creamed eggs

When I was a little girl, my mother made creamed eggs. I don’t know how often she made them, but I have the memory in my mind that we had them every Easter morning. My childhood memories are quite warped, so it is possible we only had them once or twice or that we really did eat them every Easter or that it had nothing to do with Easter and she made them when she was in the mood to make them with no rhyme or reason to it at all. Nevertheless, they are one of my favorite foods. They represent family, safety, motherhood, love, Jesus, and joy. So, we eat them for Christmas morning breakfast. Every year. We love them. They are soooo yummy, but more than yummy-ness, they are part of Christmas, part of family, part of celebrating our Savior’s birth. I don’t know what they represent to my children, but I do know they expect them on Christmas morning and enjoy every single bite.

For anyone who has never had creamed eggs, here is my mother’s recipe:

2 sticks of butter
1 C. flour (we use whole wheat, but the sauce is a nicer color of cream if you use white flour)
4 C. milk
18 hard boiled eggs
Lots of Nature’s Seasoning Salt

Melt the butter and stir in the flour until it is all creamy. Then take your pan off the heat and add in your milk while whisking. Place pan back on the heat and stir until it is thick. Cut up the eggs and add them into the sauce. Shake on the Nature’s till it tastes perfect. Serve over toast.

What are the foods that add meaning to your traditions? How did you decide upon them?

sesame seeds

I have a child who is calcium deficient. He was born that way, his teeth came in decalcified (is that a word?) and he has been my sickliest child, having battled with recurrent ear infections and MRSA. I know he needs more calcium, I just haven’t known how to get it into him. He has been on calcium supplementation since he was a baby, but his body goes through it immediately and he is always in need of more. I have been researching ways to get calcium into him and have decided to try sesame seeds. We have had several friends with broken bones and I want to avoid that if at all possible!

My friend, Kim Simmerman, has this to say:

The most calcium rich food is the sesame seed; 1 oz. of sesame seeds contains 1200 mg of calcium. Calcium is the knitter of our bodies. It is the primary ingredient in bones, teeth, joints, and nerves. It holds our tissues and organs in place and it is the agent moves toxins from our bodies. The human body needs regular amounts of calcium in the diet just to keep up with daily nutrient demands. Calcium is depleted by stress and acids (the highest acid foods are refined sugars and animal proteins). As an example, one candy bar can deplete a single day’s worth of calcium. If the diet doesn’t provide the calcium, the body will naturally draw from its reservoir: bones, teeth and nerves. Osteoporosis, dental decay, arthritis, popping joints, nerve problems, and hardening of the arteries are all a result of calcium deficiency. In fact, a large portions of the diseases of the modern western world are just symptoms of severe calcium deficiency! Therefore, we must supplement our diets with plenty of quality calcium.

To aid in the digestion, eat the sesame seeds with yogurt or kefir so that the friendly bacteria can assist the body in opening up the seeds for better calcium absorption. The nutrition of your sesame seeds can be enhanced an additional 200% if you soak them in water overnight, thus sprouting them. Drain off the water and spoon them into your breakfast bowl. Store leftovers in the refrigerator and eat within three days.

So, sesame seeds are going to become an ever more part of our lives! I have been eating yogurt with frozen peaches and walnuts lately and it is DELISH! Now I am going to add a few more things in and try to make it super tempting to my picky Fisher.

Kim recommends 1 C. yogurt or kefir with 2 TB – 1/4 C. sesame seeds, 1/2 – 1 C. fruit, 1 – 3 C. granola or muesli, and sweetener to taste. I never put sweetener in mine as my yogurt is vanilla flavored to start, but if it were plain, it would be a must. Some ideas are honey, stevia, raw agave, pure maple syrup, 100% frozen juice concentrate, and jam w/out sugars.

I’ll let you know if we notice any differences in our health and especially Fisher’s!

the divine salad

I forgot some things of the divine salad ingredients in my thankful thursdays post. So here it is all fixed up with everything included. (Thanks Kari!)

Mesclun or Spring Mix lettuce
Avocado, diced
Strawberries, sliced
Slivered almonds, toasted
Pomegranate seeds
Tomatoes, diced
Cucumber, sliced
Mandarin oranges, drained
Brianna’s Poppy seed dressing

Make it for lunch tomorrow and your taste buds will thank you. Promise.

syrup

After the post about Annesley and the syrup debacle, I have had some requests for our favorite syrup recipes, so here you go:

Fruit Juice Syrup

2 C. fruit juice
2 TB. arrowroot or cornstarch
1/3 C. honey
1 TB. lemon juice

Mix everything together and heat until syrup thickens to desired consistency.

Deluxe Fruit Topping

3 C. fresh or frozen fruit
1/2 C. honey
1 TB. lemon juice

Heat frozen fruit till you can mask it and then blend in other ingredients. If using fresh fruit, just blend in the ingredients and mash. You can even do it in the blender if you would like.

Honey Maple Syrup

1 C. water
1 C. honey
1/2 C. pure maple syrup or 2 tsp. maple flavor

Heat all ingredients until hot, but do not boil.

Hope you enjoy these as much as we do. They are all taken from Erleen Tilton’s book Enjoy Nature’s Harvest, which is a GOLD mine of fabulous recipes…truly a must have for the whole-foods kitchen.

p.s. I am on a posting spree lately…I really need to be on a cleaning spree and get this house in order…but it is so much fun to share my thoughts with the world, I just can’t stop. I have gobs of ideas of things I want to write about and not nearly enough time to do it!

My post for tomorrow is all ready to go and it is fabulous…I can’t wait to share it with ya’ll. Stay tuned till 12:01 and then it will be here, ready for you to delight in…at least, I will be delighting in it!