Archive for the ‘A & S Test Kitchen’ Category

Skip's Breakfast Frittata

Skip’s Breakfast Frittata

½ cup mushrooms, saute before adding

½ cup precooked sausage, crumbled

½ cup precooked ham, diced

½ cup diced green onions sauteed

1 cup cheese, shredded

1 Tbsp. Tarragon

salt and pepper to taste

5 eggs, scrambled, whipped smooth

½ cup tomatoes, diced

Directions:

Beat or whisk eggs until very smooth.

Saute onions and mushrooms together and put aside.

Chop, or break up sausage, chop up the ham.

Add 2 tbsp of olive oil and 1 tbsp of butter to a medium hot in a oven proof skillet or frittata pan.

Saute sausage and ham mixture unit well browned.

Add onions and mushrooms, then add eggs.

As egg mixture begins to set, add chopped tomatoes and shredded cheese.

If you have a frittata pan, pre-heat the top skillet, and add a pat of butter, then cover the larger skillet and invert. Cook for an additional 10 minutes. If you do not have a frittata pan, place skillet in 350 degree oven for 15 minutes or until eggs are well set and cheese is bubbly and brown.

Remove from oven, let set for 5 minutes.

Serve with picante, sour cream or avocado.

Serves 4-8.

Enjoy!

Another recipe I found online that I amended a tad. This one comes from the Food Network, 2007, Ellie Krieger. I added walnuts, cinnamon, used whole buttermilk instead of low-fat, and changed the cooking time from 30 to 40 minutes. Except for where I changed it this is the exact recipe from the Food Network.

The berry cobbler is best served warm with a small amount of cream over the top. Goes good with a spot of tea or a cup of good coffee toa make you feel truly spoiled. Enjoy!

MIXED BERRY COBBLER

Ingredients:

Cooking spray ( I used buttered flavor Pam to coat the pan)

6 cups of frozen mixed berries (blueberries, raspberries and blackberries work well)

¼ cup of whole-wheat flour

¼ cup sugar

1 orange, zest finely grated (about 2 teaspoons)

For the topping:

¼ cup whole-wheat flour

¼ cup all-purpose flour

1 cup chopped walnuts (I added)

2 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon divided, divided

1 teaspoon cinnamon (I added)

½ teaspoon baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

1/3 cup low-fat buttermilk (I used regular buttermilk)

2 tablespoons canola oil

Directions:

Preheat over to 400 degrees. Coat an 8 by 8-inch dish with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, toss the berries with whole-wheat flour, sugar and zest. Transfer the berry mixture to the baking dish and set aside.

In a medium bowl or pitcher, whisk the buttermilk and oil. Add the buttermilk-oil mixture to the dry ingredients and mix until just moistened. Do not over mix. Drop the batter onto the fruit forming about six mounds. Sprinkle walnuts over then add the remaining teaspoon of sugar with cinnamon over the top.

Bake for 30 minutes, I tested out at 40 minutes the mixture was still dough like and not done. Let rest about 10 minutes and serve with cream poured over the top.

Yesterday I had three bananas that had reached the point they needed to be added to banana nut bread.

This is the nice and simple recipe. I used the guildelines from Simply Recipes at http:”simplyrecipes.com”

I added two things because I can not leave a recipe alone!

Banana Nut Bread (I added the walnuts)

Ingredients:

3 ripe bananas, smashed

1/3 cup melted butter

1 cup of sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking soda

Pinch of salt

1 ½ cup all-purpose flour

½ cups chopped walnuts (added to recipe)

Dusting of powdered sugar (added to recipe)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix mashed bananas, butter and sugar together. Then add in egg, beaten. Add vanilla, backing soda and salt. Add the flour then lastly mix in the walnuts.

Pour into a a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Be sure to use only butter on the loaf pan and it makes your bread very moist.

Bake 1 hour. Note: I had 16 minutes left and it was done. So check regularly at the end to see of a knife inserts clean.

Cool on rack, dust with powdered sugar. I covered with aluminum foil to keep it really moist!!

“If society fits you comfortably enough, you call it freedom.” ~ Robert Frost

As 2011 is winding down I find myself looking back over this year. Watching it continue to spiral into a downward movement of negativity.

From horrible weather conditions to political agenda. To homeless struggling to find food and shelter to joblessness growing. People are facing untold health issues that keep getting worse. These among so many negative conditions are making every one of us unhappy.

I chose to get control of the one thing, the only thing I can. That is my outlook. Around August I chose to start posting on Facebook some news that was positive. Do you know how hard that is? Do you know how easy it can be turned around into negativity? Let me give you an example.

Homelessness. Today I posted an article on the Salvation Army in Montgomery Alabama who is assisting homeless people to get an education, learn how to hunt for a job and how to dress for success while job-hunting. This homeless project, EMERGE , is a positive light in a jobless market. But! No sooner had I posted it than I got an email telling me that there is so much more that needs to be done for so many other people.

Yes there are so many, many things that need to be done to aright what is wrong these days. But a ray of hope should be just that. A positive thought. Why not revel in this small, positive hope for these homeless folks in Alabama?

Hope. That is a word that seems to be obsolete in our vocabulary lately. We hear, “it can only get worse”. Or, “we are headed for the worse times of our lives”. Or, “we can never pull out of this”. Don’t get me wrong. I think political action is important. Very important. Without we can not make the necessary changes.

What I am saying is….if there is no hope, if there is no room for positive thought then where are we headed? While the doom and gloom is all around us I find that I meet people like myself, hoping to be able to keep their home, job and health. Then when I look closer I see the quiet ones. Over there in the chair, quietly watching everything carefully. I gravitate to them, I find they have illnesses that are terminal, are barely making a house payment or feeding themselves. But they take the time to encourage me.

We have a guy that comes to do yard work for the older people in our neighborhood. When he started coming he drove up in a car. He did the work, good work, then left. Now he rides a bicycle to work. Never have I talked to this man in passing that I have heard him complain. He keeps working steadily on. Taking care of what needs to be done. He gives me hope.

The examples I cited above are the ones that give me hope. They are every day people surmounting mountainous odds.

Sure I am aware of the Wall Street “sit-in”. I am aware that the politician are running for office. That we are still in conflict in Pakistan/Afghanistan. Yes, I am aware and I speak up to promote the right to vote with everyone I meet. That voice, our voice will make the difference.

But is it crucial to mud sling, belong to hate groups or always be negative? Are we that afraid of apathy that we fear if we say something positive it will actually lull us to sleep?

There is a whole world out here that is not buried in a hopeless mire. Science and technology are busy discovering ways to fight cancer or make water drinkable in Africa, just to name a of couple things on their agenda. They want to believe in hope.

I can think of no worse conditions than that of the Internment camps of Germany and yet even then there is hope, as Dr. Viktor Frankl said:

“We must never forget that we may also find meaning in life even when confronted with a hopeless situation, when facing a fate that cannot be changed. For what then matters is to bear witness to the uniquely human potential at its best, which is to transform a personal tragedy into a triumph, to turn one’s predicament into a human achievement.”

Hope. Why not?

My local grocer has 2 for 1 sales often. This past week it was London Broil. I wasn’t sure what to do with two London Broil so we decided to make homemade Beef Jerky. We found a recipe but like usual it was more like “guidelines than actual rules”. Preparation required a marinade overnight in the fridge in a large Ziploc. Cut the London Broil ins 3/8” to 1/2” thick pieces. The marinade is tasty:

½ cup soy sauce

½ cup Tenderizing Worcestershire Sauce

1 tsp. Garlic Powder, Paprika and salt

½ tsp. Pepper

2 tsp. Onion Powder and Liquid Smoke

1 Tbsp. Chili Powder

2 – 3 lbs London Broil

Marinade overnight. The next morning get your smoker going. Dry off the pieces of jerky then coat with a ground pepper covering*, place on the rack for 5 hours for crispy jerky. Less time if you want less crispy.

*Fresh ground black peppercorns is the best. It is courser and stronger in taste. We use a lot because we love black pepper.

I usually keep on hand the makings for a taco salad for whenever we need a “filler” meal and I don’t want a lot of effort. I try to cook meals about twice a week that will stretch out as leftovers the rest of the week with some fruit, veggies and salad to complement the leftovers. But we all have that evening where nothing sounds good and this just fits perfectly.

As I was preparing this week’s Taco Salad I had forgotten to pick up my pre-packaged seasoning mix. So we decided to punt and find a homemade taco seasoning mix. We were not disappointed. I pulled out the seasonings and viola! We were in business. Here is the recipe that I used from Cooks.com

Homemade Taco Seasoning Mix:

1 tbsp. Chili powder

2 tsp. Onion powder

1 tsp. each of ground cumin, garlic powder, paprika, powdered oregano (I punted and just used dry leaves), and sugar

½ tsp. Salt

Mix all ingredients together in a small bowl. Makes about 3 tablespoons of seasoning mix, which is equal in strength in a ¼ ounce package of commercial seasoning mix.

I won’t go back to commercial mix again! This is simple but one of those things if you do not have the mix in your cabinet it matters!

Website: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1649,151186-252197,00.html