More than one boiled egg has been hurled across my kitchen in a fit of disgusted rage due to its un-peel-ability. I actually have shed tears over pitted, ugly, ruined boiled eggs that were meant to be beautifully deviled and delicious. After much research (thanks Mama and Ina Garten, among others) and a little practice, I believe I have compiled the information needed to make boiling and peeling eggs as pain-free as possible. Most any information you read will tell you that the older the egg, the easier it is to peel, so it's not a bad plan to use eggs that have been around for 5 to 7 days. I have used fairly fresh eggs with this procedure with very good results. Here goes...
Just about to boil.
Place your eggs in the pot and cover with cold water.
Put 'em on the burner and crank up the heat.
While heating, add a tablespoon of baking soda to the water. This is supposed to raise the pH and make the membrane beneath the peel stronger, making them easier to peel.
Bring the water to a boil, then immediately remove them from heat and smack a lid on them.
Let them sit for 10 minutes, then immediately place them into a bowl full of ice water.
Let them sit for 5 minutes in the ice water, then immediately remove. This will keep the center of the egg a little warm while the outside is chilled, helping to loosen the shell.
Now this part is a little strange, but it helps. Tap the egg on each end to crack the shell, and remove a small section from each end. One end should have a little air pocket in it, which makes it easier to start. Now tap around the sides to crack the shell all around the egg. Next, take the egg in your fist and blow into the narrow end of the egg, where you removed the shell. Pretend you're trying to blow the egg completely out of the shell. You might actually accomplish that, but odds are, you will blow around the egg and help loosen the shell so that it will peel off in one piece. Look this up on youtube, there are tons of videos on the subject.
Start peeling and the membrane should separate from the egg and prevent pitting or peeling away little parts of the white. GOOD LUCK!!
These pickled eggs with sausage are delicious and super easy to make. You can tweak the recipe pretty much any way you want. Last night I used jalapeno sausage and added lots of Louisiana Hot Sauce and red pepper flakes. I hope they turn out super hot and spicy! The following recipe is not spicy but still really delicious and flavorful.
A gallon of pickled goodness!
A few notes:
The longer you leave them refrigerated before serving them, the stronger their flavor will be. I recommend at least a week.
You can use 3 cups of white vinegar instead of the combination of the three if that's all you have on hand. I like to use all three just to add a little color and flavor.
This recipe makes enough pickling brine for a gallon jar or 3 quart jars.
Even though you are going to use sausage that is smoked and therefore already fully cooked, it's a good idea to slice the sausage and boil it for a couple of minutes to get the grease out. Otherwise you will end up with quite a lot of grease floating in globs in the top of your jar. Yuck!
I will be including tips for cooking and peeling boiled eggs in a separate post, just in case you have struggled with this like I have and don't want to end up throwing pitted, messed up boiled eggs across the room and bouncing them off the wall in a Duree Fit.
INGREDIENTS:
Ball Pickling Spice
18 boiled eggs, peeled
1 large onion, chopped into large pieces
1 "rope" length link or 4 bun length links fully cooked sausage of your choice, sliced
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and left whole
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 1/2 cups distilled white vinegar
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
3 cups water
2 Tbsp pickling spice
3 bay leaves
Pickling brine. Smells delicious.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Layer peeled eggs, sausage slices, whole garlic cloves, and onion in 3 quart jars or one gallon jar. In a medium sauce pan, combine vinegar, water, and pickling spice. Bring to a boil and add chopped garlic and bay leaves. Remove from heat and pour hot mixture into jar(s). Seal and refrigerate for 5 days to 2 weeks before serving. ENJOY!!
Sometimes I get intrigued by intriguing things and I wanna
talk about them. They're probably things most people don't really care about or
they would be talking about them already, right? Well, maybe so, but I'm gonna talk about some
of them here anyways. Who knows. Maybe
you'll be intrigued as well.
I've always been intrigued by underground things. Underground houses, underground cities, bomb shelters,
time capsules; you bury it, I will be intrigued by it. Today's particular Intriguing Underground Thing is
located in Las Vegas, but it's doubtful you've ever heard of it, and most
people don't even know it exists.
There is a house on a corner in a regular neighborhood.
Notice the Turbine Thingy next to the Suburban?
This house was built in recent years, but before that, this
was a well-landscaped lot surrounded by a fancy fence, which enclosed a
driveway and lots of big boulders and several of these turbine thingies
sticking up out of the ground. Inside
one of the boulders was an elevator shaft, and what lay beneath was an entire 6,000
sq. ft. home built underground. With a
yard. And a sky that changes from day to
night. And a swimming pool, and a guest house.
This thing just blows my mind! Not just an underground home, but the whole
shebang! Astro-turf lawn! A sky that can turn from day to night with
the push of a button! Perfect,
climate-controlled living! No leaves to pick up, no lawn to mow, no snow or
wind or rain or heat to contend with. Leave the doors
open all day, it's Ok! Mama won't yell
at you for running in and out! Yes, I am
truly intrigued by this place and also very sad to know that it is just sitting
down there wasting away. Maybe one day
I'll be able to tour it. Or I can find
it and figure out how to break in. (Just kiddin', Mama.)
The house has been featured on HGTV as well as in several
magazine articles. NEST magazine did an article on the house in 2003. You can see the article, complete with lots
of photos, here.
The home was built by a wealthy man named Girard B.
Henderson. Well, actually, Mr. Henderson hired
an expert in underground living to build the home. The man's name was Jay Swayze, and he lived
in his own underground home in Plainview, TX.
That home is called "The Atomitat" and you can read about it here and here.
I understand that they have tours of this home periodically,
and you can bet I'm gonna find out and take a little drive down to Plainview to
check it out!
There is quite a lot of information about the Las Vegas
house on the web. Here are some links if
you, too, are intrigued and would like to know more:
I was cold this morning.
Cold and Miserable. I got out of
bed and I think I could see my breath. I
keep the heater set at 65 degrees because I am bound and determined that I will
not have a gas bill over $200. Probably
I should do things to make my home more energy efficient, like insulate or
caulk or get new windows, or climb up on the roof and cover up those
whirly-turbine thingys. But instead, I
suffer, the dogs suffer, and we all wear lots of clothes. And drink coffee.
This morning, I got out of my warm toasty bed and all I
could think was COFFEE. Warm, delicious
coffee. That smell that makes you awake
and alive. What I really really wanted was another Caramel Brulee
Latte like I had at Starbucks a few mornings ago, (along with a delicious Bacon
and Gouda Breakfast Sandwich that I will definitely be trying to replicate in
the near future.) What I also really really
wanted was to stay in my jammies and not drive across town to The Coffee Shop
for a regular Latte. If I was gonna have a Latte, I was gonna have to do it
myself.
Unfortunately, I do not own one of those beautiful,
complicated looking espresso machines that steams milk to frothy
perfection. I do, however, own a coffee
maker and a computer. And I know how to
use The Google and The Youtube. Here's
the scoop. It's not technically a Cafe Latte, can't replace the real
deal, but it works in a pinch and I got to stay in my jammies pretty much all
day.
1. Pour a cup of milk
into a Mason Jar. Put the lid on and
shake! shake! shake! it until the milk froths up to about twice its size.
Milk. Shaken.
2. Put the milk in
the microwave and heat it for about 30 - 45 seconds. You don't want it to boil out or froth over,
just heat it up until it's just a little too hot to hold in your bare hands.
3. Your milk will
have lots of foam on top still. You can
use a spoon to hold the froth back while you pour the warm milk into your
coffee, then spoon some froth out into the top of your coffee. Sprinkle with cinnamon, add sugar, whatever
your little heart desires. ENJOY!
I’ve finally been revived from my food coma long enough to
blog a little about my wonderful family and the great Thanksgiving we
shared.We are a family largely made up
of food lovers, so each occasion is usually marked by and centered around some
sort of feast.And usually there is lots
of butter involved.And Fritos.My Dad once joked to Amy and I that we are
lucky our names are not Little Debbie and FritoLaya.We are, however, Buttertons.Damn-Near-40-Year-Old Buttertons.
Bacon Flavored Green Beans
Amy and her husband Jeff were gracious enough to host our
Thanksgiving Feast at their home in Amarillo,
and instead of turkey and dressing, they rocked it with a Prime Rib, Bacon Flavored
Green Beans, and Twice Baked Potatoes.
Bleu Cheese Sauce
And I do mean Rocked It.That
Prime Rib was a thing of beauty.Perfectly cooked, tender, juicy goodness.Makes my mouth water just to think of
it.Amy whipped up a delectable bleu
cheese sauce to go with it, as well as an Au Jus that I could sit and eat with
a spoon. Heck, I could drink it with a straw, it was that delicious!! Probably
because of the wine that was in it.
Surprise! My sweet sweet Sissy.
I learned something very important about wine that day.I came toting a bottle of wine that my friend
Tammi introduced me to called “Red Electra.”It is a California Muscat wine, and it is sweet and a little
bubbly.I thought my Sweet Mama would
like the flavor of it, so I mainly brought it for her to try.She does not always care for the darker reds
that my sister and I like to partake of on occasion.
Since Mama is not much of a drinker, I was taken by surprise
when she looked at the bottle and declared, “This wine doesn’t have enough
alcohol in it.”Huh?Hadn’t even crossed my mind to check the
alcohol content, and here she is telling me it’s too low.
“Whattaya mean it doesn’t have enough alcohol in it?How much is it supposed to have?” I
inquired.
“Well,” she informed me, “I always buy my wine according to
the alcohol content.This stuff only has
5%. That’s too low. See this bottle I brought?” She hoisted a
bottle of$5 White Zinfandel and peered
at it’s label. “This is good stuff, it has almost 11%.”
My sister and I looked her and busted out laughing.“So that’s
how you tell the good stuff, huh?” we asked.She started laughing too. My Mama has the best laugh, especially when
she is laughing at herself.Her whole
face laughs, and you can tell she is on the verge of laughing herself into
tears.It makes everything funnier, and
it is one of my favoritest things in the wide world.Mama’s laugh.
I could sort of understand her thinking behind shopping for
the highest concentration.She was
taking the "quantity vs. quality" approach.I guess buying wine to her is like buying
skeeter spray; instead of choosing your product based on scent or flavor, you just
look for something strong enough to kill a small hummingbird.
Half Apple Pie
With our wonderful dinner down the hatch, it was time for
Dessert Round One. (There are always multiple rounds of dessert when you’re a
Butterton.) Mama had made some beautiful pies: chocolate with the most
beautiful calf slobbers on top, a delicious pumpkin pie complete with whipped
cream, and a Half-Apple Pie.Now, when
she brought the pies in and announced that she had made my brother in law a
“Half Apple Pie”, I was a little confused.I assumed that it was half filled with apple pie filling and maybe half
filled with cherry or something else that would kinda go with apple.I had never seen her do this before, but it
seemed somewhat logical.Turns out, what
she was referring to was the fact that it only looked like she had used half
the amount of pie filling.The top crust
on the pie had somehow sunken in, so that the pie had a concave look to
it.So much so in fact that Dad thought
it was just an empty pie crust waiting for the filling.I thought it was genius, because it made for
more crust, my favorite part.I think I
will start requesting Half Apple Pie every year from now on.
After Dessert Round One usually comes game time, so we can work up an appetite
for Dessert Round Two.We love to play
games, especially Mama.And she cheats
at the games she’s bad at.Makes the
rules up as she goes along.Peeks at the
trivia answers when nobody’s looking.Skips her board game pieces ahead a few spaces.When she’s good at a game, she plays for
blood.Slams down doubles on a Mexican
Train just to see if you can back it.Shrieks in delight for you to “PUT
YOUR PENNY UP!!!” when you can’t.That’s why it is somuch fun to
beat her when you can actually get it done.
We were trying to decide what to play when I remembered a game I had seen
advertised called “LOGO”.It looked like
fun and I guess I was drunk on Au Jus because I suggested that we head to The
Wal Mart and see if they had it.Now,
most people who know me know that I despise The Wal Mart.Only go when it’s absolutely necessary and usually
in the middle of the night.But here we
were, only hours shy of the beginning of Black Friday, making a trip into the
belly of the beast.I was sure that we
would need bail money.Or Valium.We got there and the parking lot was packed
but not completely full.Amy and I left Mama in the car and headed in
to face our fate.We walked through the
doors dodging customers with flat screen TV’s and 362 boxes of Christmas
lights. Dread welled up in me like a
fist in my stomach. I despised these people for no reason other than them being
present at the moment.
We stepped into the store and lo and behold, there it was,
not 20 feet in.“LOGO” in big white
letters on a red background.My heart
skipped a beat. I was practically giddy.Could it be true that we could walk right in and it would be there for
us on a silver platter?I grabbed a box
and we sprinted for the checkout stands where another Thanksgiving miracle
awaited.A green light beckoned from above
one of the Self-Check Registers.Not a
soul was near.I didn’t even have to
argue with the recorded voice when it told me to Please Place The Stupid Item
In The Freaking Bagging Area.Just
slapped the barcode against the glass, swiped my debit card through the
machine, and raced out of the store.Not
one bit of anxiety, no cussing, no waiting.I was truly Thankful.
Ihope all of you had
as joyful and happy a Thanksgiving as we did.I am blessed with the most wonderful family, and even though I make fun
of ‘em a little here and there, I truly do thank God for them.
Two of my favorite things in the world are food and
photographs.I guess it only makes sense
that these two loves would eventually merge.Lately I've been cooking stuff just so I can photograph it.And then I eat it up.And I might mention that I usually cook
fattening, indulgent comfort food.Maybe
I should develop a love for photographing exercise instead…
Two of my least favorite
things in the world are The Wal-Mart and The Grocery Store.Because of this, I find myself resorting to
cooking up things using just what I happen to have on hand at the moment.This can make for some interesting (i.e. scary
and/or disgusting) meals.But it can
also make for some pretty darn good ones.Today's example:actually, I'm
not sure what it is, but I'm going to call it a Frittata.Because the more you say Frittata, the
funnier it sounds.Frittata Frittata
Frittata. Hee hee hee.
*(NOTE:Instead of
flipping the frittata and risking breaking it in the process, you can try
this:Preheat oven to Broil.Cook frittata in oven-proof omelet pan.Once egg is completely set on bottom but
still slightly runny on top, sprinkle with cheese and place in oven under
broiler until cheese is melted and egg is done.)
Ingredients:
3 eggs
1/4 of a medium tomato, chopped
1 canned green chile, drained and pressed with paper towel,
then chopped
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
Instructions:
Beat three eggs and stir in tomato and green chile.Pour into 8 inch nonstick omelet pan sprayed
with nonstick cooking spray.Slowly cook on
medium-low heat so as not to overcook bottom of frittata.Once the frittata is completely set on the
bottom and easy to slide around in pan, sprinkle with shredded cheese.Slide spatula beneath frittata and flip so
that cheese side is face down in pan.Cook until cheese is melted and begins to cook into a crust. *(See Note
Above!) Flip entire frittata out of pan and onto plate so that it is cheese side up.Cut into wedges and serve.
