Organic Eggs– Any Difference?

I just started purchasing eggs from a local farmer, a certified organic farm. The eggs are a little pricier than grocery-store eggs, but I am happy to directly support a local farm (and get fresh eggs, too).

I wish we could have our own chickens. I live in the suburbs, though, and chickens are verboten. Bah. Suburbanites have no imagination. Chickens are COOL.

Anyway, I get these eggs. All I care about is that they are eggs. When I found out that they are “certified organic,” it meant little to me… I don’t know if that’s because there really is no difference or because I do not know enough about chicken care. But that would be the SUBURBS fault because they won’t even give me a chance to raise my own and find out!!!! LOLOL. Oh, I know certified organic chickens are fed only certain foods (and no antibiotics) but I have heard many conflicting reports about the use of antibiotics for farm animals. I am, in general, against stuffing farm critters with potions, pills, additives, medicines and chemicals. You betcha. But I don’t know if the store-bought eggs are pumped with antibiotics and stuff. Not sure. It’s actually kinda difficult to find out where ANY of our grocery food comes from, as a matter of fact.

But I don’t notice any big difference in taste between organic and store-bought. Today I am hard-boiling them and maybe then I will notice a differemce.

Some of these eggs are a lot larger than “regular” store-bought eggs, that’s for sure. Take a look at this sucker.

And all the eggs do smell like the dairy farm from which they come. I’m hoping that boils out, lol.

A New Twist to Ziti

I can’t say I am terribly fond of baked ziti. It tends to be dry and a bit tasteless to me. I am very find of Italian dishes but baked ziti seems to be very… American. lol. American style is great for a citizen watch or architecture, but I think American food tends to be a little boring. I prefer Italian and Chinese dishes which tend to be more flavorful. But baked ziti is dull dull dull!

So I am always adding little things to ziti to try and perk it up. This latest addition was pretty good– fresh kale.

I removed the stalks from the kale and ripped the leaves into bite-sized pieces. Kale is such a wonderful vegetable. A member of the cruciferous family, kale has plenty of vitamins and antioxidants that help destroy “free-radical” cells– the cells that cause cell mutations which can lead to cancer.

The ziti pasta will readily slurp up the moisture from the kale leaves during the cooking process, so I suggest adding a bit of water or additional tomatoe sauce to the mix. Cover tightly and bake. The kale added a nice tang to the otherwise bland dish.

How about you? Do you have any ideas for sprucing up a ziti dish?

The Art of Making Perfect Beef Stew

I’ve been cooking for over 25 years now. One of my first dishes was beef stew. It’s taken me many long years to master the taste, but I have done it. Beef stew, meet perfection.

Being the generous cook that I am, I will share with you my particular secrets. Be aware that every tip is worth many gold coins, weedhopper. Haha! OK OK enough horsing around, here’s how I make perfect beef stew:

1. Cut everything into bite-sized cubes EXCEPT the potatoes.
Potatoes get mushy. Nothing’s worse than chowing down on savory stew only to sink your teeth into potato paste. I use white potatoes with their skins. I cross-cut the palm-sized taters and they boil to perfection in the pot.

2. Don’t pre-sear your meat.
I know, I am bucking the trend. Seared meat is so good, yes– at a barbeque! But it dries it out and the cubes usually taste like battle-hardened, wooden dice. A stew is comfort food, it should be smooth and really savory and it shouldn’t take 10,000 chews to eat through it. Save the seared meat for the cookout.

3. Add everything to the pot all at once.
Some fancy cookbooks recommend that you cook only the beef and onions together and, once these are cooked through, add the vegetables for the final hour. I think this type of stew is more of a mish-mash of disjointed flavors where the individual ingredients all keep their individual flavors. Like any good soup or stew, it’s the combination of all the ingredients cooked together that makes a savory, luxuriant, unique flavor. Just for the record, the ingredients in my basic stew are: beef cubes, white onion, white potatoes with skins, carrots (only a few), rutabaga.

4. Don’t add salt to the pot.
Allow the diners to add their own salt at the table. Potatoes absorb salt while they cook, so you’ll wind up adding more and more salt and wondering why the stew doesn’t taste salty! Skip the salt and let everyone add his own, to taste.

5. Use rutabagas or turnips.
I dislike boring old potatoes/onions/beef stew. I like a little panache. Rutabagas add a lovely light-orange color, tons of vitamins, and a peppy tang that bland potatoes don’t give. I usually go half-and-half with the rutabagas and potatoes, adding one huge rutabaga and 8 or 9 palm-sized white potatoes to the big stockpot.

6. Add a teaspoon or two of horseradish sauce.
Notice I said SAUCE. Not plain horseradish! You can certainly add plain horseradish, but don’t add several teaspoons or you will ruin the stew. I use the creamy horseradish sauce, the kind you spread on bread for sandwiches. It really adds some zip to the stew.

7. Add some leftover Ramen seasoning.
My sons love the instant Ramen noodles packages, but I do limit their use of the heavily-seasoned packets. I usually have a ton of them laying around. They are really great for soups! I only use about half a packet for a huge stew.

8. Use beef broth.
I don’t use straight beef broth, too expensive! Instead, I split it with water. For a huge stew that fills a stockpot, I use about 1 cup of broth and water.

9. Don’t overcook!
I allow my stew to boil on the stove in a big stainless steel crockpot. Three or four hours is sufficient to soften all the ingredients and cook the meat. Don’t allow the stew to boil, either. Once the stew starts to simmer, turn it on LOW and cover the pot. Stir it only once or twice throughout the entire cooking time. Let the stew sit for about 20 minutes after cooking, so the flavors can blend.

10. Serve with fresh bread, not crackers.
Crackers, in my opinion, detract from the soothing, smooth stew experience. A hunk of freshly baked Flax Seed Bread is so perfect.

So this is how I make my stew. Try it, try it, you will see! You will like it, I guarantee!

What Do You Do in Your Dining Room?

Like many Americans, we live in an old home. Ours is 160 years old. The house is a “middle income” house and is less than 1600 square feet. There are six of us here, not including the cat, two dogs and bird. It’s *kinda* cramped, actually.

So my dining room does double-duty. We eat our meals in there on the great big cherry table. But we also have our television set with the DVD player and Playstation console. We also have some of our musical instruments in there– a bass guitar, an electric guitar, and two crate amps (Marshall and Peavy). It’s a little crowded but we are able to get around. I’d put the TV and stuff in the living room if I could, but that’s where my home office is and it’s also full of desks where the kids do school. We don’t exactly have the typical American home layout….

What do you do in your dining room? Because families are smaller and because many Americans eat out more frequently, it seems that the dining room has become the “extra” room. Some folks have musical instruments in there. Others have their desks in there. We’ve toyed with the idea of eliminating the dining room altogether, but because we do eat together, I need a central table. (The kitchen is too small).

How do you use your dining room?

The Boys Cook!

Am I a good mom or what???? LOL I got my boys cooking!!!!

Look, here’s the proof!

They made a pie for the holidays. Woohoo! The boys expressed some apprehension when I asked to make a pie (we gals were very busy with other jobs at the time), but I threatened them with no allowance if they didn’t get off their lazy butts encouraged them on. They took to heart my swelling words of bravery and exhortation and tarried on with great courage.

I don’t have a photo of the pie but let us say it turned out magnificently.

My daughter looks like she’s had a little too much eggnog in this photo. But have no fear. She’s always like that. Too much new jersey energy, maybe.

P.S. If you want your male family members to cook anything, always praise their dishes no matter how terrible they taste.

HAHA! I’m kidding, though. The pie was delicious.

And the boys reveled in a job well done.

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