Picking Fresh Veggies From My Michigan Garden in January

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Picking Fresh Veggies From My Michigan Garden In January

I just dug fresh carrots & parsnips, and picked Kale from my snowy January garden.

To extend harvesting carrots & parsnips simply mulch in the fall (click Mulching Carrots to view more details).
 
(It is also important to thin the carrot plants in the summer - click "The Importance of Thinning" to see more).




Kale is an amazing plant! - when our daily temperatures were in the low 20's (F) and in the teens at night it looked like the Kale had died.  But, when the temperatures got to about 40 degrees or more, these Kale plants just bounced back!  I picked the Kale last week during our January thaw when our temperatures reached above 40 degrees.

To view 4 different Kale varieties click here: 
Kale- 4 Different Varieties

ENJOY!!




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Egg Basics - HARD BOILED

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Egg Basics - HARD BOILED

On this blog I have reserved Thursdays for "Beginners." For the next few months (on Thursdays) we will be concentrating on the Basics of Eggs. (I know that many of my readers are experienced cooks but there are just as many readers who are new in the kitchen and might desire some simple instruction on the basics).

Eggs are wonderful and so versatile! - - - They can be boiled, fried, poached, scrambled, deviled..........etc.   The majority of people overcook boiled eggs which causes the yolk to turn green and be rubbery in texture.  Today we will be learning how to cook a perfect hard boiled egg where the yolk remains a brilliant yellow and has a soft delicate consistency.

There is a controversy over the egg yolk - many people only eat egg whites and believe that the yolk is too fatty. I am from the opposite school of thought - I believe that the yolk is the healthiest part of the egg. The Yolk contains all of the fat-soluble vitamins like A, E & K & the yolk is one of the few foods that naturally contains vitamin D, the yolk also has lutein (good for the eyes), and is a good source of lecithin. (again - I'm not a doctor - please see my "disclaimer" at the bottom of this post).



Step 1:  Fill a medium size saucepan with water (when I say fill - leave at least 2 inches head space - you might need to pour out some water after you add the eggs - you don't want the water to boil over)Step 2:  Gently place the uncooked eggs into the water in the saucepanStep 3:  Place the pan on medium heat and bring the water to boil.Step 4:  As soon as the water begins to boil - set your timer for 10 minutes.Step 5:  After the 10 minutes - Immediately remove the pan from the heat and pour out the hot water.Step 6:  Now pour cold tap water over the hot eggs to stop them from cooking (and more specifically to stop the yolk from turning green & from becoming rubbery).  Let the cooked eggs sit in the cold water for 15 minutes before peeling.Step7:  Working with 1 egg at a time - crack the entire egg on the counter/or sink (by this I mean - lightly bang the egg & roll while banging so that all sides will have little cracks) and then begin peeling (see the picture above - there is an egg in the middle that has been "cracked" & I began peeling the top egg).
Step 8:  Rinse off each egg lightly.
 If you follow these steps exactly - you will have egg shells that come off almost in one piece (see picture below).


Now that is a perfect HARD BOILED EGG  - look at the beautiful yolk below:  Not a bit of icky green!!!  ENJOY!!
 

  
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See also:
Egg Basics - POACHED
Egg Basics - SOFT BOILED

  

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Frank's Flowers - "Monique The Rose"

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photo by Angie Ouellette-Tower

photo by Angie Ouellette-Tower

Frank's Flowers - "Monique The Rose"
Click here to learn how to Prune & Trim Roses Today's Flower Feature is "Monique The Rose".This rose is named after my little sister - it was originally from my sister's Wedding Bouquet.  My dad used his rooting technique to start rose bushes from the cut roses that were in her bouquet.  I don't think that these pictures do this rose justice - it is amazing how the back side of each petal is pure white and the top side of each petal is the brightest fuchsia red.  These gorgeous rose bushes have withstood the test of time since she was married 17 years ago! . 
This is a precious rose - almost as precious as my beautiful baby sister.

In the picture below:  "Monique the bride" is my beautiful sister, I am the Maid-of-honor and if you look closely you will see "Monique The Rose" in the bouquets.

If you look closely you can see the roses in the bouquet

Please ENJOY this digital bouquet of "Monique The Rose"!

photo by Angie Ouellette-Tower

photo by Angie Ouellette-Tower

photo by Angie Ouellette-Tower

photo by Angie Ouellette-Tower

photo by Angie Ouellette-Tower

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Love Your Enemies

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"But I tell you who hear me:  Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, pray for those who mistreat you."  Luke 6:27 & 27

"Do to others as you would have them do to you."  Luke 6:31

This is the most difficult part of loving others: to love your enemies.  Those who hate and mistreat us......hate is such a short word but an extremely strong word - let's define the word "hate".  "Hate - intense hostility and aversion usually deriving from fear, anger, or sense of injury" Merriam-WebsterSynonyms:  abhorrence, detestation, revulsion, disgust, loathing, dislike & animosity.How in the world are we supposed to love someone who hates us so strongly?  I'm going to be honest - it's not easy but it is something that we must do as Christians.   Let's look at the verses above - we are to "do good" to those who hate us & "pray for those who mistreat" us.  I have found that good acts become much easier if you pray first.  Spend good quality quiet time with our Lord God Almighty and focus on this person who is your enemy - it will be amazing how God will soften your heart towards that person.  Be honest with God - after praying you might be surprised to see your enemy in a whole different light and understand a little better where they are coming from.  You won't always be able to pray before acting.  There might come a time when your enemy is a stranger.  For example - someone who hates all Christians.  You might only have 5 minutes of contact with that stranger and that might be the only 5 minutes of Jesus' love that the enemy will ever see.  We need to be prepared to love others in a split second.  This is where I fall short & struggle constantly - I am more of the "react & fly off the handle" kind of person.  There have been many times where I have been hot headed & not reacted in a Christ-like manner - Afterwards (in that type of situation) I had to ask God for forgiveness for my behavior.
  A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.  Proverbs 17:17 What happens when a family member or a friend becomes an enemy?  For example - When a husband is physically abusing his wife-  Is that wife supposed to stay and continually "turn the other cheek" for more abuse?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!  What the wife in this situation is NOT supposed to do is get even - don't fight fire with fire.  Also, she shouldn't just leave and ignore the problem.  She needs to remove herself from that situation but pray for her husband and do good by getting him some professional help.  This husband is not treating his wife as he would want to be treated - he needs to repent and the wife needs to stay away until he does repent.  And of course she needs to forgive him but she can forgive him without continually placing herself back into that situation.

As we see in Proverbs 17:17 both family & friends love us & are there for us both in good times and bad.  If a "friend" starts to mistreat you when times are getting tough, then maybe that person wasn't really a true friend in the first place.
Always try to treat "others" as you would want to be treated.  "Others" means family, friends, neighbors, strangers & enemies - that's EVERYONE!

  

My Calla Lily Birthday Surprise

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My Calla Lily Birthday Surprise

I had a birthday last week - I'm at the age where I'm not yet "over the hill" but I'm definitely either at the top or nearing the top of the hill.  So, right now it's really just best to ignore my birthday (no - not really).  Anyway, it was late afternoon on my birthday & I heard the UPS truck barreling down my street (as they often do during the week).  My Great Pyrenees dog child was barking his head off since he hates all UPS, Fed Ex and furniture delivery trucks (USPS trucks seem to be acceptable to my canine protector).  I was busy upstairs on the computer so I ignored the noise - there was NO knock or door bell ringing so I figured that the devious truck had not stopped here.

About an hour passed by - my dog had stopped barking otherwise I would have been down earlier to check on him.  I went into the garage & noticed a package sitting at the edge of the open door.........I hadn't ordered anything - what could this be??
It was this beautiful Calla Lilly from by wonderful sister, nieces & brother-in-law - thank you Thank you THANK YOU!!

ENJOY the following pictures (all photos taken by Angie Ouellette-Tower - see Copyright at the bottom of this post).

  










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Scottish food: Cock-a-Leekie soup

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Originally posted in February 2007; fully updated in January 2013. 

Photo by Juta Kübarsepp for the January 2013 issue of Kodu ja Aed. Recipe and styling by Nami-Nami. The tablecloth is Estonian national tartan - the blue, black and white representing the Estonian flag, the red and golden representing Scotland's Rampant Lion. 

Tomorrow the friends of Scotland and all things Scottish across the world celebrate Robert Burns' birth anniversary, hosting or attending a Burns Supper. And any self-respecting Burns Supper begins with a proper Scottish soup - either Scotch Broth or Cock-a-Leekie. As the latter is a) considerably cheaper and b) considerably easier, and something that I've cooked over and over again. Amazingly, so few ingredients (a chicken, some leeks and some juicy prunes) can result in such a flavoursome soup.

Here's the recipe for a lovely and flavoursome cock-a-leekie. It started off as a recipe from Sue Lawrence's Scots Cooking: The Best Traditional and Contemporary Recipes (excellent book, by the way!), but I've tweaked both the amounts and the instructions, including the cooking method, considerably.

Cock-a-leekie
(Cock-a-leekie supp ehk Å¡otlaste kana-porrusupp)
Serves 10 as a starter or 4 to 6 as a main course. 

1 chicken (1.5 kg)
3-4 large leeks (1 kg)
20 black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
about 2 litres water
20 juicy prunes, stoned and sliced
fresh parsley, chopped

Place the chicken in a large saucepan. Halve the leeks lengthwise, wash them well, then cut off the green parts. Chop these roughly and add to the pan with the peppercorns and bay leaf. Add the water - it should just cover the chicken. Season lightly with salt.
Bring slowly into the boil, skim off any scum that appears at the surface. Then cover and simmer for about 1.5-2 hours, until the chicken is cooked. Remove from the heat and let it cool.
Take out the chicken and remove the leeks, either with a slotted spoon or by draining the soup through a colander. Discard the cooked leeks. Remove the chicken flesh from the bones and chop into smaller pieces.
Chop the white part of the leeks, add to the pan with the prunes and chicken and bring to the boil again. Simmer for about 10 minutes, until the leeks are just done.
Season with plenty of salt and pepper and serve with chopped parsley on top.

3 things to do in Tel Aviv and 3 things to do in Jerusalem

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Katrina (born in Tallinn) of The Gastronomical Me blog (written in London) dropped me an e-mail few days ago. I quote:

I'm flying to Israel tomorrow, for a week, will stay in Tel Aviv and Jeruselem and the Deadsea. I know you went there during summer through that social group. I've read a bit on your site already but if you were to pick say 3 places that surprised you the most, perhaps the places you don't think people are likely to discover just by wondering around, what would you recommend?

I had the pleasure of visiting Israel last June in the honorable company of David Lebovitz and Ms Marmite Lover as well as two lovely young American food writers. I haven't managed to blog nearly as much about the trip as I would have wanted, but here's my TOP 3 recommendations for both places. I have met Katrina on a couple of occasions, and think I have a vague idea of what would interest her - hope I'm not too wide off the mark, Katrina :D
JERUSALEM

1) Drinks and nibbles at the rooftop restaurant of the Mamilla Hotel. Wonderful views across the city during sunset, excellent modern Israeli food. We had nibbles there on the first night in town, just getting to know each other and our wonderful hosts Adi and Joanna (hi there!) and our packed itinerary.




(More Mamilla photos here)

2) A tour of the Mahane-Yehuda Market is a must - and I've actually managed to blog about that.


(More Mahane-Yehuda photos here)

I also think Katrina would enjoy a quick khatchapuri at the Georgian café Hatchapuria (5 HaShikma St, just outside the market). Here's their lovely Adjarian cheese khatchapuri with soft egg:



3) Hummus and falafels, mint tea, cardamom-spiced coffee, mutabbaq - all on Via Dolorosa. We popped into a hummusia somewhere between the seventh and eighth station. Excellent first hummus indeed! We then followed up the stairs and just on the right at the end of the last station, stopped for mutabbaq, the super sweet Arab filo pastry, mint tea and cardamom coffee.




Both photos by David Garb, one of the photographers on our tour

TEL AVIV

1) Haj Kahil is an Arab/Palestine restaurant in Jaffa, and the lunch we enjoyed there was probably one of the tastiest and most memorable during the trip full of really excellent food. The mezze table alone was ten points out of ten, a wonderful selection of fresh and delicious vegetable dishes.



Here's the waiter with the main course - just before our "argument" whether I should have a huge portion as I was eating for two (pregnant with bebe number three, remember :)) - his view; or whether I should only have a small portion of that beautiful 8-hour-lamb, as there was a good-sized baby taking up all that free space in my belly already - my idea:

David Lebovitz has written a beautiful post about that restaurant and I would definitely go back for a meal or two when in Israel again. This is my Number 1 recommendation for Israel!

2) Eyal Shani's The Salon only opens twice a week (Wednesday and Thursday), 8 Ma'avar Yabok, Nakhalat Yitzhak, Givataim, telephone 052-7035888. Apparently it's hard to secure a table and it's pretty pricey, and definitely not a place if you want a quiet place to enjoy a meal. But I trust Katrina would enjoy the rowdy and positively crazy atmosphere of the place. The food was delicious as well, of course :)

Eyal Shani in action.

3) A leisurely breakfast at Manta Ray at Alma Beach. The food was good, but I have especially fond memories of having breakfast at the relaxing seaside café - the vibe and the atmosphere were great.  


Remember - there six recommendations are posted here with a specific food-loving girl in mind - might not be the same places I'd suggest to a retired couple or a young family with three small kids :)