Category: Recipes

Eggy Deliciousness

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This past Sunday, we hosted a brunch for several of Peter’s coworkers – 18 to be exact. And 5 of their cute munchkins. We’re no strangers to large get togethers, but normally those parties include family and I task them out to bring a lot of the food. Not that I don’t like to cook, but to ease the work load.

Because our guests this weekend were not family, it didn’t feel right asking them to contribute. I was freaked out about having a festive and clean house, beautiful decorations and delicious food. As I placed the various food items into the oven and or fridge, I said a quick prayer to the patron saint of cooking (which, oddly enough, it Saint Elizabeth) and she came through for me. We had many brunch classics; spinach and also panchetta quiche, fruit salad, bagels and lox, french toast casserole and doughnuts – but I also included a dish I called Egg Cups. Mostly because they are made in a muffin tin but also because I couldn’t think of a better name. I thought they came out pretty good, but Peter raved and (claims) coworkers raved to him at work today. So I thought I would share the recipe. I made four variations, but the two clear winners were bacon and cholula hot sauce.

Ingredients:

1 box of frozen puff pastry

1 dozen eggs

1 package of center thick cut bacon – diced into small pieces

1 bottle cholula hot sauce

shredded cheese – Gruyère or swiss is great

2-3 good size shallots (small red onions) – diced

butter

salt, pepper and your favorite herb or seasoning (like Mrs. Dash)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Thaw the puff pastry and cut into 4ths and then each quarter in half. This part is a little weird since it makes more rectangles than squares, but the goal is to line a muffin tin with the dough so do your best.  Mold the pastry into a VERY well buttered tin being sure not to have too much pastry sticking out over the top so it doesn’t burn. Brush each pastry with butter, salt pepper and a little sprinkle of your favorite seasoning, just something to add a little flavor. Also sprinkle in a small amount of cheese.

Next, break an egg into each cup being careful not to break the yolk. Sprinkle in the diced shallots, a little more salt and pepper and then the topping – either the bacon or the cholula hot sauce. Sprinkle on a little more cheese.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the eggs are done. If you like them softer, cook the bacon before you add it to the egg and then bake for about 15 minutes. Keep an eye to make sure that the pastry doesn’t burn.

Pop them out of the tin and serve! Garnish the cholula hot sauce version with some sour cream and avocado.

 

*Another variation would be to beat the eggs with some heavy cream and then add to the cups following the same seasoning directions. Add in veggies, different cheese or meat combinations, or have your guests pick their own combination before baking. Enjoy!

 

 

Fresh and Easy Tomato Sauce

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I really dislike jarred tomato sauce – I think it has a funny taste no matter how much I mess with it. (There is a yiddish word that I want to use here and although I can say it, apparently I can’t spell it to even begin to look up how to actually spell it!). So I made up my own little sauce last night and it was delicious. It was approved by Peter by evidence of his second helping of dinner and actually eaten by Baylie so it must be a winner:

2 cans of diced tomatoes. I like the organic kind and without added salt if possible

20-30 basil leaves depending on size

1 tablespoon of sugar

2 diced cloves of garlic or about a tea-spoon of minced, jarred garlic (I think Safeway’s organic is the best)

some spices – oregano, “pasta sprinkle”, whatever sounds good and is on hand

salt and pepper

Saute the garlic in some olive oil. Add in the two cans of sauce and stir. Chiffonade the basil leaves and add them to the pot. Add in a dash of whatever spice sounds good (oregano is my favorite) and salt and pepper. Add in the sugar and stir. Let it simmer for a few minutes and then taste for more seasoning.

That’s it! It’s a thinner sauce but the fresh taste is great. Add in partially cooked pasta to soak up some of the juice and or turkey meatballs to warm in the sauce. Serve with garlic bread, as a sandwich, with pasta or by themselves. If you don’t have canned tomatoes or would prefer fresh – hull the fresh tomatoes and put them on a foil lined tray. Add some salt and olive oil and roast for approximately 45 minutes in the oven. Add all parts of the tomatoes to a sauce pan and then the same ingredients above.  Enjoy!

Whopper of a Brownie

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First of all, sorry for the lack of posts last week! I would like to think that all 6 of you who read my blog were heartbroken at the lack of content. The days flew by last week and it seemed there was no time to write.

While rocking Baylie to sleep for a nap last week, I saw a segment on the Today Show about what to do with all the leftover Halloween candy. However, all the types of candy they were using, I didn’t have. So really, it made me want to go out and buy more candy I don’t need to make desserts that I really don’t need. I am going to make the white chocolate pretzel and candy corn “bark” for Thanksgiving though!

One of the recipes they had was Peppermint Pattie brownies. Brownie mix is layered with peppermint patties and it looked delicious. Because I’m not a total weirdo, we didn’t have any peppermint patties left over because we didn’t buy any. I did think Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups would be a delicious substitution, but I ate most of those and since the purpose was to get rid of the candy, I didn’t want to buy more.

We did, however, have an abundance of Whoppers. I very much like Whoppers, but not in a “can’t-stop-eating-them-please-take-them-to-the-office-because-I-can’t-stop” kind of way so I decided to try it out in some brownies. My reasoning was that when we were kids, my mom would buy a jar of malt – it’s kind of a powdery substance – and we would make milkshakes with it. And it was DELICIOUS. So I thought the malted milk balls would melt into the brownies thus creating malted brownies. The result? Not so good.

Instead of melting, the malt seemed to harden into tiny rocks. I now have an entire pan of brownies with rocks.

So apparently America’s Test Kitchen won’t be calling me to offer me a job any time soon….

Hearty and Healthy Turkey Chili

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This is a great cold night or football game watching dish. It’s great because you dump all the ingredients together and let it simmer until you’re ready to eat.

1lb of ground turkey

1 small can of tomato sauce

1 packet of ranch dressing

1 packet of chili seasoning

1 can of condensed French Onion Soup

1 can of kidney beans

1 can of canalleni beans (sp? white kidney beans is what I’m looking for here)

1 white onion

3 garlic cloves, crushed

 

In a stock pot, heat olive oil with the garlic. Add in the turkey and brown and then add in the diced onion. Salt and pepper and let cook until the onions begin to become translucent. Add in the ranch and chili packets.

Partially drain the beans and add them in. Then the onion soup and tomato sauce. If it seems too thick, add a little hot water, but it should be pretty dense. Reduce the heat and really scrap the bottom of the stock pot to get all the bits off the bottom. Let simmer for at least 20 minutes or until you’re ready to eat.

Serve with sour cream, shredded cheese and crackers. Also cornbread would be delicious!

My Meatballs Are Better Than Your Meatballs

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I like to cook with ground turkey a lot – however, my recipes always need a little tweaking. The extra lean turkey is a little dry because of the lack of fat so it needs a little extra work to make it tasty. I hit pay dirt with my meatball recipe last night. The proof? I thought they were delicious and Baylie ate an entire meatball!

1 lb of ground turkey – lean or extra lean

1 packet of ranch dressing mix

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 mozzarella cheese sticks

1-2 eggs

bread crumbs or cracker crumbs

Combine the turkey, garlic, 1 egg and ranch packet. Chop the cheese sticks into small quarters (cut lengthwise into 4ths, then dice) and add to the turkey mix. If the mixture seems dry, add the second egg. If it’s too wet, add some bread crumbs. It should be very moist, but hold a ball shape.

In a big skillet, heat some olive oil. Roll the meatballs and drop them into the pan. If you leave them alone until  you see browning on the pan, then you can easily roll them to the opposite side to continue browning (i.e. if they stick, they aren’t ready to turn). Cover with a lid and reduce the heat until cooked through.

Sauce:

1 small zucchini or yellow squash OR 1/2 a large one

1 pint of grape tomatoes

1 jar of  your favorite red sauce

Dice the zucchini into small chunks. Add zucchini and tomatoes to a sauce pan with a tablespoon of butter. Saute until soft and a little brown and the tomatoes are popping. Add sauce and let simmer until you’re ready to eat.

Combine whole wheat pasta shells, meatballs and pour sauce over all of it. A little sprinkle of parmesan and you’re ready to eat a delicious and healthy meal! Some fresh basil or parsley would be a great addition too. It makes a ton and is awesome for lunches the next day (and probably the day after!). Bon appetite!

 

Coffee, Coffee, Coffee

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Like most people, I like to start the day and mid day and sometimes late afternoon with a coffee. And again like most people, going to Starbucks once or twice a week is not in the budget let alone three times a day. So I make my own delicious drinks at home.

At an after Christmas party last year, a  friend of a friend’s college (I kid you not, that’s actually the connection) began telling me about a great coffee shop in North-ish Scottsdale that roasts their own beans. She detailed how amazing each of the blends were and how unique each of the types of beans were in flavor, color and scent. I don’t fancy myself someone who knows a lot about all that jazz, but I do like a really delicious iced coffee. So Bay and I ventured out to the Village Coffee Roastery and were very pleased with the results. Not only is the shop its self adorable, but they offer a variety of pastries and sandwiches in addition to great beans. The best part is the coffee is really noticable better than something you buy in the grocery store or, dare I say it, Starbucks. I tried the Mexican blend this time and it has a very noticable chocolate flavor to it. It is delicious with some Truvia sweetener, two shakes of cinnamon, milk and ice for an afternoon jolt.

The manager is always there and might be one of the nicest ladies I’ve ever met. She knows about each bean and what it tastes like and is more than helpful with trying something new or bagging up your long time favorite. Try it for breakfast and take a bag home to keep your caffeine addiction fed.

Village Coffee Roastery

http://www.villagecoffee.com/index

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

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I found a recipe on line for Balsamic Chicken and changed it up a bit. It came out delish.

2 chicken breasts

1/2 tsp garlic

Fresh basil leaves (or another fresh herb if you no got basil)

1 pint of grape tomatoes (optional)

Balsamic vinegar

2ish table spoons of flour

Salt and pepper

Beat the chicken until it’s about a quarter inch thick. Doesn’t have to be exact, just needs to be even so it will cook evenly. Salt, pepper and sprinkle with flour so that it covers both sides of the breasts.

Heat olive oil in a sauce pan with the garlic. When hot, add the chicken. It’s a tricky thing, but it needs to be hot enough to get the chicken a little crispy, but not burned. Cook and flip each piece until they have a nice crust.

Chop the basil (stack leaves, roll into a cigarette and chop to make long strings of basil) and sprinkle over the chicken. Add in the balsamic so that it coats each piece and there’s some in the pan (probably about a 1/4 of a cup). Add in tomatoes.

Cover and reduce to a simmer so the tomatoes cook and pop and the balsamic becomes thicker. Once the chicken is cooked through and the tomatoes are stewed, serve!

I put the chicken over couscous and had pitas, humus and cucumbers on the side.  It does have an Italian flavor too so it would be good with pasta or maybe caprese salad on the side.

Enjoy!

Roaring Fork’s Green Chili Pork

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This is one of my favorite dishes and Peter makes it sooo well. The chilis can be a little tricky to find – if you can’t find fresh, check out the frozen section. Also canned green chilis work really well. Serve with grilled corn on the side, black beans or straight up!

2 tablespoons corn oil
2 pounds boneless country-style pork ribs, coarsely cut (pork shoulder works too!)
Kosher salt, to taste
Cracked black pepper, to taste
2 cups yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup jalapeno chile, minced
1 cup dried New Mexico green chiles, seeded, stemmed and minced (canned green chilis work too or check for frozen)
1/4 cup garlic, minced
2 cups poblano chile, roasted, peeled and pureed
1 cup grated pepper jack cheese
24 (6-inch) flour tortillas

Over a fire or stove burner, heat corn oil in a cast-iron pot. Season the pork with salt and pepper. When the oil is hot, add the pork, onion, jalapeno and New Mexico chiles and garlic. Cook until the pork is tender, about 1 1/2 hours.

Add the poblano chile puree and simmer for 45 minutes. When done, sprinkle with jack cheese and serve with tortillas.

This is great for entertaining. Whip it up before guests arrive and let it cook and then sit on the stove. Reheat before eating – the longer it sits, the better it is!

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

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Want to really impress your family, husband and or friends? This is an awesome and REALLY easy recipe that tastes like it was a ton of work! The quote from PW was “I would marry you all over again” after eating this for dinner. It is a slow cooker recipe, so it’s best for days when you don’t have a lot of time to make dinner at dinner time.

Get a McCormick spice pack for Pulled Pork. They are usually in like the rice and soup aisle. It will say “slow cooker” on the front.

Get a pork shoulder with the bone still in. The back of the spice pack calls for a slightly different cut of pork, but I think the shoulder with the bone is less fatty and has great flavor.

Follow the directions on the packet, but double the amount of vinegar to 1/2 cup.

After about 6 hours in the slow cooker, shred the pork using two forks. It should come apart very easily.

I turned off the slow cooker at this point because we were headed to swim lessons and then turned it back on high an hour later for about another hour. Shreading the meat and letting it soak for awhile gets the flavor into every bite and I think letting it cool and then heat back up helps as well.

Serve with Hawaiian brand rolls. They are a little sweeter and really bring out the flavor in the pork. Potato salad, baked beans and chips are awesome sides. Steamed brocoli with a little parmesan cheese and grilled corn with Old Bay seasoning are some healthier alternatives.

I also used the leftover pork inside a quesadilla and it was AMAZING! A little sour cream and or guac make it a little slice of Heaven. Bon appetite!