shirred eggs

Fancy breakfast times, to celebrate spring. Shirred, or baked, eggs.

Shirred Eggs with Shrimp
makes 1 serving
2 medium eggs
4 frozen shrimp, peeled and tail off; thawed
Butter
1 T cream or milk (I used coconut milk, a recent obsession)
Salt and pepper to taste
Cilantro for garnish

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. If you have two ramekin dishes, butter those. If not, butter a 5x7" baking dish. I did the second
Crack two eggs into buttered baking dish; or one egg in each ramekin dish. Place shrimp on top of eggs, arranged however you see fit. Drizzle the cream on top of the eggs; this will help them from drying out in the oven. Salt and pepper to taste.
Bake eggs for 12-15 minutes, checking them at 10 min to see if the whites have solidified yet.
Take them out when the whites are firm. Garnish with cilantro, then serve.
Goes great with orange juice (fresh-squeezed if you can), coffee, fruit, toast, and lazy sunny days eating breakfast on a porch or deck. I'm taking mine with coffee, toast, orange slices, and beautiful poetry for class, while enjoying the creek and marsh in my back yard.

split pea soup

Soup is my comfort food, and winter in the Northwest always needs more comfort. Plus, beans and split peas are ridiculously cheap at GrocOut right now.

Simple Split Pea Soup
makes 4 servings as a side
2 c dry split peas, washed
4 1/2 c water
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 large carrot, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (I like red onions)
1 T salt
2 c milk or milk alternative thing (I used almond milk)
Pepper, to taste.

Boil water. Put split peas, celery, carrot, onion, and salt in water. Boil for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat. Add milk. Add pepper. Stir. Eat. Feel warmth in chest.
If you like meat, add 1 c cooked diced ham when adding the veggies.

Vegan "Cheese" and Broccoli Soup

Marin is the outlier of the house. By that I mean they're vegan, gluten-intolerant, and allergic to corn and soy, but the rest of us are omnivores. Marin and I are both really into communal meals, which is way more of a challenge on my part than theirs when we decide to cook.
I fucking love soup, so I decided to try to make a cream-of-broccoli soup everyone in the house can eat. This isn't as thick as a normal cream soup is, but it's still pretty great.


-1/4 c Soy-free EarthBalance
-1/2 c rice flour
-1 c vegetable stock
-2 medium broccoli crowns, stalk included, cut into reasonably bite-sized pieces
-1 medium onion, diced
-1 c sliced mushrooms
-4 c vegetable stock
-1 c nutritional yeast

Melt EarthBalance in a 3-qt saucepan over medium heat. Add rice flour. Stir with a whisk or spatula constantly until rice flour turns golden-brown, then add 1 c veggie stock. Stir until there are no chunks, and the EarthBalance/rice flour roux is mixed thoroughly into the stock.
Add broccoli, onion, and mushrooms. Cook until onion becomes clear and slightly tender. Add 4 c vegetable stock and 1 c nutritional yeast. Bring to a simmer, then remove from heat and serve. The nutritional yeast has a tendency to settle, so the soup may need to be stirred every once in a while.

Notes: White or crimini mushrooms are great, but I lucked out and chanterelles were on sale, so I got fancy mushrooms.
Also delicious with bacon bits, but Marin isn't into that, so I didn't include it in the original recipe.
Nutritional yeast is fucking expensive. I got mine ridiculously cheap by going in the bulk section and labeling it with the # for cornmeal. I feel totally justified doing this because the grocery store I bought it from refuses to carry Plan B and their pharmacist judges you if you ask for it. If I wasn't so poor and filled with feminist rage (RAGE!) I'd buy it from the local co-op.

Today I craved ginger ale, and didn't want to wait the two days to ferment it. I had a 5-inch ginger root laying around, so I decided to make a syrup.
I peeled the ginger and cut it into approximately 3/4" chunks, threw it in 2c water and 2c sugar, and followed the previously linked process for flavored syrups. Afterward I cut the sugary ginger chunks into thin strips, and mixed them with lemon sorbet.

My new roommate Marin (house of 4 now) put some ginger chunks into mashed potatoes with broccoli and it's pretty great too.

2 oz ginger syrup to 6 oz soda water makes a great soda.

Updates?

What are those?

I have a house with no internet, which should be fixed some time Monday. In this house are two roommates, Cate and Carley, both lovely women from Omaha who share my love of booze and bacon. We have a little garden from the previous tenants that currently has lots of green tomatoes, some green leafy things, sunflowers, unidentified squash, and some herbs. Expect some ridiculousness in the future.
We might set up a still and make some booze in the garage. Corn liquor is first on the list, if this ends up happening.
Side note: our neighbors have chickens. I want to steal them.

Flavored Syrups

Flavored syrups are surprisingly easy to make. Here are two I've made recently, and a few serving suggestions.

Lavender Syrup
4 sprigs of lavender, preferably including flowers
1 c sugar
1 c water

Combine sugar and water in small pan, cook over medium heat until sugar dissolves. Add sprigs of lavender and cook over low heat for 10 minutes. Remove lavender sprigs, put syrup in separate container and chill.
Goes very well with lemonade.


Rosemary Syrup
2 sprigs rosemary
1 c sugar
1 c water

Do everything you did with the lavender syrup, but with rosemary instead. I haven't tried this with anything but lemon vodka, which is great.

Simple, delicious little details.

sweet tea liqueur and limoncello

Update: Both the rum and the ginger beer turned out fantastic. The rum is pretty lightly flavored. I steeped one bottle with vanilla, allspice, clove, and cardamom. The other bottle was flavored with the same, plus peppercorn and orange zest.

This summer has been more about experimenting with booze flavors than food flavors. I decided to try my hand at infusing some stuff. I can't get everclear, or anything of that proof, here in Washington so I use 100-proof vodka. Here are recipes for limoncello and sweet tea liqueur.

Sweet Tea Liqueur
750 ml vodka or neutral grain spirit
3 T loose black tea
38 oz sugar
38 oz water

Steep tea in alcohol for 3-4 hours. Filter out tea leaves, discard. Combine sugar and water in small pot over medium-low heat until sugar dissolves to make simple syrup. Allow simple syrup to cool to room temperature. Combine simple syrup and tea vodka. Allow to chill at least 2 hours before serving.

Limoncello
750 ml vodka or neutral grain spirit
10-12 lemons, depending on size
38 oz sugar
38 oz water

Zest lemons using a sharp knife or vegetable peeler, being very careful to get little to no pith (the white part beneath the thin yellow outer layer). Place lemon zest in alcohol, and let steep for 1-2 weeks. Make some simple syrup, as detailed in the sweet tea liqueur recipe. Combine simple syrup and lemon vodka. Allow to chill at least 2 hours before serving.

I plan on adding the sweet tea liqueur to whiskey, and either drinking the limoncello straight or combining it with gin and maybe a bit of rosemary syrup.