Wow good.

I was pretty scared when vegetable tart won the poll last week. The last time I tried a free-form tart on Macheesmo, it didn’t go well.

I had high hopes for this attempt though. For starters, I was using a Cook’s Illustrated recipe. That’s normally a really good start to a successful meal.

Second, and maybe more important, I didn’t get cocky. I read the recipe like 10 times (Cook’s Illustrated isn’t known for being succinct). I promised myself that I wouldn’t change the recipe at all.

I then immediately changed the recipe. Luckily, not in any devastating way.

Mushroom and Leek Galette

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 45 minutes + dough resting time

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Dough:
1 1/4 cups (6.25 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (2.75 ounces) whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cubed
7 tablespoons ice water
1 teaspoon white vinegar

Filling:
1/2 pound shiitake mushrooms
3/4 pound crimini mushrooms
2 large leeks, sliced thin
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
2 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
3-4 ounces Gorgonzola cheese, crumbled
Salt and pepper
1 large egg, for egg wash

Helpful Equipment:
Pastry Brush
Dough Scraper

Directions:

1) To start dough, mix together flours with sugar and salt. Cut in cold, cubed butter using your fingers or pulse in a food processor until the butter is in pea-sized pieces.

2) Stir in water and vinegar and mix until the dough is saggy. It's okay if it doesn't come together completely at this point. Don't overmix it.

3) Scoop dough out onto plastic wrap. Form dough into a rough rectangle (again, it will still be crumbly). Wrap very tightly in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

4) Remove dough and roll into a long rectangle, about 8x14 on a well-floured surface. Fold the left 1/3 of the dough into the center, then fold the right 1/3 over it. Rotate the dough 90 degrees, roll it out again, and repeat the fold. Do this one more time. If your dough sticks to the counter, use a dough scraper to scrape it up and use more flour. Then fold the dough (which should be much easier to work with now) into a square and wrap it in plastic wrap again. Refrigerate for another hour.

5) For filling, wash mushrooms and add to a microwave safe bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for 4-5 minutes until soft. Drain mushrooms in a colander. When cool, slice thinly.

6) Slice leeks thinly using just the white and light green sections. Add sliced leeks to a large skillet with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook over medium heat until the leeks are soft, about 4 minutes. Add fresh thyme and sliced mushrooms and continue to cook for another minute or two until the mixture is fairly dry.

7) Remove filling from heat and let cool. Then season with a pinch of salt and pepper and stir in sour cream and mustard.

8) When ready to make galette, preheat oven to 400 degrees. Remove dough from fridge 10-15 minutes before making the galette. Roll the dough out into a large 14 inch diameter circle. Use a knife to cut off any edges. Try to make it as round as you can, but it's okay to eyeball it.

9) Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush the center of the dough with olive oil.

10) Add half of the filling to the center of the dough, leaving about 2 inches around the edge. Add 1/2 of the gorgonzola cheese. Top with the rest of the filling and then the rest of the cheese. Drizzle with olive oil.

11) Fold one end of the circle in toward the center, then work around the galette, making folds every few inches.

12) Brush galette with egg wash and transfer to oven. When galette is in oven, turn heat down to 375 and bake for 35-40 minutes until the crust is golden brown.

13) Let cool briefly and serve immediately!

Adapted from Cook's Illustrated Feb. 2012.

Making the Dough

Tart doughs are tricky. I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve struggled with them. Frankly, if you haven’t struggled with them you are either a baking prodigy or a liar.

The trick to this dough is not to overwork it in the beginning and let it rest twice in the fridge. Also, the recipe calls for laminating the dough a bit which means folding it over itself a few times so you develop layers of dough which results in super-flakey crust.

I was worried about this step because it’s the step that proves to be my downfall for things like croissants. But this is a beginner’s laminated dough. I didn’t have any issues with it at all. You won’t either.

Start the dough by mixing together your dry ingredients in a large bowl and then mix in the cubed butter with your fingers. You could use a food processor for this, but I like using my hands. Just get the butter into pea-sized pieces and then add your liquid (top right).

Once your liquid is added, stir it together, but don’t over-work it. There’s no need to bring the dough completely together at this point. The word CI used to describe the dough is “saggy”. I prefer the term “crumbly” (bottom left).

Scoop this crumbly dough out onto some plastic wrap, wrap it very tightly and refrigerate it for about an hour.

Saggy dough is good.

Lamination Domination

I was almost positive that I was going to botch this step, but it was pretty easy actually. Once your dough has rested for an hour in the fridge the flour will be better hydrated and it’ll be closer to one full piece when you unwrap it.

Roll it out on a well-floured board to form a long rectangle. It should be about 8×14 if you want to get specific, but I just eyeballed it (top left). Then fold the bottom 1/3 of the dough up to the center (top right). Then fold the top 1/3 down (bottom left). This basically creates three layers of dough.

Rotate the dough 90 degrees and do the whole rolling and folding process again. For those that aren’t math inclined, the second time you do this, you’ll have 9 layers of dough (3×3). The third and last time you do this, you’ll have 27 layers of dough.

This makes the final dough very flakey and awesome and is worth the 10 minutes or so it takes to do it. Your final dough will be really easy to work with. Before you roll it out though, wrap it in plastic again and stick in the fridge for another hour so it firms up (bottom right).

Like pastry, but actually doable.

Ok. The dough is the hardest part of this guy by a long shot. The filling is straightforward.

Leeky Shrooms

I’m not a huge fan of microwaves, but Cook’s Illustrated suggested using one to soften up the mushrooms for this recipe. I’m not really sure why. You could just slice them and saute them normally, but I figured I would try the microwave thing.

The shrooms!

I just rinsed off my shrooms and added them to a microwave safe bowl. Then covered them with plastic wrap and zapped them for about 4-5 minutes on high.

Seemed to work okay. Notice that I didn’t slice them yet.

Microwave at work.

Drain the mushrooms in a colander. They will release a lot of liquid in the microwave which is the goal. Then slice them thinly.

For the leeks, slice the white and light green parts thinly and add them to a skillet or medium pot with a drizzle of olive oil. Cook the leeks over medium heat until they are soft (about 4-5 minutes), then toss in your sliced mushrooms and fresh thyme.

Pretty colors.

Cook this for another few minutes just to combine the flavors. Then kill the heat and let the filling cool slightly.

You’ll need a few other items to finish off the filling. The original recipe called for créme fraîche, but I just used sour cream. Seemed like a fine substitution.

Flavor town.

Mix in the sour cream and mustard into your filling and maybe hit it with a pinch of salt and pepper.

Filling is done!

Really tasty.

Making the Galette

Once you’re ready to actually make this bad boy, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Take your dough out of the fridge a few minutes before you want to roll it out. Then roll it into a large circle. Ideally, it would be about a 14 inch circle, but you can just eyeball it. I do recommend taking a knife and actually cutting a round shape out of the dough if you have any ends that are sticking out because it will make the folding easier.

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and brush the center with some olive oil. Then pile on half of your filling!

NOTE: I made another change to the recipe at this point. Cook’s Illustrated said to cut tiny holes in the BOTTOM of your galette crust before adding the filling. Five holes to be exact. For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine why you would want to do that and it wasn’t explained at any point in the recipe so I just didn’t do it. No harm done.

Really easy dough to work with.

Crumble on half of your cheese, then the rest of the filling, then the final bit of cheese.

Now it’s time to fold it! Start at one end and just fold the dough to the center.

The first fold.

Rotate the dough and every few inches, just fold the dough toward the center.

Easy enough right?

Get it?

Eventually, you’ll have this wonderful little galette. Once you get it folded all the way around, brush the edges of the dough with egg wash (just an egg scrambled with 1 tablespoon water).

This guy is finally ready for the oven!

Don't forget egg wash.

Oven your galette is in the oven, turn the heat down to 375. Then let it bake for 35-40 minutes.

This guy turned out fantastic.

Nailed it.

The filling for this guy is good, but the crust is amazing. It’s really flakey and flavorful since it has some whole wheat flour in it.

It’s a bit of work, no doubt, but the results are worth it in my opinion.

My first canned thing!

One of my cooking resolutions for the year was to start canning and pickling food. I love the idea of having a pantry full of delicious pickled foods and jams that I can hit up anytime I want.

I also happen to love pickled foods. One of my absolute favorite pickled foods is okra. Spicy okra to be exact. There’s a brand of spicy pickled okra that you can buy in the store but it’s seriously $5-$6 dollars per jar. For okra.

I can house an entire jar in one sitting so it’s a bit of a problem.

When I was at the farmers market a few weeks ago I saw a huge mound of beautiful okra and just decided to make it happen. I’m really glad I did!

Spicy Pickled Okra

Yield: 12 16-ounce Jars

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 50 minutes

Ingredients:

4 pounds fresh okra
12 cloves garlic
12 Serrano peppers
1/2 Teaspoon dill seed per jar
1/2 Teaspoon Szechuan Peppercorns per jar
1/2 Teaspoon red pepper flakes per jar
1/8 Teaspoon pickling crisp granules per jar

Brining Liquid:
8 Cups Water
8 Cups vinegar
1 Cup Pickling salt
1/2 Cup sugar

Helpful Equipment:
16 ounce jars
Canning Kit

Directions:

1) Rinse okra. Sterilize jars, lids, rings, and utensils by boiling them in water for 10 minutes. Bring brining liquid to a boil.

2) To each sterilized jar, add a chopped pepper, a chopped garlic clove, and a big pinch of all the spices. Add 1/8 Teaspoon of pickle crisp to keep the veggies crispy.

3) Stuff jars with okra, stem-side up. Make sure they have some room to move around, but you can fill them pretty full.

4) Pour brining liquid over okra. Leave 1/4-1/2 inch of space at the top of the jar. Seal jars with lids and rings. Gently shake jars to distribute spices and brine.

5) Seal the jars by boiling them in water for 10-15 minutes (15 minutes if you're above 3000 feet).

6) Remove jars and let cool completely for 24 hours. After cooling, check seal on jars by pushing down the middle part of the lid. If it pops back up, the jar isn't sealed.

7) Store in a cool, dark place for 2 weeks. You can then eat them.

The okra will keep fine for one year.

The Okra and Spices

Okra is one of those foods that not everyone likes, but normally the people that do like it absolutely LOVE IT.

I think the people that don’t like tend to dislike the slime factor that okra can have. When it’s pickled it isn’t all that slimy. It’s just delicious.

Lots of okra!

Prepping the okra is really easy. Basically just rinse it off. You can leave the stems and everything on the okra so just rinse it and you’re ready to go.

As far as spices go, I wanted to make sure they had plenty of flavor so I raided my spice drawer!

Great flavors.

While you are prepping all the jars and everything, get your brining liquid started on the stove.

This will smell intense and alert your entire neighborhood that you are, in fact, pickling something.

Don't taste this.

Preparing the Jars

Before I get too far into this post, let me start with a general disclaimer: This is only the second time I’ve ever canned anything ever. Therefore, if you see something that you think might be wrong… it’s probably wrong.

What I do know though is that cleanliness is one of the most important things when it comes to canning. You have to make sure that your jars and utensils are completely sterilized before you add in the food. The easiest way to get this done is to get a large pot of boiling water going and boil all the jars, lids, rings, and utensils for about 10 minutes.

That’ll kill any pesky germs that are living on them.

Once they are clean you can get down to the fun part which is adding in all the spices.

For each jar, I added a whole Serrano pepper, a whole clove of garlic (roughly chopped), and big pinches of various spices. I was a bit worried that these would be too spicy, but they turned out great.

All in the jar.

Once your spices are in the bottom of the jars, you can stuff in as much okra as you can fit!

In reality though, you don’t want to over-stuff the jars. They should be snug, but still be able to move around some so that the pickling liquid can circulate around them.

Stuff it in there.

Once you have the okra and spices in each jar, pour your simmering brine into each one. You’ll need a basic canning kit to make this whole process easier and it’ll come with a perfect funnel that fits the jar heads nicely. It makes it really easy.

When you’re filling up the jars, leave about 1/4-1/2 inch of room at the top of the jars. Don’t worry about covering the okra completely because guess what: they float. So they will always slightly bob above the water line. It’s not a big deal though. They will still pickle fine.

I gave all my jars a good shake once they were sealed though just to make sure the spices were evenly distributed and the okra coated well with the liquid.

Adding the brine.

Sealing the Jars

Sealing the jars is the step that had me the most worried mainly because it involves setting sealed, completely full jars in simmering water for 15 minutes.

I had visions of okra bombs exploding all over my kitchen…

Luckily it went according to plan. Again, the canning kit is pretty essential. It includes a rack so you can set the jars slightly lifted in the pot so water can circulate around them. It also will include a nice set of tongs that will help when lifting the jars in and out of the boiling water.

One note on the cooking time. Based on what I read, if you are below 3,000 feet elevation, you only need to boil the jars for 10 minutes, but since I’m above that I had to go the full 15 minutes.

Very important!

When these jars come out, they will be hot. Like… really hot.

The lids may be slightly bulged out a bit. That’s all totally normal.

Set the jars somewhere so they can cool slowly for 24 hours.

Checking the Seal

After 24 hours, your jars should be sealed air-tight. The way to test this is to press down on the center of the lid. If you can press it down and it pops back up then that jar isn’t sealed correctly. I think this is fairly rare and shouldn’t be something you should worry about. But definitely check them.

All of mine were just fine and considering it was my first try, I thought I would have at least one that wasn’t sealed.

If you do get one that isn’t sealed, you can pop it open, seal it with a new lid and ring and re-process it in boiling water to try to get a good seal. If this happens, be sure to wipe off the rim of the jar before adding the new lid. Sometimes bits of food or dirt can stop the jar from sealing correctly.

Perfect fit!

The Waiting Game

Once the jars are sealed and labeled, store them in a cool, dark place for two weeks before popping one open. That should be enough time to let the pickling liquid work its magic.

Assuming you don’t want to eat all 12 jars immediately, they will keep fine for one year.

I was itching to try these guys out. When I popped my first jar, I knew I was in business based on the smell alone. It smelled spicy and salty and, well, perfect.

The okra was slightly crispy and perfectly flavored.

Chomp!

So far I think I’m batting 1.000 in the canning department. My peach jalapeno jam turned out really great also.

By my estimations, I was able to make this batch of pickled okra for about 1/2 of the cost of the store variety. My next batch will be even cheaper because I’ll have some of the jars already.

Update: A few readers sent me emails saying that I should mention the dangers of botulism when canning. Botulism is a really serious bacteria that can grow in canned foods that have a low acidity or are not cooked to a high enough temperature. The only way to be sure that you are safe is to either A) test the pH level of your food before canning it or B) use a pressure cooker. For more info, check out the USDA’s guide to canning.

It's all about the hash!

I had a few friends in town from New York City a few weeks ago and they really only requested two things in the meal department:

1) A good Tex-Mex dish. (post coming soon)
2) A great brunch dish.

I don’t think I disappointed on either, but I thought the brunch dish was especially good. Granted, I’m biased because eggs benedict happens to be one of my favorite things ever.

I rarely order it at restaurants though because I become irrationally irate if it isn’t perfect. Luckily, when I make them at home, I can normally pull off a pretty solid version.

For this version, instead of switching up the middle layer between the egg and the bread, I switched up the bread by using a really crispy layer of hash browns!

It was a huge hit.

Hash Brown Benedicts

Yield: Serves 4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

4 large russet potatoes, grated
1/4 Cup vegetable oil for cooking hash browns
8 large eggs
8 slices crispy bacon (or a filling of your choice: spinach, ham, crab, avocado, tomatoes, etc.)
1/2 Cup vinegar for poaching eggs
Salt and pepper

Hollandaise Sauce:
2 large egg yolks
3 Tablespoons water
1 Teaspoon vinegar
1 Teaspoon lemon juice
1/2 Teaspoon salt
10-12 ounces clarified butter (made from one pound butter)

Directions:

1) Lay out bacon on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Cook at 350 degrees in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the bacon is really crispy. Remove and turn the oven down to 250 degrees.

2) Grate potatoes and dunk them in ice cold water. Keeping them in water will keep them from discoloring.

3) When ready to cook potatoes, dry them off on a few paper towels. Add to a hot skillet or griddle over medium-high heat with a few Tablespoons of oil. Cook potatoes in batches and as they cook, shape them into 8 bundles. They will take probably 10-12 minutes to get really crispy.

4) Add cooked bundles of hash browns to a sheet pan and store in the warm oven until ready to use.

5) For sauce, mix yolk, water, lemon, salt, and vinegar in a large bowl. Place bowl over simmering water bath. Be sure bowl doesn't touch water.

6) Whisk until egg mixture is frothy and hot. It should at least double in volume and be slightly steaming.

7) Slowly whisk in clarified butter until it forms a smooth sauce. If the sauce gets to thick, add a bit more water and whisk.

8) Poach eggs in water with added vinegar. Cook them for 90-120 seconds.

9) Plate hash browns topped with bacon while eggs cook. Then immediately top with eggs and sauce and serve right away!

Prepping the Base

The thing that can really go wrong with hash browns is discoloration. Potatoes will oxidize really quickly when they are grated and turn this horrible dark purple brown color that is in no way appetizing.

The only way I know of to prevent this is to dunk the hash browns in cold water as soon as you grate them. This will keep them looking nice and fresh.

Shredded and soaking.

When you’re ready to cook the hash browns, pull out a few handfuls from the water and press them on some paper towels to dry them out. Then add them to a large skillet with a good amount of oil over medium-high heat. They’ll hiss and complain for a bit, but that’s good.

While the hash browns cook, use a spatula to kind of portion them out into small segments. Ideally, you are looking for eight hash brown chunks if you are serving four people. The hash browns will probably take 10 minutes total to get nice and crispy.

Once they are done, you can put them all on a sheet pan and keep them in a warm (250 degree) oven until you’re ready to use them.

Nice and crispy.

The Sauce

In my opinion, there are three tricky parts to making a good benedict: timing, eggs, and sauce. We’ll get to the first two in a second, but let’s handle the sauce first since I think that’s the trickiest of the three.

Hollandaise sauce is a lot like homemade mayo, except instead of oil, we’ll use clarified butter. It’s also a warm sauce which makes it a bit easier to mix actually, but you run the risk of over-cooking the eggs which isn’t good.

There are lots of ways to make this sauce and I’m sure there’s an official cooking school way that I don’t know. What I do know is that my way works… so whatever.

Start with two egg yolks in a bowl. To this bowl add all your other ingredients except the butter.

sauce basics.

Whisk everything together and then put the bowl over a pan with simmering water. You want to be sure that the bottom of the bowl isn’t touching the water. You just want it to steam.

Whisk the bowl pretty continuously as the yolk mixture starts to heat up. It’ll be a bit runny at this point, but that’s fine. Keep whisking for about 3 minutes and eventually your mixture will at least double in size and turn really frothy. This should also be hot to the touch at this point and very lightly steaming.

Steamy and frothy is good.

One common mistake that I’ve seen people make when they try to make hollandaise is just to melt butter and whisk it in. This might work, but you won’t get a great sauce with it because butter is about 20% solids which is going to mess up your sauce.

So, even though it’s kind of a pain, if you want to make a really good sauce, you need to clarify your butter before mixing it in with the sauce. I did an entire post on how to clarify butter a year or so ago, so just check that out.

My clarified butter was far from perfect for this version, but it’s still way better than just melted butter. I got about 12 ounces of clarified butter out of 1 pound of butter and I used it all for this sauce.

Not perfect, but it'll work.

Once your egg mixture is frothy and hot, start slowly whisking in the clarified butter. Start slowly and whisk furiously!

As your butter incorporates, the sauce should get really nice and thick.

It’ll be a delicious thing.

Pretty solid if I do say so myself.

You wouldn’t want to make hollandaise sauce way before you serve the meal, but it will keep fine for 15-20 minutes. If it cools down, just put it back over the heat and add a few drops of water. It should loosen up and return to a nice hot sauce without a problem.

The Timing

More than any one ingredient, the timing of eggs benedict can throw some people off. This is the general schedule I used for these:

1) Make bacon in oven
2) Cook hash browns (and hold in hot oven)
3) Put large pot of water on to boil for eggs later
4) Make Hollandaise sauce
5) Poach eggs
6) While eggs poach, lay out each plate and make sure your sauce is hot.
7) Plate and serve right away!

Baked is the only way to go.

Doing this schedule means that the things that are most time sensitive (the eggs and the sauce) are the very last to be prepared.

If you wait more than about five minutes between when the eggs are done and you eat the darn thing, the eggs will be cold and the sauce won’t be great. This is why it’s a hard dish to pull of in a restaurant.

Stack it up!

The Eggs

I haven’t talked about poaching eggs yet and that’s because I find them to be pretty easy to do honestly. Using this method, I can poach four eggs at a time and have about a 95% success rate with the eggs. (You’re bound to lose one occasionally though so have extras ready.)

Get a large pot of water simmering and add about 1/2 cup of plain white vinegar to the water. The acid in the vinegar will make the eggs stick together really nicely.

Give the water a stir with a slotted spoon to create a small whirlpool. Crack the egg in a bowl. Don’t crack it straight into the water. Gently pour the egg into the simmering water from the bowl. Do as many as you feel comfortable with. I used to do two at a time, but these days I can handle four. How many also depends on your pot size.

Set a timer for 90 seconds. Once 90 seconds is up, start checking the eggs. Use a slotted spoon to carefully scoop one out and gently poke it. It should feel firm in the white sections and liquid in the yolk. As the eggs finish, move them to a plate with a paper towel to drain slightly.

Top each hash brown and bacon stack with one egg and a good drizzle of sauce.

Egged and sauced!

To be honest, I’m not sure I would recommend the hash brown method if this is your first benedict ever. Stick with the english muffin just because it removes an element of cooking.

But if you’re feeling ambitious or an eggs benedict expert, this was a freakin’ awesome variation. The potatoes do a great job of sopping up all that delicious sauce and egg mixture. Obviously, if the bacon is too heavy for you, you could use something lighter like tomatoes, spinach, or even crab cakes!

This was easier than I thought it would be.

One of Betsy’s goals for the year was to ditch some of our standard cleaners that we use around the house and make them! Honestly, I was a bit skeptical about this project mainly because I wasn’t sure that homemade cleaners would really get the job done.

And my lovely wife is a bit of a neat freak so there’s no way she would use something that didn’t perform well.

So a couple of weekends ago she went out and bought a few staple ingredients and some empty spray bottles and we spent a few minutes mixing up four different homemade cleaners that have since replaced 90% of the cleaners we use around the house.

For the last few weeks we’ve been using them now and I’ve been so impressed by how well they are working, I thought I’d share them all with you in case any of you are interested in ditching the chemicals.

The Cost of Cleaning. The thing about homemade cleaners is that the initial start-up costs might seem a bit high. A tiny bottle of lavender oil (.5 ounces), for example, will run you $7-$8. But the thing to remember is that for each batch of cleaning solution, you’ll be using literally just a few drops of oil.

I would guess we spent around $30 on our homemade cleaning supplies for these four solutions, but now we have enough supplies to last us years. By the time we run out of lavender oil, for example, our cost per bottle for these cleaners will be reduces to cents.

Basic stuff.

Really Clean Cleaning. After using these solutions for a few weeks, what I’m most impressed with is their cleaning power. They really work. Not only do they work, but I get the strange impression that they are even cleaner than the standard products.

When you clean a counter with the all-purpose cleaner it’s squeaky clean and the whole room smells awesome, not chemical at all. I hate to say this, but having these easily accessible actually makes me like cleaning. DON’T TELL MY WIFE.

My ultimate decision to post on these solutions was just because they worked surprisingly well.

The Basics. Betsy and I did some research on books for home cleaning solutions and I would recommend these two to anyone who wants to learn more:

- Green Clean including vinegar, citrus fruits and baking soda (I guess unavailable for now on Amazon)

- Homemade: How to Make 100′s of Everyday Products

As far as ingredients go, a good number of ingredients you will probably have on hand already at home. Things like vinegar, baking soda, citrus, etc. Those are easy.

The tricky stuff are these items:

Some of these are a bit expensive.

Most of the recipes involve castile soap and a few drops of essential oils. These are the pricey items and the ones that you won’t need to buy very often even if you make a ton of these solutions.

For the recipes I’m giving in this post, you’ll need the below items. You can find all of these at your local supermarket or health food store or you can grab them from Amazon. I’ve included links to the amazon pages.

- Castile Soap - An all-natural soap that’s surprisingly strong. A few drops go a long way. We like the lavender scent, but they have others available.

- Lavender Oil – A natural anti-bacterial oil that smells wonderful.

- Tea Tree Oil – A natural oil that cleanses and disinfects.

- Washing Soda – Sodium Carbonate which is just a strong base that works great as a laundry detergent. It has a million uses around the house.

Mixing the Solutions. If you’re going to do this, definitely buy new, clean plastic bottles. Don’t use old bottles as the trace chemicals in them might react badly.

Also, I’d recommend getting some labels because while they are all different, these solutions all look a bit similar.

The Recipes!

Let’s start with an easy one.

Lavender Anti-Bacterial Spray

- 1 Cup water
- 20 drops lavender essential oil

Easy right?! It’s smells great and lavender is very high in linalool which is naturally antibacterial.

Just a few drops...

The next recipe is the one that we use the most which is the all-purpose cleaner. It’s our daily cleaner now on everything from counters to floors.

One note about this one is that it will bubble A LOT (think high school science volcano) so make sure you leave plenty of room in your bottle for an eruption and mix it over the sink just in case.

All-Purpose Cleaner (Watch out for a reaction! It will bubble a lot.)

- 3 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Teaspoon washing soda
- 1/2 Teaspoon castile soap
- 2 Cups hot water

I think you can see how little of each ingredient is used for a batch.

All mixed up.

The next formula is the one we use on the stove or any place that accumulates a lot of oil or grease.

Grease Cutter (Note that if you have a good eye, I messed up the label on this one for my bottles.)

- 2 Cups water
- 1/4 Cup castile soap
- 10 drops lavender oil

And finally the strongest of the solutions that we made which is for really scrubbing hard to clean areas like bathroom sinks and mildewed tubs.

Bath, Sink, Tile Cleaner (Again, watch out for some bubbling.)
NOTE: Ideally, mix this one in a SQUIRT bottle, not a SPRAY bottle. It’s pretty thick and almost a paste.

- 2/3 Cup baking soda
- 1/2 Cup castile soap
- 2 Tablespoons vinegar
- 1/2 Cup water
- A few drops of Tea Tree oil

Labels definitely help.

Like I said, we’ve been testing these out for the last few weeks now and I really love all of them. My favorite is the all-purpose cleaner and the antibacterial spray which just leaves everything really clean and smells fantastic without being overpowering.

If you’re looking to cut out some chemicals from your cleaning products and save some money (in the long term), you should try these out!

Anybody make their own cleaning supplies? If you have a good tip or recipe, leave a comment!

Such a great appetizer.

I used to be a kitchen minimalist. Ok. Actually, I still am in theory, but one can only be a food blogger for so long before strange contraptions and specific dishes start appearing in your cupboard.

What I’m trying to say is that I’m not entirely sure why there was a 70′s style deviled egg plate in with our normal plates. I think Betsy maybe stole it from her Mom, but the point is that I can’t see something like that and not want to put it to use!

So deviled eggs is the subject and a mighty good one given the upcoming holiday this weekend. You just might need a handy appetizer to take to a party or something and this one will not disappoint. It’s really just a standard deviled egg recipe with bacon coming out its deviled ears, but trust me. They’ll be gone before you can say, “Happy New Year!”

Smokey Deviled Eggs

Yield: 1 dozen

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

6 large eggs (a few weeks old makes them easier to peel)
2-3 slices bacon, cooked crispy
1 Tablespoon bacon grease (yea that's right)
1/3 Cup Mayonnaise
1 Teaspoon dried mustard
1 Teaspoon white vinegar
Pinch of salt and pepper
Smoked paprika for dusting

Directions:

1) To boil eggs, add eggs to a pot with cold water. The water should cover the eggs by about an inch.

2) Set on high heat and cover until the water boils. Once it's boiling, turn off the heat, keep the lid on, and let sit for 13 minutes (more if you're using really big eggs. I used large eggs.)

3) Remove eggs and run under cold water. Crack eggs all around and carefully remove shells.

4) Slice eggs in half and scoop yolk into a bowl. Be careful to keep white halves intact.

5) Cook bacon on a wire rack over a baking sheet in the oven at 350 degrees until very crispy, about 15 minutes.

6) Let cool slightly then pour bacon grease into measuring dish.

7) Add bacon grease, mayo, dried mustard, vinegar, and salt and pepper to yolks and mash well to combine. Mix until smooth. To get rid of all lumps, mix with a hand mixer.

8) Scoop filling into a plastic storage bag. Cut off a corner and carefully fill egg white halves.

9) Dust with paprika and dot each egg with a few pieces of crumbled bacon.

Boiling the Eggs

There’s always a lot of talk about making the perfect hard boiled egg. At the end of the day, I’m pretty sure that it’s impossible to guarantee a perfectly boiled egg 100% of the time because there’s a lot of variables that go into the perfect hard boiled egg like the size of the egg, the age of the egg, etc.

That said, here’s how I do it which gives me pretty consistent results.

Start with older eggs. If the eggs are a few weeks old then they’ll peel easier.

Make sure your eggs are roughly the same size. If you’re totally OCD you could weigh them, but I usually just eyeball it.

These were my six beauties I picked out for this batch of deviled eggs.

Start with the basics.

I start by adding my eggs to a pot with cold water that covers the eggs by about an inch or two. Then cover this and put it over high heat until it starts to boil. Once the water is boiling, turn off the heat but keep the pot covered, and let it sit for 13 minutes!

Now. Thirteen minutes may seem a bit specific to you, but that has always given me good results. If you’re using extra large eggs, go with 15 minutes.

I hope this method works for you, but again, I can’t guarantee a perfectly cooked hard boiled egg 100% of the time.

Prepping the Eggs

Once your eggs have sat in their hot water bath for some amount of time, take them out and run them under cold water. Carefully crack the shell of one egg and peel off the outer shell.

Hopefully. HOPEFULLY. It will peel right off without too much of a problem.

Tricky business.

And hopefully. HOPEFULLY. When you slice into the egg, the yolks are just cooked and there’s no weird gray ring between the yolks and the whites.

This batch turned out great for me.

No green ring!

Once you get all your eggs peeled, carefully scoop out all the yolks and add them to a bowl. Try not to break up the white cups. Set the whites aside for later.

The Bacon

The thing that kicks this recipe up a notch involves bacon. Not only did I sprinkle crunchy bacon on top of each egg, but I also mixed in some bacon grease into the yolk filling.

Evil. I know.

For extra crispy bacon, I like to cook my bacon in the oven on a wire rack over a baking sheet. The grease drips down as the bacon cooks and the bacon gets really crispy.

Baking it at 350 degrees for 12-15 minutes should give you some really crispy sticks.

The only way to cook bacon.

Once it cools a bit, you can pour off the bacon grease as well.

This has tons of flavor and you can save it to cook potatoes in or something. I added a tablespoon of it to my yolk filling to give some nice bacon-y flavor to the eggs.

Liquid gold.

Making the Filling

Once you have all your yolks separated, just mash them up with a fork a bit and then add in all your filling ingredients.

If you’re really picky about lumps, you can mix the filling until really smooth with a hand mixer, but I just used a fork to get my pretty mashed. I don’t mind a few lumps in my filling, but if I were serving a crowd, I might mix them better.

A few lumps won't kill you.

Then I spooned my filling into a plastic bag. These eggs are best if you fill them right before serving, so you can store the filling like this for a day or two without a problem and then just fill the egg whites when you’re ready.

The plastic bag makes it really easy to fill because you can just snip off the end corner with some scissors and use it like a pastry bag.

This dish is in the bag.

Once you fill all the eggs, give them a good dusting of smoked paprika and then dot each egg with some big crumbles of crunchy bacon.

I have every kitchen contraption.

I had to test one out obviously.

Chomp!

It’s funny how just one simple change can really spice up a deviled egg. Just adding some bacon goodness to these guys really make them a completely different deviled egg. I’d also recommend using some really good smoked paprika if you can find some.

Oh and serving them on their own special platter of course. JOKING.

I had absolutely no problem eating 4 or 5 of these right away. They were very delicious.

That said, I did want to make something. Betsy is from Pennsylvania originally and they have this tradition there of doing cookie tables for desserts at weddings instead of a big expensive wedding cake. Basically you just get a few family and friends to make a bunch of cookies and people can eat as many as they can stand.

We used that idea for our wedding, but had other desserts besides just cookies. For example, my one contribution to the wedding food was these cute little red velvet cupcakes.

How cute are these?

I really like red velvet cupcakes because well A) they are delicious but B) they are a prime example of the old motto that you eat first with your eyes. One time I made a batch of these and ran out of red food coloring so my cupcakes were more rust colored than RED. They somehow did not taste as good.

Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: 2 dozen cupcakes

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

3/4 Cup unsalted butter, room temp.
287 grams cake flour (not self-rising). About 2 1/2 cups.
3 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
2 Cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 Teaspoon salt
1 1-ounce bottles of red liquid food coloring
3 Tablespoons lukewarm water
1 Cup buttermilk (very important)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
1 Tablespoon white vinegar

Basic Cream Cheese Frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 Cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 Teaspoon vanilla extract
2 Cups confectioners sugar, sifted

Helpful Equipment:
Stand Mixer (Not essential, but it sure does make it easy.)
Digital Scale (Essential if you want consistent results.)

Directions:

1) To make batter, whisk cake flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder in a bowl.

2) Cream together butter and sugar in a stand mixer or in a large bowl with a hand mixer until it's nice and fluffy.

3) Add eggs, one at a time, to the creamed butter. Then add water, salt, vanilla, and red food coloring.

4) Add 1/3 of your dry ingredients to the mix, followed by 1/2 of you buttermilk, then another 1/3 of your dry stuff, followed by the last 1/2 of your buttermilk. Finally, stir in the last 1/3 of the dry stuff.

5) Combine the baking soda and vinegar in a separate bowl and then stir that into the batter.

6) Fill cupcake tins with liners and fill 2/3s full.

7) Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes.

8) For the frosting, cream together the butter and the cream cheese until it's very light and fluffy. Definitely whip it for 3-4 minutes. Then stir in the vanilla. Stir in the powdered sugar in 2 or 3 batches.

9) Let cupcakes cool completely and then frost with the buttercream frosting.

Adapted from Martha Stewart.

Making the batter

I’m not a huge fan of box cake mix. My deal with it is that if I’m going to be eating something sweet and fattening, I want it to be as good as possible and I just really feel like that the made-from-scratch version of most baked goods is substantially better than the boxed version if you have the time to do it.

The line up.

What you’ll realize after you start making stuff like this from scratch is that the whole boxed cake thing is kind of a scam. I mean, it doesn’t take that much longer to just make it from scratch and assuming you have a decently stocked pantry, it’s not necessarily more expensive either.

Anyway, to make this batter, start by whisking your cake flour, baking powder, and cocoa powder in a bowl. Cake flour is extremely important for any cake recipe hence the name.

Just to make sure that I have no clumps in my dry ingredients, I usually sift them once, but I’ve made these by just whisking them for a bit to combine well and it worked fine also.

A whisk is what you need.

The only other thing I’ll mention about the dry ingredients is that it’s pretty hard to measure out the flour correctly without a digital scale. If you’re baking even occasionally, this is a kitchen tool you should have. If you don’t have one then check this one out!

Back to the batter… once your dry ingredients are combined, add your butter and sugar to your mixer and mix on medium for about 3-4 minutes until the butter and sugar are combined and really fluffy. This is the creaming step.

If you don’t have a stand mixer you could definitely use a hand mixer.

Light and fluffy!

Next, slowly add your eggs, one at a time and then add the water, salt, vanilla, and red food coloring.

This will stain your counters...

Be careful with the red food coloring. It’ll stain anything it touches. It especially stained the white shirt I was for some reason wearing while I was making these…

Once you have the base for your batter done, you just need to incorporate your buttermilk and dry ingredients. Start by slowly adding 1/3 of your dry ingredients, then 1/2 your buttermilk, then 1/3 of your dry ingredients, then the last half of your buttermilk. Finally, the last of your dry ingredients. So: dry, wet, dry, wet, dry.

At the very end, you’ll want to combine your vinegar and baking soda to provide some fizz to the finished cakes.

Fizzzz.

You’re final batter should be really light and fluffy and very, very red. If you’re using a stand mixer, remember to scrape down the sides of your bowl occasionally. This was something that I did a kind of bad job at for this batch.

There ya go!

Baking the cupcakes

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and line your baking cups with cupcake liners. Fill up your cupcakes until they are about 2/3 full. I also, without fail, overfill my first batch.

For example, these are overfilled.

I always overfill the first batch.

Assuming you fill them correctly, they’ll need to bake for about 20 minutes at 350 degrees.

These were my overfilled ones.

My cake overfloweth.

The good news about cupcakes is that even if they overflow a bit they’ll still taste good as long as you slather on some good cream cheese frosting.

The Frosting

In my opinion, there’s really only one option when it comes to frosting a red velvet anything: cream cheese frosting. It’s sweet and tangy and just perfect with the subtle chocolate flavor of the cake.

This frosting is about as easy at it gets to make.

A simple frosting.

Just add your butter and cream cheese to a stand mixer or bowl with a hand mixer and start mixing until the mixture is light and fluffy. Don’t be afraid about over-whipping. I whipped mine for 3 or 4 minutes. Then add your vanilla and mix it in.

Next, start adding your sifted confectioner’s sugar in two or three batches. Mixing it in well after every batch. You should end up with a fluffy but very flavorful frosting.

I put mine in a pastry bag to pipe it onto the cupcakes, but you could definitely just smear it on.

The Most Important Thing

The most important thing to remember before frosting these guys is to make sure they’re completely cool. I cooled mine on a wire rack for about 30 minutes before I even thought about frosting them.

I think these were sellable honestly.

These were really good. For the wedding, I even made them two days in advance and they were still one of the first desserts to be devoured!

So if you’re in the market for a good cupcake recipe, give this one a shot!

1. How seriously, unbearably hot it is in DC in August. I am a cold weather person. This sweltering heat is not to my liking.

2. How much I love cucumbers.

Luckily, both of these things factored into this delicious chilled cucumber soup I made over the weekend.

Simple and refreshing.

This soup is really nothing fancy and while the original recipe calls for cubanelle peppers, I’m very convinced that you could use a bell pepper or a jalapeno if you wanted a bit more heat. The cubanelle is a nice pepper though if you can find it. The original recipe says they use it mainly because it starts with a “C”.

Cucumber Soup with Cubanelles

Yield: Serves 4-6.

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes + chill time

Ingredients:

3 large cucumbers, peeled and seeded
1/2 cubanelle pepper, seeded and diced
2 Cups water (The original called for 2 1/2 Cups but mine was looking pretty watery so I cut it down a bit)
1/3 Cup olive oil
1/2 Cup cashews, roughly chopped
2 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
1-2 garlic cloves
Salt and Pepper

Garnish:
Diced tomatoes
Diced cubanelle pepper (the other half you have left over will work great)

Helpful Equipment:
Blender (I like this blender. It doesn't have a lot of fancy settings, but it works like a charm.)

Directions:

1) Peel off the cucumbers’ skin, slice them in half horizontally and scoop out the seeds, and then roughly chop into 1/2 inch sections.

2) Dice the cubanelle a bit finer just to make sure they get blended really well. You can leave the skin on for them.

3) Very roughly chopped the garlic and cashews.

4) Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend it up! This may require two batches.

5) After the soup is blended, be sure to taste for salt and pepper.

6) Stick the soup in the fridge for probably three hours (or overnight) to make sure it’s chilled really well.

7) Garnish the soup with some diced tomato, more diced cubanelle pepper, and a few drizzles of olive oil.

Adapted from Gourmet Sept. 2009.

Since there are only a few ingredients in this soup, each of them really comes through. Especially the cashews in my mind. The cucumber kind of acts as a backdrop and is always there, but the cashews give a great flavor and feel to the soup. I’m not sure that it would be anywhere near as good without them.

The vinegar gives some necessary bite also, but you could substitute white wine or maybe even balsamic if you didn’t have red wine vinegar on hand.

Cubanelles are the ugly duckling of peppers.

Prepping the Veggies

Everything is really easy to prep considering we are going to blend it all together.

For the cucumbers, peel off the skin, slice them in half horizontally and scoop out the seeds, and then roughly chop into 1/2 inch sections.

No skin. No seeds.

For the cubanelles, I diced them a bit finer just to make sure they get blended really well. You can leave the skin on for them. I also very roughly chopped the garlic and cashews.

No need for perfection here.

Blending it up!

I had to do mine in two batches which I recommend to avoid a blender explosion. It blends up really nicely.

But Nick I don’t have a blender! Well, if you diced everything really finely, you would end up with a kind of hearty cucumber gazpacho that would still be very tasty. It’s just way more work.

You could also invest in a food mill which will give you a must heartier, more rustic final product.

I love my blender.

After the soup is blended, be sure to taste for salt and pepper. If it isn’t salted well this soup can be a bit bland.

Cool it down

There is nothing like a lukewarm bowl of cucumber broth to really refresh the senses. (Sarcasm.) You’ll want to stick this soup in the fridge for probably three hours to make sure it’s chilled really well.

In fact, overnight would be even better.

I garnished the soup with some diced tomato, more diced cubanelle pepper, and a few drizzles of olive oil.

Artsy drops of oil.

Betsy and I ate this two days in a row and not only was it incredibly easy to make, but it was very refreshing. After a long day in the sun it great to have a nice bowl of this to come home to.

Even if soups intimidate you, this is a great one to try out. Especially during these dog days of summer.

Turns out that there is a hot sauce, that looks awesome, called Boss Sauce. I don’t really know what that Boss Sauce tastes like, but it looks like a solid hot sauce. I decided to make my own though. The Macheesmo Boss Sauce.

Boss. Bottled.

I thought this search info was very odd before I realized that Boss Sauce is an actual thing. In retrospect, I guess people are searching for it to see if I use it. Never have!

And yes. You may notice that I have one reader (Hi Bill) that frequently communicates with me by typing messages into the search box. Thanks Bill.

I had never really tasted boss sauce, but I had a few ideas of what I wanted mine to taste like. First, it had to be spicy. For me this was a no-brainer. Second, I wanted to make a sauce that would be good on a lot of different things. For me, this meant a barbeque sauce.

Macheesmo Boss Sauce

Yield: Makes 3-4 cups.

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients:

1 large onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
2-3 habaneros, diced
3 large yellow tomatoes, peeled and cut into 1/8 sections (You could use red obviously, I just liked the color.)
10 strawberries (optional, but I liked the fruity touch. Kind of a mystery ingredient.)
1/4 Cup Dijon mustard
1/4 Cup white wine vinegar
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 Teaspoons hot sauce (Tabasco for example)
Salt and pepper
Olive oil
1/2 Teaspoon - 1 Teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional. It might be hot enough without this for most people)

Directions:

1) Roughly chop all the veggies.

2) Dip each tomato into boiling water for about 10 seconds and then remove them. Let them cool for a few minutes and the skin on each tomato should peel right off. Then chop them into 1/8 sections.

3) In a large pan, put a few tablespoons of oil in the pan along with the onions and garlic.

4) Let the onions and garlic soften up a bit, just for a few minutes. Then add all the peppers.

5) Cook for a few more minutes and then add the tomatoes and strawberries. Hit the veggies with a good pinch of salt at this point.

6) Once all of that cooks down for a few more minutes, transfer all the veggies to a food processor or blender and give them a whirl.

7) Transfer the sauce back to the stove, preferably to a narrow pot sort of what you would use for stock. Add all the other ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes or so.

8) Cool sauce and then fill up an empty ketchup bottle and keep it in the fridge and use it anytime you want to give something a little kick.

Getting the veggies started

To start this sauce, roughly chop all the veggies. Don’t worry about getting them too even. Everything is going to get blended together anyway.

For the tomatoes, dip each one into boiling water for about 10 seconds and then remove them. Let them cool for a few minutes and the skin on each tomato should peel right off. Then you can chop them into 1/8 sections.

In a large pan, put a few Tablespoons oil in the pan along with your onions and garlic.

Don't worry about chopping much.

Let the onions and garlic soften up a bit, just for a few minutes. Then add all your peppers!

This is a pretty good amount of heat.

Cook for a few more minutes and then add your tomatoes and strawberries. Now the strawberries are kind of an odd ingredient for a sauce. Honestly, it was a last minute decision. It gave the final product a kind of fruity taste, but it was very subtle. I don’t think you could identify strawberries as an ingredient if you didn’t know about them.

I also hit the veggies with a good pinch of salt at this point.

Strawberries and tomatoes added.

Once all of that cooks down for a few more minutes, transfer all the veggies to a food processor or blender and give them a whirl.

I love my blender.

Spicing up the sauce

The sauce right now is kind of one dimensional. Which, by the way, is not a good description for a sauce. Basically, it just taste like a tomato sauce that is really spicy. I decided to add some ingredients to it to hopefully round out the flavor a bit.

This is what I pulled out of the pantry.

Some extras.

To add these ingredients, transfer the sauce back to the stove, preferably to a narrow pot sort of what you would use for stock. Add all the other ingredients and simmer for 5 minutes or so.

The real key is to taste the sauce and adjust to your tastes. This is a good base, but feel free to adjust it. Definitely taste for salt and heat and maybe add a pinch of salt and pepper and cayenne to adjust all those things.

Ok. What do you do with this stuff?

Well, you can do a lot of things. I thought I would try it out on a nice pork chop.

A good looking chop.

I just seasoned the pork chop with salt and pepper and browned it in a pan for about 5 minutes a side. The juices should run clear, but a perfectly cooked chop will have a tiny hit of pink in the center, especially near the bone.

This was my plain old dinner, which looks just fine.

But then I kicked it up a notch by covering everything in the sauce!

This recipe makes a lot of this sauce. Once it was cooled, I filled up an empty ketchup bottle and now I just keep it in the fridge and use it anytime I want to give something a little kick.

Check back tomorrow also. I’m posting on the second thing I did with this sauce, which is maybe the best application for it.

So, everyone out there who was searching for boss sauce… your searches have been answered.

Oh sorry. I mean Niçoise salad. And as I was corrected on many times, it’s pronounced [niˈswaz]. Not Nicoozy. Or Nicweese.

Anyway, the point is that Niçoise salads are delicious.

I'm embarrassed to say I ate all of this by myself.

Let me start by saying that I may offend some French readers by messing with this classic dish. I substituted asparagus for the traditional green beans in the dish and I completely left out capers by accident. That said, I thought my version was pretty darn tasty.

Nicoise Salad

Yield: Serves 2-4.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

1 8 Ounce tuna steak
12 new potatoes
1 bunch of asparagus
4 hard boiled eggs
1/2 Cup Niçoise olives
2 ripe tomatoes, sliced (or use cherry tomatoes)
1/2 red onion, sliced thin
Anchovies (optional)
Capers (I left these out but they would definitely be good in the dish.)
Lettuce or greens (apparently the use of lettuce or no lettuce is also debatable. I like a bed of lettuce so I used it.)

Vinaigrette:
1 shallot, minced
1 Tablespoon minced oregano (you could also use basil, thyme, or a bit of all of them)
1 Teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 lemon, juice only
2-3 Tablespoons red wine or balsamic vinegar
1/2 - 3/4 Cup olive oil
Salt and pepper

Directions:

1) Add all the dressing ingredients in the order listed above to a jar and shake it up! Really go to town on it. Be sure to taste it and adjust accordingly.

2) Get a large pot of water boiling with a Tablespoon of salt. Once the water is boiling, add the potatoes first to the dish. After five minutes, carefully lower the eggs into the boiling water.

3) After about 10 more minutes, the eggs and potatoes should be done at the same time. Take them out and toss in the asparagus. Be sure to clip off the ends on the asparagus.

4) The asparagus will only need about 4 minutes. Pull them and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking.

5) Peel the eggs and toss the asparagus and potatoes (cut them in half after cooking them) with a few Tablespoons of the dressing.

6) Put a skillet over high heat with a bit of oil in it.

7) Coat the tuna with oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Once the oil is very hot in the pan, toss in the tuna.

8) Cook it for 3 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other. If you don’t like the tuna rare (blasphemy), then cook it a bit longer on both sides.

9) Pull off the tuna and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing it up.

10) Put the salad together and enjoy!

Making the dressing

Anytime I have a mustard jar, I hang onto it after all the mustard is gone. Turns out that the jar is perfect for making a vinaigrette. You need a bit of mustard to help emulsify the olive oil and vinegar so by using the jar to shake up your vinaigrette you get a bit of mustard and also can store any leftovers in the jar.

Basically, add all your ingredients in the order listed above to the jar and shake it up! Really go to town on it. Be sure to taste it and adjust accordingly.

To anyone who called me weird for keeping empty mustard jars.

Prepared ingredients

There are a few ingredients in this salad that are already prepared for you. Things like the anchovies, capers, and olives should be ready to go. If you can’t find Nicoise olives, I think you could probably use kalamata olives. I wouldn’t use black olives. You should be able to find Nicoise olives in most stores though.

Small and flavorful.

Blanching the vegetables

Besides the tuna, there are only three things you need to cook for this salad: the eggs, the potatoes, and the asparagus. Luckily, you can do them all in one dish.

Get a large pot of water boiling with a Tablespoon of salt. Once the water is boiling, add your potatoes first to the dish. After five minutes, carefully lower your eggs into the boiling water. Some people have a very specific way that they like to make hard boiled eggs, but I opted for simplicity over perfection for this. It might mean that some of the shell sticks to the egg, but it isn’t the end of the world.

After about 10 more minutes, your eggs and potatoes should be done at the same time. Take them out and toss in your asparagus. Be sure to clip off the ends on the asparagus.

The asparagus will only need about 4 minutes. Pull them and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking.

Peel your eggs and toss your asparagus and potatoes (cut them in half after cooking them) with a few Tablespoons of your dressing.

Blanched and tossed.

Searing the Tuna

Put a skillet over high heat with a bit of oil in it. Coat your tuna with oil and sprinkle with a pinch of salt. Once your oil is very hot in the pan, toss in your tuna. Cook it for 3 minutes on one side and 3 minutes on the other. If you don’t like your tuna rare (blasphemy), then cook it a bit longer on both sides.

Pull off the tuna and let it rest for a few minutes before slicing it up.

Good lookin' seafood.

Then watch this helpful animation on putting together the whole thing!

Making the salad!

I’m not kidding that I ate this entire salad by myself. This was probably 2/3s of the whole recipe. I put it all together for the photo but then was going to take part of it for lunch along with some of the other leftovers. I ended up eating all of it in one sitting. It’s a really awesome pairing of flavors.

Lots of flavor going on here.

I thought this was perfect for the summer. If I had a grill, I would’ve grilled the tuna, asparagus, and potatoes. Blanching them was the more traditional way to go though.

If you are looking for a flavor-packed salad, you can’t lose with this.

Spicy food is one of my favorite things and I like my spicy food to be really spicy so I was happy to see this. I like spicy stuff so much that I’m usually that annoying guy in an Indian food restaurant that asks the chef to “Bring it on!” This sometimes results in serious pain, but it’s always fun and I just can’t get enough of the spice even if I know it is burning my taste buds off.

For this dish I cooked chicken slowly in a homemade mango and habanero sauce so it would absorb some of the flavors. It was spicy, flavorful and yet it was pretty light and summery due to the mangos.

This was spicy and delicious.

Quick Rant. Before I bust out the recipe I used for this, let me just say that I highly dislike it when grocery stores (especially high-end ones – I’m looking at you Whole Foods!) don’t keep their produce in the appropriately labeled bin. For example, when trying to buy some Habaneros for this dish, there were two different kinds of very small pepper in the bin marked habaneros. I knew only one of them was actually habaneros, but it was hard to tell which one. So I ended up buying five of each kind. And yes, I did ask an employee, but they had no idea.

Mango Habanero Simmer Sauce

Yield: 2 cups of sauce

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

5 Habanero peppers (5 equals a pretty spicy sauce. I think I would make it even spicier if I made it again.)
3 Mangos or 1 30 Ounce can of Mango pulp which can be found at Indian food stores.
2 Tablespoons oil
1 small onion, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 Cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tablespoons Molasses (I think you could use honey also)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 Tablespoons mustard (Dijon or dry is fine)
1 Tablespoon cumin
1/4 cup brown sugar
Juice from 1 lime
Kosher salt to taste

Helpful Equipment:
Le Creuset 7.25 Quart French Oven or high quality Cast Iron Dutch Oven

Directions:

1) De-seed and dice the peppers pretty fine. Dice the mangoes.

2) To make the sauce, start by heating up the oil in a large pan. Add the onion, garlic, and peppers and sauté for 3-5 minutes on medium heat until they are soft. Then add the mangos and stir for 5 more minutes.

3) After 5 minutes, add all the other ingredients. Let the sauce simmer on low for 15-20 minutes.

4) After the sauce has reduced a bit, taste it! Add some salt if necessary. Maybe add another pepper if the spice level isn’t high enough.

5) While the sauce is cooking, prepare the chicken. In an oven/stove top safe pan, heat a few Teaspoons of oil over high heat and then set the chicken in the pan for about 3 minutes per side. The chicken should brown nicely.

6) Then pour the sauce over the chicken (the sauce should still be boiling hot) and stick the whole thing in the oven for about an hour (30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered) at 325 degrees.

Note: If you don’t have a pan like that, you can sear the chicken in a standard pan and then transfer the chicken to an oven safe baking dish and cover with the sauce and cook for one hour at 300 degrees. You could cover the baking dish with foil for the first 30 minutes to mimic the first option.
At the halfway mark and gently stir the chicken pieces around.
Serve over a bed of rice with some chopped cilantro as a garnish.

Adapted from a ChileFire recipe.

These are the fruits and veggies you will need. Notice the two different peppers. The smaller ones are deadly. The larger ones I could eat like an apple.

HINT: The very small peppers are habaneros. The larger ones are impostors.

After tasting and learning which peppers were the real deal, I decided to use both anyway, because I had them. If habaneros were too hot for you, you could use something milder like a jalapeno, but the intense heat goes really well with the mango.

De-seed and dice your peppers pretty fine. You can dice your mango loosely. It will dissolve mostly in the sauce anyway.

Some basic prep work.

As noted in the recipe, you will also need all of the below stuff. The original recipe called for way more molasses and Worcestershire sauce but I cut way back on both of those for fear that they would dominate the sauce. In fact, I think you could leave the molasses out all together or substitute honey for it.

Other recommended simmer ingredients.

The Sauce

To make the sauce, start by heating up your oil in a large pan. Add the onion, garlic, and peppers and sautee for 3-5 minutes on medium heat until they are soft. Then add the mangos and stir for 5 more minutes. The mangos should release a lot of liquid and make a kind of soup.

After 5 minutes, you can add all your other ingredients.

Then let the sauce simmer on low for 15-20 minutes. It should reduce by about 1/4, but keep a close eye on it so it doesn’t burn or scorch! Stir it frequently.

Strange brew.

After the sauce has reduced a bit, taste it! Add some salt if necessary. Maybe add another pepper if the spice level isn’t high enough. Play around with it and have fun!

The Chicken

While the sauce is cooking, you can prepare your chicken. I actually used a whole chicken that I cut up because that’s my preferred method, but you could use all boneless skinless breasts if that is your favorite. This is more than enough sauce for an entire chicken or 4-6 breasts depending on the size.

In any event, once you have your chicken ready to go, there are basically two steps that we need to happen: 1) Sear the chicken on high heat in a few Teaspoons of oil and 2) Slow cook the chicken on low heat in the simmer sauce.

If you have a pan that is oven safe and stove top safe (Le Creuset is the best but pricey, Lodge’s model has good reviews also), this is super easy. In your pan, heat a few Teaspoons of oil over high heat and then set your chicken in the pan for about 3 minutes per side. The chicken should brown nicely. Then pour your sauce over the chicken (the sauce should still be boiling hot) and stick the whole thing in the oven for about an hour (30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered) at 325 degrees.

If you don’t have a pan like that, you can sear the chicken in a standard pan and then transfer the chicken to an oven safe baking dish and cover with the sauce and cook for one hour at 300 degrees. You could cover the baking dish with foil for the first 30 minutes to mimic the first option.

The simmer is on.

The slow cooking

Because I was using a cast iron pan, I chose to cover my dish for 30 minutes which trapped in all the moisture and flavor and really got everything mingling together. Then I uncovered it for the last 30 minutes to let the sauce reduce further. This worked like magic.

I also checked it when I uncovered it at the halfway mark and gently stirred the chicken pieces around. The slow cooking basically means that you can’t overcook this dish. The chicken will be super moist and flavorful no matter what. And the sauce, while kind of difficult to photograph, is very spicy but kind of sweet from the mangos and brown sugar.

I served mine over a bed of rice with some chopped cilantro as a garnish.

Tender and spicy. Very spicy.

This dish was freakin’ good and spicy. I ate it for a few days in a row and it never got old. If you didn’t want it so spicy you could cut down on the peppers a bit, but I think the heat is lovely.

Be sure to check back tomorrow for a new poll on what I should make next week and some other fun stuff!