Cafe Maurice

My kids are egg-lovers. For a family of four (three during weekdays), we can easily finish two dozen eggs a week. My daughter likes to eat them boiled and eats only the white part (and no she is does not need to build muscles she is only three!). Meanwhile, my son loves it sunny side-up with the yolk part “runny” or not fully cooked.

Here are different styles for cooking eggs, just in case you would like to experiment.

Baked (Shirred) Eggs

Boiling Eggs

Coddled Eggs

Deviled Eggs

Fried Eggs

Microwave Eggs

Poached Eggs

Scrambled Eggs/Omelets

I personally love scrambled eggs and deviled ones. I might try poaching an egg, I think my son will love that:

How to Poach an Egg

STEPS

1. Fill a pot with water until two-thirds full. Add a s dash of white vinegar-this aids in the egg’s coagulation.

2. Gently crack an egg into a small bowl. When the water boils, lower bowl into the pot and let the egg slide, not drop, down.

3. When cooked (about 3 minutes), lift The poached egg with a slotted, letting excess water drip. Enjoy while warm.

One of the most used areas in the house, aside from the bathroom, is the kitchen. I actually refer to it as the heart of the home, because it is where meals are cooked to keep the people in the house full and happy. So you would not surprised if I want a lovely, state-of-the-art but still very cozy kitchen.

I personally would like a big kitchen, complete with a pantry area, kitchen countertops, breakfast nook and a cooking area with exhaust. I love the idea of my kids walking in the kitchen after school, looking for something to eat, or going straight there when waking up. In short, I dream of the idea that the first place they will look for when looking for me is the kitchen. (Of course, that is just a dream. If my kitchen has my laptop in there, chances are I would ALWAYS be in there).

I am also toying about an all-white kitchen, accentuated with greeneries. White just screams immaculately clean to me. Kitchen Faucets need to be double-handled with chrome finishing (I am not that extravagant to dream of gold!) – minimalist. It also needs to be high enough so I can wash my pots and pans without having to slouch my back (I am tall) and needs to be water-efficient. There are quite a few at FaucetsonSale.com that caught my eye – and yes, they are on SALE!

While most people are looking for the best (and easiest + fastest) ways to lose weight (www.bestwaytoloseweight.org), I chanced up some simple eating wisdom foodie and journalist Michael Pollan in his book "Food Rules: An Eater’s Manual."

Here are some points in his book that I want to highlight:

No. 1: The "Western diet," of processed foods and fats and sugars, is not good for the body.

No. 2: Societies and groups that eat a diet rooted in tradition, even if it is an American Indian diet built around maize and beans or a high-fat Inuit diet, overall do not suffer the same diseases seen in Americans today.

Eat food: Real food. Not edible food-like substances, as Pollan describes them.

Eat your colors: Fruits and veggies are naturally colorful, an indication of the nutrients in them. A real food rainbow.

Don’t eat foods made in places where the workers have to wear surgical caps.

Don’t feed yourself with "food" from the same place where you buy fuel for your car.

Shop the peripheries of the supermarket: The produce, dairy, and meats are on the outside. The Pop Tarts, chips, sugary cereals and other processed junk tends to be on the inside aisles (coffee, oatmeal and whole grain breads are a few exceptions).

Don’t eat anything Grandma or her Grandma wouldn’t recognize:

Avoid foods with ingredients a third-grader cannot pronounce: Disodium guanylate, anyone? Sounds like a spelling bee tie breaker, huh?

Get out of the supermarket when you can: Those produce markets and local spots have real food, real nuts, locally made baked goods. Real food.

If it came from a plant, eat it; if it was made in a plant, don’t.

It’s not food if it’s called the same in every language: Think Big Mac, Cheetos.

Stop eating before you’re full: Want to know why the French tend to be leaner even while eating cheese and bread? They follow this practice. So should you. So leave the pooch pants and the adjustable waistbands to Grandpa Fred. Japanese, Chinese and Indian Ayurevedic cultures all advise eating only until you’re  between 70 and 80 percent full. It shows in their lower rates of overweight and obese citizens.

Leave something on your plate: Mom isn’t around anymore to make you clean it, and this goes hand in hand with the rule above.

Treat treats as just that: No cake every night. Ice cream only as a special occasion. If you need dessert everynight, plan it into your caloric intake and make it usually healthy and only occasionally decadent.

One week before the Starbucks Spark of Hope Yearly Planner ended, I was able to get mine. This is my second planner (my first I got way back 2005 – yes I completed the card when I was 5 months pregnant!).

I love the planner because it has space (lots of it) to write on and a lot of things I can write on to. I am eyeing their Venti glass (a replica of their plastic frap cups) and their Valentine’s mug for my workstation too. Whoever is thinking of Starbucks’ promos are doing such a convincing job! I hope they can think of nice canvas promotional bags (the logo will rock) next!

I had a relative who moved from Chicago to California and moved by land, since it was very expensive to move by plane. They drove for five days and employed cross country movers for their stuff. It was a great adventure, but they were carrying a toddler at that time so it was hard for them to travel long hours, they frequently took rest stops. It helped that both the husband and wife can drive so they can drive for longer stretches of time because they took turns driving. I cannot imagine doing it alone!