Scrambled Eggs

Yesterday, as I complained to Blaire that eating cereal for breakfast inevitably made me hungry an hour later, she suggested I start my day out with eggs before carbing it up.  I was thinking about that this morning, when I realized I had an hour to eat something before running with Emily and Kjersti.  So I decided to make scrambled eggs.

(Was all that explanation unnecessary build-up?  I mean, I did title this post “Scrambled Eggs.”  I could have just said, “I made scrambled eggs this morning.” and you would know just as much - and maybe care just as much - as when I explained all that other stuff.)

I think that scrambled eggs are one of those things where everyone has their own “way” of making them.  I mean, they’re simple enough that you don’t really need a recipe.  And everyone has their own preference in the way they like them.  When everyone gathered together for brunch after Mark and Emily’s wedding, I remember being reluctant to help make them.  Brian, I don’t care that you’re trying to flip the pancakes, cook the sausages and mix Bellinis at the same time!  You do the scrambled eggs!  You can’t trust me!    Scrambled eggs are serious business!  I didn’t want anyone to hate me if I made them incorrectly.

So I am going to explain how I make my scrambled eggs and hope readers will respond in kind.  Maybe I have yet to hit the Holy Grail of Scrambled Eggs and this post might set me on the right path!  Someone will reveal an amazing scrambled egg secret!!

Scrambled Eggs, Melanie-Style:

First, I crack a bunch of eggs.  If it’s just for me, as a meal, then it’s usually 3.

Then I whip it all together and add a dab of some kind of heavy dairy, like cream or half-and-half (definitely NOT skim milk).

I heat up the skillet, pour in the egg mixture, and start sliding my cooking utensil around.  I’m not too graceful about it.  I just start shoving the eggs around to make sure they don’t cook too much.

When the eggs get to that tipping point where they look about ready to tip from “somewhat shiny sheen” to “dull matte cooked eggs”, I pour them out on a plate before they lose that sheen and let them sit for a minute.  Then I sprinkle with a bit of salt and a lot of freshly cracked pepper and eat.  Yum!

And that is how I make eggs!  To contrast, my Dad just takes a bunch of eggs, mixes them together (no additions!) and cooks them (no seasoning added!).  Until they’re very hard.  Which is great, he likes them that way, that’s what makes him happy.  But this is how I eat my scrambled eggs and I like them this way much, much more.

And now I’m wondering - how do you like your scrambled eggs?

Homemade Marinara Sauce

Without my pictures, it’s hard to remember all the different things I’ve tried making. Looking back on what I have made, I realize that I don’t seem to make particularly challenging or exciting food. Rather, it seems like what I make the most are foods that people would probably take a shortcut on and just buy at a store. Some immediate examples that spring to my head are hamburger buns, yogurt and marinara sauce.

For me, I take satisfaction in knowing that my food is preservative-free and all the ingredients are pronounceable. Also, Martin and I have banned high fructose corn syrup and partially hydrogenated oils from our kitchen, so making these things ourselves makes it pretty easy to keep that up. You would not believe how many “healthy” items actually sneak some HFCS in there! Wheat bread, yogurt, granola … it got to the point where learning to do it ourselves was easier than checking the labels of everything we buy.

In the interest of full disclosure, Martin and I do find ourselves making a few exceptions to the HFCS and trans-fat rule. We keep a supply of various canned sodas on hand for guests and though I am pretty rabid about partially hydrogenated oils, I have not been able to bring myself to give up my beloved Samoas.

So I got pretty far sidetracked from the real topic of this post, which is the marinara sauce I have been making lately. Let’s return to our regularly scheduled programming, because I could go on and on about food choices and most people probably don’t want that!

Martin and I recently bought a big case of canned tomato sauce from Costco. I used to buy these for $1 - $2 a can from the grocery store, but realized we were going through them very quickly because I tend to make all tomato-based sauces myself rather than buying any jarred sauce.

I have an on-stock marinara sauce recipe that I follow when I’m not feeling very creative that is pretty tasty and super easy to make. It takes a handful of ingredients that are easy to keep on hand, pulls together in a snap and all it takes is a little time to let the sauce simmer for the flavors to mingle together. It’s also easy enough to modify - add vegetables or meat or different herbs to take it to the next level. I cannot wait to try it with some of the herbs growing out in my garden.

Homemade Marinara Sauce

2 (14.5 oz.) cans tomato sauce
1 (6 oz.) can tomato paste
4 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. salt
¼ tsp. ground black pepper
6 tbsp. olive oil
⅓ cup finely diced onion
½ cup white wine or chicken broth

1- Heat olive oil large skillet over medium heat. Add onion and sauté for 2 minutes, until tender.

2- Add remaining ingredients and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Servings: Enough for 6 - 8 servings spaghetti

Whole Wheat Pizza Crust / Margarita Pizza

When I saw Will’s recipe for whole wheat pizza, I was instantly intrigued. I’d recently bought some whole wheat in an attempt to inject a little health into our breads, but knew that the process wasn’t as simple as just replacing AP flour with whole wheat flour. Will’s recipe seemed like the perfect opportunity to try it out for myself.

Will noticed that when he replaced 1 cup of AP flour with 1 cup of whole wheat flour produced a dough that was hard to roll out and suggested trying 3/4 cups instead. I felt like even with 3/4 cup of whole wheat flour, my result was still dry so I added water to the dough as I was kneading until it took on a feel that felt soft and not overly dry.

Then I followed the rest of his recipe, letting it rise. I can never tell when a recipe has doubled, so I generally err on the side of caution and let it keep rising. Rolling it out was easy peasy, though my rolling skills are somewhat lacking - non-bloggy shapes are pretty beyond my skillset. I used some bocconcini and ripe tomatoes I had, to make an attempt at a Margarita pizza. The bocconcini melted exactly like good pizza cheese should and I felt the whole wheat added a nice layer of texture from a standard pizza crust. I will be making this crust many more times in the future! It was great!

The technique I used is actually the same as the one I posted earlier, I just replaced 3/4 cup of AP flour with 3/4 cup whole wheat flour.

Around here, I wondered if I really knew what a Margarita pizza was. But I forged on.

Even if I didn’t, I didn’t mind - this still came out tasting great!

Salmon, Chard and Beans - But Not Together! (Thank goodness).

Besides trying to kill my boyfriend with some sketched out salmon, I’ve actually done a lot of cooking lately! Lately, I’ve been wanting to host a dinner party, but pesky things like weekend obligations and Martin’s busy work / school schedule keep coming up.

Martin and I both have polarized thoughts about our dinner parties. He normally prefers to invite only 2 other people, mainly because our dining room table can comfortably seat 4 (and less comfortably and somewhat carefully seat 6). I am a “the more, the merrier!” type of person, especially because it means I can experiment with more dishes and generally have fewer leftovers. Hopefully Martin and I will overcome these obstacles soon and have people over. So if you are looking to be a scapegoat in my quest to try out new foods and are brave and entertaining, hopefully we will see you soon!

The other night, I made the brined chicken I challenged my friends and any willing participants to try out and paired it with some swiss chard I got at the farmer’s market. I tried Penney’s recipe. Now, I’ve never eaten chard before and didn’t quite know what to expect. I don’t even know quite what prompted me to buy it, but I was standing there, staring at the tall green leafy bundles, I thought t myself, “Hello! You look very green and leafy and full of exciting things like vitamins and antioxidants!” I was mostly correct about this.

I thought the chard was tasty but unlike anything I’d ever eaten. I don’t know what chard is supposed to taste like, but mine was a little bit bitter. I generally don’t like bitter tasting vegetables - bad childhood memories of my parents forcing me to try bitter melon because it was “Good for me!” tend to swim up and choke my psyche. But overall, I thought this was pretty good but I’m glad I didn’t do a simple saute and had other flavors to focus on.

Also, a friend of ours is moving away and she bequeathed to me many of the dried goods she didn’t manage to eat through before leaving. Two of them are dried beans. As some of you know, I am incredibly anti-bean. And now I have big jars full of these strange brown beans, which I can’t even identify. So, what do with beans? How do they acquire their edible soft state rather than this weird rock hard one?

P.S. I have just consulted Wikipedia (what does Wikipedia NOT know?) and have determined these to be pinto and kidney beans. I think the fact that I cannot identify these simple and most common of beans reinforces the fact that I am incredibly anti-bean. At least I know I can use the kidney beans for Alex’s tasty chili, which I made and never wrote about. Whoops.

Homemade French Fries

As one Miss Amy knows, I am not a fan of frying things in my kitchen. I think it has to do with the clean-up - the oil splatters everywhere and is just a pain to wipe up. She has given me many a-suggestion that involves dipping things into lots of oil on the stove and I have been unenthused.

I made an exception for these, which I thought would go well with the salmon and the mayonnaise I made. Mayonnaise, I discovered at a cute cafe in Seattle with Amy and Brian, is a great dip for french fries.

I searched around for awhile and found a recipe that battered the fries to produce a crispy outside. Many reviewers of the recipe noted that frying potatoes without the benefit of the batter produced fries that were somewhat soggy, while the battered fries were perfectly crisp and stayed that way for quite some time. I was immediately curious to try this one out.

I think next time, I will cut my fries to be thinner. I was going for a simple steak-fry like cut, but I think I prefer thinner cuts. Also, I added too much garlic to my mayonnaise so I ended up preferring ketchup over the mayonnaise. Coated in a simple flour batter, these fries were hot on the inside and awesomely crisp on the outside. I only made one large russet potato worth, which was just right for me and Martin. I felt like I could keep eating more, actually, but it’s probably good we had a physical limit, otherwise I would have just kept going and my stomach would have hated me later. These are addictive!

I think these were better than any I could get at a fast food or normal-food restaurant, because they were hot, hot, hot and oso crispy.

As for the shallow saucepan I fried them in - it did indeed splatter oil everywhere. I’m still soaking / scrubbing trying to get off all the oil. But I think these fries may have been worth it - and that’s saying a lot from me! Maybe I’ll start in on some of Amy’s recipes or even … homemade potato chips?

Homemade French Fries

1 russet potato
½ cups AP flour
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. onion salt
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground black pepper
Water as needed
Vegetable oil for frying

1- Slice potatoes into French fries and place into cold water to prevent browning during preparation.

2- Mix flour, salts and peppers together. Slowly add water until mixture drips easily from spoon.

3- When ready to fry, heat oil in deep-sided skillet or pan until extremely hot. To check, drop a couple of drops of batter in to see if it starts bubbling. If not, continue to heat.

4- Dip potatoes into batter and place one by one into hot oil. Do not let touch each other, they’ll stick together.

5- Fry until dark golden brown.

6- Remove and set on drained paper towels. Serve hot.

Servings: 2

So brown and tasty, makes my belly go “Yay!sty.”

Pizza on Focaccia Bread

Oh, backlog. It feels like either I have lots to write about or nothing at all.

Today’s post isn’t so much a recipe as a “What did you have for dinner tonight?”

I’d made rosemary focaccia bread the night before and it had lost its nice softness but was still pretty tasty. I had an idea of making stuffed pizzas, but it was a little modified, as you can tell.

I split the bread in half lengthwise, smeared tomato sauce and mozzarella cheese on it and then put the two pieces back together. Because I was worried about dryness, I spooned more tomato sauce on top, along with some avocado slices, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cheese. Then I baked them until the mozzarella was nice and browned.

Martin liked it but I think I made the portions too big. I wish there had been some kick to it - like, pepperoni, perhaps? I also thought that the parts of the focaccia that weren’t toasted weren’t as yummy as the crisper parts. But overall, not a bad way to use the focaccia.

Hello, hearty pizza wannabe!

Sweet Potato Puff

What’s your favorite way to eat sweet potatoes? Mine is sliced into wedges and sprinkled liberally with brown sugar and butter. And I mean, liberally!

But you can’t eat sweet potatoes that way all the time and so I searched around for this recipe. This way was rather nice - I think it might have a similar consistency to a sweet potato pie. It’s only missing a crust. The recipe called for sugar but I think sweet potatoes are sweet enough so I didn’t add any. It had a sort of fluffy texture, which I think might be where the “puff” comes from.

Overall, pretty good and tastes even better reheated (in an oven!) but I like the baked-wedges way much better.

Sweet Potato Puff

3 – 4 large sweet potatoes
¼ cup butter at room temperature
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs, beaten

½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 tbsp. melted butter
¼ cup flour

1- Preheat oven to 350-degrees and line baking pan with foil.

2- Place sweet potatoes inside baking pan and bake for 1 hour, turning halfway through to ensure even cooking.

3- Remove from oven and let sweet potatoes cool.

4- Mix brown sugar, melted butter and flour together.

5- When sweet potatoes are cool, peel off skin and place in large bowl. Mash.

6- Add butter and milk, mashing until smooth and butter is melted.. Add eggs and mix.

7- Pour into baking dish and sprinkle with topping.

8- Bake, uncovered, for 45 – 60 minutes or until topping is a golden brown.

Servings: 6

Puff away, sweet sweet potato puff!

Cucumber Sandwiches

Most of the time, my recipes come from a desire to use up something that has been sitting in my fridge for what I feel has been too long. This is another one of those cases. Martin and I were about to head out to a holiday party and needed something light to tide us over. I had a cucumber in the crisper. My solution? Cucumber sandwiches.

I found some recipes online and, again, sort of mashed them together. I think they came out very sweet, mostly because I used Miracle Whip rather than mayonnaise. Also, a lot of recipes called for dry Italian dressing and I just made my own again using the recipe I’ve posted earlier. Also, I used the bread on hand (a sweet wheat) which was tasty but didn’t have the unhealthy softness of white bread. Overall, a pretty good small snack before we headed out to the party, but I’m not sure I’d make it again.

Cucumber Sandwiches

1/2 pkg. cream cheese
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 pkt. dry Italian dressing mix
Slices of bread
1 medium cucumber, sliced thinly
1 pinch dill weed

1- Mix together cream cheese, mayonnaise and dressing mix.

2- Spread thinly on two slices of bread. Sandwich with cucumber and a sprinkle of the dill. Cut into small pieces.

Servings: A lot

Feels like pink lady tea time, doesn’t it?

Broccoli Crumb Casserole

Like I promised, here is the recipe for the broccoli crumb casserole. I think the original dish was vegan, but I didn’t make any special efforts to make sure it stayed vegan and tweaked it a little based on what I had on hand. The basic gist is: steamed broccoli + lots of fat = yummy gooey happiness. It was pretty tasty and a good accompaniment to the fried chicken I served.

The part I liked best was that the creamy cheese mixture combined with the mozzarella to form a nice crust on top of the broccoli. Then, underneath, it was melty and soft. The original recipe called for 2-½ cups broccoli florets, but I basically used what I had leftover from Thanksgiving, which turned out to be a great portion size for 2 people. However, it did not match with the amount of béchamel the recipe originally called for. I didn’t adjust for that so I’m sure the broccoli was extra cheesy.

I think we were both fine with that.

Broccoli Crumb Casserole

1 bunch broccoli (or 2-½ cups broccoli florets)
½ cup milk
½ cup heavy cream
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. AP flour
½ tsp. mustard powder
½ tsp. garlic powder
A few shakes of nutmeg
½ tsp. salt
¼ tsp. fresh ground pepper
Buttery crackers, coarsely crushed
Shredded mozzarella cheese

1- Preheat oven to 350-degrees and lightly grease baking dish.

2- Remove stems from broccoli.

3- Blanch in hot water for 3 – 4 minutes. Drain and rinse in cold water. Layer in baking dish.

4- Gently heat milk and cream in small sauce pan with bay leaf.

5- In medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat and whisk in flour.

6- When flour is a light golden brown, discard bay leaves from milk mixture and add to flour mixture.

7- Whisk until smooth. Reduce heat to medium-low and add nutmeg, mustard, garlic powder, salt and pepper.

8- Continue to whisk, ensuring smooth, until coats the back of a smooth. Remove from burner.

9- Pour over broccoli and pour ¾ of sauce on top. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and cracker crumbs. Pour remaining sauce on top and sprinkle with a little more cheese.

10- Bake for 20 – 25 minutes or until top is golden brown.

Servings: 4

Twice-Baked Spinach Cheddar Potatoes

There it was: a big bag of baby spinach about to go bad in the fridge. Try saying that 3 times fast!

It was the day before Thanksgiving and I didn’t want to make anything too heavy, anticipating many calories and yumminess to be consumed in the next few days. Spinach lasagna was out - no cottage or ricotta cheese.

Amy finally suggested twice-baked potatoes. Using a bag of spinach and the two russets that had been tucked away in my cupboard? The situation can only be win-win.

I’ve never made twice-baked potatoes before and looked up a lot of recipes in reference. This is the method I used, though you can vary anything up really to suit your tastes.

And, another nice thing this dish has: When your dish is ready with no boyfriend in sight and you call him to find out if his train has run late and he admits that he ‘forgot’ to let you know he was coming home an hour later than he said, you can turn the heat off of the oven and the potato will still be hot when his lame butt comes walking through the door.

Twice-Baked Spinach Cheddar Potatoes

2 russet potatoes
Sour cream
Cheddar cheese
1 bag baby spinach
Butter

1- Preheat oven to 400-degrees and place rack in the middle of the oven.

2- Poke holes in the potato and microwave on high for 3 minutes, to “start the potato off.”

3- Place on baking sheet and pop in oven. Bake for one hour. Remove form oven. Skin should be crispy and insides tender.

4- Put a pot of water on the stove and let boil. When water has boiled, place spinach in stove and stir until leaves are wilted. Remove from heat and chop.

5- Cut slit into potato and scoop out insides. Mash with sour cream and butter to preference. Add spinach and cheddar. Spoon back into potato skins.

6- Bake for 15 minutes. Serve.

Servings: 1 large Swedish gentleman and 1 small Asian lady

What a bag of blanched spinach looks like

Final Results