Recipes

Last fall Tim and I were sitting side-by-side at our computers just surfin'. It was a leisurely Saturday evening, we were staying in, and we were playing a little game we often do where we take turns sharing songs, usually songs that have meaning to us, or songs that we grew up listening to. One of the marvelous things about marrying a man your own age... we both graduated from high school in 1972... you sang the same songs, watched the same movies, and experienced the same social and cultural phenomena. All-and-all, it makes for many delightful conversations... but I digress! Shocker, right?

Anyway... songs like You're So Vain, Super Freak, Knights in White Satin and Dreams by the Cranberries were filling the air (btw... totally extraneous info for the true story, but I'm setting the mood ;) So, in my surfin' the net, I stumble upon these a.dor.able egg cozies. I have never owned an egg cozy, as a matter of fact, I've never owned an egg cup BUT I now NEED to, if only to own these cute cozies. While reading about the cozies, the writer spoke of "soldiers". Now, I know she's not talking about people in uniforms, it has something to do with soft-boiled eggs. I ask Tim about it. He knows EVERYTHING. Truly, this man is amazing... the amount of trivial info bouncing around in his cute head. But, shockingly, he comes up empty.

I forbid him from Googling soldiers. Instead, I hop on Wee Folk Art's Facebook page and ask our readers about "soldiers". As I expected, lots of people knew about "soldiers" and I was delighted to learn about them from "friends" rather than just off a search. (For those of you that have no idea about what I'm talking about, you'll find out soon :)

So, Tim and I spent the rest of the evening looking at egg cups and egg cozies, egg spoons and egg cutters. By the time the evening drew to a close, I felt like a bit of an authority on soft-boiled eggs, and gave sufficient hints, knowing full-well I'd be receiving egg paraphernalia as a Christmas gift. Although my Christmas stocking... actually, my Christmas shopping bag... was filled with many "squealable" delights, I was rather surprised that there were no egg cups, cozies or cutters amongst the gifts. It wasn't like Tim. He ALWAYS picks up on those kind of things. But, we shared a perfect Christmas together, so it was soon forgotten.

HOWEVER, Michelle had not forgotten about my continued intrigue with the whole soft-boiled egg experience. And, this Mother's Day, I received 4 adorable chicken egg cups and spoons, a handy-dandy egg snipper AND (drum roll please) 4 felted GNOME HATS that she knit to keep my eggs cozy while waiting to be ate! How exciting!

So, this morning, I set out to make my very first soft-boiled egg. As I said before, I had read all about them, so I was ready. I decided to steam my eggs. It was simple:

Bring water to a boil in the bottom of a steamer. Add eggs directly from the fridge. Steam for 6 1/2 minutes.

When you remove the eggs from the steamer, run directly under cold water to stop the cooking process.

While the eggs are cooking, make your "soldiers". (Told you I'd get back to them!) Soldiers are simply a piece of buttered toast, cut into long strips, so you can easily dip them in your egg. Brilliant!

Now, the fun part... place your egg in an egg cup, and cover with an egg cozy to keep it warm until you are ready to eat. 

Use your spoon or an egg cutter to remove the top of the egg, removing any little pieces of clingy shell. If you like, you can salt and pepper your egg. (I found the buttered toast added enough flavor without condiments.) If all went well, you have a perfect soft-boiled egg. The white should be thoroughly cooked, but the yolk should still be runny.

Now, dip your soldiers in and eat up! Note to self: when using the wide toast, make sure to cut into 5 pieces instead of 4 so they fit in the egg better!)

Yum! For a first go at making soft-boiled eggs, I'd say it was a major success. 

Note: Make sure you check your eggs before you steam them. If there are any little cracks, the steaming process with cause them to crack open while cooking, and you have an egg that develops this globby thing that looks like a goiter! BTW... the dogs said it tasted just fine :)

If you are interested in knitting some gnome hats for your eggs... and if you are a regular reader at Wee Folk Art, I'm going to assume you've got your yarn and needles out already... Michelle found the pattern for the hats over at  Silver Lining Knits. You can visit them to get the complete directions. 

Thank you so much, Mich. I love them AND you :)

Photos 5-14-13

This past weekend our 25 year old "baby" made a bowl of a heavenly Avocado Salsa that was awesome. I said, "See, this is the benefit of allowing the children in the kitchen... they grow up to be great cooks!" This reminded me of a post first published on my blog One Generation to Another, back on October 30, 2007. I shared it again here on Wee Folk Art the summer of 2010. For all of you that might have missed it, you can read it HERE. And here is Mike's recipe for delicious Avocado Salsa. Three cheers for Kids in the Kitchen!!!

AVOCADO SALSA
 
Serves 8-10
 
Ingredients:
1 can black beans (drained and rinsed well)
1 can fiesta corn (corn and peppers) (drained)
2 or 3 tomatoes, chopped (Romas work too, just make it 4 or 5 to make up for the size difference)
1/4 c. chopped sweet onion
3 green onions, chopped
2 avocados, diced
A pinch of rainbow and sunshine (my son had this as an ingredient :)
1/4 c. vegetable oil
1/4 c. Balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon chili powder
1 package Good Season Italian dressing (dry seasoning mix)
 
Instructions:
Mix all the ingredients together, cover and refrigerate for 2 - 3 hours before serving.

Photo: 7/31/2012

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First off... must say... NOT my grandma's recipe... but evidently SOMEBODY's grandma's recipe :) Strawberry Rhubarb Pie has long been a family favorite. For decades I've made it using a standard pie crust. Last week on some internet expedition, I came across this recipe from Food Network...

Since it is their recipe, I'll just send you off to their site to get the specifics :) I made it because I was wild to try the crust. It was superb! Bug, who has been a pie connoisseur for his entire life, said this was the best pie crust he ever had! Who's can argue with a 9 year old boy about food? The crust is a little sweeter and is slightly denser than a traditional pie crust. It was wonderful! 

Anyway... the ONLY things I did different was to substitute 4 tablespoons flour for 2 tablespoons instant tapioca since I didn't have any in the house. I punched some flower holes on the top and covered the edge with a strip of aluminum foil while baking so the edges didn't over brown. I used my Emile Henry 9" pie plate which I LOVE with a passion. It is a little deeper than many pie plates and I often have to add more filling. I didn't need to increase this recipe. It was plenty to fill the pie plate nicely.

Even if you don't like Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, give this crust a try! And, if you've never baked with Emile Henry, try this wonderful pie plate. Not only does it bake pies beautifully, I find them a joy to look at. I have 3 of them in different colors. Enjoy :)

To see the entire Out of the Block | Ice Cream Cone Cookie Cutter series, including pattern for felt applique block and how to make your own cookie cutters click HERE. 

I've tasted a lot of sugar cookies in my days, and I have to say, this is by far my very favorite. What makes it so special... a splash of lemon! And I'm a sucker for lemon. When I go to restaurants, I ask for "water with obscene amounts of lemon". Frankly, Tim teases that how I tip is directly related to how much lemon they bring me. I've had waiters bring out an entire lemon, and they watch as I squeeze every last drop of juice into my water. Basically, it's lemonade without the sugar. But I digress... we're talking cookies here! Anyway... these cookies don't make you pucker, they just have a subtle lemon favor that makes this the perfect cookie to munch with a cup of freshly brewed tea or a tall, ice cold glass of milk :)

If you are unfathomably not a fan of lemon, simply omit the lemon zest and substitute vanilla extract for the lemon flavoring. BTW... this was a Michelle discovery, and once again the student is the teacher :) This is the perfect dough to use with our hand-made tin cookie cutters!

LEMON SUGAR COOKIES

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter, room temp
2 eggs, room temp
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpse flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon lemon zest (grated lemon peel)
1 teaspoon lemon flavoring

Directions:
Blend butter and sugar. Add eggs and beat. Combine flour, baking powder and salt, adding a small amount at a time to the mixture, blending well. Add zest and flavoring. Chill dough. On a well floured board, roll out a small quantity at a time to about a 1/4" thickness. Dough not in use should be kept refrigerated. Cut into shapes and bake on a lightly greased cookies sheet, for about 10-12 minutes at 375. Bake until set, but not brown. Sprinkle with colored sugars, before baking, or frost after baking. Dough can be frozen to bake at a later date.

LEMON SUGAR COOKIE ICING

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 egg whites
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
food coloring (optional)

Directions:
Into small bowl, sift sugar and cream of tartar through a very fine sieve; add 2 egg whites and lemon extract. With mixer at high speed, beat mixture so stiff the knife drawn through leaves clean path.
(On humid days you may need to beat in more confectioner's sugar.)

Rolling out dough and cutting out cookies

Icing Cookies

Adding sprinkles

Ready to eat

Now it's the wee ones' turn!

Tasting testing before sharing with friends

All agreed... good enough to share with friends... as long as they could save a few for the family :)

Last month I shared a recipe for Kahlua and Butterscotch Liqueur. It has aged for a whopping 30 days and is ready for drinking, I mean gift giving :) Must admit we tried both. Can't very likely give something away without a little quality testing. Findings... although the Kahlua recipes SAYS it's ready to drink in 30 days, I learned from years of my dad making Kahlua... the longer it ages, the better it is. Although I would certainly drink a tumbler of the Kahlua on the rocks... even better if mixed with heavy cream... it will even be more yummy if it sits for a few months. So, I will try to show some restraint, and let our bottles age a bit more. On the other hand, the butterscotch liqueur is beyond yummy. And although I'm willing to bet it too will improve with age, I'm not sure it will stand a chance!

Of course, we couldn't send these off into the world without proper labeling. We found some wonderful Arched Labels #22809 from Avery. They have software to download at their site so you can customize your labels. The next challenge was to come up with a name. Since our last name is "Wise", we wanted to come up with a cute play on words. Tim thought back to the playground names he was called as a youth. Most were not "family friendly", so we chose "Wise Acre". Not a term you hear often today, but for you youngin's, a wiseacre is "one who pretends to knowledge or cleverness"... it's like calling someone a smart acleck.

So, we are now officially done with our holiday gifts. All of our kith and kin will be receiving our homemade liqueurs this year. Tim and I are hopeful that these libations not only warm the body, but the heart, too :) Although there are only 4 gifts under our tree this year, the ones for the grandbabies, it is indeed a glorious holiday season! We are now ready to turn our focus to simply enjoying time with the family and making a million new memories :)