Crowing “Old !”

Verb

(of a cock) Utter its characteristic loud cry.
(of a person) Make a sound expressing a feeling of happiness or triumph: “Ruby crowed with delight”.

We had tons of left over Red Velvet cupcakes so I whipped up this little number!

You will need…

2 cups of vitamin d milk
1 cup of heavy cream
4 egg yolks
3/4 cup of sugar
splash of vanilla
3-4 red velvet cupcakes

In a saucepan, stir the first five ingredients at a low heat. Enough to melt sugar, but don’t cook the eggs!

After combined, throw into an ice cream maker, tear two cupcakes apart and throw in with the mixture.

Once the ice cream is almost done, tear up and add the last two cupcakes. Once done, put into a airtight container and stash in the freezer-after eating some!

My I went out for dinner with just my parents.  Originally, we were going to go to Outback Steakhouse, but there was a 45 minute wait… we forgot it was a saturday night.  Instead we ended up driving home, and walking to a little restaurant we’ve never gone to before around the corner from my house.  I almost froze my face off on the way there, but dinner was delicious.  I tried halibut for the first time, and I can definitely say I’d have it again.  We opted out on dessert because we have chocolate cake at home… even though we all just came home and sat by the fire place with tea haha.

Sophie and Sadie of course joined

Okay back on topic, so the food I’m going to be talking about today we’ve probably all had for as long as we can remember… eggs.  From poached to scrambled to over-easy, there are countless ways to have them.  I’ve even gotten into the habit of just throwing whites into my oatmeal just for added protein.

So throughout this post I am going to be answering two questions.

1. Why are eggs considered a superfood?

and probably the most controversial question

2. Should we eat the yolk?

Let’s start with the first, I’ve already mentioned that they contain a ton of protein (about 6 grams in a whole egg for only about 70 calories), so I’ll list some other ones

1. Like pretty much every other superfood out there, eggs can aid in weight loss.  Since they aren’t very calorie dense, yet filling, you don’t need to consume a lot to feel satisfied.  And unlike refined carbs, eggs leave you feeling satisfied for a long time so you don’t feel the need to snack I don’t know.. like 30 seconds later.

2. Also, eggs contain a lot of omega-3 fatty acids.  What you may not have known is that our bodies don’t produce these.  We need to get them from food sources.  This is why it is so vital to have them and people kinda go crazy when they find foods that are high in them.  I think it’s also probably why people will throw 40 dollars on a little bottle of fish oil.

3. They’re a good protein substitute for people who are trying to avoid eating meat.

4. The nutrients from the yolk in the egg can actually help improve the health of your eyes and keep them healthy longer.

5. They can help your hair grow longer quicker since they contain keratin, which improves cell growth and repair.

Okay so now that I’ve covered all the bases for the benefits of eating eggs, let’s talk about whites vs. yolks:

Over my time of hearing sides of this debate, I have come to the conclusion that there are two problems with eating the yolks:

1. They contain high amounts of cholesterol

2. They contain the majority of the calories in the egg

Both are true, but are they bad enough to where you should throw out the yolk entirely?

Let’s start with the first point.  Yes, they contain cholesterol, but our liver needs cholesterol to function.  Everything in moderation (how many times am I going to say that?)

They also contain the majority of the nutrients in the egg.

In regards to the calorie content… Yes, the yolk does contain the majority of the calories, but let’s put this into perspective.  A WHOLE egg only contains 70 calories.  That really isn’t many to begin with.  If you really love the taste of a good cooked egg, go ahead and have the whole egg.  Just be aware of how many you are having.  MODERATION

If you don’t like the taste of the yolk.  Don’t have the yolk.

Eating healthy shouldn’t be forcing yourself to have something you don’t like.  Personally, I hate just having the egg white with nothing on it.  I would much rather have a plain cooked egg.  That aside, I would much rather put egg whites into my oatmeal because I like that it just makes the eggs fluffier rather than eggy (unless I want it to taste eggy).

Eggs in general are extremely healthy, so incorporating them into your diet in some way will be beneficial.  Experiment a bit.  There are a million different things you can do.  For example, tomorrow I’m going to be making a breakfast sushi with eggs stay tuned for that.  (I’ll be mixing one yolk with whites for those who are curious).

Question of the day: What’s your favorite way to prepare eggs?

Shrimp salad with a side of seasoned green beens

and for dessert

an ice cream sundae that is under 200 calories! Crazy right?

Okay back on topic.  So I have been looking for a use for the Ezekiel Bread I just purchased.  (For more information on what this is click this link).

I try to have foods that give me a lot of energy early in the morning, so I quickly decided the perfect time to have it would be for breakfast.

I was debating a toast combination (which I might still do one day), but I reallyyy wanted to be creative.  Since today is pretty much my sunday (because it’s the second day I have off in a row), I figured I deserved a treat.

Oh my god french toast.  I don’t even remember the last time I had french toast.  Easily, it could be 5 years since the last time I had it.  Just the idea of it made me want to immediately make it (don’t worry… I held back ).

I still wanted to keep it healthy though, and you can’t forget the fact I don’t have a stovetop to make it the traditional way.  Well to the microwave I went and this is what I came up with.

1. 1 large egg (I guess you could use egg whites, but there are a ton of nutrients in the yolks)

2. 2 pieces of Ezekiel Cinnamon Raisin Bread (You could use one, but this was my preworkout meal, so I really wanted it to be substantial).

3. Okay I didn’t have maple syrup in the house (crazy I know), so I substituted with 1 tsp maple extract and a packet of stevia)

4. cinnamon

5. 3 tbsp almond milk (or any other milk)

6. 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

That’s for the french toast itself, for the topping you are going to need

7. 2 tsp white chocolate wonderful peanut butter

8. 1/2 very ripe mashed banana

Okay start by taking out your bread… you can use whatever bread you want I forgot to mention that

Cube it, and place it in a mug of your choice.

Isn’t that cute?

This is what it should look like though

Mix together all of the other ingredients for the french toast itself (not the banana or peanut butter)

and pour it into the mug.

Mix it around a bit with a fork just to make sure all of the bread is soaking.  Let it sit for a few minutes.

In the meantime, prepare the topping.

This is the banana I used.

Yes, I know it looks bad, but I had previously frozen it and then thawed it overnight.  I promise you this is the prime state for a banana to be in in regards to making toppings or sweetening things.

Mash half of the banana, and then microwave it along with the peanut butter

I microwaved each for about a minute.  Pretty much just do it until the peanut butter moves around when you tilt the bowl, and the banana is a bit caramelized.

Mix them together

Finally, microwave your french toast a minute at a time.  It took me about three minutes.  Microwave it until there is no liquid left.

Top with a bit of cinnamon and enjoy!

Originally, I was just going to dip the french toast in the peanut butter mix, but oh my god you have to mix them together.  It is to dieeeeeeeee for trust me!

Question: What’s your favorite bread for french toast?

we were inspired (greatly) by @missjulesberlin who posted this morning – from berlin (how glitteringly gritty and inspired-a-place) - about her favo(u)rite places to shop. 

so we thought we’d do the Same (especially as we are trying to recall from our previous sojourn Here where to buy Essential Supplies like moleskines and magazines and chicory-laden-coffee and more). Of course, the choice to shop in a small place is a decision to browse and get-to-know-the-owners and meet-locals and generally be charmed by one’s retail experience.

we don’t have anything against big shops (per se) – but we get Overwhelmed Very Easily (because we rely so much on visual stimulation and they either have Too Much or none at all and can be Rather Ugly – we-do-not-do-ugly, as you know). But when one wants to save money (always prudent) and has storage for bulk items…….*looksdoubtfullytocamera*……then we understand they can be a good thing.

but here are small shops.

and delicious ones.

ready?

snacks/tea/milky-coffee ready?

(we just had a rosemary and salt italian cracker with cucumber and a yoghurt dip – and it’s only 07:56 in los angeles – curious – doing the 1970s dinner party theme again and not sure why – we never question – that way odd Alice in Wonderland inner gazing lies, darlings ;-)

here we go!

this is the 60s.

whenever we take Laurel Canyon to the Valley we stop here at the Canyon Country Store.

it sells everything (and a lot of travel sizes on the left as you go in for small toothpastes to have in the car and mini bottles of baby shampoo which are adorable) including Marmite (because Lots of British Musicians live in Laurel Canyon).

Do you know Dylan Jones? He is a hipster par excellence and edits and has edited many a glorious English magazine. We’ve never actually met face to face but we used to see him at some of the ridiculously glam parties back in London when we were a baby journalist and he was sort of in the gods (as per Eton’s sixth form prefects immortalized by the languid Mr. Everett in Another Country).

Anyway – he – Mr. Dylan Jones, not the languid Mr. Everett, wrote a Very Good article about the Laurel Canyon stores here.

the Canyon has kept the funky, rainbow-coloured charm of the Love Generation, something that is most apparent when visiting the Canyon Country Store, the neighbourhood social hub. Wedged along the twisting Laurel Canyon Boulevard in the Santa Monica Mountains, this is the place mentioned in Jim Morrison’s “Love Street” (“I see you live on Love Street/ There’s this store where the creatures meet…”), the wooden-floored grocery shop/deli/liquor store/café that is still the place to go for Canyon dwellers with the munchies, or for those after an espresso having spent all night partying in the Valley. Here they’ll find Dandy Don’s ice-cream, Dave’s Kombucha (fermented tea), bespoke sandwiches, hearts of palm salads, and the almost-but-not-quite-legendary decaf almond milk latte.

where next, darlings?

let’s drive down Hollywood Boulevard (of broken dreams and grown men playing characters from Star Wars for the Tourists) and go East to Silver Lake*.

*greg just sent us a text (quelle moderne) to remind us that Silver Lake is thus – two words – we stand corrected and humbled).

now this is spooky – we used to live here.

not just in Silver Lake (for we did – for a brief period from december 2001 to the summer of 2002) but In This House – which is now a shop, and a very good one, called Broome Street General Store.

and here’s the really spooky bit.

the present owner of the Broome Street General Store is called Sophie and moved to L.A from SoHo, NYC.

if you recall – whom-we-are-in-RL is sophia (please note the lower case lettering) and just-moved-back-to-LA-from-SoHo-NYC after living-in-what-is-now-this-shop (years ago).

isn’t that spooky?

things like that happen to us all the time (said airily) but it’s still delicious and a Bit WEird.

the other spooky thing about this place is that we wrote a movie and a novel, while living in this house, both called Releasing Butterflies, about a hollywood executive who got fired and had to take the last job in town, running a half-way house for addicted teens (yup, autobiographical, in parts – but we didn’t get fired and it wasn’t Strictly a Hollywood job but we did have a drive-on-pass-to-Paramount).

so this is the moment where Laurel (the lead character, with a rather nice british accent) meets Michael who lives in what is now broome-street-general-store.

so that’s Broome Street General Store (as was) and funny enough the room-mate whom we based Michael on became Mr. Gay. Colorado.Leather or something similar which just goes to show that you really can’t make this stuff up, darlings.

what can one buy at Broome Street today? Lovely ceramics and excellent coffee. Highly recommended.

where next?

let’s go back down Franklin but stop before we get to the last-cappuccino–before-the-101 freeway (where they shot Swingers and a certain popular culture writer leaves his reading glasses behind the counter, so we’ve Heard) and pop into Counterpoint.

now Counterpoint is Very Good for Vinyl (which is making a huge comeback with young people, we note) and also excellent for browsing the almost-valuable-paperbacks behind the glass counter where we found this:

isn’t that a Gorgeous Dior-like-satin gown! (or is it more of an opera coat? hard to tell)

we don’t seem to have the book anymore (did we send it as a gift to someone?) but if you want your own copy there’s one here but you won’t find one at Counterpoint anymore because it’s a single-copy-of-vintage-paperbacks sort of a joint.

ok.

magazines are essentials in the same vein as vintage paperbacks from the 60s so your two choices here (amongst a dwindling number of them, it seems) are either Venice – Dola on Abbot Kinney……….

or the newsstand round the side of Book Soup on Sunset Boulevard (still get misty-eyed and whimsical driving up and down Sunset).

as you can see – both are Al Fresco – this being Southern California – but we have to say Book Soup has the Edge by stringing up twinkle lights year round (just like we do in the kitchen chez teamgloria).

now one can’t actually Shop at teamgloria Today – but when the book comes out, we are sure we’ll set up an online store so you can get a signed copy or two. Won’t that be delicious?

where next?

as it’s twilight (and the season of christmas in this picture – yes – from 2011) – let’s go Back Down Sunset to Silver Lake once more to Visit YOLK!

now Yolk is where you’ll find celebrities (shhhh – we are TErribly Discreet over here) mingling among the gloriously curated swedish and other nordic country designs or cute children’s gifts and clever greetings cards and some exquisite be-jewelled-pieces to adorn oneself while flitting around the hollywood hills of an evening.

it’s that sort of store.

a gorgeous store.

people love Yolk on Yelp too (apart from one woman who got upset that she could have found the scented candles on amazon – duh – of course she could – but would she have had a cute little flirt with a hipster movie star from the Hills and got invited to a trunk show by an up and coming designer? or helped a new-in-town-person pick out a particularly juicy orange-glass-heart and giggle together over the greetings cards?

we don’t Think So Lady.

Final Stop.

we’re going to drive to Los Feliz now (yes, the land of happy people – or at least morose writers who will be happy when they sell their screenplay or get discovered or just have lunch and stop feeling so bitter and twisted after a decent milkshake at Fred 62 because a certain British Actor is writing in his notebook at the other booth).

let’s go and buy some new moleskine notebooks ourselves, at Blue Rooster Art Supplies.

it’s the sort of place where real painters browse the shelves and ask for large canvases and helped the (themselves artists) staff to roll them up in the back while one waits patiently to purchase a fresh notebook and stares admiringly at the shelves of gouache and consider upgrading from decoupage to a full-on-wall-sized-canvas one day.

so we come to the end of our entirely subjective guide to small shops in Los Angeles.

thanks to Julia for not only inspiring us with her Post about Shops in Berlin – but also sending us a small packet of stationery items FROM BERLIN (you didn’t see that coming did you, darlings?)

aren’t they glorious?

we adore a small packet arriving from Abroad.

Now Julia noticed that the notebooks got a little battered by their journey but we pointed out that Berlin items probably like to get out of the packet during an Airmail Postal Flight and hang out in the back with the envelopes from Italy eating gelato without their seatbelts fastened.

yes.

we do think like that.

it makes building a new life and finding new suppliers for essential items like moleskines and coffee and pencils and travel-sized toothpaste a Lot Easier.

where are your favo(u)rite places to shop in your neck of the woods (why do woods have necks? and why would there be a Shop in the Wood?)

*confusedlooktocamera*

Sulan is one of those people that just makes you feel like you hung the moon. This girl is pure sunshine, laughter and genuine kindness personified. You just can’t help but feel great being around her. I met Sulan through mutual friends 3 or 4 years ago (I don’t remember but it seems like I’ve known her forever!). If there is anyone who might be more of a foodie (aka in love with food, thinks about food and gets excited about food) than me, it would be her! HANDS DOWN! Sulan got me to do the Whole30 Paleo Challenge a year ago, during which we exchanged recipes while I was in Miami and she was in Dallas doing the challenge at the same time. It’s been a while since we posted any Paleo recipes but feel free to dig through our old ones (some really good healthy ones in there) @ www.paleonistas.tumblr.com . Since then we are constantly checking in to see what the other is cooking, how and what substitutions we can make to make it healthier / more paleo friendly. Sulan is an avid Crossfitter and has become very involved in the Crossfit community and all things paleo. I have been trying to get her to write a guest post since Taylor and I started Wine For Dinner………AND FINALLY she has… but I was extremely surprised by the fact that my paleo eating, crossfitting friend decided to make a dessert only guest blog section for us! Well, I was surprised for like 2 seconds, then it all made sense as she has just as much of a sweet tooth as I do (if not more so!).

HOWEVER, I couldn’t be happier that she did, because we all get to relish in her amazing and beautiful desserts, such as Tiramisu (and soon……Crème brûlée…. from SCRATCH!!!). Ridiculous, I know! And YOU’RE WELCOME!!!

Enough intro, now to the good stuff: ENJOY!!!!

PS: It really is SO EASY AND INSANELY DELICIOUS!!!!! I pretty much ate the whole thing..by myself ~M

Dessert Box: Tiramisu

So the brilliant idea for tiramisu began as a way to make a Crossfit friend fall in love with food.  I know what you are thinking, who doesn’t love food?  I have love affairs with food, dream about food, talk about food, live and breathe for my next meal. He usually gets exhausted from eating and has to force himself to finish regardless of what is on his plate.  So when he casually mentioned one day that he actually craved tiramisu, my other Crossfit friends and I had to take advantage of this opportunity to bring out his inner fat kid. And of course, I would take any excuse to indulge my sweet tooth.  Thus the Dessert Box (I just made that up right now) was born… Crossfitters (Brett, Shmyla, sometimes Kendal, and I) tackling one made-from-scratch dessert at a time.

After painstaking research (a few minutes of looking recipes online and reading a couple of reviews), I choose the Tiramisu II recipe from allrecipe.com.  I was sold on the picture and the fact that it had over 600 reviews.  But we made a few tweaks that make all the difference like using Bailey’s Irish Cream instead of rum, chocolate ladyfingers.  The result was so good that when Lissy suggested we cook together for her blog, I knew that I had to recreate the tiramisu.  In the Kern’s version, we used espresso instead of regular coffee, and had to do without the Bailey’s Irish cream since the liquor stores were closed due to New Year’s Day (and believe me, we tried), but we did enjoy white wine during the baking process.

Ingredients:

• 6 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup of white sugar
• 2/3 cup of milk
• 1 1/4 cup of heavy cream
• 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 1 lb of marscarpone cheese
• 1/4 cup of strong brewed coffee or espresso (we actually ended using 1/2 cup or more, whatever amount you need to be able to soak all the ladyfingers)
• 2 Tbsp of Bailey’s Irish Cream (feel free to add more to your liking)
• 2 (3oz each) package of ladyfingers (prefer mixing chocolate and vanilla)
• 1 tbsp of unsweetened cocoa powder

Instructions (Direct from the allrecipe website with some of Dessert Box’s advice sprinkled in):

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together egg yolks and sugar until well blended. Whisk in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture boils. Boil gently for 1 minute, remove from heat and allow to cool slightly. Cover tightly and chill in refrigerator 1 hour. (We found you don’t have to wait an hour, especially if you cool it down in the freezer. The most important part is just that it is not hot hot.) 
2. When the yolk mixture has cooled down, whisk marscarpone in the yolk mixture until smooth. (The end mixture is so delicious that I  was tempted just to eat the entire bowl and forget the rest of the tiramisu) 
3. In a separate medium bowl, beat cream with vanilla until stiff peaks form in a separate medium bowl. (We didn’t have access to a beater so we ended up doing it by hand taking turns with a fork.  I was actually really impressed with our wrist abilities…we can thank CF double-unders for that.) 
4. In a small bowl, combine coffee and Bailey’s Irish Cream. Split half the ladyfingers in half lengthwise and dip in the coffee mixture until soaked, but not mushy and arrange to form the bottom layer in a 8 x 8 pan. (I thought that the best way to dip the ladyfingers was to use chopsticks, but it actually ended up smushing the ladyfingers.  So lesson here is don’t use chopsticks.) 
5. Spread half of mascarpone mixture over the bottom layer of ladyfingers, then half of whipped cream over that. Repeat layers and sprinkle with cocoa. Cover and refrigerate 4 to 6 hours, until set. (So you will probably only have enough ingredients to end up with two layers of everything depending on the pan size that you use. And we did not have the willpower to wait 4-6 hours before digging in, more like 4-6 minutes.  But we did refrigerate and it is really worth the wait to let all the flavors sit overnight and get really cold.  We also recommend drizzling some additional Bailey’s on top before eating it the next day. So I know I am biased, but since making this tiramisu, we keep trying out other tiramisu from stores and restaurants, and I really do think this is one of the best I have ever had.) 

The final product:

PPS: No pics of the pieces themselves as we didn’t have them on our plates long enough to even take the camera out of the camera bag… AND THIS WAS WITHOUT THE BAILEY’S IRISH CREAM!!! Just imagine with! Would be even better!!!!!!

I mostly take boiled eggs in my breakfast. And usually i just boil it, cut it in two halves, and eat it. One day, when i was cutting it in two halves, unintentionally the egg yolk comes out full and fall in the dishware. And i realized that the boiled yolk looks somewhat beautiful. It is a view from my kitchen. One side of it was facing the window so it is quite bright. When the yolk falls off my hand in the dishware, some ‘masala’ got stuck around it (that black spots on yellow yolk). And in the side, there are some hard outer white covering of the egg. In the background is the wash basin.

Can You Tell Which Is The Certified Organic, Cage-Free Egg?

I’ll admit that this isn’t the highest quality photo ever, but this morning I had a chance to do something that I don’t normally get to: crack open two eggs side by side, one from the grocery store and one from our chickens.  So, phone-quality photo aside, can you tell which of these two is the certified organic, cage free egg?  Would you believe me if I told you it was the lighter, more flaccid yellow yolk?  That’s right, the certified organic, cage free egg is the store-bought egg on the left.  That deep, nearly orange, yolk is actually from our free-ranging, pasture based poultry.  The catch in today’s little quiz was in the word “certified.”  As our friend Joel Salatin often remarks, we try to go “beyond organic.”  Just because the government grants a product the right to use certain words in its labeling, doesn’t necessarily mean its superior.  We raise our birds on organic pasture, from organic seeds, that is never sprayed for pests or weeds.  We supply our birds with organic, soy-free feed supplements.  In every way our eggs are “organic,” but they’re not certified organic.  That’s not to say that we don’t value organic principles, we absolutely do.  It’s just to say, the real value is knowing your farmer, the one that raised your food, knowing the effort and quality they put into it, and knowing that what you think you’re purchasing is actually what you’re getting.  In the case of these two eggs, which would you prefer, the organic, cage-free egg, or the Sunbird Farms egg?

Do you know this farmer?

A quick primer on egg quality.  The quality of an egg can be seen internally by observing both the color, and the tension of the yolk.  The longer the egg is stored, the more of the albumen (egg white) the yolk absorbs and the larger and more flat (flaccid) it becomes.  Color is the result of carotenoids, which are pigmenting nutrients found in plants.  They are also a powerful source of anti-oxidants, and have been found to help prevent some forms of cancer and heart disease.  However, because consumers are be coming more educated about the quality of egg yolks, the commercial egg production industry has started adding coloring agents to their feed.  Regardless of the attempts by the industrial egg producers, as the saying goes, “a pictures worth a thousand words.”  Hope you enjoyed this read.

Blessings,

Sunbird Farms

Across the street from Yolk is a metal sculpture located between 2 buildings.  The sculpture was designed by Materials and Applications Architecture and Research.   The goal of MRA is to increase public participation in the built environment and to inspire visitors to examine their surroundings while they explore the latest ideas in architecture and design.  For more info on MRA and the sculpture, visit http://www.emanate.org.

I have a passion for salads. I guess I can’t deny that. If you love salads as much as I do, you might want to have a look at the salads I have posted so far:

http://cookingbrainsblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/23/super-sneaky-salads-a-salad-of-baked-tomatoes-will-bring-summer-to-your-mouth/

http://cookingbrainsblog.wordpress.com/2012/09/09/radishes-at-the-barbers-or-some-super-simple-sneaky-shaved-salad/

http://cookingbrainsblog.wordpress.com/2012/12/16/super-sneaky-salad-a-classic-grated-apple-carrot-salad/

http://cookingbrainsblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/super-sneaky-salads-nuts-couscous/

http://cookingbrainsblog.wordpress.com/2013/01/06/super-sneaky-salads-my-refreshing-zucchini-pepper-ribbon-salad/

While they might be all deliciously different, my salads were pretty uniform when it came to the dressing. I like light dressings, sharp and poignant – a bit of sizzling lemon juice or some sharp lime perhaps and a delicious olive oil, that’s usually all I need. But sometimes, I yearn for something a bit more luscious, for something that is maybe a bit less lean and a bit more luxurious. And what would be a better accompaniment to a soft and smooth piece of smoked salmon than a velvety mayonnaise based sauce. Now I agree, mayonnaise is a horrible thing and there is nothing worse than a bland pasta or potato-salad loaded with cups and cups of some store-bought stuff, that tastes like something you would grease your car with. But with a few extra-minutes you can make your own mayonnaise that will make all the difference – and you will probably never have store-bought again, ever.
The bitter truth about mayonnaise is that it is an emulsion of fat. It really is and there is no way around that. When scooping in spoon after spoon of mayonnaise you could just as well suck on a stick of butter or drink a cup of nice olive oil (I doubt that a lot of people go and eat mayo straight from the jar, but you never know – all the power to you). Light mayonnaise is a paradox, because as the term suggests it is a substance mainly consisting of fat that is very low in fat, and will most likely have some form of stabilizer (modified corn-starch or xantham gum) in the ingredients list alongside a substantial amount of sugar and artificial aromas to make up for the lack of flavour carrying fat. I think the desire to watch your calorie-intake is a noble and wise one, but substituting food with food-like substances, is not the best way to go, in my opinion. Of course, if you were eating mayonnaise from the jar on a daily basis things might look a bit different, but you are not. You are also not sucking on butter-sticks after lunch. So get over it, allow yourself a bit of the good full-fat stuff and just have less of it, rather than to eat double the amount of something half the fat.

Making the sauce

As I said earlier, mayonnaise is an emulsion of fat. I would love to go into more detail – but I wont. I will have a post on this at some point in the future, with diagrams and maybe a little comic – I will also talk about ways to substitute eggs and why they work – but again, not now. Be patient.

You will need:

1 fresh egg-yolk
good olive oil
some taste-less oil
lemon-juice
mustard
horse-radish
honey
pepper
salt
sour cream
water

This recipe calls for one fresh egg-yolk, which will be the key to making this mayonnaise-based sauce. Egg-yolk contains a substance called lecithin which allows hydrophobic fats and lipophobic water to fuse together (okay, maybe a bit of food-science is necessary here). One yolk will be enough to bind more than 15 liters of oil, however you could use two to make the sauce a bit richer in taste.
Since the olive-oil is the main ingredient of this sauce, make sure to get yourself something high-quality. Cheap olive-oil is good for frying things, but will make your mayonnaise unpleasantly bitter and might add a metalic touch to it. The stronger your oil the more dominant the flavour, so it might be necessary to add a bit of a softener to it – I usually chose a flavourless oil. For one person I would use about a third to half a cup of oil. Make sure that both the oil as well as the yolk has about room temperature.

Add the yolk to a bowl and add about half a teaspoon of mustard to the yolk. Drip in one drop! of oil and stir til the drop is incorporated. Adding too much oil at a time will cause the mayonnaise to split – so be patient! After the drop is incorporated add two drops, stir, then four, then 6 to 8. The more oil you have added previously and incorporated successfully the more oil you can add later. The yolk will start to purn pale and the oil and yolk will fluff a bit. Let it thicken nicely.
Add a bit of salt, pepper and a few drops of lemon juice.
Add sour cream to the mayonnaise (about as much as you have mayonnaise) and give it a good stir.
Add in about half a teas-spoon of both horse-radish (or if you can’t get it pure horse-radish sauce) and honey. Stir.
Add water to the mix to make the sauce a bit more runny.
Done. (I expect you to adjust your the seasoning yourself. More pepper, less honey, more salt, more radish – whatever you think tastes best is best.)

Assembling the salad

 
Dill
Smoked salmon
Ice-berg salad
Capers
Parmesan
The sauce

1. Take off the outer leaves of the ice-berg and half it. Rinse the halfs under cold water if necessary and chop coarsely, as to keep their crisp structure protected.
2. Scatter some good-quality smoked salmon over the green.
3. Chop some dill coarsely and scatter over the plate.
4. Add some capers if you like, or leave them out if you don’t.
5. Take a veggie-peeler or a sharp knife and shave some parmesan over the salad, use as much as you like.
6. Drizzle over a generous amount of the sauce.

Eat and enjoy with a good crunchy baguette.

When I hitch the boys into their yolk, my gloves have to come off  to undo the two bows and pull the pins out. Unfortunately, in this kind of cold, my hands numb up very quickly and I have to be extra careful not to drop the pins and lose them in the snow.

The boys are always hitched in the same position: Merle stands on the left, Roy stands on the right, and as a trainer, I am always working them from their left, (Merle’s side). Being closer to Merle, allows me to give him that extra push in order for him to keep up with the slightly stronger Roy.

I always feed Merle a little bit more grain than Roy so that his growth can catch up!

After use, it’s always a good idea to hang the yolk in a cool, dry area off the ground.

A man who raises chickens in the United Kingdom got one such shock. Check it out:

Pretty freaky, right? Researchers at the National History Museum in the UK figured out what happened. Sometimes a chicken will experience “unusual contractions,” forcing the formed egg to travel back down the oviduct to the ovary. There, a forming egg surrounds it and the two come out as one, nesting doll-style.

This is different from the “double yolk” phenomenon, which is when a hen is ovulating too quickly and one yolk ends up squeezed in a shell with another. This occurrence is more common among young chickens, whose ovulating cycles are still a bit off.

Left undisturbed for a respectable interval the salt and sugar mix has set much more firmly – as hard as a rock in some places. I dug the yolks out quite cautiously, with the help of a blunt-edged teaspoon. Of course, after more than a of week dry-curing the yolks are now so firm that they are almost hard – certainly tough enough to withstand some pressure, so I needn’t have worried.

The main point of interest (beyond the fact that they are nearly ready for the second stage) is that the flatter side has now become concave, and those edges are noticeably paler than the centre, which is still a strong orangey-yellow.

I’ve turned them once again and re-buried them for their final few days in the cure.

This guy discovers a HUGE egg that his chicken has laid and he is curious to see how many yolks were inside it (as we all were) and instead something else comes out…something almost unbelievable. I don’t know if the video is fake or not. It looks real to me but I have been fooled before. Does anyone know if this is even possible?

I have never ever cooked eggs before, only ever watching my mum as she baked cakes back at home. The box looked alright, I didn’t know what I was looking for but I had been told previously to ‘check them’. In the basket they went and they were soon joined by a packet of bacon and the rest of my shopping.

I walked my precious cargo home and stored the food away for later tonight; to the point where my stomach would be calling out for feeding. That time came, and it was time to turn the oven on.

I covered a baking tray in tin foil and opened the packet of bacon. It was a lot wider than expected and I could only fit a few rashers on, but it went straight into the oven for about twenty minutes. In the meantime, I had to cook my eggs. I quickly googled ‘cooking eggs’ and clicked on the first link that came up.

A load of cookery jargon faced me on the screen and I knew I wasn’t going to make sense of ounces of something and millilitres of another. I just wanted to cook the eggs to eat, not make a Michelin style dinner for the Ritz.

The bacon was shrinking in the oven and I knew it would only be a couple of minutes before it was ready. I stabbed the butter with a knife and flicked the lump onto a frying pan before whacking up the heat.

I carefully opened the box of eggs and took out victim number one. I only had six eggs, so I didn’t have a lot of scope for getting it wrong. A plate and a bowl were besides each other on the worktop, all I had to do was smash the shell and carefully empty the eggy bit onto the plate, according to a video on YouTube. On the video, it looked more like a gentle tap than anything, but when I tried it, nothing happened.

A little more force on the second time chipped the outer shell only a little bit. I knew if I used anymore force, it would smash completely but I managed to judge it right and the egg hit the plate successfully. I picked out a bit of the shell from the yolk and it was ready. The video then said about using two eggs per person, so I pulled out victim number two.

I wanted it over in one whack, so I did just that. Against the side of the bowl the shell went but instead of opening up nicely, it was smashed into smithereens with shell and egg going everywhere. It had managed to throw more shell into the plate, egg over my t-shirt and all over my arms, face and hair while also into my drink which was only a few inches to the side. The laptop, luckily survived. I threw what was remaining in my hands across the kitchen into the bin which was nearly four feet away.

Boom.

Hole in one.

I went for the third egg, but my hands were too slippery to pick it up. I quickly washed and dried them, and went for the egg again. The egg was slippery from the egg that was moments ago, on my hands, and it slipped from my fingers. Instinctively, my other hand went in to catch it, but only crushed it once again. My bacon was almost due and I didn’t want it going cold while I waited for my eggs.

Again, I threw my egg across the kitchen and into the bin before washing my hands for a second time. The fourth egg tapped against the side of the bowl and the contents onto the plate. I flicked the knob on the hob and began to

melt the butter. The second egg on the plate didn’t look like the first, it was breaking apart and I didn’t know how it would cook. Victim number five made its way to join its friends on the plate in one quick and easy thump against the bowl. When the butter was ready, my eggs slipped into the frying pan and began to cook.

Bloody hell.

My eggy top was sticking to my chest, so I quickly threw it over my head and onto the floor. I washed my hands again and found another one in my wardrobe before returning to the kitchen. A thin layer of smoke was rising from the oven as the bacon was burning. I turned off the power to the oven and pulled the baking tray from inside and threw it down on
I bought the frying pan over to the plate and launched the eggs out and onto my plate, watching them splatter across the meat already there. A couple of burned slices of toast were thrown on top and that was dinner.the worktop above. My hands burning as I looked around for the oven gloves. The egg was beginning to spit, so I turned down the heat on the hob as I put the bacon back onto the tray, and then onto a waiting plate.

Planning the meal for tomorrow, and I’ve decided that pasta and chicken would make a nice change…