Egg sandwiches

I have a backyard flock of chickens (12 currently) and they keep us pretty well-stocked with eggs. We sell eggs to neighbors and friends, including my daughter's 6th grade teacher. We have standing orders on Mondays, some who need just one egg and a new customer tonight from Thailand, who is amazed by the colors of our eggs. To be honest, every time I go check the coop for eggs, and there are some, it feels like the Easter bunny has been by.

Tonight: simple egg sandwiches, just like the ones at McDonald's but without the transfats. English muffin, ham, cheddar topped with a homegrown egg. Quick and easy after a long Board meeting.

Yuck.

Because of a shortage of time (Dad to the E.R. for stitches, painting Small Fry's room, getting our puppy spayed - you know, the usual) I buy a frozen lasagne from Schwan's, against my better judgement. How can you ruin lasagne? Well, it's possible. Leftovers go to the chickens.

At least we got to the U of MN's dairy store today, though, and got some more reduced-fat chocolate chunk ice cream. Nothing better on a 94 degree day.

Kale

What to do with the kale from our CSA farm? No better recipe than this, and even my 11-year-old loved it:

Quick Cooked Greens with Penne and Prosciutto

2 pounds kale, stemmed and washed 3 times
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
4 ounces prosciutto, thin strips
2/3 cup chicken broth (I use Better than Boullion)
box of Borilla Plus penne
Parmigiano-Reggiano, DiGiorno, on top

- Bring water to a boil in large and deep saute pan. Add salt and kale, cook 7 minutes. Drain, and put in bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process. Squeeze kale dry, until only a few drops fall from them.

- Cook pasta according to directions.

- In saute pan, heat olive oil then add garlic, prosciutto and greens. Coat with oil, then add chicken broth and cook 5 minutes, until most of the stock has been absorbed.

Throw everything together and top with parmesan. Yum.

Serves 8.

Local, local, local

Wow! I live near the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus, where the deer and antelope play. Not really, but they do have horses, cows, sheep and chickens. It should have dawned on me sooner that they would also have a Dairy Store, but I just found out about it. We biked over, waited in a long line and discovered the best reduced-fat chocolate chunk ice cream I've ever tasted. The jury is still out on the cheese; I am saving it for book club on Friday. We're all reading any Barbara Kingsolver book, and since I just finished Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, I need to serve something local. I should also serve something made with eggs from my backyard flock. You can't get any more local than your backyard.

Here's what I am making for dinner. We are slated to get some broccoli via our CSA Farm today, which will go well with it.

Orange Hoisin Chicken
2 tablespoons frozen orange juice concentrate
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
3 slices peeled fresh ginger, about 1/4 inch thick
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon sesame oil
6 individually frozen chicken breasts (unthawed)
2 teaspoons cornstarch combined with 2 teaspoons cold water
sesame seeds

Combine oj, honey, soy sauce, hoisin, ginger, garlic and oil in shallow dish. Coat chicken one at a time, then place in slow cooker. Poor remaining sauce over and book on low, 5 to 6 hours.

Strain sauce through fine-mesh strainer into small saucepan. Bring to a boil, them stir in cornstarch. Heat 1-2 minutes, till thickened.

Serves 6.

Let's call it a microwave

I am bothered by something I saw posted on Freecycle. Someone wanted to trade their "big nuker for your small nuker". Really? You're going to call something that you put your food in a nuker? Really?

Good Day

You know you've got a good thing going in your community when your breakfast is Grandpa Andy's homemade buttermilk bread, toasted, with Peg's homemade Crabby Grape jelly and an egg from the chickens in your backyard. Mmm.

Sprinkles today

It's sunny, but today at my parent's I inherited a bag of sprinkles. These are the colored sugars you use to decorate a cake or Christmas cookies. The Big Fries (my parents) are doing their best to parcel things out to us five kids. Since my Small Fry is the inventor of the peanut butter and sprinkle sandwich, we get the sprinkles.

I think it's hard to part with stuff, and it must be easier to give it to someone you know vs someone you don't. My Mom's cookbook collection has required a lot of thought and sorting on her part. She made sure to give me the Julia Child-signed cookbook, which I got for her one Mother's Day. I appreciate it.

1968

The Fried Cook and Small Fry went to my parent's today. There, we lugged up 23 batches of old Cook's, Bon Appetite and Gourmet magazines, and one called Cuisine. Some date back to 1968, when I was a Small Fry myself. Lots have cigarette ads on the back. I am at a loss as to what to do with them all. Small Fry estimates 300 total, and they are weighing my car down to the point that I am worried about the shock absorbers or struts or whatever it is they are taxing. Is it a betrayal to my Mom if I go right to Half Price books to sell them? Will she ask me for the Bon Appetite May 1984 issue at some point in the future?

Big Day

For a Fried Cook, I've done a lot of it in the past few days. I made my favorite Challah bread recipe, which netted me one huge loaf of Challah, 8 hamburger buns and a cinnamon bread loaf. This recipe always turns out - even in my tiny KitchenAid.

Today is my husband's 50th. Since he's super Irish (like Super Tuscan, but different), I made pot roast with potatoes, roasted rainbow potatoes and potato bread in the bread machine.

Also, had our first CSA farm delivery today. The rainbow chard is beautiful! I don't so much want to eat it, but to put it in a vase. I sauteed the spinach in some olive oil for dinner. We got Oak Leaf lettuce as well.

Here's the Challah recipe, thanks to Bread Made Easy:

2 cups warm water
1 1.2 tablespoons (2 packages) dry yeast
pinch of sugar
8 to 8 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose or bread flour
1 tablespoon salt
4 large eggs (preferably from your backyard flock) :-)
1/2 cup honey
2/3 cup vegetable or canola oil
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for glaze

Pour 1/2 cup warm water into small bowl, Sprinkle with yeast and sugar. Stir to dissolve; let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes. * If it doesn't foam, your yeast isn't working.

Place 1 1/2 cups of flour and salt in bowl of KitchenAid, using paddle attachment. Add eggs, honey, oil and remaining 1 1/2 cups water on low speed. Beat until smooth. Add yeast mixture. On low, add flour 1/3 cup at a time until a ball is formed. Switch to the dough hook, and knead for as long as possible. On the teeny KitchenAid, the dough will start to climb up the hook pretty quickly, so you'll need to knead the rest by hand. Knead till smooth and elastic. Let rise 2 hours or so, until doubled. Shape into bread, braid or buns and let rise 1 - 2 hours. Egg wash before and after final rise. Bake 350 for 30 minutes.

Trader Joe's excursion

Maggie, Mary, Grandpa Andy and I make a pilgrimage to that wonderland that is Trader Joe's. It's my first time and I am overwhelmed by possibilities. I had planned to get one bag of stuff, but end up with two, as well as some two buck Chuck. I would have gotten more, but my side-by-side's freezer is teeny. Already, stuff falls out when I open the door.

Dinner tonight is Taco Bake, a la Cook's Country magazine:

1 can Ro-Tel tomatoes
1 can diced tomatoes
1 16-ounce can refried beans
3 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend
1.5 pounds ground beef
1 package taco seasoning mix
12 taco shells

Heat over to 475. In a 13x9 baking dish, combine Ro-Tel tomatoes and beans, and top with 1 cup of cheese.

Cook beef in skillet, drain fat, then add taco seasoning and next can of tomatoes. Heat through till thickened and nearly dry, about 5 minutes.

Arrange tacos upright in baking dish. Spoon beef into tacos, top with cheese and bake about 10 minutes.

Top with sour cream. Serves 4 to 6.

Friends

My friend Maggie is unemployed right now, so I invite her over for her favorite soup. Karen and her son come as well. Then, later, Grandpa Andy comes by. He is a new friend who loves to bake bread, as do I. I tried to make an asiago cheese bread in the bread machine and it didn't go well. Grandpa Andy brings some delicious cranberry walnut and Finnish cardamon, both fashioned into braids and egg washed. The cranberry walnut is gone almost immediately.

Maggie brings gigantor chocolate chip cookies with brownies in the middle. They are the size of a human head! Karen brings salad with greens from her garden. I didn't know you could get lettuce so fast!

Here is the soup recipe. I had enough for lunch, for dinner and to send some home with Maggie and Grandpa Andy.

Maggies' Soup

3 c whole milk
1 c Jiffy corn muffin mix
2 T butter
1 onion, chopped fine (I use the frozen ones)
2 garlic cloves, minced (I used jarred)
1 tsp cumin
2 quarts chicken broth (I use Better Than Bouillon)
1.5 pound chicken breasts, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch pieces (I use frozen Schwan's_
1 c shredded Monterey Jack cheese
3 c frozen maize (I don't like the word for this that starts with 'C' and it comes on a cob) (Schwan's is great)
parsley (I use dried)

1. Mix milk and muffin mix in bowl until well combined. Meanwhile, heat butter in large Dutch oven over medium. Add onion and cook till soft, about 8 minutes. Stir in garlic and cumin, stir about 30 seconds. Add broth, chicken and sweet potatoes. Bring to boil, reduce heat, simmer 8 minutes.
2. Stir in milk and muffin mixture, simmer 10 minutes. Add maize, cook 2 minutes. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve, topping with cheese.
8 to 10 servings

Good point

My aunt was telling me about the wonders of CostCo. I still haven't been, but she said that as she was looking around at all the prepared food, she realized that nobody cooks anymore - yet everybody is watching the Food Network.

Our friends Ed and Anne had us to their farm recently. Ed is a Sommelier and chef, and served elk with a blueberry reduction sauce. It was amazing!

I decide that while I will never end up on The Iron Chef, I can put a little more effort into evening dinners. The elk inspires me. I check more cookbooks out of the library.

Reading cookbooks

I am a very slow reader, so when I am not reading a bookclub book, I read cookbooks for fun.

Right now I am reacquainting myself with the bread machine that was being stored in the basement, thanks to The Bread Lover's Bread Machine Cookbook by Beth Hensperger. The bread machine is back on the kitchen counter, doing the work that the KitchenAid 600 mixer could not.

Last week, my Bread Made Easy cookbook said that I should knead the challah dough I was making for 5 minutes in the KitchenAid. But the KitchenAid had other ideas. It quit at 4 minutes. Wait, it didn't just quit actually. It died. Just made a little 'pft' noise and stopped working at all.

And in e-mailing KitchenAid to see why this machine died, they just kept saying I shouldn't have to knead dough beyond 4 minutes. But can't it do 5? Well, it should only need 4. But the recipe calls specifically for 5 in a KitchenAid. Well, do only 4. I returned it, having owned it for less than a month. Time to dust off the bread machine.

I am checking out a lot of Beth Hensperger's books from the library. I like the library books because some people (I think the library calls them 'Patrons') have made helpful notes in the margins.

What's for dinner tonight?

I never know if my husband will be home for dinner or not. He is a live-in-the-moment kind of guy, not a planner. I think I will just make a tuna casserole.

- Some egg noodles, cooked
- One can cream of mushroom soup
- Lots of tuna
- Frozen peas
- Top with parmesan cheese and ground Ritz crackers

Not a gourmet meal, but OK for a weeknight.

Fried Cook, first post

This blog is dedicated to me and all those like me: A 40-something wife and mother who has cooked every home meal for the last 18 years of marriage. This is where I am supposed to say that I l o v e to be home, cooking meals all day, baking bread and bars and cookies and providing sustenance and nourishment for my family. But truly, I am in dire need of inspiration, and am always looking for it. Though I've taken dozens of cooking classes, subscribe to cooking magazines and have a hefty collection of cookbooks, I can't seem to think of anything else to make. I am burnt out. I am the fried cook.

My search for inspiration is further spurred on by the fact that I can't have the same thing for dinner twice in a row. Small Fry (my daughter) can - especially if dinner were a PB&J every night. My husband could survive on pot roast alone. But I need variety, I guess.

Since I am doing so doggone much cooking, any recipes or ideas posted here have to be A.) Easy to make or B.) Worth the effort.