Mustard seed
Both black (Brassica nigra) and white or yellow (Brassica hirta) mustard can be grown in your garden and prepared in your kitchen. They’re related to cabbage, cauliflower and broccoli and have the same needs and pests. The flower stalks can grow as high as your head, so keep this in mind when placing it in your garden. Harvest the seeds when the pods are tan and dry. I only grew it once because I found out that when I harvest it my hay fever acts up something fierce! Unfortunately I didn’t get pictures of the plants, but they bear a striking resemblance to radishes when they flower.
Powdered mustard
Mix powdered or coarsely ground black and/or white seeds with various liquids and herbs to make the familiar condiment. Use whole or ground seeds in sauces, cheeses, dredging flour and vegetables. Use whole seeds pickles, relishes, sausages and various types of vinegars. The young leaves can be used in salads or cooked like spinach.
Some of the liquids used to prepare mustard are wine, juice, vinegar, water, beer and sherry. Ground herbs including turmeric, paprika, saffron, garlic, onion and horseradish are used as well as honey, oil, sugar and salt. Turmeric gives hot dog mustard its bright yellow colour.
To mix your own start with 1/4 c ground mustard seed to about 3 Tbsp liquid. Mix in a mortar and pestle if you have one, but if you don’t you can use a bowl and spoon. Add herbs, honey and liquid to taste. Be careful adding liquid, it’s easier to thin the mustard than to thicken it. Black mustard is stronger than white mustard and horseradish heats it up, too. Oil, sugar and honey help tone the heat down. Experiment in small batches until you find a few mixtures you like and store in jars in the fridge.
Mustard has been used medicinally in plasters, baths and alcohol rubs for headaches, rheumatic complaints and colds among other things but be careful because too much for too long can irritate and even burn the skin.
First warm up a frying pan over medium heat and toss in a knob of butter. What’s a knob? A little bit, enough to do the job. Just enough to keep the egg from sticking ton the pan but not enough to get greasy.
Or bacon fat. Grandma always kept some on the back of the stove, but if that makes you nervous you can keep a but in the fridge. Shortening, olive oil or other cooking oils will work, too.
So, when it’s melted and spread around, crack an egg on the side of the pan and drop it in. Season with salt and pepper.
If you want sunny side up wait till the white is cooked all the way through and then scoop it out with a spatula.
If you’re concerned about the top getting done enough you can cover the pan before lifting out.
If you want easy over (the yolk gets more done this way but it’s not as spectacular) when the white is solid enough on the bottom to flip, If you want it easy-over, carefully run the turner around the edge and under, gingerly lifting and carefully flipping. Turn quickly but gently so you don’t break the yolk…but don’t worry if you do. Season with salt and pepper.
Want scrambled? There are 2 ways to do this. One is to just break the egg into the pan, break the yolk and scramble it gently til it’s cooked through. One benefit to this method is that if a regular fried egg’s yolk breaks you can just scramble it and say it was intentional.
The other is to break the egg into a bowl, pour in a dash of milk (and maybe some herbs to taste), scramble and pour into the pan.
Scramble til done to your satisfaction. Some people like them still a bit damp and others like them dry.
This will make a lighter scrambled egg, even custardy if you add too much milk (like I did). Serve with salt and pepper or even catsup (don’t judge).
Toad in the Hole. Tear a hole in the middle of a piece of bread. Put into the melted butter. Break an egg and drop it into the hole. If there’s enough room fry the hole from the middle of the bread at the same time.
When the white is done enough, flip the bread-and-egg over. Season with salt and pepper.
If the yolk is still runny, sop it up with the hole-toast. when you have sunny-side-up or easy-over, you can do this with toast, too. Some people cut their toast into strips and call them soldiers so it’s easier to dip into the yolk, but this is more common with soft boiled eggs.
Serve with toast, hash browns, sausage, bacon, on corned beef hash, between 2 pieces of bread with mayonnaise and mustard and cheese as a sandwich, or with or on anything else you can think of. Various fruits are lovely to have along side. Even a salad of some kind is good for lunch or dinner. Add salsa to make it huevos rancheros. Add cheese just for fun. Wrap in a tortilla with stuff like sausage for a mobile breakfast. The nice thing is, aside from being inexpensive, versatile, fast and easy, you can do this with one hand. Cracking eggs with one hand is really impressive, so start practicing!
Brielle's Avalon 
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