Cold Brew Coffee at Home

While we were in DC and Philly, we kept seeing all sorts of advertisements for "cold brew" coffee.

We got some at one point for our afternoon "pick me up" and Husband really enjoyed it. Back when I worked at Starbux, I would make this for myself occasionally so I decided that I should make a batch for the Pigeon Family. 

I decided to use the Bon Appetit recipe this time which is as follows:

1/2 pound of ground coffee

9 cups of filtered water

Instead, I did:

1/4 pound of ground Trader Joe's Coffee a Cocoa

4.5 cups of St Louis's Best Water in the USA 

I then put them together in a large glass vessel with lid and gave them a stir with a wooden spoon.

Allow the concoction to sit undisturbed for 12-16 hours and then strain through whatever will work for you best to not get grounds into the final batch. I used a metal sieve and some cheese cloth.

Pour the final product in a pitcher and allow to cool in the fridge.

Enjoy over ice on a exceedingly muggy day in St Louis.

Tools of the trade...

Grounds and the World's Best STL Water

all stirred up.

..and now we wait...

This was a very "straining" endeavor.

Pouring it into the Pitcher,(not Pooring it in too the Picture) 

Tadah! straight up!

With a touch of cream...

This is a delightful treat. As I used a chocolate flavored dark coffee, it has a toasty lightly bittersweet flavor to it. I don't add sugar to my beverages, so i though this was very nice, but I bet the basic Starbux customer would prefer a pump or two of classic in it.

Bottoms up!


Until next time...Cook it up!

BFMH: Scones

When I live in London, this was my go to breakfast. Granted, I was walking close to 12 miles a day so I could afford the buttery, carby goodness of such breakfasts. Here is a recipe a la one of my favorite on air personalities, Alton Brown!

Scones 

Ingredients
2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup sugar
4 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons shortening
3/4 cup cream
1 egg
Handful dried currants or dried cranberries
Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Mix well. Cut in butter and shortening. In a separate bowl, combine cream with beaten egg then add to dry ingredients. Stir in fruit. Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Roll dough out and cut into biscuit size rounds. Bake for 15 minutes or until brown.

These turned out wonderfully! They need some tea with them or some butter and jam. Exactly as a scone should. 

An extra grateful Memorial Day for us

Having the opportunity to see all the amazingly beautiful memorials of DC made this Memorial day even more profound than normal. Here are a few shots from our trip:

The Newest Memorial

Very moving and should be seen.

In Honor of Grandpa Moller, we took a quick picture. He has been talking about this memorial since he saw it in Aprils so we were thrilled to get to see it as well.

Husband's Mother's Cousin.

Korean War Memorial

DC War Memorial

The following aren't War Memorials, but witnessing them in real life sure makes you proud of living in the USA. They remind you WHY those that died, went out and became the tools that the ranking officers used to defend our nation and our ideals. We are not a perfect country by any stretch. I mean really, we are kind of in a state of adolescence in comparison to many other countries in relative years. But for the most part, we have stood up for what is right. Unfortunately we are no longer ruled by the people, but instead by Bureaucracy. The sooner we remind Congress, the Senate, and the President of what their JOBS are (that it is to represent us, not their parties), we will be back on track. Sorry. I know I NEVER talk about politics, but after this trip I am full of thoughts and feelings about all these things.

Ducklings in the Reflection Pool!

Washington Memorial growing out of Z's Head

The big man himself.

The power of speech is an amazing thing.

Taking a break in the colonnade.

One of my favorites.

 

Perfect.

Truth.

A great man.

Tidal Basin.

Me too, FDR.

Go see the FDR Memorial. Worth it.

Jefferson Memorial.

More truth.

White House because we are in DC!

White House from the other side,

I got to see my Hero's Kitchen!

Julia Child is a personal hero of mine. She found something she loved and learned everything she could about it and then made it into a career. She brought the know how and tools of the trade into every home across America thanks to her multiple television shows over the decades. While she was NOT the first cooking show on TV nor even the first to bring French food to America, she most certainly won the nations hearts with her matter-a-fact ways to approach food. Her constant reminders that cooking should be a joy, a passion, and a delight have left a strong impression on me and a part of the reason I started to get out of my comfort zone in the kitchen.

Here are some of the pictures I snapped at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History:

Gotta love this Exhibit title!

I love the yellow table cloth with the green cabinets.

Her stove with all the tools necessary at her finger tips.

I love the specially cut out area for the chopping block as you can get your weight behind (well, above) it.

The three windows probably let in a lot of natural light which I think is ideal in a kitchen.

Now I know what type of books might a Cordon Bleu trained Chef have in her kitchen. 

Excited Selfie (Shameless)

Sorry for how dark this is, but I love the panoramic mode on my phone.

I always imagined her a bit taller...

Everything is out and available. No reason to settle for the incorrect tools, pot or pan.

I like the idea of having the kitchen table there. A great work place and comfortable place for company to be while I work.

So Husband now knows how I would love to have my kitchen set up, he and I are talking a bit more in depth when it comes to actual styling. He doesn't care for the peg boards, so we are looking into other options. Granted, we need to buy a house first before I can really consider any of this. Sigh. Real life isn't as much fun as imaginary life sometimes.

Here is to making dreams a reality! 

Off to DC we go...

We are heading out to the East Coast this weekend!

We will be doing Washington DC in 2 days then attending a wedding in Lancaster, PA. Though, knowing me, I will be confused for the wedding planner again.

Then we will have a 4 hour "layover" in Philly before our flight.

Let's see how much stuff we can cram in!

Adventure is out there!

BFMH: Egg Crust Pizza

Yup, thank you Kalyn's Kitchen, as always, for this great recipe, even though I took out the olives. I am always down to try carb less meals and such so this seemed like a great one to try.

Egg-Crust Breakfast Pizza with Pepperoni, Mozzarella, and Tomatoes
(Makes 1 or 2 servings, depending on what you serve it with; recipe created by Kalyn after lots of experiments that weren't quite "the one.")
Equipment:

You'll need an 8-inch nonstick omelet pan to make a breakfast pizza that looks like mine.  (When I used a bigger pan, I didn't like it as well with more egg.)

Ingredients:
1-2 tsp. olive oil (depending on your pan)
2 eggs, beaten well
4-5 small grape tomatoes, thinly sliced
6 slices turkey pepperoni, cut in half to make half-moon pieces (leave out for vegetarian)
1 oz. low-fat mozzarella, cut into small cubes
Spike Seasoning, to taste (about 1/2 tsp.)
dried oregano, to taste (about 1/4 tsp.)
Instructions:

Preheat broiler in oven or small toaster oven.  Break eggs into a small bowl and beat well. Slice tomatoes and olives, cut pepperoni in half, and cut mozzarella into small cubes. 

Add olive oil to the omelet pan and heat over medium heat until the pan is starting to get hot, about 1 minute.  Add the eggs, season with Spike Seasoning and oregano, and cook until eggs are starting to set on the bottom, about 2 minutes.

Sprinkle on half each of the tomatoes, pepperoni, and mozzarella, followed by a second layer with half of each.  (Be sure there is plenty of cheese on the top layer.)  Cover the pan and cook until the eggs are mostly set and cheese is starting to melt, about 3-4 minutes. 

Put pan under the broil and cook until the cheese is nicely melted and the top is starting to brown,  about 2-3 minutes with oven broiler or 4-5 minutes in a small toaster oven broiler.  Serve hot.

Well this was more work than I usually like to put forth for a basic breakfast, this was delicious! Nice and crisp crust with a cheese crispy top. I have been eye balling this recipe for quite awhile, but I hadn't made because I didn't have an appropriate pan. MiL had one for me and I am exceedingly happy I remembered this dish. If you are craving pizza, this is a solid substitute that isn't all the rigamaroll of a veggie crust.

A quick Weekday evening meal:Chicken Chile Casserole

Howdy y'all! 

Slightly back logged thanks to my work hours and not having my crockpot to supsodze those hours! 

Here is actual a new to us recipe my MiL tried out on us from the Ultimate Southern Living Cookbook!

Chicken Chile Casserole

Ingredients

8 skinless chicken breasts

1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 8 oz package or shredded mozzarella
1 4 oz can of sliced mushrooms
1 10.5 oz can of cream of chicken soup, undiluted
2 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1 4.5 can chopped green chilies
6 cups cooked rice
Method:
Sprinkle chicken with salt and pepper;
Place on a lightly greased 11X7 baking dish.

Combine the cheese and next 3 ingredients; pour over chicken. Sprinkle with chilies. Bake, uncovered, at 350 degrees for 35 - 45 minutes. Serve over rice.

My last bite over rice! It was so good, I forgot to take a picture.

I would add onions to this, but BROTHER doesn't like them so MiL doesn't add them either.

This dish was a super easy throw together plus it was really yummy! While I really need to take some time to leasrn to make and "uncanned" version of cream of chicken, this dish makes sense to use the precanned version for ease and convince. It literally takes about 7 minutes to put everything together in the backing dish and then you just gotta back this.

Make this for your busy weekday evenings y'all!

Until the next meal...Cook It UP!