spring has sprung

Finally I can safely say that it almost seems like Spring is here to stay and I tentatively say that with the utmost in confidence, I think. This time of year is exciting for me because it marks the beginning of my foraging forays. You might remember mushroomlandia? Well mushroomlandia is also home of berries, nettles, ferns and greens of all kinds. Oh and before I forget go and check out my mini guest post at BlackStar Gourmet.


One of the easiest and most common greens to find is your garden variety pest, the dandelion. Dandelion greens are quite tasty if you can tolerate their tangy bitterness. I like them with sauteed onions and lardons of bacon.


Man cannot live on bitter greens alone no man needs quiche. What do you do when you eat eggs like I do and you seem to have a never ending supply of those eggs and they are organic and cage free, for the most part? You make quiche, yup quiche is exactly what you do because real men do eat quiche.


Two types of quiche were made on this go around both had asiago, parmesean and fontina cheeses. An asparagus and garlic chicken sausage quiche was first up.


Ham, spinach and mushrooms rounded out this tasty egginess.


Varietal meals would not be complete without popovers and raspberry butter, sure everyone can have strawberry butter but who gets to have raspberry butter?


Hot eggy popovers with melty, melty sweet and tart raspberry butter. Bring it on Spring I think I am ready!



Time to start voting on The MarxFoods dried morel throwdown, I made trout.

trendy not

I have always been a little bit on the fringe so when trends come and go I have either been ahead or behind the curve, I was wearing stripes and plaids back when they used to clash so for me to use foam is keeping pace with the pace I have set.


Sure people say foams are out or even some people think foams are icky but if you have never tried any you dont know what you are missing, foams pack a lot of flavor in basically - well, foam! This is asparagus foam spooned over some flash fried asparagus spears.


I used my foam to accompany my panko and morel crusted crab stuffed trout with morel butter and a pink grapefruit agrodolce.


I will be the first to admit that this dish did not have a photogenic quality to it but boy did it pack a flavor punch. This dish, along with my morel butter are my submissions to the MarxFoods Morel Challenge.

I am the man

Having a son is about the most rewarding thing you could ever imagine. No, seriously, its true. I have friends that have children and I envy them, its the plural thing,


I wish I had "children" but I dont I have that beautious bountiful thing that loves everything in sight - I have KID - one unit. This one unit is my contribution - its all I've got and boy do I love him!

The winner is.....

Let me start off by saying that the poaching egg question was tricky because I did initially learn from Julia Child about the vinegar in the water and gently placing them into the boil but then Jacques Pepin added to that by suggesting you fold them over upon themselves and then trim them to look neat but it was Gordon Ramsey that made it all too easy by whisking the water into a whirlpool therefore the eggs completely tumble into the beautiful shape you see. So the correct answer is all three. The dessert is a clafouti, in this case a strawberry clafouti. If you google "cabbage rolls" you will see the word "galumpki" but if you google any of those other words you would see that they are bastardized versions of "galumpki" so while "galumpki is the correct answer it all boils down to how you say it.



Who won? Greg @SippitySup was number 27 in the random.org number generator - congratulations! You won my first ever give-away sponsored by CSN Stores.


Greg chose the Chicago Cutlery (these would have been my choice as well, I like the handle). While the answers were not necessary to win, the rest of the 'correct' answers are 1) my version of a big mac 2) alfredo and whole wheat spaghetti 3) I needed to make someone a snack 4) galumpkis 5) a, b, or c - most people picked a - Julia Child 6) clafouti and 7) your choice.

Greg please e-mail me with shipping instructions so I can get these wonderful knives out to you lickety split mister sippitysup!

The first photo is from a previous post - poached eggs in little stacks with potato, zucchini, tortilla, tomato and corn.

mockery and crockery

I cant believe its not all kinds of things. I cant believe this is not compound truffle butter but instead its morels.


I cant believe these are not deviled eggs but they are better! Soft scrambled eggs with mock truffle butter.


Mock truffle butter? Why not just call it like it is - its morel margarine!* (thats an asterisk) This "compound butter," like all compound butters, matured and the flavor deepened as it sat wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge (well actually the freezer so I could make the shape) - it is getting better and better.


Why blow the mystique if it tastes like truffle butter then according to how that adage goes - it must be truffle butter. This is one of the many simple things I will be making with dried morel mushrooms for MarxFoods, I am also entering this into 5-Star Foodies Makeover - Compound butter.

Happy Holidays Everyone!


* this was all butter - I lied. reference where I said 'margarine'