Pickled hard eggs

1. Get yer eggs
   
   
2. Boil. I say 8 minutes
   
3. Put in cold bath so they peel easier
   
4. Brine is 3 cups vinegar to 2 cups water, plus 1/4 cup pickling salt.
5. Add some fun stuff to the brine. I used dill, chives, capers, garlic.
6. Let sit for a few days to soak the goodness. Enjoy!

Potatoes-and-kale

"It's easy." "It's good." "It's easy!" "It's good!"

Laides, please - it's BOTH!

Potatoes and kale, two great tastes that taste great together.

Ingredients:

1. oil
2. little potatoes, like fingerling
3. bunch of kale, coarsely chopped, remove stems
4. garlic and/or onions
5. salt, pepper
6. (optional) sour cream

Directions

1. blanche potatoes, should take about 8-10m
2. While blanching, heat up oil to med/low and sauté some coarsely chopped kale. Throw in some garlic and/or onions. Toss around a bit while potatoes are blanching
3. drain blanched potatoes
4. add to kale, sauté some more, mix around a bit. Bump the heat up a bit to get things a little crispy
5. salt & pepper to taste
6. Can serve with some sour cream for extra yum (but not vegan)

I challenge anybody that dumps on kale to try this.

Kimchi Egg Breakfast Sammie

 I threw this together as a "don't waste food" and omg is it so good. This is going to be part of my regular rotation.

Ingredients

1. oil / butter
2. diced potatoes
3. onion
4. 1 egg
5. salt / pepper
6. english muffin
7. kimchi
8. swiss cheese slice
9. mayo

Steps

1. oil / butter in a pan
2. fry diced potatoes
3. add diced onions near end so the onions don't burn
4. scramble and fry egg to make a small omelette
5. salt & pepper to taste
6. english muffin, add mayo, omelette, kimchi (get some big pieces on there), swiss cheese slice
7. grill both sides until done
8. salt and pepper more to taste

yum! almost a mustard-y flavor

Kimchi noodles

Ingredients:

1. Garlic
2. Ginger (I will use both garlic & ginger from a jar when I'm lazy. which is often)
3. Cooking oil
4. Sesame oil
5. 3 eggs
6. 3 bricks of dried noodles
7. Miso paste
8. Chicken or veggie bullion (I'm veg, but I eat chicken broth. I should turn in my membership card)
   
   NOTE: I recently tried dashi powder (which is used in miso soup stock), and I'm 100% a convert. Only dashi now.
9. Chopped various veggies that fry well (I use this as an opportunity to clean out the fridge. Onions, bok choi, cabbage, peppers, etc.  Don't go to heavy on veggies so you don't overpower the kimchi)
   
   I sometimes add some fried or extra firm tofu here.
10. Rice wine vinegar or mirin
11. Chopped kimchi
12. Chopped hot pepper, whatever is available (I like Thai chili)
13. MSG
14. Chopped green onion
15. Chopped seaweed
16. Sesamee seeds

Steps (do as much in parallel as possible)

1. Garlic & ginger in cooking oil on lowest heat to sweat.
2. Whisk eggs and add some sesame oil. Start making an omelette. Don't fully cook it, leave a bit runny.  Remove runny omelette from pan.
3. Turn up heat on garlic & ginger, add chopped veggies & optional tofu. Stir fry.
4. Boil water, miso paste and bullion / dashi. Add noodles when you've got about 3m left with the veggies. You'll want to almost, but not fully cook the noodles, so they can stir fry and not go mushy.
   
   Watch your miso - it'll want to clump in the boiling water. You might want to whisk your miso separately in a small dish of cold water before you boil it.
5. Add some rice wine vinegar / mirin to the veggies / tofu and cover, steam a bit to make sure fully cooked through.
6. Add chopped kimchi, and get as much of the sauce as you can with the veggies. It'll get a bit runny when you chop it.
7. Add chopped hot pepper. Stir fry just a touch.
8. Sprinkle some msg.
9. Add runny omellete, chop it up with the veggies.
10. Add almost fully cooked noodles.
11. Stir fry.
12. Turn off heat
13. Add chopped seaweed, green onion and sesamee seeds
14. Salt to taste

Tofu eggs

Ingredients

1. 3 Eggs
2. Sesame oil
3. Packaged Fried tofu (Kalamazoo's Pacific Rim sells some lovely stuff)
4. Little bit of garlic 
5. Cooking oil
6. Green onion

Steps

1. Heat cooking oil in egg pan
2. Whisk 3 eggs
3. Add drop of sesame oil 
4. Add garlic
5. Add a few (4) wedges of sliced fried tofu, combine
6. Make an omelette, sprinkle a little MSG near the end
7. When done, top with green onion. Salt & pepper to taste

my rules

reflections on rules for life and aging

1. Afford all kindness. More for your chosen family. Most for yourself.
2. Posessions can be a blessing or a burden. Recognize the difference.
3. Challenge yourself mentally.
4. Challenge yourself physically.
5. Everything is absurd. Laugh a lot. 

And that we often judge others by their actions, but ourselves by our intentions. Don't do that. 

Voight-Kampff Test

In case anybody struggles with phone solicitiers and identity validation, I have taken the time to create a Voight-Kampff test to apply before continuing with the call.

This will be printed out, placed in a protective binder and hung by our phone so the entire Kostrzewa family can participate in the evaluation.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vSYr6TcpA-RdjLbusNEy1YfM9MGN4S3VyXTcAYLLf_zDMwR0teck2EnWYzmqcFXtDpkMAG3VMxJgvkJ/pub