Pickled Red Beet Eggs

I remember as a kid being very sad one Easter Sunday.  It was because, when I peeled one of the eggs I worked so hard to paint and dye and sticker-ize and bedazzle—all that work—the inside looked just like a plain, un-dyed egg!  (I hope my Mom told me that beauty is only skin deep.)  But later on in the day, I was delighted when my Mom took the big container of Pickled Red Beet Eggs out of the refrigerator! When you cut into one of these purple beauties – surprise! – the color went all the way through to the yolk!

This recipe is a great way to use up those hardboiled eggs.  I’ve found my kids like dyeing them way more than they like eating them, so I am usually guaranteed half a dozen eggs to use in this dish.  This is an old Pennsylvania Dutch recipe that came from my Mom and her mother, in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.  You can adjust the ratio of vinegar to sugar, but I like how these are sweet-tart and firm.  Some people add very thinly sliced onions to the beet brine, and others add whole cloves.  I like them with just these 4 ingredients.

You’ll want to let these soak for at least 2 days.  I wouldn’t let them sit more than a week, but I really doubt they’ll last that long!  Make sure the eggs and beets are in a deep and narrow container so everything is submerged – if you go shallow and wide, your eggs won’t color evenly and you’ll have to rotate them at least 2 times a day.  So raid the kids’ Easter baskets and start pickling!

Pickled Red Beet Eggs

Ingredients:

• 6 eggs
• 2 cans sliced beets (not pickled beets)
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup vinegar (you can use white or apple cider)

Directions:

1. In a sauce pan, place eggs in one layer.  Fill pan, covering the eggs with an inch of water.  Cook on high until a boil is just reached, then immediately remove from heat and cover with a lid.  Set a timer for 13 minutes.  When the time is up, drain the eggs and fill the pan with ice and water.  Let cool.
2. Peel the cooled eggs and put them in a deep container with a lid.  Dump the two cans of beets and their juice into the container, followed by the sugar and vinegar.  Swirl around to dissolve.  Store in the refrigerator for at least 2 days, making sure the eggs are submerged (or turning them if they are not.)  Cut eggs in half and serve with beets.

Broccoli Bacon Salad

Bacon!  Do I have your attention?  Make sure everyone eats their greens by combining them with bacon!  My Mom made this for nearly every summer barbecue, and I'm sure it will quickly become a favorite for your family too.  Make it your own and change out the raisins for dried cherries or cranberries, or sub almonds or cashews for the sunflower seeds.  Many happy returns, at GCH!

Egg and Olive Salad, and Mayonnaise From-Scratch

This was my favorite lunch when I was a kid: an egg and olive salad sandwich on wheat bread, maybe with a leaf or two of lettuce, and some fruit.  So when my friends and I gathered for an impromptu second-baby shower for a friend, I offered to bring tea sandwiches.  Cucumber, of course, and a chicken salad with chutney, and these egg and olive salad sandwiches.  None of my friends had had this combination before and were surprised that I hadn't invented it.  I don't know if it's an East Coast thing and my California-born friends had never come across it before, but I realized that I have to share this tasty secret!

 This recipe is pretty bare bones, and that's how I like it.  Like any other salad, people like to add different things; please feel free to doctor this as you see fit.   If you are watching your carbs or are cutting out refined and processed foods, skip the bread and serve on lettuce leaves - either in little bundles in butter lettuce leaves, or down the middle of a romaine leaf.

Also included is my recipe for homemade mayonnaise.  You certainly don't have to take this extra step for egg and olive salad (or tuna salad or potato salad or whatever) - but it's tasty and fresh, so why not? This recipe is a great starting place for aioli or creamy salad dressings.  And of course, as with any from-scratch recipe, you know what's in it, so you can avoid allergens, preservatives, stabilizers, et cetera.  If you have a blender, why not give it a try?  (Insert obligatory warning about raw eggs and people who are pregnant or have a compromised immune system.  But you already knew this, right?)

Egg and Olive Salad

Ingredients:

• 4 hard-boiled eggs
• 1/4 cup green olives (preferably with pimentos)
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon yellow mustard
• salt and pepper (optional)

Directions:

1. In a mixing bowl, use two knives to roughly chop the eggs.  Don't mash it, but don't leave the chunks of egg too big.  Mix in the mayo and mustard.  Check for consistency - you may want a little more mayo, it's up to you.
2. Chop the olives and mix into the egg salad.  Taste - you'll probably want to add some pepper, but  it might already be salty enough from the olives.  Serve on bread or lettuce leaves.

Homemade Mayonnaise

Ingredients:

• 1 egg (as fresh as possible - splurge for farmer's market eggs if you can)
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard, or dry mustard powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar or lemon juice
• 1 cup very light olive oil, or half olive oil and half grape seed oil

Directions:

1. In a blender, combine egg, mustard, salt and vinegar.  Blend until light yellow and frothy.
2. Take off the little cap in the top of the blender lid, and through the whole, with the blender running, add a drop of oil at a time.  Seriously, it's going to seem like it this is going to take forever, but if you add too much at one time, the mayonnaise will "break" and won't get creamy; it'll get clumpy and gross.  So go SLOOOW.  After a minute of adding a few drops at a time, you can add the rest in a very very thin stream, stopping every few seconds.  Soon you'll have smooth, thick mayo, ready for whatever you have planned for it.  

This keeps in the fridge for about a week.  I like using it to make Curried Chicken Salad!

Chicken with Hollandaise

If it were my last day on Earth, I would have something with hollandaise for every meal.  My Mom made a dish called Chicken Falbrook, which was a pan-fried chicken breast with hollandaise sauce and sliced avocado.  It was rich and delicious, my first encounter with hollandaise sauce, and it was love at first bite!  Unfortunately, making hollandaise can be tricky - I remember Mom stirring and stirring the sauce over a double-boiler, fingers crossed that it wouldn't curdle.  Needless to say, we only ate it on special occasions, since the sauce was so finicky.

My Mom never learned the greatest innovation in French sauce technology:  Julia Child's Blender Hollandaise!  What a revelation!  No more double-boiler, no more whisking and praying!  Once I discovered it online, I searched for Mom's recipe, but couldn't find it.  Chicken Falbrook is nowhere to be found in Mom's cookbooks or online, so I'm guessing it's something she and my Dad had at a restaurant, and she reverse-engineered it at home.  In any case, Julia, Mom and I have collaborated to make the richest, most delicious, and easiest Chicken with Hollandaise ever.  I always serve it with steamed broccoli, because broccoli and hollandaise are a treat in themselves.  Asparagus would also be great - use fresh and steam it til it's just tender.

Chicken with Hollandaise

Ingredients:

• 4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• salt and pepper
• 1/4 cup flour
•  oil for sautéing
• 1 1/2 pound broccoli
• 1 stick butter
• 3 teaspoons lemon juice
• 2 egg yolks
• pinch cayenne pepper (optional)
• 1 avocado

Directions

1. Place each breast between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound down to 3/8-inch thickness.  Season with salt and pepper and dredge in flour.  In a large sauté pan over medium heat, add the oil, and brown chicken on one side, for about 10 minutes.  Lower the heat to medium-low and brown the other side, about 8 minutes.  Remove chicken from heat and keep warm on a plate under a tent of foil.
2. Meanwhile, steam the broccoli - I always do this in the microwave.  Keep warm.
3. In the microwave, melt the butter.  You want it hot and liquid!  In a blender or food processor, blend the egg yolks, lemon juice and cayenne pepper for 30 seconds.  Then add a tiny bit of the melted butter, blend for ten seconds, and repeat, adding the butter in a thin stream, or a bit at a time, and blending in between additions.  When all the butter has been added, blend for 20 seconds.
4. To serve, pour a generous amount of hollandaise on the chicken breast, top with 1/4 avocado, sliced, and  a side of broccoli.  Try not to lick the plate when you're done!

Beef Stroganoff, Quick and Easy

Beef stroganoff was one of my favorite meals as a kid.  I remember it being pretty quick for my Mom to make, and along with buttered noodles and a green vegetable, it made a filling and warming dinner.  This version is "just like Mom made," with a few exceptions.

First, the way my Mom made it, and the way most recipes online present it, is with sour cream.  I don't know about you, but I never have it in my house.  It's expensive, and honestly, if I had it in the fridge, I'd eat most of it with Fritos.  (Try it and you'll see how quickly you can consume hundreds of pointless calories!)  What I do have, always, is plain yogurt.  Fewer calories, cheaper per ounce, and indistinguishable from the original.  Done!

Another thing I saw in a lot of the internet versions was either cognac or cream sherry.  My rule is, if you wouldn't drink it, don't cook with it.  I don't care for cognac, and I don't even know what cream sherry is!  What I do have, always, is red wine.  Open the bottle, pour yourself a glass, and add a little to your food.  Done!

I served the beef stroganoff over homemade egg noodles.  You can put it on noodles, rice, or for an English-meets-Russian combo, try mashed potatoes!

Beef Stroganoff, Quick and Easy

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 8 ounces mushrooms, button or cremini, chopped
• salt and pepper
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 pound ground beef (ground turkey works too!)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon dried dill
• 1/2 cup broth - beef, chicken, or mushroom stock
• 1/2 cup red wine
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt, plus more for garnish
• 3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Directions:

1. In a large non-stick pan over medium heat, add butter and onions.  Stir occasionally until onions turn translucent.  Add mushrooms, salt and pepper, and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Sprinkle the flour over the vegetables and stir.  Get out all the lumps!  Then add the ground beef, stirring to break up.
3. When beef is browned, stir in dill, mustard, broth and wine.  Turn the heat down and let simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, for about ten minutes.
4. When the sauce is thick and you are ready to serve, take pan off the heat and stir in the yogurt.  Ladle over noodles (or rice or mashed potatoes, whatever you're eating) and garnish with a dollop of yogurt and a sprinkle of parsley.

Baked Beans (Mom's Recipe Box Find #2)

One of my guilty food pleasures is a right-off-the-grill hot dog. I know, not the most gourmet of foods, or the healthiest, but everything in moderation, right? And what goes better with hot dogs than baked beans? Now you could just open a can of baked beans and plop them in a saucepan, but where's the fun in that? Make your own!

Once I decided to do just that, I found my Mom's recipe for baked beans. That poor note card has seen better days, but its hard-used appearance proves what a popular recipe it is.

I didn't have any canned white beans in the pantry, but I did have a one-pound bag of dried white beans. They take more preparation than canned beans (obviously - canned beans come out ready for use) but are worth the effort. First, dried beans are cheaper than their canned cousins, because once you soak and rehydrate them, they double in weight. (Put another way, when you buy canned beans, you are paying for water.) Second, you are avoiding any salt, preservatives, or chemicals in the canned beans, not to mention the chance of BPA in the can itself.

Anyway, I soaked the beans the night before, but they double in size, so I only used half. (You can now freeze the rehydrated beans in a Ziploc bag and thaw them when you have another recipe for them.) I used my Mom's recipe as a jumping off point, and they were just as delicious as hers were. I realized they don't need to bake in the oven and are great on the stovetop - that way you won't have to heat up your kitchen on a hot summer day to make them. These are easy, cheap to make, and will impress everyone who has them. Hearty, smoky and fantastic, these put those watery, gloopy canned baked beans to shame!

Baked Beans

Ingredients:

• 1/2 pound dried white beans, soaked overnight in 6 cups water (or use 2 cans of white beans, reserving some of the canning liquid)
• 5 slices bacon, diced (obviously, vegetarians can omit this, or replace with soy bacon)
• 1 onion, diced
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon mustard
• 1/4 cup BBQ sauce (optional, but I like the smokiness - you could also try a few dashes of liquid smoke)
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar

Directions:

1. Drain the water from the beans you soaked. Put the beans in a pot, cover with about 4 cups of water and a lid, and cook over medium heat for about 2 hours. You don't want to cook off all the water, so check in on them every once in a while. When they're done, save about a cup of the cooking water to use in the baked beans, in case you like them a little "saucier" than I do.
2. In a Dutch oven or very heavy-bottomed pot, fry the bacon. When it's about halfway to crunchy, add the onion. When the bacon looks done, add the beans. Turn the heat down to low and stir everything together for a few minutes.
3. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir to combine. Give it a taste and see if you need to adjust the seasonings. It likely won't need salt, but you may like some pepper.
4. Cover and cook on low heat for half an hour. Check the consistency - if it's too thick, add some of the bean cooking water; too thin, take the lid off and let simmer. Serve hot.

These make great leftovers (I had them for breakfast and felt sort of British.) Even better, add leftover hot dogs for a white-trash-tastic lunch.

Mom's Recipe Box Find: Zucchini Bread

When my Mom passed away in October, the first thing I called dibs on was her recipe box. I remember that same old beat-up box sitting on the kitchen counter from my earliest memories. Some of the recipes were on index cards in my Mom's school-teacher penmanship, while others were from relatives, or in an unfamiliar hand, and still more were torn from newspapers or magazines. This one is of the first kind, in Mom's writing, giving credit to my Grandmother's friend Sue Bohner for the recipe.

We used to eat this often when I was a kid. This snack bread (and her recipe for banana bread) stood in for the cookies and candy available at other kids' houses. Full of raisins and walnuts (though I omitted the nuts from this batch, since my daughter is allergic), it's sweet enough to please any kid, but also sneaks in some vegetables to keep healthy moms happy.

I made a few changes from the original. A cup of oil seemed heavy, so I subbed with half a cup of applesauce. I also switched out a cup of regular flour for some whole wheat flour. Then I realized I only had one largish zucchini left, so I subbed half the zucchini with a cup of grated carrots. These changes were pretty negligible as far as consistency and taste went, so please feel free to use my Mom's original, or my doctored version.

Zucchini Bread

(recipe courtesy of my Mom's recipe box, via Sue Bohner)

Ingredients:

• 3 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup applesauce
• 1 tablespoon vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup whole wheat flour (or use regular if you don't have wheat)
• 2 tablespoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup grated zucchini, about one large zucchini
• 1 cup grated carrots, about 2 or 3 large carrots
• 1 cup raisins
• 1 cup chopped walnuts (I omitted these)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs with sugar. Stir in oil, applesauce, and vanilla.
3. In a medium bowl, mix together the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and powder, and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture, stirring well.
4. Stir in the zucchini, carrots, raisins and walnuts (if using).
5. Pour batter into a well-greased loaf pan and bake. Unfortunately, my Mom's recipe doesn't specify how long it needs to bake for. Mine went for about an hour and 20 minutes. I recommend baking it for an hour, then checking it with a toothpick every 15 minutes or so.

This bakes up big and dense. My daughter likes hers, for dessert, with butter. I like mine with cream cheese.