Is this a joke?
Nope. It's no yoke!
Monday, February 25, 2019
Saturday, February 23, 2019
Sharing the Recipe and Garlic Bed Discovery
For those of you who expressed an interest in the Cheesy Egg Wedges recipe about which I blogged in my last post, here it is.
The original recipe appeared in a book put out by Better Homes and Gardens and I made only a couple of small changes to it.
CHEESY EGG WEDGES
4 beaten eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups shredded smoked cheddar cheese
1 cup cream-style cottage cheese with chives
1 cup salsa
Combine the eggs, milk, flour, baking powder and garlic powder. Beat with a rotary beater until combined. Stir in the shredded cheese and cottage cheese.
Pour into a greased 9" pie plate. Bake, uncovered, in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
To serve, cut into 6 wedges. Top with salsa, either warmed-up, or room temp, or cold.
As I said in my previous post(picture there), I make only half the recipe for the two of us and we eat half one morning and half the next. To reheat, I put the last half in a small covered skillet with a wee bit of water and it comes out as good in taste and texture as freshly baked. (That means we get two meals out of two eggs! Can't beat that.)
I don't know if they even sell cottage cheese with chives in it anymore, so I just add some of my snipped frozen chives. They're for color more than anything else.
I've always used smoked cheddar cheese because of the nice flavor it imparts, but regular cheddar would be fine.
The original recipe appeared in a book put out by Better Homes and Gardens and I made only a couple of small changes to it.
CHEESY EGG WEDGES
4 beaten eggs
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
2 cups shredded smoked cheddar cheese
1 cup cream-style cottage cheese with chives
1 cup salsa
Combine the eggs, milk, flour, baking powder and garlic powder. Beat with a rotary beater until combined. Stir in the shredded cheese and cottage cheese.
Pour into a greased 9" pie plate. Bake, uncovered, in a 375 degree oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown and a knife inserted near the center comes out clean.
To serve, cut into 6 wedges. Top with salsa, either warmed-up, or room temp, or cold.
As I said in my previous post(picture there), I make only half the recipe for the two of us and we eat half one morning and half the next. To reheat, I put the last half in a small covered skillet with a wee bit of water and it comes out as good in taste and texture as freshly baked. (That means we get two meals out of two eggs! Can't beat that.)
I don't know if they even sell cottage cheese with chives in it anymore, so I just add some of my snipped frozen chives. They're for color more than anything else.
I've always used smoked cheddar cheese because of the nice flavor it imparts, but regular cheddar would be fine.
* * * * * * * **
I now know which bed I planted the garlic in this past fall. (Whew!)
Yesterday afternoon Papa Pea suggested that he could put on snowshoes, take a shovel and go out to the row of raised beds I had figured the garlic had to be in. I was pretty sure I had narrowed it down to one of two beds next to each other. He could tell where the ends of the beds were by the hoop trellis we left on Bed #3. So with his shovel, he found the ends of the beds leading down to Bed #6 and #7. By pushing the shovel head down into the snow on top of each bed, he located the wire cattle panel protecting the garlic bed.
Ta-dah, the garlic is in Bed #7. Mystery solved. I bet I'll remember next fall to mark the garlic bed in my garden book in RED INK!
Here he is coming back from the expedition. He said he was glad he didn't sink down into the snow more as it was not easy going even on snowshoes. Good thing he's big and brave and could handle it!
Thursday, February 21, 2019
Good Day on the Home Front
For our first meal of the day today, I made Cheesy Egg Wedges which I haven't made for a while. Wonder why as they are so tasty. Well, I guess I do know why. Cottage cheese is an ingredient and we usually gobble up the cottage cheese I make with either chopped up raw veggies or cut up fruit. But I had just enough left today to use, so something made me remember this particular breakfast dish and I made it.
The original recipe serves six and is made in a 9" pie plate. I halved the recipe this morning, baked it in a funny little 7-1/2" pie plate I have, and we still have one-half left over for breakfast tomorrow morning. The eggs were served with a dollop of salsa on top, augmented by coleslaw made from some of our red cabbage and a sausage patty for each of us.
Fortified by that meal, we went out to clear the few inches of snow we got late yesterday. I shoveled and Papa Pea shoveled and plowed.
Back inside, I tackled the jumble of papers and graphs and designs I've had spread out on the kitchen table and kinda, sorta, almost, nearly finished my garden plans for this coming season.
All twenty-six 4' x 8' raised beds are figured out but for one small glitch. Some dummy forgot to make a notation of which bed she planted the garlic in last October. I even have a picture of it from a blog post I did then.
I've looked at this picture from all angles including upside down, but hard as I've tried, I can't tell exactly which bed it is. Even though the bed is heavily mulched and has a cattle panel lying on top of it, which kept the mulch from blowing off in our fall winds, it's now thoroughly buried under a good quantity of lovely, white snow as are all the rest of the beds. Bottom line, I may have to do a little quick juggling come spring when the garlic bed emerges from the snow. I've left myself a little wiggle room to do that.
Other than making sure I rotate the crops planted in the field garden (as I do in the raised beds) and two new areas we've been working up for the past couple of years, there aren't so many different varieties of vegetables to pencil in for those areas. It's mainly the veggies that need more room (potatoes, beans, pickling cukes, cabbage, shell peas, squashes) that are planted in the larger areas.
This year (silly me), I'm also planting a block of Painted Mountain Corn. It's the only corn variety I've ever grown successfully up here in Minnesota. Being totally frustrated by our corn being laid flat by our high winds the last couple of years I did plant it means this year we've got to figure out a way of surrounding and supporting the corn patch to prevent it from happening again this year. We've got a couple of ideas, and I would so love to get a good crop again.
When the ears are harvested at the right (early) time after development, they are actually good eating as "sweet" corn. The dried corn is wonderful ground as cornmeal and the beautiful ears make outstanding fall decorations.
This afternoon 'twas time to strain and stash away the beef bone broth I've had simmering during the day. Did that and made a big pot of cheddar-cauliflower soup for tonight.
The last couple of times I've made this, I've added cook wild rice, and we really like the added flavor and texture it gives to the soup.
More snow, possibly heavy, is predicted for this weekend. I guess we'd better keep our boots handy and shoveling muscles at the ready.
The original recipe serves six and is made in a 9" pie plate. I halved the recipe this morning, baked it in a funny little 7-1/2" pie plate I have, and we still have one-half left over for breakfast tomorrow morning. The eggs were served with a dollop of salsa on top, augmented by coleslaw made from some of our red cabbage and a sausage patty for each of us.
Fortified by that meal, we went out to clear the few inches of snow we got late yesterday. I shoveled and Papa Pea shoveled and plowed.
Back inside, I tackled the jumble of papers and graphs and designs I've had spread out on the kitchen table and kinda, sorta, almost, nearly finished my garden plans for this coming season.
All twenty-six 4' x 8' raised beds are figured out but for one small glitch. Some dummy forgot to make a notation of which bed she planted the garlic in last October. I even have a picture of it from a blog post I did then.
I've looked at this picture from all angles including upside down, but hard as I've tried, I can't tell exactly which bed it is. Even though the bed is heavily mulched and has a cattle panel lying on top of it, which kept the mulch from blowing off in our fall winds, it's now thoroughly buried under a good quantity of lovely, white snow as are all the rest of the beds. Bottom line, I may have to do a little quick juggling come spring when the garlic bed emerges from the snow. I've left myself a little wiggle room to do that.
Other than making sure I rotate the crops planted in the field garden (as I do in the raised beds) and two new areas we've been working up for the past couple of years, there aren't so many different varieties of vegetables to pencil in for those areas. It's mainly the veggies that need more room (potatoes, beans, pickling cukes, cabbage, shell peas, squashes) that are planted in the larger areas.
This year (silly me), I'm also planting a block of Painted Mountain Corn. It's the only corn variety I've ever grown successfully up here in Minnesota. Being totally frustrated by our corn being laid flat by our high winds the last couple of years I did plant it means this year we've got to figure out a way of surrounding and supporting the corn patch to prevent it from happening again this year. We've got a couple of ideas, and I would so love to get a good crop again.
Picture from the last time I grew it.
When the ears are harvested at the right (early) time after development, they are actually good eating as "sweet" corn. The dried corn is wonderful ground as cornmeal and the beautiful ears make outstanding fall decorations.
This afternoon 'twas time to strain and stash away the beef bone broth I've had simmering during the day. Did that and made a big pot of cheddar-cauliflower soup for tonight.
The last couple of times I've made this, I've added cook wild rice, and we really like the added flavor and texture it gives to the soup.
More snow, possibly heavy, is predicted for this weekend. I guess we'd better keep our boots handy and shoveling muscles at the ready.
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Past Mid-Winter and All Is Well
Here we are fast approaching the last of February, a month that has given us many bright, beautiful, sunny days. Not warm yet, by any means, but that good ol' sunshine makes the still cold temperatures much more tolerable.
Even though true spring time may be firmly in sight for some of you, we've still got the heavy snows of March coming up in our area of northern Minnesota.
We actually get the majority of inches of our snowfall in the month of March. But it's a different kind of snow, one that falls and then melts to a certain degree with increasingly warmer temperatures. We still have to plow and shovel but often it can be done wearing a sweatshirt rather than four layers under a down work jacket.
I started to make some beef gravy to have on hand in the freezer a day or so ago only to discover I was plumb out of beef bone broth. So this morning I've got two of my medium-sized stock pots full of browned, organic, grass-fed beef soup bones. Sure does create a delightful aroma wafting through the house.
When the meat is tender, I'll cut it off the bones and wrap it in packages to have in the freezer for beef hash, soups and stews, etc. Then the bones go back into the pots with the water-turning-into-broth to simmer for the next couple of days. Recommended time for simmering is 10 to 12 hours, probably the longer the better.
The resulting broth is brown, flavorful and quite gelatinous, chock-full of nutrition and all kinds of good stuff. Lots of amino acids, plus it's said to protect joints and help fight osteoarthritis while reducing inflammation in the body. The broth heals the gut and helps to speed our body's healing process. It may even give us better skin, hair and nails while aiding in our much needed restorative sleep and could encourage weight loss. Who can't love all that?
This morning I also spent some quality time in the basement with our remaining onions and garlic. It's necessary to sort through them periodically and toss any that have soft spots . . . or worse.
We still have plenty of garlic. The bigger bulbs in the front are Siberian and the smaller ones in the back are Blanak. I planted this coming year's crop from the biggest of each variety last fall.
I'm hoping the onions will last at least until some scallions are ready in the garden this spring. We had two full milk crates of both the yellow (Stuttgarter Riesen) and the red (Red Comred). The remaining yellows fill about half of one crate and the reds fill about 3/4 of another.
Both the onions and garlic keep well for us in the dry basement at about 52 degrees Fahrenheit.
Next today is a haircut/beard trim for a shaggy Papa Pea and then I'll sit at the kitchen table and start planning where everything will be planted in this year's garden.
Yikes, it's 2 o'clock and I have no idea what to make for our second meal of the day at 4:30. Better decide that pronto!
Even though true spring time may be firmly in sight for some of you, we've still got the heavy snows of March coming up in our area of northern Minnesota.
We actually get the majority of inches of our snowfall in the month of March. But it's a different kind of snow, one that falls and then melts to a certain degree with increasingly warmer temperatures. We still have to plow and shovel but often it can be done wearing a sweatshirt rather than four layers under a down work jacket.
I started to make some beef gravy to have on hand in the freezer a day or so ago only to discover I was plumb out of beef bone broth. So this morning I've got two of my medium-sized stock pots full of browned, organic, grass-fed beef soup bones. Sure does create a delightful aroma wafting through the house.
When the meat is tender, I'll cut it off the bones and wrap it in packages to have in the freezer for beef hash, soups and stews, etc. Then the bones go back into the pots with the water-turning-into-broth to simmer for the next couple of days. Recommended time for simmering is 10 to 12 hours, probably the longer the better.
The resulting broth is brown, flavorful and quite gelatinous, chock-full of nutrition and all kinds of good stuff. Lots of amino acids, plus it's said to protect joints and help fight osteoarthritis while reducing inflammation in the body. The broth heals the gut and helps to speed our body's healing process. It may even give us better skin, hair and nails while aiding in our much needed restorative sleep and could encourage weight loss. Who can't love all that?
This morning I also spent some quality time in the basement with our remaining onions and garlic. It's necessary to sort through them periodically and toss any that have soft spots . . . or worse.
We still have plenty of garlic. The bigger bulbs in the front are Siberian and the smaller ones in the back are Blanak. I planted this coming year's crop from the biggest of each variety last fall.
I'm hoping the onions will last at least until some scallions are ready in the garden this spring. We had two full milk crates of both the yellow (Stuttgarter Riesen) and the red (Red Comred). The remaining yellows fill about half of one crate and the reds fill about 3/4 of another.
Both the onions and garlic keep well for us in the dry basement at about 52 degrees Fahrenheit.
Next today is a haircut/beard trim for a shaggy Papa Pea and then I'll sit at the kitchen table and start planning where everything will be planted in this year's garden.
Yikes, it's 2 o'clock and I have no idea what to make for our second meal of the day at 4:30. Better decide that pronto!
Sunday, February 17, 2019
To Tell the Truth
Here's a question for you to answer. Ready? Gonna tell the truth?
What's the one spot in your home that would embarrass you terribly if an acquaintance saw it?
I'll be the first to be brave and answer my own question.
Under the bathroom sink.
Okay, you wouldn't find any skeletons or shameful secret things there. Just the usual. You know, toilet bowl brush and cleaner, plunger, sponge for cleaning the sink, bottle of Windex, roll of paper towels, shower stall cleaner spray bottle, small bottle of Ivory liquid soap used for washing out my unmentionables in the sink, etc.
But how often do I pull everything out and clean the floor?
The answer is not nearly often enough. As I happened to (really) look under there this morning I thought, yep, that would be my most embarrassing spot.
But wait. Nope. Maybe there is somewhere else that is . . . dum-da-dum-dum . . . worse.
Ooooh, ya. Under. our. king-size. bed.
Oh, my.
What could be there that would be embarrassing, you ask?
Eight boxes of flooring that we purchased and planned on installing on the bedroom floor. Maybe six years ago? Okay, eight. Two big rolls of the foam underlayment for same floor installation.
A box of candles of all assorted shapes and sizes. A box of packages of assorted construction paper. A box of tissue paper. What? You don't store these things under your bed?
A box of my mother's cookbooks I brought home with me when we cleared out her apartment after her death. In 1997.
A scale. Which I have not stepped foot on for somewhere around ten years. Why? I'm petrified thinking of what I would be forced to face if I did.
Two storage tote boxes of my husband's shoes which will be in very good condition for the rest of his life. Because I think there are only two pairs that I've seen him pull out and wear on rare occasions since he retired eleven years ago.
But the really embarrassing thing that is under the bed is the herd of rapidly multiplying dust bunnies. I obviously clean under there less frequently than I do under the bathroom sink.
Now it's your turn. What is the spot in your home you would least want a (snoopy) guest to see? Tell the truth. I'll keep it as our little secret and won't share it with anyone else. (Hee-hee.)
What's the one spot in your home that would embarrass you terribly if an acquaintance saw it?
I'll be the first to be brave and answer my own question.
Under the bathroom sink.
Okay, you wouldn't find any skeletons or shameful secret things there. Just the usual. You know, toilet bowl brush and cleaner, plunger, sponge for cleaning the sink, bottle of Windex, roll of paper towels, shower stall cleaner spray bottle, small bottle of Ivory liquid soap used for washing out my unmentionables in the sink, etc.
But how often do I pull everything out and clean the floor?
The answer is not nearly often enough. As I happened to (really) look under there this morning I thought, yep, that would be my most embarrassing spot.
But wait. Nope. Maybe there is somewhere else that is . . . dum-da-dum-dum . . . worse.
Ooooh, ya. Under. our. king-size. bed.
Oh, my.
What could be there that would be embarrassing, you ask?
Eight boxes of flooring that we purchased and planned on installing on the bedroom floor. Maybe six years ago? Okay, eight. Two big rolls of the foam underlayment for same floor installation.
A box of candles of all assorted shapes and sizes. A box of packages of assorted construction paper. A box of tissue paper. What? You don't store these things under your bed?
A box of my mother's cookbooks I brought home with me when we cleared out her apartment after her death. In 1997.
A scale. Which I have not stepped foot on for somewhere around ten years. Why? I'm petrified thinking of what I would be forced to face if I did.
Two storage tote boxes of my husband's shoes which will be in very good condition for the rest of his life. Because I think there are only two pairs that I've seen him pull out and wear on rare occasions since he retired eleven years ago.
But the really embarrassing thing that is under the bed is the herd of rapidly multiplying dust bunnies. I obviously clean under there less frequently than I do under the bathroom sink.
Now it's your turn. What is the spot in your home you would least want a (snoopy) guest to see? Tell the truth. I'll keep it as our little secret and won't share it with anyone else. (Hee-hee.)
Thursday, February 14, 2019
Valentine Wishes, Sent And Received
I'm a bit late (although it still is Valentine's Day as I write) in sending all of you hearty (pun intended, and not a very good one) wishes on this the 14th day of February. Hope you all had a good day in whatever way you spent it.
Thank you for your Red Heart Day wishes sent here to Minnesota. Especially a very special one I received from Wisconsin.
Chicken Mama stopped by on her way home tonight and gave us this tin full of chocolate heart confections she made.
They're made with organic ingredients, chocolate that is so pricey I feel guilty eating it, and a luscious cream coconut filling that tastes like Mounds Bars used to taste (only better) when they were made with real ingredients. (Way back when.) This sweet treat is her dad's favorite and I will have to hide them somewhere and portion them out or he'll OD on them for sure.
(Susan, recognize the red and black cloth the tin is on?)
Thank you for your Red Heart Day wishes sent here to Minnesota. Especially a very special one I received from Wisconsin.
Chicken Mama stopped by on her way home tonight and gave us this tin full of chocolate heart confections she made.
They're made with organic ingredients, chocolate that is so pricey I feel guilty eating it, and a luscious cream coconut filling that tastes like Mounds Bars used to taste (only better) when they were made with real ingredients. (Way back when.) This sweet treat is her dad's favorite and I will have to hide them somewhere and portion them out or he'll OD on them for sure.
(Susan, recognize the red and black cloth the tin is on?)
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