As I readied myself to get back to writing this morning, Bear looked at my frazzled self and suggested that I take a break for a bit and just work on things that have been niggling at me, projects that, when finished, would ease so much stress and enable me to write with a clear head. It was a jolly good suggestion and one I’m embracing wholeheartedly.
This morning break is a treasure, truly, with time to clean and air out my office after an unexpected flood earlier in the week, cook all sorts of good things in the kitchen, and maybe even just sit on the veranda for a bit with a book and a bowl of fresh strawberries and cream.
First on my list is a box full of red and green peppers. I roasted them until their skins blackened and bubbled and now they’re cooling and will soon be peeled, sliced, and tucked into jars with herbs, roasted garlic, and olive oil.
This is my first time roasting green peppers and I’m looking forward to tasting them. I think they may be rather scrumptious on tacos or chopped and stirred into chili.
Then I had bowls, buckets, and boxes full of veggies to work through. I snapped a pile of green beans to steam for a zesty salad tossed with feta and lime dressing, roasted carrots with dill for snacking, and make pineapple spearmint smoothies. I boiled up an entire stockpot of eggs to make curried egg salad – good thing we like eggs – and will soon work on the last of my pumpkins, roasting it for a salad with pine nuts and goat cheese. As my compost bucket fills with peels and shells, I take jaunts out to the chook pen to share the bounty with them. The chooks are delighted.
Breakfast this morning was gleaned from the garden: fresh chicken and duck eggs, Italian parsley, dill, and long spears of asparagus.
I made fluffy baked eggs blended with cream and seasoned with fresh dill, salt, and pepper, and roasted the asparagus with olive oil and Parmesan cheese.
I added a little bowl of blueberries and we were set.
Now it’s time to finish up the laundry, start on the pepper-peeling, then tackle the office and see if the carpet can be salvaged after the flood. I’m feeling my stress melt away already. 🙂
Is it hard for you to work when things around you are in mayhem? xo
Baked Eggs with Dill
(serves 3)
Ingredients:
4 large eggs
1/4 cup heavy cream
1 Tbsp fresh dill, chopped
salt and pepper to taste
butter for ramekins
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 F (180 C).
Butter three ramekins and set aside.
Beat all ingredients together and pour into ramekins.
Bake for 15-20 minutes until eggs puff up and brown on top. Serve immediately.
I know exactly how you feel! I just can’t concentrate with a mess around me. It’s sometimes challenging, as my lovely man doesn’t have the same need for order, but we rub along pretty well most of the time. By the by, it also seems like you and I have the same habit of relaxing by cooking – for me, a day pottering in the kitchen is one of the best days ever. 🙂
I laughed when I read this, @Katja_dlam:disqus , because my guy is of the same variety as yours, but we “rub along pretty well” too. 🙂
I too am on a deadline yet also have stacks of unfinished projects which detract from my ability to think . . .I may just give Bear’s solution a shot today! I must tell you that the eggs and asparagus breakfast you featured a few posts back was so mouth-watering that I copied it for dinner a few nights later (admittedly our asparagus is somewhat old having come from Mexico or some other warm climate) but it was delightfully good — we will be doing that again, soon! thanks for the inspiration! Jackie xxx
I’m so glad you liked the asparagus, @disqus_WseMqaTPwi:disqus ! 🙂 It’s become a staple at our house. 🙂
so is it the usual canning method for the peppers? i’m tempted – they look so beautiful! sorry about the flooded office – frazzled, no kidding! hope it’s all back to “normal” soon.
http://mlleparadis.blogspot.com
Well, it doesn’t actually can them, paradis, the oil just provides a seal so bacteria can’t get in and cause mold and rotting. You can do the same with dried tomatoes. 🙂
Ah smokey roasted peppers… so beautiful… and all that fresh produce. Life is sweet!
It surely is, @liz_posmyk:disqus 🙂
What a lovely way to live. I have to turn to cookbooks for inspiration with what to cook and then go to the supermarket and buy everything. But you can step outside and see what’s ready for harvest and let that be your inspiration – so much better! xx
After spending much of my life cooking the way you do, Charlie, it’s quite an adjustment to remember I just have to go outside to “shop”. 🙂 Sometimes I forget and then end up with massive amounts of something I have to hurry up and use. 🙂
Men do have clarity of thought in some situations. Marty helps me out sometimes! Just when I thought I read every word that you wrote lol, how do I not know about the flood. What went on there? I wonder if you could add a B & B to your list of things to do – some lucky guests would love all these wonderful breakfasts. 🙂
Thank goodness for men who can see when we’re frazzled, eh, @budgetjan:disqus ? 🙂 lol – the flood was caused when guests flushed unflushable things down the loo and caused a back-up which caused a flood which resulted in blechy stuff EVERYWHERE! Thankfully it’s all fixed now, signs have been posted for future guests, and the air is sweet again. 🙂 I would love to do a B&B one day, maybe in a year or two. 🙂
Oh Gross, lol. I bet you have a sign now. I think you would really enjoy B & B or farmstay. My friend has a farmstay near Oamaru in the southern island of N.Z. They run sheep and cattle and have three children. It is called Gumtree Farmstay. In a funny story that you will appreciate she got a (goat) kid the other day much to her husband’s disgust. He told her goats are trouble, lol. The first night it escaped it’s enclosure and she found it romping around in his machinery shed. I am smiling as I write this, it is such a goat thing to do.
Oh that makes me laugh, @budgetjan:disqus 🙂 Just this week wallabies made a hole in fence and two of our dogs got out. While Bear went after them and I hollered for them, behind my back the goats made a hole in my garden and were in there happily eating the straw mulch, a cabbage, and two trees. Sigh. 🙂 They are a real bugger sometimes. 🙂 I would really like a farmstay in particular. We’re doing the hard part now, getting the farm into shape for a venture like that with gardens and orchards and paths and places to eat and stay and do projects and take classes. It will take another year or two, barring a miracle and a Lotto win, but we’ll get there. 🙂
One tip I can give you in the planning stages is choose the room your guests will be staying in and plant a garden with a view from the room, or stand in the room and envisage the view you would like them to see. Jennie has gorgeous views from the lounge, kitchen and guests bedroom. If the big view is not so good you can build a structure or plant a flowering creeper, to pretty up the shed, etc.
That is an excellent, excellent tip, @budgetjan:disqus , and one I will definitely ponder. 🙂 One of our dreams to is get a big dam put in. The site we’ve chosen is so pretty, surrounded by trees with views of fields and bush. I’d love to set our little container cabins there, with front verandas, and flowering vines climbing everywhere. 🙂
How lovely having your guest rooms overlooking the dam (your ducks will be happy too or will they be banned?). I wondered if they might foul (pun intended) the water? but I know nothing about that side of it lol.
Those peppers look divine!! I love roasting them, but I haven’t every preserved them. I need to explore that. And your asparagus?? I’m envious!!
It’s such an easy way to preserve them, @kimlivlife:disqus And they freeze well this way too. 🙂 Kind of like freezing fresh herbs in olive oil to use during the winter. 🙂
I can’t work in a mess. I can’t think. 🙂 Well, I CAN think but all I can think about is what a mess I’m in. I clean up an bam, I’m back in business. Your breakfast is outstanding!
Yep, I’m the same way, @OrgasmicChef:disqus I have to keep my office tidy at all times or I simply can’t function. 🙂
I cannot even contemplate cooking in a kitchen that has the left overs of last night. Nope, I just can’t!
Yep, it squelches all creativity, doesn’t it, Jackie? 🙂
Holy YARM woman, Im not even hungry but I just went to the fridge and checked if I had the ingredients to make baked eggs with dill. I don’t. Sigh! 🙂
I can’t work when there is mayhem around me, my brain goes into melt down. LOL! Hope you are having a lovely weekend. xox
Brain meltdown describes it perfectly, @disqus_o9c9vkchcC:disqus 🙂 Wishing you a gorgeous weekend tucked up with your fave movies and a good beer (or 3). 🙂 XO
Oh wow, Krista! I would love to be served that same plate and I won’t complain! Heaven!
Gourmet Getaways
Oh thanks, @GourmetGetaway:disqus 🙂 Maybe one day we will get to meet and I can make it for you. 🙂
Those baked eggs look delicious and that is a perfect breakfast. original and very tasty. GG
Thanks so much, GG. 🙂 It did hit the spot. 🙂
I can’t believe you’ve never roasted peppers before! They are some of life’s most delicious veggies. 😛 Your eggs also sound majorly delicious!
Oh, I’ve done plenty of red ones before, @joanneeatswellwithothers:disqus , just not the green ones. 🙂
Oh yes. Today I had a good cry because our house is still in that in-between stage of moving with boxes everywhere and endless projects to tackle. A trip to the thrift store to get rid of some stuff, and then to the beach did wonders to soothe me. That breakfast looks divine. So wish Oz wasn’t so far away.
A good cry does wonders to keep you going in moments of such utter mayhem, dear @breannemosher:disqus XO I’m so glad you were able to do some things to restore your spirits. XOXO
Little egg cups, genius. I roast green capsicums and I think they are slightly fruitier than the red once pulled out of oil. Most of our peppers don’t make it to red as the fruit flies love them. I like the peppers in omelettes so good.
I really loved the green ones too, @lizstrayedtable:disqus I don’t know why I thought they might come out bitter. 🙂
Oh my. Can you be at my house by breakfast time tomorrow? 🙂
Girl, I’d be there in a hot second if I could. 🙂 Cooking for you in Italy would make my heart seriously happy, @BethanyBassett:disqus 🙂
Mayhem only bothers me as ready sources for productive procrastination, but my husband would know exactly how you feel. Oftentimes, his holidays turn into catch-up-around-the-house days. I keep trying to coax into curling up with a book, but he insists he feels more relaxed knowing that the yardwork is back under control. I guess he’s not alone.
Oh that makes me laugh, @rachelfriesen:disqus 🙂 You are like Bear, trying to get me to slooooow down and just watch a movie or read a book. I’m learning. 🙂
Oh this looks amazing! and yes, I am the same. I get stressed, lazy and plain oel bleh when things get messy. I always end up cooking and then doing a HUGE clean! Bec x
Yes!! Cooking gets me into cleaning mode too, @disqus_gzbufqmETH:disqus 🙂
I love your life and dream of living that life. My husband would be in heaven! These little soufflés are marvelous and so easy! No separating eggs? I am trying this!