesson. There I found the title and subject of this post.


In 2010, I photographed garden sites belonging to 3 U.S. Presidents.
Spring of that year, shortly after Cherry Blossom season, I took these photographs. The Obama garden has an active bee hive which, makes me wonder if I could ever be brave enough to handle bees for the benefit of my garden. My guess is, no.
My camera is nothing spectacular. I do not claim to be a grand photographer. The thrill for me is more than just the photograph, the recording of history in my own vision is far more satisfying.

Oh, I long to stroll out among my garden and have it so mature and eloquently plotted. The Mount Vernon gardens of George Washington just have a way of stopping a person in their tracks and insisting they take notice.

Thomas Jefferson, the architect, gardener, reader, and writer is a fascinating person. The day I visited his garden at Monticello, the crops were humble, simple, and just thawing after a deep snow of December. I took photographs wearing heals, slipping through the mud and wishing I had the day to stay there for hours. What was I thinking in my shoe choice that day? Never-the-less this is what my eye saw that day.

My own garden in 2010 rewarded me the most with sweet potatoes, strawberries, purple carrots.
Curious, what will our 2011 garden reincarnate into?

Chocolate Chip Cookies

I have used the same Toll House Cookie recipe forever. Until now, with the discovery of this recipe. Make this recipe in double batches, or as I did last time, triple the recipe and freeze cookie dough balls. The result was fabulous and anytime we wanted a few cookies, a trip to the freezer to load-up the cookie sheet was all I needed to do. 

This truly is the perfect

Chocolate Chip Cookie

2 cups plus 2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. salt
12 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted and cooled until warm
1 cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup granulated sugar
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions:
Adjust oven racks to upper and lower-middle positions.  Preheat oven 325°.  Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.  With electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly combined.  Beat in egg, yolk, and vanilla until combined.  Add dry ingredients and beat at low-speed just until combined.  Stir in chocolate chips.

 Drop dough by approximately 1/4 cup size balls onto cookie sheets, spacing 3" apart. Bake, reversing the position of cookie sheets halfway through baking, until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy (approximately 11-14 minutes).  Do not overbake.
 Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking. 
Transfer to a wire rack to cool. 

credit for this recipe goes out to http://www.annies-eats.com/
with the exception of a few wordage changes.

September 11th

Initially, when the events of September 11th 2001 unfolded, I found myself glued to the television. Almost as if watching some surreal bizarre thing like the O.J. Simpson trial. I wouldn't really call it being entertained, because that would lump me into the same pile with all of the media circus that I grew to resent after the tragedy of that day. It was more like, confused and left in utter despair of what was becoming of our nation.

I quickly chose not to listen, watch, or engage in conversation about "the events" of that day. It seemed cheap and sleezy to watch the hype unfold. Ohhh boy...I'm certain to get some flack about this following paragraph.

From September 11th to the subject of Christianity, everything has to become commercialized. I call it the "Ronald McDonald" mentality. If my loved one died on September 11th or if I were Jesus, I am pretty sure it would piss me off to see the merchandising cashing in on my tragedy! 

As the days unfolded, within weeks of the tragedy. I gave birth to my 4th child. I chose to celebrate life. In the years to follow, every September 11th I have refused to slide into the horror. As my last child is about to turn 9 years old, I thought maybe it was time to examine that day a little closer and make sense of it somehow.

It's big business!! Maybe it is easier for our country to purchase the tacky merchandise, buy into the corny songs written, and buy the bumper stickers, than it is to simply mourn and accept.

I mean it's sort of like how we will feed our kids cheeseburgers sold by some creepy looking clown (even though we know it's unhealthy) just because of the iconic nature of it.

Do we have to reduce everything down to an icon?

Celery

The celery grown in this years garden can only be judged a success...cause Hey it made great soup today! The stalks are scrawny to say the least. Fortunately for me, after a weekend of being knocked on my butt sick, Libby made me homemade Chicken Noodle Soup. She used celery, carrots, onions, dill and parsley grown right here at little ole' Columbia Creations.

I have to tell you the celery may not look as polished and magnificent as the grocery store kind. Our celery had a flavor that was so much more intense. The stalks were tender and not stringy. The same can be said for the freshly pulled carrots.

The minute Lib carried the freshly plucked garden goodies into the house I could smell how fabulous this soup would be. For me as a mom...any soup made just for me is a welcomed idea anytime. It just so happened, I was on the tail end of a weekend of sickey girl.

How sweet is my daughter? She cooked the food and took pictures of it for me?

The celery and vegetables were my creations. Sometimes things here at Columbia Creations are created by someone else. Hey...I get credit for creating Libby though...Right??

Update

Mister and I were having our usual morning routine of coffee on the LV (lower veranda) today." I'm done with the garden for the year", were my words. He still has ambition to make and freeze more salsa. I'm over it! Ready to move on to Autumn type things, like apples, pastry, and fall merriment!
Here you can find my ambition from last spring with regards to garden 2010. This is how that all shaped up into reality. I am documenting my current garden approach for 2011 now...just in case I forget when spring rolls around .

• Less Tomatoes... I love fresh homegrown tomatoes. It's hardly time friendly to preserve them when you have so many other scrumptious stuff to put up for winter.
• Less Peppers..if Mister will allow it. We like variety in our selections. I am think one plant of each type and that's it!
• More onions...once again we doubled our onionsthis year from 2009. Still we could have used more!
• Less squash...my yellow squash was killed by the nasty squash borrer despite my greatest effort to protect it. The acorn squash did well. Too many of them though.
• Cucumbers, I will plant 0 cucumbers next year. 2009 I made tons pickles. This year though the cukes did poorly, which is just as well because we still have pickles from 2009.
• Carrots...Loved the Rainbow mix. We had a much lower yield from this variety although they were lovely. Next year we will plant the high yield orange variety.
• Celery..well it's still thinking about becoming big grown up celery. I will need to do more research on how to do this vegetable well. I do plan to plant it again.
• Blueberry Bushes were planted this spring and I hope to harvest a few next year.
• Lettuce..ugh despite my vow I still planted it. Not in 2011!
• Broccolini...well I ordered the seeds and just never got around to planting them! Duh!
• Cauliflower...again more research is needed to figure out why my cauli just doesn't do well.
• Green Beans..Just Say NO!
• Peas...still will plant in 2011 and experiment with a few types.
• Corn... of course, however...I won't take the time to freeze any just because that has become tiresome to me.
• Strawberries should be rocking next spring.
• Herb Garden....trying a few new herbs this year and I plan to do some posts about these in the weeks to come.

Did you read all of that???? If so, Thank You! Still open to suggestions! I don't do eggplant!

Red Onion Marmalade

Red Onion Marmalade. This could be used on pork or chicken and... rock out a delicious dinner. Slather this on toast, top with bacon and maybe toss on a tomato. Yum! It really only  took about an hour from start to finish. This is one of the pantry items to save for when I am craving something a little different.


Ingredients


1 1/2 cups thinly sliced, halved, peeled red onions
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 package powdered pectin
3 cups unsweetened apple juice
4 cups granulated sugar

Saute onions, cranberries, brown sugar and red wine vinegar in a pan over medium heat, until onions are tender. Mix this mixture with powdered pectin, and apple juice in a huge pot. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Add sugar, stirring until dissolved. Return to a rolling boil. Boil hard one minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Skim foam if necessary. Ladle hot marmalade into hot jars, leaving 1/4-inch headspace. Place on lid and rings and process for 15 minutes in a water bath.

I first came across the recipe while reading a blog called Chicken In The Road. Suzanne McMinn has lots of great ideas and recipes.

Dried Fruit and Walnut Conserve

Dried Fruit and Walnut Conserve

1 lb. dried apricots
1/2 cup golden raisins
1/2 lb. dried cranberries
1 medium orange (1 cup chopped)
3 cups water
2 cups sugar
1 tbls. lemon juice
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground cloves
1 cup chopped walnuts

1. Chop dried fruits. Chop entire orange, including peel: discard seeds.
2. Combine dried fruits,orange,and water in an 8 quart or larger pot: cover and cook until tender( about 15 minutes)
3. Uncover and add remaining ingredients except nuts. Slowly bring to a boil, stirring occasionally until sugar dissolves.
4. Cook rapidly, stirring frequently until thick, about 10 minutes. Add nuts during the last 5 minutes.
5. Quickly ladel into clean, hot jars, leaving 1/2" headspace: seal.
6. Process in boiling water bath for 15 minutes.

Yield: About 5 half pints.

Update

Yesterday, I cleared the basil, and dill out of my herb garden. I already have a bag of dill tied up and drying so this time around the dill went into the compost pile. My basil dried nicely in the oven. After my day of canning and baking Tomato Pies, the oven was the perfect temperature to dry a cookie sheet covered with basil. On a side note...lerking beneath the basil was a brand new start of oregano. I hope to see this kick it up before a hard frost.

It was purging time in the garden. I pulled up all of my broccoli plants. Months ago I began picking, blanching, and freezing this wonderful vegetable. We actually saw two or more side shoot harvests after the main head was cut. They were done.

• All of my onions have been pulled and put up for winter use.
• A few carrots are still lingering.
•  Tomatoes....ugh don't get me started. I should be picking them now!
•  Rows of sweet corn have been eaten, some were eaten by us, other rows fed the raccoons. We still have four rows to be picked. The plantings go in every two weeks so that the harvest is staggered as well.
• Red, Yukon, and Russet Potatoes have been harvested a plenty and we have 6 rows to go.
• Sweet Potatoes are growing lovely still with no harvest yet.
• Peppers, Sweet/Red/Yellow/Poblano/Anaheim/Cubanelle/Jalapeno still producing

Okay there you have it my garden update.

Pickled Hot Peppers

As I sat the table for dinner this evening, a few quick photos were snapped of yesterdays Hot Pepper canning project. The project actually started on Sunday. The recipe suggested leaving the peppers whole. I chose to cut the tops off, leaving some seeds, and cutting the peppers in half. The next step was to place the peppers into a huge stainless steel bowl, to which I added the specified amount of canning salt and water. This brew was to sit for 12 to 18 hours.

It was pepper extravaganza on Sunday. Under the watchful eye of Mister and our buddy Steveo, 10 more jars of goodies were added to the pantry.

Serious business now.....read the warning....wear the gloves!!

In my cockiness, I was convinced that although rubber gloves would be nice, they were not a necessity. I was wrong! Let me say this in another way...my hands burned like fire until around 2AM that night. Yes, I had great confidence because, I have chopped plenty of peppers and never worn gloves. My kitchen has cranked out tons of homemade salsa, chile rellenos, etc. This was a whole higher level of pepper extravaganza. With the addition of the project of grilling 24 poblanos and skinning them for homemade Enchilada Sauce this was not a job for a sissy.

The burning sensation came on gradually as the evening progressed. My hands looked normal and there were no actual burned marks on my hands. I did however feel as if they had been placed in boiling water. Here is a list of things I tried to ease the pain.

Soaking them in milk. (helped at first, I had to keep changing the milk because the capcasian came out into it.)
Soaking them in yogurt ( nice and cool, same thing as the milk though)
Washing them with every soap we had in the house many times.
I poured straight vinegar on them.
I took ibuprophen.
Rubbed olive oil on them.
I poured straight rubbing alcohol on them.
I went to bed with an ice pack on each hand.
None of this worked...they were all suggestions that I had found online.

What finally worked? I slathered my hands in Vaseline and carefully rubbed in one motion to remove the Vaseline, in hopes that the petroleum would capture the capsacian from my skins pores. I repeated this several times. The pained eased, I feel asleep, the next morning I had the cleanest hands and nicest cuticles ever and finally the pain had stopped.

I was not so anxious to handle those peppers the next morning and process them in the canner. I did it though. I think I will forever more call this recipe... Hands on fire Peppers!

Peppers I used.

Hot Hungarian

Jalapeno

Banana

Anaheim

Poblano

Aren't they gorgeous in the jars though!!