Lent and shamrocks

It’s that crazy time-change/self-examine/green beer time of year. Let’s get to it, beginning with new ideas for the age-old egg:

 

“The Fresh Eggs Daily Cookbook” - Colorful sprinkles, lime bourbon sour and cardamom streusel blueberry muffins are some prizes you may not expect in a book focusing on eggs. This just-right-for-Lent book also could inspire you to keep going meatless with images of fried egg on buttered avocado toast or to give a sunny look to your Easter deviled eggs with turmeric. If you want to stay creative with your own chicken’s eggs or if you need new ideas for your store-bought, Lisa Steele of www.fresheggsdaily.com has your cookbook for the unexpected.  Easiest thing ever: Fried eggs with apricot jam on top, crumbled goat cheese sprinkled about and fresh thyme and Kosher salt for garnish. 

Cooking in Purple – I almost went with Royal Blue, but nah, I can’t quit purple. Zavor’s colorful options on silicone grips and removable handles for easy storage aren’t even the best part. Maybe it’s the vented lid? Zavor Noir line is cast aluminum cookware and I think the 100 percent Whitford Fusion TI Ceramic Nonstick Coating is the stuff. Meals I’ve made in the first weekend of use: cooked an egg in there, stir-fried, made a pasta sauce and cooked up a huge batch of chicken thighs in the spacious sauté pan. Remove handles and grips to put these babies in the oven. They like lower heat because they’re sensitive in the good way. The pans come in bunches of sizes the line pairs nicely with my Zavor air fryer. Get cooking at www.zavoramerica.com

Daisy Cakes –  Kim “Daisy” Nelson has unleashed her baking superpowers. She’s done the “farm fresh” work of creating Daisy Cakes so with a click, her Southern Hospitality, (as seen on TV) arrives frozen at your door. A sweet and creamy coconut-covered layer cake of love kept in my freezer until I could share it with friends. Boy howdy, did we dig in. Cake for breakfast is a thing and it is heaven. If you caught a “Shark Tank” notice in 2011, you may already be onto this. If not, see what Daisy does to carrots, red velvet and Cake in a Jar now, at www.ilovedaisycakes.com

Collagen – Maybe health care is a Lenten topic because sometimes it seems like “punishment” to think about aching joints. Stir in Some Wellness!” say the people from www.GreatLakesWellness.com with their quick-dissolve peptides and get hydrolysate in the chocolate collagen from here. I agree they are inobtrusive add-ins to coffee, oatmeal and smoothies. Now’s the season to investigate scooping toward better skin, nails, etc.

 

Gloves in a Bottle – If cooking dinner makes your hands hurt from knicks and snags, just think what nurses are going through with all this hand washing in colder weather. Eczema and psoriasis? The worst. Gloves in a Bottle is different. This “shielding lotion” forms a second skin for hands and body and offers “unparalleled relief for dry, cracked and irritated skin.” It’s not greasy, lasts through washes and is simply the best I’ve used for irritated winter skin. www.glovesinabottle.com offers this soothing stuff.

 

Comfy – Go ahead and wear your big, fuzzy, knee-length sherpa blanket with a hoodie. It’s called Teddy Bear Quarter-Zip and you may feel like a stuffed toy. That just means everybody wants to hug you. And who’s gonna see you? Fans as you wear your team’s color in the stands? A spouse who catches you binging with foodie spreads as you binge-watch movies? The may tease, but they are cold and jealous. www.thecomfy.com

 

Darragh Doiron is a Port Arthur area foodie cracking some eggs to make the omelet. Reach her at darraghcastillo@icloud.com