free food.

Whoever thought that buying a house would get us free food? Here's the picture book of how it all came to be.



It all began when a visitor landed on our couch, that we quickly turned into a comfy bed...more on her later, cause she had a super special day while visiting (her birthday!)

Which led to the great harvest of our apple tree. We think we've scored a Gravenstein Apple Tree and so we had quite the adventure gathering our plunder.









And not to be forgotten are the two pear trees that have just started to produce edible treats...





So. Of course, after the picking and the washing, came the peeling, and the cutting, and the boiling. We added the juice of one small lemon and a cup of water per pot.






To the second batch we added about 5 TBS of honey



and a few shakes of cinnamon




We filled all the containers I could find with three types of applesauce, plain (just the tad bit of lemon juice and water), honey and cinnamon, and the final was a glorious pear-applesauce (a bit of honey right at the end.) Each pot boiled for about ten minutes and whalla. Applesauce for everyone!



Not to be outdone, the dessert apples squealed with glea as they became a part of the famous apple crisps recipe. Which I am proud to say, because of our glorious apples, I only used an eighth of a cup of brown sugar in the topping and no other sugar or honey or anything...these apples are heavenly.

The apples have a coating of fresh lemon juice, cinnamon, and wheat flour



The topping includes oats, wheat germ, whole wheat flour, a bit of brown sugar and butter.



Piled high, apple juice (unfiltered cider is best) to cover dish a 1/2 inch high. and....bake.



After that...fresh pasta (no I didn't make it), fresh veggies and a blend of shrimp, calamari rings, and scallops in a slow cooked mushroom cream sauce (I used coconut milk instead of cream and parmesan rind to thicken, no one noticed it wasn't heavy cream...it was soo good.)


Two of our dearest friends (they're both family in ways completely different from one another)



A perfect end to a perfect day. Hot out of the oven. Sweet goodness.

meglet 101

Alright already. I'll divulge details.

*This recipe - well, honestly, it's not a recipe, it's more of a concept - did not come from me not being able to flip an omelet, I'm a pro. It came from the desire to not have to eat veggies covered with the raw egg on the inside of the omelet. And...to take out the step I used to use to avoid the raw egg, the omelet flip before the veggies went in.

This may look long, but trust me, it's not a hard recipe...read on, read on.

The trick to a meglet is not in the consistency of the ingredients. In fact, one of the great traits of a meglet is that, like an omelet, the "filling" can be to your liking.
Here is a list of some of the options frequently used in our house:

mushrooms, bell pepper - preferably red &/or yellow, artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, spinach, olives - black or kalamatta, squash, eggplant, you get the idea. And then, there's the meat options, we've been known to use turkey kielbasa, veggie links, chicken chirizo, or the real stuff (but only for one) bacon, beef sausage, and that.

Now. The trick.
The trick is in the pot and the starter ingredients.
1. Use a pot, like a small soup pot, with a lid. I suggest using a small one, cause each meglet is a single serving.

2. Saute' your meat in the pot

3. Use the grease to then saute' the first of your starter ingredients - onions, yellow, red, sweet - your choice (with a meglet it's always "your choice".) If you don't use a meat, like me, then use the tiny-ist little bit of Olive Oil in the pot.

4. Garlic. Your second starter ingredient. Add Garlic. If you think you don't like garlic, trust me, you do and you probably don't know it, so add garlic - minced, crushed, fresh or a frozen cube (have you seen these? they're great, Trader Joe's)

5. Right about here I'm probably adding fresh ground pepper and salt, and possibly any slew of herbs that I may have on hand like fresh basil or oregano or a blend of both.

This is when me writing down a recipe gets a bit ridiculous cause I don't really ever follow or write down a recipe. So bare with me as I rant about "oh the possibilities".

6. Add any or all the veggies you or your guest chooses.

This is what we think makes a meglet better than an omelet, the browning of the "fillings". Stir and mix, mix and stir until everything looks good to you, typically less than 2 minutes.

7. Pour your pre-scrambled eggs (whatever your favorite type are, whites only, with a little milk...) right into the pot, on top of your filling. Give it one quick stir so the egg makes it under everything then,

8. The last trick...add about a Tablespoon of water, cover the pot and let it steam for 2-5 minutes depending on how thick the whole thing is.

9. Get out a plate, dish up your roasted red potatoes and lightly turn your meglet onto the dish. There's no need to use a spatula (if you have good non-stick cookware) that's half the beauty of it.

10. Add cheese if you so desire - or add cheese to the top of the meglet while it's still inside the pot during the last 45 seconds of steaming - I don't typically use this technic though cause then you can't flip the meglet out on the plate you have to use the dreaded spatula and risk breaking the perfect circle.
Now, enjoy your first meglet!

If I'm making this for a few people I get 4 pots going at once on the stove top, potatoes in the oven and all the ingredients out on the counter. Everyone chooses their fillings, puts them into a pot and I easily do the rest. I hope you'll try them someday and tell me how it goes.

Now it's your turn. Do you have a specialty? Some recipe you invented or perfected that you want to share with the world?

Since tomorrow's Saturday, there's a good chance that we may make meglets and roasted potatoes for breakfast/brunch so I may add a photo or two if it happens. Happy Weekend!

to subscribe or not to subscribethat is the question

Thanks to the math wiz of Teal, (which really, her math skills have nothing to do with this, but she's a math wiz so i think that begs stating and she makes a great princess Leia, don't you think?) I have learned how to subscribe to the RSS feed on my blog and the blogs of others. This means you don't have to check a blog every day to see if there's something new, it just tells you when there's a new post, so...I'm going to do a bit of a tutorial for everyone and hopefully this makes life easier.

At the very bottom of the blog page (not the individual post, but the bottom of the blog) there is a Subscribe to: Posts (atom) link. This will link you to the feed for the RSS, it may or may not give you an option for how you want to store your feeds, depending on your web browser. Either way you'll have to add the RSS to your RSS bookmarks.


But...if you're a gmail subscriber, which if you aren't you should be cause it's the best email out there. The gmail system is very simple.

On the top left of your Gmail inbox there are a list of words, click the last word - more and look down the drop down list for reader. Click on reader. On the left side of the screen you will see a green and blue add subscription button. Click on it and paste the url of your favorite blog. i.e. my blog's url is: http://astoryofwords.blogspot.com/
So, now, each time you check your gmail account, go to the more, and reader buttons and see who's posted a new blog!

Once your done with this, all you have to do is check one location to see which of your favorite bloggers has posted. Good luck and please post questions or more tips for everyone to enjoy!