I made hard-cooked (many of you call them hard-boiled) eggs the other day. I placed them in cold water to cover and waited ten minutes or so then turned on the timer for ten minutes. Now, after cooling, the shells are difficult to remove and the yolks are OK for me but only 90% done for most people. They’re not runny, just dark yellow in the center and tough to peel. Is there a magic number of minutes at 7,500 feet above sea level for the perfect egg? I was thinking the entire time that all the time it took for them to come to a boil, they’d be over-cooked! Please let me know. Thanks, Dee
Thanks, WordPress!
July 14, 2009 · 1 Comment
Today, I’m #1 featured blog on the cassoulet blog site. I don’t actually know how to find it, only that it was on my stats page. Check it out. I believe Simca’s (Simone Beck) book is on my list of cookbooks. An exhaustively researched and editorialized list with many books out of print but available. Cheers! Dee
→ 1 CommentCategories: Editorial · Recipe Ideas
Cry Me A Rodent
July 13, 2009 · 2 Comments
Texas is known for its downpours, but Utah is right up there. This is what we saw the other day. When we came here what little grass there was, was brown and under snow. Now some of the grasses near the streams are taller than Jim, and he’s tall!
Summer Downpour
The cranes haven’t been as prevalent these days. One doesn’t usually hear them calling their prehistoric cry aroun d 5:00 a.m., but Jim did this morning. After he left I went upstairs to clean up and what do I see but a Greater Sandhill Crane killing a large rodent. In about three minutes s/he used its bill to peck at it, carry it around, drop it to the ground and peck some more. This was about 200 feet away but I’d gotten the binoculars. It was probably a large rat or small marmot (prairie dog). Then came the impressive part. With only one body part (the bill), no cutting board, poultry shears, boning or chef’s knife this poor creature was filleted into three pieces and placed down the hatch, one by one. There was no sharing with the mate.
About an hour later I looked out and they were about 150 feet away, the lifelong mated pair. I saw a rustling in the grass and a small animal about five feet from the cranes. My first thought was how stupid this mammal was tailing these two magnificent killing machines. Then I thought again and got out the binoculars. Yep, it’s a colt, probably unable to fly as yet. Note to siblings, yes, baby cranes are called colts. When we were young my sister and I used to change the Sesame Street song about animals and baby names to be silly, like “ducks have puppies, hippos have lambs…”
So, may I introduce you to perhaps Mama Crane (the one who was catching bugs and placing them in the colt’s beak) and the Crane Family. It takes about 30 days for the eggs to hatch, then they need to wait for the young’un to be able to fly before they can head for NW Canada.
-
- Summer Downpour
Were the cranes able to speak, no doubt they’d have given me their recipe for varmint. Simple, really, eat it whole or nearly whole with fur, bones and guts. No seasonings to speak of. No oven or stove required. Just how nature intended them to eat varmint. Then they’d tell me we ruined things by finding fire, marinades, rubs, rich sauces and plastic packaging to demonstrate we’re really not carnivores after all.
Hope you’re enjoying your Monday. I’m warming up some mac and cheese (rich, yummy with extra sharp Tillamook cheddar) and making spaghetti and meatballs for the better half. Zoe’s getting dried with chicken broth. She has a pound of frozen venison and a pound of frozen elk, both raw, but I can’t cut them if they’re frozen. I’ll work on that one. I prefer the individual medallions that come in a bag. Cheers! Dee
→ 2 CommentsCategories: Utah
Tagged: new colt
Cooking and Music
July 12, 2009 · 2 Comments
Pippi and New Guitar
Remember the old story of the guy who got into a cab in NYC and asked how to get to Carnegie Hall? The cabbie said “Practice.”
I’m already thinking of what to make tomorrow and especially planning for when my brother-in-law comes in for a few days later this month as I want it to be an easy trip for him so have all home meals planned.
These days I answer questions from all kinds of people, family and friends, new brides etc. about cooking. I know that most people won’t do what I did, quit work and go to a prestigious cooking school, so offer alternatives.
Two months ago I took up acoustic guitar. I’m a novice. I look to people who know more than me to teach me how to make this chord happen and how to strum it. How to sing while playing the guitar. How to hit the right chord while singing the right note and strumming correctly.
In cooking, as long as it doesn’t involve complicated recipes or sauces or, heaven forbid, a complicated dessert, I’m OK. I’m in my comfort zone.
What is the link? OK, a dedication to doing what is best for you and your family. But the biggest one is “PRACTICE,” Know what you want to make tastes like or sounds like and try to achieve that. The sauce or song may not be fully “cooked.”
I have perhaps 12 versions of Mac and Cheese and several for every stew I make. Potato salad is different every time. Once I know the rules I can break them and make even better food.
A novice, newbie, it would be great to get to that point in music. It may even be the reason I chose music at this time in my life, not that I’m an expert cook but it would be nice to expand my horizons.
I know, you fellow gals call it menopause. Hope your hormones are sending you into directions that help you define yourself in other ways as well. Oh, we loved Ice Age! We saw it today but not in 3-D. We saw “UP” in 3-D. Yes, we go to kid movies and don’t have kids. We don’t even have kids to borrow here, but have fun together.
p.s. some of the dearest people knit, and find their way to complicated hat patterns like pdxknitterati’s Pippi Longstocking cap, which she kindly sent me to battle the Utah snows. Aunt Lorna alternates between knitting shawls for the local nursing home or the preemie ward at the children’s hospital an hour away. God bless the knitters. While my fingers may cook up a storm or play an old gospel song, you warm peoples’ souls in a way I cannot.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: Editorial · Education
Tagged: cooks and musicians, knitters, pdcknitterati
Thanks for saving me…
July 12, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Facebook is one strange bird, and we have enough strange birds around here of the avian and human persuasions. Give me a basket of surprise organic ingredients and I’ll work my way through it.
Tonight I made a cucumber salad (see my recipes) with one peeled and seeded cuke. I made a potato salad from baby red potatoes I cooked yesterday, adding 2 chopped slices of organic applewood-smoked bacon, scallions, red pepper, mayonnaise, celery salt, salt and pepper.
Then I got four thinly-sliced pork chops for $2, dipped them an egg/half and half mixture then in seasoned panko. They cooked up indoors in less than five minutes.
We have more left for tomorrow. Lunch? Hard-cooked eggs, cluster tomatoes with olive oil and basil. Most of it is done and I just need a fresh loaf of bread. I think I’ll make a really nice mac and cheese from scratch tomorrow, with a salad.
Keep coming up with new ideas. Share them if you feel comfortable doing so. I don’t think of cooking as a race, but a test of endurance, flexibility, and love. Cheers, Dee.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Editorial · Recipe Ideas
The Bird Man
July 8, 2009 · 2 Comments
Hopefully we’ll stay a while and will have new neighbors in the empty place a few doors over. He saw my photos today and confirmed that I got a rare blurry photo (because I was taking it inside through a dirty window and looking for the bill for identification). Sometimes shopkeepers look at identification for the bill but I was looking at the bill of a bird at the time.
So now they won’t let me see the photos before I preview or post this, like it’s wasting paper. OK, I’ll have to say that there’s a woodcock, which is not rare but rarely photographable as you can see from this shot. Also two glossy ibis, which a birder emailed me to say never come to Utah. They do. The photos I saw were from Utah and these were taken outside our home. The Bird Man confirmed it. Otherwise we have the Greater Sandhill Cranes, two were here for a couple of days but I didn’t see or hear them today so they may have headed north.
What photos I take of area wildlife don’t compare in any way to looking at them in person, and for the birds in the preserve, using binoculars. What a beautiful country we live in. I see the land here, look at my new guitar, and right now it’s telling me “This Land Is Your Land…” and if we protect it by saving our environment, it will be in the future. Hey, I’ve yet to cook from my organic surprise package. Too busy with emails etc. Keep on cooking. Dee
PS The middle photo is a fully-grown marmot (prairie dog) next door.
→ 2 CommentsCategories: Editorial · Music · Utah
Tagged: ibis and cranes, prairie dogs
Three Amigos
July 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment
I’m thinking about the part in the movie after they’ve eaten and are singing around the campfire and all the critters join in. I don’t know what they ate but they were probably drinking coffee from those camping tin mugs.
Downloaded a Johnny Cash song, perhaps with Hank Williams Jr. singing a song written by Hank Williams Sr. “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.” Me and my dirges. The song is simple and beautifully done and I’m bringing in my laptop next week so my guitar teacher can hear it.
Right now, after an hour lesson, my fingers hurt a lot. It doesn’t help that the humidity here is 10% (the Sahara desert is 20% and SE TX is above 90%) so it’s hard to type, especially the left hand which pinches those darned strings.
Perhaps it’s two amigos and one amiga. Jim’s brother is coming to town in a couple of weeks. Perhaps I’ll have to make some Utah “fry sauce” for them but am certainly sending them on a brotherly fishing trip. Fly fishing on the Provo, probably.
Who-hoo, who-hoo, lookuphere, lookuphere. Hopefully we won’t descend to that level of Three Amigos camaraderie. I’ve always enjoyed having one brother. Now I have two brothers to cook for. We all are looking forward to his visit. Dee
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Editorial
Chocolate Popcorn
July 8, 2009 · Leave a Comment
Regional treats. Yes, I received it as a gift via UPS. My old (as old as me) H.S. friend’s husband makes it. He has a company that makes a lot of specialty items I’d like to learn more about.
The first time I tried it, it was strange because my brain couldn’t get over the hurdle of popcorn with chocolate. This time I tried a handful and it was good. Different, but good. I tried to save it for a special occasion to showcase Western NY foods but Jim found it, by napkins and place mats, imagine that he even thought of place mats, and ate at least half of it.
I’d like to add to this blog more regional dishes and interviews with interesting people who cook. Hope you approve. You’ll let me know by whether you read me or not.
Facebook is a mystery to me. I’m getting entire life stories from people I don’t even know. Compared to that, a blog is easy. Twitter, forget it. I’m already up to over 136 words, forget characters. Haiku is an exercise of restraint for me.
As to cooking, keep it simple, local, seasonal and use the best ingredients you can find. We’ll talk about heavy sauces later. btw, I did order one frozen mac & cheese from the delivery folks. When I have that for lunch one day I’ll let you know how much quality goes into their organic products. Oh, the hummingbirds are back. I heard they don’t come after wasps have been at the feeder and that’s what happened last week.
Keep cooking and finding new ways to care for your loved ones. Thanks for reading, Dee.
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Editorial
Organic Surprise
July 8, 2009 · 5 Comments
Overnight we received our first home food delivery, including eggs, cheese, applewood smoked bacon, a couple of steaks and other items. Unfortunately they were left in grocery cooler bags and not in the 70 qt. rolling cooler we purchased and are supposed to set out every week to keep things fresh. Nothing seemed spoiled this morning but it was disappointing.
I told you about the milkman. First time I’ve had a milkman in 40 years! We got one gallon of organic milk, in a GLASS bottle. All I need to do is rinse out the bottle and leave it out next week and they’ll hold the $1.50 deposit for my weekly standing order. Cool!
Now to the surprise. I wanted to challenge myself with fresh produce to get me out of a cooking rut. Cooking only meat is getting boring but Jim can’t eat fish and isn’t much interested in veggies (unless it’s an iceberg wedge with Thousand Island or a loaded baked potato) so… ta dah!
In this week’s first shipment, for $19.95, the coolest thing is gorgeous bunch of carrots with fluffy green tops attached, dirt and roots. Lets me know it’s local and fresh. Two lemons, one hard avocado that I’m ripening on the counter, two cucumbers, 1# of cherries, one head of iceberg lettuce and 3# of organic red onions.
I love a cold cuke soup with yogurt and lemon but Jim doesn’t, so here’s what I’m thinking. I’ve tons of eggs, what with 18 in the frig and 24 just delivered. Cold supper with ham and cheese and artisan bread, maybe homemade. Hard-cooked eggs. Fresh tomatoes. Cucumber salad (my grandmother’s recipe is on this site).
Perhaps tomorrow I’ll try a cherry clafoutis (pancake of sorts) that I haven’t made since cooking school. Right now I must get ready for my guitar lesson as I’ve been somewhat lax in practicing.
I did download some iTunes this past week to help with my lessons. More on that later. Viva local Utah milk, eggs, and organic produce! Dee
→ 5 CommentsCategories: Editorial · Recipe Ideas · Utah
Tagged: organic food delivery, organic foods, shop locally
Smile
July 7, 2009 · Leave a Comment
One of my favorite songs is this, and it turns out to be written by Charlie Chaplin. I only remember it as recorded by Nat King Cole. My favorite old-time song was always Bye, Bye Blackbird.
Yes, I watched parts of the Michael Jackson memorial today and Ms. Hudson just blew me away, hearing brother Jermaine singing “Smile” was beautiful.
But this is about food, and I’m not about to cook Blackbird, though the red-winged variety are wreaking havoc with the cranes these days. The food story today was by Magic Johnson, who was asked what he wanted by Jackson’s chef. His dinner was brought along with a bucket of KFC for Michael.
Real guy? Dad? Christ-like images on screen. No doubt this homage, tastefully done, will be packaged and exploited for years. By whom, that is the question. Does KFC have a stake in this? Just kidding on that one. Dee
→ Leave a CommentCategories: Editorial
Tagged: bye bye blackbird, Jackson memorial, smile
