Mama Kolz's Summer Breakfast Scramble

The zucchini in the garden are loving our weather. And I'm loving the zucchini. Here's what our children had for breakfast this morning. Feel free to substitute things you may have in your pantry, garden or refrigerator for what I listed. This is your scramble! I can make it Trim, Healthy, Mama friendly, and add bread and jam for my children who are not eating on a diet plan. This would be an S meal on the Trim Healthy Mama plan.

My favorite chickens lay colored eggs. If you don't live near farms -- check your farmers market for the healthiest eggs you can find. Our farmer friend has silly, cheerful chickens who are let out of their pen each morning (where they are safe from Mama Foxes feeding their young kits) to peck at grass and weed seeds and bugs and fruit and watermelon rinds and all the trimmings from the farm wife's vegetables. They look a lot like bowl of eggs.

I use a huge skillet, probably 14 inches across. I add some butter or coconut oil, about a tablespoon, and let it melt on low while I'm chopping a large zucchini into very small dices. I pretend I'm a chef on TV, and I use my bright orange handled Rachael Ray knives that Farmboy bought me for my birthday a few years ago. It's great fun to be me sometimes! In fact, I had so much fun with the basic set, that my husband then bought me this for Christmas - Cool but affordable Japanese Santoku chef knife.



But I digress. After I toss the zucchini into the hot oil or butter, I finely dice a red or white super sweet onion. We grow the candy sweet variety, but do the best you can with the local sweet onions -- the sweeter they are -- the better breakfast tastes. Put 1/2 of the onion into a zipper bag or a storage container an keep it in the refrigerator for another day or the freezer if you're not cooking again soon and toss the second half into the zucchini. Soften and allow the veggies to turn a little golden, and then add in 1/2 cup of diced ham, or a chopped tin of SPAM, TREET, or other canned brand of luncheon meat. I've also used leftover meat from dinner, chopped sausage, or even bologna, salami, etc.  You want about 1/2 cup for flavor. If your meat isn't very flavorful, then a teaspoon of mince garlic is very nice to add. Sprinkle the veggies with some garlic salt or sea salt, and toss it about in the pan, then put the lid on for a moment while you crack open 8 large eggs into a bowl, whisk until smooth, and then pour over your cooked meat and veggies. Stir gently, turn the heat to low, and gently fold inward until the scrambled eggs are done to your likeness. I put the lid on before I think they're finished cooking, and turn off the heat, and get the breakfast plates ready. When I return the eggs are perfect. Scoop into 4-6 portions and serve your family with a smile. I love to top our Summer Scramble with a hearty shredding of Romano cheese made from our goat milk, but a bit of a parmesan cheese wedge, cut off with a fruit peeler into a few curls, makes this very special!

1 T butter or coconut oil
1 large zucchini, small dice
1/2 sweet onion, small dice
8 large free range eggs, whisked
1/2 cup cooked meat of your choice:  sausage, salami, Treet, Spam, Ham, or leftover meats
3 good shakes of Real Salt
Garlic salt to taste

Optional: Curls of Parmesan or Romano cheese for garnish

Melt oil of your choice in a large skillet 10-14 inches diameter. On medium high add zucchini and onion and soften the veggies, then add cooked meat and heat through. Pour in whisked eggs, turn the heat to low,  stir to the center gently when curds form, and right before they look finished and dry enough, turn off the heat and put the lid on. Serves 4-6 depending on how large your zucchini may be.  Excellent served with toast with Dutch Apple Pie Jam. That recipe will follow.


Today the children ate theirs with 3 cherry tomatoes from the garden on the side, and their scramble made with Spam, zucchini, red candy sweet onion, alongside a slice of bread with butter and homemade Dutch Apple Pie Jam. It's a good meal, any time of the day! Enjoy summer while you can.

Amazing! They ate the minestrone.

This week marks a milestone in our family.  Or maybe it's a speedbump perhaps. I'll be working full time for a week, in training really, for the US Census. Grandmother is watching the toddler while I'm at work except for one day when Grandma is off volunteering.  At which point Emma will be playing at our Old Order Mennonite friend's farm. The children will be at the grandparents for a couple of hours until Dad gets off work, and then they'll follow my simplified instructions for making dinner, which I will have started earlier in the morning before leaving for work at 8:15.  My 13 year old son looks at me like it's the last supper, cooked by mom.

Working a four day shift compresses all the rest of my real work, as many working mothers nod sagely.  I prefer the more relaxed day I usually have.  I like time to shop for bargains, and to hang the laundry to dry on the line. Today I went shopping to several Mennonite markets with my friends Bertha and Jill and three children.  We sampled some delicious and varied bulk foods (sweet potato chips, bacon dip, sesame crackers, some yummy corn relish, and tortilla chips). I love to purchase the horseradish pickles they sell there - a national brand I'm sure. Nathan's horseradish pickles, delicious! In times of $4.00 gallon gasoline, I even sliced cucumbers and kept refilling the jar to make it stretch further.

But today, my favorite find and dinner inspiration, was the cheese at Zimmerman's Meat Market on Lovejoy Road near Penn Yan, NY.  It's just a wee little butchershop that now carries a few bulk foods as well. I didn't even see meat, but it was in the back and some pretty kapp wearing Mennonite teen girls wrapped and labeled my order for me with smiling efficiency.

I bought 4 lbs. of Farmer's cheese, some of which we used for dinner. But my favorite find was Extra Sharp, New York Cheddar cheese. The label says Cuba cheese, from Cuba, NY. I paid no more than $2.40/lb for the 10 lbs I had cut into manageable size pieces for our family of 7. I think it comes in 10 lbs. blocks, but that's too hefty for our bunch. They vacuum sealed it and labeled it for me, and gave me an order sheet for their fresh and frozen meat and fish, as well as the multitude of cheeses they sell.  I bought 6 lbs. of whiting fillets too, so that will be dinner another week.

Tonight - I wanted to do something substantial with Farmer's cheese. Now it tastes like Mozzarella to my tongue, but it's not as squeaky, and it doesn't melt smoothly like cheddar. 

For my wedding anniversary on Friday night we had dinner at a favorite steakhouse - and I started dinner with a lovely bowl of French Onion Soup. It was divine, and I savored every last drop of that rich brown broth, and the gruyere cheese I had to cut with a knife. That was my inspiration for this combination.

KelliSue Minestrone Soup - that they'll eat
1.5 lbs. of sweet Italian sausage (I used venison sausage)
1 diced sweet onion
1 can of mixed vegetables (like veg-all) including liquid
1 quart of home bottled tomatoes or a large can of diced tomatoes including liquid
1 quart of spaghetti sauce (I used Hunts' chunky vegetable which contained zucchini slices)
1 quart of water
1 can of garbanzo beans with liquid
1 cup of macaroni
Salt and pepper to taste
2 teaspoons of sweet basil
or mixed Italian seasoning
1 tablespoon of minced garlic (I used jarred)

Saute' the Italian sausage until no pink remains. You may need to add a little olive oil if it's as lean as ours is.  Set aside.

In a dutch oven sized pot, drizzle a little olive oil or use butter, and sautee the diced sweet onion until softened. Then add the can of mixed vegetables, liquid and all, and the quart of canned tomatoes.  Cook for 5 minutes and then using a stick blender, puree until mostly liquid with few solid bits remaining.  Add the spaghetti sauce, the quart of water, the can of beans with liquid, the precooked sausage, and bring to a rolling boil. Add the cup of macaroni, and simmer until tender, about 7 minutes. If it's too thick, thin with some water or broth. The sausage adds quite a bit of salt and flavor, so be cautious in using broth if it's salted.

Now add the spices and seasonings to taste, beginning with the amounts suggested.  Taste again for salt and pepper, and then ladle into large bowls.

We added a large handful of shredded farmer's cheese to each bowl, and topped it with a few oyster crackers, but saltines will go nicely too. The cheese melts to a stringy delight, and made the soup disappear like magic.

If you don't have available farmer's cheese, I'm told the classic is to use parmesan, shredded into the pot of soup, or you can add chopped parmesan cheese rinds to the pot early on in the cooking.  But we had great fun with our Farmer's cheese today.  Hat's off to farmer's and their cheesey goodness.

If you try this recipe, I hope you enjoy it like we did. Even the toddler ate it right up. If you prefer Vegetarian cooking, you can leave out the Italian sausage, and use a vegetable broth instead of the quart of water.

For Body and Soul

On our farm stand we have these huge hubbard squashes and huge butternut squashes. Any kind of squash will do. My husband, the saintly FarmBoy, peels gigantic squash on his lap tray while watching sports on TV. It's a guaranteed way to get no complaints about him watching sports during prime time. So I find ways all year long to use those cubes of squash that we froze. We do it simply - just peel and seed and cube the squash - then rinse, put in ziplock bags and toss in the freezer. No blanching, no whining, no problem. Try it, or find a harder way to store squash.


Then, when making macaroni and cheese, for example, I boil some of the frozen cubes with the macaroni. By the time I have added the sauce to the boiled macaroni, those cubes are orange and dissolving making it look like we added extra cheddar to the noddles. I've added the cubes to beef stew, and other long simmered soups and sauces, and they just disappear, leaving behind some good fiber, beta carotene and other nutrients. And my conscience is clear, because I can't stand a spoonful of orange goop, no matter what you call it. But I'll eat it in pie, breads, and Cheddar Cheese Soup with Broccoli, or potatoes, or cauliflower. Try it, you need the vitamins this winter.

My kiddos can't eat cream due to their milk-intolerance issues. We even use cheese sparingly. Interestingly enough, extra sharp cheddar cheese is almost or reportedly lactose free. We can eat that easily.

I make this soup, like most things, with goat milk, substituting at the asterisks to make it seem like the original. I use  a  few spoonfuls out of a jar of chicken soup base usually, and just add it to the hot milk. It sneaks in extra calcium for the kiddos and makes the soup more creamy and probably a little less fatty than with the cream. Last time I made this I added in 1 cup of diced zucchini and yellow squash when I fried the onions in the bacon drippings.


Hard Rock Cafe Potato Soup - scaled to 4 servings
4 slices bacon
1/2 cup Diced yellow onions
1/3 cup Flour
3 cups Hot chicken stock (*3 cups of hot goat milk and enough soup base for 3 cups)
2 cups Diced -- peeled baked Potatoes or leftovers.
1 cup Heavy cream *(1 cup goat milk)
1/8 cup Chopped parsley (I substitute chopped celery leaves from the tops)
3/4 teaspoon Granulated garlic
3/4 teaspoon Dried basil
3/4 teaspoon Salt
3/4 teaspoon Red pepper sauce
3/4 teaspoon Coarse black pepper
1/2 cup Grated Cheddar cheese
1/8 cup Diced green onions -- white Part only

Additional chopped bacon --
Grated cheese and Chopped parsley for Garnish

Directions:
Fry bacon until crisp. Chop bacon and reserve drippings. Cook onions and celery tops in remaining drippings over medium-high heat until transparent, about 3 minutes. Add flour, stirring to prevent lumps. Cook 3 - 5 minutes until mix just begins to run golden. Add chicken stock gradually, whisking to prevent lumps, until liquid thickens. Reduce heat to simmer and add potatoes, cream, chopped bacon, parsley, garlic, basil, salt, pepper sauce and black pepper. Simmer 10 minutes; DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL. Add grated cheese and green onions.
Heat until cheese melts smoothly. Garnish each serving as desired with chopped bacon, grated cheese.

It's a good recipe. It's also a good place to hide cubes of raw butternut squash. Just sautee in with the onions, and as the soup simmers the squash nearly dissolves and makes it a nice cheddar cheese color. I'm a veggie pusher I tell ya.  It's for sale on the farmstand - $1.00 each. Come on over.

Not your Average Lasagne - this one Disapppears!

I was reading here, and I had to try out substituting zucchini for the asparagus in this delightful Asparagus and Ham lasagne.  Asparagus season is long gone here, but the zucchini is beating down a path to my door.

Kolz Kidz Riff on Ham & Cheddar & Zucchini Lasagne

9 uncooked lasagna noodles

2 tablespoons margarine or butter
1 1/2 lb. zuchinni, cut into julienne strips, or half moon slices
1 (8-oz.) pkg. (3 cups) sliced fresh mushrooms
1 lb. cooked ham, cut into 1/2-inch cubes (2 3/4 cups)
2 cups milk
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon chicken-flavor instant bouillon
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
8 oz. (2 cups) shredded Cheddar-mozzarella cheese blend

DIRECTIONS:
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1. Cook lasagna noodles to desired doneness (al dente - still a little undone) as directed on package.  Hey, don't get discouraged. This is as easy as boiling a big pot of water, putting in 9 large noodles into the boiling water, setting a kitchen timer, and then fishing them out with a pair of tongues a minute before you think you needed to.  Or pick up the big pot and Drain. You can do it. Continue reading. (Cook's note, you may not want to fall for the gimmick of no-cook lasagne noodles, just trust me on this. Or add 1/2 cup of chicken broth to the sauce so your no-cook noodles will cook in the lasagne and be sure and cover well with foil).

2. Meanwhile, heat oven to 350°F. Spray 13x9-inch (3-quart) glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Then do it again, just to be sure you're not sand blasting some yummy cheesiness stuck to your pan after dinner. Melt margarine in 12-inch skillet over medium heat. Add zucchini and mushrooms; cook and stir 5 to 7 minutes or until zucchini is taking on some color, and softening a bit. Now add the ham and warm through.  Pour into large bowl.. Set aside.

3. In same skillet, combine 1/2 cup of the milk, flour, bouillon, pepper and Dijon mustard; blend well with wire whisk. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups milk; blend well. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture is bubbly and thickened. Remove from heat; stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese until melted. See.. you just mastered a variation of the mother sauce, bechamel. Take a bow. Leave out the dijon another time and add a bit more cheddar and you have your basic cheese sauce suitable for well, most everything.

4. To assemble lasagna, spread 1/2 cup sauce evenly in bottom of sprayed baking dish. Reserve 1/2 cup sauce for topping. Add remaining sauce to ham mixture; mix well.

5. Arrange 3 cooked noodles over sauce in baking dish. Spoon and spread half of ham mixture over noodles; top with 1/2 cup cheese. Repeat layers. Top with remaining noodles and reserved 1/2 cup sauce. Sprinkle with remaining 1/2 cup cheese.

6. Bake at 350°F. for 20 to 30 minutes or until bubbly. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Your tummy will thank you.  Really.  Just try the recipe, and listen carefully.
 
P.S. - Instead of Ham you can use leftover grilled chicken in this recipe.  Just do these little steps at your next cookout or grill session.  Make way too much grilled chicken, before letting the family eat it all, chill the extras in a ziplock bag in the refrigerator.  When you get around to it the next day, remove meat from the bones, or cube the boneless chicken, and remember this recipe.  See.  Easy Peasy. You're welcome. And remember.. sweet peas go nicely with zucchini, chicken and cheddar lasagne too.