Sunday, May 20, 2007
The television was blaring in the living room when Tarn came in from weed-whacking.
He liked weed-whacking. It was probably his favorite thing to do outside. He liked taking the lawn mower apart too. But weed-whacking was better. He liked the way the invisible line seemed to make the weeds fall down. But you couldn't see how it did it.
He wondered for a while how that worked. It was a great mystery.
The boy came in from haying and plopped down on the couch. He was hot and sweaty.
Tarn looked at him from the big overstuffed chair.
"I've been weed-whacking. I like to weed-whack."
"We know, Tarn." Said Buddy, rolling his eyes a bit. "Let's take apart the lawn mower!"
Tarn chewed his lip a moment. He knew he'd get in trouble if he took the lawn mower apart again. He'd just done it yesterday.
"Oh, no you don't!" Hollered Sadie from the kitchen.
Tarn wondered how she seemed to always know what was going through his head.
It was another great mystery. It peeved him, having Sadie know what he was thinking. He sure would like to take apart that lawnmower this evening.
Sadie came into the dining room and put down a plate of biscuits. The food for supper was almost done. She stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips and a slightly sour expression on her face.
"No, Tarn, you are taking a bath tonight. I mean it. It's past time."
Tarn screwed his face up. She had seemed to do it again. He wished she would get out of his head. He didn't know how she did that.
"Took a bath last week." He said.
"And you are taking another tonight." Sadie's tone broached no argument.
Tarn squirmed in his chair. He hated getting wet.
But Sadie was right. Tarn's thinning gray hair was slick with oil and dirt and plastered to his skull. The skin on his neck was dark with ground in dirt. He never really thought he smelled bad. But he sort of did.
He glued his eyes to the television in an attempt to ignore Sadie. A handsome man was on there holding an egg.
"I sure do like eggs." Said Tarn.
The TV man said, "This is your brain."
Tarn looked at it confused for a moment. He knew an egg when he saw one. Not that he didn't like brains. Brains were good, especially scrambled with eggs. The TV man must be confused, he thought. Brains and eggs were good eating so it was easy to confuse the two, thought Tarn.
"That's an egg. I like eggs." He said.
"No, Tarn, that's that there drug commercial." Said Buddy.
The screen cut to a close-up of an egg frying in a frying pan. It was all greasy looking and popping in the pan. Tarn felt his mouth fill with saliva as he imagined the smell of eggs frying in butter, their edges crispy and the yolk runny and done just right.
"This is your brain on drugs." Said the TV man.
"See, Tarn," said Buddy, "he's pretending the egg is your brain and if you take drugs, your brain will fry. Get it?"
Tarn was transfixed by that egg frying. It looked delicious.
"I like eggs. I 'specially likes them when somebody else fries them up for me. Yes, I do."
Buddy rolled his eyes.
The TV man came back on and said, "Any questions?"
Tarn thought the TV man was in his head. He did indeed have a question.
"Can we have fried eggs for supper? 'Cause I sure do like eggs. I really do."
Friday, March 02, 2007
It's March and the time when all gay farm girls' fancies turn to poultry, baby chicks and the oncoming spring. I can't tell you how neat it is to come downstairs in the morning to hear the first cheeps coming from the incubator. Those fuzzy little sweet biddies with their promise of eggs and all things egg related.
When I was last at the Co-op in Newport, I checked out the bulletin board as I usually do. And saw the notice of when the chicks were going to arrive. I'm currently henless at the moment. I did get a bit disheartened by the predation issue here and just let my flock go. But I know what an idiot sucker I am for baby poultry. They are even going to have guinea keets for sale. I've been very desirous of getting guineas. Their eggs supposedly make the best french toast on earth. But now that I'm down to only two geese in the poultry department, I'm starting to miss all the fresh eggs.
Of course, once they start laying real good, you end up scouring ancient cookbooks for those egg rich recipes from the days when everyone had a home flock. You will find eggs in places you never expected. And it's true. An egg in the mix of almost anything makes it taste better, fry up better, or just add an extra bit of protein to the diet. And you have all these dozens of eggs that you hate to just feed back to the hens or give to the dogs.
Have I mentioned that I have a freakishly low cholesterol level? I'm not sure if I mentioned that before I moved to an agrarian lifestyle that I had a freakishly high one. In all of my years of city living I was a devoted member of the 200 + club. And I didn't really eat many eggs then.
Today's Food Porn Friday is all about getting rid of absurd quantities of chicken ovum in the most delicious ways possible.
When the eggs really start to add up, my favorite big egg user is home-made pasta.
Basically all pasta is flour and eggs. It's super easy to make and once you get used to it, it's a fairly easy thing to make. Semolina flour is preferred as a base flour. Bread flour mixed with a bit of cornmeal is a good substitute. Home-made pasta keeps well in the fridge for about a week. I usually make a larger batch than the recipe given so to have enough for a few meals. The more whole grains you use in the pasta, the better it is for you. Fiber makes a great "diet" food and is much more filling than a straight white flour pasta.
The equipment for making pasta by hand is very affordable. A hand cranked pasta machine will run you about 30 bucks at the kitchen supply. Atlas is the preferred brand and you can get all sorts of attachments for doing different shapes. Mine has angel hair and linguine and those are my favorite two textures. It will also roll out very thin sheets of pasta dough for making your own ravioli and gnocchi. I mix my dough in a food processor, but if you want to get real "old school" about it, you can do it by hand making a well in the middle of your flour and gradually incorporating the eggs.
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup bread flour
1/2 cup corn meal
5 to 8 eggs (mix to firm consistency...it takes as many eggs as it takes) You can use even more eggs and cut the calories by only using the egg whites.
1/2 tin of tomato paste
1/2 cup of dried basil leaf
Place all ingredients in a food processor and mix until dough forms a tube shaped mass. Remove, knead more flour into dough by hand and let sit for about 20 minutes in a floured bowl.
Cut mass of flour into 1 inch thick slices. Pat out and roll through the roller of the machine several times, flouring between passes. Decrease the setting on the machine gradually to about #3. You now have a long sheet of thin pasta. Switch the crank on the machine to the desired cutter and pass the pasta through the machine to make the desired type of pasta.
Brazilian Flan
I don't have a photo for this, but you will have to take my word for it that it is a showpiece of a dessert. It emerges out of a bundt cake pan to sit in a puddle of caramel sauce with the rich caramel oozing down the sides of the custard. If you fill the cavity with whipped cream and some fresh edible flowers, it makes a very elegant statement at a dinner party.
I haven't made it in a while since I usually prefer to make creme brulee, but it does eat up the eggs just as handily.
I'm posting this for my sister's admirer, Chris, who frequents the SMB for tidbits of info about my stunning actress sister and also for Velociman who has written so eloquently about her in the past. Simone is teaching acting these days to gifted and talented students on Hilton Head Island, having retired from acting full time. I believe she got this recipe from Jose Feliciano's household. My mother returned from one of her visits to my sister when she was living in L.A. quite starstruck and thrilled that she had dinner with Jose.
Simone's Brazilian Flan
1 cup sugar
1 can of sweetened condensed milk
2 cans(from condensed milk) whole milk
4 eggs
Caramelize sugar until golden brown in a small iron skillet. Coat the bottom of a bundt pan with the caramel.
In a blender, mix the condensed milk, eggs and whole milk. Pour into Bundt pan.
Set Bundt pan in a pan of water in a 350 degree oven for 1 and a half hours or until a toothpick comes out clean. Top of custard should be nice and brown.
When done, let it cool and then refrigerate, over night if possible, as this is better the second day. Turn the custard onto a serving plate. Can be served with whipped cream and fruit, but is marvelous just as it is.
So there you have it. A few egg rich recipes to fill out your pasta and dessert courses. I have many, many more, as you may well imagine. But it's the wrong time of year to torture you with my egg nog recipe.
I'll go back to dreaming of baby chicks and the promise of eggs.
