How to Boil an Egg

My entire life I have never eaten deviled eggs. I couldn't get past the smell or the slimy consistancy of the egg white. However, that all changed two Thanksgivings ago when we had our first Bollin Family Thanksgiving. It was the first time that all of our family was going to be together since we had lived in Washington. Not only do you have to have turkey and dressing but you must also serve deviled eggs. With no clear plan or recipe I set to work prepairing the boiled eggs. Sadly most of the eggs cracked and I had to start over again. Finally, the eggs were boiled and I set to work peeling the shell. Of course, the shell was plastered to the egg, the whites were mangled, but the yolk was perfectly done. I mixed the mayo, mustard, dill pickle and some other seasonings and fell in love. Why have I been avoiding these tasty morsels my whole life? What a fool I have been. Now occasionally for lunch I will whip up a few of these babies and the girls and I fight to the death to see who will get the last one. Although, I still had a bit of trouble getting the eggs to not crack and peeling the shell away from the white. Until, I found this little gem of a book called "Watkins Household Hints" copyright 1941.

Eggs-Hard Cooked

Place eggs into the water with a slotted spoon. Do not drop eggs in the pot this will avoid cracking the shell. Bring to a boil. When water has reached a rolling boil remove from heat cover pot and let sit approximately 15 minutes. If an egg is cracked, wrap in waxed paper, twist paper to hold secure and place in boiling water with a spoon.

To avoid the shell sticking to freshly cooked eggs, crack shell lightly with a spoon immediately after cooking. Place in a bath of cool water until cool enough to handle.

The book doesn't tell you to do this, but if you run water over the egg while peeling the shell just slides right off. Cut in half, pop out the yolks, mash them with a fork, mix in mayo, a little bit of mustard, finely chop some dill pickle or jalapenos if you're feelin' sassy, just a dash of pickle juice, salt and pepper. Even better than that is some green olives in there too. I have a lot more to say on the subject of eggs, but I think I need to devil some eggs!

The Simple Things

It's the simple things in a person's life that make it remarkable, that's my opinion anyway. When I think about my husband and something I miss it's taking our morning coffee on the front porch in our rocking chairs. We sometimes talk about plans for the day and sometimes we say nothing at all. My first thought isn't our honeymoon in New Orleans, although it was great it's just not something that I long for. The simplest thing in the world most often holds the most importance in your heart.

One of my simple pleasures are these little plates. My grandfather Pawpaw worked at the airport for as long as I can remember. There's no telling where exactly or how exactly he picked these dishes up, but they are the plates used by the airlines for serving meals. In Nene's house they were the spaghetti plates. Everytime she cooked spaghetti for dinner it was eaten off of these little dishes. Now our spaghetti dinners are enjoyed on these dishes as well. However, I don't only use these for spaghetti. They are perfect for soup and sandwiches, chips and dip, veggies and dip. Getcha a little bowl full of chili, stew or soup with cornbread, a biscuit or a chunk of crusty bread and I am the hap hap happiest girl in the world. Astheics matter. If you are walking through a store and a particular item catches your eye and begs for you to come pick me up look how pretty I am, you should purchase it. *With in finacial reason of course don't spend your grocery money for the month just so you can have a pretty little vase. I am talking about the simple things.* Do you have something in your house that you don't regularly use because it is only for special occasions? Well let's just put a stop to that right now. Life is short, use the good china. Get that lead crystal platter out of the box and serve your hamburgers and hot dogs on it at your next BBQ. What's the worst that can happen? Yes, it could break, but at least you have the memories of all of the times you used it instead of it being stuck in a smelly box shoved in the top of a closet. Ya can't take it with ya, and do you really want to be on your death bed thinkin; if only I had used to good china?

Landscaping

I love the way my yard looks with the grass freshly mowed, the weeds have all be obliterated and happy perky flowers line the sidewalk. Butterflies frequently seek out the nectar from the lantana and we have a little hummingbird husband and wife that love to eat at the feeder then rest for just a few minutes on the Japanese Maple outside my dining room window. From the very first moment that I put my hands in the dirt to plant my first petunias I fell head over heels in love with gardening. I seem to have inhereted my green thumb from my mother and great-grandmother. Plants just seem to do well for me. If something seems amiss I follow what my gut tells me and to my delight the sickly plant usually bounces back to life. With the exception of the poor little African Violet that had gnat fungus...UGH.

Since Tony is deployed the "pleasure" of mowing the yard has found it's way onto my list. Don't get me wrong. I like mowing the grass and I don't even mind doing the weedeating too. As a matter of fact, I enjoy this chore. It's wonderful exercise, and for a person that loves order it's awesome making the lines in the yard. However, power tools and I just don't gee-haw (as Nene would say). I spend the majority of the time with the weedeater on the ground trying to fix those dang neon green thready coil things. In this day and age with all of our technology that's the best we can do? Green plastic thread going around in a circle at 500 miles an hour is it? We put a man on the moon for crying out loud! So you can imagine my ultimate frustration when I am about 10 minutes away from being finished mowing my back yard when for seemingly not reason the mower starts shaking. I mean S-H-A-K-I-N-G! Then this little rubber black thing shaped like elbow maccaroni just sort of falls off. My first thought is; well that can't be good. I see where it fell off so I put it back on (after much struggle). Get the mower started and it's working just fine. The darn thing starts shaking again and the little black maccaroni falls off again. I will tell you this, this lawn equipment will not beat me! Two things may be happening very soon 1) I will do some googling and repair the lawn mower myself or 2) I will do some googling and TRY to repair the lawn mower myself only to have to go to Lowe's and purchase a new lawn mower. (I only hope I talk to Tony before he reads this.)

Monday = List Day

For most people they dread Mondays. The weekend is over and back to work. However, I enjoy my Monday mornings. I sit down with my coffee and prepare the Weekly List. As a side note, I love lists. There isn't a day that goes by that I am not making a new list, adding to an already existing list or making a list of things I need lists for. I feel the overwhelming need to list a few of my lists now, but I will refrain. Although, I should mention that I am making a mental list of all my lists. Back to the Weekly List. Take a look around the house. Is there anything that really needs to be cleaned or repaired? Something that needs to be tended to, but doesn't HAVE to be done right away? Is there a craft project that you have wanted to start but keep putting off? Do you have specific errands that need to be done, doctors appointments, hair appointments, shopping for a birthday present or trip to the post office? It all goes on the Weekly List. Once you have completed your task mark it off the list. There is nothing more gratifiying that taking your pen and drawing a thin black line through the words on your paper. If something didn't get finished that week don't fret just move it on to the next week's list.

My Weekly List so far: bank to deposit FRG funds, Markiea's sewing machine, grocery store, mow back yard, spray paint flower pots, re-pot coleus, Lowe's for potting soil and plant food.

So sit down with your favorite beverage, get a pretty notebook and a nice pen and Happy Listing!

Celebrate Father's Day with Pancakes.

So my honey is not home this fathers day, but that isn't going to stop the pancakes from flowing. My dear husband LOVES pancakes. Actually, love may not correctly describe the way he feels about pancakes. He would die for pancakes, go to war for pancakes. His very purpose for being in Afghanistan now just might be to bring democracy and pancakes to the people of Afghanistan. Knowing this, I have accumulated about a quadrillion pancake recipes. Blueberry, banana nut, pumpkin pie, oatmeal and sour cream pancakes just to name a few. Of course, his favorite are the plain old variety with a little melted butter and warmed maple syrup, bacon on the side and don't you dare forget the coffee.

The humble pancake is one of the most versitle things you can pour onto a griddle. They can be super healthy by using whole wheat flour, buckwheat, flaxseed and almond milk. I think it goes without saying that they can be super indulgent as well. In the beginning they can be a little intimidating. If your griddle isn't just the right temp the cakes will stick or even worse, BURN. Over mix your batter and they will be tough. Make them too big and they are cooked on the edges but gloppy in the center. With a little practice you can be a pancake connoisseur too.

1) Find a good recipe. No Bisquick please.

2) Prepare batter. Get two bowls, in one mix the dry ingredients in the other mix the wet. Make a well with the dry ingredients. (push the flour and stuff around the sides of the bowl making a little well in the middle.) If your recipe calls for eggs beat them first. They mix easier that way. Pour wet stuff into the dry stuff. Whisk well. DO NOT OVER MIX. It's okay to have a few small lumps, small like the size of a pea.

3) Heat the griddle. After about 5 minutes drop a little water on it. If it just sort of slides around it's too cold. If it evaporates it's too hot. You want the water to sizzle and jump.

4) Grease the cooking surface. I don't care if you have non-stick cookware; GREASE IT. If you are being indulgent go for the butter, if healthy use the smart balance...go for the butter. Do not use the spray stuff is junks up your cookware.

5) Cook. Pour about 1/4th cup of batter onto griddle. The great thing about pancakes is they tell you when they want to be flipped. Look for the bubbles on top. Once you see 10 or so flip them. You must have a sturdy spatula. Those flimsy little plastic things will do nothing but ruin your whole day. Cook for just a few more minutes. When you see steam they are done, if you see smoke; start over.

6) Butter them, stack 'em up and pour it on (the syrup that is). Enjoy!

Ready, Set, BLOG!

Let's face it most of us grew up with full time working moms. Some because they enjoy their careers and want to work, some because of a messy divorce, and for some because they felt pressure to work either because of finances or nosy people with overly distorted opinions. My point is our mothers worked, but now more and more ladies are choosing to be homemakers (my husband refers to me as a Domestic Engineer). The problem is our mothers didn't teach us much about homekeeping. Oh sure they told us to clean our rooms and clean the kitchen after dinner, but I am talking about good old fashioned homekeeping. For instance, how to properly roast a chicken and get two meals out of it plus make your own stock. Basic sewing skills like sewing on a button or how to hem your husband's pants or your little girl's skirt. Oh they know how, they all took home economics, but at the end of the day they were just too darn tired to pass all of that knowledge along. Besides, why do it yourself when you could pay somebody else to do it?
So now I begin this journey to discover my inner mid century modern housewive. I have found some wonderful vintage cookbooks and household hints books from the 40's and 50's that are busting with great information...well some of it is really out of date. Like, kerosene stops a washboiler from rusting. Huh? Most of it is still valid and will also save ya some money. I am so excited to start this blog and I really hope you enjoy reading it!