MONDAY MORNING RECIPE POST - POACHED EGG ON TOAST WITH PUMPKIN SEEDS

I realize this might not be everyone's cup of tea, but it is my favorite breakfast of the moment, and I wanted to make a record of it. Not just for breakfast either, it would make a nice light lunch or supper. Also, I have enjoyed pumpkin seeds for a long time but putting a few over my poached egg on toast is a new thing for me. I also didn't know at the time all the health benefits they provide. After those delicious fish and chips we had the other day, I wanted to go light this week. So, no recipe today, just a simple breakfast put-together. It's a bit convoluted so you might want to skip a lot of the info. That's something else I do for my own memory jogger, but at the same time hoping you might find some of this interesting.

Poached Egg on Toast with Pumpkin Seeds

1 large egg

1 slice whole-grain bread, any favorite

1 tablespoon of pumpkin seeds (there are approximately 47 calories in 1 tablespoon)

Poach your egg. I boil my water first, once it's bubbling I start toasting my bread (and it took a few tries to get it in sync with the finished egg), crack the egg and carefully put contents into the water. Toast pops up, put on plate, take egg carefully out of the water with a slotted spoon (whites should be set), place poached egg on toast. Sprinkle the tablespoon of pumpkin seeds over everything and that's it.

If you have any techniques or tips here, would love to read them in the comment section.

I don't have an egg poacher, it would probably look prettier if I had but figured it tastes great to me so no problem. However, I read at this link - host Lisa at Downshiftology, she notes, "Fine mesh sieve: this is the one tip that consistently produced the best poached egg. When you crack an egg you'll notice that there's a firmer white and a more liquidy white. Well, that liquidy white is what creates all those white wispies. So, add the egg to a fine mesh sieve/strainer, and the thinner, more liquid white is removed, leaving only the firmer white which will envelope the yolk." I will try this. The blog host has several other tips, yays and nays.

There is another recipe with interesting tips here also. Link is Natasha's Kitchen. 

I must admit that I have always put my eggs in the water and have tried various ways in the past, but my go-to is just to go for it and they seem to work out. However, these tips do make a lot of sense.

I am fortunate that poached eggs on toast are enjoyed by my family. Our dear son grew up having these. When he comes over for breakfast after dropping off our dear daughter-in-law (their work hours are different at times), poached eggs are still a favorite choice.

I have been reading up a lot on various food items and the health benefits. Pumpkin seeds are way up there and here's a list.

Rich in zinc and other beneficial minerals.

Improvement in HDL (Good) Cholesterol.

Fights intestinal parasites - yes, ewww, but still.

Reduces Arthritic inflammation.

Anti-diabetic.

Promotes good sleep.

Rich Omega-3 source.

High levels of magnesium.

Hair restoration.

Cardioprotective.

Alkaline forming.

Only an interesting guideline and of course you should always check with your doctor to see what their knowledge/opinions are on these things. I just found it interesting for me to add this so I could look at it every now and again. I have made a note to ask on my next doctor's appointment.

Do you enjoy pumpkin seeds? Do you have any of your own health tips to share? I am always curious to learn regarding anyone’s first-hand experience.  

This won't be a regular posting on such things. My normal Monday Morning Recipes will be resuming next week. 

Thanks so much for looking and I wish you all a great week.

HAPPY SUNDAY EVERYONE - LUNCH AT THE HAWK AND GRIFFIN - 9/24/24

Okay, so I like to say in the beginning of my restaurant posts, far and few between they may be, that the Hawk and Griffin is closed on Tuesdays. This is just in case I get any visitors who live not so far away and who would like to go there after reading this. Their days and times can be found here.

I am starting off today with the lunch we had at our British-style pub/restaurant in Vienna, Virginia. As mentioned at the end of my post here, our son had had car issues and we loaned him ours for a couple of days. When he brought it back we drove over to the Hawk and Griffin where he treated us to a wonderful lunch. These are the photos we took.

We passed by the Snug. According to this link, a "snug was a small private room or area, typically with access to the bar and a frosted glass window above head height. Customers in the snug paid a higher price for beer and nobody could look in and see the drinkers. 

Not only did wealthy visitors use these rooms, but also patrons who preferred not to be seen in the public bar. Ladies often enjoyed a private drink in the snug in a time when many frowned on women visiting a pub. The local police officer might nip in for a quiet pint, the parish priest for his evening whisky, or sweethearts for a secret rendezvous. 

Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) have surveyed the 50,000 pubs in Britain and they believe that there are very few pubs that still have classic snugs. These are on a historic interiors list in order that they can be preserved." This is a small part of what I read, the rest goes on to tell you all about pubs.

 And look who is heading to the snug? You might have noticed him in the window above us in the second photo.

We were seated at a booth just across from the bar.

We didn't think about it but we arrived about a hour after the main lunch hour, and apart from someone sitting at the bar, and two ladies in the booth behind us, that was it for customers.

We ordered Scotch Eggs as an appetizer. Scotch Eggs were originally called Scotties and when I was a child we occasionally had them for tea. They made great picnic food for our Sunday drives in the countryside. I was very surprised to learn that they were originally covered in fish paste, not sausage meat. The write-up said they were invented in 1738 by a London department store called Fortnum and Mason of Picadilly. The first printed recipe that could be found was in Maria Rundell's "A New System of Domestic Cookery, published in 1809. There's a little more to the story here. Ours were very good and came with a mustard dipping sauce. I found a YouTube recipe for making Scotch Eggs at this link.

We all ordered the Fish and Chips, which were also excellent.Mine came with Mushy Peas. The boys didn't order this, not their cup of tea, but I grew up with them so there you go, and with Fish and Chips they go hand-in-hand. Another memory from childhood, my sister and I were always set the task of walking to our local 'chippy' - fish and chip shop - to buy the Friday meal of Fish and Chips, carefully wrapped up in parchment-like white paper pockets, and wrapped in sheets of newspaper. It's a sweet memory now.  We were allowed to snitch a couple of chips on the way home, but not more than one or two each my Mum would tell us. I am not sure if this is still the case, but we could also get bangers (sausages) that were battered, and also thick slices of potato, also battered, called Scallops. The last time we had fried Fish and Chips was when Gregg and I came here a year ago. We cook a more healthier version now at home, says I wistfully, smiling as I say this, not a batter crumb in sight! You can guess how much of a treat this was, yes even the mushy peas. The thought of pureed peas does not do anything for my two dears and fair enough, it would be a boring old world if we all liked the same thing. I seem to remember Mum telling me that many times and I seem to be saying it more and more these days.For dessert it was Sticky Toffee Pudding. Brad and I ordered one each and I took mine home for later that night. "Sticky toffee pudding is known as sticky date pudding in Australia and New Zealand (any of our Australian and New Zeland friends out there, is this right?) It is a British dessert consisting of a moist sponge cake made with finely chopped dates covered in a toffee sauce and often served with a vanilla custard or vanilla ice-cream. It is considered a British classic by various culinary experts. Traditionally we served all our sponge-like desserts and pies with what we called English Custard, or Creme Anglais as the French say, and there's a recipe here.The information on this iconic dessert was found here and is as follows: "The origins of a sticky toffee pudding are disputed. Owners of several pubs, including the Gait Inn, Millington, East Riding of Yorkshire laid claim in 1907, and the Udny Arms Hotel in Newburgh, Aberdeenshire claimed to have invented it in the1960s. The pudding was popularized in the 1970s by Francis Coulson and Robert Lee, who developed and served it at the Sharrow Bay Country House Hotel in Cumbria. The food critic Simon Hopkinson said Coulson told him he received the recipe from a Patricia Martin of Claughton in Lancashire, and that Martin had received it from Canadian Airforce Officers who lodged at her hotel during the Second World War. A take home version to heat, either in the oven or microwave, was developed in 1989 by the owners of the Village Shop in Cartmel, Cumbria. Their dish became popular and by the late 1990s was being sold in supermarkets across the UK. The dish is now widely available from multiple manufacturers to bake at home." And there you go, now we know. I have added links all through this post which will take you to more information on various topics, various places. I do this because I often go there myself. I enjoy going back and having my refresher remember-ers. 

Caught son mid-bite! Sorry son!

The next few photos are of the menu. You can enlarge to get better detail in all these photos.

Almost forgot our drinks. Gregg had his usual, a coca-cola. Brad had a beer and I a cider. The last time I had one of these was also the last time we were at the Hawk and Griffin. It was delicious, very refreshing.

The last few photos are of this and that.

I can highly recommend this place for a fun meal, the staff are friendly and the food is excellent. If you find yourself in the area their address is 435 Maple Avenue W., Vienna, VA 22180, and their phone number is 703 261 6707. Their website is at this link. I get nothing for this free advertising. I just like to sing the praises of places I have been to and have, as in this case, been before.  It was also a wonderful time with my family and I look forward to the next gathering when our sweet daughter-in-law can join us.

Thanks for looking and as always, I hope your day is a great one.

SATURDAY MORNING AT THE BIRD FEEDER - A RIDDLE ME THIS - 9/27/24

Scrolling down

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An envelope does indeed start with the letter ‘e’ and is designed to contain an actual, honest to goodness letter, but not the kind of letter I was thinking about.  Way to go little dove!

And by now you know how it goes on 

a Saturday Morning at the Bird Feeder.

Thanks for looking 

and have a great weekend my friends.

THIS WEEK’S RECIPES STARTING MONDAY 9/23/24

UPS! I posted these by mistake. Some days I am too tired to function. They were supposed to be made one by one by me and then I was going to publish them with my own photos, my own words, giving links as I usually do but as you have already seen them, I will just leave as is.  When I do make them I will replace these photos with my own.

This will be instead my Friday post with apologies!

Pioneer Woman Beef Barley Soup Recipe

https://forkfillet.com/pioneer-woman-beef-barley-soup-recipe/

Stephen Colbert’s Perfect Spicy Honey-Lemon Chicken Recipe 

https://apple.news/Au0vO7ynVQRSEadjnVS5CQA

Tomato Cucumber Avocado Salad

https://juliasalbum.com/avocado-salad-tomatoes-mozzarella-basil-pesto/

Grandma’s Potato Casserole

https://www.allrecipes.com/grandma-cheesy-potato-casserole-recipe-8715270

IRISH COLCANNON POTATOES

 https://parsleythymelimoncello.com/2020/02/12/irish-colcannon-potatoes/?swcfpc=1

ONE MUST ASK…

“One must ask children and birds how cherries and strawberries taste.”

~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe~

AROUND AND ABOUT - 9-25-24

 These are a few photos I took when running around this past week. The first one is when I noticed these wispy clouds and pointed them out to dear other half. He said that there was bad weather on the way. Sure enough the next few days held a lot of dark clouds and a lot of rain. These are cirrus clouds, I am giving myself a refresher.

Doggy fix for the day was seeing this sweet pooch waiting for his cup of coffee in the drive-thru.

Such a good dog, he didn't make a peep.

When we got home and I went to open the patio door, this little fella greeted me.  By the time I got back from the kitchen to take another look, he was gone. 

Added note 9:59 am., 9-25-24: Ginny asked in her comment about this insect. I thought it was a grasshopper but thought I ought to check on that. This is the information I found at this link. It is a grasshopper. 

"The main difference between a grasshopper and a cricket is that crickets tend to have long antennae, grasshoppers have short antennae. Crickets stridulate ("sing") by rubbing their wings together, while grasshoppers stridulate by rubbing their long hind legs against their wings. Grasshoppers detect sound by means of little 'ears' at the base of their abdomen; in crickets these are on the front legs. 

Most crickets are crepuscular (which means they come out at dusk) whereas grasshoppers tend to be out and about during the day." Thanks for another great question Ginny.

Gregg introduced me to this place (in my next photo) years ago, when he was still working in Washington DC. With the heavy traffic at rush hour, it was not much shy of a two-hour commute one way. More often than not, having such a busy work schedule, he often had no time for lunch. He was always hungry and when he saw the sign for the first time, he stopped off for a Bahn Mi sandwich half way into his journey home. Another story I have mentioned before, but he moved here first and I stayed behind while our son finished the school year in San Diego. A new colleague introduced him to Vietnamese and Thai Cuisine, which was and still is very popular in our area.  When we joined him several months later, he introduced it to us. It was fun to try something different, and he took us to all his favorite restaurants, and they became ours too. Those places have unfortunately closed but there are other places we can go to. We just don't eat out a lot any more, though we get a Meatball Bahn Mi about once a month. It isn't like an Italian meatball sandwich. It is made with pork and the seasonings are very different, and delicious. I wrote about it before, and other things, in this post. There is no seating inside and we usually have a car picnic in the parking lot. Still fun to do. You'll read in the old post about a time I had another knee problem, more steps I should have stayed away from. I had forgotten all about it until I found the post again.  C'est la vie! Obviously still learning!

We got our latest Covid booster last week at our local supermarket's pharmacy. The young man who gave me the injection was very gentle. I actually asked if he was done as I saw him putting things away and was a bit surprised. He joked by saying yes he had and that he was that good. He laughed, I laughed and I told him you are way better than good, thanked him and got out of there.

We had a nice treat yesterday. Our son had had car issues, and we loaned him ours for a couple of days. As a treat he took us out to lunch, and we ended up going to the Hawk and Griffin, which is a British pub/restaurant in Vienna, about ten miles from home. The boys fancied Fish and Chips and there was no complaint from me. I can honestly say it was the best Fish and Chips I have had in a very long time. We all enjoyed our meal. I will share the photos soon, but in the meantime you can go to this post from our last time if you would like to take a peek. There is also a story on there about Sitting Bull and Buffalo Bill, which I had also forgotten I had shared. It has been about a year since we were last at the Hawk and Griffin.

Thanks for taking a look and I hope your day is a great one.