Melora Johnson's Muse

This is a recipe that I forget about from time to time but remembered recently because my local farm stand had lots of carrots and garlic. I’m not sure where I first got the idea, but it’s simple and delicious.

Garlic Carrots

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed or chopped
• 1 pound of carrots, cut into disks

Directions

1. Heat the oil over medium heat for a minute or two.
2. Add the garlic and saute for 1 to 3 minutes until it starts to sizzle.
3. Add the carrots and stir to coat with the garlic oil.
4. Cover but stir periodically.
5. Turn the heat down to medium low after about five minutes.
6. Cook for 15 to 20 minutes until carrots are soft enough to eat.
7. Enjoy!

Open-faced Tomato and Cheddar

Hi Folks –

Right now we work with what we have but we also want some comfort foods, right? I recently went to the grocery store and they had a crazy amount of tomato 4 packs. It’s a little early in the season for tomatoes but if you cook them with sharp cheddar cheese, they still taste good.

I grew up with open-faced broiled tomato and cheddar cheese sandwiches. I refined the recipe to my tastes and started feeding them to my daughter when she was little. My husband professed to hate cooked tomatoes, unless they were cooked down into sauce, but watching our little bird open her mouth, begging for bite after bite, convinced him to give it a try. Now everyone in the house looks forward to them.

Note: a steak knife works well for this, serrated for cutting through the tomato skin without mushing it, and with a sharp point.

Ingredients (per serving, or two slices)

• 1 medium tomato (more or less, depending on what you like and how meaty the tomatoes are.)
• 2 ounces sharp cheddar cheese (The sharper, the better.)
• 2 slices of bread (I like 100% whole wheat, but use what you like.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. Spray or grease a tin big enough to hold your slices of bread.
3. Gently clean your tomato.
4. Cut off both ends, going in at the stem to get rid of any hard, white pieces.
5. Cut the tomato in half and use the tip of your knife to seed the tomato by cutting out the segment the seeds are attached to.
6. Dice the tomato and put half on each slice of bread.
7. Cut the cheese into 8 slices, placing four on each piece of bread and tomato.
8. Bake for approximately 15 minutes, or until cheese starts to bubble a little and brown.
9. Cool for 10 minutes and enjoy.

Curried Egg Salad or Deviled Eggs

Oh boy, if there is one thing I’ve gone back to again and again this year, it is using curry with hard-boiled eggs. Since it’s Easter, you may find you have some extra hard-boiled eggs sitting around. #Leftovers for the win!

For a quick treat, there is not much I like better than a quick curry egg salad scooped up with potato chips. In fact, as I was making the one in the picture, my daughter showed up and asked to taste it. I now have competition for the chips and curry.

If you didn’t hard boil a mess of eggs for Easter, I’ll tell you my favorite way to do that.

1. Get a half dozen eggs out and let them warm up, 1 to 2 hours before cooking. This is a pain but the closer to room temp, the better. (I like to use the eggs my husband has just brought in from the hen house and cleaned with vinegar water.)
2. Bring a pot ¾ full with water to a rolling boil and use a slotted spoon to gently lower about 6 eggs in.
3. Wait for re-boil and reduce to simmer. Time them for 12 minutes.
4. I drain off the water then fill the pot with tepid water, throw that off then move to cooler water, then cold.
5. Allow to cool before refrigerating.
6. I’ve read you can dunk them in an ice water bath. (I’ve never done it that way so I don’t know if they tend to break from doing it.)

Curried Egg Salad

1. Peel one hard-boiled egg.
2. Mash with 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise or salad dressing. (I use Hellman’s canola oil mayo.)
3. Mix in ¼ teaspoon of curry powder.
4. Eat as is or scoop up with potato chips.

If you want to get fancy, you can make deviled eggs. For a quick half dozen deviled egg halves –

Curried Deviled Eggs

1. Peel three hard-boiled eggs.
2. Rinse and roll dry on a paper towel.
3. Cut each egg in half and dump the egg yolks in a bowl.
4. Add 1 tablespoon of mayonnaise or salad dressing.
5. Add ¼ teaspoon of curry powder. (I don’t even add salt, the mayo has it.)
6. Mash those egg yolks up with a fork.
7. Spoon them back into the egg whites using a spoon and table knife.
8. Again, if you want to be fancy, dump them in a sandwich bag with the corner cut off and pipe them back into the egg white.

Enjoy your new favorite treat!