Iron Chef - Coming Soon!

We're going to participate in an iron-chef style dinner this weekend - the three secret ingredients are asparagus, citrus and strawberries.

Does anyone have a candied asparagus recipe?

We'll let you know how it goes!

Next-Door Eggs

"I do, I like them, Sam-I-Am!"

Remember that line?  We do, and we like them too.  Green eggs, I mean.

Our neighbor has the most adorable flock of four hens, all well-loved by her two boys, and all very tame.  They're pretty, they're fun, and they're very productive!

Her Ameraucauna lays the greenish eggs and they're lovely next to the speckled ones.  Sadly, they're not green on the inside!  If you haven't had a really fresh fried egg recently, we'd suggest find some local chickens and try them out.  A warning: once you've had them, it's hard to go back to runny grocery-store eggs!  Next thing you know you'll be contemplating a coop of your own.

If you're lucky, you'll turn up a neighbor who will let you hen-sit when they're out of town!

Low-Country Boil

Who wouldn't love a meal with no dishes afterward?  Or silverware?  We spread newspaper, strained the boil and dumped the boil on the table: shrimp, corn on the cob, red potatoes and andouille sausage.  Seasoned with the traditional boil packet from the grocery store and voila: casual dining.

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. 

Add 15-20 small potatoes (red) and cook for 10 minutes

Add the shrimp boil seasoning

Add 4 andouille sausages cut into 1/2 inch disks and 8 corn cobs (small, frozen) and cook another 3-5 minutes until the corn starts to get tender. 

Last, add 1.5 lb medium shrimp (about 30 shrimp) and cook for just 1 minute, until they're heated through and no longer translucent.

Drain and serve.  

Serves 4.

Cardamom - Rosemary - Chipolte Roast Chicken

This was either going to be great, or a total waste of a chicken.

I love a simple salt and pepper roasted chicken, but it's been grey and rainy out lately and I felt the need to spice things up a little bit.  There wasn't going to be a tango class on a Wednesday, and no friends were lined up at the door, so we spiced up the chicken instead.

With it's powerful, musky-sweet-exotic flavor, a little Cardamom goes a long way.  It's found in chai tea, Christmas cookies, Scandinavian dishes and middle-eastern cooking and I've always liked the savory-sweet combinations it stands up to, so we decided to try a few out on the chicken.

We rubbed equal amounts (about a 1/4 teaspoon) of cardamom and chipolte powder on the chicken, followed by salt and pepper.  Then we stuck a stalk of rosemary in the chicken's cavity (about 4 inches long) and stuck it in the oven.

After about an hour, it had reached 160* and smelled fantastic.  (4 lb chicken)

It's not often we get to serve up a yellow main course, is it?  Complemented by my Grandmother's knife and fork serving set - bakelite still has it's place at our table!  I'm curious now about what other typically sweet spices could be combined with savory or spicy to make interesting combinations or other ways to use cardamom.  Anyone have any ideas or recipes to share?

Oatmeal with Milk

Technically, it's not cooking, but we're not that picky, right?

Oatmeal, covered with milk (and a sprinkle of sugar, if you like).  Let it stand for 5 minutes and voila: a snack.

It's just like those parfaits at the airport or fast-food places, minus all the ick.  Turns out there's more to oatmeal than we thought.