Kentucky Derby Pie {Recipe}

I'm not sure I ever watched the Kentucky Derby as a child. I certainly have no memories of it.

The horse race came into my life through Alex's grandmother. She wasn't a huge racing fan but she always watched the Derby. Towards the end of her life, when she was living in Columbus near us, we spent several spring Saturdays cheering on riders together.

Though Gram is no longer alive, we continue the tradition of watching colorful jockeys every Derby Day. We drink mint juleps with fresh mint from the backyard and usually throw in a few other culinary nods to Ohio's southern border state.

Last year I wanted to create a Kentucky Derby pie. I had tasted one before that a long lost friend made. Searching the internet revealed a variety of pies, most containing corn syrup or other evils. I imagined I could do better with natural ingredients.

Experimenting resulted in a dense, walnut studded pie with dark chocolate, one I will make again this Saturday. The one-bowl pie is easy to bake up for Derby Day or any time.

Kentucky Derby Pie Serves 12 Time: 1 hour

1 pie crust, unbaked 1/2 cup flour 1 cup sugar 2 eggs, beaten 1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly 3 ounces bourbon 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup dark chocolate pieces or bar, chopped 1 cup walnuts, chopped

1. Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees F. 2. Line 9 or 10 inch pie plate with unbaked pie crust and form edges. 3. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together sugar, flour, eggs, butter, bourbon, vanilla, and salt. 4. Stir in chocolate and walnuts until they are well incorporated. 5. Pour filling into prepared pie crust. 6. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the filling comes out clean. 7. Allow to cool slightly before cutting.

Earth Day Events {Friday Five}

Earth Day is every day around here. We reuse, recycle, and repurpose. We grow our own, capture rain water, dry laundry on the line, and more. No matter where you are on your earth-friendly journey, here are some ideas for marking Earth Day this weekend.

1) City Folk's Farm Shop Grand Opening - Shop City Folk's from 9 am - 5 pm Saturday for discounts, samples, Sharpening on Site, GNix Food Cart, and a donation of proceeds to benefit Local Matters.

2) Do Something Outside - Take a walk, visit a park, look for eagles, identify wildflowers - be outside and enjoy what the earth has to offer.

3) Root Down Earth Day Celebration - Join the citywide celebration from 11 am - 10 pm at Columbus Commons featuring music, food trucks, a kid's area, ecofriendly booths, and more. Free!

4) Plant Something Edible - Plant a pea, transplant an herb seedling, and soon enjoy eating from your own patio or backyard.

5) Clothing Swap at OSU Urban Arts Space - How cool is this event on Saturday? Turn in your unwanted clothes from 11 am - noon, get tickets, and at 1 - 3 pm exchange them for other's used clothes!

What are you doing for Earth Day?

Original Ideas for Hard-Boiled Eggs {Friday Five}

After the eggs are dyed and the baskets filled, many families are left with dozens of boiled eggs. Hard-boiled eggs are full of protein, vitamins, and minerals. Mixing boiled eggs into egg salad, slicing into potato salad, or eating whole for breakfast is fine but with an abundance, maybe you want to try something new. Here are five unusual ideas:

1. Pickled Eggs - Local food truck The Coop has a serious following for their pickled eggs. Theirs have a light vinegar and herbal flavor. For a more colorful pickled egg, try pickling them in beet juice. Simply Recipes shares four pickled egg recipes.

2. Scotch Eggs - Leave it to the Scottish to devise a way to enrich an already robust food by wrapping a peeled hard-boiled egg in sausage and bread crumbs and then deep frying it. I've never eaten one but with Charcutepalooza bulk sausage in the freezer and an appreciation for saturated fats, I think we must make scotch eggs next week.

3. Cook Ethnic - Doro Wat, a common Ethiopian chicken stew, contains boiled eggs cooked in the spicy sauce. Boiled eggs sometimes make an appearance in Indian curries too. Make Chinese marbled tea eggs by crackling the shell of your boiled eggs and soaking them in soy sauce and spices. The Steamy Kitchen recipe for marbled tea eggs looks intriguing.

4. Asparagus Chimichurri - I know we will make my asparagus chimichurri with boiled egg again this week. It was so tasty! Toss finely chopped boiled eggs on any warm green vegetable for added richness and flavor.

5. Slingshot Ammunition - If you know Alex, it might surprise you to learn that he was in a fraternity for one year during college. It will likely not surprise you that one of his fondest frat memories is of hurling things off the top floor of the house with an oversize slingshot. When I asked him for a unique idea for using boiled eggs, he instantly said "slingshot". I can imagine that a hard-boiled egg is a great ammunition, though I hope we won't be using ours in this way!

What are your favorite ways to use hard-boiled eggs?

Easter Egg Books: Old, New, Borrowed, Blue {Book Hounds}

Our family doesn't celebrate the religious holiday but boy do we love Easter eggs, egg decorating and egg hunts. Lil and I like to prepare for holidays by reading legends and picture books. The four Easter books we found at our local library weave egg stories in a delightful way that would brighten any child's Easter basket.

The oldest Easter egg book we discovered this year was The Easter Rabbit's Parade by Lois Lenski. An Ohio writer who lived from 1893-1974, Lenski wrote lengthy, straight forward stories tied to a specific time and place. The Easter Rabbit's Parade tells of the farm animals kept by a young girl named Eliza. The livestock work together to make an Easter celebration for Eliza including eggs laid by Little Brown Hen and painted by Easter Rabbit and family.

Something new is the picture book Kiki. Author Christoph Schuler and illustrator Rahel Nicole Eisenring give life to a chick who is wise beyond her day-old age. Kiki observes that fighting hens are allowing thieves to steal their eggs. They will not stop arguing, so Kiki comes up with a clever solution to save and better the eggs.

For borrowed, Lil picked up Peter Rabbit's Happy Easter. I'm not sure how author Grace Maccarone and illustrator David McPhail got away with using the beloved character Peter Rabbit, but their book is charming. Peter characteristically makes a bad decision to steal eggs but ends up returning them, painted in bright and beautiful colors.

The odd blue-green cover of The Egg Tree caught my eye on the library shelf. A Caldecott Medal winner, Katherine Milhous' story sheds light on the Pennsylvania Dutch egg tree tradition illustrated with authentic drawing motifs and colors. A lengthy tale, The Egg Tree might inspire a new way to display decorated eggs at our house.

Do you have any favorite Easter egg books? Share in the comments!

PS. If you're searching for Easter gifts in Columbus this weekend, I have some suggestions on the City Folk's Farm Shop blog.

Boudin and King Cake and Feast!

One early morning in Monterey, California, I walked into my Russian Language classroom at the Defense Language Institute and was greeted with a most surprising smell. "Get over here an' tear you off a hunk of boooo-dan!" Sargent Lyles he shouted in his heavy cajun accent that applied equally to the Russian we were learning.

"What's that?" I mumbled, tired.

"Boudin! Sausage!" he replied, shoving a piece of hot meat on crusty bread into my hands.

I didn't expect or wish for juicy spicy sausage at 0600, but I couldn't help but love the foodie enthusiasm of 'the Cajuns', as we affectionately called Lyles and his good friend Lieutenant Eaves. Lyles and Eaves surprised myself and our fellow soldiers regularly with their experience with all realms of the real world. They recommended a 50/50 mix of Round-up and diesel fuel to remove weeds (effective, if not environmentally conscious), volunteered and knew precisely how to install a fence on a slope, and showed up to potluck meals with home-cooked Southern classics.

I will never forget their retelling of Mardi Gras in backwoods Louisiana.

Men dress in garish costumes and begin drinking early in the day. After parades, if there were any, they climb onto their horses. Next, they journey from house to house on a 'stone soup'-like tradition that seems to have mutated over the years. Instead of collecting usable contributions to a community pot of gumbo, households throw pieces of raw chicken at the drunk, costumed horse riders. Eaves and Lyles were proud enough of the insane but ancient Courir de Mardi Gras to show video of their band of drunken men in chicken-juice-stained colorful clothes.

-Alex's story, written by Rachel

Every year around this time, we reminiscence about The Cajuns and cook a Louisiana-inspired meal. This year we made boudin, a pork and rice sausage flavored with peppers and garlic. We used Emeril's recipe. Unlike any other of the many batches of sausages we've made, this sausage is stuffed with cooked meat. It is then poached in hot water for service.

We spiced our boudin mildly in the hopes that our child diners would eat it. (Only the youngest ate more than a cursory bite.) To replicate the heat that Alex remembers, I created a spicy aioli to spread on crusty bread slices. Topped with boudin and pickled onions, this combination was indulgent, just right for the spirit of Mardi Gras.

The rest of dinner with friends included masks, shrimp etouffee, maque choux, and Abita beer.

Dessert had to be king cake. The lemon flavored dough rose slowly and steadily, baked to a golden brown and tasted rich. I found the charm (not having a baby Jesus figure, we substituted an Easter bunny) so I will gladly bake a king cake again next year.

Lyles and Eaves, wherever you are, we hope you are celebrating Mardi Gras in style today. Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Presidential Hoecakes {Recipe}

It's President's Day on Monday and you know what that means, right?

Hoecakes!

No?

According to the Mount Vernon website, hoecakes were George Washington's standard breakfast. I figured this meant I should experiment with hoecakes for President's Day.

The site also shares a recipe. Unfortunately it is sized for a huge crowd and sounds a little funky.

Taking inspiration from Mount Vernon, I reworked the recipe and portions to fit my family's taste. I added a little wheat flour to give more body to the pancakes. Before cooking, I stirred in an egg for lift and richness.

The hoecake batter ferments overnight, giving a slight tang to the final pancake. The taste harkens of cornmeal mush, a rustic breakfast starch my father and I love fried.

This recipe is so simple that it only really requires three things: very fresh cornmeal (I like Carriage Hill delivered by Green B.E.A.N.), time to ferment, and sweetener. Berries, maple syrup, and molasses are all great toppings. I prefer local honey.

[amd-zlrecipe-recipe:9]

Added to Simple Lives Thursday 83.

The Sweetest Valentine's Day {Wordless Wednesday}

1. devil's food cake in Alex's grandmother's copper mold 2. Alex's sweet sriracha garnish for our lunch quesadillas 3. Lil's heart shaped lunch in my new Fiesta bowls 4. Lil dressed as a 'mail girl' delivering cards 5. 30 before 30 gift to my sister: 30 cans of cat food 6. delivery number 3 of 10 7. delivery 10 of 10 8. father daughter nerf gun gifts

Sparkling Love

Love is:

-Saying yes to buying glitter glue and the most shimmering paper in the craft store

-Patiently cutting hearts by hand

-Making a list of people you love who need a Valentine

-Totaling the list to 24 and then remembering more people you love

-Spending three days of craft supplies strewn all over the dining room table

-Hand applying stickers, glitter glue, and everything 'just so'

-Writing a personal message on each card

-Hand addressing the envelopes

-Selecting a stamp to match the recipient's personality and placing it perfectly in the corner

-Playing cupid to deliver cards on foot and by car

-Taking time, lots of time, to do Valentine's the slow, sparkling, handmade way

How are you expressing your love today?