Deviled Eggs and Recipe Talk

Because I cook a lot, I rely on a lot of online recipes. 

I will be in the mood for something like a mediterranean chicken marinade with yogurt, and the internet is super helpful in finding the right recipe, or at least one where I have most of the ingredients on hand or can fudge it. 

Recently I also learned you can use mayonnaise in marinades! And it is amazing. Highly recommend.

I'm not a big fan of sites with 9 miles of storytelling and pictures before getting to the recipe. Dude. I just want the recipe. It is so nice that your Nonna would make gravy on Sunday for the family and everyone would gather, and your mom's brother would play cards with the kids, and everyone would mangia mangia until they couldn't move. I am happy for you. Sounds like a lovely and loving family and wonderful memory. 

I just want to know exactly how much garlic. (In all seriousness though, there's never too much garlic so .... I can just deal with it). 

If the website doesn't have a "Jump To Recipe" link, I'm gonna jump back to the search results page to find another option. 

A lot of times, I just look for Alton Brown's recipes. I trust him implicitly, and Food Network or AB will just tell it like it is. No storytelling. Just recipes!

So a nice recipe like this one is the kind of just perfect option for me. Jump to recipe, I can skip the video, I know how to make stuff, I just need to know how much stuff to put in the stuff. Her site has a lot of good recipes, and it is grilling season, and so I go there a lot. And if I want to look at pictures, she's got some good ones. Well done.

I made that chicken marinade for dinner the other night, and it was outstanding. I used fresh oregano and mint, because my plants over wintered wonderfully. Every day I'm out there cutting herbs for something. I may run out of the parsley before summer even gets here. The oregano was a little too strong (probably because it was fresh) and it could have used a lot more lemon. But overall, this is a winner. I need to remember to make this a day or so in advance and just put the chicken in a ziploc with the mix, and take it out a couple times a day and just smoosh it around. It's better if you let it sit. Duh, marinades are like that, right?

Geoff has been using a cookbook that Doug had on the shelf for years and it has become his go-to for recipes he wants to try. He's made a few good things, made a few mistakes. He plans everything very carefully, studies the recipe for days, gets the ingredients all together. And it usually pays off for us to have him chef something up. Even if it is a lot more work than anything Doug or I would make. 

Tonight he's making a Spanish style braised steak (see image above). And I get to use my food processor for like the second time since I bought it! Now's your time to shine Kitchen Aid!

He went to the market after the gym, shopping for the week and getting the swiss steak and the everything we don't have (aside from marjoram, we have it all...) and food for the rest of the week.  I'm incredibly impressed when he picks a recipe and goes with it. 

It's in the oven right now and holy crap does it smell good.

Because he needed three egg yolks, I decided to go ahead and make a whole mess of hard boiled eggs for the team. 

Both Doug and Geoff enjoy them, I hate them. They smell. I hate making them. I hate peeling them. They stink up everything. 

All my windows are open, and I can still smell them from when I put them in the pot at 11am. 

We had a whole discussion on hard boiling. I asked Doug (and I always ask him, because I always forget) what's the best way to make them and he said 'ask the internet.'  

Then he told me how he thought it works... place eggs in pot,  cover them in cold water to about an inch above the top of the eggs, bring to a boil, turn the heat off, let sit for 11 minutes. Then, drain the water off, and run cold water over them for a few minutes. Peel and enjoy. He was, of course, spot on. Pfth telling me to ask the internet and then giving me the perfect instructions. 

They came out perfectly except I never get them to peel easily. It is always a challenge. It takes forever. This time was kind of okay, if I get that wee film between the egg and the shell just right I can pull of large bits of shell all at once. It's such a challenge for me though!

For Geoff's graduation party in 2015, Jess, Liz and I were making deviled eggs. We got eggs from our neighbor across the street but one rule we didn't know was that if you're using super fresh eggs, it is a totally different process. And we mangled the eggs. Complete and total disaster. We had a pile of busted egg whites and just a mess of stupid. I think we ended up making egg salad, but it was shame salad. We failed. Miserably.

I then found out the true instructions for super fresh eggs. You can read that here. Who knew. 

Waiting for dinner to be done, adding it to the food list below even though I haven't eaten it yet! 

Alright. The daily digits. 

Exercise: Short pokemon walk, about 3/4 mile total

Blood Glucose: 

8am: 144 

5pm: 155 (will test again before bedtime! because .... wine)

10pm: 132 (okay so.... wow? I thought it would be 312! with the wine and all) 

Food: 

Coffee  

Seltzer

Water with lemon

bowl of greek yogurt with raspberries

bowl of chicken salad

a couple of deviled eggs (and, the yolk mixture leftover. yum. my favorite part)

Braised steak a la Geoff 

Salad

Wine (yeah, I know)