Olive, Krab and Feta Omelet

So I was just going to make scrambled eggs, but for some bizarre reason that intention turned into an omelet. A very very salty omelet.  Everything started fine.  The cheese was good and the Krab was well… the only protein available, but it still wasn’t bad. The problem item was the olives and my lazy butt.  I was going to chop up the olives, but nooooooo.. they’ll cut when I use my fork.  So I ended up with a boat load of super salty Kalamata olives.  I still ate it and it was edible, I just think that I could have gotten away with half the olives if I would have chopped them up and then the salty would have been balanced more. At this point I would also like to give kudos to the pan I made this omelet in.  My Great-Aunt’s Le Creuset Flame Orange 6.5″ enameled cast iron skillet.  LOVE IT!  I’m having a whole cast iron love fest lately, they’re the best thing since my Classic ScanPans (Ceramic Titanium).

Koos-Murphy House Salsa

Along with the squash I had some tomatoes that needed to be used or they were going to rot, so…. I made some salsa.  I usually make a fresh salsa or a table salsa, but I decided to get adventurous and blend the 2 together.  I had about 8 tomatoes, so right there I’ve got to make a double batch.  I’ll try and relate the recipe, but really I add the spices and such until it tastes good to me.

I diced the tomatoes and added them first then I got out a medium white onion and diced it.  Usually I’ll use a small one since Mr. the Man doesn’t like them, but I was going to take this to work, so medium onion it was.  after that, I realized we had used the last 2 fresh jalapeños in the last chili, so I had to dig out the backup can of diced ones. I put in about 1 tablespoon of white vinegar and after that it was all spices.  There is Smoked Paprika, cumin, cilantro, salt and pepper.  There really isn’t much to it.  I always thought I’d have to go through a lot more effort to make salsa, but nope.

Oh!  One last thing… I do try and squish the seeds and some of the guts out of the tomatoes while I’m making it, so it isn’t too soupy.  You could probably also put tomato paste in it to thicken it up.

Missy's Version of Alton Brown's Squash Soup

I made the Alton Brown Squash Soup last night.  I had squash and I really wanted some soup so you can see where that went…

I ran out of chicken stock after 2 cups and I needed 3, so I fished some dashi stock I made a little while back out of the freezer and stuck that in.  I don’t think I taste any odd flavors because of it.  I thought it tasted really superb until I put in the nutmeg.  Now maybe I just don’t like nutmeg, I don’t know, but where it was great before, I think it’s merely good now.  Oh, I also didn’t have cream, or an immersion blender.  So I used my potato masher and and mix and masher to creamy it up a bit.  In place of the cream I ended up using plain yogurt.  I probably should have just used milk, but frankly I like the tang of yogurt and like I said it was great, until the nutmeg.  I think I’ll skip it next time. and maybe add some roasted carrots.

I went with the agave nectar in the Lemon cordial and the turbinado sugar in the lime mainly because the agave wasn’t going to compete too much with the lemon, the lime I’m nervous about, I don’t know how the molasses characteristics are going to affect the over all cordial.

The agave made the simple sugar a little less dense and seems to have incorporated well.  The lemon cordial is clear and inviting.  It’s been put up, so we’ll just have to wait about a month now to see how it turns out.

The turbinado sugar is a raw cane sugar, which still has some of the molasses surrounding the crystals.  Unlike the substitution amount for the agave (.5 ~.66 : 1), the turbinado is a one for one substitution with refined sugar.  It made the simple syrup for the cordial quite dark, which was interesting and will make the cordial a lot darker than the last of them I’ve made.  The molasses in the mix should make for an interesting complexity in the cordial.  Again though, we don’t get to find out how it tastes for a month.

The liquor store also didn’t have the Mohawk Vodka that I usually use, but hey did have some Popov, which since it is distilled in Connecticut, should have the same non-flavor & non-smell characteristics as the rest of the American vodkas.  This is really important for cordial making.  You don’t want to have the flavors and smells of the vodka competing with the rest of the cordial.  Makes it a mucky mess.

The lemon ice cream is a little different than what I usually make.  It wasn’t heated prior to putting it in the ice cream maker.

I used this recipe from www.bellaonline.com:

• 3 cups milk – whole milk or 2%
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 3/4 tsp. lemon extract
• 2 cups sugar

Preparation -
Mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker and freeze according to manufacturer’s directions. The ice cream will be soft and creamy. For firmer ice cream, spoon it into a freezer container, cover, and place it in the freezer for about 3 hours. For easy scooping, remove the ice cream from the freezer about 10 minutes before serving.
I’m excited to see how it turns out.  I took some out a little bit ago and it does seem to be setting up right.

Some of the contents of my hot and sour soup

There are more so many, many more piece of those red pepper in there!

I forgot my lunch today and so I went to the Rice Kitchen, which is one of my more favored Chinese restaurants. I got my normal Lunch special, but I thought I would try something new. So I got the Hot and Sour Soup… ummm wow. I think my lips may burst into flame. I took the pictures with my iPhone and it doesn’t do well with close-ups, but it tries.  Other than the sheer terror that envelops me on seeing this many peppers and the sweat involved with eating it.  Overall it isn’t too bad.  I don’t know that I would get it again, but I don’t know it seems like it would be really really good on a chilly day.

Seriously though… I’ve got nothing on this one, so it’ll be an adventure.

I’m definitely going to have to invest in some flavored fuzzy water to go with these.  I think I’m going to have to make a Chocolate Cordial as well and an Orange.  I’m getting all drooley just thinking aout these.