Have you ever started baking something using the eggs in your fridge only to discover the “Sell by” date was a month prior? What do you do? Use them? Toss them?

There’s a way to test your eggs for freshness!

Here’s what you do:

Place eggs in a bowl. Cover with regular tap water. There should be enough water that another egg would fit on top of each egg and they would still be covered in water.

Now observe your eggs:
1. Really fresh eggs will lie down on their sides, longways.
2. Eggs that are still OK will stand up on the small pointy tip.
3. Bad eggs will float.

When I tried this, mine stood on their tips:

Those pictures are sort of useless. But anyway – it’s an easy test. I also saved the styrofoam egg crate to use as a jewelry sorter.

Happy Hump Day! Stay tuned for more lemon recipes…

This is unbelievably tasty despite or maybe due to the simplicity of the ingredients! A perfect pre-dinner salad that you can make quickly or even ahead of time.

My neighbor gives me bags of lemons from her prolific lemon tree from time to time.

I usually squeeze a bunch of them into ice cube trays and freeze the juice for later cooking use.

This time, before I start squeezing & freezing I remembered a simple carrot salad I’d just read about in La Tartine Gourmande. I noticed the book at the library and quickly photocopied a few recipes from it.

Try this!!! I mean it.

All you need:

The amounts in this recipe serve about 4 people. I would definitely double it next time but I was hand grating…

INGREDIENTS:
4 large carrots, peeled
1 TBSP flat leaf parsley, chopped (I used Italian parsley as that’s all I had)
2 TBSP chives, chopped

Vinaigrette:
sea salt & pepper
1/4 c fresh lemon juice
1 garlic clove, minced
6 TBSP olive oil

Grate the carrots and place in large bowl. In a separate smaller bowl, combine the vinaigrette ingredients in the order listed, whisk together and pour over the carrots. Combine well with spoon. Cover & refrigerate. Dress with the fresh herbs just before serving.

Maddie ate 3 bowls in rapid succession and then asked if she could take some to school the next day. There were no leftovers.

Source: La Tartine Gourmande

Phew! The holidays kicked my butt this year. How did my parents do this? Better yet, WHY did they do it??

Although I try to post only the best of my kitchen attempts, here are some of my absolute favorites from last year. I mean the ones I crave & want to make again & again.

Happy New Year to you!!

1. Gardener’s Pie (vegetarian version of Shepherd’s Pie): This is always a huge hit. I took it to a Christmas pot luck this year and got so many compliments from vegetarian & non vegetarians alike. 

2. Best Coffee Cake in the World There are no surprising ingredients in this but it’s simply delicious. Perfect for a special brunch or to warm up a chilly Sunday morning.

3. Kermit Smoothie (green smoothie) Want to sneak a handful of spinach into your family’s gullets? Try this! So yummy, easy & fun.

4. Blueberry Lara Bars. A healthy, yummy & portable snack. Perfect for hiking or just to carry in your purse (or man purse) to keep the munchies at bay.

5. No Knead Bread. If you’ve never made bread before I strongly encourage you try this one! It takes less than 5 minutes to prep and is so rewarding! There’s something wonderful about the smell of bread baking in your home.

6. Glory Bowl. After the holidays many people (ahem, THIS person) feel compelled to eat a little, shall we say, “lighter?” Although this dish contains many light elements the rice & dressing make it so satisfying. I had serious doubts about it when my dear friend Kinga recommended it but now it’s one of my favorites. Try it!! I mean it, really! I wouldn’t put it up here if it weren’t super yummy.

7. Red Velvet Cupcakes. Make these for Valentine’s Day! Or use green food coloring and make them for St. Patrick’s Day.

8. Simple Caesar Salad. This is a cheater’s version of caesar salad. Oh garsh sometimes I crave caesar salad so much but don’t want to get involved with raw eggs & anchovies etc. This is a satisfying remedy when you’re short on time. Now that I make this I find most restaurant salads disappointing. Totally reminds me of an ex boyfriend’s mom (who happened to be an excellent cook) answering the waiter’s “How is everything?” with a tragic look followed by her New York accented, “Mine’s bettah.”

9. Chocolate & Butterscotch Chip Cookies. After trying many recipes, I have to say that these are my favorites for both simplicity & results. Because of the cornstarch they end up a bit pale and can trick you into thinking they aren’t done but they are soooooo sooooooo sooooooo (sooooo) good. Every time I make them I have to double the recipe b/c of all the greedy hands snitching them off the cooling racks (G!!!).

10. Vegetable Pot Pie. I just realized I have a few “best _____ in the WORLD” recipes. Do I exaggerate? Or am I just hungry? Anyway, this pot pie was a sleeper hit! I always loved pot pies. From the nastiest to the high end restaurant ones. But I was tired of paying $5.00 for a tiny Amy’s vegetable pot pie, plus I thought I could feed more than 1 person with a lot less packaging. This recipe takes almost 3 hours to make but is TOTALLY worth it! YUM.

11. Broccoli Gribiche. Last year I started making some dishes from Heidi Swanson’s “Super Natural Every Day” and this was one of the hits. I seriously didn’t make ONE bad dish from that cookbook and still use it every week. This is a surprisingly hearty, satisfying yet tasty meal that can be a main or side. The simple ingredients make it a no-brainer!

12. Moscow Mule. Alcohol is a good way to end a list/night/year so here is a simple, tasty drink that we enjoyed time & again mostly during the summer. Our friend Trish introduced us to them last June when we stayed at her house in Denver. We drank them all summer. Not all day but you know what I mean.

I hope you enjoy these recipes & for all the best to you in 2013!

In the fall/winter it’s pomegranate season here in southern California. This time of year I look forward to eating half a pomegranate on the couch whilst watching “American Horror Story” or any of the Real Housewives franchise (of course!). As a result, my hands look like a cabinet maker’s – stained dark reddish-brown with what look like dirty fingernails. I don’t mind at night b/c I’m about to go to bed soon anyway. However, now that Maddie also loves pomegranates I need to seed them in the morning for her lunch and I just don’t want to deal with the mess!

There are two ways to seed (de-seed?) pomegranates without your kitchen looking like a massacre just took place. I’m going to demonstrate the second method in this post.

No matter which way you’re doing it, you’ll need: a pomegranate & a knife.

1. First way which is all over You Tube is to cut it in half & knock the seeds out onto a plate or into a bowl with the back of a heavy spoon or object. This is a civilized method but it can still splatter juice.

2. The second way is to fill a medium/large bowl with water,

This bowl is too small. I'd use a bigger bowl if I were you. But that's just me.

cut the pomegranate in half

and just pick the seeds out in the water.

See what I mean about this bowl being too small? Still works though!

That green bag contains Bea's diapers, which I forgot to take to daycare.

Then strain it in a mesh strainer & you can compost the pulp (??) or discard.

Any juice that was going to spurt onto your brand new white t-shirt, cream-colored cashmere sweater or just wiped countertops ends up in the water.

Use the leftover water to water a plant or dump on your lawn if you have one!

Btw: am I the only person in the world who didn’t know about these methods??

Here’s a REALLY easy cookie recipe for when you have NO TIME.

I just made these this morning for our daycare’s caroling at the convalescent home. Totally forgot I was going to make them until around 8AM. D’OH!

No pictures – no time. These are winners from The Pioneer Woman. You only need one bowl. You are done making them from start to finish within about 20 minutes. They are chewy, tasty & yummy. The only change I made was to use the turbinado raw sugar to roll them in but if you don’t have it you can use plain sugar too.

Source: The Pioneer Woman