Jambalaya

Ben should read about food at hellorylander.com and ignore the pictures here.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day

On the menu at Chez Rylander this morning.
- Pancakes made with vanilla soy milk, toasted walnuts, bananas and maple syrup
- bacon
- 4 egg omelet with thyme, sauted red bell peppers and green onions

My friend Ben has suggested that I take a snapshot of the meals once and a while. I agree. Unfortunately, I've forgotten every time this week. Even the chicken tacos and guacamole we had last night. And for this morning, I forgot until I had cleaned up. All that was left to capture were a handful of toasted walnuts. Enjoy!

Pregnancy cravings

She really wanted pulled pork. I don't know why, but she did. We have our usual pulled pork spread - Alabama baked beans and cole slaw. She wanted to so badly she made the beans and came home with the bag of slaw. I just did the rest; the actual cooking of the pork. Which, by the way, turned out better than usual. I attribute this to the fact that, (a) I bought the pork shoulder from the Lincoln Market, and (b) I dry rubbed it at least 8 hours before cooking.
She was happy. I was happy with it.

Chicken Soup

I read that chicken soup really can help a cold and that it's not an urban legend. Since Alisha and I both have lingering colds I decided to make some.
I admit, I didn't have 12 hours, plus 8 hours to cool, to make perfect chicken stock. But I did have a high quality chicken base and some boneless breasts. I used Martha Stewarts chicken noodle soup recipe as a template, which I then added chopped oregano and thyme.
I poured it over Farfale pasta, bow ties to some, which made it fun, as Alisha says. Her only complaint that was vocal was that the noodles were to al dante....which translates into: "not mushy enough for soup." You can't win them all.

Greek burgers...sort of

Ok, I reheated burgers I had cooked on the grill this last weekend. But I did make my own tzaki sauce and stuffed it all in a warm pita with a side side of mixed greens, lemon olive oil and grey sea salt.

Blueberry Pancakes

Speaking of blueberries. This recipe was out of the Maine blueberry book as well. Delicious, huge fluffy pancakes. The secret I believe is folding in whipped eggwhites berry it goes to the griddle. Best blueberry pancakes this house has seen.

Ginger Blueberry Cake

Scott bought me a Maine wild blueberry cook book a few years back. A few weeks back our neighbors, Jen and Brandon, did some blueberry picking up in Michigan and gave us some. It was enough to make some this cake from the book. I served it to small group, who liked it. It's like a sweet spice cake, but more still savory. People who don't normally like ginger liked this cake.