Sunny Friday

Welcome to Friday!!  This is a beautiful, clear, sunny, bright, happy and awesome day!  It's been filled with some great things already.  First, I want to really address something I found on my website last week.
Last week, the amount of readers from Russia were double my readers from the States and Canada combined.  I'm super excited, thank you and all my readers who come here to read some seriously lengthy and inconsistent posts and hopefully enjoy some good recipes!  I really enjoy the internet's reach across oceans.  I had a friend living in Russia, teaching English for a while.  I have a Polish friend, Canadian friend, Bosnian friend, Costa Rican, Italian, Australian, Japanese, Chinese, English (UK!) Brazilian  and many many more!!   One of my friends, we call her a Guammy Bear - she's from Guam!  I'm not sure that's completely politically correct, but she rocks and it's all great fun.  I grew up in a small town where not a lot of come and go existed.  People lived their whole lives in that town, their kids lived there and then grandkids.  There was almost zero exposure to other cultures and customs.  The States are a very mobile people.  We do tend to move and when I was 13 we moved to an even SMALLER and close knit, non mobile town.  I couldn't wait to get out.  I never had money to travel, and when I first connected to the internet in 1998, and created a hotmail account, I used to beg my friends to email me after I moved away from home.  The internet has done horrible and wonderful things since then.  There are entire thesis' written about how the internet has corrupted cultures and destroyed traditions.  It's brought evil into homes and completely changed life as we know it.  For every negative though, you'll find a positive.   Information flows freely now, people can meet other people and learn about other cultures, schools are online - saving me personally - hundreds of dollars in gas, communication involves more than just a voice (Facetime/Skype) and the world can connect in one big abyss of collective knowledge.   Remind anyone else of the Borg?  No?  OK, let me beat back the inner nerd trying to surface.   Thank you, dad, for making sure I grew up a Star Wars AND Star Trek fan.  Nothing like being placed in the middle of a large, volatile, bloody, nerd vs. geek battleground.

So, I realize I "missed" last Friday.  I was exhausted and I'm sure you're thinking, "Really?  How hard is it to just post a recipe?"  Well, I like to test some of my recipes a few times to make sure they are working right and last week, the recipe I had, is the one I'm posting today.  I've made it quite a few times now, and  I'm COMPLETELY addicted and I hope you'll absolutely love it too!  There are some variations which will enhance or destroy the flavor you're looking for.  Choose wisely (Oh, Indiana Jones... how I miss you!)  If you don't like eggs or are like me, have really developed an aversion to them due to eating them for so long, give this a try!  It's very different and flavorful and it's not just "an egg."


Sunny Side Tacos
2 eggs
2 white or yellow corn tortillas (organic, non gmo preferably)
1 ounce of butter
2-4 ounces of your choice cheese (monterey jack, mozzarella, yorkshire, goat)
1 clove of garlic minced (if desired)
1 tSp of chopped onion (if desired)
1 ounce of fresh spinach (if desired)
sour cream (if desired)
cooked crumbled Italian sausage (if desired)
chopped cooked mushrooms (if desired)


Base Recipe! (use this to get started, add things as you go!)

Fry 2 tortillas in a buttered pan or griddle over medium heat until lightly browned - about 3 minutes a side.  When they are done, remove from pan, place on a plate and fold  in half.   In the buttered pan, over medium heat fry two eggs over easy or sunny side up until cooked about 2-4 minutes depending on how "slimy" you want your eggs.  (My kids HATE slimy eggs, so I cook them until all the white is set, but the yolk is still liquid... this is a nerve wracking process.  A little TOO long and it's all over, a little too short and it's all icky.)
When the eggs are cooked how you like them (yolks should still be runny,) remove from the pan and place one in each tortilla.  Butter the pan a little more, brown your garlic and onion in the pan about 5 minutes and throw in your spinach.  Twirl in the pan for about a minute or until the spinach has "wilted" but is not cooked through.  Place on top of the egg.

Now.  Get creative.  Add cheese, sausage, mushrooms, sour cream, tomatoes or NOTHING at this point.  Basically, try this recipe basic first, and then from there add one or two things.   Don't over do it, or you'll lose some of the foundation.   The first one I did had egg, white cheese, salsa and sour cream.  It was killer.  The next one I tried was egg, sausage, and spinach.   The most recent one I made was egg, yorkshire cheese with cranberries and spinach (pictured.)  It was brutally good.  Just remember your base:  tortilla, egg - then pick 2 "toppings" and go from there.  Below I've matched a few combinations to try, that are delicious.

Monterey Jack and sausage
spinach and Yorkshire with cranberries
salsa, white cheese and sour cream
sausage and mushrooms
Mozzarella and spinach
Sriracha and sour cream! (this one is out of my league but I KNOW some of you out there who are hot sauce fans will LOVE it!)

This makes a great dinner as well as breakfast.  So if you come home at the end of a long day and all you can think is, "I need something NOT complicated but delicious and healthy!"  Well, this is it!  Simple, healthy, delicious, and customizable!  You can't get a food better than that.  Enjoy!

Sneak Peek Monday - Return of the Coconuts!

Who doesn't love coconuts?   I could go into minute detail about every lovely thing about sweet coconut flesh, but then I'd have to ask everyone to get their heads out of the gutter and follow me to the kitchen.   My favorite is probably Thai (or young/green) coconuts.  Getting into these things is a lesson in machete wielding.  There is no easy way.  Lucky for us, there are plenty of YouTube videos to show us how to do it.  As you can see from Friday's post, I had a bit of trouble organizing the yogurt party, but do not worry, this week, I'm very focused on making it this week's achievement.  If any of you tried the pudding over the weekend, you'll know it was pretty heavenly, rich and definitely tropical.  When served cold, it's almost too rich to eat for breakfast... yep.  I had it for breakfast - or tried.

So this week, I doubt I will be buying any Thai coconuts, but I will be buying a lot of coconut milk, and stocking plenty of patience as I work with my thermometer and yogurt maker.  Be prepared for an explanation of epic proportions.  Also, you'll need some yogurt starter, or cultures, a little bit of sugar, and something to thicken.  Some people use corn starch, some use pectin, or agar flakes.  I tried gelatin last time and got nothing but I think my major mistake was sugar content.  I was trying to go easy on sugar, but when you do that - you starve the bacteria.  They need to grow to ferment correctly and without it, you get nothing.  By the time the fermentation is done, there should be little to no sugars left as the bacteria have eaten them.  Obviously, if you're here for the vegan aspect of this recipe, you'll not use gelatin.  I'll work on that perhaps another time.  I have corn starch but us sugar babies should steer away from this, corn is very carb heavy/sugary.

Coconut milk is healthy and tasty, not to mention a great low sugar addition to any diet.  It's better than cow's milk in the fact that there's no lactose (dairy sugars - which can be a double bad for some people) plus no worry about growth hormones, antibiotics or fair and humane treatment of animals.   It's definitely a vegan dream.  Here's your hint for the week!  {You're probably thinking, "Why do we need a hint, you just told us we're going to make yogurt!"}  Sure, we're going to try to make yogurt.  That is not a guarantee of success.  It's just this week's challenge which I hope to be posting a successful recipe by Friday.  I realize there are a lot of successful recipes on the internet, but so far, they are not working for me.  I will continue to experiment until I find one and then you can come here and try it for yourself.  The hint is:  if my yogurt fails again this week, I'll be posting a recipe for a super sweet sugar free treat that is easy, fun, perfect for summer and a coconut lover's dream.

See you Friday!

Free Friday - Crème Brulée

It's FRIDAY! Thank goodness. This has been a rough week; bad food choices, giving up, then refusing to eat (what am I a two year old?) the long and short of it is, we are still here, still walking, and still dealing with life. So, let's do what we can with what we have. Which may not be much! You know how it goes, you're tired of watching everyone have whatever they want, meanwhile you're nickle and diming whatever you can out of meals to try to find something edible AND tastes good.

I know I didn't say much on Monday and today I was hard pressed to find something I could write about, after all, this week is food crisis week right? Well. Not entirely. Monday I made my first ever crème brulée. While this was not my first custard, it was my first of this particular dish I'll refer to as CB. All I can say, is it turned out SMASHINGLY well. Like blockbuster hit at the theatres on a Friday night smashing. Speaking of movies, this recipe is not time consuming, it is a little difficult and precise but I assure you if I can do it at 11 o'clock at night before a party, you can do it on a Friday night after a movie (do not attempt after drinking - but if you have blood sugar issues WHY are you drinking???), and have decadent CB in the morning for breakfast. Added sugar free, creamy, rich and delicious to boot. I broke it down as simply as I could one step at a time so there's no missing anything.

Let's hope I got pictures of this one. I was really tired that night. (update: zero pictures of the custard and tons of pictures of chocolate I shouldn't have eaten. So, at least we know where my focus was. As soon as I make another, I'll be sure to post the pic. Until then, I'll save you the torture of staring at pics of chocolate and put up something adorable like Johnny.)

Vanilla Crème Brulée

(adapted from THIS website: http://recipecircus.com/recipes/Dixie/DESSERTS/Sugar_Free_Crème_Brulee.html)

1 quart of heavy whipping cream

9 large egg yolks

1 oz vanilla extract

3/4 of an OUNCE of splenda (2/3 of a cup)

pinch of nutmeg

pinch of salt

1. Scald cream with vanilla in heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Set aside allow to cool a bit.

2. Put 8, 6oz ramekins in a baking dish (or 2)

3. Preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit - make sure the rack is in the center.

4. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks and splenda, salt and nutmeg

5. While mixing constantly, slowly stream the hot cream into the eggs. Very. Slowly. That's the biggest help I can give you here, because too hot, too fast, and too much = scrambled eggs, not custard. If this happens, you're done. Start over because the custard will never set right.

6. Pour custard in ramekins.

7. Place baking dish in oven on center rack and add the hot water to the pan, being very very careful not to spill any water into your custard cups.

8. Bake 30 - 35 minutes - they will be 'jello' like in texture (but not liquid), when you shake the pan, expect them to jiggle. Bigger ramekins will require more time, account for this if you're using a different size.

9. Remove the ramekins (CAREFULLY!) from the water and place them on a rack until room temperature.

10. Refrigerate and allow to set up overnight.

11. Wake up in the morning and enjoy a perfect crème bruleé.

Now, some of you may be thinking, "Wait, wait, wait. How do we get that decadent crispy-fried crust on the top of it that we all know and love from the restaurant?"

Well, I have some good news, and I have some bad news. The good news is that some people do this with packet splenda (as you will see in her recipe) and they are happy with it. Here comes the bad news: I will tell you. I was unhappy with it. It gave off a nasty chemical burn smell. Splenda is a chemical so there you have it (I will try this recipe with Stevia at another time.) The only other thing I tried was a little bit of sugar free syrup on top, that got gooey like a caramel. It tasted fine. The custard itself is amazingly delicious when done right and has a to die for texture. It doesn't really NEED the crusty coating, but if you absolutely had to have it, you could try one of the above suggestions, or just a tiny bit of sugar.

PS - you need a mini torch for that, which I have, but not crisping the top saves you from having to buy a kitchen torch just to make CB. =)

Enjoy the scenery. And do not be afraid to make crème brulée!!!