Eggs Anyone?

     Are brown eggs healthier than white? While the food industry encourages this consumer belief, according to the Egg Nutrition Center in Washington, D.C., one color egg is not more nutritious or more flavorful than another. Possibly brown eggs cost more because the chickens that produce them are costlier to maintain. Cultural differences have long dictated the use of brown or white eggs, for example brown are more popular in the United Kingdom and white in the United States.

     In our house, Pop prefers brown and I use white because they are cheaper (and I discern no difference in taste). However I do think the two together provide a lovely picture of contrast.

Doughnuts on a String

     The girls have grown up quite a bit since this day at the farm but still giggle with pleasure upon remembering the fun - a beautiful autumn day and a simple, old-fashioned game of doughnuts on a string...

Thanks for Cranberry Tea

     Thanksgiving is, of course, a day set aside to give thanks. It is also a time to celebrate food. While our grocery stores and markets offer endless foodstuffs on a daily basis, they take on a different personality in November - warmer, cozier and perhaps a little closer to our roots. An emphasis is placed on traditions and cooking from scratch therefore natural, unrefined products such as whole vegetables and poultry take center stage. Even the most commercialized chain stores resemble a country market at harvest time.

                                                                                              Cranberry relish is a refreshing Thanksgiving staple at our house. Made from chopped fresh berries and an orange, its tartness is tempered with a little sugar. However, last year I was introduced to cranberry tea and it has become a real favorite not just for the holiday, but for the whole winter season. The berries are simmered in water, then the juice of a lemon and an orange are added, along with some sugar, cinnamon and cloves. After steeping and straining, the tea can be served hot in a mug (wonderful on a wintry afternoon - a crockpot for serving if a crowd is present). The tea is equally appealing poured cold and garnished with a citrus slice and if one is inclined, a splash of rum converts the pretty garnet beverage into a sparkling cocktail!

Elk

     Elk are familiar to me only as part of the motif for Northwoods style home decor. They are one of North America's largest land mammals and are native to my Midwest home (but were largely gone by 1865), so I was prompted by the news recently to become a little more intimate with the creatures. It seems that St. Louis County is experiencing a shortage of funds and has to make budget cuts. A proposal was made to close several parks, one of which was Lone Elk, a wildlife preservation area that is home to bison, deer, elk. waterfowl and turkey. While there has been a great public clamor against the idea, I felt a predispositon to visit the park, perhaps for the last time  if funding does not become available.

     This bull and one of his harem (there were three other females not far away) were quite unperturbed by our presence. Although shot with a 250mm zoom, they were nonetheless very close to our car. And when papa elk stood up to stretch and stared right at me, I was glad to have followed the rules posted at the park entrance, "Elk Rutting Season - Please Remain in Vehicle at All Times!" He was a magnificent creature.

The Old Farmhouse

     Our part of St. Louis county was originally a combination of forest and fertile farmland. The explosion of suburbs that began in the 1950s has reached the northern county limits, with the rare exception of the remnants of a family farm here or there. The farmhouse pictured here still  retains several outbuildings, but no other vestige of the constant activity that transpired for a lifetime or two. There are no furrowed fields or chickens scratching in the dirt. There is no flapping clothesline and the pump is rusted from disuse. But saddest of all, and more evident when the trees are bare, is the state of the poor house - it is slowly sinking in the center, and its appearance is almost cartoon-like. The graying clapboard siding, the screened porch, the window and the green door all remain intact, just slightly askew. I love this reminder of another life and time, but mourn its slow demise.

Apples to Applesauce (with or without long peelings)

     According to Guinness World Records: “The record for the longest unbroken apple peeling is held by Kathy Walfer (USA) who peeled an apple in 11 hours 30 minutes with a peel length of 52.51m, 172ft 4in, at Long Ridge Mall, Rochester, New York on 16 October 1976”.

     My great-aunt  always said that an unbroken apple peeling is a sign of a good cook. My apple peelings don't get too long because I am always popping pieces in my mouth (or someone else's). I have an apple corer-peeler-slicer that's been used a few times but it's cumbersome to use, a nuisance to clean and the slices are too thin for my taste, so I prefer to use a good knife instead, and in the end, the same amount of time is probably used. Plus I can sit on the back porch or in the tv room while peeling.

     A bowl of peeled Golden Delicious apples soon becames a pan of chunky slices on the stove which soon becomes a bowl of applesauce. Very lightly sweetened and spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg and a dash of cloves, the applesauce is good either warm or cold, and doesn't last very long!

Cherry Tomatoes - A Late Harvest

     Cutting up and pulling out tomato plants at the end of the growing season is not a task I relish - the vines are scratchy, smelly and clingy. But as I hacked at the outer stems, removing them to a bin, I found a hidden bounty. Perhaps because we haven't been hit with a really hard frost yet and because they were protected by a tangle of vines and leaves, dozens of large clusters of Sweet Million cherry tomatoes remained to be harvested. This welcome yield enhanced my chore and I filled two large bowls with the fruit, which ranged evenly from firm and unripened to juicy and ripe. The green fellows were chopped and cooked with onions, sugar, spices and vinegar, and the result was a sweet tart relish to store in the refrigerator.

Some of the perfect red specimens were saved for salads and the rest were sliced for drying. The halves were placed on a parchment-lined pan, drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with a little salt.

With the oven set at 200 degrees, the tomatoes took about eight hours to dry. After nibbling several (to make sure they were done, of course), I placed them in an airtight container in the refrigerator. In a week or two, they will be a wonderful chewy addition to an artisan bread, asiago perhaps, or a simple pasta entree.

Snow Dog or Leaf Dog?

     A husky is quite at home in snow but at this time of year Nikki must make do with a leafy carpet instead. He has been known to scratch the leaves away, and sometimes the grass, to make an earthen bed in which to recline, but on this day he just stretched out and appeared content enough to rest atop, or rather, among all of the scraps of autumn.

Autumn Trail Ride

     An outing to the stable several years ago provided me with one of my favorite fall photos. It is not a gorgeous display of color or landscape but rather a study of details: the patient plodding horses and their contented passengers, the rough craggy surface of the limestone wall, the scattered leaf piles on the gravel road, and the filtered sunlight dappling all. Also interesting, and serving to highlight the very busy foreground, are the hazy forested hillsides in the distance which disappear into a faint horizon.

Vampires and Pinwheels

     Now it is November but Halloween images still haunt my house (at least until Saturday when I can put them all away!) The last story of vampires was read yesterday and feted with pinwheel cookies. Orange and chocolate dough provided the appropriate colors. Rolled out and rolled up, the buttery log of dough was refrigerated for a few hours, then sliced thin and baked. The cookies were melt-in-your-mouth tender - no milk (or fangs) needed!