more baked eggs

The other night, another late home, starving, need dinner fast night I made a switched up version of the baked eggs I recently wrote about. I didn't have asparagus and leeks in my fridge but I did have mushrooms and spinach so that is what I used.

Baked Eggs with Spinach and Mushrooms (adapted from Edible Vancouver)
4 oz bacon, sliced thinly
10 mushrooms, sliced

1 1/2 bags (~14 oz) spinach
salt and pepper
1/2 c vegetable stock

1/4 c cream
1 tsp dried thyme
6 eggs

Preheat the oven to 350 deg F. In a large saute pan, cook the bacon and mushrooms until the mushrooms are beginning to brown. Season with salt and pepper. Add the spinach and let it start to wilt then add the stock and cream and stir to mix. Add in the thyme and then create 6 wells. Break the eggs into the wells and then put the pan into the oven and bake for 10 minutes or until the eggs are set. I sprinkled some parmesan shavings over the top and served with some hot french bread.

magic sauce

I recently wrote about the addition of white fish to our diet. We have continued to eat fish (twice more this week) which is still shocking to me. I put it down to my magic sauce I serve with most of the fish. It is just my version of tartar sauce.

Fish Sauce
2 small dill pickles, chopped (from my pantry)
1 large soup spoon full of mayonaise
l large soup spoon full of plain greek yogurt
1 big squeeze of lime juice (or lemon juice if that is what you have)
salt and pepper
dash of cayenne pepper
3-4 shakes of dried dill

Chop the dill pickles and add to a small bowl.

Add the remaining ingredients and stir until mixed. Serve with fish.

in the garden

It was rainy for most of yesterday but it cleared in the late afternoon. I wandered around my garden, looking at the progress of some seeds I planted and other things I had purchased and replanted and things are coming along. The Korean lilac is blooming and is a heady scent.

 I clipped some blossoms to make a small bouquet for the house. Wandering around between the plants,

peas

herb planter

giant aliums

potatoes

chard

spinach

I could smell the lilac and the lemony scent of the chicken wings baking in the oven (a Nigel Slater recipe - mustard, garlic, lemon juice, salt and pepper and I subbed maple syrup for the called for honey).

chicken wings before baking

baked chicken wings - delicious

camouflage

I've been surrounded by camouflage material recently. Our boy needed a weighted vest to help him focus at school and I knew he likely wouldn't wear the style of vest available through the specialty website as he was reluctant to wear it even in the house when we got one to try out. So I thought I would try and make one he would like to wear. I lucked out a the fabric store and found a whole rack of camouflage type fabric and settled on the navy (navy) and brown (army) in the hopes that the camouflage would feed into his love of army and navy enough to encourage the vest use at school. I ordered the vest weights online

one weight lying on the inside pocket

weights inside the pocket

and waited so I could make the interior pockets the right size to hold them. I chose a basic vest with lining pattern, laid a piece of heavy cotton on the inside of the navy piece to hold the weights and sewed the vest following the pattern. I admit, I did have to unpick my work a few times but in the end I have a reversible vest, that holds 6 - 1/2 lb weights that looks cute and so far he likes to wear.

Early days yet, so I'm hopeful this will last.

And inspired by this post of Molly's I made a couple of camo outfits for his tooth fairy mice- which got to go to school for montre et raconte (show and tell).

surprises

I guess it says something, even if I’m not sure what, that my husband can still surprise me after 11 years together. I recently learned that he does, on occasion, eat white fish. This was a revelation to me as in all our years together I have never seen this behaviour and despite frequent lamentations on my part, as to the lack of fish in our diet, he has never, up to last week, revealed that he has, on occasion, consumed things like Dover sole.

So , dear reader, you would not be amiss in thinking that white fish was definitely on my shopping list this week. I bought fillets of sole from the fish monger. After a troll through my cookery books, I settled on a classic recipe for dinner, Sole Meunière, as laid out by America’s Test KitchenCookbook. I served Deb’s Baked Wild Rice Gratin with baby kale alongside. It made a very nice dinner and my husband finished his fish practically before I even sat down. It was delicious. And it lead to a discussion about fish fingers, which will be added to the rotation this week.

carrot oatmeal muffins

A bit ago I was reading a website about how to make food for children who are selective about what they eat. One suggestion for lunch boxes was to make vegetable muffins. So I thought I would experiment with my tried and true muffin recipe and see if I could make a vegetable muffin my child will eat. The first result was this muffin, a carrot apple oatmeal muffin with butterscotch and white chocolate chips. It was a great muffin but sadly, not a success in that my boy wouldn’t even touch it. Not a bit. Despite sharing with his friend and his friend’s family (who loved it), he wouldn’t touch it.

But as everyone else liked it, here is the recipe.

Carrot Apple Oatmeal Muffins (with surprises) – adapted from Nigella’s Banana Butterscotch Muffins

125 mL vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 c grated carrot

½ c unsweetened apple sauce (or 1 mashed banana)

1 c oatmeal flakes (not the instant kind)

¾ c all purpose flour (the flour and oats together should weigh 250 g)

80 g brown sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking powder

One handful each of butterscotch and white chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat the oven to 400 deg F.

In a small jug, add the oil and eggs together and mix well. In a mixing bowl, combine the oats, flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda and whisk until mixed. Add the oil and eggs to the flour mixture and the carrot and applesauce and mix until combined. Mix the chips in until they are somewhat evenly distributed through the batter. Scoop the batter into greased (or papered) muffin tins and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden brown and the tops of the muffins bounce back when pressed. Makes 12 muffins.