Food of the Month, May 2012: The Incredible, Edible Egg

Posted on May 24, 2012 by

 

May is National Egg month and to celebrate I took the kids to the Sumner-Byrd Farm and Hatchery in Holly Springs. What fun we had! In addition to receiving a great tour of the farm/hatchery, Roy and David loaded us down with some fresh chicken and quail eggs. I never had quail eggs before and decided to pickle them. This is an easy and tasty way to prepare these tiny little eggs, and the recipe is at the end of this post. I used some of the fresh chicken eggs to make a classic quiche Lorraine, which I blogged about last week.

The Sumner-Byrd business services include selling certain breeds of eggs for hatching, and fresh eggs for eating (chicken, duck, goose and quail.) They also sell chicken chicks, quail chicks, guinea keets, ducklings and goslings. Visit Roy and David’s website for additional information, hours, directions, etc. It is well worth the trip to get local, fresh eggs in the Triangle area.

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Classic Quiche Lorraine

Posted on May 19, 2012 by

National Quiche Lorraine Day is May 20, which is cool on a couple of levels. First, May is National Egg Month, so of course you want to celebrate by eating a quiche of some sort, and this one is a classic. Plus, besides the obligatory eggs, my Quiche Lorraine has tons of bacon and lots of yummy cheese – need I say more?

My brother-in-law’s brother owns the Sumner-Byrd Farm and Hatchery in Holly Springs. I recently took the kids there to visit Roy and David and to check out all of the cool birds and other creatures they have. What a cool place! In addition to being treated to a great tour of the farm, we graciously were sent home with two dozen fresh chicken eggs as well as a dozen fresh quail eggs (more about that in an upcoming post.)

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Raleigh’s Best Chunky Chicken Salads

Posted on May 15, 2012 by

Raleigh’s Best Chunky Chicken Salads

Ahhhh – good old chicken salad, a true comfort food. Whenever I can’t decide what to order for lunch, it is one of my go-to meals. I see chicken salad falling into two categories: chunky and creamy. I love both of them. I prefer chunky chicken salad on a bed of fresh salad greens, with crackers or even on its own, although I occasionally will have it on bread. On the other hand, creamy chicken salad belongs on some sort of good, artisan bread or else maybe as a dip for celery and carrot sticks.

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Carnitas Soft Tacos

Posted on May 10, 2012 by

Harris Teeter had Boston butts on sale the other day, so I picked one up, not really sure how I was going to prepare it. Since Cinco de Mayo was approaching, I decided to try my hand at carnitas soft tacos, which I’ve been ordering quite a bit lately whenever we go out for Mexican food. Carnitas is Mexican for “little meats” and is simply small bits or shreds of well browned pork used as snacks or fillings for tacos or burritos.

For my carnitas, I pulled ingredients from a handful of recipes, plus took the advice of a server in one local restaurant who suggested I slow cook the pork in cola, which acts as a great meat tenderizer. I am glad I did because it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious. This is so easy to make and the only thing I will do different next time is to double the amount of jalapeños and garlic.

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Where’s the Best Brunch in Raleigh? Comment for a Chance to Win a $25.00 Gift Card to Target!

Posted on May 6, 2012 by

 

I am admittedly not a big breakfast eater, but I do like a good brunch on the weekends. My favorite brunch offerings include Eggs Benedict, corned beef hash or quiche, with hash-brown potatoes and fresh fruit on the side. Oh, and don’t forget the mimosas with fresh-squeezed orange juice and decent champagne, or maybe a spicy Bloody Mary instead. The kids love pancakes, French toast or waffles, although Lexi may opt for some link sausages and scrambled eggs. Brad usually goes for an omelet, especially ham and cheese. And all of us love nice, crispy bacon, of course!

So keeping all of this in mind, I’d love to hear what your recommendations are for the best brunch in the Raleigh area that is both kid and adult friendly.  BTW, I’m not necessarily wed to breakfast food if you can suggest a place that has some unique offerings that I’m not likely to find anywhere else.

All of you who respond (by 5/20/12) and suggest a great place to have brunch on the comment section of this post automatically will be included in a drawing to win a $25.00 gift card to Target. So take just a minute and please let me know where I need to conduct my next round of market research!

 Bon appétit!

Eat, drink and be merry!

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Drink of the Month, May, 2012: Orange Juice

Posted on May 3, 2012 by

“Take another shot of courage”  The Eagles, Tequila Sunrise

May 4 is my brother Joe’s birthday, so here’s a warm and happy, happy shout out to him – I hope it’s a great one! It’s also National Orange Juice Day, so now I have two things to celebrate – lucky me! Orange juice is like liquid sunshine, especially when it’s squeezed fresh with just the right amount of pulp.

Those of you who are close to me know that mimosas are one of my all-time favorite drinks – champagne mixed with fresh orange juice is so hard to beat! But for this post, I decided to make a cocktail to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, which of course is the day after National Orange Juice Day. What perfect timing! And that probably means the drink has tequila in it – yaaaay!

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Food of the Month, April 2012: Shrimp Scampi

Posted on April 29, 2012 by

 

Shrimp scampi is one of my favorite ways to prepare and enjoy shrimp, so naturally I wanted to make some to celebrate National Shrimp Scampi Day, which is April 29. This is so easy to make and even better to eat! And I lucked out – Fresh Market had peeled and deveined shrimp on sale, which eliminated some of the prep work. We like a lot of garlic in our shrimp scampi, but feel free to use just a couple of cloves if you’re not into scaring off vampires.

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