Another try at the Veggie Tortilla

 Hello, everyone.

I have been trying to figure out how to make Tortilla Espagnola without excess browning on the top...thinking it's a matter of turning the heat down while cooking that first side (on bottom in pan, then on top on plate) so the mixture will firm up more before getting super-browned.

This is another try at the Tortilla Murciana de Verduras from Spain on a Fork.

It tasted wonderful!

Though I do cut up the mushrooms and peppers differently, it's just easier to serve if they're cut bite-sized instead of in great giant slices! It's fun to use multiple colors of sweet pepper for this, too. You can see the red ones peeking out in the picture.

Tenth update on pilgrimage 2021

 Hello, everyone. 

We left Fonsagrada at about sunrise, a little before 9, in misty clouds. It wasn't actually wet enough to be rain, but it was chilly. It stayed chilly for much of the day. The sun barely peeped out later on.

I wore my Buff as a kerchief to keep my ears warm and it worked very well.

There was a portion of the day's walk with some steep ups and downs,  but there were also some very pretty bits. There was also road walking, the kind where you keep your left foot hitting the white line on the left side of the road. Most drivers also move over about half a lane to give room, but it's good to hug the edge if there is no shoulder to walk in.

We ended the day in O Cadavo, a small place with 2 grocery stores to choose from and a couple of bars. We stayed in a pension type room at the Albergue Porta Santa and went to the grocery store for easy, simple DIY supper and breakfast food. If you do this, by the way, don't just grab the first small jar of olives you see! You might end up with the very spicy ones canned with loads of hot peppers. 😉 

Our easy breakfast was prepared salad with some canned mussels added to improve the protein profile.  The easy breakfast was a half dozen eggs, boiled and cooled before we opened out creamy-salad packages for dinner. In the morning we pulled the boiled egs out of the kitchen fridge and peeled and salted them. Manzanilla to drink, we put our little tea bags into glasses, added cool water, and let the microwave do its thing.

At Fontaneira, after A Lastra, the local authorities are working on a beautiful boardwalk alongside the road. It's broad, they're using a board with little carved in stripes to make it textured, and they are putting in a fence along the edge where there is a drop off. All they need is a foot joint to be a very attractive rest point. (A Lastra apparently had 2 bars in the past but just we only saw the one and it was tiny...too chilly for sitting outside.) If the Camino Primitivo begins catching on the way it was starting to before 2020, improvements like this boardwalk should make people walking happy to pass through Fontaneira and look for a bar to snack at and rest a little. 

Peach pie makings

 Hello, everyone.

While we were visiting family, I found a farm stand with fresh, Illinois peaches for sale.  Nabbed a nice bag of them, quick.

To make pie, they needed to be peeled...and I had never tried that before.

Following instructions on various web sites and Youtube videos, I cut a cross in the bottom of the fruit. Then I put them into boiling water for just a few seconds (if you've peeled tomatoes, this is the same game) and then put the now scalded peaches into a bowl of ice water to shock them and stop the cooking.  Then I used a knife to pull the skin away from the flesh of the fruit. Sliced the peeled peaches and put them into a bowl to macerate with some sugar.

These are the peels and pits after the peaches were peeled. It's a surprisingly small pile for a bag of 8 or 10 peaches.

These are the sliced peaches, with about a half cup of sugar to bring out the juice, waiting until time to be put into the pie shell.

This was the first of two pies that got made during our visit. The second pie, not pictured, was Granny Smith apples.

I love making pies. The grandchildren liked eating them for breakfast, too. 

Another low-carb breakfast

 Hello, everyone.

Another in the series of low-carb meals: eggs with a sort-of curry vegetable mix. (Or, maybe, eggs with almost-ratatouille vegetables?)

The vegetables are zuchini and tomatoes--no eggplant, no onion--cooked in extra virgin olive oil. Seasoned with italian herb mix and some curry powder and salt. Eggs cooked in the pan after the vegetables with (I think) more extra virgin olive oil for the pan.

It was good.

Low-carb breakfast, again

 Hello, everyone.

I keep putting up these food pictures to encourage myself.

Today's photo is 2 eggs over-medium, with a big scoop of guacamole on top. Yum.

It looks simple and it is. But it tastes good, and by making it at home there is no hassle of trying to figure out what in the selection is edible and free of sugar, flour, other grains, and other sugars. Not to mention the various forms of altered fats!

I didn't photograph a more recent one, a three egg omelet with some broccoli bits and cheese in the middle. (Dog got the last three bites of it! Two eggs are not quite enough for a whole day and three are a bit too much. Happy dog!)

Another low carb breakfast, Valley style

Hello, everyone.

Today's post is a breakfast that is low carb and tasty and very much in tune with the Rio Grande Valley's culinary heritage: huevos con barbacoa y nopal.

For my non-RGV readers, this relies on previously prepared items: leftover barbacoa from the shop and leftover nopal.

I bought the nopal as a bag of cleaned, raw pieces. The drill is to rinse them, boil them, and then rinse them again as the sap has a somewhat vinegary taste. (Anyone who really loves green beans with vinegar poured over them might skip the last rinse or make it a pro-forma rinse.) After the pre-boiling is done, you can treat them as any other addition, mixing with bulk sausage and eggs as a scramble, or with other meats like this, or heat with a sauce as a vegetable on the side of your meal. The general texture and experience is rather like tender green beans.

I heated up the meat and nopal pieces in the skillet, set aside, fried 2 eggs over-medium (cooked whites and runny yolks), then plopped the goodies on top of the eggs.

Yum.

The cactus pad pieces, AKA nopal, are said to be good for regularizing blood sugar. They are also a seasonal menu item in this part of Texas, as the cacti make new, tender pads in the springtime.

 

Another installment in the healthy meals

 Hello, everyone.

The "healthy meals" is also known as "turning over a new leaf." ;-)

This is Friday breakfast. As y'all know, this particular Friday falls in Lent and is meatless. 

Breakfast for 2: Per person, 2 eggs and a splash of heavy cream, and about 2.5 slices of yellow squash cubed and browned in butter in the skillet. The eggs and cream, lightly beaten with a fork, went into the pan with the browned squash cubes and were scrambled. Then at the end the Italian 3 Cheese shreds were added and stirred in to melt.

Plating: half of the egg scramble to each plate, some bits of chopped fresh parsley--parsley was not damaged in the Big Freeze a couple of weeks ago, thank heavens--and some wedges of tomato.

Teapot in back has "Ambrosia" tea from Maggie's Farm in Memphis. ( This was a Christmas gift from DD1.) The teapot is our Turkish style teapot, which we call the "forever teapot" as with water refills it can last all day.

No bread, no rice, no oats or farina cereal, no sugar added to the eggs, just tasty goodness.