Sublime Eggs

Spring has sprung, and the chickens are laying, and so we wound up with a lot of eggs this week. I could have gone with a favorite quiche or frittata, but decided to find out what the New York Times cooking page suggested. I had sent James to the grocery earlier in the day with a list that included "yogurt, plain and fancy" so when I saw this recipe for eggs with yogurt I knew I'd made my match. When I returned home from work I found the familiar blue and white yogurt container in the refrigerator, but something seemed different. Why was there a flower on the lid. Was that a vanilla flower? Yep. When will Stonyfield ever learn?! This is not the first time we've made this mistake. When James came home a few minutes later he found me in the living room with Deborah Madison trying to find another egg recipe. When he discovered the error of his ways he chivalrously offered to make another grocery store run to procure the proper provisions.

Once I had all the right ingredients I followed the recipe without deviation. This was devine! Creamy with a kick, and it made for a lovely presentation as well. We will definitely have this one again.

Beautiful as well as tasty!

                          

This "gentle oak spice" Chardonnay brought out the spicy notes in the dish. It was almost like drinking champagne.

The best latkes - ever

Every year in honor of Hanukkah we make latkes. We have progressed in our 25 years together from a box mix, to actually shredding our own potatoes, and this year I serendipitously noticed a recipe in a never-before-used cookbook: The Wicca Cookbook: Recipes, Ritual, and Lore by Jamie Wood and Tara Seefeldt. Divided into nine sections (one each representing the 8 pagan holidays, plus an extra one for cooking with children) I happened upon a latke recipe while looking for something I might prepare for the upcoming Winter Solstice (stay tuned later this month for Bourbon-Rosemary Almonds!).The latke recipe is similar to the one we've been using for years from Deborah Madison, but this one includes apples in the mix. We peeled and grated 4 potatoes and two small apples and mixed them together. To this we added half  of a medium chopped onion, one egg and a dash of salt. We had recently read an article explaining the importance of the oil when cooking latkes, so I heated more than usual in my indispensable cast iron skillet, then added the the batter by large spoonfuls into the hot canola oil. I had to sacrifice the first pancake (but isn't that always true) while I was learning how to make sure they stayed crispy and didn't become an oily mess, but the rest turned out great. A perfect combination of textures - crispy, creamy (from the sour cream topping), and chunky (from James homemade apple/pear sauce). These were sweeter than our previous recipe, and required a bit more patience while cooking. These were so good, James even ate the "sacrifice" pancake. He asked afterwards if the recipe included flour, at which point I told him that I thought it did, but I  forgot to put it in! We enjoyed our homemade Chardonnay with this meal.

2019 Update

The latke dinner has become an annual, cherished event for three families, following this recipe on a somewhat larger scale.

Old-school peeling, shredding, and chopping tools are still employed, despite the use of 10 pounds of potatoes.

The coffee is also important in the preparation, keeping James alert.  Wines, meads, and other libations are served with the latkes themselves.

ChardParfait

After a couple of years of making beers and ales (which we continue to do), we started making wine earlier this year. While thirty bottles of Barolo are aging in our basement, a giant carboy of Chardonnay is coming together in our kitchen. After fermentation, we began a process of finishing, which removes cloudiness from the wine. We did the same thing with our red wine, but the effect was difficult to discern as it progressed.

This week we are noticing that the clarification takes place very gradually and evenly from the top down, once again validating the theory of gravity! With this white wine, the effect is easily visible. It really looks like wine at the top, and the bottom is a sludge of expired yeast almost two inches thick. In between is the layer awaiting clarification.