Tip: How To Peel Hard-boiled Eggs

Probably everyone in the world knows how to peel hard-boiled eggs perfectly.  I did not know.  Today I tried something different. It worked!  Six hard-boiled eggs perfectly peeled.

Hard-boiled eggs, straight from the shells.  No Photoshopping!

This is what I did:

Boiled the eggs.  Ran cold water over them for about a minute so they were not too hot to hold.

(This is the tip.)Gently cracked the large end of the egg on the counter then carefully removed the shell rinsing in the cold water as I worked.  Every.Single.One.Was.Perfect!  It has never happened before. I always raunch up the eggs and lose half of the white.

Now if I can only remember the next time...

  I think I will hard-boil eggs every day for the next week  to prove that it really works AND that I can remember to do it!

Handwork: The Lace Doilie Pink and Green Quilt

Years ago I saw some wonderful crocheted doilies at a store near home.  Some were pinks.  Some were greens.  Some were ecru.  I thought they would make a nice accent to a quilt I wanted to make.

I found burgundy, pink and two green fabrics that went with the doilie colors.  Yay!

The outer (invisible) sashing is light green then dark green.

Taking a large square of each of the fabrics, close to ten inches across, I appliqued--by machine--the lace onto the squares then cut the fabric/lace across in both directions.  I then set them together with smaller squares of fabrics.  Sashing around the central medallion then another round of the leftover lace/fabric squares made a nice quilt.  There were thick sashings around the outside so the quilt became 120 by 120 inches. 

Detail on the lace doilie applique.

Finally we have a king-sized bed and can use it without tripping over the overhang!

Munchie Monday: Another Food Failure

Friends gave us some zucchini and yellow summer squash.  I thought I would try again to make zucchini chips.  Well, it was failure number two with the zucchini chips.

What I did:

The last time I made them they turned out pretty salty.  I thought this time I thought I would use soy sauce instead of salt...flavor and a little saltiness.  I also used some olive oil and some granulated garlic.

There was enough for two  half-sheet pans...actually, three but I only had two, so that is what I used.  One was lined with aluminum foil.  The other one had a Silpat liner.  I put them into a 350 degree F. oven for 30 minutes.  No where near ready so I put them in for another 30 minutes.  Still not ready.  Since I had to go out, I turned the oven down to 225 degrees F and left for an hour.

After all this time,  a tiny portion of the two sheets were crispy.  The rest were not even close.  Adding liquid to the mix was a bad idea!  These taste okay, though.

Second Zucchini Chip Failure.

I may try one more time. After I get a second Silpat mat.  The chips that were on the aluminum foil stuck terribly.  The Silpat mat released them perfectly. 

Food Friday: Quick Easy Restaurant-like Salsa

Salsa goes well with many things besides corn chips.  Baked potatoes, scrambled eggs, stew, mashed potatoes, just about any casserole.

Here is a very quick and easy one.  The original recipe is here. 

The little tin with invisible label at the bottom of the photo is the tinned jalapenos.  It was Ortega brand, I am pretty sure.

What you need:

• 1 can fire roasted tomatoes
• 1 can Rotel tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic which you have peeled
• 1 cup fresh washed cilantro (about ½ a bunch or less if you are not such a fan of cilantro)
• 2 Tablespoons canned chopped jalapenos
• 1 large white or yellow onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon pepper
• 1 Tablespoon lime juice  (I used lemon juice but it was still good.  Don't forget the lime, though. )
•  
• Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until you like the consistency.  I did it in a blender and had a more mushy consistency than I like but it still tasted very good.

This salsa is more of a mush.  Next time I will use the food processor instead of the blender. If you like chunky, this was a failure....

Harvest 2016: Tomato Harvest is Coming In!

This year we planted mostly heirloom tomato plants:

Amish paste tomatoes--not sure if these are heirloom.  We planted four of these plants.
Brandywine
Ukrainian Purple
Mortgage Lifter
Black Krim

We planted one plant each of the Brandywine, Ukrainian Purple, Mortgage Lifter, and Black Krim.  They grew pretty well.  None of them had a lot of set fruit though we had quite a few blossoms.

We have started the harvest.

The Brandywine are the big red ones at the bottom.  Amish Paste are on top with the Krim and Purple filling in.  The Mortgage Lifter has already been consumed.  Only two set fruit there, to it would have had to have been a VERY SMALL mortgage...maybe a chicken house...?

The fruit all taste wonderful.  There is nothing like a warmed-by-the-sun tomato sliced, lightly salted on a piece of toasted whole wheat bread.  It is even better with a thin coating of mayonnaise on the toast under the tomato.  I could eat these for every meal.  What am I saying?  I DO eat these for every meal, especially breakfast.  Along with a few leaves of kale.  Yummy!

Sadly,  some tomato disease has gotten most of these plants.  I have not figured out what it is yet.  I know hybrid plants are bred not to have some of the diseases that heirloom plants can get.

Watercolor Painting: The Morrill Homestead. Sort of.

The second painting I started at the Jennifer Brown class was a painting with more colors.  There was a puzzle on the wall of the Morrill Homestead.  I attempted that.

Not very successful, but still, you can tell it is a house with shrubbery around it, I think.  And outbuildings.

Same story on the keyboard: not part of the painting.  Sorry for the distraction.  Have not learned how to use Photoshop Elements yet.

Munchie Monday: An Almost Depraved Chocolate Treat!

We had a Church social over the weekend:  a barbecue which the men handled.  We were asked to bring a salad, side dish, or dessert.  I asked Dear One what we should make. He said, "The Usual".  Just to clarify/make sure communication was happening, I asked what the usual was.  He told me "the Chinese noodles".  Okay!  I could do that.

So I made Orchid's Cool Tangy Noodles.  A triple batch and put them in a nice big round see-through plastic bucket that whole almonds came in at the Coop store near here.  I put in more of the green rings from scallion tops than usual but people still ate up the noodles.  Especially the grandchildren!

Dessert was also on my menu. Potluck meals sometimes have too little of some foods so I always like to bring a savory AND a sweet.  I found a recipe for a great dessert.  If you worry about chocolate overload, don't make this.  If you worry about sweets addiction, don't make this.  If you worry about sugar destroying teeth, don't make this.

But if you want to make it anyway, this is what to do:

Make one batch of chocolate chip cookie dough.
Get one bag of Oreo cookies.  I used Double Stuffed Oreos.  Any family-sized bag will do.
Make one batch of brownie batter. I used Duncan Hines brownie mix...I think 18.2 ounce.  Homemade would work, too.  I was lazy.  Plus I like the way brownie mixes always turn out the same.
Get out a 9 by 13 pan.
Cut a large piece of aluminum foil to cover the bottom, sides, and enough go over the edges of the pan to use as a "lifter" for when the bars are cooked.

These two I saved at home in case there were no leftovers.  There were no leftovers!  The front bar is on its side so you can see the Oreo center.

1.  Put the foil in the pan.
2.  Spray with non-stick cooking spray then set oven pre-heating at 350 degrees F.
3.  Spread the chocolate chip cookie dough in the bottom of the pan.
4.  Lay out the Oreos next to each other to cover the entire top of the pan of cookie dough. (There were enough left over for Dear One to have a breakfast treat...!)
5.  Spread the brownie batter over the top, spreading to entirely cover the Oreos and underlying cookie dough.
6.  Cover with more foil.
7.  Bake at 350 degrees F. for 30 minutes.
8.  Remove foil from top of pan then return to oven and cook 30-40 more minutes.
9.  Remove from oven and let cool completely.  If you want nice looking bars, this will take about an hour.
10.  Lift the bars from the cooled pan of treats and cut into SMALL cubes.
11.  Enjoy one bar and drift off into chocolate oblivion.