Category: kitchen

Freezing eggs

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

I have been hesitating to post this, because maybe this is just common knowledge. But then again, I didn’t know it and it was kind of lifechanging (in a small, domestic way) for me. So here it is: did you know you can freeze eggs?

You just have to beat them and they will stay perfectly fine. I tried this for the first time in April, when we had to fly to the Netherlands suddenly and I still had eggs for a whole week in the fridge. For us, that means 35 eggs. We knew we wouldn’t return for four weeks, so it would have been such a waste.

We do leave the fridge and freezer on when we’re away. We’re on solar power, so it doesn’t cost us anything. That alone has been wonderful. I usually make sure I have some food in there to get us through the first day(s) after arriving back. We’re usually so tired and jetlagged that driving to town for groceries (a 45 minute drive) is just not an option. But we always had to make do for breakfast, because of the eggs. I tried making omelets and freezing those, but we weren’t to keen on how dry those came out. So when I heard it’s possible to freeze eggs raw, I jumped right in.

I was kind of worried when we thawed out the first batch. The color is off and the consistency is a bit lumpy. But I just beat them a bit again and make an omelet like Í’d do with fresh eggs (I don’t add milk though – just eggs fried in hot butter) and the endresult looks and tastes perfectly normal. I’m pretty sure you could easily use these for baking too.

Disclaimer: I don’t know how long these are supposed to last, but we ate the last of the April batch in August and those were fine.

So, there you have it. Just a little tip from my kitchen. Did you know this?

Kitchen doings

~ Maggie ~ 10 Comments

I’m still not sure about these posts, but I like them too much to stop doing them (and also, if I would stop posting everything I’m unsure about, this blog would be dormant again). So let’s just go ahead. I do want to write a little disclaimer in advance though: this is just an impression of what we eat, not a day-to-day log. I also tend to forget to take pictures when I’m making something special. But I guess that’s when I’m really “in the moment”, so I’m not going to feel bad about it.

Yes, yes, we have soup for lunch every single day. I have a few recipes that I love (the not so attractive looking brew on the right is actually a delicious lentil soup), but I also tend to just add water, salt and some herbs to leftovers and eat that as soup. Works wonderful.

I bought those pickles mostly because I wanted that big jar to store herbs in. It was on sale and we both love pickles, so I thought it would be a great deal that way. But I didn’t read the label. Hot ‘n spicy. Or maybe I did see it, but I didn’t think they really meant hot ‘n spicy. In our experience American food isn’t as spicy as they want you to think.
Well… this was spicy alright. Way too spicy in fact. Not edible spicy. I can’t imagine that this is normal. Maybe those jars have been in a hot storage too long? Heat tends to intensify hot spices.

Anyway, I decided to try one thing before throwing it away and used a food processor to make them into a “hot sauce”. We’ll see if use it up that way.

Um, these are the only dinners I took pictures off… Oh, well. Yes, we love stir fry. A lot. Not just how it tastes, but the whole process of making it. No recipe, just use the meat is thawed (we rotate between chicken and minced beef, with the occasional beef strips mixed in), selecting some veggies from the fridge, maybe a can of beans or corn the pantry, add some herbs and spices and voilá, another lovely meal (most of the time – some experiments taste better than others)

Onions are such a staple for us I think there doesn’t a day go by without them. Do you cry when cut you them? I have had contact lenses since I was fourteen and they somehow protected my eyes. But I stopped wearing a lense in my right eye, since aging is tipping the balance over to an almost perfect eyesight (for now – I guess I will progress, or rather regress to needing reading glasses for that eye). So now I’m crying from one eye when I have to cut a lot of onions. And that still makes me smile, because it’s so silly.

(I’ve also be doing a bit of herbal crafting in my kitchen, but I’ll share that in a seperate post)

Kitchen doings

~ Maggie ~ 6 Comments

(after uploading the pictures for this post, I realized there were a lot of pictures of processing herbs and not too much cooking. Oh well, I’m going to post it anyway)

The chef from a restaurant we visit often gave me some fresh thyme he wasn’t going to use. He knows I like to make herbal remedies, so he thought I could use it. Well, I could. I needed to make some new coughing syrup. So I did just that.

The mint cuttings I planted a few weeks ago all died on me, so I started a new round (and that’s how I clean those vases, with a small piece of a scouring pad and a skewer)

Of course I saved the leaves for tea.

Oh, look, I made soup and actually took a picture! This one turned out really nice. It was just eggplant, mushrooms, a red pepper and a yellow pepper, chicken stock and a big scoop of Korean chili sauce.

Dry Oregano di Korsou and dry Passionflower. I don’t think I’m going to dry the passion flower leaves on the vines again. It was a lot of work to get the dried leaves off. Or maybe it was just because they were all tangled up? I meant to hang those vines, but I never got to it.

I need more jars… Yes, I use pickle jars for my herbs. Last year I invested in cuter jars, but all the herbs I stored in those have gone bad over the summer (when we weren’t home), so I’m back to reusing pickle jars.

Breakfast! T.’s eggs came out of the pan real easy this morning. Small victories… (the trick is to get the pan real hot before adding the bacon and the eggs, but I don’t always have the patience for that).

Tea again. I’m trying berbena this week, mostly because, among other things, it’s supposed to help with obstipation (though now I can’t find an online source for that anymore. I guess I need to put a hold on it until I do.)

And preparing soup again (these images are from a longer period). Really, I do cook diner too (soups are lunch in our house). I made the most perfect meatballs last night, but I forgot to take a picture. This is one of my favorite soups: chorizo, onion, leek, sweet potato, corn and chicken stock. I had some cauliflower left over from the day before (ate it with those delicious meatballs), so I added that too.

(Do you want real recipes for meals I mention here? I never use recipes myself, so for me it’s perfectly natural to just list what’s in it, but I could do recipes if you’d be interested. I think I did for a while a long time ago).

Last picture. Processing berbena leaves. This one is funny to me. I was using a blue plastic dishpan to rinse these leaves and I was thinking how some of the people I admire on Youtube always use such beautiful bowls. At first I was like: “yeah, but this is much more practical”. But then I gave it a try and switched to my largest glass bowl. I actually do think I enjoyed that, even though I had to split the batch in two. It seems esthetics are important too…

In my kitchen

~ Maggie ~ 4 Comments

Lately in my kitchen I have…

:: experimented with my new slow cooker. I never had one before, but I’m hooked. So convenient to fill it up in the morning and have diner ready in the evening.

:: made my favorite soup (chorizo, sweet potato, leek, onion, red pepper, corn). So good!

:: made several soups from leftovers. I started doing that a while ago and it’s such a great way to use every little bit of food

:: baked (fried?) potatoes. I always considered this a labor intensive meal, until I learned that leaving the skins on is actually quite tasty. So now it’s one of my go-to easy meals

:: snacked on frozen food.Fruit sugars are also not the best choice for my body, but sometimes you got to indulge, don’t you think? (at least it is much healthier than chocolate ice cream)

:: been simplifying my life and my pantry by admitting that I’m not a baker (I have nobody to bake for – can’t eat it myself and T. is gluten sensitive and not into cakes and cookies that much anyway). I’m also slowly accepting that I’m not a fancy cook either, so I don’t need every spice available in the shop, just the stuff I use most often. My pantry is starting to look so organized now!

:: been thinking about above simplifying and us going out for diner at least once a week and how I’m only cooking for the two of us now. Does that make my kitchen a less important space in my home than the kitchen in my Dutch home where we lived with three teenagers?
I think not. It’s still where we start our days (making coffee) and sit down to eat every single day. It’s where the cats ask (loudly) for their diner. It’s where I make my teas, where I dry and store my herbs and it’s where I prepare my medicinal oils and tinctures. It’s where I often sit down to make phone calls, where I take a lot of blog pictures (I like how my knitting looks on my kitchen table) and where I intend to set up my sewing corner soon. It’s where I try to find a bit of peace and calm when my racing mind keeps me awake at night (chamomile tea and reading children’s books usually help) and where I start working from when I feel overwhelmed by all I have (want) to do in a day.

There’s no doubt about it. It’s still the heart of my home!