My life has been one series of experiments after another. What I always think are carefully formulated hypotheses and sets of plans usually ends up completely backwards from the way I intended. But then again research science is all about 90% failure! Much like my job in the lab, this frustrates me to no end in real life. Which is one reason why I'm not really sure if this is what I should really be doing for the rest of my life. Being a results driven person is both a blessing and a curse in that regard. However, when it comes to cooking, somehow I just don't have the same OCD compulsion that things should work out exactly how I planned for them to be. I think it would be good for me to be able to translate the same easy come, easy go, somewhat laissez faire, what will be will be attitude to the rest of my life. It usually serves me pretty well in the kitchen and even in the event of a cooking "failure" I find myself learning lots and having a great time doing it. Learning to enjoy the process is one of the greatest lessons in life, I think. Even when your mixer bowl spins wildly out of control, splattering batter all over the place, you forget an important ingredient or you cut yourself chopping veggies, life is still all about the process. It may not always be fun in those stages, but the end result, even if it's not particularly tasty, is that you will always be full. And that is just what I am trying to do- Live a Full Life!

Cornmeal Hotcakes with Heirloom Tomatoes and Farm Fresh Eggs
**Not wanting to rely on the old standby of a caprese salad (though I will be making one later this week!), I was looking for a way to use some more of the organic cornmeal we received a few weeks ago. I had been toying with the idea that cornmeal and blueberry pancakes would be great on Saturday morning, and then I realized they would probably work better as a savory dish. No real recipe here, it was a no brainer on a hot August day.


Make your favorite pancake recipe, substituting all but 1/4 of the flour for cornmeal. I added a little extra baking powder to my mix and it gave them a great texture. If you're feeling particularly adventurous, toss in some fresh corn off the cob. I would also recommend adding some cayenne or chili powder to your mix to just kick it up a little bit as mine were pretty bland without it.

Fry up some eggs, don't forget to s&p them while they cook! Slice up some heirloom tomatoes and sparingly S&P.

Pile up the hotcakes, tomato and egg and sprinkle some cheese on top. Serve with salsa made from heirloom tomatoes if you dont want just a slice of tomato on top. A little sour cream (or plain yogurt!) wouldn't hurt if you have it.

You can eat the leftover hotcakes with honey- just like eating a cornbread muffin!

To say that graduate student life is stressful would be a vast understatement. The long hours, the failed experiments, the anxiety over papers and grants, it's all a big ulcer waiting to happen. Somehow, I have avoided bad frozen dinners, greasy takeout (save for the few times Mama Santa's pizza was just what I needed), Ramen noodles, and bowls of cereal for dinner. I think it's because coming home from a place where you almost have to be perfect in your precision and being able to leisurely dice up some ingredients and toss them together to create something delicious but far from perfect is a great stress reliever. Plus I often make a giant mess and something about that is quite liberating compared to the sterile environment of working in a lab.

But there are times when the only ingredients I have in the house, or the only thing that sounds appealing to me. On Sunday I was hanging out with a friend and we were watching Food Network, which is basically a recipe for gluttony even when you aren't hungry. Then a commercial about free waffles at Hampton Inns came on and we both decided that waffles were definitely in order. But when cake covered in syrup  (or in my case, jelly) isn't going to cut it, savory breakfasts are some of my favorite things to make for dinner. Breakfast for dinner is always a good go-to meal when you are cooking for one. But on this night, I was blessed with some pretty good company- thanks A and G!

Patty Pan Squash Hash

2 patty pan squash, chopped into about 1" pieces (Source: FFM)
2 leeks, sliced (Source: FFM)
1 lb romano yellow beans (Source: FFM)
1 lb Berkshire Pork Chorizo (Source: FFM)
2 poached eggs (Source: FFM, I had some left over from a few weeks ago)
fresh basil
S&P

Prep your veggies and heat 1-2 TBL olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Toss in your squash first and saute about 5 min. Add beans and leeks and increase heat to medium high in order to get some carmelization going. While your veggies are working, cook up your chorizo (or whatever you are using) in a non stick pan. Boil some salted water and poach your eggs 1.5-2 min. Toss veggies with chorizo (and resulting fat, it's seasoned from the sausage so don't throw it away!) and serve poached eggs on top. S&P to taste, and you could always garnish with some cheese too.

I dread coming down with a summer cold. There's nothing worse than getting sick in the summer other than both you and your hubby getting sick in the summer. It feels like double the punishment. As if being sick isn't bad enough, laying in bed and sleeping through the brief days of sunshine we have in Ohio seems just plain cruel. I originally had pretty grand plans for the beet greens- which you can see in the above picture was the focus today rather than just the beets themselves. Then I got the CSA email for next week and revised my plan. Then I came home from work early and slept for two hours and nothing involving beet greens sounded too appetizing to me. And then I had an epiphany. Biscuits! Biscuits and gravy! That would make me feel better for sure! But then I realized I might feel better briefly, but gravy probably wasn't a brilliant idea. I stuck with my biscuit idea, but swapped the gravy for greens and the sausage for farm fresh eggs. I was dubious that the greens would be all that appealing considering how icky we both felt, but in the end this improvisation was a smash hit for both of us. I'm just glad we hadn't lost our sense of taste yet! Here's hoping its one of those 24 hour flu/cold type things and our house gets back to normal soon.

Green Eggs Minus the Ham
**Swap out beet greens for any green you might have on hand. Make sure your skillet is nice and hot when you cook 'em up since they will release quite a bit of liquid. Poached eggs have been somewhat of a magic trick I haven't quite mastered, probably due to my lack of patience. Hubby followed the directions in Ad Hoc at Home by Thomas Keller and they were perfect. Setting the timer for an exact 1.5 minutes definitely helped.

Fresh Biscuits: I followed a recipe in The Joy of Cooking and they came out great (especially with the butter I still have from last weeks CSA bundle), but use your favorite recipe or stop at Popeyes and get some for a fast dinner

3-4 Farm fresh eggs (Source: Martha's Farm)
Beet Greens (Source: FFM)
Spinach (Source: FFM)
1-2 cloves garlic
1-2 TBL spicy brown mustard
S&P

Bake your biscuits if you haven't already. Keep warm while you prepare the eggs and greens. Bring salted water to boil in a deep saucepan for eggs. Meanwhile, wash and prep your greens. Heat a skillet with olive oil or butter on medium heat. Saute greens until wilted and S&P. Add garlic when greens are almost ready, about 5 minutes after you first placed them in the pan. While greens finish cooking, poach your eggs one at a time for about 1.5 minutes for a soft yolk. Before plating, add 1 TBL of spicy brown mustard to greens and toss to coat. Plate up your biscuits, greens and then eggs. S&P the eggs and serve while piping hot. A little swiss or gruyere would be delicious shaved over the top, but I didn't have any so I skipped it. 

You might be surprised to know that as a scientist, I have had several discussions on this very (seemingly) simple question. I firmly stand by my assessment that it was indeed the chicken, but that's another topic for another day. At any rate, I dont' really care which came first- whether the free range (pasture fed) chicken that produced the eggs we received from Holistic Farms in our FFM bundle this week or the cafe au lait colored eggs because the fact remains, they are delicious!

I've been somewhat of an organic, free range, locally produced egg skeptic but I really can't remember why having now tasted these eggs. Perhaps it was my biased judgment that organic eggs were "too expensive." The $3+ a dozen was certainly off putting when I knew I could get eggs for 89 cents a dozen. But really, what's "too expensive" for good quality, good taste, responsible farming practices? As a culture we have been misled to believe that food should be cheap. The only way that food is cheap is because we have made it that way by abandoning sustainable and responsible farming techniques and have grown accustomed to tomatoes year round and bananas in North America- where, I for one, have never seen a banana tree actually grow. I'm sure most of you have seen the recent food documentary called "Food, Inc" and if you haven't, you should. If you are reading this blog you probably are an organic and local supporter already so I don't plan to belabor the point but I think it is important to mention. I may not be able to personally afford a diet consisting entirely local, organic and responsibly farmed products seeing as how I am a graduate student (though I sure wish I could!). But I think we can all make smarter choices about what we are putting into our bodies.  In order to afford better food, we have cut down our meat intake to about 1-3 meals a week on average and embraced some creative vegetarian options which I will be highlighting soon. My meat and exercise loving husband was skeptical at first, but now he is fully convinced you can get a well balanced and protein rich food from things other than meat. In turn we have become healthier, wealthier and hopefully more wise. After all, maybe if more people cut out the cable package or downgraded our data plans for our cell phones that we convince ourselves are necessities, we would get back to what's really important- being healthy and warm and happy.

As soon as I got the email about the contents of this weeks package, I immediately knew what I would do with some of the spinach, eggs, cheese and sausage buns. I hope you enjoy this recipe!

Egg "Salad" Sandwiches
*This isn't so much a cut and dry sort of recipe. Add your favorite toppings and there are no exact measurements. Perhaps that's why I'm a better cook than I am a baker- in my everyday job, measurements have to be precise and exact, but at home I can just be creative and cook to what tastes "right"! This quantities I have given are for one sandwich.




1 Sausage Bun (Source: our FFM bundle!)
2 free range eggs (Source: Holistic Farms, see link above)
2-3 slices of grass fed Blue Gouda Cheese (Source: Mayfield Creamery)
1-2 spinach leaves (Source: our FFM bundle!)
Garlic Aioli- just finely chop some garlic and mix it with either store bought mayo or homemade!
Thinly sliced onions (I like to use yellow or vidalia onions but use whatever you like)
Butter

Lightly butter sausage bun and grill until warm and toasted (I used my grill pan!). Warm some butter in a non stick skillet and cook eggs to your preference (I basically fried mine). **IMPORTANT*** In my opinion, when you cook eggs you should always S&P them while they are cooking. Shmear the garlic aioli on the bun and layer onions, cheese, spinach and eggs. Enjoy!