Get them cookin' right away ..

Just a beauty shot or two of daughter Chloe's fabulous lemon bomb cake. She took the photos too! Recipe to come...

Onion ring eggs

O-Ring Eggs!

Oh the decadent treat of O-rings! We have our favorites once in awhile over at Pepperland Cafe in South Berwick, Maine. It's our "regular" and once in awhile we order these deadly delicious items. There are always too many for two people to consume and leftover fried food seems less than a good idea. Our delightful waitress suggested having them for breakfast with eggs, so we came up with this concoction which was incredibly good.

Melt a little butter in a frying pan. Add the onion rings - two for each egg and crisp them up a bit. Flip once.  Stack them two high and break an egg into the center.  Fry until set, then flip over easy!  We served them with a dollop of Pepperland Cafe's "Ketjap" ontop. If you can't get your hands on some of that elixir, try a dusting of curry powder and salt and eat them up!

Simply artichokes!

What can be better than some freshly steamed artichokes? Nothing! Take your artichokes - the globe type are so lovely... trim off the prickly parts on the end if you can be bothered. If not, steam them for an hour in a pot with water, white wine and some garlic. Enjoy with some fresh mayo or as we do the melted butter.

Pull off the leaves, dip, scrape and enjoy! The heart is located right under that fuzzy choke which you can easily pull off with a knife!

Breakfast revisited

Been extra busy here at chez Schwake. Less time for new recipes. Today however was one of those days where Rainer stepped in to do a little special love breakfast just for me. I guess he knew I needed it.

Who wouldn't want to wake up to this little butterfly breakfast? It cheered me immensely.

How to do:

Shake scramble (Julia Child style) your two beaten eggs in a nonstick pan with some butter.

Roll them onto the plate

Cut your toast into butterfly wings

Sprinkle with fresh chives from the garden

Cut two longer chives for antennae.

Enjoy!

Friday: no recipe but a round of applause!

This lovely dinner was made by our daughter Chloe. We enjoyed this fabulous meal of Sauteed BBQ Chicken, Herbed carrots and beans and greens. No recipes as she sort of made it up as she went along and did it on her own. It was so very good. Chloe, "cook of dinner", hooray!

Thursday: Spinach salad, best ever

I will admit it, I really don't like to make salads. I love to eat them however. But today I was craving something in the spinach salad department and no one would make one for me. I had to do it myself and make do with what I had in the larder. Sometimes that makes the best combinations! Today was a really good mix so I thought I would share it here.

For one:

Rinse and spin out 3 cups of baby spinach leaves

Place in bowl and add on top:

1 chopped yellow delicious apple

1/4 sweet onion chopped

1/2 cup crumbled goats cheese

1 carrot peeled and sliced thinly

1/2 cup of raw sunflower seeds

Drizzle over the top:

1/2 a squeezed lemon

1/4 cup olive oil

Toss and enjoy. Man this was so good!

Wednesday: Blueberry Corn muffins

Always delightful. Here's what to do:

• 1 1/4 cups unbleached organic flour
• 1/2 cup organic cornmeal
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 cup frozen blueberries

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with paper muffin liners.
2. Sift flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, salt and baking powder together into a large bowl. Dredge the blueberries in the sifted ingredients. In a small bowl, combine the milk, butter and egg. Stir the wet ingredients into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin tins.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes. Let muffins sit for 10 minutes before removing from the pan.