Snow Dog, Oral Surgery & Low Carb Skillet Quiche (Leftovers Supreme)

Sheba taking advantage of a rare snow day in Georgia!

Sheba taking advantage of a rare snow day in Georgia!

At least someone is enjoying the weather today, so I thought I’d document it for posterity!

I had the oral surgery yesterday.  It was pretty extensive and includes an incision almost to the center of the roof of my mouth.  But amazingly, I am doing GREAT today.  The doctor did not prescribe antibiotics.  Really weird for such intensive surgery.  All he said was do salt water rinses.  Fortunately, he did prescribe pain pills, but he wasn’t too happy about doing that.

I think it’s great that doctors are trying to cut down on overuse of antibiotics, but I don’t think senior citizen are an appropriate age group to experiment on.  It might be better to start on 20 somethings with fantastic immune systems.  I’m keeping a close eye on it and at the first hint of infection, I’ll go go my regular doctor who will provide standard treatment.

And if I ever need an oral surgeon again, I’ll find another one!

I started with the veggies....

I started with the veggies….

I’m still eating pureed foods, but I thought I’d share the skillet quiche I concocted the day before the surgery.  At least, that’s what I named it since I couldn’t think of anything more appropriate.  🙂

It evolved when I realized I had two yellow crookneck squash that were going to have to be thrown out if I didn’t use them that day.  So I trimmed them and decided to shred them… maybe make low carb hash browns out of them.  But after I got them grated, I noticed I had a little piece of cabbage that needed to be used up, so I shredded a little of it.

I topped the cooked veggies with leftover bacon and country ham pieces....

I topped the cooked veggies with leftover bacon and country ham pieces….

I put 1-1/2 T butter in a skillet, added the squash and cabbage, then seasoned the squash with celery seed, salt, pepper, minced garlic flakes, and a few red pepper flakes.  Next I cut up some green onions and sprinkled them over the squash.  I had two cherry tomatoes left in the refrigerator, so I sliced those and added them. I cooked them slowly until they were soft on the bottom, then turned the veggies over with a spatula.

Next I topped everything with the rest of the leftover country ham and bacon that I had, and cooked until all the veggies no longer tasted raw.  Then I poured 5 beaten eggs over the mixture and cooked until the eggs began to set.  Finally I covered the eggs with shredded cheddar and pepper jack cheese and cooked until the cheese started melting.  Then I turned off the heat and put the lid on the pot so the eggs would finish cooking and the cheese would finish melting.

After the eggs started setting, I sprinkled cheddar and pepper jack cheese over it....

After the eggs started setting, I sprinkled cheddar and pepper jack cheese over it….

If you let this concoction set for about 10 minutes, you can cut it in quarters or sixths and serve it like a quiche.  Kinda.  🙂

I thought it turned out okay.  Ron really liked it.  But the best part is that it helped me get rid of a bunch of leftovers without them looking or tasting like leftovers!

Leftovers Supreme aka Skillet Quiche

Leftovers Supreme aka Skillet Quiche

 

 

 

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Hen of the Woods (Maitake) “Bacon”

Hen of the woods mushroom "bacon"

Hen of the Woods "bacon"

I’ve been working dried maitake mushrooms into our menu lately for their awesome medicinal properties.

I reconstitute them for 20 minutes in warm water, then use the tough stalks to make broth, and the more tender tips in other recipes.

The broth is great for cooking brown rice in and for making gravy.  The mushroom itself can be a little chewy, so I cut it in thin strips before cooking.

hen of the woods mushroom broth

Maitake mushroom broth

The other day I wanted something different, so I cut the caps into small strips, then fried them until crisp, sprinkled them with salt, and drained them well on paper towels.  They were very savory — intensely flavored — and would work wherever you would normally use bacon crumbles — over scrambled eggs, in salads, and my favorite–sprinkled over mashed potatoes and maitake gravy!  They are superb, and addictive!

I did one batch in virgin olive oil with a little butter, and other batch in peanut oil with a little butter.  The peanut oil batch was definitely the best!

bolete

Here's the bolete in my earlier post in its mature stage. Inset is when it was younger.

Here’s an update on the bolete I wrote about in my last post.  I found a fully mature version near where the others grew.  The cap has changed to brown.  The only way you can tell it is the same mushroom is by the stalk and the yellow pores.

The interior of the mature mushroom — stalks and cap — were riddled with bugs, though.  I will spare you a photo of the gory details.

I normally stick to chanterelles and boletes, and avoid gilled mushrooms except for a handful of distinctive ones that I know are safe.  There are so many dangerous ones that it’s not worth taking the chance on misidentifying one.  But I thought I really ought to branch out and start trying to learn more about them.

So I photographed these mushrooms in several stages of growth.  They had white spore prints.  I believe they are in the Amanita family — a family that has many fatally poisonous members.

amanitas

Amanita family mushrooms

Our weather is predicted to be in the 90’s for the next two weeks, at least.  So I won’t be out doing  much mushroom hunting until it cools down a little.

P.S. David Fischer has identified these mushrooms for me as Amanita “close to A. rubescens,” as far as he could determine from my small photos.

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