Happy New Year! May 2024 be a wonderful year for us all. Here's a fun post from January 30, 2021.
Why not have a delicious steamed egg for breakfast?
So many of my readers and viewers ask me how to make the perfect steamed egg - when the white of the egg is firm, and the yolk is silky, creamy, and liquid gold. Steamed eggs, soft-boiled eggs, and hard-boiled eggs are all great with toast, or as an addition to salads, or even alone as a quick snack. My eggs are as fresh as can be - they come straight from my chicken coops every day. Eggs are also very nutritious. A large egg contains about six-grams of protein, plus other nutrients, including vitamin D and choline. And, best of all, making the perfect egg is so easy.
Here are some photos and my step-by-step method for steamed eggs, enjoy.
As many of you know, I’ve long enjoyed raising chickens. I began raising chickens many years ago, primarily for their delicious fresh eggs. And I use a lot of them. Aside from enjoying one or two myself on any given day, I share them with my daughter and grandchildren, I cook flavorful dishes such as frittatas for guests and my crew at the farm, and I use many eggs for various cooking shoots. Here is a bowl of fresh eggs on my kitchen counter. When hens lay eggs, they have a natural coating called the “bloom” that helps keep out bacteria. Washing eggs can drive some bacteria in through the pores of the shell, so I don’t wash them before cooking. I always just wipe them with a warm damp cloth to get rid of any dirt and place them in this giant bowl.
I have about 200-chickens down in my poultry yard. They’re all beautiful birds. I I’ve grown fond of caring for them, and learning about their many different breeds and varieties.
Here’s a hen sitting in her nesting box – I wonder if she’s sitting on an egg? In general, hens become mature enough to lay eggs around six months of age, though this varies slightly by breed. Healthy hens are able to lay an egg about once a day.
To steam the perfect egg, one needs a saucepan with a lid and a steamer.
These stainless steel expandable steamer baskets are easy to find. This is my Martha Stewart steamer basket from Macy’s. The flaps collapse or open to fit various pots and pans.
Just fill the pot to the bottom of the steamer basket – about an inch-and-a-half.
Then place the saucepan on the stove and turn it on high to boil.
While waiting, select your eggs. I chose six large eggs. I do not refrigerate my eggs. Freshly laid eggs can be left at room temperature for at least a month.
The water is just about boiling. A covered pot boils faster than an uncovered one because the cooling presence of the room’s atmosphere is greatly diminished. And notice, the lid is askew on top of the pot – just so it doesn’t boil-over.
I’m using a large spoon to carefully move the eggs into the pot.
I keep a crock near my stove filled with tasting spoons – large spoons intended to lift out about a 1/2 tablespoon of liquid from a pan or pot for sampling. I also keep some tasting forks close at hand.
Place the eggs carefully into the steamer – six is enough for one layer of eggs in this pot. Try not to stack the eggs if possible.
Set the timer to four-and-a-half minutes.
Place the lid properly on the pot and wait.
Remove the eggs as soon as the timer goes off. Remember, these are large eggs, but depending on the size of the eggs and how one likes them, this time may need some adjusting.
To serve eggs in their shells, I use the edge of a serrated knife to cut off the top.
Look at that beautiful gold color – it’s perfect. Egg yolks range in color from pale yellow to deep orange. The color of an egg’s yolk depends upon the hen’s diet. The darker color of a yolk indicates the hen is fed foods high in carotenoids or antioxidants, which are natural pigments found in greens. My chickens are fed the best scraps including organic vegetables from my gardens.
Add a little salt and pepper and it’s ready to eat.
To serve out of the shell, hold the egg over a small bowl, tap around center with a knife, gently pull the shell apart, and then scoop out the egg with a small spoon.
Here’s another egg with its creamy egg yolk pouring out into the bowl – made to perfection. Minutes really make a difference, but after doing this a few times, one will find their perfectly cooked egg.
Here are the two eggs in the bowl. Again, I added just a little salt and pepper to taste.
Steamed eggs for breakfast – so easy to make and so flavorful and healthy too. Don’t you just one one now? Enjoy.
Here's another encore blog. Remember this one? It was originally posted on December 22, 2020.
I hope you're all in the holiday spirit.
If you follow me on Instagram @MarthaStewart48, you may have seen photos and a brief video showing some of the cookies I decorated for last week's one-hour virtual “tutorial” on cookie baking and decorating with my dear friend, Snoop Dogg. It was so much fun. More than 400-thousand viewers from around the world joined us for the LIVE Zoom corporate event for Salesforce. And the cookies were amazing - all beautifully made by Molly Wenk @moll_doll23, Julie Preis @bakerofblackrock, and Dani Boglivi-Fiori @sweetdanib here on the East Coast, and on the West Coast, by Jess Damuck @jessdamuck.
Enjoy these photos.
On this day I appeared LIVE from my Bedford, New York farm kitchen. My Winter House counter was filled with holiday decor and interesting cookies such as these two featuring me and my “Potluck Dinner Party” co-host, Snoop Dogg. The cookies were made by @bakerofblackrock.
This cookie shows a fun self portrait captioned: “There’s some ho, ho, hos in this house.”
Snoop’s cookie expertly depicts Snoop on a wreath dedicated to his love for – yes, smoking blunts.
On this end of the counter, more cookies – many of these baked and decorated by @sweetdaniB.
Some of the most memorable cookies were these fun cannabis leaves.
We also had whimsical elves and gingerbread figures. Remember my “4 Ds” when embellishing delicious sugar cookies – dipping, dripping, decorating and drying. I also have a fifth “D” – devouring.
One tip I shared with the group was to always have skewers on hand for the fine detailing on cookies. One can use skewers to fix piping or other decorating mistakes while the icing is still wet.
Here are some of the Christmas trees we made – some decorated with my own Martha Stewart CBD gummies – premium quality, hemp-derived wellness supplements – all made with flavor profiles inspired by some of my most popular recipes.
In “Martha Stewart’s Cookie Perfection” there are tons of tips and ideas to make all those favorite go-to cookies even better. It introduces new flavors, textures, and techniques, and incorporates equipment that isn’t traditionally used for making cookies.
These are my Flower-Embellished Wreath Cookies from the book – baked by @moll_doll23. These sugar cookies make such an elegant statement when dressed up with glaze and other candies, These include dragees and dots from my CBD gummies.
These are colored green and include finely chopped pistachios. In the recipe, we also use candied ginger, citrus and sugared flowers.
Snoop’s 2018 cookbook “From Crook to Cook” features OG soul food staples like Baked Mac & Cheese and Fried Bologna Sandwiches with Chips, and new takes on classic weeknight favorites such as Soft Flour Tacos and Easy Orange Chicken. It’s such a fun collection of recipes the entire family will love.
I decorated some cannabis leaves with red dots – a humorous take on holly.
And we couldn’t decorate cookies without adding some “Dogg Bones.”
Here I am posing with a box of my CBD Wellness Gummies. My line of CBD products is done in partnership with the world-leading diversified cannabis and hemp company, Canopy Growth Corporation. Some of the flavors include Meyer lemon, kumquat, and blood orange and others.
Snoop joined the event from his home in Los Angeles. Here he is decorating some of his cookies on-camera.
He decorated this full sheet of holiday stars with help from @JessDamuck who has also done lots of work for me here in New York.
And some charming basketball uniformed gingerbread players.
Snoop stopped to show us some of his decorated cookies during the broadcast – great job, Snoop.
It was such a great event. Later, we also took questions from the audience. I hope you are all enjoying these last few days before Christmas! Happy baking, and please stay safe.
Here's the continuation of my family excursion to Costa Rica. This encore blog is from December 17, 2019 - enjoy.
There is so much to see in Costa Rica.
Costa Rica is a Central American country with coastlines on the Caribbean and the Pacific. It is bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the northeast, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, and Ecuador to the south. Costa Rica is known for its beaches, its volcanoes, and its biodiversity - roughly a quarter of its area is made up of protected jungle, rich with wildlife, plants, and trees.
Here are more photos from my trip, enjoy.
Costa Rica is not very large. The land area measures at about 20-thousand square miles – a little smaller than the US state of West Virginia. But the views over the water are vast and amazing. We took many photos of these spectacular views.
While driving in Costa Rica, one will see numerous fruit stands – many with pipa fría, or fresh chilled green coconut. Coconut water is full of electrolytes and packed with calcium, magnesium, and potassium – it is so good and so good for you.
Discarded coconut shells are made into beautiful bowls and other natural products and sold at these roadside stands.
We visited the Baru National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses more than 800-acres of land along the Pacific, offering spectacular bird and wildlife viewing. There are many trails through primary and secondary forests, mangroves, grasslands, and even a beach. There are hundreds of types of birds and animals, including sloths, monkeys, peccaries, and toucans. Looking up, we saw this huge ant colony in the tree.
Up in another tree, we saw several capuchin monkeys. They were all swinging through the trees playing with each other. This duo stopped to look at all the activity below.
There are four monkey species that are native to the forests of Costa Rica. They include the Central American squirrel monkey, this Panamanian white-faced capuchin, the mantled howler monkey, and the spider monkey.
Capuchin monkeys, also called white-faced monkeys, occupy the wet lowland forests on the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica and Panama and in the deciduous dry forests on the Pacific coast. These animals are very curious.
The boardwalks have wire netting along the top to make them more non-slip when wet. This is a great idea.
Here’s Ari next to the buttress roots of this huge tree. In Costa Rica, these roots line the forest floor.
Here are the roots of another large tree. Like the name suggests, these roots buttress or keep the tree from falling down.
We also visited another mountain top animal facility, the Alturas Wildlife Sanctuary – dedicated to the protection and conservation of Costa Rica’s wildlife. the facility provides wildlife rehabilitation and environmental education and research.
Peccaries are adorable little wild pigs found in the deciduous dry forest, tropical rainforests, low-lying shrub forests, and agricultural areas in Costa Rica. They are quite resourceful and adaptable and live in herds of between three and 30 other peccaries, maintaining a hierarchical structure within their herd.
There are six sloth species in the world, and two of the six live in Costa Rica. Sloths sleep about 20 hours a day. Here is a pair napping in their enclosure – they didn’t mind our visit one bit.
Here’s another capuchin monkey at the sanctuary. The sanctuary has a more private area for wounded animals that need special care during rehabilitation.
This is a yellow-naped Parrot, Amazona a. auropalliata. It is almost entirely green, with a large patch of yellow on its nape.
This is the Chestnut-mandibled Toucan or Swainson’s Toucan, a brightly marked bird with a large bill. The male can reach up to two feet in length, while the smaller female reaches about 20-inches long at maturity. This toucan eats a variety of fruit, including different seeds, berries, drupes, and fruit fleshes. They also like insects or small snakes and hunt for birds’ eggs, nestlings, and lizards.
We also went on a Titi Canopy Tour – ziplining through the rainforests. Titi Canopy is the only zipline tour located close to Manuel Antonio. The company runs 12 lines, 22 platforms, one rappel, one Tarzan swing and a treetop suspension bridge. It was a great way to see nature.
We ate at my friend’s restaurant, Restaurante La Parcela, specializing in local cuisine, and seafood, as well as more beautiful views.
On another day, we looked at some of the fruits of Costa Rica. Breadfruit, native to Southeast Asia, arrived in Costa Rica with sailors in the early 1800s. In Costa Rica, breadfruit trees grow up to 50-feet tall and have smooth, brown trunks. This flowering tree, which is part of the mulberry family, can produce up to 200 fruits each year.
And do you know what this is? Theobroma cacao also called the cacao tree and the cocoa tree. It is a small evergreen tree in the family Malvaceae. After four years, the mature cacao tree produces fruit in the form of elongated pods; it may yield up to 70 such fruits annually.
If you saw my photos on my Instagram page @MarthaStewart48, you may have seen these two black vultures, Coragyps atratus. We saw vultures everywhere – these large, mostly black birds with bald, wrinkled, charcoal-black heads and wingspans up to five feet. With keen eyesight, they can spot carcass from far distances, but these scavengers have a poor sense of smell.
And, on our way back to the airport, we went over the famous Tarcoles River. Driving over the Tarcoles Bridge, you might see dozens of crocodiles. We saw glimpses of some just under the water.
And look at the gorgeous view beyond. If you get the chance, visit Costa Rica – you’ll have a great time. We certainly did.
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