Hard Boiled Eggs

Nothing to read here…not really.  I am just writing to let you know that I cooked hard boiled eggs tonight.

Perhaps I’ll get lucky, however, and snag some unsuspecting reader — someone searching “hard boiled eggs” — and they scroll down and read a rant or two and decide to come back for more.

But that’s only a hope.  What really matters here, like it or not, is eggs.

As an aside, it isn’t always easy to talk about eggs, you know.   The…uh, well, let’s say the pedigree of egg lovers has been tarnished a bit by Edie the Egg Lady in John Waters‘s Pink Flamingos.  Edie likes eggs…and she likes the Egg Man.  ”Eggs!  Eggs!  Eggs!”  (See for yourself.)

For me, I’m somewhat less emphatic.  Eggs are a nice, easy snack.  Plus when I see them in the fridge it reminds me that I have muffins in the cupboard.  (Not sure why.)

So here is my simple hard boiled egg “recipe.”  Fill a pan with just enough water to cover your eggs, but don’t put the eggs in the pan yet.  Get the water boiling first.  Then turn off the heat and gently place your eggs in the hot water.  Cover the pan.  (That’s important.)  Remove the pan from stove and let the eggs sit in the hot water for 12 minutes.

If you really like HARD boiled eggs, you might let them sit for as long as 15 minutes, but I think that’s too long.  Less is more when cooking eggs.  Go down to 10 minutes instead.

After the eggs cook, don’t drain the water, but put it under a flow of cold tap water until the pan is filled with cold water.  Let the eggs cool for a minute.

That’s it!  Now put them in fridge, especially if you have muffins in the cupboard that you don’t want to forget.

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Reverse Engineering in the Kitchen

Me in the Kitchen

Allowing your mind to get fixed on and passively wander around an idea can deliver satisfying results.

Recently I have been thinking a lot about a popular dish at my favorite neighborhood Italian restaurant.  It is pasta in a mushroom cream sauce, something I wanted try at home, so I thought about “reverse engineering” the sauce recipe.  I started with some presumptions — cream and balsamic vinegar — then went from there.

And I didn’t have to go very far.

What does a good cream sauce need?  It occurred to me that there might not be much more than cream, cheese, and  – the “secret” ingredient — balsamic vinegar.

So I poured a half pint of heavy cream into a large sauce pan, mixed in a cup of shredded parmesean cheese and  found a can of unused — and unwanted — condensed cream of mushroom soup.  In it went.

I stirred constantly until the cheese had melted.  Then found some of my best balsamic vinegar and started to add it to the sauce.  When I had the perfect flavor, I stopped with the vinegar.  The result is an amazingly simple and outstanding sauce!

Some smart alec might point out that all I have done is “discover” Alfredo sauce, which I suppose is mostly correct, but my point here is that sometimes simple things present themselves…with time…easily.  And the act of discovery can be delicious.

Next I will try to discover Bolognese!  Stay tuned.

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Thanksgiving Wraps Up in a Cast Iron Skillet

This was last year…

It is time to close the book on Thanksgiving 2012, but I’m not sure I want to rehash it yet.  Instead I’d rather make hash of what’s left.  So let’s start there.

Every Thanksgiving I try to get my hands on as much left over turkey as I can get, especially the bits and pieces that don’t slice well in a beautiful Norman Rockwell kind of a way.  Tonight I had one more small tub of leftover turkey in the fridge, mostly dark meat, the good stuff that hides deep within the bird, so I am ready to make my season ending hash.

Here’s what you need:  Turkey, potatoes, carrots, an onion, salt and a lot of pepper.  If you have left over stuffing, you’re in luck.  Use that, too.   If you don’t have the stuffing, it just might be worth making an extra batch…but then you’re not really using leftovers.  (I came up short this year.  No stuffing.)

My hash is simple, one-third turkey, two-thirds the rest.  And I like my root veggies to be two-thirds potatoes and one-third carrots.

Peel the potatoes you need “dirty style,” that is don’t peel all the skin.  Leave some on.  Unless the potatoes are huge, don’t cut.  Steer clear of red potatoes.  Not good.  Yukons or russets are where you want to go.

Cut your well-washed carrots (don’t peel).  Cut coins and sticks.  Vary the size.  Have fun.  Boil carrots and potatoes until you can split them with a fork.  I find that you can’t really overcook the potatoes.  In fact, while I can’t say for sure why, but well-done potatoes seem to take to the hash better.  (Anyone else?)

When it comes to onions I am kind of like myself:  Modest.  Don’t overdo it.  Cut in larger, forkable chunks.

Don’t judge…It tastes better than it looks! (I really need a camera.)

Now start shredding your left over turkey.  Don’t cut and cube it….that’s seems so Louis XIV.  This is a much more rustic dish.  Pinch and rip it up.  (You might need to cut bigger, tougher pieces down a little, but if you turkey looks like it should be at Denny’s salad bar:  Bad.)

Ideally you have fatty dark meat and maybe some left over stuffing to get going.  If you don’t, get some butter — or maybe margarine (butter seems to burn) — and toss it into a hot cast iron skillet.  Get things sizzling and some fat rendering.  Toss in your onions.  Let things melt together.

Then toss in your root veggies and stuffing (if you have it) and grab a coffee.  Stir everything for a minute to mix the grease and butter with your ingredients.  Salt and pepper get added now.  A lot of black pepper.  (You want a lot of black pepper.)  Sip coffee and let things sit and crisp up.  After a few minutes start flipping things to crisp up another side of your mix.  And just keep doing this until you decide you can wait no longer and need to eat.

That’s it.

You can add other ingredients and seasonings…but in my experience, with the exception of leftover stuffing, it only ruins stuff.  Sage is a popular suggestion.  Is that necessary?  I don’t think so.  And why do people feel the need to put diced celery in late-season hash?  `I don’t understand.  What more do you need than turkey, potatoes, carrots, onion, and some salt and pepper?  Keep is simple.  You can always fry some bacon and eggs and have your hash as a side.   I like to garnish mine with buttered — yes, buttered…embrace butter — whole wheat toast topped with berry jam.  (See photo.)

Julia Child embraces butter and cream. You should, too!

The best way to eat this stuff, however, is out of the refrigerator.  Yes, your recooked leftovers make excellent leftovers.

That’s it.  The Thanksgiving wrap up.  I’m not quite ready to review the holiday itself.  It is becoming too busy for me.  (Next year I think I’ll make my hash in a remote cabin somewhere.)

Check back later.  I am ready to be my old self again.

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I Should Be Here

I Should Be Here

This has been a mostly good summer, even if it isn’t quite the summer I expected earlier this year.  Still, it hasn’t been disappointing.

However, as the summer comes to an end, I have been thinking more and more about being at the lake.  I have a beautiful piece of land on a small clear lake to enjoy and here I sit.  An uncle and cousin are there now, just down the road at their cabin.

I am thinking back — way back — to when I was quite young.  We would spend the last week or two of August at the lake.  Days were still quite nice and the nights brought a comfortable chill to the cabin.   It was a very cozy place.  Wool blankets, thick cotton sheets, and plentiful food fit the late summer days.  The scent of coffee, baking, and roasting always lingered there.

I don’t know why, but we seemed to undertake serious meals in the simple cabin.  Roasted chicken, cakes, stews.  My favorite, though, was humble spaghetti.  Even this was usually a bit fancier than what we had at home.  Sauce made of crushed tomatoes, fresh onions and garlic, and plenty of basil and oregano.  I’m not sure we ever followed any specific recipe.  On a cool evening with the sun setting across the lake, a large platter of spaghetti steams nicely on the picnic table.

Back then we didn’t have television at the lake, at least nothing reliable.  Even the radio was somewhat unreliable.  So most often the cabin was quiet.  If a radio did play, it played music softly.  At night this would be especially soothing.  If there was noise to be made, it was made by the crickets outdoors.  Comic books, Mad Magazine, and puzzles kept even my nosey brothers quiet and busy.

Now when I go to the I am likely to sit more.  Just quietly sit and gaze out across the water.  Or go for a short walk back in the woods and hope to run into a bear or something.  (I have been looking for a bear for years.  The only ones I ever see are hanging  at the DNR’s big game check in station at a local bar.)

I enjoy an especially luxurious wine and maybe a snack of cheese and fruit, unthinkable when I was a  boy, while I sit in the woods looking at the lake.  Nothing seems quite as remote as it once did.  For one, nothing is as remote as it was.  In so many ways city life has spilled into all corners of the outdoors.  But I still enjoy the juxtaposition of a little luxury when “roughing it.”

I think that was the appeal of all those great lake meals as a kid.  The idea that we were miles from town and stores and still had the presence  to spiff up a decent meal from inside a tiny cabin kitchen…that appealed to me.   Perhaps not quite at the level of something like New Scandinavian Cooking, but leaning toward that direction.

Yeah…I should be up there now, roasting a duck or something.

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This Didn’t Turn Out Right

This is dinner tonight.  Chicken breast baked and simmered in a rich tomato basil sauce blended with leftover Greek moussaka.  The potatoes are for show mostly.  Undercooked.  (I didn’t plan well.)  And I always enjoy the opportunity to steam a bowl of peas with a few carrots.  I like the color.

The chicken was outstanding!  Moist, tender and cooked perfectly well.  Perhaps dumb luck, but it was delicious.  The sauce wasn’t bad either.  I am happy to have a few cups of leftovers.  And, of course, you cannot dislike peas and carrots, especially when seasoned lightly with salt and butter.  The potatoes…well, they were a mistake and unneeded; I had quite a bit of moussaka.

But I really blew it when I took the picture.  It didn’t turn out right at all.  Look at that wilted red pepper stuck to chicken breast.  It looks like chewed gum stuck to the underside of a school chair.  Or like something that gives you reason to take your cat to the vet.

And I simply don’t like the composition.  Too spacey.  Those delicious peas look neglected, the potatoes lonely, and chicken under dressed.  Everything should be tighter, brighter, and saucier.  Remember the extra cups of sauce I mentioned?  Imagine that extra sauce spilling over the breast, setting the it in a delicious pool that just barely touches the sides.  THAT would look like a rich meal rather than a quick run through a cafeteria line.

Ah, well…I do have leftovers.  Anyone?

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Living in Post-Democratic America: Tip 1

Still Time for One More

With an election looming in a little less than a year and the oligarchs aligning their horde of doting minions the chance exists that the situation in American will get even worst, perhaps a new Dark Age.  So I have been making notes while thinking about surviving the situation.  I’ve decided to share a tip from time to time.

This blog has become a bit of a food and fashion blog so I think it is appropriate that my first tip relates to food.  Eating, after all, is very important and we have to do it in good times and bad.  So what happens if times get really bad?  Suppose the GOP gains complete control of government?  Well…think of three year olds gaining control of a jumbo jet…we’re in trouble.

And I think even your simple sandwich is in trouble if we elect a Republican president and congress.

I enjoy ham and cheese sandwiches, turkey and cheese, too.  In fact I think I’ll have one shortly and treat myself to an early lunch.  Sandwich time is the perfect time to sit back and reflect.  You know, what if…?

And I start thinking, “What if Republicans and the special interests that control them lead this country into further ruin?”

I stop chewing and swallow hard…

More and more Americans already live in poverty or on the edge of it.  Getting by is getting tough.  Republicans have no interest in turning that around.  It’s likely they don’t possess the education or sophistication to understand even their own best interests, not to mention national interests.  Many simply are stupid.  But we already know this.  We also know that ineptitude is not the best path to solutions.

We may not have food riots…there’s always the illusion of nutrition in poor countries like ours with all of our cheap junk food…but we might have fewer choices.  So I started thinking about threats to my humble sandwich and came up with some great ideas.

Instead of ham and cheese twice a week, for example, what if I had a ham sandwich one day and then a cheese sandwich the next day?  I might still get my quality deli ham and cheese, but make it last double-time!  Of course I would consume the same amount of bread, but that’s the lesser of the expenses.  Is this a great idea or what?

You try it.

Ok, let’s say peanut butter and jelly.  Yes, one day a peanut butter sandwich and the next a jelly sandwich!  I never liked peanut butter and jelly together as a kid anyway and my mother had this crazy idea that all bread, even sandwich bread for peanut butter and jelly sandwiches had to be buttered first.  So I have come a long way since then.  No butter on my sandwich bread and I eat peanut butter AND jelly together.  But I could go back to peanut butter one day and jelly the next all in the interest of surviving post-democratic America.

Your kids will catch on, too; hell, they won’t have a choice.  You might make it fun for the kids anyway.  Suppose you’re really strapped and even bread is running thin.  I have a great idea:  “Pizza” squares.

A “pizza” square essentially is an open-faced sandwich.

“What’s for lunch, mom?”

“Oh, Johnny and Sue, we’re having fun pizza squares!”

Imagine the excitement.  Just keep things positive and exciting as you describe and serve slices of toasted bread spread with either peanut butter or jelly.  This way you save bread and peanut butter and jelly.  Cool, huh?

We might not eat as much as we used to eat, but hey…we’re getting fat anyway.  If you can keep your kid out of the school lunch room and the strip mall fast food joints, you might save him from diabetes and that’s a good thing.  Let’s not forget, the new American way is less for more after all.  And with our declining health care system and its rising costs, who can afford to be sick anyway?  Remember, as those visionaries in the Republican Party tell us, we have to cut, cut, cut our way to greatness.  Might as well cut the calories, too.

So there you have Living in Post-Democratic America:  Tip 1.  I should make it clear that while I am using title case rules to capitalize the title of this post, you can think of our decline as both post-Democratic and post-democratic.  The latter is the more frightening and most dangerous.  Watch out…really…and if you’re not going to watch out, then keep your head down.

Hopefully most of us won’t just keep our head down.

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Dinner Tonight

Gosh, I don’t know…but we seem to be evolving into a food and fashion blog.  I kind of miss picking on Republicans, but golly…they don’t really need my help.  I mean look at them.  They’re better than any punchline I could hope to come up with just by getting out of bed in the morning.  Bachmann, Perry, Cain…that’s what they have to offer over there at the GOP.  Intellectual giants they are not.  I’m not sure how you would describe it, so I think I’ll just stay out of it for a bit longer and write about peas and carrots.

Oh, and what good peas and carrots we had tonight!  Take a look at the fuzzy camera phone photo of tonight’s dinner.  This really is a sort of Thanksgiving prep.  We have the more tender of the America‘s common choice for poultry, the humble and yet still hearty chicken, with a nice side of root vegetables (three actually) and buttered peas.

You’ll notice that I organized my root vegetables in one area on my plate.  Carrots, potatoes, and squash.  I like it that way.  Then an overwhelming serving of buttered peas not only tastes very good, but adds a satisfying flash of color.  Without the green, that golden chicken would look rather washed out resting against squash and potatoes, so you need the green.

Some people might be tempted to go over the top and add some corn, but I exercise restraint, even when Green Giant canned corn is only 33 cents a can at Lunds.  (Yes, I do enjoy canned corn every once in a while.  You should, too.)

You know, I wasn’t going to be political here on my evolving food and fashion blog, but I wonder if common people like me will enjoy meals like this in a post-democratic America.  Let’s hope enough educated people get out there and vote next November so we don’t have to find out.

I’m already planning ahead though.  I’ve learned, for example, that mixing the flavor pack from a package of instant ramen noodles to mashed potatoes can make a flavorful substitute for the real thing.  Can’t find chicken at the store?  No problem.  Mix in some chicken flavoring with your potatoes and reminisce.

Let’s hope not.

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