How to make perfect over-easy eggs

 For years I’ve made ‘easy’ eggs steamed, with a cover on. It works, but so often it would only take a few seconds for the yolk to get hard. More often than not, that’s what happened.

And we like our eggs with a nice runny yolk!

So if that’s you, here’s our new fool-proof way to get the perfect over-easy eggs.

• You need a non-stick pan.
• Put your fat/oil* of choice in the pan on medium heat. We like to use coconut oil, approximately 1 tablespoon per egg. Good fats add to the overall nutrition of your breakfast!
• After it warms for a couple of minutes, crack your eggs carefully into the pan. Salt and pepper them to taste.
• After the white of the egg is cooked on the bottom (the top part of the white will still be uncooked), carefully separate the eggs with your spatula and gently turn them over. This is the tricky part, but practice helps.
• Take the pan immediately off the burner and let the eggs cook just another minute in the heat of the pan before serving. Drizzle remaining coconut oil over the eggs.

Voila! Perfect over-easy eggs, totally yummy.

*If you use butter to fry your eggs in, it helps to add a bit of other oil with it. This keeps the butter from browning too quickly before your cooking is done.

A few of my favorite kitchen tips

Every cook develops her own set of time- or work-saving tips over the years.  Here are a few of mine:

• Warm a lemon in the microwave for 15-20 seconds before cutting and juicing it.  You'll get a lot more juice.
• With all that extra lemon juice, just freeze it in an ice cube tray, then pop into a freezer container.  You'll always have lemon juice on hand.  (Did you know that bottled lemon juice is acidic and fresh is alkaline?  All the bad guys--viruses, bacteria, fungus and yeast, and even cancers--thrive in an acidic environment in your body.  A friend of mine who underwent treatment at the Cancer Center of America said they told her to drink/sip fresh lemon water all day--a truly anti-cancer prescription.  Generally, fresh fruits and veggies are alkaline.)
• Buy the industrial-size cans of applesauce, tomato sauce, or salsa at warehouse stores like Sam's or Costco; then open and pour into glass canning jars (leaving some head space) and freeze.  A huge $$$ savings over buying those smaller sizes.
• When you've finished the dishes, microwave your dishcloth for 1 minute on high.  Kills the germs and thus any smell.  I learned this tip from a microbiologist friend of mine.
• Remove labels from tuna cans or other similar sizes and wash in the dishwasher.  Keep a few on hand to spoon excess fat from meats--just let harden and throw the whole thing away.
• Buy the largest packages of ground beef from the warehouse stores.  Fry up the whole batch with some chopped onion, drain fat, and freeze in smaller portions.  SO handy for quick suppers: soups, tacos or taco salad, pizza, sloppy joes, and casseroles.
• Hem up some 1'x1' squares of colorful fabric for fabric napkins.  I have a big assortment and just wash them with the kitchen linen.  It's a big savings over paper napkins and it looks elegant and cheerful on the table.
• I bought a large stack of bar mop towels at Sam's, cut them in half and hemmed them.  I use one during a cooking session just to wipe my hands on, which are always wet.  No cross-contamination with other hand towels in the kitchen and with a big stack just dedicated to this purpose, I use them freely.

I'd love to hear some of your handy tips--care to share any?

Help for your soups

I learned a great health tip this year in one of my candida-diet cookbooks for cooking soups.

People who are dealing with candida tend not to absorb nutrients as well as they should, so a candida diet should focus on obtaining the highest quality nutrition possible.

Soups should be cooked only until the veggies are done but slightly crunchy.  I think I have overcooked my soups forever, but now that I do it this way, I love the flavors and textures.

So now, this is my soup-making process:

• Make my own broth ahead of time, chill, and de-fat it.  My pressure cooker is fantastic for this; I freeze it in quart jars.


• I pre-cook the meat I will use:  chicken, hamburger, roast, sausage.  This, too, can be done in large batches ahead of time and frozen.


• To prepare, I bring the broth and meat to a simmer and add the vegetables.


• I cook the soup from 5-15 minutes, depending on the vegetables, the less time the better.

Delicious!  Try it and see if you don't notice a difference.  :-)

Simplify your Thanksgiving cooking

Our pastor's wife is an amazing lady.  Besides her very loving and personal commitment to each of us, her creativity and energy, she's a wonderful cook.  She is always preparing or hosting something, complete with delicious homecooked food.  I stand in awe.  So this week I asked her how she does it.  Peaceful, unflappable, and always prepared.

Her secret is doing a lot stuff ahead of time and using her freezer.  Instead of putting Italian sausage away in the freezer when she gets home from shopping, she fries it up in two big skillets, throws in tomato sauce and seasonings, then freezes it measured out, all ready for lasagne.

I especially loved the way she does Thanksgiving.  While all the special food is wonderful, I really dislike spending the whole day in the kitchen, trying to put on a Normal Rockwell spread, ending with the turkey-picking and a mountain of dishes.

Here's a few of her tips...which, all taken together, free her up to go play games with the family and be with PEOPLE, not just food all day.

• Pre-cook sweet potatoes, peel, dice, and cover with your topping; cover and freeze.  Defrost on T-Day and warm in the oven.


• Pre-cook the turkey a few days ahead of time.  (Then you don't have to find room for it in your fridge or freezer!)  Slice and drizzle some of the broth over; cover and freeze.  Warm in the microwave at serving time (not the oven -- she says that gives it that leftover taste).


• The rest of the broth frozen, ready to thaw and make gravy.


• Cooks up her turkey soup ahead of time, instead of the day after.


• She uses festive paper plates and napkins -- that don't have to be washed!  She sets the table the night before.

And I know there are other short-cuts that work...freezing dinner rolls, having the cranberry sauce pre-cooked or pre-sliced.  Freezing your pumpkin pies.

You know, I think my freezer is too small.  I can see whole vistas of this method for year-round, simplifying my life even more.   Think how handy to have a pre-done casserole or pot of soup for that unexpected company.  Though I've done some of this on a sporadic basis, I'm going to get really intentional about it.

Have a blessed and stress-free Thanksgiving!

I love my pressure cooker!

 Having gotten a pressure cooker a year ago for Christmas, I've been trying to get acquainted with this kind of cooking, adjusting recipes for high altitude, and trying to make this part of my thinking in the kitchen.

And so far, it's wonderful!  I did overcook a head of cauliflower to mush once (which was redeemable mashed with butter on it).  It does a stellar job with veggies.  Three minutes to do whole brussel sprouts, twelve to do artichokes to perfection, etc.  I don't have scorching problems anymore cooking whole grain cereals--you cook it in a metal bowl inside the cooker--in just ten minutes.

I'm still learning how to do meats.  I have to adjust times due to high altitude, but it's easy to overcook them and get the meat tough.  But I think I've been undercooking so I'll work more on that.

I love the meal-in-one simplicity!  A favorite here layers browned hamburger, tomato paste, pasta, veggies, and seasoning...and it done perfectly in ten minutes!  (Have I use the word 'perfect' before??) 

But my new favorite is soup broth!  I half fill the cooker with water, throw in browned beef bones, lamb bones, or chicken parts like backs, wings, etc., some celery, onion, bay leaf, and a couple of peppercorns.  Half an hour later I have this rich, delicious broth.  The pressure cooker drives out the good gelatin from the marrow and joints, which is fabulously healthy for you.

I might note that I no longer tremble in fear that the whole shebang is going to blow up all over me and the kitchen.  I now confidently whip things in and out of it, cavalierly ignore the hissing and sputtering, and laugh triumphantly when I lift the lid and see another success!

So if you have a beautiful pressure cooker that was a wedding gift still sitting in it's box...give it a go!  I think you'll love it.  Just think of all the other fun things you can do with all the time you'll save...

How to keep parsley and cilantro

I got the greatest tip from a friend on how to store fresh parsley and cilantro...and it works!

Just clip off the bottom half inch or so of the bunch and put it in a glass jar filled with water, just like you would do for fresh flowers.  Then voila! just keep it on your counter.  No refrigeration needed!  Change out the water every couple of days, and reclip the bottom of the stems a couple of times a week.  Just snip and wash whatever you need.

My friend says she has kept parsley for a month this way!  I tried it and have had both going for several days now, and it's working just as she said.  I have tried the jar thing before, covered with a plastic bag, in the fridge, but have been so annoyed at how much room it takes up.

An added benefit is the beautiful greenery sitting right there in my kitchen--especially nice in these colorless, wintery months.

And of course you've probably read how fantastic both parsley and cilantro are for your health...

PARSLEY serves as an internal cleanser, aids in digestion, rich in vitamins A, B1, B-complex, C, potassium, manganese, phosporus, calcium, and iron.  Good for a breath freshener.  Works well in juicing.

CILANTRO, also called coriander, helps to detoxify the body of mercury and other toxic metals and is rich in calcium, iron, carotenes and vitamin C.

So now maybe I'll use these health-giving herbs more with my indoor "garden" at my fingertips!

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P.S.  This added a couple of days later:  I've found that cilantro doesn't do quite as well as the parsley and needs to be used sooner.