poached eggs

Poached eggs are funny, aren't they? People love them or hate them. Some people are intimidated to attempt them, others think they're easy peasy. Why are there so many ways to cook eggs, anyway? I can think of maybe three ways to cook broccoli. Three ways to cook chicken. But eggs? I count seven just off the top of my head, and I'm probably forgetting some.

Eggs are awesome.

I took my first crack at poaching eggs (pun completely intended) Smitten Kitchen-style. There may be other methods that work fine, even better, but this one worked perfectly for me the first time, so I'm sticking to it. A little vinegar in the simmering water, get your swirl on, crack the egg in, take it out in a few minutes. So much easier than I thought it would be!

And what could be better for breakfast (or lunch or dinner) than two poached eggs on top of leftover sweet potato? Two poached eggs over kale, perhaps. But the sweet potato was pretty awesome.

homemade butterfingers

Recipes for turning candy corn into homemade Butterfingers have been around for years. After staring at a jar of candy corn for two weeks, I finally tried transforming them from something I would never eat (I have never liked candy corn), into something that I would probably eat.

Imagine my surprise after I made them and had the urge to eat them all in one sitting.

There are a million recipes out there; I used this one from Tasty Kitchen, because it suckered me in with “3 Ingredients” in the title. I'm lazy, but I can handle three ingredients.

Ingredient number one: candy corn. Now, I told you I don't like this stuff. Honestly, I avoid it like Frankenstein's monster avoids fire. Candy corn, bad! Corn syrup, bad! Yellow #5, bad! Watching it melt was a little nauseating. But I sucked it up and kept on because I really wanted to see if the end result tasted like Butterfingers.

Once the candy corn was melted, I mixed in peanut butter. I spread that disgusting mixture that looked like puke into a parchment lined pan and let it cool and harden in the fridge. After an hour, I pulled it out, cut it into mini bars, and covered each one with chocolate.

Ok, you got me. I “covered” two with chocolate, for pictures. I'm lazy and I didn't want to waste two cups of chocolate chips on something that might not taste good, so I skimped and only half covered the rest.

Silly, silly me. They're delicious! They taste very close to Butterfingers and even have that crispy crunch if you eat them right out of the freezer. I thought keeping them in the freezer would help limit the amount I ate, but no such luck. I do have my husband to keep me accountable, though. He comes home from work and asks how many I ate, so he can be sure to eat the same amount. Gotta be fairsies, you know. We did not, however, tell the children about these new treats. They have buckets full of trick or treat candy and certainly don't need any more.

If you've still got candy corn sitting on your counter, you should definitely try them. They were easy and pretty quick to make. The chocolate dipping took a while, but I've seen some floating around online that were just covered on the top and bottom like layered bars. I would totally do that next time.

If I make them again, that is. I still look at that impossibly orange filling when I'm eating one and remind myself that I'm eating little bits of candy corn. I'm pretty amazed that those yucky little things can be turned into something I actually like.

owl cupcakes

My baby brother and his wife are having a baby! I guess I should stop calling him my baby brother. My SIL's baby shower had an owl/floral/woodland theme, and I was asked to make cupcakes. These are what I came up with. I love how they turned out!

The shower was a gluten-free affair, and I used Betty Crocker gluten-free mixes for the cupcakes. GF cooking from scratch is an obstacle I have not yet conquered. To make things a little more interesting, I made three different frostings. We had

• chocolate cake with cinnamon frosting,
• yellow cake with lemon frosting, and
• chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting

I made marshmallow fondant owls for half the cupcakes, accenting them differently for the different cupcake flavors. One type had a pearl (sprinkle) flower, one type had (edible) glittery wings, and the last had glittery bellies. The pupils are mini chocolate chips.

The perfectionist in me sees all the flaws, but the cupcakes really were a big hit at the shower. The mama-to-be liked them, so that's a success in my book!

mystery squash

I'm a lazy composter. I just throw my garden/fruit/veggie scraps in a pile outside and let it sit. A year later, it turns into compost, but many seeds survive the process. As a result, I get kale and tomatoes and squash growing out of my compost pile, and mystery squash growing in my garden. I thought these two were going to be zucchini when they started growing because they were dark green. But they were growing short and stubby instead of long and slender. As fall approached, they started turning orange, so I thought maybe they were pumpkins. But they didn't get round and dark orange like pumpkins.

Last week I plucked them off their vines and cut them open. They looked like squash inside. Imagine that! They both had the little round cells that I'm used to seeing in spaghetti squash, so I cooked them accordingly. They didn't shred quite as easily as spaghetti squash after cooking, though. I'm guessing they were some mutant, cross-pollinated version. They tasted fine, and we're all still alive, so I call it a win.

I used the small one for Squash with Curried Apples and Turkey (pictured below), and the large one for gnocchi. Hooray for free volunteer vegetables!

zucchini noodles

If you planted zucchini this year, I'm guessing right about now you're thinking, “What am I going to do with all this zucchini??” I haven't planted zucchini the last two years because I don't actually like zucchini unless it's baked into bread or zucchini cake. But after Monday night's dinner, I'm starting to change my mind.

My sister-in-law gave me two zucchinis last weekend, as well as two cups of grated zucchini for the freezer. (How perfect is that? Love her!) Inspired by this Kitchn post, I pulled out my mandoline and julienned the whole zucchinis into “noodles”. They're not noodles, Mom, my 9-yr old said with that almost-teenager look in her eyes, they're zucchini.

But she liked them anyway. I put them in a bowl, added some thinly sliced sweet onions and chopped cilantro, then tossed it all with some leftover peanut dressing. I topped it with cooked, diced chicken breast and sprinkled on some pepper flakes for the adults.

It was so good! It didn't taste like zucchini at all. I promise you, this is the only way I have ever liked zucchini that wasn't zucchini bread or cake. 

Oh, and it was fast. Since the chicken was already cooked, I had a healthy dinner on the table in less than 20 minutes.

I'll have to find room in the garden for zucchini next spring.

fresh garden salad

We're doing an experiment this month. Our small town farmer's market opened last Tuesday, and I really want to support our local farmers. But the cost of buying local can be prohibitive at times, so our experiment is to buy as much of our produce as possible from the farmer's market and local u-pick farms* this month (and supplement with a few things from our garden, like these tiny sweet beets) and see how much it affects our monthly grocery expenses. I'm interested to see how much our grocery bill changes.

This dinner included beets and snow peas from our garden, mixed with roasted local potatoes, garlic, and carrots, served on top of locally grown lettuce and garnished with locally made cheese. 

I think smaller portions might be key to making this work financially. It will be interesting to see how that goes over, too. . . 

*I've probably picked 10-15lbs of blueberries in the past two weeks. I love harvest season in the Columbia River Gorge!

milk with honey & cinnamon

We buy large glass jars of our favorite local honey. This stuff is so thick, you almost need a fork to get it out. It's fantastic. It's also extremely difficult to get out a small amount from the glass jar, so we pour it into a plastic squeezable bottle for daily use.

But there's always a thick layer of leftover honey clinging to the glass jar. Spend half a day with me and you'll realize that I do not waste food. I just can't do it. So here's what I do to get that last bit of honey out of the jar:

1. Pour in a good amount of cinnamon* and mix with whatever honey has pooled on the bottom of the jar.
2. Pour in milk.*
3. Place jar in a pot of water and heat gently until milk is warm and honey has come off the bottom portion of the jar.
4. Screw the lid on the jar, take it out of the water, dry it a little, and shake that warm milk like crazy until all the honey dissolves from the inside of the jar.
5. Distribute into mugs. Plain for the kids; with coffee for me.

*Amounts will vary with the quantity of honey. It's a trial and error kind of thing. I like lots of cinnamon and I fill one third of the jar with milk.

Perfect for a late winter board game day.

256/366 banana vs apple oatmeal squares

Last week on the MakeHappy Facebook page, I shared a recipe my sister-in-law found on Gingerbread Bagels for Peanut Butter Banana Oatmeal Squares.* There was some discussion on whether the recipe could be made with applesauce instead of mashed banana, and I said I'd try both and report back.

I did, and yes, both fruits work equally. 

Both batches of oatmeal squares baked up exactly the same, except one has a sweet banana flavor and one has a tart apple flavor.  (I used unsweetened applesauce.)

I wasn't sure how much applesauce would equal the one ripe mashed banana called for in the recipe. I guessed 1/2 cup, and since that happened to be the measuring cup I had out already, I crammed the banana in it to double check. Perfect fit!

So if you're in the mood for peanut butter apple oatmeal squares, head to Gingerbread Bagels* for the recipe, and substitute 1/2 cup applesauce for the mashed banana. 

And after you pull them out of the oven, if you want nice, neat squares, wait until they're actually cool before you cut them. Impatient baked good fiends like myself tend to cut too early and get crumbly edges. (And lazy food stylists like myself end up with poor photos of said crumbly edges—see above.)

Oh, and hey! They're tasty! You should definitely try them. No flour, no oil or butter. (If you want to make them gluten free, be sure to use oats that are gluten free.) They mix and bake so fast, you can satisfy your craving for something warm and soft before it goes away. Not really a good thing, but these are relatively healthy so you don't have to feel too guilty. 

*Edited 13 November 2012: I went back to make these again today (with chocolate chips!), and the Gingerbread Bagels site was down. I found a copy of the recipe here.

220/366 baby bok choy and turkey barley soup

This turkey barley vegetable soup from Real Simple is one of our favorites. It's super duper healthy and the kids love it! You can change it up quite a bit—adding spices, using different meats or vegetables, even a different broth would give the flavor a little tweak. Tonight, instead of celery and spinach, I used baby bok choy. It was delicious. I'll probably make it again with swiss chard from the garden before the summer is over. What's your favorite summer soup?

190/366 marinated tomatoes

I made Missy's Marinated Tomatoes from the Pioneer Woman's blog. We ate them with homemade focaccia bread for lunch. (My focaccia is just herby pizza crust with no toppings, or sometimes topped with cheese. Or sometimes garlic.)

I changed it up a little bit. Missy's recipe calls for a whole cup of canola oil. I'm not a fan of the taste of plain canola oil, and I couldn't bear to use a whole cup. So I substituted with 1/3 cup of good, flavorful olive oil. 

I also used good, thick, syrupy balsamic vinegar. (I love the syrupy balsamic. So different than the grocery store stuff. We get our balsamic and olive oil locally from OVINO in Hood River, OR.)

I omitted the parsley, because we didn't have any.

I added chopped cucumber, because we had some that needed to be used.

It was delicious! Even with store-bought tomatoes. It was a little on the sweet side for me, so next time I'd use less sugar. The sweetness in mine could have been amplified by the extra-sweet balsamic.

There was just a little bit leftover—I'd say the complete recipe made about five cups. I strained the balsamic olive oil infused with tomato, green onion and herbs into a jar to be used as salad dressing. I'm dreaming of that salad now. . .

185/366 summer fruit

I am so happy the summer fruit has finally arrived here. . . in-season ripeness and in-season prices! Last week was slim pickins, but today we brought home cantaloupe (39 cents a pound!), grapes ($1.59!), nectarines ($1.89, and ripe! And sweet!), plums, corn on the cob, and avocados. Yum.

We celebrated with rice-cake-face lunches. I supplied rice cakes with some sort of sticky medium (Sweetpea chose cream cheese, Mister chose peanut butter) and an array of fruits, veggies, nuts, seeds, shredded cheese, raisins, etc. for decoration. The kids loved using white corn for teeth this time. :)

182/366 wheatless

We picked up this loaf of bread at a farmer's market in Seattle. It's vegan (so no eggs or milk) and contains no soy, rice, or gluten. (What's left, right?) It was really interesting talking to the owner/baker about her ingredients. I frequently bake for people with dietary restrictions and I love learning about all the alternative ingredients.

This bread was amazing. It looked, felt, and tasted like “regular” wheat bread. It had perfect density and crumb, it was soft and moist, and it tasted good. I definitely recommend this bakery to anyone in the Seattle area. If you're not in the Seattle area, some items can be shipped. (This is starting to sound like a commercial. I promise I wasn't asked to give a review and I paid full price for the bread. I just like sharing great products with you guys!)

cheeseburger salad

“Best salad ever.” That's what Hubs keeps saying. I'd say even the kids agree with him. They're not fans of salad, but they love this. I first saw it on The Pioneer Woman, and Ree says she based it on this Pampered Chef recipe. Whoever created it is a genius, as far as I'm concerned. I could eat the ground beef mixed with ketchup, mustard, and barbecue sauce in a bowl with a spoon, and I am not a meat lover.

I didn't have any hot dog or hamburger buns to make the croutons as suggested in the recipe, so we had it with oven fries. The fries were the perfect accompaniment, and made the meal gluten-free. 

I also made it a tiny bit healthier by adding raw spinach and young kale leaves to the romaine, and a cup of leftover cooked quinoa to the ground beef. Sweetpea said, “I know what you put in here. You put quinoa in the meat. But it's ok. I still really like it.” That darn germ ring is a dead giveaway.

The salad provided great dinner conversation. We talked about all kinds of variations we should try. Sweetpea wanted to try it with homemade cheese sauce instead of grated cheese. Hubs wanted honey mustard dressing. (Yuck.) I thought a Big Mac/fry sauce/special sauce type dressing (there are lots of copycat recipes online) would be good.

We all agreed, reluctantly, that we'll have to make this a turkey burger salad (using ground turkey instead of beef) if we add this to our regular rotation. Sigh.

Click over to the recipes and make it! Let me know what variations you come up with, so I can add them to our list. :)

Pioneer Woman's Cheeseburger Salad

Pampered Chef Deluxe Cheeseburger Salad

sweet potato black bean quinoa burgers

My favorite new blog find of the week? The Joy of Clean Eating. This blog has tons of recipes, including many that are vegan, gluten free and grain free. Like these sweet potato quinoa burgers with black beans. They were so tasty! I was skeptical—non-beef burgers are prone to falling apart, which causes me much frustration. But these held together flawlessly. They do have a softer texture than regular burgers of course, but none of us seemed to mind.

I didn't have any buns on the night I made them, so we ate them plain. I put mine on a bed of baby spinach with raw bell peppers on the side. My dinner was filling and completely satisfying, but I didn't feel weighed down. Such a great feeling.

I baked them this time, but next time I'll pan fry them. The author mentions in her post that they taste like hash browns if you pan fry them. Yum.

For the kids, who don't love spinach and won't touch bell peppers, I gave them just a few spinach leaves and some extra corn. They both really liked the burgers! 

Note: I know this sounds like an advertisement. I assure you that I don't know the authors of the blog and they didn't ask me for a review. I just tried the recipe and really loved it.

Have you tried any new recipes this week?

favorite: kale

I am in love.

I walked in to Trader Joe's (an hour's drive from my house) last weekend and the first thing I saw was this bag of kale. This beautiful, amazing bag of pre-washed kale was sitting on the shelf so nonchalantly, as if bags of pre-washed kale were available at every grocery store. No flashing neon signs to draw attention to such a wonderful thing. I was flabbergasted and threw two into my cart before anyone else could grab them.

Now, I know I live in a small town. Our grocery selections are not as broad as those in larger cities. Is pre-washed kale a new thing?

I love eating kale.

I detest washing kale.

Dirt hides in all those curls and folds and has to be scrubbed out. I bought flat-leaf (lacinato) kale seeds for the garden for easier washing, but still had to scrub them because of the bugs. (They looked like aphids. I need to try ladybugs this year.)

Finding pre-washed, pre-cut kale was the highlight of my week.

I've been eating it every day since. I threw some in a barley and bean minestrone. I sautéed some with quinoa and nuts for breakfast. (Yes, really. That's how much I love kale!) Today it was sautéed beside huevos rancheros à la Smitten Kitchen (minus the cheese and beans).  Cutting out the prep work makes this my new favorite ingredient. I'm going to be traveling to Trader Joe's a lot more often.

My heart is so happy.

homemade raw cashew butter

Are you a nut butter fan? What's your favorite? I used to think I was just a peanut butter girl. Love peanut butter. But not the healthy, natural kind. I've always eaten Jif. I've tried the natural nut butters and they were 1) too dry, 2) too cold, because they have to be refrigerated, 3) not sweet/salty/smooth enough.

But I came across this recipe for homemade nut butters from Heather Eats Almond Butter on Pinterest, and I happened to have a huge bag of raw cashews in the fridge, so I gave it a whirl. Literally, a whirl in the food processor. A looooong whirl. It took forever to get the cashew powder to turn “creamy” in the food processor. How does that work, exactly? Are the natural oils of the nut released when it is obliterated enough? I probably could have processed it longer to make it creamier, but I was getting impatient and was afraid my food processor motor would overheat.

It was worth it, though. I do believe this was the best nut butter ever. It tasted like every other natural nut butter I've had, but for some reason I just loved it. Maybe it was because I made it myself and I knew it only had one ingredient? Just cashews. Gotta love that.

I had some Jif today, and I tell ya, it wasn't setting off any fireworks for me. I may just be a natural nut butter convert.

But if I want to start making nut butters at home regularly, I'm going to need an industrial food processor. It takes a lot of power.

Have you ever made your own nut butter? How did it go for you?