Funny name for a fabulous treat

Chocolate lovers, this is your dream. It's a cake and pudding all in one, and comes in a little ramekin for you alone. Top it with whipped cream, strawberries, gelato, ice cream, Grand Marnier or Baileys Irish Cream, or a combination of the above. It's very rich, so it's best to make it in 4-ounce cups.

Muck-muck Cake
Serves 8

Ingredients
7 ounces fine dark chocolate, broken into small pieces (I've made it with Scharffen Berger 70%,  Lindt 85%,  Baker's semisweet chocolate and Safeway real semisweet chocolate chips. Buy the finest you can afford. You won't regret it.)
14 tablespoons butter (2 sticks, minus 2 tablespoons. Use the extra to brush inside the ramekins.)
4 eggs
4 egg yolks
1½ cups confectioner's sugar
¾ cup flour

Instructions
Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Brush 8 3-inch ramekins with a tablespoon of melted butter. Set all of them in a 9x13-inch pan. Fill the pan with about a half-inch of water.
Place the butter in a 2-cup glass microwave-safe measuring cup. Microwave for a minute and a half or until butter is completely melted. Stir in the chocolate. Microwave for 30 seconds more if the chocolate doesn't completely melt when stirred.
Beat with a whisk the eggs and yolks in a 4-cup glass measuring cup. Slowly add the butter and chocolate, then the sugar, then the flour, until completely combined.
Pour into the ramekins, then put in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes (if you get distracted, or like only a little goo in the middle, a somewhat longer time is OK). Remove from oven and serve immediately with a dusting of confectioner's sugar or the topping of your choice.

Adapted from recipe given to me by Linda Wallihan in Sacramento

Pi day pie – a rustic quiche

I was supposed to host a brunch today for my fellow nerds who wanted to mark the best Pi Day of our lives (3/14/15 9:26:59) by eating pie together. Alas, the best laid plans were laid aside when I slipped on ice in my driveway last Sunday and fell hard and twisted my left knee. It's healing, but I couldn't possibly host anything today.

But we did have pie this morning. I decided to try to make a pie that didn't require a lot of measuring or extra fat and could be committed to memory. Here's what I came up with and it was very tasty.

If you don't have ham, use crumbled cooked bacon or sausage or sliced hot dogs. If you don't have chopped fresh kale, used thawed chopped spinach squeezed until dry. Any medium hard cheese you like will do. Chopped green onions or any color chopped bell peppers would be good, too. And if you like it spicy, use cayenne pepper instead of nutmeg. If you don't have a 7-inch spring-form pan, an 8-inch pie plate will do.


Lori K's rustic quiche for two 

 Crust
½ stick of frozen butter (2 oz)
1 cup whole-wheat flour
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup ice cold water

Filling
2 eggs, beaten
¼ cup Greek yogurt
¼ cup skim milk
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon salt
⅛ teaspoon black pepper
2 slices of deli ham, chopped
½ cup chopped kale
¼ cup part-skim mozzarella

Instructions
Grate butter into mixing bowl. Add flour and salt and combine well. Add water slowly until it looks like everything is sticking together but not not sticky; you might not need the full amount of water.
Knead a little until it holds firmly together in a ball. Flatten the ball a bit, put it back into the bowl and put in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

Heat the oven to 475°.

Make the filling: Whisk together the eggs, yogurt, milk and spices. Roll out the dough so that it's large enough to cover a 7-inch spring-form pan. Press it around all the bottom edge, and flatten the folds. Take off any overhanging dough (you can roll it out thinly and bake at the same time to make crackers; they may be done before the quiche is, so keep an eye on them if you do this). Sprinkle the kale, ham and cheese on top of the dough, then pour the filling over.

Put in the oven on a baking sheet and turn the heat down to 375. Cook for 20 minutes. The sides will slip down and it will look like a rustic tart. Take out of the oven and cool for at least 5 minutes.

Turning pumpkin pie disaster into a win

Photograph ©2014, Lori Korleski Richardson

Pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving tradition. And this year, disaster.

Those of you who have known me or have followed this blog for some time have heard me confess that I am a cook, not a baker. Never was that more apparent than on the morning of Nov. 27, 2014.

Jim and our friend Carla had gone on a country walk, our friend Rob was getting some much needed sleep, and I was doing prep for our big dinner to come. Every thing was going well. I remembered in years past that the recipe on the side of the pumpkin can made WAY too much filling for my 9-inch pie plate and I didn't want to make two crusts. So I thought, why not make the crust in my 10-inch springform pan? I'd done quiches that way and they had come out fine, even though the edge slipped down a bit and dropped over the filling; at least they were easy to cut at the table.

So I found a recipe for an extra crispy crust (a key ingredient: vodka) and proceeded according to directions, but neglected to notice the pie weights (which in my kitchen are dried beans) were supposed to go on top of the foil during the blind bake. So when I took it out of the oven after 15 minutes, the beans decided to stay right where they were. And when I tipped the pan to shake them out, the entire crust came tumbling out. By the time I got it righted and all the beans off, it was in five big pieces and a lot of little ones.

I really didn't have time to start over, since the prep and resting times for it were well over an hour. So I took the pieces, fitted them in the 9-inch pie pan the best I could so that they came up the side but not over, and pressed them together. I took the dough that had been left over, made it into a tight ball and rolled it out. I took one of my small decorative cookie cutters and cut out as many little flowers as I could. I then placed them, overlapping slightly, on the top edge of the pie plate, and pressed them into each other and the piecemeal crust.

Then I took the recipe off the side of the can and modified it thusly. Success!

Lori K's shallow dish pumpkin pie

Serves 8

Ingredients

2 large eggs

1 can 100% pumpkin (15 ounces)

¼ cup sugar

½ teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

4 ounces heavy cream

Instructions

Beat eggs until foamy. Add pumpkin and stir well. Add the sugar and spices and stir until combined thoroughly. Add the cream and mix well. Pour into the crust. Cook for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool. I served this with 4 ounces of heavy cream whipped with about a tablespoon of hickory syrup and a teaspoon of vanilla. Be sure to freeze the beaters and bowl for a half hour or so before whipping for the best result.

Savory tart centerpiece of vegetarian meal

Photographs ©2014,  Lori Korleski Richardson

Now that we're back from vacation, it's time to get back to the gym and start eating better.

One way to make sure we get the variety of vegetables that are the key to good health is to have at least one vegetarian meal a week.

Tonight's was a savory chard and onion tart, with a side of carrot salad on a bed of arugula.

I made the tart in a 10-inch spring-form pan for easier serving (it also looks good enough to serve to company that way, especially decorated with nasturtiums from your herbicide-free garden. The cheery salad is a simple and delicious Alice Waters creation that depends in large part on the freshness of the carrots, parsley and lemon, and the quality of the olive oil.

Savory chard and onion tart

Ingredients for crust
1 ¾ cups flour
pinch kosher salt
1 stick (4 ounces) frozen unsalted butter, grated into small curls
Ice water

Instructions for crust
Combine flour and salt in a medium mixing bowl and grate in the frozen butter; mix with two knives or a pastry blender until texture resembles stone-ground cornmeal. Add 4 tablespoons ice water, mixing with a fork, until the dough comes together. You may need to add another tablespoon or two. Handle dough as little as possible, form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Roll out the dough and place in a 10-inch spring-form pan or 9-inch tart pan. The dough sides need to be at least an inch deep. Refrigerate until the filling is ready.

Ingredients for filling
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 large finely chopped onion
1 pound chard, stems removed, chopped
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
4 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 ounces chèvre or ricotta
¼ cup evaporated milk or cream
½ cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
½ teaspoon of freshly grated nutmeg (or to taste)
Dash cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons blanched, slivered almonds, lightly toasted

Instructions for filling and assembly
Warm the olive oil in a skillet over medium-low heat, then add the onion and cook until it is soft and golden, add the chard, oregano, salt and pepper, and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool as you preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Combine the eggs, cheeses, milk or cream and nutmeg, then add the cooled chard-onion mixture. Pour into the crust, sprinkle with the nuts and bake 45 minutes. Serves 4 as an entree, 8 as a side dish and 16 as an appetizer.

Alice Water's Spring Salad
Serves 2

Ingredients
1/2 pound of carrots, peeled and shredded
1 clove of garlic
1 teaspoon white sea salt or kosher salt
Juice of one lemon
¼ teaspoon cayenne or paprika
¾ cup good quality olive oil
¼ cup chopped parsley

Instructions
Put the carrots in a mixing bowl. Mash the garlic and the salt into a paste. Mix it with the lemon juice and any spices you are using. Toss with olive oil; add parsley at end. Chill.

Breakfast blossoms

In "Rancho Cooking" (Sasquatch Books, 2001, 238 pages), Jacqueline Higuera McMahan, an eighth-generation Californian, mentions that her people loved squash blossoms more than they loved squash itself, and although I'm fond of squash almost any way one cooks it, I would have to agree.

You usually don't find squash blossoms in the grocery store; they are fragile and don't take to handling and transport well. But those big showy male flowers are wonderful in a number of recipes. I found them at the farmers market in Sacramento yesterday, along with a long stemmed spring garlic and some beautiful maitake mushrooms, also known as hen of the woods.

This morning, I made omelets with them. Unfortunately, we were so hungry, we ate them before I had a chance to take a photo. If I make them again tomorrow, I will photograph them before we eat.

Lori K's Squash Blossom Omelet 
with Maitake and Spring Garlic
Serves 2-3

Ingredients

Butter
⅛ pound maitake mushrooms
1 clove spring garlic, crushed and minced
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 squash blossoms
3 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

Heat a 12-inch crepe or omelet pan over medium-low heat. Swish the butter stick over the bottom of the heated pan, then add the mushrooms and garlic. Sauté until softened, then remove from pan and set aside.

While the mushrooms are cooking, twist the stems off the blossoms and remove them and the pistil and throw that part in the compost. In a separate bowl, beat the three eggs until smooth.

After removing the mushrooms from the pan, add the oil, swish it around and place the flowers in it with the stem areas near the middle. When they have wilted, turn them over.

Add the beaten eggs, swirling the liquid gently around the blossoms as not to disturb them. When they have mostly set, sprinkle the mushrooms over and season to taste. When the edges start curling up a bit,  flip in half, then split the omelet and serve immediately.

Real spaghetti carbonara

In Virginia, you can find pork jowl bacon in the stores, and this is a great use for it. This has been one of my favorite dishes for years, because I usually have most of the ingredients on hand (although sometimes I cheat and use cooked bacon crumbles, which I keep in the freezer after opening).

If anyone can point me to a source for pork jowl in Sacramento, I'd be most appreciative.

It's herbal, Herb

The sights, the sounds, the smells of Jerusalem are so overwhelming to the first time tourist that often he or she has a hard time putting into words just what it all meant at the time. That was certainly the problem in my case. I was hot, exhausted and dealing with a crisis of faith so profound that it's taken a year or two to put it all in perspective.

I did love the food.

So when I opened "Jerusalem, A Cookbook" (2012, Ten Speed Press, $35, 320 pages) by Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi, all the memories came rushing back, this time with pleasure. There are so many good recipes that it was hard to pick out just one. But I fixed this for a party and it was great.

A few notes:

• Be sure to cover the filo with a damp towel for at least 5 minutes before using, and keep covered after using each sheet. 
• This makes a very good vegetarian meal served with a soup before it and dessert after.
• If you want to make extra to have it for another meal, skip the mint. It becomes too strong as it ages.

Herb Pie

Ingredients
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion
1 pound chard, stems removed and chopped, and leaves cut in ribbons
1.75 ounces arugula
1 ounce flat leaf parsley, chopped
1 ounce mint, chopped
2/3 ounce dill, chopped
4 ounces ricotta
3.5 ounces aged Cheddar, grated
2 ounces feta, crumbled
Grated zest of 1 lemon
2 large, free-range eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
8 ounces filo pastry

Instructions
Pour the olive oil into a large, deep frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and saute for 8 minutes without browning. Add the chard stems and continue cooking for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the chard leaves, increase the heat to medium-high and stir as you cook for 4 minutes, until the leaves wilt. Add the arugula, parsley, mint and dill, and cook for 2 minutes more.
Remove from heat and transfer to a colander to cool.

Once the mixture is cool, squeeze out as much water as you can and transfer to a mixing bowl. Add the three cheeses, lemon zest, eggs, salt, pepper and sugar and mix well.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Lay out a sheet of filo pastry and brush with olive oil. Cover with another sheet and repeat until you have 4-5 layers, all covering an area large enough to line the sides and bottom of a 9 inch pie plate or casserole dish. Line the dish with the pastry, fill with the herb mix, and fold the excess pastry over the filling, trimming as necessary to create a 3/4-inch border.

Make another set of 4-5 filo layers brushed with oil and place them over the pie. Scrunch up the pastry a little to create a wavy, uneven top and trim the edges to that it just covers the pie. Brush generously with olive oil and bake for 40 minutes until the filo turns a nice golden brown. Remove from the oven and serve warm or at room temperature.

When eggs go south - south of the border, that is

Photograph: treehugger.com

Spending my formative years among artsy people in Texas taught me appreciation for many things that were not part of my childhood, or were a part of it in a twisted way that I couldn't appreciate. For instance, my dad loved Mexican food, but what we got was tamales in a can, Hormel Chili, and El Patio frozen Mexican meals. It's a wonder I ever stepped inside a Mexican restaurant after that experience.

But step I did, at all times of the day and night. As much as I loved Tex-Mex, more authentic Mexican food from different regions was making inroads into Houston in the 1970s, and with those came places that served Mexican breakfasts. I ate it all.

I still love a good Mexican breakfast, so I keep cans of Herdez sauces in the pantry, because I am not awake enough to do any sauce from scratch before 10 a.m. When I saw a Food & Wine recipe in my email for Mexican Eggs in Purgatory, I knew I had to try it. But I also knew that I wouldn't be running to the grocery store to get a pound of tomatillos before breakfast. So again, Herdez to the rescue.

If you have access to fresh tomatillos and want to try the original recipe by Grace Parsi of Food & Wine, here's the link: Mexican Eggs in Purgatory

Lori K's Fast Mexican Eggs in Purgatory
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
2 tablespoons crumbled bacon
1 can Herdez salsa verde
2-3 eggs
2 ounces Cotija or feta cheese, crumbled
2 green onion tops, sliced
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
Warm corn tortillas for serving

Ingredients
Preheat the broiler and position a rack about 8 inches from the heat source.
In a cast iron pan or shallow flame-proof casserole, heat the oil on a stove burner set on low. Add the garlic and the bacon bits, and cook for 5 minutes. Take a paper towel, fold it in half and place it on top of the pan, holding one end. With a wooden spoon, gently press to remove extra grease. Discard.
Add the can of salsa verde to the pan, raise the heat to medium, and cook until it bubbles vigorously, about 2 minutes. Add the eggs gently, far enough apart so they don't touch one another. Add the crumbled cheese over the top of all, avoiding the yolks.
Put the pan in the oven. Set the timer for 3 minutes.
Put 6 corn tortillas in a towel or warmer, and put in the microwave. When there's a minute left on the timer, turn on the microwave for 1 minute.
When the timer goes off, check the eggs. The whites should be set but the yolks runny. If the whites aren't set, keep them under the broiler for another minute.
After you pull them out of the oven, sprinkle with the green onion slices and cilantro, if using. Serve immediately with the warm tortillas.
Good with sliced avocados and refried black beans; for a hardier meal, serve with hash browns or country fried potatoes.

Grow green onions in your kitchen

Two onions from one onion bottom.
Photo by AngryRedhead, instructables.com

A delightful addition to omelets are chopped green onion tops. They have a mild oniony flavor, without the bite of the actual bulb, just a bit more assertive than chives.

Of course, you could just go to the store and get a bunch of green onions and use the green parts.

But my dad, the child of the Depression that he was, had another way to get them. I suppose that green onions were a little hard to come by in the winter in Wisconsin on the farm. So what did he do? He took the top part of a regular onion or two that would usually go in the trash and put it into a bowl of water. In a few days, green shoots would appear. When there would be enough for a couple of tablespoons of chopped tops, he'd "harvest" them.

It's a fun thing for your kids to do, to see something grow from practically nothing. And even better - it's free.

Another thing you can do if you have a little space in a sunny window is plant the bottom. Cut the onion about an inch from the root, plant it in loose soil and keep the soil most, not soggy. You may be able to get an extra onion or two from it!

A special breakfast

This dish looks pretty fancy, but it's easy to make. The most important part is getting a good French baguette, one that is crusty on the outside and soft but not doughy on the inside.

If you're not fond of runny egg whites and don't mind the yolks to be a little bit hard around the edges, you can cook the eggs until the whites are completely set, which will take a few more minutes.

Lori K's French bread eggs for two

Ingredients
1 6-inch section of crusty French bread, cut in half
2 eggs
4 artichoke bottoms
1 ball of fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced
Salt and pepper to taste
2 tablespoons Parmesan cheese
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley

Instructions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Take the French bread halves and pinch out an indention in the middle of each one, almost down to the crust. Place on a cookie sheet.
Crack an egg into each indentation.
Lay the slices of mozzarella on either side of the eggs. Place an artichoke bottom on each side of each egg. Season each bread half with salt and pepper, and sprinkle the Parmesan over the artichokes.
Bake for 15-17 minutes.
Remove from oven when the egg whites are no longer jiggly. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Saucy poached eggs

Poached eggs can be a lot of work, and that's probably why most of us don't make them more often. I once had a volunteer crew poach 200 of them for a breakfast we used to do at our Sacramento church, but that's a story for another time.

Someone (not me) came up with a great idea: Poach the eggs IN their sauce. It's a very good way to prepare one of my favorite dishes, huevos rancheros, which I made last week to my husband's delight.

Saucy Poached Eggs
Serves 2

Ingredients
1 can Herdez ranchero sauce
Water
4 eggs
Salt and pepper
4 corn tortillas
4 ounces shredded cheese

Directions
Turn on oven to 350 degrees.
Put the ranchero sauce and a can of water in a large saucepan. Bring to a full boil. Turn down to medium and add the eggs so that they are as far apart as possible. Salt and pepper to taste.
Put the 4 tortillas on a cookie sheet and put 1 ounce of cheese on each. Spread the cheese out so that it covers most of the tortilla. Put in the oven until the cheese melts.
When the whites have mostly set, and the cheese on the tortillas has melted, cover the saucepan to get the top part of the whites done, but not so long that the yolk hardens.
Remove tortillas from oven and put 2 tortillas each on 2 plates.  Uncover, and using a large spoon, loosen the eggs from the saucepan and put one on each tortilla. Spoon any extra sauce over. Serve with knife and fork.

Hot breakfast to go

Sunday mornings are, shall we say, a little rushed in our household. When we just can't face a bowl of cereal, here's one option that's almost as fast.

Egg Tacos
Serves 2
From the files of Lori Korleski Richardson
Ingredients
2 corn tortillas
2 tablespoons crumbled bacon
2 ounces shredded cheese
Spray olive oil
2 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Hot sauce (optional)

Instructions
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Put a cast-iron skillet on the stove and heat on medium low.

Put the tortillas on a cookie sheet. Spread a tablespoon of crumbled bacon and an ounce of shredded cheese on each one. Put the cookie sheet in the oven.

Spray the skillet with olive oil. Crack the eggs into the skillet; after about a minute, break the membrane on the white (where it humps up) and the yolk. Season with salt and pepper. (I like sea salt and freshly ground pepper.) When nearly firm, turn and take off the heat.

The cheese should be melted on the tortillas. Remove from oven, place an egg on each one, add hot sauce if desired.

 The eggs are also good on toast; you can toast the bread in a toaster, put it on a paper towel on a plate, sprinkle on the bacon and cheese, and microwave it just until the cheese melts. Put the egg in between.

Variations
Cooked onions and mushrooms
Fried tomatoes or chopped sun-dried tomatoes
Avocado or guacamole
Diced canned Ortega peppers

Food safety knifed

A small but important editorial in the New York Times today:

The House has voted to cut $106 million from the president’s request for $1.036 billion for meat inspections by the Department of Agriculture. That money would help pay for the inspectors who oversee the 6,300 plants that process the nation’s meat and poultry supply.

To ensure the safety of these products, inspectors must be on site at all times. If they’re not, the plant must stop work. House Democrats say the budget cuts would require 37 to 40 furlough days for many of the 8,600 inspectors. Even a conservative estimate would put the loss of meat and poultry production at about $11 billion over the next seven months — a very large dent in the $177 billion annual business. It could also make a large dent in Americans’ household budgets, as reduced supplies drive up costs.

After recent problems with tainted peanut butter, spinach, nuts and eggs, Congress gave the Food and Drug Administration new authority and responsibility to monitor food safety. The House’s $129 million cut would seriously impede its ability to do that job, putting the health of American consumers at risk. We are all for savings, but these proposed cuts make no sense at all.

The big breakfast

A proper English breakfast

When we were hiking from inn to inn in the Lake District in the early '90s, one of our joys each morning was watching a goofy morning British TV show, "The Big Breakfast," where one of the gimmicks was that the crew would arrive at a home, clean the house and prepare a proper English breakfast for the inhabitants, then clean up. Of course, they came unannounced, so the people were often in their bathrobes, curlers in their hair, etc. Sometimes the crew even brought a brass band for entertainment.

But to me, the big English breakfast was entertainment in itself. The American breakfast - bacon or sausage, eggs, hashbrowns and toast - pales in comparison.

This morning, I attempted a variation on the English breakfast. I started with turkey sausage crumbles, heating them until hot in a skillet, then adding two farm-fresh eggs, a little salt and pepper, then scrambling them until just done. I kept those warm while I browned the ripe tomatoes, halved and cut side down. Meanwhile, I sliced a couple of pieces of coffee cake, and topped them with a fresh currant sauce (recipe below). It was a very hardy and pretty breakfast.

Fresh Red Currant Sauce
Makes about a half cup

I had never seen fresh currents, only dried, so when I came across them at the grocery store, I had to try them. By themselves, they are almost as tart as cranberries.

Ingredients
4 ounces fresh red currants
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons sugar (approximately)

Instructions
Wash and pull stems off currants. Put them in an ovenproof French canning jar, the ones that look like wide glasses with orange plastic lids.  I added one tablespoon of water and one tablespoon of sugar and microwaved them until the mixture boiled to the top of the jar. I removed the jar from the 'wave, tasted, and added another tablespoon of sugar. I again brought the mixture to a boil, and tasted again. This time it was just right for my taste; you may want yours sweeter, but the tarter sauce tastes nice when paired with a rich, sweet dessert.

Sous vide - so-so?

I must admit, I love the concept of sous vide: Lovely little packets done to perfection and awaiting to be plopped on a plate and served. Poached salmon you can set and forget, for hours.

But thank you, thank you David Hagedorn for testing out the home versions and being brutally honest about the results. (Read the Washington Post article here. The headline for the web version is much better than the ones on the paper version.)

One thing the story reminded me of was our camping eggs trick. You boil water, put the container in an insulated bag, put your beaten, seasoned raw eggs in a freezer zip bag and dunk it in the hot water. In a few minutes, put the bag out, squish the eggs around a bit, then put it back in the water until they are the consistency you like. Voila - scrambled eggs and no pan to clean. I think The Bee actually published this trick and got taken to task for a. the eggs may not get thoroughly cooked and could be dangerous to those with compromised immune systems (which begs the question, should sick people be camping?) and b. the bag could melt. Luckily, neither has happened on my watch, but I can see the point.

A New Year's morning brunch

I did the same New Orleans-style brunch that I did last year for a similar group of friends: Eggs Hussard Strata, followed by Bananas Foster. (Click on the names in color to be taken to the recipes that I posted a year ago.) This is a photo that my husband Jim took of me as I took the plain strata out of the oven, before it was topped with the two sauces and served.

A younger friend, no stranger to good food (I used to cook with her mother at Trinity Cathedral events in Sacramento), said: "This dish had so many wonderful flavors I never knew existed. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU! It was great."

Top 10 Riskiest Foods

This is definitely worth reposting.

Top 10 Riskiest Foods Regulated by the FDA
The list includes leafy greens, eggs and tuna

By: Candy Sagon | Source: AARP Bulletin Today | October 5, 2009

The good news is chocolate is not on the list. The bad news—ice cream is.
Some of the healthiest, most inviting foods on your grocery list—lettuce, eggs, ice cream—are the most likely to make you sick, says a Washington, D.C., nonprofit advocacy group.
Researchers at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) on Tuesday announced their own grocery list of the 10 riskiest foods regulated by the Food and Drug Administration. The most hazardous, in order: leafy greens, eggs, tuna, oysters, potatoes, cheese, ice cream, tomatoes, sprouts and berries.
50,000 cases of food-borne illnesses
According to CSPI’s study, those 10 foods account for nearly 40 percent of all food-borne outbreaks linked to FDA-regulated foods between 1990 and 2006. Nearly 50,000 illnesses—from temporary stomach cramps to disability and death—were reported as a result of the outbreaks. And those illnesses are only the tip of the iceberg. For every case of salmonella poisoning reported, for instance, federal officials estimate that another 38 cases go unreported.
Meat, pork and poultry, which are regulated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, were not included in the research. Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of CSPI’s food safety program, says the group chose FDA-regulated foods because the federal agency is responsible for “80 percent of the food supply,” including produce, dairy products and seafood, as well as packaged goods like peanut butter and refrigerated cookie dough—both of which were involved in recent food-poisoning outbreaks.
Leafy greens, No. 1 culprit
Many of the items that made the top 10 list are healthy, vitamin-packed foods that nutrition experts frequently urge Americans to eat. “Leafy greens hit a nutritional home run, but they’re starting to mimic the well-known risks of ground beef,” says Sarah Klein, an attorney with CSPI and lead author of the study. This is partly because, like the ground scraps and bits collected to make hamburger meat, the popular bags of prewashed, ready-cut greens are collected from a variety of sources. “A large batch can be contaminated by just one item,” notes DeWaal.
Leafy greens, which include iceberg lettuce, romaine, spring mix, spinach and cabbage, sickened nearly 13,570 people who reported becoming ill—an estimated 30 percent of all the reported illnesses caused by the top 10. This includes the highly publicized 2006 outbreak of food poisoning and deaths traced to bagged spinach contaminated with E. coli bacteria.
Eggs, the second most risky food in the study, are now subject to new FDA regulations that went into effect this summer. The rules require egg producers to test for salmonella—the cause of 95 percent of egg-related food illness, according to CSPI—and refrigerate eggs during storage and transportation. The agency, in announcing the new rules in July, said it expects them to help decrease the 30 deaths annually caused by contaminated eggs.
Watch that homemade ice cream
Salmonella in raw and under-cooked eggs was also the culprit when Americans got sick eating ice cream. Almost half of the ice cream outbreaks could be traced to homemade ice cream made with under-cooked eggs, the study found.
That familiar deli standby, potato salad, pushed potatoes onto the risky foods list, says Klein. “Potatoes are always cooked before eating, but they’re likely being cross-contaminated by other items like mayonnaise or meat,” she says. More than 40 percent of potato-related outbreaks were linked to foods prepared in restaurants and food establishments like grocery stores and delis.
Toxic tuna
Researchers were also surprised to find that scromboid poisoning, from the hard-to-destroy scromboid toxin, made tuna the third riskiest food in the CSPI study. The toxin is most commonly found in fresh tuna (think sushi and seared tuna in restaurants) but cannot be destroyed by cooking, freezing, smoking, curing or canning.
Symptoms of scromboid poisoning often include flushed skin, headaches, abdominal cramps and heart palpitations. More than 65 percent of the outbreaks reported from contaminated tuna occurred in restaurants, the study found.
Although the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 76 million food-borne illnesses occur annually, Craig Hedberg of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health notes that “our food supply is relatively safe, with one illness for every 3,000 to 4,000 meals eaten.” Still, he adds, “new challenges to food safety will continue to emerge and we need a strong and flexible regulatory response.”
Help for the FDA?
The FDA has been criticized for its lax oversight, particularly in the wake of recent illnesses and deaths from tainted spinach and peanut butter products popular with children.
This summer, the House approved a bill that would provide sweeping new powers to the FDA for the first time in 70 years, including stepped-up inspections and the ability to mandate a product recall. The Senate is expected to take up its version this fall and Erik Olson, director of food and consumer product safety with the Pew Health Group, hopes to see a new bill enacted “before Christmas.”
Candy Sagon is a food and health writer in Washington, D.C.
Copyright 1995–2009, AARP. All rights reserved. A Member of AARP Global Network

Eggs-actly what do these terms mean?

A repost today, but some very good information about some confusing terms. I like eggs that come from chickens who are allowed to forage: Their yolks are a richer color, and they are generally bigger. I stopped paying more for brown eggs a while back when I heard that cage-free and free-range terms had been modified to mean that the doors were open to the chickens, but since they were raised the first few weeks inside, they preferred not to forage once the doors were opened. Why pay more for eggs that look the same as those by the huge egg producers? But these terms give those of us who don't have chickens (yet!) good news to use.

And an apology for not posting the last few days - I had company, company who loves to cook, and that's what we've been doing! Right now, there's a yummy bread pudding in the oven for breakfast. Since we have to roll out of here in about a half-hour to go to the Richmond airport, no bourbon sauce, but some pure maple syrup.

By Monica Eng
Chicago Tribune
Few food purchases can scramble the brain like buying eggs these days. With choices that include organic, free range, Food Alliance certified, brown, white, natural, fertile, American Humane Certified, Animal Welfare Approved, vegetarian fed, omega-3, pasteurized and cage free, a consumer could be forgiven for cracking in confusion.
These labels have implications for the way the hen was treated, fed, housed and even colored as well as how her eggs were processed after they popped out. But sometimes the labels don't mean much at all.
To help hunt down the best eggs, we've compiled a guide to the wild world of egg labels.
Natural: The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service defines "natural" as not containing "any artificial or synthetic ingredients, and it must be minimally processed." By this definition, almost all eggs would be considered natural.
Free range: Indicates that hens have access to the outdoors, but there are no regulations on the duration or quality of their access.
Pasteurized: Eggs that have been treated with heat to eliminate salmonella bacteria and make them safe to eat raw or undercooked.
Pasture raised: This unregulated term implies that hens are raised outdoors and moved regularly in mobile hen houses to different grassy lots on the farm. This gives them access to a variety of foods found on the ground — bugs, grubs and other small creatures — as well as chicken feed.
Fertile: Hens are raised in barns that also house roosters. The term is unregulated but implies that the hens are uncaged.
Food Alliance certified: According to the Food Alliance, its certification requires "healthy and humane treatment of animals, safe and fair working conditions, soil and water conservation, pest and nutrient management, protection of wildlife habitat and other agricultural concerns."
Animal Welfare Approved: Hens must be kept cage free and allowed to perform natural behaviors such as nesting, perching and dust bathing. Outdoor access is required at all times, and forced molting and beak cutting are prohibited. Certifies mostly family farms.
American Humane Certified: Hens must be kept uncaged, but access to the outdoors is not required. Space requirements allow for natural behaviors. Forced molting is prohibited, but beak trimming is permitted in some cases. AHC has certified about 85 percent of cage-free eggs in the United States.
United Egg Producers Certified: This certification allows hens to be caged, does not require access to the outdoors and does not prohibit beak cutting or forced molting. It does require that hens have "access to clean water and are fed several times a day." The UEP literature suggests caged hens are safer and healthier than uncaged birds.
Certified Humane Raised and Handled: Hens are uncaged inside barns or warehouses and may have access to the outdoors. Includes space requirements for hens to perform natural behaviors. Forced molting is prohibited, but beak cutting is permitted.
USDA organic: Hens are kept uncaged in barns or warehouses, are allowed access to the outdoors and are fed an organic, vegetarian diet free of antibiotics and pesticides. Forced molting and beak cutting are permitted.

SOURCES: USDA, Humane Society of the United States, Food Alliance, United Egg Producers, American Humane Certified

Hashbrowns, ham and eggs

Ack! Life has interfered with Lori K's Cafe this week. To make up for it, here's the yummy hashbrowns I made this morning. They didn't look as neat as this picture, but I'm sure they tasted better.

Lori K's hashbrowns with eggs and ham

Serves 2

Ingredients

2 medium white potatoes

1 medium yellow onion

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon butter

Garlic salt and pepper

2-4 free-range eggs

Sea salt

2 thin slices ham (I used ham-off-the-bone from the Harris Teeter deli)

Instructions

Grate the potatoes into a bowl of cold water. When completed, swish all the gratings around in the bowl and drain well. Chop the onion.

Heat a large cast-iron skillet to medium-high heat, then lower it to medium-low heat and add the oil. Swish it around so that all the surface and up the sides a half-inch are coated. Add the potatoes in a clump in the middle, then move them out to the sides. Sprinkle the onions on top. Cut the butter into small cubes and distribute evenly atop the potatoes and onions. Season with garlic salt and pepper.

Cook for 5-10 minutes until the edges of the potatoes are brown. Cut the round of potatoes into quarter sections by slicing across the pan with a metal spatula, then slicing again perpendicular to the first slice. Flip each quarter so the toasty side is now up. Make a little well in the center of each potato quarter and put an egg in each (or 2 of them, for 1 egg apiece). Season with pepper and a grind of sea salt. Cook for 10 minutes, or until the whites have set.

When almost ready to serve, heat the ham slices for 30 seconds in the microwave.

Put the ham on the plate, put the hashbrowns with the eggs atop them over the ham, and garnish with parsley. Add hot sauce if you'd like. Serve immediately with strong coffee.

An egg-stra tip

About that tip on using a funnel to separate an egg: I don't know if was because I was using a larger funnel than usual, or if the egg was older and the white was sticking more to the eggshell, but when I cracked the egg into the funnel, the yolk blocked the neck of the funnel and the white just sat on top of it. I was able to salvage and separate the egg by pouring it back into the shell, but so much for a time-saving tip, at least when using a larger than normal funnel and a less-than-right-out-from-under-the-chicken egg.