2008 November

Mind-blowing, good, clean fun.

November 21, 2008 by Rebecca 2 Comments

We are having a wonderously wintery weather day. The snow is blowing and it’s *brrrrrr* cold out there. It’s enough to make you pull on the wool socks, a super thick sweat shirt, brew a cup of tea (or coffee or cocoa), and curl up with a good book. Trouble is, there’s only so much ‘curling up with a good book’ that five boys are willing to do- blustery winds or not. The little guys lose interest after an hour or so and the big guys get exasperated that the little guys keep bouncing hot wheels off the spines of their books.

Animusic to the rescue. We were introduced to the original Animusic DVD by a friend of ours from our old church. From the first time we heard the music and saw the animation the kids (and the adults) were transfixed. There’s something incredibly mesmerizing about fantastical instruments playing themselves. And no matter how many times we’ve all seen them they don’t lose the ability to keep us all entertained. Every time we see them we catch something we haven’t seen before.

Another aspect of these that never ceases to amaze is the accuracy of movement in these musical instruments. They have proper fret placement. Scales and timing are perfect. AND THEY’RE ANIMATED. Take THAT guitar hero. Check them out and see whether you agree…

This one is my favorite. The kids and the Evil Genius have their own preferences, but this one makes me feel very mellow and very relaxed. That’s priceless around here!

…And take it from me. If you find the videos you just saw intriguing, go ahead and spend the $13 to get the DVD (for Animusic 1 or $20 for Animusic 2). You really have not seen these properly until you’ve popped ‘em in the DVD player and turned up your T.V. volume almost as high as it goes and watched the video all the way through. One of the pieces from Animusic 2 actually had us cheering and clapping. When’s the last time you did that?

Filed Under: Product Reviews, Rebecca

Thor, the overheated rooster…

November 19, 2008 by Rebecca 3 Comments

For those of you reading our blog who don’t live in Traverse City, Michigan, I’ve reprinted this week’s Foodie With Family column. Enjoy!

No chicken recipes here

But we sure do love our eggs

Last spring marked our first foray into the area of “keeping” animals. We have had a dog or two, a cat and a few various and sundry fish but that had always been enough.

We decided to follow the example of a few friends and ordered day-old chicks from a reputable hatchery and combined orders with those friends to save on shipping. When we picked up our box of live chicks at the post office our more knowledgeable neighbors sorted the birds and we went home with our little peepers.

This particular hatchery is in the habit of sending a mystery chick along with the others you order and our friends generously told us to keep it. The hatchery does not keep records of the breed or gender of the chicken they send. The “mystery bird” was a great source of excitement around here.

As we watched our chicks grow we all became chicken fanciers. We read up on the different breeds in an attempt to learn what our mystery bird was. All our reading was not without its uses. We realized fairly quickly that our friend had mixed up a couple of the chicks when separating our order. We had ended up with one of their meat birds while they ended up with one of our layer hens. Since they wanted another layer it was agreed that we would simply keep the meat bird and butcher it when that fateful time came.

For those of you who are novices like we were, let me explain. A meat bird is one that is bred from two fast-growing breeds of chicken in order to get large and meaty quickly. They get gigantic in very little time and are usually butchered at between 6 and 8 weeks old. When that time came my kind-hearted husband had a “Charlotte’s Web” moment and went all E.B. White on me. He came in the house and said, “I can’t do it. Meat Bird just looked at me and I know she was begging me. She lets me pet her beak.” And that was that.

Meat Bird — yes, that is her name — became one of the flock. She’s not the prettiest thing to study. She is, unlike the other graceful birds, squat and clumsy. She positions herself in front of the feed tray and doesn’t move until every last morsel is gone. Her personal hygiene is abysmal. Can you even say chickens have personal hygiene? I’m not sure. All I know is the rest of them are clean and she is decidedly not. But she won’t go into the roasting pan until she croaks on her own time.

It wasn’t until a couple months ago that we learned our mystery chicken’s breed — Golden Laced Wyandotte — and it wasn’t until last week that we learned it was a rooster. Our eyes weren’t trained enough to spot differences that might have been obvious to someone with more poultry experience. We decided patience was the best bet and were rewarded by the sound of crowing one morning early last week.

While Meat Bird had kept her moniker, the rest of the chickens had gone mainly unnamed. The presence of a rooster inspired us, though, and we decided to name him “Thor.”

A couple days ago my husband came in from doing chores in the coop. Loudly, he announced, “Thor is hot for Meat Bird!”

Five little pairs of ears perked up, five little heads wheeled around to look at their father and my 10-year-old inquisitor piped up, “Hey Dad! What do you mean? Why is Thor hot for Meat Bird? Does he have a fever?” This was quickly followed by the rest of the boys shouting their questions about why Thor was overheated.

I stepped in quickly and said, “Boys. Dad is going to explain to you right now exactly what he means when he says that Thor is hot for Meat Bird.”

My husband looked at me with a horrified look on his face. His eyes were large and pleading much like I imagine Meat Bird’s eyes looked like when she “begged” him to spare her.

I clapped my husband on the shoulder, wheeled on my heel and, while leaving the room, said, “This is a great opportunity for him to have a talk with you that he’s been meaning to have for some time.

The following recipes use no chicken but make ample use of eggs. Use farm fresh eggs if they’re available. The difference in flavor and color is astonishing.

Baked Ham and Swiss Eggs (Oeufs en Cocotte)

This classic French dish is incredibly simple to prepare but delivers an amazingly sophisticated flavor and texture. The ease of preparation makes it a wonderful last-minute dish for breakfast, lunch or dinner. You will need four oven-safe ramekins or custard cups to prepare this dish.

Ingredients:

4 large eggs
2 c. chopped ham
1 c. shredded Swiss cheese
4 T. heavy cream or half and half, divided
6 T. butter, divided, plus extra for buttering ramekins
1 large onion, minced
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced thin
4 thick slices bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the center.

Generously butter the ramekins and set aside on a baking pan. Evenly divide the ham and then the Swiss cheese between the ramekins. Crack one egg into each ramekin and top with 1 T. of the cream. The cream helps prevent the eggs from drying out while baking. Bake until eggs are set up and whites are cooked through. For runny yolks this will be about 12 minutes. For semi-set yolks, bake closer to 15 minutes. For firm yolks, allow to cook for nearly 18 minutes.

While the eggs are baking, melt 3 T. butter over medium high heat in a heavy-bottomed skillet. Add the onions and mushrooms and salt to taste. Sautee the mixture until the onions are softened and the mushrooms are golden brown. Remove to a bowl.

Return pan to heat and melt the remaining butter. Toss bread cubes in the melted butter, salt to taste, and cook, stirring, until bread is toasted evenly and is golden brown. Remove pan from the heat and set aside.

Remove ramekins from the oven and top with generous amounts of the onions, mushrooms and bread cubes. Because the ramekins hold heat for quite a while, put a small piece of dampened paper towel or a lettuce leaf on each plate before adding the ramekin. This helps to prevent it from sliding around and burning folks. Serve immediately.

Soy Sauce Glazed Hard Cooked Eggs

These delicious eggs make a healthy snack or a light lunch but they also round out stir-fry or other rice-based meals nicely. Do yourself a favor and try these. They’re quick to prepare and they’re delicious!

This has been a regular in Val’s vast culinary repertoire. The version below is from Madhur Jaffrey’s “World of the East Vegetarian Cooking.” Feel free to make it your own by adding a few crushed red pepper flakes or a small slice of fresh ginger to the sauce. Either way they’re superb.

Ingredients:

4 hard-cooked eggs
2 T. canola or vegetable oil
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and mashed
1/4 c. Chinese dark soy sauce
2 T. dark brown sugar

In a medium-sized, heavy saucepan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant, about 10-20 seconds. Add the soy sauce and brown sugar at the same time and bring to a simmer. While that is coming up to temperature, turn your attention to the eggs.

Starting about 1/4 inch from the top of the eggs, score a shallow vertical line into the eggs to within 1/4 inch of the bottoms. Repeat at 1/2-inch intervals around the egg. Do not let your lines touch at any point or the eggs will fall apart while glazing.

Place the scored eggs carefully into the simmering soy sauce mixture. Turn the eggs frequently and spoon the sauce over the eggs until they are evenly colored and the sauce is reduced to thick syrup.

Valerie cautions me, from experience, to warn you all to eat them immediately or to store in a tightly covered container or the eggs become rubbery and difficult to eat. Believe me when I tell you the trick is more in having leftovers than in eating them quickly!

Filed Under: Rebecca, Recipes Tagged With: children, keeping chickens, oeufs en cocotte, Recipes, rooster

And the winner is…

November 19, 2008 by Rebecca Leave a Comment

The birthday boys clicked “generate” on our Random.org sequence generator and the winner of our $50 gift card Thanksgiving giveaway is Jen B.!

Congratulations, Jen B.! We hope this makes your Thanksgiving a little bit more fun. Happy shopping…

Filed Under: Giveaways!

Oeufs en Cocotte

November 9, 2008 by Rebecca 26 Comments

Be sure to read all the way through to the bottom. We’re doing another $50 gift card giveaway and the details are after the recipes…

Val and I were discussing food I know, what’s new, right? over the phone the other day. We were talking about some of the requests we had during our last gift certificate giveaway. Most folks wanted recipes for quick, budget-friendly, family-friendly, gourmet items. Well, shucks. Can you say softball? That’s our raison d’etre in the kitchen. With the economy in a bit of unrest, who doesn’t want budget-friendly besides Warren Buffet or the Hiltons? Inexpensive doesn’t need to mean hard to swallow, though. With a bit of planning you can turn out fabulous meals for a very low price tag. We did rock, scissors, paper over the phone and I ended up with the first opportunity to share a favorite recipe that fits all of our criteria.

My first thought was Oeufs en Cocotte…

B.C., before children that is, and way back in the day, I was an exchange student in La Belle France for my senior year of high school. And may God smile gently on those poor folks who generously shared their home with the rebellious punk twit that I was in those years. They gave me a bed. They ferried me all over the countryside, proudly showing me many sites of France, Switzerland and Germany. They made sure I got to and from school daily. But above all else, they sat me at their table and fed me the most amazing food. Did I mention that when I went to France I was a vegetarian? Mmmm hmmm. Yep. I was in the province of Alsace and I was a vegetarian. There were some notable lapses -choucroute, roasted marrow bones and a few others- but for the most part it was all veggies all the time. If someone could please invent a time machine and lend it to me I’d like to go back and kick my own butt across the border for having missed out on all those amazing roasts and stews that were served. Le Sigh.

My host mother was very accomodating and often served me Oeufs en Cocotte whilst they had a roast or some other fabulous carnivorous specialty of L’Alsace. It was explained to me, quite patiently I might add, that while the given name of the dish was indeed oeufs en cocotte (eggs in casserole) that I should be careful to always say ‘oeufs en cocotte’ and not guillotine it to ‘cocotte’ because cocotte was also the slang name for, er, ladies of the night. Now if you think about the translation of oeufs en cocotte that was it becomes much less appetizing… Just think eggs in casserole and you’ll be alright.

The version she prepared for me is similar to the one I prepare now, except that I am making up for lost time by adding indecent amounts of all parts of bacon -both meat and grease- to this dish. You could healthy it up, if you insist, by omitting the bacon and the bacon grease and using olive oil entirely, but why?

This hits our table regularly for any of our three daily meals. We sometimes have it twice or so per week. Once you’ve tucked into a steamy ramekin of this on a early winter’s eve you’ll understand why. When you plunge your spoon into the creamy yolk and it pours into the lentils below you’ll think you’ve died and gone to Alsace. …And believe me, that’s a good thing!

Thank you Mme. Nusbaumer, wherever you are!

Baked Eggs on Lentils with Onions, Mushrooms, and Bacon (Oeufs en Cocotte)

My version of this classic French dish is quite simple to prepare. When you cook up the bacon, simply use what you need for the Eggs and Hens and put the rest aside for another use. Like simply putting a pinch between the cheek and gums to improve your outlook on life.

Ingredients:

Saucy lentils (1/4 cup per serving), recipe below
1 lb. bacon (1 Tablespoon crispy cooked per serving)
2 medium onions, diced
1 lb. mushrooms, sliced thin
fresh eggs (1 per serving)
4 thick slices day-old bread, homemade preferably, cut into 1/2″ cubes
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Cream -heavy or light- or Half and Half (1 Tablespoon per serving)
butter for the ramekins or mini augratin pans
Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper, to taste

Method:

Slice bacon into 1/2″ strips and fry in a large heavy-bottomed skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon to a paper towel lined plate to drain.

Pour all but 3 Tablespoons of the bacon fat into a clean bowl and reserve for later.

Return the skillet to the burner and increase heat to medium-high. Add onions and mushrooms and leave them alone in the pan for at least 1 minute. Sprinkle Kosher salt, to taste, over the onions and mushrooms and stir to evenly distribute. Continue cooking until the onions and mushrooms are softened and are touched by golden brown. Take care not to burn the onions. Scorched onions would overpower the eggs. Remove onions and mushrooms to a clean bowl and return pan to the burner once again over medium high heat.

Add about 2 Tablespoons of remaining bacon fat and the extra virgin olive oil to the skillet. Add bread cubes and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and toss again to coat. Fry bread cubes until golden brown and delicious, stirring frequently to prevent scorching. Remove pan from the burner and proceed to the eggs.

Preheat oven to 375°F with a rack positioned in the center of the oven.

Generously butter ramekins equal to the number of servings you desire. Spread 1/4 cup of saucy lentils in the bottom of each ramekin. Sprinkle each bed of lentils with a generous tablespoon of crispy bacon. Gently crack an egg on top of lentils and bacon. Be careful here. The idea is to keep the yolk intact. If you crack the yolk just give that serving to the kids who like the hard yolks. Splash a tablespoon of cream or half and half over the egg to prevent it drying out in the oven.

Place ramekins on a baking sheet and place as close to the center of the oven as possible. Bake until eggs are set. If you like your egg whites just barely set you’ll want to pull them close to 12 minutes or so into cooking. If you like the whites set completely and the yolks slightly runny you’ll want to go closer to 15 minutes. If you have those dining amongst you who prefer fully cooked yolks then leave them in close to 18 minutes.

When eggs are done to your liking, remove ramekins to serving plates. You can place each ramekin on top of a slightly damp piece of paper towel to prevent it’s sliding around if you wish. Top each serving with a generous helping of the sauteed onions and mushrooms and sprinkle croutons over the top. Serve and eat while still very warm but take care not to steady the ramekin with your hand. They retain the heat for quite a while.

Soup-er Saucy Lentils

These lentils aren’t just for the base layer of Oeufs En Cocotte. They make a killer winter dinner when served in a bowl with cornbread or crusty peasant bread with a salad. A pot of this lasts beautifully in the fridge for up to a week.

Ingredients:

1 lb. lentils, rinsed, drained and picked over.
1 large carrot, peeled and diced
2 medium onions, peeled and diced
1 stalk of celery, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 plum tomatoes, diced (or 1 can diced tomatoes)
5 cups broth (chicken, beef or vegetable)
1 teaspoon dried thyme (or 1 Tablespoon fresh thyme, minced)
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary, crushed (or 1 sprig fresh rosemary)
1 Bay leaf
2 Tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Method:

In a large, heavy-bottomed pot, warm the olive oil over medium heat. Add the vegetables and sprinkle lightly with salt, stir, and sautee until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil.

Drop heat to low and simmer, uncovered for an hour. (Alternately, put all the ingredients in a slow cooker, cover and cook on low all day long. After about 8 hours, it’s soup! It’ll be a much less thick version than that on the stovetop, but delicious nonetheless!)

…And now for something completely different…

It’s almost Thanksgiving! Woot, woot! Ah, the turkey, the cranberry sauce, the cornbread stuffing. And not only is the food fabulous, but the company’s not half bad either! I may be just imagining it, but it seems that most folks are willing to give patience a little extra effort starting right around Thanksgiving. What’sn ot to love?

Since we love the food, family time and attitude that come with Thanksgiving, Val and I decided to give a little early Thanksgiving gift by doing another gift card giveaway. We’re going to give away another $50 gift certificate to the winner’s choice of Amazon.com, Williams-Sonoma, King Arthur’s Baker’s Catalogue or Cooking.com. I think that’s a cause for giving thanks…

Here are three ways to play along:

Leave us a comment telling us the things for which you’re thankful. Make it short and sweet or make it long winded. We’ll take it all! That’s worth one entry.
Leave an announcement about our giveaway on your blog. That’s worth another entry.
Do something kind and unexpected for someone. It doesn’t have to be a big deal, just hold a door for someone, make your kids’ favorite dessert, or return your library books on time. Whatever it is just try to make someone’s day a little better. You don’t have to tell us your good deed unless you want to, all you have to do is tell us you did one in the comments section below. That’s worth two extra entries.

On Tuesday, November 18th, the birthday boys Liam and Rowan will be responsible for using the random number generator to choose our winner. That way you’ll have time to spend your money before Thanksgiving if you so choose! Happy good deed doing!

Filed Under: Happy Healthy and Wise, Uncategorized

Harry Potter Butter Beer

November 3, 2008 by Rebecca 7 Comments

In today’s Record-Eagle column I ran the following recipe for Vanilla Simple Syrup.

Vanilla Simple Syrup

Once you make this you’ll find all sorts of reasons to keep it handy. We put about 1 1/2 ounces in the bottom of a tall glass and top it off with cold plain seltzer for a homemade cream soda that beats the pants off of anything you can buy in the store. If you’re so inclined, you can pour a wee bit in a glass with some brandy. And for you Harry Potter fans out there … Tune in to www.foodiewithfamily.com for an amazing and delicious Butter Beer recipe in both grown up and house elf styles.

If you don’t have access to a vanilla bean, just add an additional tablespoon of vanilla extract at the end of the recipe.

1 c. fresh water

2 c. granulated sugar

1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise but not scraped

2 T. pure vanilla extract

Add the sugar to a medium, heavy-bottomed saucepan with the vanilla bean and pour the water over the top. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, lower heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla extract. Pour syrup, along with the vanilla bean, into a clean glass jar with a tight fitting lid. Cool completely before use.

…After submitting the column to the editor, I promptly forgot to post my butter beer recipe here. Sigh. You might almost think I was really busy or something.

‘Tis the season to be reading and I’m willing to bet there are a bunch of kids (or adults) who are preparing to read or re-read the Harry Potter books. I was surprised, when first reading the books, to discover the huge role of food in the stories. I was hungry and salivating the entire time I read them. Pumpkin pasties, meat pies, sausages, potatoes, rock cakes, cider, licorice, butter beer. Wait. Um, butter beer? Sounds good, but what is it?

I decided to do a bit of research. It turns out that when J.K. Rowling wrote about butter beer she had in mind a butterscotch type flavor. There was no recipe. When I find something in a book that sounds delicious and there is no recipe I normally have a brief moment of anger at the author for making me hungry and not providing the immediate blueprint for satisfying that food craving. Drat you Rex Stout! Drat you and Fritz and Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin all to hecky durn. Where in the world am I going to get a dozen starlings and a culinary genius of a Swiss national to stew them in saffron for me? I then become rational once again and either recognize that I’ll probably never get to eat that dish (as in the stewed starlings) or I and produce my own version. With a jumping off point like butterscotch and the description that accompanied it in the book I figured I could probably produce a decent version of butter beer myself.

In the books, butter beer was served both hot and cold. For simplicity’s sake, I started with the cold version, but you can just as easily serve this warm by gently heating in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat or in the microwave.

Does anyone else see that house elf hiding behind my butter beer?

That was such a lame picture that I might have to make more butter beer later to try another shot. Er, I mean another photo.

Butter Beer

The alcohol content in this is very low. However, for the wee bairns, substitute butterscotch syrup for the butterscotch schnapps.

Ingredients:

2 Tablespoons Vanilla Simple Syrup
1/4 cup Butterscotch Schnapps (for children, use 2 Tablespoons butterscotch syrup instead.)
1/3 cup apple cider, chilled
Plain Seltzer Water, chilled

Method:

Pour vanilla syrup into the bottom of a tall glass. Add schnapps and cider. Stir to combine. Top off the glass with plain seltzer water and have your lips ready to sip at the foamy head that threatens to pour over the edge. Enjoy!

Filed Under: Beverages, Rebecca