A Thought Or Two About Eggs

I am a big fan of the egg. Cheese omelets were the only source of protein for the boy it seems. I know I seem obsessed with the boy’s eating habits but unless one has a uber picky eater, one doesn’t know the troubles I’m seen…

I know the boy has grown to be a big strapping young man. I will say this without any pride whatsoever; it is and will always be my biggest accomplishment in life. Because had it not been for the little egg, I swear the boy would be emaciated.

So it was very disconcerting when last month when eggs were being recalled left and right. To tell you the truth, I haven’t bought any eggs since then. It’s probably alright, America has the most sophisticated and trustworthy food system in the world. And there are many wonderful local producers. And I’m sure all the bad eggs (hehehe) have already been recalled. I’m sure there’s nothing to worry about, you should see the markets in Algeria. Do I sound like I’m trying to talk myself into this?

Anyway, anyone eating eggs now? Did anyone stop eating eggs for a while? Am I the only one?

If you reassure me that the danger has passed, I have the perfect recipe to try…

Thai Beef Salad or Waterfall Beef

Update: This post is updated for iHeartfaces beef challenge but it still remains a timeless favorite;)

One of my all time favorite dishes – ever – is Thai beef salad. I make it at home often and I order it in Thai restaurants whenever I have the opportunity to go. My mother makes the best beef salad but I do the best I can.

Disclaimer – if you are a vegetarian, this is definitely not the dish for you.

To make it truly authentic, you will need to make the ground rice. This can be done in one big batch and stored for later use. That being said, I make this dish many times without it. It can be time consuming and I’ll skip if I’m desperate and in a hurry. That being said, please know that it does add quite a bit of authenticity to the salad if you take the time and make it.

Ground rice:

Brown some rice on the stove top. This is only about a half a cup but you can do as much as you want and put it aside.

Increase the heat until the rice begins to look brown. You must stir constantly. This is important. Do not walk away to finish a load of laundry. Trust me.

Once the rice is a nice brown color, take it off the stove and let cool. Once it’s cool, you can put it in a grinder/mixer and ground the rice to a fine but not too powdery mix. There should be small pieces of rice for texture.

You can put the rice in a container and put it aside to store or you can go ahead and make the rest of the dish.

I use a London Broil cut because it’s affordable and what my mother used:) If however, you are feeling frisky and rich, go for a nicer cut.

This is a three pound piece of meat. I know it’s a lot but I put the rest aside for leftovers.

Now we chop.

1. Chop a bundle of well washed cilantro, more if you like.
2. Chop red onion into slivers.
3. Chop the mint.
4. Cut cherry tomatoes in half.
5. Chop the hot peppers into small pieces.

Speaking of peppers…this is definitely one ingredient that you can moderate according to you own taste. Our household (everyone but the boy) can eat very spicy food. If you are not as experienced with it, put in only what you are comfortable with. I am not going to post a quantity for how much pepper to put in. It’s up to you.

If you don’t have small Thai peppers as shown in the photo, you can use whatever pepper you like. Last week, I used McCormick ground pepper. Works just fine! Mint as shown here is also something that you can choose to put in if you can find it. My yard was overgrown with it for a period of time.

Ingredients:

1. 2 1/2 pounds of beef (London Broil)
2. 1/2 cup Thai fish sauce
3. 1/4 cup water
4. Juice of one lime (here’s how you cut that lime.)
5. 2 – 3 tablespoons of chopped Thai hot peppers (or any other pepper to taste.)
6. 2 cups chopped cilantro
7. 2 cups thinly sliced red onion
8. 1 cup chopped fresh mint
9. 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
10. 1/4 cup ground rice

Directions:

Grill or broil the beef. Be careful to not over-cook it. Leave some pink in the middle.

Slice the beef into small slivers being careful to discard any fat.

Put in the fish sauce, water and juice of one lime. Toss well (sometimes I’ll use my hands.) Put in ground rice. Toss well. Put in the peppers. Toss well. Put in all chopped and prepared vegetables. Toss well.

I make it for guests quite often and they love it! Even some of the boys at the lake ate it. You gotta try it.

How To Grammatically Correctly Cut A Lime

I had no idea how carelessly and quickly I had been posting this week. The husband called and said, “Your photo is on the right and Kristina’s photo is on the left.”

I corrected it.

And the girl told me tonight, “Mama, “we was” or “we were?” when she read this post.

I corrected it.

At least she’s reading my blog, that’s more than I can say for the boy. However, unlike bloggers with small children, my kids may be offended by what I write about them so it’s probably a good thing he doesn’t read LifeSignatures. Teens are strange creatures.

So tonight, I am taking my time. Not rushing. And I dare you to find a grammar mistake.

I’m going to show you how to cut a lime. Because next week, we are going to make waterfall beef. And I measured the ingredients, which is something I rarely do so just know that I did it for you.

I know I start quite a few of my sentences with prepositions or conjunctions. It’s a writing style. There’s nothing grammatically incorrect about it…I don’t think.

Begin with a lime and a very sharp knife.

Cut the lime just off center.

Then flip the lime and cut it again, off center.

Flip the lime again and cut it off center.

Are you getting the point?

Cutting the center out will eliminate the tough sinewy center part of the lime which will make squeezing it much easier. You will get more juice out of the lime and with much less effort than cutting it through the center. Limes are expensive during certain times of the year, and you want to get as much juice out of it as you can.

Once the lime is cut off of the center, you can squeeze the center to get every last bit of juice out of the lime and you don’t have to be a weight lifter to do it.

Limes are very important in Thai cooking and it is much easier to cook Thai food if you know the techniques that are handed down by Thai grandmothers.

So get your lime cutting technique down before next week. You can use the juice for margaritas:)

I hope this is of use to someone, not just bartenders.

Pho Pho What Do You Know

It’s cold and it’s snowing and I want some warm soup to warm my chilly bones. Pho is a Vietnamese stable and it’s a favorite of mine. Actually, I’m craving some now.

I start with this…rice noodles. You can actually find rice noodles of various brands in your local market.

And I also start with this…pho broth cubes. You can’t actually find pho broth cubes in your local market. I was torn as to whether or not to post this since it’s not an ingredient that was commonly available. So I do what everyone does, I go to Amazon.com. They have it! I can’t believe the stuff you can get there.

It’s not this kind, but it’s close enough.

I watched the cubes dissolve and I stand over the stove because I’m chilly…and I’m hungry.

I slice some mushrooms and throw them in the bowling pot. It’s the only thing I had in the refridgerator. Some other veggies that will work are – mushrooms. I normally don’t cook the veggies in the broth, but rather, I put them in after the soup is ready. That way they won’t get soggy. Some good veggies to throw in after are sliced cabbage, Thai basil,  and bean sprouts.

Now I put in my noodles. Notice I didn’t soak this particular kind. Or maybe you didn’t. Anyway, follow the directions on the package.

Hmmm…it’s a little plain.

Throw in some green onions.

Now that’s more like it…spicy, spicy, spicy. This is srachi sauce. We have a gallon of it. I also put in fish sauce, limes and a little bit of sugar.

It warms my stomach on this cold winter day.

I’m playing on Foodie Friday…

La Fungus A La Scampi Gozaimasu

I understand that the title is a total bastardization of three great world languages.

Here’s another culinary question. What kind of mushrooms are these?

Hint: They don’t come from the ocean as their name implies.

I made this dish with these little mushrooms. When we lived in Japan, we drove from our little Japanese town to the next big town over for pasta. We loved Japanese food but it was a nice change every once in a while. However, it was Japan and there was an unusual twist to the scampi. I don’t know what really was in it, but below is my take or as close as I can get.

Japanese Style Scampied Scallops with Pasta

2 lb sea scallops (I used frozen)
3 tbs olive oil
4 tbs butter
3 garlic cloves
a handful of fresh mushrooms – the kind above
3 tbs soy sauce
salt
pepper
wheat pasta – it’s my new favorite thing

Slice the mushrooms into medium sized slivers and set aside.

Heat the olive oil and butter over medium heat. Put in the crushed garlic and stir until the butter melts. Put in the scallops. Cook the scallops thoroughly in the scampi sauce. Put in the soy sauce. Stir. Now put in the mushrooms. Stir. Eat. Yum.

It’s umami. And it’s Foodie Friday.

Cody Cooks, Simple Stir Fry Steak & Peppers

My last post of Cody cooking brought so many nice comments and encouragement for Cody. He’s definitely going to make some girl happy with his cooking prowess. And I’m more than happy to help in that category. But not too soon…he’s only 13 years old ladies.

Today, Cody is making stir fry beef and peppers. I wanted to do a meal that is very easy to prep. I also wanted to teach him a few things, like how to chop meat.

I always learned these things by watching my mother and then by doing. It was a little odd to try to articulate it. It’s a good thing that Cody’s a quick study.

I taught him how to peel and chop garlic. I see this chopping technique used a lot on the food network and though I don’t always chop this way, I showed him how. He’s pretty good that kid.

So here’s the stir fry recipe. It’s vewwwy, vewwwy, easy.

Start with:
2 pounds flank steak
3 large green peppers
2 large garlic cloves
2 tbsp vegetable oil

For steak marinade
2 large garlic cloves
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp corn starch
1 tbsp vegetable oil

For stir fry sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
2 tbsp mushroom soy sauce (or any dark soy)
2 tbsp rice wine
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
black pepper to taste

Slice the steak thinly, like Cody did. Poor kid, took him forever but he did it! Once the steak is sliced, put in the steak marinade ingredients and set aside. Slice the green peppers in half and take out the seeds. Slice the peppers into think slivers, but not too thin. This was an art but Cody got the hang of it!

Chop up 2 large garlic cloves and place into a heated pan. But the oil in and heat through, stirring the garlic. It should start smelling grand!

Put in the steak on one side and cook. I like it a little bit rare but not too much. Once it’s cooked to your liking, turn it over to the other side. Now mix the stir fry sauce all together and pour it in slowly which the meat is cooking on the second side. Now this is where you have to watch. If you put too much for the sauce in, it will get soupy and I don’t like soupy stir fry. I like a well coated but dry stir fry.

But that’s just me.

In other words, use your discretion here!

Throw in the peppers. And are you ready? Stir, stir, stir. Don’t over cook. I take out a pepper after about 4 minutes and try it. If it’s done but slightly crunchy then it’s perfect.

What a great job that Little Cody did. He made this same dish a month later for his family and it was a hit. Of course, his mother Miss Karen called me once, or twice, or rather five times to get the directions again. That’s precisely why I’m writing them down…

So enjoy! Get your 13 year old in the kitchen today!

See more food and foodies at Design by Gollum.

La Restaurant Depot

There is no better way to start the year than with a trip to Restaurant Depot.

I was very excited about all the bulk things you can get there, but what I was really looking for were dinner plates. Restaurant style dinner plates. The kind that you can put in the dish washer a thousand times and would still wear well. The kind that you can put into a warming drawer and they would be nice and hot when you serve them to your dinner guests. They would be tough and sturdy. I love fine china too but I wanted an every day plate.

Neighbor Bill is my favorite man who is not my husband. I say that because of this…

Neighbor Bill spent a half an hour searching for plates and soup bowls for me. He dug through piles and piles of boxes.

He patiently waited as I spend ten agonizing minutes on trying to decide between the 11 1/4 plates and the 11 1/2 inch plates. Really, they were a quarter inch apart.

Can you tell which is which?

All the while Neighbor Beth and the husband were looking at food. They were talking chicken breasts.

The husband showed me this huge hunk of cheese. I mean big! I made him put it back.

We brought along a few more neighbors as well. While the rest of the world was quietly sleeping, our neighborhood was hanging out in a warehouse full of food. It’s what we do for fun.

We then brought our loot home and had a great dinner…it IS what we do for fun!

See more food fanatics over at Design by Gollum. I’m glad not I’m not the only one.

One Cook – Six & A Half Dishes

How many dishes can one cook do in three hours?

Seven! That’s how many.

A few weekends ago, I was participating in two parties…and I was to bring food to both.

So I made:

• Tuna salad
• Egg rolls
• Crab dip
• Crab cakes
• Fried Rice
• Jalapeno poppers
• and finally, I started a pork salad but didn’t finish. By then I didn’t want to ever see my oven again.

So it’s technically six and a half dishes.

I started the pasta for the tuna salad and while it was cooking, I started on the egg roll mixture.

Here’s my Egg Roll recipes (there’s two posts, don’t forget)…I wrote it a while back. And here’s the ponzu sauce that goes with it.

I alternately shredded veggies for the eggs rolls and chopped celery for the tuna salad.

Here’s my Tuna Salad Recipe…

1. One box pasta…I like to use penne.
2. two cans of drained tuna
3. three celery stalks, chopped
4. salt
5. pepper
6. 1/2 cups mayonnaise

Easy peasy.

I then started the crab cakes…once the crab cake mixture was done, I hollowed out the bread for the crab dip. I placed the first batch of crab cakes on the stove and I finished chopping the onion for the egg rolls.

And now my crab dip recipe…

1. 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2. 1 cup shredded fontina cheese
3. 20 ounces cream cheese
4. bread bows – I found the perfect size at Giant
5. 1 pound crab (I used backfin)
6. 1/3 Worcester sauce
7. tabasco sauce (to taste)
8. salt
9. pepper

Mix all together. Place first in a  casserole dish and heat throughly. Hollow out bread and place inside. Bake the bread with the crab dip at 400 for about 10 minutes or until the cheese is bubbly.

By now, everything is a mess, including me.

My crab cake recipe is here…it’s hot, you have to have some taste buds to eat them…by now I’ve cooked three batches of crab cakes.

Whew, are we done yet? No, there’s the poppers.

The recipe for jalapeno poppers were from the Pioneer Woman’s site…

1. Japaleno peppers, seeded and hallowed
2. cream cheese
3. shredded cheddar cheese
4. bacon

I put cheddar cheese in mine since we can’t make up our minds which one we like better, the cream cheese or the cheddar cheese. So I put in both.

I wrapped mine very tightly and put them on a grill with a pan under it to catch the bacon grease. I didn’t wear gloves but if you are making a lot, you definitely should or else your hands will feel like balloons for a week. I cooked mine on 400 degrees and turned them once so both sides will cook.

My fried rice recipe? By the time I got through making the above, I don’t remember. I was on overdrive at this time…I’ll post a couple of fried rice recipe sometime…I also didn’t finish the ground pork salad. I wrapped it up half done and place in the fridge for another day.

I wondered why I was so tired that weekend. All that cooking and a couple of mojitos really did me in, I tell ya. I hope I’m not invited to another party any time soon, I can’t take it.

I hope you made it this far in this frenzied post. Because I wanted you to know, this is my one year bloggy anniversary month. I’m going to join the rest of the blogging world and do a giveaway next week.

The details are still rattling around in my head but basically it’s this. There will be a food competition. And a vote. And a great prize. I don’t know what the prize is yet, but it will be great I tell ya. I’ll post details this week. So please check back next Friday, and get your recipes ready to link!

I’m excited and nervous too…

Update: Alrighty now, I just fixed all my typos since I wrote this right before running to do my step class and my proofreader is fishing. And I also forgot to tell you that this is posted on Designs by Gollum. Sorry Ms. Gollum.

The Great Crab Cake Cook-Off

Last weekend, I had the honor of competing in the First Annual Great Crab Cook-Off. Of Smithville.

The competition was pretty tough, Neighbor Ted brought out the big guns, capers. I think he was trying to be Vanna White with the hand waving.

Anyway, Neighbor Yvonne was hosting it at her place, bless her.

There were some challenges getting the judges together. And not all of the crab cakes were ready at judging time, so in my opinion, they should have been disqualified. Neighbor Ted and I were the only ones who were ready, and he was no competition. And I had mine there on time despite having to cook six other dishes that day…more on that later.

But I was at a big disadvantage. And the reason was this…these guys were the panel of judges. And none of them are mine.

My kids refused to take part. The boy doesn’t eat crab cakes and the girl was with a friend and way too cool to be on a panel with a bunch of boys. There’s Neighbor Drew. He’s getting big too…

And this kid, Neighbor Garret…although he’s a star pitcher on his little league team…and he has cute cheeks…he’s my nemesis. For you see, I put green curry in my crab cakes. And he doesn’t like hot food.

This is his score sheet. Do you see where I am? Dead last. A 4 for taste? Come on! And I had a mint flower as garnish, I should have gotten at least a 9 for presentation. That’s the last time I pinch those cheeks again.

But wait, Neighbor Nick was also on the panel. He likes me so I have a fighting chance still.

Then there’s Joe P. I just met him that day and he cooked his crab cakes without a shirt on. Ummm…I think he wins.

But no, it’s Pretty Andrea who’s the winner. She won by a landslide actually. I don’t have her recipe, it’s probably a secret, but here’s what’s in mine. Bad English, sorry.

• 1 lb crab
• 1/4 cup green curry
• 3 tbs soy sauce
• 3 tbs rice vinegar
• salt
• pepper
• 3 tbs flour
• additional flour for cooking

Mix together all ingredients. Roll the crab mixture into a ball and flatten. Then coat each side with flour and saute for approximately two minutes on high heat on either side.

On the other hand, if you don’t like hot food, leave out the green curry. But then it wouldn’t be my extra extra special Asian crab cakes. I made up the recipe that day but it’s now forever immortalized in my blog.

Bon appetite!

It’s Foodie Friday at Designs by Gollum. It’s just Thursday night but I have another big day tomorrow so I have to do this early.

21 Salute Dressing & Spicey Shrimp

The pretty Miss Shannon is also a fantastic cook. I gave her a little Iron Chef challenge and put some jumbo shrimp in front of her.

She looked up a recipe on the internet called Spicy Grilled Shrimp.

Here are the ingredients.

• 1 large clove garlic
• 1 tablespoon coarse salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 8 wedges lemon, for garnish

I didn’t have coarse salt or the paprika but I think she found everything else.

Press the garlic and marinate the shrimp in all the ingredients for a few minutes. Then grill. But I didn’t know how to start my grill so we broiled it instead. It was awesome!

And now the recipe from the talented and technically gifted virtual assistant Miss Karen. The cat would not leave her alone. He followed her every where and stayed at her feet all night. She apparently charms kitties too.

I’m going to call her special dressing “The Virtually Delectible Tamari Dressing with a Special Secret Herb Blend.” Catchy I know. She just made up the recipe so perhaps she’ll have a better name.

The ingredients:

• 4 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 4 tbsp tamari sauce
• 2 tsp of 21 Seasoning Salute
• Generous squirt of Dijon mustard

Add together and mix well. It was really good and since Miss Karen was on a low calorie, low gluten diet for a while, it’s also good for you. We baked some salmon which we put over some Asian greens (in a bag not out of the garden) and an orange pepper. Delicioso.

Here is the seasoning that Miss Karen bought from Trader Joe’s. Apparently it’s the only place that sells it…I’m going to experiment with the jar she left me. Maybe I can bake a cake with it.

Enjoy the recipes and eat well this weekend! That’s what weekends are for!

I wrote about our night yesterday. Thanks for coming ladies!

Visit Designs by Gollum for other recipes. So much food, not enough time to exercise.

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