Soft Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce

This make a super fancy meal, and has very little work involved.

I started about three hours before hand, with a couple quart jars of tomatoes we canned last year. Put those in a large sauce pan and started it boiling down. I mixed in some basil and oregano, some minced garlic, and some salt in pepper.

Two and a half hours later (and some occasional stirring), there was magically a pot of tomato sauce sitting on my stove.

Meanwhile we washed and cut up some lettuce and strawberries for a nice summer salad.

About ten minutes before supper time, drop in your eggs (we did one dozen, for seven people). They don't cook as fast as if you're poaching them in regular water, so after about ten minutes the yolks are still tasty. If you like you're eggs overcooked, go ahead and wait fifteen minutes and the yolks will be all solid.

That's basically all there is too it. We served it over garlic toast we made out of some tomato ciabatta we had lying around, and plated it with the strawberry salad.

fancy fancy.

We came across some hotdog buns, here at the house, so that sort of inspired me to try a little variation on these veggie fritters i've been making. Pictured above, i made some broccoli/yellow bell pepper dogs.

To do so, beat one egg, and a few tablespoons of flour. Steam broccoli for about five minutes, then cut into small chunks. Saute some yellow bell peppers in butter or olive oil, and again, chop into fairly small chunks. Then mix it all together.

I fried these in butter, in long hotdog shaped strips. To round them out, flip it before it's quite browned (you can come back and brown that side later). The side facing up will be flat, as it spread out against the pan. So using a spatula bend the sides down into a rounder shape.

Since we're in chicago, i had to do this dog up all fancy with tomatoes, lettuce, cheese, pickled jalepenos, mayo and mustard.

And since it's strawberry season, instead of chips or fries, i threw a pile of strawberries up in there.

strawberry banana rum smoothies

A couple bananas, strawberries, yogurt, ice, a few shots of rum, and a blender. Add in a crazy straw and it's officially summer. even if it's only 60 degrees outside.

Strawberry Rhubarb

Made my first jam of this growing season. We got both in our CSA (community supported agriculture) box last wednesday, and it looked like more strawberries than we would eat.

So, we canned 'em. Haven't gone out to buy pectin for this year yet, so i just made preserves.

To do so:

I mixed about five cups of chopped up strawberries, and four stalks worth of chopped up rhubarb with about 4 or 5 cups of sugar. I let that sit for a few minutes till it started getting nice and juicy, and then put it over heat. After about ten minutes of boiling this sugary strawberry rhubarb mixture the smell begins to loft through the air, penetrating the entire house. Your housemates or perhaps neighbors will start wandering in, wondering what sweet confectioneries are being confected.

I think i boiled it for about 45 minutes. Then to can it, i just used a trick my mom showed me long ago, i ladled the hot jam into jars, put the lid and ring on them and then turned them upside down (so the hot jam is against the lid and helps seal it). No pressure cooker or water bath necessary (there's so much sugar in this stuff, it's pretty well preserved, hence the name, preserves).

This amount made what you see next to this text, a little over four and a half pints.

broccoli burger

The other day we had some broccoli on the verge of going limp, so i was trying to think of something good to do with it. Well, somehow i got in my head that a broccoli burger might be a good idea.

So here it is, crazy, and not really burger-like, but actually tasty. It's really sort of like a korean vegetable pancake, just, you know, on a bun. Here's the break-down:

I steamed my broccoli for eight minutes-ish. then cut it into tiny little bits. This broccoli i mixed with one egg and enough flour to make the egg not runny, but battery (batter-like, that is, not a duracell). I added some salt and pepper to the batter too.

Then i just heated up some oil in my frying pan and put in a couple burgers worth of broccoli stuff. Then end product was tasty, and very filling. Lots of nutrition from the broccoli, and some protein from the egg. I made a spicy mayo (mayo, sour cream, chili powder, sriracha, salt) to put on my toasted bun, and through some dark green leaf on there (i don't really know what it was, not spinach, maybe some sort of lettuce). I wish we had tomatoes.

You know what the problem with the world is? Tomatoes and lettuce don't come at the same time. I've got all these greens right now, but by the time the tomatoes are ripe, it'll be too hot for my greens to grow. Someday i'll find a magical variety of tomatoes that will grow when it's colder.

potato soup

This is just a basic creamy potato soup i put together.

Cut up your potatoes into small chunks, and cut up your carrots and celery into even smaller chunks. Then boil those in some veggie broth until tender. I usually like to add in some extra flavors here, maybe some basil or oregano. Thyme, sage, whatever is sounding good.

Meanwhile brown some onions and garlic in butter or olive oil.

Mix the onions and garlic in with your the boiling soup, add seasonings and some milk/soy milk. If you want it thicker, mix some flour or cornstarch in a quarter cup of hot water, then mix that into the boiling soup, it'll thicken on up. While you're at it, throw in some more seasonings, for good measure, no one likes bland potatoes.

I topped mine with some shredded cheddar cheese and a little parsley, just to make it look fancy schmancy.

chocolate pocket pies

I got the idea for these from an alton brown show, and thought i'd try it out.

Basically, it's a slightly sweet biscuit dough, rolled out then in little 10" diameter circles. Then i put a a bit of chocolate filling (see below) on one side, folded it in half to form the pocket, and that's basically it. I crimped the sides with a fork, and poked a few slots for steam to get out in the top, then baked. Oh, i suppose i also sprinkled some sugar over it.

The filling could be any pie type filling. I creamed some butter with sugar and cocoa powder.

Pretty easy, and fun. Eat 'em hot.