Pickling Quail Eggs

I mentioned last week that a friend from church that lives down the road had given us a bunch of quail eggs.  They raise quail.  At one time we had some quail, but Benjamin mistakenly left the door of the chicken tractor open and the quail escaped.  I would like to think that they made it in the wild, but they more likely become a delectable treat for a hawk or owl or possum.

With the first batch, we scrambled the quail eggs and we fried the quail eggs and we boiled the quail eggs.  Then our friend gave us a bunch more quail eggs.  Tricia decided she'd try her hand at pickling some.  People in this area have always kept quail eggs.  I can remember going into small mom & pop convenience stores and seeing jars of pickled quail eggs for sale.  In fact, there was all kinds of pickled goods for sale - pickled chicken eggs and a big jar of pickled pig's feet.  Come to think of it, I never see pickled pig's feet anymore. 

Tricia lined up the ingredients for making pickled quail eggs - white vinegar, salt, hot sauce, water, pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, hot pepper, water, and clean pint jars.  Our friend gave us the recipe that she uses:

First, boil a ratio of water to vinegar depending on the amount of eggs.  20 - 22 quail eggs will fit in a pint jar.  In a sterile jar, you put the following in order:

• Eggs,
• 1 Tablespoon red pepper,
• 1 Tablespoon red pepper flakes,
• Hot pepper sliced

Pour the vinegar solution over the eggs and seal.

Place the jars in a water bath canner for five minutes.

Pull them out and let them cool.  You should hear the caps pop when sealed.  Once cool store them in the fridge.

These are a delicious little tasty, spicy snack.

A Delicious, Healthy, Simple Snack

Tricia ordered a case of organic pears from Azure Standard Co-op.  It is the craziest thing because she doesn't like apples.  I think pears and apples are similar.  We made quick work of the first case and then she ordered a second one.  Just the other day IN THIS POST we made some homemade cream cheese.  It was very simple to make.

We use cream cheese to make cheesecake, dips and lo and behold, Tricia found another recipe for a simple, yet healthy and delicious snack.  For starters, take a pear and cut out the seeds and stem.

Then in the blender, she combined mostly homemade cream cheese with a dash or three of goat kefir to make it a thick, liquid consistency.  Then she dunks the cut up pears into the cream cheese/goat kefir concoction to coat the pear.

In a separate container, she has run some of our 2015 pecan crop through a blender to chop the pecans into semi-fine crumbles.  She drags the cream cheese/kefir coated pears through the pecans and the pecans stick nicely to the pear.

And she does likewise for the remaining pieces of the pear, arranging them on a plate for viewing and then snacking.

This simple recipe came from Southern Living Magazine, but Tricia changed it up a little bit.

The sweetness of the pears contrasted against the tanginess of the kefir and smooth cream cheese and flavorful pecans.  Yeah, this recipe is a keeper!

Making Granola – a healthy snack

We’re always looking for a healthy snack around our house.  I enjoy snacking and likely missed my calling as a professional competitive eater (only slightly joking).  I’ll routinely open our snack drawer and those beneath it searching for something to snack on.   Many times I’m greeted with a snack drawer as barren and sparsely inhabited as the dark side of the moon.  It is my goal to populate this wasteland.

Tricia tore out a page from Southern Living Magazine that had a recipe for Honey-Nut Granola and had it clothes-pinned to her recipe easel.  Imagine my excitement the other day when I came in the door and stopped mid-stride in my bee-line to the snack drawer by two trays of warm homemade granola!  She altered the recipe a little bit.  Here’s what you need:

Homemade Granola

6 cups uncooked oats

2 ½ cups chopped pecans

¼ cup sunflower seeds

2 cups flaked coconut

1 cup butter melted

½ cup honey
¼ cup sugar and molasses

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ teaspoon salt

1 (6oz) box of raisins

First we assembled all of the dry ingredients:

And then all of the 'wet' ingredients:

It can’t get much easier than this.  Mix together the first four ingredients in a large bowl

Combine the melted butter and the next four ingredients into a container.

Stir it all up to mix it.

Pour it over the oat mixture…

Stir it up real good until the dry ingredients and wet ingredients are evenly coated.

Divide the mixture into two baking pans and place in oven about 6 inches from the top heating element.

Bake the granola mixture at 325 for 25-30 minutes so that the granola toasts.  You’ll want to stir so every 10 minutes or so as you want it to be evenly toasted.  Once done, remove from the oven and allow to cool.  When completely cool, add raisins and stir.

We poured into a zip loc storage bag and put it in the snack drawer.  The directions said that it will stay good at room temperature for 3 days or can be frozen for 6 months.  We didn’t have to worry about the ‘expiration dates’ as the zip loc bag was empty in no time!

The nice thing about this granola is the versatility.  You can add anything you want, depending on your desired level of “healthiness.”  You can add dried cranberries or other types of dried fruit, banana chips, Chocolate chips, M&Ms, etc.  We ate it right out of the bag.  We also made some homemade ice cream and sprinkled plenty of the granola on top of the ice cream.  This received the two thumbs up rating at our house and we will definitely make it again.

Roasting Pumpkin Seeds

In Yesterday's Post we pureed some pumpkin for making pies later and urged you not to discard the seeds.  First you'll want to save some seeds for next year's pumpkin crop.  But we like to eat a bunch of the seeds.  When you scoop the seeds and 'guts' out of the pumpkin, separate out as much of the stringy stuff as you can. I measured the amount of seeds that we had and it was about 1 1/2 cups of seeds. Perfect.

Pumpkin Seeds put aside for roasting

Other than pumpkin seeds, all you need is butter and salt.  Melt a couple of teaspoons of butter.

Melted butter

Pour the melted butter over the seeds...

Sprinkle some salt over the buttered pumpkin seeds and stir it up to mix the seeds, butter and salt all together.

Then spread the seeds out on a baking tray as evenly as you can.

Ready for the oven

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and once it is warm, place the baking tray full of seeds into the oven.  Bake them for about 45 minutes.  You'll see them getting golden brown and smelling great.

Yep, these pumpkin seeds are roasted and ready to eat!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

This is a great snack and it is a shame that many people forget about how good roasted pumpkin seeds are and how easy they are to make and eat!  You don't even need to remove the seeds like you do eating sunflower seeds - you can eat the entire pumpkin seed.  So crispy, buttery, salty and good!

Pumpkin Seeds - A great snack

Yesterday we talked about not throwing away the seeds when you clean out a pumpkin.  I can't believe some people just throw the seeds away!  Most people love snacking on roasted sunflower seeds.  Pumpkin seeds are good to eat and they are good for you, too.  It's so easy to roast them.  When you scoop out all the seeds and strings from the inside of your pumpkin, try to separate the strings from the seeds.

Cup of pumpkin seeds

Put the seeds in a colander and wash them real good to remove the slime and strings.  You'll have to pick out any stringy stuff you see.

Washing the seeds

I looked up several recipes for roasting seeds and one said to boil the seeds for 10 minutes as this makes them more digestible.  Unlike sunflower seeds, you can eat the pumpkin seeds' shell as well as the seed.

Boiling the seeds

Then I poured the seeds and water through a colander to drain off the water and I laid out the boiled seeds on a dishrag to dry them off.

Drying the seeds

We then put them in a baking pan with some pats of butter and sprinkled some kosher salt on them.  You can be adventurous with different spices as well.  The last time we did this, we also sprinkled them with garlic powder and they came out great.  I'm sure they'd be delicious with Tony Chachere's or another Creole Seasoning added.

Ready to go into the oven

You put them in an oven pre-heated to 350 degrees and let them roast for 30 minutes or until they are light golden brown.  Pull them out, let them cool and they are ready to eat.

Outta the oven

Pop a few in your hand and eat them.  You can eat the shells and all.  They are crispy/crunchy and flavorful.

Couple of pumpkin seeds

For those that you don't immediately eat, you can put them into a Zip Loc bag for snacking on later... 

A bag of pumpkin seeds for snacking

Tomorrow will be the final installment in the pumpkin series - my favorite (and it's not pumpkin pie, either!)

Soaked "Crispy" Pecans

We're constantly shelling our inventory of pecans from last Fall, making room for this year's crop.  We make pies, cookies, put in pancakes, etc.  One of the other things we do is soak them and make Crispy Pecans. Using a recipe from Sally Fallon of Nourishing Traditions, we soak them in a saltwater solution in order to reduce enzyme inhibitors and phytates in nuts.  This process aids in digestion and absorption of nutrients by the body.

It is a very simple process.  First take 4 cups of shelled pecans:

4 cups of pecans

And then soak them in warm filtered water with 2 teaspoons of sea salt.  Stir up good and allow to soak at room temperature for at least 7 hours.

Soaking pecans in salt water

Once the time has passed, pour into a colander to drain off the water. 

Draining off the water

Then you spread out the pecans onto a tray.

Spreading out on a tray

Place the tray of soaked pecans that are spread out on a tray into a warmer or oven set between 105 - 150 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours and turn and stir the pecans from time to time to make sure they are drying evenly.

Putting pecans in the warmer

Pull them out and they are ready to eat!

Soaked pecans are done

These are addictive and once you start eating them, well, you just can't stop!

Ready for snacking!

Crispy Soaked Pecans.  Another favorite of our family.