Sunday, June 14, 2015

Deviled Eggs!!!

I love deviled eggs!!  They are so good for potlucks, family dinners, picnics, brunches...anytime.  I used to make them the way my mom did....a little mayo, a little mustard, a little pickle relish, and a little of the pickle juice.  There was no recipe.  That was just the way we did it.

That is until I found the deviled egg secret ingredient.  The thing that will put your deviled eggs over the top.  Butter!!!

I first found this recipe in the Southern Folkways Alliance Community Cookbook.  And I recently found this one in the Food52 Genius Recipes cookbook.


They are similar...mayo, dijon mustard, butter, salt, pepper.  One includes lemon juice.  The proportions are a little different.  You could play with that to get them just the way you love them.

I made a few this afternoon.



Sunday, April 12, 2015

My Home Ec Life

Celebrating the end of my tax season by getting back to my home-ec life!  I just finished the last return.  I don't do many anymore...just for the family and for a few people that I like.  I hate to do them at the last minute.

Home-ec life...kind of funny.  When I was 13, and starting the 8th grade, my family moved...to just another small town.  Not fun!!  The guidance counselor at the new school insisted that I take home economics.  It was bad enough that I had to leave all my friends and go to a school where I could not take the advanced classes that I had planned (I wasn't that smart..just skipping 8th grade English and 8th grade math and starting on a foreign language).  The new school wouldn't let me do that and there were very few electives...study hall or home ec...shop and ag were not an option for girls.

I hated the sewing machine and my biscuits were like rocks.  I continued to try to sew through high school but my mother would always finish the projects that I screwed up.  The few times that I tried cooking for the family were laughable.  I particularly remember the Hawaiian meatballs...really???

I continued to do cross-stitch, crochet, and embroidery for a while....and learned to be a pretty decent cook.  But I still have unfinished projects from 25 years ago.  But now I just want to make food and dolls and a few other things from time to time.  

This afternoon I cooked to clean out the refrigerator.  I made red beans and rice which we will eat tomorrow night and for lunch a few days.  I had an onion that was about to sprout and homemade chicken broth in the freezer.  For dinner I am fixing these pork chops and potatoes with roasted green beans.  The potatoes and beans have to be cooked today...and I probably should pour out the buttermilk that the chops are marinating in now.  It smells okay.

But this was my best use of refrigerator scraps today.



Farro, olive oil, lemon zest, orange zest, lemon juice, orange juice, red bell pepper, sweet onion, roasted asparagus, carrot, pancetta!

And this is why I had an orange half, a lemon half, and a little asparagus in the refrigerator.


It is citrus roasted asparagus and it was great with shrimp and grits casserole for Easter brunch.