"Oh, Those Eggs ... "

In The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition, "eggs" are defined as: "the round or oval female reproductive body of various animals, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, fishes and insects, consisting usually of an embryo surrounded by nutrient material and a protective covering" and "the oval, thin-shelled reproductive body of a bird, especially that of a hen, used as food."

Eggs are good things. Really. They've gotten a few bad raps in the past few years, but, like for a lot of things, opinions have changed. Now we're told they are "okay". Could even be good for us. Like any food, you don't want to eat them 24/7 (well...unless that's all you have!), but DO eat them. They are a very versatile food.

Over my long years of cooking I've reached many times for that egg carton. For breakfast. For lunch. For supper. Fried eggs. Poached eggs. Creamed eggs. Scrambled eggs. Egg sandwiches. Hard-boiled eggs. Omelets. Egg sandwiches. Soft-boiled eggs. Mexican eggs. Italian eggs. Deviled eggs. And so on and so on and so on ...

Who knows how many ways there are to prepare eggs? About the time I think I've see all of the ways to cook an egg, up pops another recipe I haven't seen. Most egg recipes are pretty simple; a few a bit more complicated.

At any rate, I know one thing for sure: eggs are good things. They've been my answer many times to "what is there to fix for supper?". Or, "unexpected visitors - what to fix?" Or, "I'm so tired - what to fix quickly?" Eggs! Of course! Voila! Pull out that carton and crack those shells (or not). In a very short time you will have a tasty meal ready to eat.

Trust me. If you are not already an "egg person" you will become one - when you see how easy it is to create a quick and yummy meal with eggs.

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How To Boil An Egg (no, not everyone knows how!)

1. Place eggs in a deep saucepan and add enough cold water to cover them
2. Set pan over medium heat and let water slowly come to boiling.
3. Reduce heat to keep water just below boiling point (this is "simmering").
4. Cook 15 minutes - remove from heat.
5. Let cooking water cool - or drain and run cold water over eggs 'til cooled.
6. Peel and eat! Or, peel and fix in any number of ways! :)

(from a 1942 "Fannie Farmer Junior Cook" cookbook)

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A Quick Supper ...

Scrambled Eggs / broiled tomatoes / toasted English muffins / fresh fruit

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One of my favorite egg "recipes":

... I butter a slice of whole wheat bread, tear it into small pieces and put it into a cereal bowl
... Usually, I will salt and pepper the bread and add a bit of onion powder and garlic powder
... Then I poach two eggs in simmering water and put the two poached eggs on top of the bread pieces
... I like to sprinkle some grated cheese on top
... Then I top that off with chopped cilantro or parsley and more black pepper
... Chop everything together with knife and fork and ... Yum!

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Another of my "ways" with an egg:

... In my old-faithful cast-iron skillet I put just a bit of olive oil and a tiny bit of butter and heat it up
... Slide in an egg and cook just to a soft-yolk stage (or hard yolk, if you prefer)
... Sprinkle grated cheese on top
... Slide onto a plate
... Top off with a couple of spoonfuls of salsa and chopped cilantro
... Enjoy!

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One more "favorite":

A fried egg on top of hot grits, sprinkled with a little cheese (full-fat, no-fat, ANY kind of cheese!) and topped off with chopped cilantro or parsley and LOTS of black pepper. Mmmmmm, good!

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Do YOU have some favorite egg recipes you'd like to share? Feel free to do so here. I'd love to see them and try them out. :)

The Valentine Supper

Our Valentine Day supper table

Though Valentine's Day has come and gone, I hope everyone continues handing out the love.  I love cooking and decorating; hence, our Valentine Day supper table.  Simple, but pretty.  Hubby and grandson both seemed to appreciate the effort.  I enjoyed doing it.  Doing the simplest of things for those you love brings a warmth within your own heart.  They love it. You love it.  Another of those "win, win" situations.  :)

Though Grandson, Christian, received a "bought" gift (a Hex Bug), his Papou (my husband, John) received a baked gift.  A heart-shaped banana cake. Of course, Papou had to share it with us, too; but he didn't seem to mind. Besides the pretty rose-bud corsage my husband bought me, he also gave me a reproduction tin sign.  Okay, I know some of you may not understand  a tin sign as a Valentine's Day gift.  However, I like "rustic, old, antique, unusual".  I also like "new" mixed with "old", though I sometimes have to argue with my husband about that.  So I love the sign, which advertises "cream separators" and shows the various kinds of cows that make the cream! The only problem is where to put it - this house doesn't have much space for wall-hanging, and what there is is pretty much taken up.  I did, though, manage to hang it today - I switched it with something else, and moved the "something else" (grandson's framed pastel tennis shoe he did in art class) to a space on the living room wall.  It works. Both tin sign and pastel shoe look happy.  I am happy, too.

My tin sign Valentine gift

Grandson, Christian's, pastel tennis shoes

 

 

 

 

Now ... if you have a Valentine supper, it stands to reason that you must have some Valentine Supper food.  Since I love cooking, we had food.  :)  Our menu: green salad with homemade ranch dressing ... fish baked in a cream sauce ... a mixture of rice,cabbage,onions,dried cranberries and pecans ...homemade biscuits with homemade apple butter ... banana cake and peach herbal tea. Have to say it was good.

My spur-of-the-moment recipe

The rice and cabbage mixture was one of those spur-of-the-moment recipes. You know, look and see what you've got and put it together to see what it comes out to be.  Well, it turned out to "be" SO good.  Really.  Try it, you'll see.  It's a "save and do it again" recipe - sometimes I can't "save" a made-up recipe because I don't remember what I put in it, if I don't write it down.  This one, though, I will remember without writing down.  It's quite easy to do and to remember. I'll just tell you what I put in it ... maybe someone of you has already used the same ingredients to do the same thing!

Sandy's Spur of the Moment Rice and Cabbage ..... I used red and green cabbage, since I had a half a head of each ....I heated a little olive oil in a large cast-iron skillet, dropped in about a half an onion, chopped, used a paring knife to cut the cabbage into shreds into the skillet, added a little salt and black pepper, to taste, along with a lot more garlic powder (love it!) - stir-fried it all a few minutes, then threw in a handful or so of dried cranberries and chopped pecans.  Stir-fried another couple of minutes, then added the cooked rice (left over from another meal), maybe two cups, stirring some more to mix in the rice and let it get good and hot.  That's it.  Simple. Fairly quick. And really good.

The "Love You" gift cake

I hesitate to put up a photo of the dessert/gift banana cake.  Well ... why not!?  The cake was good; the decorative writing was not.  I'm a novice at writing on cakes, but had bought one of those frosting cans with the decorating tips on them to use; so I gave it a try.  Can't say I love the taste of that frosting either.  Ick!  But ... you can at least make out the words, right??????   Hubby loved it; that's what counts.

Until NEXT Valentine's Day ...................................................................................................................

If the Squash Bugs Missed Them ...

We haven't had much luck with our garden squash this year.  The squash bugs didn't spare us.  Come to think of it, they didn't last year either. :(  Some of our friends have had the same problem - but there are SOME friends who have had success.  And, thanks to their generosity, we have been "kept in squash" this summer.  Yellow squash.  I like other kinds, too.  But YELLOW squash is my favorite.

I have tried various recipes for the squash, but have to say that my absolute favorite way to eat yellow squash is probably the simplest way of preparing it.  We enjoyed it again for supper this evening: slice small yellow squash into a skillet with a little olive oil (I also love using bacon drippings), some chopped fresh garlic, chopped onion, salt and freshly-ground black pepper to taste.  Stir-fry for three to five minutes and, presto!, it is ready to eat.  Enjoy!

Of course, there are any number of ways to "ad lib" this recipe.  Sometimes I throw in some fresh, chopped basil - or sage - or thyme ... or all three!  It's great with some good  crispy country bacon chopped into it. And, if the bacon idea grabs you, you'll probably also love some slices of good ham ( I LOVE country-smoked ham) to go along with the squash.  Then, there's always any kind of cheese to sprinkle in ... maybe a little cream ... etc.  Use your imagination.  Don't be afraid to experiment.  For me, part of the fun of cooking, is the "creativity" of it ... sometimes I follow a recipe completely; but LOTS of times (maybe most) I'm not afraid to stray off on my own.  A little of this; a little of that.  Have to say that there have been few times that something's turned out really bad (but don't ask my husband about the sweet-and-sour rabbit when we were young marrieds and only had a can of pineapple and a jar of home-canned rabbit from a friend in the cupboard.............).

Eat REAL food - including squash-bugless yellow squash - and  enjoy REAL taste.  :)