Broccoli salad

I've been faced with the dilemma of four perfect broccoli heads all maturing at the same time. I would love for them to be spaced out more, perhaps one a week, but that's how it goes. We must enjoy broccoli now.

I found a good way to do that last night, one that is quick and easy, and so delicious we've had it two nights in a row. It's a cold salad made with broccoli slightly steamed, mixed with about three fried slices of bacon, sunflower seeds, chopped onions and a dressing made with mayonnaise, honey, and vinegar. It's that simple.

But I have a tendency to modify on the simple. I added a pinch of curry to the dressing, and some red cabbage, garlic scapes, quinoa, and poppy seeds to the original mix. Didn't harm anyone. My stepdaughter really liked it!

So how does one spill beer on the ceiling, anyway?

Floridacracker's recent post about painting the textured ceiling had me thinking about the inconveniences of what seemed like a good idea in the '90s. You know, that textured popcorn like bumpy ceiling stuff. It's difficult to paint, and melts away if you try to clean something off it. Like beer stains.

It all started when we were newlyweds, a year or two, and decided to get into making beer. We were living in this split level, semi rural development house that was very cookie-cutter like. And, it was too close to the freeway. Way too close. But it was on a pond with a wonderful view, and there were loons nesting outside my dining room window...So.

Anyway, we had recently discovered beer beyond Busch, and discovered that we could even make it at home! We invested in a "starter" beer kit, and followed the instructions to brew our first attempt, a stout. I proudly poured it into the primary fermenter, basically a six gallon bucket with an airlock on top. The day I first brewed, The Hermit had to head out for a business meeting, so I spent the first night as an anxious first time brew mistress alone.

At approximately 5 AM, I heard a loud BANG from the kitchen. I dragged myself out of bed to investigate. In the kitchen I found the fermenter, sans lid, and the lid several feet from the fermenter. Somehow the airlock had plugged up, pressure had built, and...BAM. There was a prominent dark brown stain on the kitchen ceiling, and dark beer splattered all over the kitchen.

The beer turned out okay. Very good, in fact, for a first time effort! The ceiling, well, I tried spraying bleach on it, with some success, but there was always a little spot there.

Kale and eggs--my new favorite quickie meal

I came up with this recipe yesterday when I realized, at 2 PM, I had not eaten anything substantial all day. It was a "grazing" day, where we didn't make an official breakfast or lunch, and I just wasn't hungry despite having gone for a three mile walk and mowed half the lawn in the morning. But I knew I should eat something, and there was an abundance of eggs in the refrigerator, and the kale is doing wonderfully in the garden, and I really need to eat more veggies. So I had an idea...

I melted about a tablespoon of butter in a medium skillet. If you're concerned about saturated fat, I suppose you could substitute olive oil, but butter has all those good Omega 3's, and it just tastes better! Then I threw in about five large kale leaves, cut into smaller pieces, and a couple garlic scapes, cut up. You could substitute a clove of garlic for the scapes; I just happen to have plenty of them on hand right now.

I sauteed the kale and scapes for a couple minutes, then pushed them to the edge of the skillet and cracked two eggs in the center. I let the whites set for a short time before I broke the yolks. Then I stirred everything around for a minute or less, so the yolks were still a little bit liquid. I turned off the burner, threw on a pre-grated blend of Italian cheeses, some green salsa, fresh ground pepper, and sea salt. I ate it right out of the skillet; no extra dishes that way, and no wasted paper plates!

This meal actually took less time and effort than microwaving some prepackaged lunch entree, and it tasted great! No artificial anything in it either.