Food & Recipes - grace grits and gardening

Healthy Egg Salad

April 18, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

(This post is sponsored by Great Day Farms. All opinions are my own.)

Soon the Easter Bunny will come and go and then what? Once the novelty of dyeing and hiding and finding eggs passes, what will you do with all those eggs hanging around your house? They won’t last forever you know.

If you want to whip up a family meal using an entire basket of Easter eggs, I suggest this healthy egg salad recipe. Healthy because it’s made with Greek yogurt instead of mayo. (And let’s be clear, I’m referring to boiled Easter eggs not plastic Easter eggs, although you may have those hanging around too…)

Healthy Egg Salad

Print Recipe

Ingredients Method

Ingredients

5 hard boiled eggs I use Great Day Farms
3 Tablespoons Greek yogurt I use Fage
1 stalk celery finely chopped
3 green onions chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh dill chopped
1 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
dash ground mustard
sea salt
pepper

Method

Dice eggs and mix with yogurt. Add remaining ingredients and mix. Adjust salt and pepper to taste. Add additional yogurt and/or lemon juice if you prefer a thicker or thinner consistency. Serve with crusty bread as egg salad sliders, on crackers or carrots as appetizers, or scooped on a bed of lettuce.

Great Day Farm eggs. Yum.

Look at all these ways to serve egg salad…

Grace Grits and Gardening

Musical Pairing: (because it wouldn’t be Easter without this song…)

Easter Parade – Fred Astaire, Judy Garland

Good Oklahoma Eatin’: Wheeler’s Restaurant

April 14, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

If you’ve been keeping up, you know on Friday I drove to Eureka Springs. My friend Tom was along for the ride. Tom is a travel writer and one of his foodie rules is no chain restaurants. That rule suits me fine.

I had my own foodie rule. The restaurant had to be on the right side of the road. We were on a mission to get to Dairy Hollow by suppertime and precious minutes could be lost exiting, circling back and driving the opposite direction to try out a diner on the other side of the highway. Plus, there had to be p*l*e*n*t*y of options on our side of the road. Right?

Not really.

Wheeler’s Restaurant, Kiowa, Oklahoma

But we did find Wheeler’s Restaurant in Kiowa, just between Atoka and Savanna. The place was decorated in full fledged cowboy and indian motif with John Wayne photos, knotty pine paneling, and wagon wheel light fixtures. Had we stumbled into a western movie set?

Even the bathroom was in costume with barbed wire around the ceiling where molding normally goes. Check out this sink made from a vintage splatter ware bowl. Very cool!

splatter ware sink – Wheeler’s Restaurant

Our waitress was as friendly as a first cousin and the other diners were local, regular folks too. I could tell.

Tom eyed platters of burgers and fries being served to the two guys at the table beside us and had what they were having. He made a great choice. Behind the swinging saloon kitchen doors, someone was frying up burgers on a seasoned grill the way burgers were meant to be cooked. I was too busy eating my stew to take a picture of Tom’s food. Delicious.

beef stew at Wheeler's Restaurant in Oklahoma

Beef Stew at Wheeler’s Restaurant. Heavenly cornbread too!

Let me just end this post by showing you a picture of the amazing pies made fresh and served daily at Wheeler’s. Oh my the meringue was perfection. Blueberry. Lemon. Coconut Cream. Chocolate. But we resisted, had no pie, hit the road and stuck to our schedule.

The next time I travel through Oklahoma (without my dogs) I’ll stop at Wheeler’s Restaurant again. And really, I’d cross to the other side of the road to try that mighty fine looking pie.

Grace Grits and Gardening

Best John Wayne Movie Quotes

Lavender Blueberry Granola

April 9, 2014 By Talya Tate Boerner

I love granola, but buying it pre-made can make a dent in the pocketbook. I whipped up a batch of my own using Martha Stewart’s Blueberry Almond granola recipe for inspiration. I modified Martha’s ingredients, eliminating the vegetable oil and coconut and adding flax seed and lavender which I have growing in my back yard. (Lavender not flax seed…)

Lavender’s health benefits help aid in digestion plus this herb adds a light floral flavor to whatever you are baking—not overwhelming, just a fresh taste. (I try to throw herbs into all my dishes. The antioxidants are healing, so why not?)

I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy homemade granola is to make.

Lavender Blueberry Granola

Print Recipe

Ingredients Notes

Ingredients

2 cups old-fashioned oats I used Quaker
3/4 cup raw slivered almonds
1/4 cup flaxseed whole, not ground
1/4 cup local honey I use Zip Code honey from Texas Honeybee Guild
1 Tablespoon lavender buds chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup dried blueberries

Notes

Don't be afraid to experiment by substituting your favorite berries or nuts.

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, mix all ingredients except blueberries. Right about now you’ll be thinking wait, this looks strangely like that concoction she made a few months ago for Valentine birdseed feeders… I agree. It does. And although both are edible, this is much better tasting (for humans).

3. Fold in blueberries.

4. Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

5. Bake 15 minutes, stirring frequently, until golden brown. Cool. Transfer to your preferred container for storage.

6. Serve with yogurt or ice cream, sprinkle on salads, add to rice pudding, or leave in a Mason jar beside the coffee pot and take a bite every time you walk into the kitchen.

Greek yogurt, lavender blueberry granola, drizzle of agave, sprinkle of bee pollen, sliced bananas

If you don’t have access to lavender, you can order organic culinary lavender from Hood River Lavender. My husband and I visited Hood River Lavender (Oregon) last summer. If you ever have the opportunity to spend time at a lavender farm, do it. As you might imagine, the air smells heavenly.