Archive for the ‘Food and Drink’ 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!

It has been cold the last few days so we have been building a fire in the evening. Last night my hubby and I were talking about roasting marshmallows which led to a discussion about what is our roasting preferences. We noted that while I like a well done steak and my hubby loves a medium rare it is quite the opposite with marshmallows. I love mine just turned to a golden brown and he likes a good old fashion “Joan of Arc” marshmallow (see how to roast a marshmallow below).

Marshmallows have been around for quite some time in the modern market. I did discover that the use of marshmallow to make a candy dates back to ancient Egypt. I never thought about that before, even though the mass marketing of marshmallows that I buy are commercially packaged under the Kraft brand. You can even find a recipe for making marshmallows online but after reading it I decided it was more hassle than just buying the packaged plumes of white balls. Interestingly, the recipe calls for gelatin which is a animal product so generally they are considered not to be kosher or halal unless it can be proven that the animal was kosher or halal. There is even a vegetarian alternative which may be very good reasons to make your own recipe. I was not sure about marshmallow crème products but I read that general use is egg whites instead. So there was much to learn about the marshmallow and if you are concerned about kosher, halal or you are a vegetation the link for the recipe is below.

Roasting is an art. It includes the actual roasting, the ambiance of a cook campfire and sometimes added goodies to make smores. A good campfire with marshmallows requires a few stories and a few songs. So first the marshmallow are important, then dive in with a song or two.

Campfire Poem

Campfire’s burning, campfire’s burning

Draw nearer, draw nearer

In the gloaming, in the gloaming

Come sing and be merry

~Thanks to Rebecca Maltese Girl Guides

I have done one on a stick or loaded a couple on. How do we like our marshmallow at our house? Like I said, I like mine turned to a lovely golden brown. My hubby? He can’t wait to make a Joan of Arc, which is leaving it on the fire until a flame gently turns it to a crisp on the outside.

Marshmallow recipe: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/5838

How to roast a marshmallow: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5QvvnETZ7c

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!!

Nothing says “comfort food” like chicken pot pie. It has yummy vegetables and a slowed cooked chicken in its own broth. I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I enjoyed making it. It is easy and good for a multi-meal leftover. Prep and cook time total about an hour.

Crust:

2 boxes refrigerated pie crusts, (that is four crusts).

Filling:

1/3 cup butter, unsalted

1/3 cup chopped onion

1/3 cup flour

½ cup milk

salt and pepper to taste

1 ½ cup each potatoes, carrots and peas

Precooked whole roasting chicken in crockpot day before cool and deboned.

Keep leftover broth from chicken that was cooked before hand in crock pot. Do not add water, just the juices coming off the chicken.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. In stock pot add chicken, diced potatoes, carrots and peas with broth from chicken. Warm up, gradually stirring in the broth and milk mixture (see below).

While waiting for the chicken and veggies to warm up, about 15 minutes, prepare in a 2-quart saucepan to melt butter at medium heat. Add onions, cook about 2 minutes, stirring under tender. Stir in flour, salt and pepper until well blended. Gradually add milk until it begins to thickened. If it starts to thicken too quickly add in enough Progresso chicken stock to loosen it up.

Line casserole dish with pie crust. Takes two, as you can see I overlapped and did the “Jamie Oliver” way of throwing it together. Spoon in mixture, cover with two more pie crust and then fold edges up. Place on cookie sheet in case it cooks over the top, do not want it all over the oven. As you can see it may have some spillage.

Bake time 30-40 minutes. If you find that the crust is turning dark too fast, cover crust edge with strip of foil to prevent excessive browning. I cooked my casserole pie for 35 minutes, turned off oven let rest in oven for about 45 minutes then served. Perfect!

Hint: We ate this over a four day period, heating up in the microwave. We added Progresso chicken stock to taste to give it more liquid each time we warmed it up.

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.