Puckery Pithy Pow Punch!

I love a big old glass of real lemonade! It's refreshing and delicious and full of vitamin C. I usually love a dessert that's full of lemons and berries for Easter. This year due to the ever changing date of Easter it was my sweet Little Buddy's birthday. We had to have birthday cake! A chocolate and peppermint birthday cake to be specifically.

Being a generally willful person who likes her own way I was determined to integrate lemon and berries somewhere else in the day. I chose cocktail hour!

You're going to need lots of lemons! Four to be exact. Slice up two of your prettiest ones.

Put them in the bottom of a container and throw some sugar on them!

Now a pinch of salt will cut down on the bitterness of the lemon pith. Pith is so aptly named! If you put it in your mouth you can't help but say "pppiiiiiththth!" as you spit it out.

Now we macerate! That's what they call it at least. I call it stirring and squishing the lemons with sugar. This will get them to release their juices. The sugar will also grind against the peels and become flavored with the natural flavorful oils. There's a reason the outside of citrus is called zest! It's where all the POW is. Maybe they should of called it the POW? Then lemons could have pucker, pith, and POW!

Oh well, they never ever call me before these decisions are made . . .

Anyway, go ahead and leave the lemons alone for a few minutes. The sugar can complete it's own work.

Look! You can see the juice coming out on the bottom. Sugar is so special! I wish I had taken organic chemistry, I could of made you diagrams showing you why it's so special.

Time to deal with the remaining lemons! Go ahead and juice 'em.

Darling daughter does such a good job!

Put the juice in!

Now since the price of berries is skyrocketing I decided I'd try jam! I figured they'd already smashed and sugared them for me! Why not try it?

It looked so dark I was worried! I went ahead and mixed it around so that the lemon juice had thinned the jam out a little.

It's Easter so let's kick it up a notch!

I don't want to kill all my bubbles with stirring so I decided to pour in just enough to cover the lemons and stir it till all the sugar and jam were melted. Kind of like a syrup they'd use at a soda fountain.

There everything is dissolved. Time for the rest of the water.

Oh it's so pink and festive! So bubbly and fruit!

This was big on sweet and sour! That makes it perfect for ham, sausage or even hot dogs. The raspberries, lemons AND the seltzer water have strong acidic profiles. You need to add an amazing amount of sugar to get this palatable for your average kid! Adults like it a little more sour.

Sparkling Raspberry-Lemonade

4 lemons, washed
1/2 cup-1 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 cup raspberry preserves
2 liters seltzer water or lemon lime soda

Slice two of the lemons and place in pitcher. Sprinkle with sugar and salt and stir up, vigorously, until sugar has coated all slices. Let rest for 2-5 minutes. Juice remaining lemons and pour into pitcher. Add preserves and stir until sugar is mixed in well. Add 2 cups of seltzer water and stir until sugar has dissolved completely. Add remaining sparkling water and stir gently. Serve over ice.

Deviled Eggs

Happy Holy Week!

Time to make the Easter Eggs or Spring Spheres if that's how you roll . . . uhm . . . wobble . . .

I don't know about you but my kiddos are expecting to each dye about a dozen of these things. We are talking about dozens of hard boiled eggs in the house! What to do? Well here in Missouri a lot of people LOVE deviled eggs so I thought I'd give 'em a shot.

How do you boil your eggs?

When I told one lady how I boiled mine she laughed at me and accused me of thinking she was an idiot! Seriously, she thought I was lying! At that time I didn't realize my way was "weird." After the passing of many moons my favorite cooking magazine came out with this exciting new way to cook hard boiled eggs . . . it was my family's way.

I submerge mine in water . . .

. . . and bring them to a boil. Nothing shocking!

There it is a nice hard rolling boil! Things are splashing around in there. I'm not looking for gentle movement on the top. If you stuck a thermometer in there you'd fine that the whole small bubbly thing happens well below the 212 deg. F mark!

Now put a lid on it and turn off the heat! If you're on an electric stove go ahead and take it off that burner. In 10 minutes you'll have beautiful firm yellow centers!

Why was she so shocked? I still don't understand!

Now since I'm skipping that whole egg dye thing I'm going to give these a little crack before I submerge them in some nice cold water to cool. The water seeps in and helps them peel.

Time to peel them!

Goodness, I need a manicure! I blame it on the cleaning, I cleaned house last Friday and I'm still recovering.

There we go! Not perfect but not too bad either! My dear father used to take the eggs out of the fridge and let them come to room temperature before boiling them. He said it made them easier to peel. I just get too impatient with my eggs.

Let's get devilling! Cut each one in half. Notice there's no green edge around the yolk? Overcooking causes that. It also gives that sulfurous quality eggs have a head start.

Pop it out!

Make sure to use your finest serving trays . . .

There! I made 10 eggs. I couldn't get myself to use the full dozen. I always want to save eggs for emergencies . . . I feel truly unprepared without at least a dozen eggs in the refrigerator!

Add some mayonnaise!

Then add some more because I don't ever add enough the first time . . .

Now I wanted a sort of plain Jane egg. I have big plans for them you see so I need the filling to be a little innocuous. So I took the simple route and just added rice wine vinegar. It's seasoned with salt and sugar already so it basically fixes them right up.

It's a little lumpy! If I had some lovely onions chopped up in there it'd be no problem. I'm neurotic so . . .

. . . so I squished them through a strainer. I'm sorry, I have issues . . .

My filling was very smooth so I stuck it in a bag, cut off the corner, and filled the eggs!

Aren't they pretty? Well maybe not. They're plain. They're a blank canvas! Remember I kept the filling plain? Let's garnish! I tried several.

Roasted red bell pepper and a little chunk or blue cheese, It was pretty but unanimous consent said the cheese was too big. So if this sounds good to you make the blue cheese more sprinkly! It'd be prettier to see more of the red bell pepper anyway!

So I tried the traditional sprinkle. Well I used chipotle pepper and it was tasty but you'd need a ramped up egg filling to make it truly delicious.

Red onion was good!

A little sliced mango pickle was rather nice. If you like that sort of thing.

I liked the smoked oyster! But then you kind of gotta be into smoked oyster to enjoy this . . .

Now this was tasty! A sprinkle of chipotle pepper, a sprig of cilantro and sliced roasted red bell pepper! All that was missing was a little onion.

Can you tell I'm deeply attached to onions in my deviled eggs? How could I go so wrong and leave them out?

These were tasty! A dab of cocktail sauce and itsy bitsy precooked shrimp!

Have you seen these before? Little 4 oz packets of tiny shrimp goodness! Perfect for hordourves, salads, and cat treats. I paid $1.50 for the bag. That's right you can serve a shrimp appetizer to a bunch of people for cheap!

Now it was time for me to whip out my secret ingredient! There is one condiment that raises hard boiled eggs to delicious heights. It just changes them. It makes them! I don't know why it's so good!

WASABI! Yes, wasabi in a tube can change the entire way you feel about hard boiled eggs! It's just yummy. Besides, wasabi is just fun to say! WASABI-I-I-I!

This is by far the FAVORITE egg of the night! That dollop of wasabi has the perfect hit of bitterness and nose clearing heat to balance the richness of the egg. The shrimp is a briny jewel of goodness on top!

Plus it's really the prettiest too!

So when you're making your deviled eggs try adding something new to them!

Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Do you have strong food memories?

I remember creating this dish when I discovered my husband and I were going to have a fourth child!

It was the straw that broke the camel's back . . . or the beer that keeps the cooler open.

I'm trying to go cross-cultural here!

The entrance of Nathanael in our lives convinced me that I needed to learn how to use my crock pot for something other than beans. So one of my first recipes that worked was this pork roast. So when I found out my neighbor had a BABY! I took advantage of the occasion and made them a meal. A meal with something hanging out in the freezer.

Of course I didn't make her 10 lbs of pork roast! My butcher cut up my 10 lb. roast into 4 nice little roasts. We've discussed the care and nurture of your butcher before haven't we?

Pork loins are wonderfully lean and have no bone. You can grill them, BBQ them, saute them, stew them, and pot roast them. We're going to pot roast ours in the pot of greatness!

The pot of greatness is your crock pot of course. This roast has a very thin layer of fat on it. You want to keep that on! It's got a little silverskin and other things that will cook down and make your gravy smooth and rich and delicious! I've actually got my crock pot preheating right now. I even sprayed a little oil in it to keep cleanup easy.

Now for some pot roasting liquid! Crock pots don't allow any liquid to steam off so we're going to be miserly with all the moisture we add to this. A little dry vermouth will be perfect! The wine will make the baby sleep really good . . .

Pour it in a quart size container. We're going to be doing a little mixing in here.

Now for some sliced garlic. This was only 2 large cloves . . . well and a little bitty one that fell off the head. What was I supposed to do with it? It wanted to be included! Garlic is good for your heart anyway. I'm trying to keep it toned down though.

It looks like an art print . . . Allium On Bamboo . . .

Throw it in the wine. It'll start to give up its garlic goodness right away!

My buddy thyme! I used dried thyme because I think the dry herbs hold up better in the crock pot. For the kiddos sake I probably should of used whole thyme stems and picked them out.

My kids are used to there being little specks and flakes in their food. I tell them it's pepper . . .

A little allspice joins the party because it belongs there! You thought it was only for cookies! Seriously, the first time I tasted allspice with pork I went WHOA! That is good. That is a secret ingredient that nobody will EVER be able to guess!

You'll keep my secret won't you? Good, thank you!

Now for some pepper! I always add pepper, it gives me plausible deniability with the children . . .

Now for my secret weapon . . . can't I have two secrets in my dish? This is the easiest way to add a little salt, thickening, and color to your liquid. Besides I'm worried that my hydrolyzed soy protein intake is too low. Listen I was getting ready to have my FOURTH child here. We're talking three boys and one extremely "active" girl . . . have mercy!

Throw it all in and give it a stir!

Now since we're cooking for others I'm just going to drip a little bit of this on my finger and see if it needs any salt.

Okay, just a little tad. It was the sixth ingredient on the gravy packet . . . and I have over two lbs of pork to season.

Now we slice up an onion and separate the rings. I want the kids to feel like they can pick it off.

Today I feel like stirring it all up together in the bowl. That way the salt gets all over the onion and starts to break it down a little. A great portion of our cooking liquid is going to come from that onion cooking!

Pour all parties over the roast.

Now I went ahead and moved the roast on top of the onions so it could pressure them into giving up their liquid. The heat will make the roast give up its liquid too. Cover and cook for 5 hours on high or 8 on low. Or be like me and have it on high when you're at home and turn it down to low when you leave!

We've discussed my need to meddle haven't we?

WAIT! I forgot the bay leaf!

Look! An hour later it's produced a whole bunch of water. I flipped the roast over because I have issues. It really doesn't need it.

Here it is ready to go to the neighbors! See all the lovely gravy you end up with? I didn't have the nerve to slice a piece off, take a picture of it and then put it back in. I don't know them THAT well. I mean, it's bad enough they have to live next to us! I sent over some cork screw pasta and green beans to go with. Oh and a bottle of Pinot Grigio because they just had a BABY!

You can't see but this roast will break right apart if you stick a fork in it. Hardly a speck of grease anywhere! The pork is mild and tender. The gravy has a lovely rich texture and a pleasing saltiness to it. The herbs and spices compliment the roast and gravy making them taste . . . well . . . more . . . porkalicious!

Pork Loin Pot Roast

2 lb pork loin roast
3/4 cup dry white wine
1 whole onion, sliced
1 pork gravy packet (the type you add 1 cup of water to)
2 cloves garlic, sliced or crushed
1 bay leaf
 1 tsp dried thyme
1/2 tsp ground allspice
pepper and salt to taste

Mix all ingredients in crock pot and cook 5 hours on high or 8 on low.