Tag: breakfast

Erynn’s Egg Bites

In 1973 we bought a copy of The Last Whole Earth Catalog, and we still have it. The 60’s and 70’s were the two decades most associated with the back-to-the-land culture, and though we never moved to a subsistence farm in the middle of nowhere, we had friends who tried it. We bought the catalog mainly because it was an important resource for anyone interested in doing things the old-fashioned way.

If you wanted to build a log cabin, learn how to raise goats or to make your own sandals, there were leads to the animals, tools, books and people who could help you. There were cookbooks listed as well. One of my favorites was Gourmet Cooking for Free, which included recipes for delicacies that people often discard, like beaver tail and moose nose. I searched Amazon and discovered that the book is now available in a Kindle edition in case you are looking for a recipe to turn that woodchuck in the back yard into a tasty stew.

While I was not looking for exotic meats, I stopped in at the Whole Earth Grocery shortly after I began working at the RiverTown Newspaper Group in River Falls, Wisconsin. I think that subconsciously I expected to find it staffed with people near my age who once dreamed of homesteading in Alaska. Instead, I found college students dedicated to the proposition that everyone should eat locally-sourced organic foods. That’s how I became acquainted with Erynn, manager of the store.

She liked the idea that I bought lots of yeast and baked most of our bread and that I, like her, felt that home-cooked foods were tastier and better for a person than most of the frozen and canned choices in the major supermarkets. We exchanged a few recipes. Here is one that I finally made. It’s a winner.

INGREDIENTS:

6 eggs
1 T cold water
1 tsp. olive oil
8-10 sausage links cut into pieces or 1/2 lb. bulk pork sausage
1/2 cup chopped red and/or green peppers
1 small onion (about 2 inches in diameter)
1 1/2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt, divided

 
PROCEDURE:

Clean and chop the onion and peppers into an eighth to quarter-inch dice and set them aside in a small bowl. If you are using sausage links, cut them into thin rounds.

Cook the meat in a skillet over moderate heat until it is no longer pink and just beginning to brown. Use a wooden spoon to break the meat into small pieces as it cooks if you are using bulk sausage. Set the meat aside in a mixing bowl.

Preheat the oven to 350º and lightly grease a cookie sheet.

Put the chopped pepper and onion into the pan and cook for about three minutes until the vegetables are tender but still crisp. Remove the pan from the heat and put the vegetables into the bowl with the meat. Grate the cheese and add it to the bowl. Mix everything together.

Heat the pan and coat it with a teaspoon of olive oil over moderate heat. Beat the eggs until they are lemon colored with one-eighth teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of water. Lightly scramble the eggs over low heat until they are cooked but not dry.

Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda, garlic powder and an eighth teaspoon of salt into a sifter and add the flour mixture by thirds to the meat and vegetables. Mix the ingredients to the consistency of meatloaf. Fold the eggs into the meat mixture until the eggs are uniformly combined.

Form balls about three inches in diameter and slightly flatten them to make thick patties. Place them two inches apart on the cookie sheet and bake for eighteen to twenty minutes until they are lightly browned.

Depending on how big you make them, you will have eight to ten Egg Bites. Enjoy!

NOTES:

Erynn noted that you can substitute bacon cut in small pieces and lightly cooked for the sausage and implied that you could use other varieties of Cheddar cheese. She also specified organic flour, but I must confess to using Hudson Cream Flour. It is not certified organic, but it is an exceptional product made from hard winter wheat in Stafford County, Kansas. It is not carried by stores in the Upper Midwest, but you can order it from the mill. Just search for Hudson Cream Flour.

You can freeze Egg Bites and microwave the number you need in just a couple of minutes. They are perfect for mornings when you are running late or when you have houseguests and would rather enjoy a cup of coffee and visit with them instead of cooking breakfast.

Erynn made a very good point as she concluded her email to me. “Ohh— remember to keep your ingredients as local and organic as possible!!  It’s good karma and the taste is superior!”

She’s right.
 

The Magician’s Crepes

About three months after my mother died, my siblings and I met at the “home place” to sort the contents for an estate sale. In the kitchen and back room (where the dining table was) we found things that I had never seen. My mother liked to try new cooking equipment she saw on TV or featured in stores. There were gadgets for chopping vegetables, juicing fruits and specialized electric devices for cooking things like toasted sandwiches. I think that Mom was making paninis before I had even heard of them.

One of the items that I found there was a “Crepe Magician,” which I stored next to my desk for over sixteen years without opening the box. The flap of the carton is worn, which proved that Mom had used the pan. Finally one day I carefully pulled back the flap and removed the pan, a covered plastic plate for storing finished crepes and a little recipe book. Molded into the bottom of the pan are the words: “Made in U.S.A.”

The fact that I would be using a genuine American-made pan encouraged me, but the idea of flipping crepes as Julia Child did on her TV program was intimidating. I have flipped many things out of frying pans in my life. Fish fillets, hamburgers and hot dogs seem to develop a life of their own when I try to turn them over. I have dribbled pancakes over skillets at home and over campfires, and I once flipped a grilled cheese sandwich so skillfully that it landed about three feet from the range on the floor.

However, the instructions for cooking crepes in the little recipe book told me that I did not need to flip the crepe, which probably explains why it is called the Crepe Magician. I got out our electric mixer (1960’s vintage), dumped the ingredients into a pouring cup, beat everything together until it looked smooth and put the cup in the fridge for an hour as the recipe instructs.

The first couple of crepes did not look very inviting, but I learned to loosen the edges of the crepe with a small wooden spoon and soon was dropping rather dark crepes onto the plastic plate like a pro.

Once I had the heat adjusted properly, I made a dozen beautiful crepes in just a few minutes, and we filled them with a recipe from the little cookbook that came with the pan. The recipe called for leftover turkey, mushrooms and spinach rolled in the crepes and covered with a creamy Parmesan cheese sauce. They were delicious.

Jerri and I agreed that my first crepes were a success, so we had one more reason to bless my mother’s memory. Crepes are perfect for using up leftovers, they make meals high in flavor but low in carbs and calories and you can use them for desserts that look elegant and taste wonderful.

Here is the recipe from the Crepe Magician.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
3 T butter

PROCEDURE:

Blend the flour and salt in a one quart pouring cup or measuring bowl. Melt the butter in a small bowl and allow it to cool slightly while you combine the liquid and dry ingredients. Add the eggs and half of the milk and beat with a rotary beater until the mixture is smooth. Beat in the rest of the milk and the butter. The batter should flow in a thin stream. If necessary, add a little more milk.

Cover the cup or bowl and let the batter rest in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Put a non-stick pan over medium heat and very, very lightly grease it. When the pan is hot, pour just enough batter into the pan to make a very thin seven-inch cake. If you pour in too much batter, you can pour it back into the cup.

If the temperature is set correctly, the edges of the crepe should turn slightly brown and the top should be dry in thirty to forty seconds. Loosen the edge with a wooden spoon and turn the crepe upside down on a plate. You will be looking at the public side of the crepe. Adjust the temperature of the burner if the crepe doesn’t look quite right and repeat until you have used all the batter.

Crepes are usually served by putting some kind of filling on the “private” side of the crepe and rolling it up like an enchilada. You can fill crepes with just about anything from scrambled eggs to fresh fruit.

Here are two photos showing how to serve crepes with fresh blueberries and whipped cream. I will post a few recipes for other fillings and sauces from time to time.

NOTES: First a note on the pronunciation of “crepe.” Having been introduced to crepes in Europe many years ago and watching Julia Child make them on “The French Chef,” I have always used the French pronunciation. The French say “crepe” to rhyme with “crept” without the “t.” In the United States and other countries, some people pronounce the word to rhyme with “drape” while others use the French pronunciation. It’s your choice.

Second, you don’t need a special crepe pan. A small non-stick frying pan or skillet will work, but a pan like our Crepe Magician makes it really easy to make nice round even crepes. You can spend a lot of money if you want, but you can also find a non-stick crepe pan like ours for less than $20.

And third, flipping a crepe just produces a few brown spots on the “private” side of it. Nobody but the cook sees the private side, so why worry about how it looks? Crepes are rolled up or folded before you serve them so your guests will see only that beautiful public side. You don’t have to flip them if they are cooked through when you tip them out of the pan. That’s why you want the tops to be dry. A crepe with a dry topside is done.