Assortment

If you didn't know already, I love to shake things up, then step back and have a look at them back to front, outside-in, and down-side up. It's so surprising and delightful, the things you see! Sometimes, that shaking-up happens by seeing an inspiring idea somewhere else, which gets hung in your mind in the place for inspired ideas, and while it hangs there, it changes a bit, and becomes your own interpretation. Kinda like your own dialect of the original language.

Take the idea of a humble egg salad sandwich, for instance - hard-boiled eggs, whacked up, mushed around with a glop of mayo, then forced between two slices of bread - it hardly sounds appetizing. No wonder that, for some, it falls dead last on the favorite sandwiches list.

But. Hold on. What if you didn't use plain old sandwich bread? What if it wasn't just a glop of mayo that you stirred into the roughly-chopped egg? What if there was something else in that sandwich that gave it the most delicate crunch and the hint of a flavor most decidedly spring?

I'm talking about buttery, flaky biscuits, here, still slightly warm. I'm talking about minced onion, freshly cracked pepper, a sifting of salt, and a wee touch of garlic. Toss in a dash of dill weed, too, if you like. Or parsley. (They're not just for decoration, you know.) And, of course, the spring of which I speak, in this sandwich, is the wild interweave of fresh alfalfa sprouts, which are the very taste of seedling green.

The very taste of seedling green! - can we just dwell on that for a moment on this cold and frosty March morning?

Mmmm-mmm-mmm!

Now that you're ready to have this for lunch, let's get started.

Baking Powder Biscuits

adapted from The Joy of Cooking

1 2/3 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour

1/3 cup whole wheat flour

2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons cold butter

3/4 cups milk

Preheat pizza stone in a hot 450 degree oven. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients. Add cold butter in chunks, and blend with a pastry blender until butter/flour bits are no smaller than the size of peas - these trapped bits of butter are what make the biscuits flaky. Make a well in the center of the mixture, and add the milk all at once. Stir around with a fork just until the dough follows the fork around the bowl. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and gently knead with the palm of your hand, 10 or 12 turns, only about 30 seconds. This will ensure delicate biscuits. Press dough out with the palm of your hands into a round, flat shape, only slightly less than 1". Swish the rim of an upside-down cup in flour, then cut the dough into biscuits. Place biscuits, shoulder to shoulder on the hot pizza stone and bake for 12-13 minutes. The tops should be slightly brown, and the middles should be light and flaky. Please don't over-bake the biscuits! I'd be so disappointed if you ended up with crumbly, dry things to work with. Remove biscuits from the pizza stone with tongs and place in a towel-wrapped basket to keep warm.

Boiled Eggs

A good egg salad begins with boiled eggs, of course. But, how to boil and egg? Well, I happened on a fool-proof way to make perfect boiled eggs, in one of my favorite cookbooks, The New Best Recipe, from the editors of Cooks Illustrated.

So, boiled eggs, here, in my words:

In a saucepan, place a single layer of fresh eggs on the bottom, and fill until water covers eggs by at least 1 inch. Place on burner turned to high. Just when water has come to a full boil, turn burner off, put lid on saucepan, and move off of hot burner. Set the timer for 10 minutes. After the time is up, pour hot water off, and pour in ice-cold water and let stand for a handful of minutes. Tap eggshells on counter, and peel, beginning at the air-pocket (wider) end.

Egg Salad

I think of this, not so much as a recipe, but more as an explanation of how to make egg salad. Beginning with the peeled, hard boiled eggs, say 6 or so, rough chop them in a medium bowl. Sprinkle with salt and freshly cracked pepper, also 1/2 clove of fresh garlic, minced and mashed with a fork, (it doesn't take much), and maybe a sprinkling of dill weed or parsley, if you like. Mince just a tablespoon of onion, and stir that in along with mayo, only about two or three tablespoons at first, then see if you need more. You don't want to end up with an overly wet, sloppy egg salad. When you have it just so, you're ready to assemble the sandwich.

Egg Salad Biscuit with Sprouts

Slice a still-warm biscuit in half, and spread with a good helping of egg salad, add a generous tangle of fresh alfalfa sprouts, sit in the sunshine, and enjoy!

Note: I'm just gonna say it: I have another idea stirring around about how to take this little egg salad sandwich in a wonderful, roasted-garlic direction, so keep your eyes open down the road. But, for now, start, here, with this!

Old suitcases, in all shapes, sizes, and ages - they're simply delightful, aren't they?

Who carried this, and where did they go?

What kind of fancy clothes were packed inside? (Because, of course, they were fancy.) Were they neatly folded and stacked, then tied in just so with those pretty ribbons?

I wonder...

I wonder if these suitcases could now be used for keeping things that have the potential for one day becoming fancy, or useful, or fun...