Kitchen Quick Tips - Egg Freshness

If you are unsure if your eggs are fresh, place an egg in a cup of cold water.  If it floats, it's old.  If is sinks it's fresh.

Traceability Codes on Eggs

We spent most of the month of October at our vacation home in Florida then returned home for most of November before returning to our vacation home November 29 to stay until December 20.    One thing I do notice when shopping in the grocery stores where our vacation home is, is the food labelling.  It's not like I don't see food labelling at home in Ontario, it is I see a lot less of it because of our heavy reliance on whole foods home grown, bought directly from the source (eg. farmers, farm markets, orchards, etc.) or bought in bulk from the bulk food stores.

We buy most of our groceries a Publix when at our vacation home.  However, we also occasionally shop at Sweetbay and Walmart for groceries.  Our flight was late on November 29 so we didn't arrive into Tampa until after midnight so didn't arrive into our vacation home community until about 1:30 AM.  We stopped at Walmart which is open 24 hours to pick up a few groceries to last us for a couple of days.  Part of that purchase was a dozen of extra large eggs.

When I opened the eggs a couple of days later, I found one was broke.  Normally, I check store bought eggs for breakage but at 2 AM the old brain was a bit fuzzy.  Each egg had a 'use by date stamp' with a code below it.  I've seen this type of thing on eggs before.   The use by date is the last date you should use your egg for freshness.  The other code is the traceability code.

Traceability codes are on most commercially prepared products, cheeses, some meat products, dairy, some bakery goods, canned and jarred foods, and dairy.  The traceability code is usually found under the best by or use by date.  It is normally a series of alpha numerical characters separated into groups as the one on the eggs.  The groups may be separated by spaces or dashes.  Essentially, the code can gives information from the grower to the processing plant.  This is the code that is used when a food product is recalled which is one reason foods should be stored in their original packaging.  If you have a mobile device, it is easy to check the traceability code while you are shopping before buying.

Here's a short video that explains how eggs are graded and how they can be traced back to the producer.


We bought the extra large eggs at Walmart on November 30 for $2.08.  I pay $2 per dozen from the organic farm and $3.49 at the grocery store for free range eggs at home (Ontario).  I put the code AX-P1306-306 into The Egg Tracker at My Fresh Egg.   This dozen eggs were processed on November 1, 2012 from Cal-Maine Farms located in Bushnell, Florida.  They were Grade A, extra large sold under the brand name Sunny Meadows.  I got all that information just from the code that was on the egg using The Egg Tracker!

What I found concerning was the eggs were already a month old when we bought them.  I wasn't pleased about that.  The use by date was December 15 which means the eggs had a freshness span of 45 days.  When I buy eggs from the organic farmer at home, the eggs were collected the same day so not even a full 24 hours old!  In other words, the eggs we normally use are fresh not days old.  To date, I have not found a source for fresh (hours old), free range eggs at our vacation home.  I have an app on the iPad called Eat Local to find farmer's markets near our vacation home so that has been a huge help as far as finding fresh, local produce.  Now we just need to do a bit of networking to find fresh sources for meats, cheeses and eggs.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Perfect Scrambled Eggs

Whip at teaspoon of mayonnaise into eggs (1 tsp per 2 eggs)  before scrambling them.  They won't dry out or overcook!

Double Yolk Eggs

One of our kids brought me a tray of twenty double yolk eggs.  Double yolk eggs are seldom found in store bought eggs because they are removed during packing.  As a kid, I was delighted to find a double yolk egg.  My Mom bought eggs from the local egg lady who actually delivered them to her door.  Years later I had an egg lady who also delivered eggs to our door and since I still buy eggs from a local organic farmer, I come across double yolk eggs more that some may.

My gosh, it is not often I get to bring my discipline into the conversation on this blog because it is focused on cooking.  For those who do not know, my discipline is medical genetics.  First, many think there is a difference in flavour between white and brown eggs to the point some stores actually charge more for brown eggs.  The egg colour is determined by the chicken breed, with brown chickens laying brown eggs.

Double yolk eggs (right) are almost double the size of extra large eggs (left).  A double yolk egg is essentially a reproduction error.  Eggs are produced via a process called meiosis, a type of cell division that produces gametes with half the number of chromosomes (n or haploid) of the parental cell (2n or diploid).  One parental cell (2n) forms four gametes (n).  Meiosis is a two step process consisting of DNA replication and reduction division (Meiosis I)  followed by the second stage of equational division (Meiosis II).    The eggs we eat are unfertilized (haploid).  What happens to form a double yolk eggs is the failure of the chromosomes to separate at Meiosis I or the sister chromatids to separate at Meiosis II.  Abnormal separation of chromosomes during meiosis is termed nondisjunction.  Now you know how double yolk eggs happen.

Double egg yolks are actually quite frugal if you can find an entire dozen or more.   Store bought extra large eggs are currently $3.47 or  29¢ each.  Double yolk eggs are $6 for 20 or 30¢ each but because they are almost double the size of extra large eggs and have two yolks it works out to almost 15¢ per egg (yolk).  Using double eggs reduces the number of eggs you have to crack (aka saves time) while giving the same results as you would get from using two extra large eggs.

Double yolk eggs are particularly frugal when making homemade pastas using only yolks as well as any other recipe using only egg yolks.  They are great for making omelets and scrambled eggs.  As pictured, you only have to crack one for fried eggs.  Don't they look lovely?

4Grain Vegetarian Eggs

Humans are the only animals capable of modifying their environment and food supply to the point it is detrimental for all future generations.  Recently the attention has been focused on genetically modified organisms (GMO) with respect to food but we don't have too look far to find additives like artificial colourants, flavours and preservatives.  It is surprising just how many foods have high fructose corn syrup (HFC) as a sweetener despite a suspected correlation between HFC and autism.  Corn is used to such a degree not only in foods but the manufacturing of other products that severe corn allergies are increasing.  Just when I thought I had heard it all, I spotted vegetarian eggs in the grocery store!  Hello!  Eggs are one of the perfect foods, high in protein and a good value for your food dollar.  Now they are just one more thing for the food industry to muck up.

Pictured are the 4Grain vegetarian brown eggs I saw in the grocery store.  These are eggs produced by chickens fed an all natural vegetable diet with no hormones, anti-biotics or animal by products.   The diet consists of four grains (wheat, corn, flax, and milo) and soy products only.  They are certified by the United Egg Producers.  The premise is because the hens were fed a vegetarian diet these eggs are suitable for lacto-ovo vegetarians.  However, they don't mention the ethical treatment of these hens nor do they mention these eggs may be deficient in some nutrients due to the lack of proper nutrition.

Chickens are insect scavengers.  In the garden, they can be beneficial for controlling slugs, grasshoppers, fire ants, termites, fleas, flies, lawn grubs and many other damaging insects.  They will literally destroy a vegetable garden with their constant pecking to get at the insects so for this reason they need to be fenced to the perimeter of the vegetable garden or use portable coops.  Vegetarian eggs definitely are not cruelty free!  They are factory farm raised under restricted conditions.  Removing insects from a chicken's diet requires penning them in a fashion off the ground where they cannot get to the soil, something that is most unnatural for them.  According to their website, the chickens are free to roam but it would not be on soil otherwise they would be eating insects and worms so their entire existence is likely spent on a fenced cement pad where they are free to roam in the enclosed area, more than likely in crowded conditions.  Denied of their natural pecking tendencies, chickens will turn on other chickens often  pecking them to death.  From an ethical animal husbandry perspective simply the way these chickens are being raised is a far cry from a cruelty fee manner.

From a dietary perspective, the eggs are lacking nutritionally.  In comparison to regular large eggs, the 4Grain eggs are slightly lower in protein, 6.3 g compared to 7 g but they are supposed have more Omega-3 fatty acids.  A full comparison of nutrients would likely uncover what is not being shown that soy is not the best estrogen replacement for women and excess corn products in our diets is already reeking havoc.  Since wheat is part of the diets there could be traces of gluten in the eggs that would make these eggs unsuitable for those on a gluten free diet.  Nutritionally, I would make and educated guess that these eggs are inferior to even the chicken farm raised eggs.  I would also question whether the density of the shell has been affected by the vegetarian diet.  If so, it makes these eggs more susceptible to bacteria contamination like Salmonella as well as reduced storage time.  As far as using the colour of the egg, this is only a marketing tool.  Brown eggs come from brown chickens; white eggs come from white chickens.  The colour of the shell is determined by the breed so has no bearing on the flavour or nutrition of the egg so should not be used as a marketing ploy.

Avoid the hype and marketing when it comes to eggs.  The best eggs are those from free range, organically fed chickens preferably from a local farmer.  These chickens are humanely treated, not penned or prevented from pecking.  In other words, they are raised in a cruelty free manner.  Nutritionally, free range eggs are superior to factory farm raised including vegetarian eggs.  If you can't find them from a local farmer, free range eggs are available in some grocery stores. They are the same or a bit less when bought from local farmers but  bit more expensive.

Eggs

Even though the price of eggs has increased, they remain a frugal source of dietary protein.  They are quick and easy to cook as well as being quite versatile.  Eons ago when I was in high school it was mandatory for all female students to take two courses in Home Economics.  While I detested the teacher with a passion due to very inappropriate comments that would never be tolerated in any school system today, I learned a lot from those two courses.  To this day, my kitchen is very much organized the way the HomeEc kitchens were, into specific work zones.  This maximizes how a kitchen functions regardless of how small it is and believe me I have cooked in some not small but tiny kitchens!  One of the most valuable lessons learned was this teacher insisted that any time you crack open an egg it is to be done in a separate bowl.  If cracking more than one egg, she told us to use two bowls - one to crack the egg into then pour the cracked egg into another bowl and continue this way until all the eggs were cracked.

I buy my eggs from a couple of farmers who have free range chickens whenever possible.  I also buy eggs at the grocery store when I have to.  Many home cooks are quite complacent when it comes to cracking eggs.  There is the fallacy that if it comes from a grocery store it is safe.  Wrong!  If it comes from a grocery store, any food has been handled a multitude of times, has been exposed to numerous contaminants including insects and rodents and possible unsafe temperatures during transportation to the store.  That is why all fruits and vegetables should be washed before consuming and all lids on commercially canned foods washed before opening.

I have seen many interesting sights when cracking eggs but never have seen contamination like I found in the pictured store bought egg.  Had I simply cracked the egg into the other ingredients I would not have seen the contamination until it was too late, thus wasting all the ingredients.  I don't know what the contamination was although I can make an educated speculation based on my scientific background.  Four more eggs in that dozen were contaminated as well so I ended up tossing the entire dozen.  I was ticked but it would have been worse had I boiled them for deviled eggs or egg salad! 

An egg is the biological unfertilized portion of what would become a baby chicken if fertilized.  When buying eggs from a farmer it is common to see blood spots (harmless), double yolks (lucky according to legend), and occasionally a fertilized egg with the embryo in some stage of development.  These artifacts are less likely to occur in store bought eggs as they are screened to remove these particular artifacts.  Egg shells protect the egg or developing embryo.  Despite their look, they are porous allowing oxygen to reach the developing embryo.  They have a natural antibiotic coating to help protect the developing embryo which helps to keep unfertilized eggs (the ones we eat) fresh.  This is why eggs should not be washed before storing in the refrigerator.  The egg shell can be compromised in many ways such as environmental exposure  of the laying hen to a damaging chemical, a genetic condition in the laying hen that results in a weaker egg shell, or it can be damaged during the grading a packaging process.  In addition to the egg shell being compromised, it can also be contaminated with Salmonella that can give you a nasty case of food born illness.  I do mean nasty!  I accidently contaminated myself with Salmonella in the lab; it was a horrid experience but valuable lesson.   This is why an egg should always be cracked into a separate bowl, checked for any problems then poured into another bowl or added to the other ingredients.  Never crack an egg directly into a fry pan or other ingredients!

Loaded Omelet

My normal hot meal when traveling is eggs sunny side up, whole wheat toast, hash browns and choice of meat.  During our Las Vegas leg of our vacation I only had this hot breakfast twice.  Instead I chose fresh made omelets from the egg station.  It's not that I couldn't have had sunny side up eggs as the chef cooks your eggs to your specification, it was more that the omelet fillings looked so good.

I chose a loaded omelet then topped it with salsa with sides of bacon, a chicken taquito and Portuguese sausage.  The omelet was stuffed with green pepper, mushroom, onion, hot peppers, and cheese.  The salsa topping is a new use for salsa for me.  I know in some areas it is sacrilegious to not use hot sauce or salsa on eggs but I prefer mine lightly seasoned with salt and pepper.  I must say the salsa was a tasty edition meaning I will have to can up a few more jars this year to meet the extra requirements. 

Omelets are an extremely frugal dish that can easily incorporate leftovers.  They can easily be adjusted for personal tastes.  Served with a side of bacon, ham or sausage and optional hash browns, omelet make for a complete meal.

Spinach and Cheese Omelet

My husband and I are creatures of habit when traveling.  We love indulging in a hot breakfast usually egg based.

We had a two for coupon for the breakfast buffet at Main Street on Main Street one block east of Fremont Street.  Total cost was $10.20 for two which is not bad for a full breakfast buffet with an egg station.  I do not like the scrambled eggs on a breakfast buffet.  They are generally something like 'egg beaters' and don't taste like real eggs to me.  The only time I will get eggs on a breakfast buffet is when there is an egg station where the chef cooks fresh eggs to your specification.  I ordered an omelet with spinach and cheese.  I also got a bagel with cream cheese, smoked salmon and capers along with sausage, hame and hash browns.  Coffee and orange juice rounded out my meal.

Watching the chef cook eggs in the egg station was quite fascinating.  We chit chatted as he cooked and that is one of the things I enjoy the most because I learn through the dialogue.  He did not use an egg flipper until plating and then only to help fold the omelet.   This would be  a very easy omelet to duplicate at home using steamed spinach.  While this omelet only had spinach and cheese I think adding mushrooms and onions would be very good as well.  Oh and smoked salmon on a bagel with cream cheese and capers is just absolutely delightful!  It would be very easy to make at home as well.

Kitchen Quick Tips - Rescuing Hard to Peel Eggs

Hard boiled eggs that have sat in the refrigerator can be had to peel.  Submerge them in hot water for 1 minute then transfer into ice water and submerge for 1 minute.  The shell will peel off easier.

Bacon Mushroom Omelet

Like many home cooks I always find myself with leftover bits and pieces of various foods.  Quite of there may be only a couple of ounces and at best a half of cup but these tid bits down get tossed.  I freeze some of these leftovers if possible for later use.  Others sit in the fridge so I can work them into a soup, stew or other dish within a day or two.

Sunday morning I found myself wanting a hot breakfast.  It was too cold to get dressed to go out for breakfast and besides both of us were tired from entertaining the night before.  At the same time I wanted with a bit less muss and fuss of making bacon, eggs, hash-browns and toast.  Looking in the fridge I spotted a half of onion, 4 fresh whole mushrooms and the eggs.  I took about 3 tbsp of pre-cooked bacon pieces from the freezer.  I cook these ahead of time so always have some in the freezer.   With that I had the makings of an omelet.

My omelets always start with briskly whisked eggs poured into a medium hot pan.  I cook undisturbed until the top starts to set.  Then I add whatever fillings I want.  In this case I added sautéed mushroom slices, onion and bacon pieces.  I cover for 2 minutes to set then carefully pull one half of the omelet up and over to form a wedge shape.  I cover and let cook another 2 to 3 minutes until the centre is fully set.  This omelet was topped with shredded Monterey  Jack and cheddar cheese added after the centre was set.  I removed the pan from the heat and covered to allow the cheese to melt.

Backyard Chicken Eggs

Our neighbours a couple of doors down have laying hens. I had full intentions of having laying hens this year but decided against it with the house being on the market. Raising laying hens mainly for the purpose of egg production is a growing backyard activity across Canada and many US communities. Some municipalities have enacted by-laws against raising backyard chickens while other are embracing the notion. And why not? Unlike dogs, chickens make very little noise and in fact most times no one will even know chickens are in your backyard. Chickens are easy to keep, low maintenance and don't smell. In most cases your neighbours won't even know you have chickens. A small flock of 4 laying hens will produce about 4 eggs per day so that is a rather good return on your investment. It is a good way to inexpensively add protein to your diet while increasing your self sufficiency.  Many backyard chicken owner get quite attached to their hens, fondly referring to them as their girls.

Backyard chickens will give white or brown eggs depending on the chicken species. The only difference is the colour of the shell. Seriously the eggs taste the same. The real difference is the difference in the taste of backyard chicken eggs in comparison to store bought eggs. The yolk in backyard chickens eggs is almost orange as pictured. It is considerably deeper coloured than store bought eggs. Part of the reason for this is backyard chickens tend to be free range within the confines of the backyard. That means their diet is a lot more varied than chickens producing store bought eggs. Most times backyard chickens are not grain fed other than during winter months and even then only if absolutely necessary.

Pictured are the cracked backyard chicken eggs.  Just look at how beautiful and richly coloured those yolks are.  That depth of colour translates into wonderfully flavoured eggs.  I grew up with farm fresh eggs delivered right to our door every week by the egg lady.  Adjusting to store bought eggs was a bit difficult.  I went back to buying farm fresh eggs every time I got the chance.  When our kids were younger I even had an egg lady of my own who delivered eggs every 2 weeks.  Once you switch to farm fresh eggs you won't go back to store bought unless absolutely necessary.  However, backyard chicken eggs are even fresher.  They can be used in your favourite recipes within minutes of being gathered.

The difference in flavour is undeniable! Backyard chicken eggs like free range chicken eggs have a wonderful flavour that well out weighs store bought eggs.  The reason being backyard chicken eggs are considerably fresher.  Better yet you know what they have been fed.  Backyard chickens tend to be healthier than commercially raised laying hens.

Scrambled eggs are one of the easiest ways to prepare eggs.  I scramble eggs plain with no water or milk added cooked in a non-stick fry pan with just a dab of butter then lightly seasoned with fresh ground salt and pepper.  The beautiful deep yolk colour of the backyard chicken eggs is not lost with cooking.  Let me tell you these eggs were delicious!

Country Breakfast Casserole

My husband and I were shopping recently which is a rather rare event because I am not a shopper at least in the convention way.  While going through the check-out I notice a Taste of Home booklet of Bacon Recipe cards.  Now here's the thing...bacon is a food group all by itself!  I briefly debated then decided to buy the booklet.  It was $4.99 but each recipe is on a card so if I used recipe cards that would be useful.   What I was really interested in were new ideas to use one of my favourite foods.

The kids, parents to oldest and youngest grandbabies were home on the weekend so I decided to try the country brunch skillet recipe in the booklet but quickly realized I'd have to do a bit of modifying since I needed to feed 8 rather than 6.  My 20 - inch skillet wasn't quite big enough so I decided to change the cooking method to the oven.  The resulting casserole started with the original recipe but ended up quite different.  It did go over well so this breakfast casserole goes into my file of family favourites.

Country Breakfast Casserole

6 bacon strips
1 750 g (1.6 lb) bag cubed frozen hash brown potatoes
1 c broccoli, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
8 eggs
¾ c  shredded colby cheese
2 tbsp butter
salt
pepper

Cut bacon across strips, fry, drain and reserve.  Melt the butter then pour into casserole pan. Mix vegetables together and pour into the casserole pan.  Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper.  Cover with tin foil and bake at 175ºC (350ºC) for 15 minutes.  Remove casserole dish from oven.  Make 8 wells in the vegetable mixture.  Crack an egg into each well.  Cover and return to oven for 8 - 10 minutes or until eggs are completely set.  Sprinkle with bacon pieces and cheese.  Bake for 5 minutes or until cheese is melted. 

Serves 8

Egg Salad Wraps

Sometimes a new spin on an old family favourite is just what's needed to add a bit of spark to the dish.  When it comes to sandwiches it is quite easy to turn them into wraps.  Wraps use flour tortilla shells to form the pocket style wrap.  Flour tortilla shells now come in a variety of flavours ranging from plain to pesto to sun dried tomatoes which really adds to the kinds of wraps you can make.

One of my husband's favourite sandwich fillings is egg salad so I did a little twist on this sandwich. Pictured are the egg salad wraps I made for my husband's Father's Day lunch.  He loves egg salad!  That is a sprig of fresh parsley from the garden as well.  

I use the method for making perfect hard boiled eggs as the base for the egg salad.  Once the eggs are cooked, cooled and peeled I mash them then add finely chopped onions, fresh ground pepper and fresh ground sea salt followed by stirring in Miracle Whip® dressing to get a nice spooning consistency.  The egg salad is then ready for using in sandwiches or wraps.

Toads-in-the-Hole

Happy Mother's Day

Years ago when I was knee high to a grasshopper my Mom made hot breakfasts on Sundays something we continued with our kids.  We very seldom eat a hot breakfast at home unless it is on a Sunday morning although we do indulge on hot breakfasts when on vacation.  Mom's hot breakfasts were porridge, cream of wheat, Red River cereal, pancakes or toads-in-the-hole.  Toads-in the-hole was my favourite!  Our kids were introduced to toads-in-the-hole pretty much as soon as they were able to sit in a highchair.   This is not the British Toad-in-the-hole which is a sausage in a Yorkshire pudding batter, usually served with vegetables and onion gravy which is surprising as my Mom (not biological) was born in England.  Rather this is a egg dish likely creatively named by Mom to get us kids to eat eggs.

I have no idea where my Mom learned to make toads-in-hole and she never said.  For all I know she just came up with this idea on her own.  She had a lot of neat kid friendly foods that she would make.  Toads-in-a-hole really is just a novel way to cook dipped eggs and toast.  The presentation is cute and kids love them!

My Mom simply used a round water glass to cut out the middle of the bread then buttered the the bread slice and the piece cut out on both sided.  The bread was toasted on one side then flipped and an egg cracked into the opening.  She placed a lid over to help the egg cook.  The cut-outs were toasted in the fry pan at the same time.  Pictured is a bit of a dressed up version using a flower shaped cookie cutter for the hole with a little chocolate raspberry sauce in the centre of the flower cut-outs.  Toads-in-the-hole are still one of my favourite breakfast meals.  Thanks Mom for this wonderful breakfast memory!

Kitchen Quick Tips - Cracking Eggs

Always crack your eggs over a separate bowl. That way if an egg is bad it will not contaminate the other ingredients and you won't waste the other ingredients by adding a bad egg.

French Toast

Hot breakfasts are a treat for use usually reserved for weekends, when we are vacationing or holidays. During the Christmas holidays hot breakfasts are pretty much a must and why not? Lounging around in pajamas sipping on a hot espresso or latté while the smell of a hot breakfast cooking is just delectable! It really becomes a true family bonding times.

French Toast

A hot breakfast doesn't have to be complicated or fancy. In fact a hot breakfast can easily use up left-overs like bread. One of our family favourites is French toast. It is easy to make yet always is a hit. Served simply with pan fried breakfast sausage links topped with real maple syrup and a little butter garnished with icing sugar, well life doesn't get much better!

French Toast
source: Garden Gnome's Hubby

Method: Crack 4 - 6 eggs into a mixing bowl and whisk. Stir in just a little milk. Dip bread into the egg mixture then fry in a medium-hot pan until golden brown on both sides. Remove from pan and plate. Top with 100% pure maple syrup and a pat of butter. Sprinkle a little icing sugar on top. Serve with breakfast sausage links.

Hubby's Weekend Cooking

I have often mentioned on this blog my husband's wonderful cooking skills. He makes one of the best burgers you will ever taste but his real signature dish is his breaded pork chops! This past weekend he decided to take over the kitchen! Here's what he came up with.

Rib Roast

Thursday morning I was rummaging through one of the chest freezers holding our new supply of organic, hormone free beef. I wanted ground beef but as I was looking for that I spotted a rib roast that somehow had two corners torn. This does happen with bulk meat purchases from time to time with the transporting from the abattoir to home freezer. It was hot and humid not really nice roast weather day so I put the roast into the refrigerator to thaw.

Saturday my husband wrapped the roast tightly and cooked it on the grill. At the same time he cooked potatoes seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper then wrapped in foil on the grill. The side vegetables were cauliflower with a little butter and nutmeg, sliced tomatoes and cucumber quarters. It was a lovely meal that kept most of the prep heat out of the house.

Breakfast

Yes I know breakfast is the most important meal of the day but I have to admit that during the week we very seldom eat breakfast especially a cooked one. I'm quite happy with a bit of homemade yogurt with my coffee or latte while my husband occasionally enjoys a toasted bagel. When we are on vacation or on the weekends we make up for it by having a hot breakfast.

There were left over potatoes from Saturday's roast dinner and half a ream of frozen bacon left from the omelet made the weekend before. In true frugal fashion he fried the bacon on the indoor griddle then set it aside to warm the potatoes. When the potatoes were warmed though he put the eggs on while I made the toast. Once plated we sat eating and chit chatting while watching the beauty of the water.

Barbeque Rib Roast Pizza

The rib roast dinner on Saturday had been an unplanned meal. It was a larger roast as well so there were left overs. Saturday night as we watched a bit of television a commercial for a steak pizza came on. That became the inspiration for a different way to use up some of the rib roast.

I put in a batch of pizza dough just after 3 PM. With the heat and humidity the proofing went a bit quicker than expected. My husband took it from there. Instead of a tomato pizza sauce he used Diana Sauce® for the sauce. After spreading a even layer of Diana Sauce® he layered on thin slices of the roast beef and chopped onions then topped with mozzarella cheese. This mouthwatering pizza tasted every bit as good as it looked! What a wonderful and unique way to use up roast beef!

On the Father's Day Menu

My husband and I have never celebrated special days with paper cards or gifts between us. It stems back from our early years of high school sweethearts and quite frankly I would not have it any other way. What we do instead is do a few extra things to show our love and cook a special meal for the other. We have a couple of rules when it comes to cooking special meals for each other. First it has to be within our range of cooking abilities and second it has to be something the other requested. There is usually a slight element of surprise just to keep things interesting.

Happy Father's Day

Pictured is the special graphics I made for my husband this year for use in my blogs and scrapbooking. I recently posted my thoughts about my husband's role as a father. I have to tell you I love Photoshop® not only for creating my own graphics but also for tweaking the images for my blogs.

What many might not realize is virtually all of the images of food on this blog have been tweaked to some degree. Edges and a © mark is added. In most instances the background is removed and changed to black to put the focus on the food. At the same time I try to keep the tweaking to a minimum in order to show you the dish as it really looks. Ok so there is a little tid bit about the behind the scenes workings of this blog.

Omelet

Pictured is the bacon and red onion omelet I made my husband for brunch. As you can see it is a fluffy omelet. Over the years I have seen many ways to make omelets and the main complaint is they are not light an fluffy. The main reason is cheese or milk or water is added to the egg mixture. This results in a rubbery textures far from fluffy and I like fluffy omelets! So I developed my own method of making fluffy omelets. The resulting omelet is light, fluffy with a wonderful texture.

Method: Chop onion and fry bacon pieces until almost crisp. Place bacon pieces on paper towel to absorb extra grease reserving grease. Beat 6 eggs until lemony yellow. Heat a non-stick fry pan on medium heat with a little butter or bacon fat for flavour. Pour the beaten eggs into the hot pan. Sprinkle onion and bacon pieces over the eggs. Cover the pan checking until the mixture is almost cooked through. Fold over and let cook until set. Plate. Garnish with shredded cheese and parsley.

Grilled Rib Steak

My husband's dinner request was grilled steak with sautéed onions and baked beans and baked potatoes. Now for the past week he has not been able to have any red meat so I can understand the steak. I paired the grilled rib steaks with Old Vermont Baked Beans and oven baked potatoes.

The steak was grill to medium rare then topped with sautéed onions. This is a very common pairing that has appeared on this blog several times. So let me tell you how I prepare oven baked potatoes.

Method: Wash large baking (Russet, Long White, Idaho) potatoes and dry. Poke a few holes in each potato. Place in a pre-heated 180ºC (356ºF) oven. Bake until skin is crispy and flesh has a good give when pinched. Remove from oven. Split down the middle. Fluff the inside and top as desired.

Breakfast on the Grill

I have to admit that we don't eat hot breakfasts on a regular basis. When the kids were younger I would make bacon or sausage and eggs or pancakes Sunday mornings and when we were camping. After we became empty nesters we eat hot breakfasts mainly when traveling or on weekends the kids are home. Since moving here I've decided to resume making a hot breakfast Sunday mornings. Our house is on a beautiful wooded lot on the water so we basically enjoy camping year round. A nice cup of fresh brewed coffee combined with a hearty breakfast while sitting on the dock is just a wonderfully relaxing way to great the day!

Bacon

Smelling bacon and eggs cooking outdoors is still one of the things I really love about camping! Somehow my campstove is still missing in action from the move but if you consider we moved one of our kids twelve days before we moved and we still have a lot of things we are storing for the other kids, that is to be expected. The garage needs a huge major clean-out! I'm digressing so back to breakfast.

Some time ago I heard about cooking bacon in bulk in the oven with very good results. The problem I immediately saw was bacon splatters grease when cooking meaning the oven would have to be cleaned. At that time I had to clean the oven manually but then we bought the stove with a self cleaning oven. Still the prospect of running the self clean cycle after cooking bacon was not overly appealing. So I reasoned, why not cook the bacon on the grill? The mess would stay outside and the grease would burn off. I tried it using a sided baking sheet and now it is my preferred way of cooking bacon. This method does result in the bacon staying in straighter strips rather than curling.

Method: Heat the grill to medium high. Place the strips of bacon on a non-stick, sided baking sheet. Pepper if desired. Put the pan on the middle shelf of the grill (indirect heat). Allow the bacon to cook turning with tongs keeping the strips straight. When cooked place in a warming dish on the top rack to drain and remain warm until serving.

Over Easy

My husband's preferred eggs for breakfast are over easy or poached both with soft yolks. This is quite easy to do using the side burner of the grill but I have made them over a wood fire as well. I like using a non-stick fry pan for cooking eggs which is about the only time I use one. My husband wanted three eggs for breakfast so his went on first.

Our side burner runs on natural gas that has good temperature control but it is affected by wind. I grew up using natural gas but when we set up our first home after marrying I quickly got used to electric. Since then I've learned to cook on wood, propane, charcoal, naphtha gas and solar. Natural gas is dependable and cheaper than electricity here but a good portion of heat is lost so your cooking style needs to be adjusted.

Pictured are my husband's over easy eggs, bacon and he couldn't wait for his toast for the photo shoot. He likes eggs cooked this way for breakfast occasionally and for making fried egg sandwiches. The real trick is letting them cook on the one side, flip then count to three slowly. Remove from the heat and there you have perfect cooked yet runny yolks.

Sunnyside Up

Yes that is my new counter top although we are only using it for photo shoots until the grout is sealed. That should be finished tomorrow so I will post an update later this week. Things will soon be back to normal :)

I like my eggs with a bit crispy whites and sunny side up. I seriously hate it when I order eggs sunny side up at a restaurant and they come out with slimy egg whites. My trick is I let the eggs cook until the whites are opaque then cover with lid and allow to cook until just the edges of the yolks are clouding. This results in perfect dipping eggs just the way I love them. A dash of sea salt and fresh ground pepper make these eggs a true taste sensation!

Wisconsin Breakfast

We planned on leaving Wisconsin early Sunday afternoon heading north where we were staying in St. Ignace, Michigan for a couple of days. So it was a rather lazy Sunday morning, sitting and visiting. Remember in a previous entry I mentioned we had cheese in some form daily? Before breakfast we had a cheese string with our coffee. Of course the topic came up as to how cheese strings were made and since I was online anyway I did a google. I came across a few theories including one where a mother thought that cheese strings should be banned because they are too much like a toy. Give me a break! Next she'll want to ban mashed potatoes and broccoli. My kids used to make hills with their mash potatoes and plant broccoli trees beside their gravy streams. Honestly, food should be fun. There's a lot worse things kids could be eating than a cheese string. Cheese strings are made simply by stretching and folding the cheese while it is warm to form strings much the same as pulling taffy. Mozzarella makes the best cheese strings because of it's natural elasticity.

Breakfast

The kids made a late breakfast so we wouldn't have to stop for lunch. We were looking at a 7 hour drive planning only to stop for a washroom break and possibly dinner. Our goal was to get as much travelling done during the daylight hours for sight seeing and picture taking. Unlike the route we took to Wisconsin the route to the Upper Penninsula was fairly straight forward so instead of being navigator I could be tourist.

It was a traditional bacon, eggs, hashbrowns and toast breakfast. The scrambled eggs were kicked up a notch with sauteed mushrooms and three cheeses (cream, mozzarella, cheddar). The hashbrowns were the shredded type something we don't see a lot of around our neck of the world. Usually the hashbrowns are diced or replaced with home fries that are larger chunks of potatoes. The shredded hashbrowns were browned in olive oil with a little butter. They were quite tasty. The bacon was peppered. Bacon can be purchased already peppered or you can pepper it yourself while frying using fresh ground pepper. Set the pepper mill to a larger grind.

One thing I've noticed is many people fail to experience the local cuisine when travelling. The two main reasons are familiarity is comforting when away from home and avoidance of stomach upsets. I'm of the school of try everything at least once and my stomach had just best keep up! When you try local cuisine you get to experience the food as it is meant to be. From there you can take that idea home and experiment either to duplicate the food or tweak it to the way you want it to be. That's what food is all about, having fun and experimenting.

We left their house just after 1 pm and made our way to US-41 that would take us to St. Ignace, Michigan. My mind was on the beautiful eye candy as well as all the wonderful food we had in Wisconsin. The cheese was tucked safely in the cooler. I hadn't seen how full the cooler was but I hoped there would be room for whitefish!

Note: The kids will be sending me pictures and recipes of some of their favourite dishes so I will be including them on this blog. Yes, food is a family affair. I look forward to checking my email because there are always wonderful pictures of the meals they have made.