Simple, Healthy, Delish Recipes

[Mark Leavy]

Sometimes that stuff is annoyingly bitter, but that is easily fixed: just add some crushed eggshells to the grounds.

Could you please elaborate? Do you save egg shell for this purpose? Do you wash them or do anything to them? How much do you add?

There are a ton of variations, everything from the shell to the whole egg. It is generally accepted to be a Swedish thing. Look up Swedish Egg Coffee

For me, John Steinbeck's account in "Travels with Charley" is the definitive story.

"I went into my house and set coffee to cooking, and remembering how Roark Bradford liked it, I doubled the dosage, two heaping tablespoons for each cup and two heaping for the pot. I cracked an egg and cupped out the yolk and dropped shells and white into the pot, for I know nothing that polishes coffee and makes it shine like that.

The air was still very cold, and a cold night was coming, so that the brew, rising from cold water to a rolling boil, gave the good smell that competes successfully with other good smells.

My guest was satisfied, and he warmed his hands against the plastic cup. “By your license, you’re a stranger here,” he said. “How do you come to know about coffee?”

'I learned on Bourbon Street from giants in the earth,' I said. 'But they would have asked the bean of darker roast, and they would have liked a little chicory for bite.'"

[WiseOne]

Sometimes that stuff is annoyingly bitter, but that is easily fixed: just add some crushed eggshells to the grounds.

Could you please elaborate? Do you save egg shell for this purpose? Do you wash them or do anything to them? How much do you add?

I was introduced to a product called Buisman's Royal Aroma coffee additive years ago. It is basically some kind of burnt sugar ground into a powder that you add a 1/4 tsp to the grounds in your Mr Coffee that reduces acidity and bitterness. It works well, but is hard to find and is somewhat expensive. If I could get the same result with egg shells I would be thrilled.

It's an awesome trick. Yes, it does exactly what that additive does.

I save eggshells in a bowl, and when I've collected enough of them I put them in a 200 degree oven for 15 minutes or so to get rid of any nasties. Let cool, then put the shells into a plastic baggie and crush them up by squeezing or with a rolling pin. Put a generous pinch into your coffee grounds...you'll figure out how much after a few trial runs. The eggshells also do wonders for houseplants, or you can put them in your garden.

[l82start]

i am curious mark, i thought you were traveling, if you are on the road how are you brewing/blending your coffee? what is your setup?

[Mark Leavy]

i am curious mark, i thought you were traveling, if you are on the road how are you brewing/blending your coffee? what is your setup?

I carry 2 300 watt immersion heaters with me. A few self-standing high temp (400°F), food grade, silicone bags for boiling, a collapsible pour over coffee dripper and a double walled titanium mug. For blending, I use a rechargeable milk frother. It roars!

Or, if I'm in an AirBnB I just use the coffee pot or Keurig machine.

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[WiseOne]

Back when I had to deal with frequent business trips, I did much the same thing! Except I haven't yet acquired the immersion heater, as I've only had to contend a couple of times with hotel rooms that didn't have the ability to make hot water. If you run into that, most hotels will give you an electric kettle on request.

Another key piece of travel equipment: the hot logic portable slow cooker:

https://www.amazon.com/HotLogic-Mini-Pe ... NrPXRydWU=

This thing can cook a meal from scratch in about 4-6 hours, or heat up prepared food in an hour or less. And you can use it to keep your coffee hot. I even use this at home sometimes, as it's great for sealing in heat and odors.

I also have a mini Sawyer water filter. I am spoiled on NYC water which is minimally chlorinated and very soft. In most cities, the chlorine and sometimes sulfur smells in the water makes me gag, plus you never know what shape the hotels pipes are in.

I can't tell you how happy I am to not have to deal with this for the duration. I suppose it would be different if you were traveling by choice.

[Mark Leavy]

Another key piece of travel equipment: the hot logic portable slow cooker:

https://www.amazon.com/HotLogic-Mini-Pe ... NrPXRydWU=

This thing can cook a meal from scratch in about 4-6 hours, or heat up prepared food in an hour or less. And you can use it to keep your coffee hot. I even use this at home sometimes, as it's great for sealing in heat and odors.

That looks pretty cool, WiseOne! I had briefly looked at those and didn't think they did more than warm up your sandwich. With all of the shutdowns, I'm road tripping now and this looks like it could be fun to play with. Probably won't make the cut for when I start flying again, but in the meantime... All queued up for my next Amazon Locker stop!

Mark

[yankees60]

Not quite the topic title but food related...



Life & Arts Food & Drink

How Quitting Caffeine Will Affect Your Sleep—And Your Worldview
The author of ‘Caffeine’ offers tips and truths on the abiding addiction that shanghais our shut-eye—something we need more than ever now

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-quitti ... ggTmMCHVlQ

Vinny

[l82start]

i am curious mark, i thought you were traveling, if you are on the road how are you brewing/blending your coffee? what is your setup?

I carry 2 300 watt immersion heaters with me. A few self-standing high temp (400°F), food grade, silicone bags for boiling, a collapsible pour over coffee dripper and a double walled titanium mug. For blending, I use a rechargeable milk frother. It roars!

Or, if I'm in an AirBnB I just use the coffee pot or Keurig machine.

nice .. very tight setup.... and very portable...

[dualstow]

Sometimes that stuff is annoyingly bitter, but that is easily fixed: just add some crushed eggshells to the grounds.

Could you please elaborate? Do you save egg shell for this purpose? Do you wash them or do anything to them? How much do you add?

There are a ton of variations, everything from the shell to the whole egg. It is generally accepted to be a Swedish thing. Look up Swedish Egg Coffee

For me, John Steinbeck's account in "Travels with Charley" is the definitive story.

"I went into my house and set coffee to cooking, and remembering how Roark Bradford liked it, I doubled the dosage, two heaping tablespoons for each cup and two heaping for the pot. I cracked an egg and cupped out the yolk and dropped shells and white into the pot, for I know nothing that polishes coffee and makes it shine like that.
...
...

I followed this recipe (same as Mark’s link above) and I sorta kinda forgot that “cups” means something different altogether when it comes to coffee.

9 coffee cups, 5-oz cups, is already more than this household consumes in a day. The recipe is for a small Lutheran Church. Using the measuring cup, I put in 8-oz cups of water. The result was a remarkably low-acid beverage, that was also free of any coffee flavor, and sported a beautiful light caramel color.

Next time I’ll try just 40-45 oz water, and the dry measure of 3/4 coffee. I’ll figure out the proportion by trying, like WiseOne said.

Or maybe the coffee just binded with the egg too quickly, I don’t know.

ADDED: the final mugful has a nice color and tastes ok. It was still sitting in the mixture while I was washing out the french press.

[Kriegsspiel]

I tried split peas for the first time in my life recently, and they're pretty good. Usually I stick with lentils but these have the same macros so I decided to branch out.

I made them in the slow cooker, and they turned into a creamy soup.

1 pound green split peas
a small onion
can of diced tomatoes
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
a few cracks of pepper
a few peppers and garlics from the garden

I let them go for 8 hours in the slow cooker, which was probably too long.

[dualstow]

I tried split peas for the first time in my life recently

Wait until you try beer- you’re going to love it.
Really, why the wait? you had an aversion to them or you just didn’t know they existed?

I like a little liquid smoke in mine if there’s no ham.

[Mountaineer]

I tried split peas for the first time in my life recently

Wait until you try beer- you’re going to love it.
Really, why the wait? you had an aversion to them or you just didn’t know they existed?

I like a little liquid smoke in mine if there’s no ham.

Split pea beer?

.

[dualstow]

I would try it, once

[Kriegsspiel]

I tried split peas for the first time in my life recently

Wait until you try beer- you’re going to love it.

Pea beer sounds like something monks would make. I always thought of monks as eating bread and peas and other boring foods they grow in their monastery, but then drinking some of the heaviest beers on the planet and getting wasted.

Really, why the wait? you had an aversion to them or you just didn’t know they existed?

I like a little liquid smoke in mine if there’s no ham.

I dunno. Mom never made them when I was a kid I guess.

[Kriegsspiel]

1 pound green split peas
a small onion
can of diced tomatoes
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
a few cracks of pepper
a few peppers and garlics from the garden

I doubled the turmeric and salt, put in slightly less water, replaced the diced tomatoes with a can of Rotel, and only cooked them for 5 hours. THESE SPLIT PEAS ARE GODDAMN DELICIOUS AAGGGHHHH.

[yankees60]

I tried split peas for the first time in my life recently, and they're pretty good. Usually I stick with lentils but these have the same macros so I decided to branch out.

I made them in the slow cooker, and they turned into a creamy soup.

1 pound green split peas
a small onion
can of diced tomatoes
2 tsp turmeric
2 tsp salt
a few cracks of pepper
a few peppers and garlics from the garden

I let them go for 8 hours in the slow cooker, which was probably too long.

Hey! You made something I COULD eat and WOULD enjoy eating! I did not think it was possible based upon what else I've read of your diet.

By the way is turmeric an integral ingredient in Gulden's Spicy mustard? Yes. Just checked. It is the last ingredient. I HATE the yellow mustard. LOVE the spicy mustard.

I ran out a few weeks ago and was upset because it and peanut butter (both used together) are my only salad dressing. I did, though, remember I had turmeric powder and discovered that was a quite good substitute for the mustard.

Vinny

[yankees60]

This afternoon cooked food for the first time since sometime in June. Since then I've mainly been consuming what has been coming out of my garden and fruit.

The ingredients:

water
rolled oats
quinoa
blueberries
raisins
dates

microwaved it a total of 22 minutes (7 / 10 / 5)

Came out the consistency of thick pudding.

Absolutely DELICIOUS!

The way I eat it is going to be a daily meal for awhile!

Vinny

[Kriegsspiel]

I grew a bunch of turnips this year. I'd never had them before, but they're the SHIT.
Chop em
Boil em
Melt some butter on em and sprinkle with salt and pepper

[Tortoise]

Did anybody else carve jack-o-lanterns for Halloween and roast the pumpkin seeds in the oven with a little olive oil and salt?

I do that every year, and it's always delicious.

[Kriegsspiel]

Did anybody else carve jack-o-lanterns for Halloween and roast the pumpkin seeds in the oven with a little olive oil and salt?

I do that every year, and it's always delicious.

I made some pumpkin pie last year from ones that I grew on my farm. Which is what I call my back yard. Anyways, I did some seeds with splenda and cinnamon, they were incredible.

[dualstow]

Not that anyone needs a cole slaw recipe, but the Mark Bittman one is very good. No mayo.
Mainly cabbage and a bell pepper, mustard and a clove of garlic; scallions; lemon juice if it doesn’t hurt your stomach like it hurts mine.
Vegetable oil.
Whip out the shredding disk on that food processor.
So great.

This is the season where I stop buying lettuce, opting for the hardier vegetables.

[yankees60]

Not that anyone needs a cole slaw recipe, but the Mark Bittman one is very good. No mayo.
Mainly cabbage and a bell pepper, mustard and a clove of garlic; scallions; lemon juice if it doesn’t hurt your stomach like it hurts mine.
Vegetable oil.
Whip out the shredding disk on that food processor.
So great.

This is the season where I stop buying lettuce, opting for the hardier vegetables.

Now this is a cole slaw that I could actually eat! I never have in the past because I hate mayonnaise and vinegar. Depends what kind of mustard you used, though. Hate yellow mustard but love brown mustard.

I do like apple cider vinegar. It's the other type of vinegar whose just smelling it will drive me out of the room!

Vinny

[dualstow]

Vinny, I used Coleman’s, which is a powdered yellow mustard. You mix it with an equal part water and it becomes very strong in 10 minutes.
No vinegar.

[WiseOne]

This is the season where I stop buying lettuce, opting for the hardier vegetables.

Me too! I eat salads so often during the summer when it's too hot to cook, then by the time winter comes along I'm sick to death of the stuff. Right now I'm having a love affair with chard and collards from my community garden plot.

With that in mind:

Garden greens a la WiseOne

Ingredients:
Big bag of washed greens, optimally from the garden or farmer's market, but grocery store ok too. Roll up and slice in ribbons, then cut across if smaller pieces are desired
Piece of smoked ham hock, pork neck bones, or whatever you can find at your grocery.
Chunk of duck fat, or reserved bacon fat
Splash of apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients into pot.
Slow cook for 4 hours (chard) or 8-10 hours (collards)
OR
Simmer on stovetop for 30 minutes (chard) or 1.5 - 2 hours (collards)
OR
Pressure cook 15 minutes (chard) or 30 minutes (collards), then let the pressure bleed off gradually

For chard, drain to get rid of the liquid (there's too much to cook down). For collards, bring to simmer and cook until liquid evaporates. Pick bits of meat off the pork bones and mix into the greens, then discard bone. Taste and correct seasonings.

Leftovers freeze very well. I put them into quart size ziploc freezer bags and press flat, then freeze.

This plus sausages or pulled pork make a wonderful dinner. Not sure if I've posted my pulled pork recipe with no sugar added, but it's super easy: buy a pork shoulder (preferably bone-in), make a spice rub of your choice, rub it on the pork, put it in the oven on a roasting pan with fat side up, and cook it at 200 degrees (or lowest oven setting) all day, to internal temperature of 180-190. I actually start this the night before so it's done by early afternoon. Take out of the oven, pour the fat into jars for future use, and let cool. Shred with 2 forks.

Freeze extra in ziploc bags. Serve with more spice rub & melted butter, flavored mayonnaise, or other sauce of choice. I guess if you're not into the keto/low carb/high fat thing you can smother it in bbq sauce instead. Just understand that those sauces are about half sugar. Honestly, they're the equivalent of pounding down a big gulp from 7/11.

[dualstow]

WiseOne, you had me at duck fat.

Chard and collards, eh?
My favorite vegetable this season is daikon, aka the white winter radish.