After School Bruschetta

After school snack time can be challenging, especially if you want your kids to eat healthy foods instead of the junk that comes out of the snack machines or off the grocery store shelves. The other day, my daughter had a friend over after school, so of course the subject of a snack came up. I asked what they wanted, but got the usual "I don't know" response. So after a few moments of thought, I decided to throw together some bruschetta. I had not ever made it before, so it was truly an experiment. I had a small loaf of crusty garlic bread...the kind that your local store probably has in the bakery. I was very surprised to find that the bread at my local supermarket does not use any hydrogenated oils or corn syrup. So, I sliced the crusty bread and lightly toasted it in a large skillet with some butter. I then made the dressing for the tomatoes, again, guessing at the amounts of the ingredients. The ratio that I came up with was 2 to 1, with more olive oil used than balsamic vinegar. Whisk this together and add a little basil. Dried or fresh, whichever you happen to have. I chopped up some roma tomatoes and sweet onion, then tossed that in the dressing I had made, and spooned it on the bread. The girls devoured every single bite!! Check out the photos....makes me hungry just to look at it!! Thanks for reading and enjoy!

Poached Eggs & Hollandaise sauce

SO, today I was inspired to try something that I have never made before. I only had 5 eggs in the house, so I knew I had to make the best of it. I also have a child that is home sick, and she thought it sounded pretty good too. So, into the kitchen I went, armed with a little knowledge and a big thirst for learning. And learn I did!! My first order of business was to make the hollandaise sauce. This required 2 egg yolks, so I was down to 3 eggs for poaching, which made me nervous! What if I goofed and was left with one egg?? Well, the sauce came together beautifully...one thing I did discover however, was that once the sauce is together, remove it from the heat! I did not do this, and what happened was that the sauce starts to separate again. It still tasted wonderful, but did not look as pretty as it should have. Now it was down to poaching the eggs. You do not want to boil the water, you want it to simmer. I used a large skillet type pan (I despise non-stick cookware, so I use stainless) in which to simmer the water. Here is a tip that helps immensely....put about a tablespoon of vinegar in the water when it simmers. This will help your egg whites to coagulate and cover the yolk more easily. Also, it helps to crack your egg into a tiny bowl and then slip the egg into the water instead of plopping the egg directly into the pan. So, the moment of truth was here....my water was simmering with the vinegar, and my egg was cracked into the little bowl. I gently slipped it into the water and waited with great anticipation for the end result. I did help the egg whites a little, but not as much as I thought I would have to....they folded themselves onto the egg yolk in a fine fashion! While the eggs were cooking, I toasted a couple english muffins (purchased at the health food store to avoid the partially hydrogenated oils that I avoid like the plague). Once the eggs were done, I dried them a little on a towel, placed them on the english muffin and topped it with the lovely hollandaise sauce. Then it was time for the moment of truth....the taste test. My daughter & I sat down at the table, and simultaneously took our first bites. WOW......a taste explosion. Who knew that butter, eggs and wheat english muffins could taste SO good!!?? I think the kids will be dining on poached eggs with hollandaise sauce on lots of mornings to come!
Below is the recipe for hollandaise sauce....good luck!!

Hollandaise Sauce

2 TB white wine vinegar (I used rice vinegar)
1 TB water
2 egg yolks
4 oz unsalted butter
lemon juice
salt & pepper

Pour water and vinegar into a small pan and bring to a boil. Boil for 3 minutes, or until reduced by half. Remove from heat and cool.
Put egg yolks in a heat proof bowl and beat in the cooled vinegar water. Set over a pan of gently simmering water. Cook, stirring continuously with a wooden spoon, until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon.
Keeping the water simmering, add butter, a piece at a time, until the sauce is thick. Add a bit of lemon juice if you think it is too thick. Season to taste with salt & pepper. Remove from heat if you are not using immediately.


Poached Eggs Perfecto

There is really no recipe for this, just some tips. Add some vinegar to the simmering water to help coagulate your egg whites. Use a large skillet type pan. Crack your egg into a small bowl and then slip the egg into the water instead of cracking and plopping the egg directly into the water. Cover and simmer for a few minutes. Your yolk will be harder the longer you cook the eggs, so this part is personal preference. Bon Appetit!!

A Word About Karma

Karma, by definition, is 'action, seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad.' I like to think of Karma in relation to the food that I eat, or choose not to eat. Being a vegetarian, I of course avoid meat....but why?? What are my reasons for this choice? I am confronted with this question whenever someone asks me what made me become a vegetarian. In all honesty, my reasons were not at all Karmic in the beginning. I had read an article in a fashion magazine about a woman who died from Mad Cow disease. I know what you might be thinking....an article about Mad Cow in a fashion mag?? But, very true. It was a very touching article, and instantly made me re-think my food choices. I am sure that most of you remember the outbreak of Mad Cow. It was a horrible thing that resulted in the destruction of many many thousands of cows. Yet, some of the cows that had this horrid disease, were ground up and fed to other cows!! So, an animal that is made to be an herbivore is now a carnivore. Not only that, if the animal that had to be destroyed had a disease, why would you feed it to a healthy cow!? Calves are given the blood of the cows that have to be destroyed in their food?? What is wrong with the cattle industry??
The second reason I could add to my list was watching a video online about chickens. Yes, chickens. Some might think of them as stupid unfeeling animals, but I know for a fact that this is not true. A friend of mine's family raised chickens when she was a child, and there was one chicken in particular that would come up to the door of the house to be 'put to bed' at night!! That is one story that will always stick with me....the image of a little chicken coming up to the house at dusk. Makes me think of Chicken Run!! (if you haven't seen it, it's a great little movie. British humor is THE best). So, on to the video. I believe it was on the PETA website, and it honestly made me cry. I suppose they might embellish a bit to play on your emotions, but the scenes that were shown were heartbreaking. Do you know that chickens are given so many hormones that they are ready for butchering in 90 days? No way is a chicken that is left to grow naturally anywhere near being mature in 90 days. Ninety days!! Because they are given so many hormones to quicken their growth, and because they grow so rapidly, they get sick. Because they get sick, they are given high doses of antibiotics. They get to be so big and heavy that they can't walk. They just lie there, in their own poo and pee. The levels of ammonia in the air in the chicken coops are not safe for a human to breathe, so how is that ok for animals?? Animals that people are going to eat?? Don't even get me started on battery eggs!! Those poor chickens are stuffed into cages, sick and diseased. Forced to lay eggs on a much quicker scale than nature intended.
To me, the two reasons listed above were reason enough for me to become a vegetarian. Animals that are raised (non-organically) for food, egg or milk production, are mistreated, injected with drugs, sick, afraid, and just plain miserable. Who would want that kind of karma in their food?? I do still eat eggs and cheese, but I am very careful about my choices. The eggs I buy are local and are from free-range chickens that are not on steroids or antibiotics. The cheese I buy is rennent free (that is a subject for a future blog) and organic.
I am outraged at the food industry in general! Why do they do things like this that they know will harm the people that eat it?? It is ALL about money. Make the chicken grow 200 times faster and fatter than nature intended, and the farmer gets his money quicker and gets more money because the animal is bigger! And, this is America after all, so bigger IS better, right?? Not in my mind! I say healthy happy animals are better. Animals that are allowed to graze and eat the food they were made to eat. In all truth, the human body was not designed to eat meat, but that is another subject for another blog. If I have heard this once, I have heard it a million times.....'where do you get your protein from??' That question always prompts a laugh from me because most humans eat WAY more protein than their bodies need. And why is that? Because the FDA tells you that you need it. If you think about it, the 'Food Pyramid' that they put out there is pretty messed up. Someday soon when I have time, I will make a food pyramid of my own that is much healthier, and post it on my blog. For today, this is where I will trail off......stay tuned and thanks for reading!!