Successful Spelt Substitution

Once again I have stolen a picture from the internet. By the time Simeon was taken care of and breakfast was done we weren't waiting for photo shoots! This is similar to our Saturday breakfast, except ours was better! Why? Because our waffles were whole grain. Yuck you say, bad attitude I say. I made a straight substitution, whole spelt flour for the all purpose flour the recipe called for. Being I had little time (until my child's next feeding) and Daniel and I were hungry I kept it simple. I used a recipe out of The Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book. I must say I have better waffle recipes, but they require an overnight rise. Here is a pancake recipe I love, Sourdough silver dollar pancakes. These can't be beat, but require some prep the night before.

At any rate the quick fix waffles were very good this morning. Spelt flour is lighter in color than whole wheat and has a milder flavor. It is perfect for quick breads, muffins, cookies, and pancakes or waffles. Try it yourself, be sure to get whole spelt flour and be sure it is fresh. Here's a link to a guide to whole grain storage. Now to clean the mess up...

Local Fresh Eggs

Yummy pictures courtesy of Daniel. Like the title implies all these dishes have eggs as an essential ingredient. Not just any eggs mind you, free range organic from my farmer friend Hal of Abby Farms. This first picture is a Monte Cristo sandwich. Daniel made this delicious breakfast on Saturday. There are many variations, ours had: bacon, strawberry jam, farmers cheese, mustard. Then Daniel dipped them in egg and cooked them in a cast iron skillet with butter.


These marbled eggs are Daniel's Easter eggs. He hard boiled them, cracked the eggs, and soaked them in soy sauce. They do look pretty cool and they were very tasty.


Finally my contribution to this post, so last night I was tired and had some leftovers I wanted to use up. I had leftover cooked cabbage and chicken, so I searched the wonderful internet and found this wonderful recipe. I will definitely be using it again. It was quick, easy and it made a healthy supper. Here's a link to the recipe Cabbage casserole

Sad News

So Daniel and I have had some wonderful blessings this year that will change our lives forever. We are having to make some decisions. We have decided not to return to Belhaven Market or Old Towne Market (Clinton) as vendors anyway. There are several reasons for this decision, and I won't bore you with the details. On the positive side we are getting to spend a lot of time continuing to work on the house and getting ready for the baby.

I am enjoying my time away from the market. I have actually had the time to post some new blogs! I have several part time jobs that keeps me busy about 20+ hrs a week. And for me there always seems to be plenty to do. I cook the majority of our meals and prepare Daniel's lunch every day. So I'm still in the kitchen plenty. Then there's always my least favorite task of cleaning. I have been trying to get some yard work done. And Daniel and I are working on preparing a very small raised bed garden. I have to stay busy or I go nuts.

So yesterday I had a fun day doing something I enjoy but don't often have time for. I baked a Lemon Cream Pie completely from scratch. It is a fairly simple recipe. I went the whole nine yards and made the graham cracker crust and actually churned the butter so it was nice and fresh. I feel blessed to have the time to make a yummy from scratch fancy dish every now and again.

I apologize for the pitiful pictures. The pie was a little more yellow than it appears, I attribute the yellow hue to the egg yolks more than the lemon itself. And the top picture is some of the butter I molded in my stoneware shortbread mold. Photography is really not one of my talents.

Wat Good Soups!

From the "other" food Root...
I recently saw a recipe in Saveur that I really wanted to try making. I never got around to it, but thankfully my lovely wife did. Doro Wat is an ethiopian dish with chicken AND eggs (I'm not sure which comes first :). The secret is heavily caramelized onions and a very unique sweet-and-hot spice mix called berbere. Add tomato, chicken pieces, and hardboiled eggs, and the result is a very flavorful stew, with an exotic BBQ flavor.

It turns out that 'Wat', roughly translated, means 'Stew', and there are all kinds of Wats. A vegetarian version called Misr Wat can also be made with lentils and berbere, and is a great way to spice up a sometimes bland soup. Elizabeth whipped that up yesterday, and having had my share of lentils, it's my expert opinion that this is one of the best ways to prepare them. Sega Wat is made with lamb or beef. We haven't tried that yet, but maybe if Elizabeth reads this post she'll be inspired? Or maybe I'll have to finally find that round tuit.

By request: recipes can be found at Saveur (the best food mag ever:)