I’ve been making a lot of New England clam chowder, and while noting that most of the recipes are about 95% fat (heavy cream, butter) I have recently been maked a base that is very different, lower in fat, and still thick, rich, and delicious. Using a base vegetable or chicken stock, I chop up partsnip, onion, & celeriac (celery root) and puree this into a very thick soup. To this I add some cream and butter in small amounts, and clam juice and chopped clams. Sometimes I dice up some additional onion and potato for the nice chunks, and the soup ends up still being very thick, with an incredible mouthfeel, and rich with delicious clam flavor. The parsnip add bulk, & the celeriac adds the hint of celery to make an amazing clam chowder that is rich, thick, yet far less fatty than the traditional chowder. If anyone wants, I can post a recipe, but I tend to just toss stuff in a pot, but I’d be happy to develop a recipe for the world if you would like one.

I found this on a forum in which I participate, and wanted to share it with my readers as not only is it brilliantly made, but it is an age old problem resolved in a great way. In order to help their young child eat their veggies, this person made the child actually *want* to eat them, as this presentation is so fun how could they not? I’ve seen a lot of creative ways to plate food, and for meal time with the kids, I think this is a great and creative display that can do wonders to avoid the veggie avoidance syndrome.

Hard boiled eggs are arriving at the stores more fresh than ever before, and because of this, you may have noticed that when they are hard boiled (or hard cooked as some say) the membrane in the egg tends to stick to the egg white, making the eggs difficult to peel. While fresh eggs are great, this annoyance can make breakfast (or an egg salad lunch) a distressing event. I have been known to lose half an egg just trying to remove the shell. There are, however two simple techniques that will allow you to easily peel hard boiled eggs in a flash, leaving you with perfect looking eggs. The first method makes peeling hard boiled eggs so unbelievably easy that they have become my staple breakfast, and is an incredible time saver

Method 1:
Add a tablespoon or two of baking soda to the water when you boil the eggs. This will increase the pH of the water, making it more alkaline, which will allow the membrane to slip off the cooked albumen (egg white) easily. You can pull the shell right off, or, if you want to make it interesting, crush both ends of the egg, hold it in your hand and blow. The egg will shoot right out of the shell and across the room.

Method 2:
Hard boil the eggs, remove from the water when cooked, and wait until they are room temperature. Do not put them in the refrigerator, just leave them on the counter. Room temperature cooked eggs are much easier to peel than hot or cold ones.

Personally, I prefer the baking soda method because I can’t wait and I like showing people the magic trick of the egg shooting out of its shell, but how you do it is your choice. Now hard boiled eggs are an easy meal!

I don’t normally respond to link bait, but this is a good summary about how to grow great tomatoes (organically of course). Tomatoes are a staple in my garden and are easily one of my favorite summer foods. If you plan to grow your own this summer, you should definitely go to Organic Gardening for a quick read on best practices:

Tomato-Growing Success

This may not come as a surprise to anyone, but did you know that you can make popcorn in a microwave? Yes, shocking, I know. But what I dislike about buying bags of prepared popcorn ready to go into the microwave is that they are mostly filled with unpronounceable substances that I would not put in my body given a choice. They are also a ridiculous amount of money for what you get. This afternoon, I went out and bought a bag of regular popcorn for almost nothing. I placed a handful of kernels into a brown paper bag, folded up the top and placed it in my microwave oven for about 2 1/2 minutes. 2 and 1/2 minutes later, I was enjoying a bowl of cheap as dirt popcorn seasoned with my favorite smoked salt. I’m not as surprised at how easy this is as much as I’m blown away by the idea that I hadn’t thought to try this long ago. I’m sure many of you reading this may already know how easy this is, but this was my mini epiphany. Now I can make popcorn flavored with just about anything I like and I don’t have to take out the pot and oil, or pay more than movie popcorn prices for a simple bag of microwaved popcorn. This is, by far, the simplest popcorn recipe I have ever come across and works incredibly well.