Breakfast Burrito Bonanza!

Every morning you run out the door and the last thing on your mind is stopping to make breakfast. Maybe you grab a bagel and stuff it in your mouth wishing for something with a little more flavor and perhaps a little healthier for you. Well I have the solution! The home made frozen breakfast burrito! You can put whatever strikes your fancy into these little guys. Just make sure your ingredients are dry or when you reheat your burrito it gets kinda soggy. You can make as many of these as you want at a time. I made a dozen of them this time and for that I used:

1 dozen eggs

12 burrito shells

1 pack lean turkey bacon

1 can black beans

Grated cheddar cheese

Salsa

Rinse and drain your beans well. Chop the bacon and cook well. Cook your eggs, but just before they really start firming up add in the turkey bacon and black beans and mix together. Cook your eggs all the way through (or burrito will be soggy!). Let the egg mixture cool all the way.

Now take your shells (I used whole wheat this time) and put a ½ cup of your egg mix in the middle, top with some salsa and cheese, fold up tight!

The important part to making these is really in how you freeze them. Place them on the freezer shelf, or on your cookie cooling rack, in a single layer with nothing covering them. Freeze them solid (takes maybe 2 hours). Then once they are solid you can store them in a big ziplock bag. When I need to take one with me I just take it out and put in a smaller ziplock in my lunchbox. Now to reheat wrap the burrito in paper towels and microwave for about 2 minutes. Tada! Insta-breakfast!

Crock-Potular success

So...

I received a Crock-Pot for Christmas (thanks Paul and Caterina!!!) and have been ITCHING to try it out. So I present to you a recipe (with a few small modifications) that I found on the Crock-Pot website.


Ingredients
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (halved, as my man doesn't like spice)
1 tablespoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 1/2 to 2 pounds beef brisket, scored with a knife on both sides
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup real maple syrup
1/4 cup Jack Daniel’s, or other whiskey
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Juice of 1 orange (about 1/3 cup)
2 cloves garlic, smashed
4 slices orange peel, 1/2" x 1/2" (careful to avoid bitter white pith when peeling)

Step 1: Rub
Combine cayenne pepper, ginger, salt and black pepper. Rub all over brisket and place in a plastic bag inside of a bowl (to prevent drippage).


Step 2: Marinade
Mix up the rest of the ingredients except the orange peel and garlic. Add in the last two ingredients and pour into the bag. Seal up, and for the love of God, put it on the bottom shelf of the fridge. You do not want the icky meaty greasy stuff all over your fridge if it spills. Let it marinade for 2 hours or overnight. I pulled mine out about halfway through a 3-hour soak and gave it a little massage.



Step 3: Cook
Stick the whole mess in your slow cooker and cook on high for 3½-4 hours on high or 7-9 hours on low, turning once or twice. Take the briskety goodness out of the pot and let it rest for 5 minutes or so before you carve it up with some of the pan juices spooned on top.

Good noms reminisces about Soviet Russia

It snowed again in our not-so-wintry land of Mary, and Tu and I made soup. What sort of soup, you ask? Why the sort of soup I grew up eating as a wee lass. It's called borscht, or any number of alternate spellings, and can be (and has been) made vegetarian by omission of meat and substitution of vegetable broth/bouillon.

Ingredients:

• MARROW BONES (I yelled it because this is the basis of delicious soup. If you don't want to eat meat in your soup but don't want to make it vegetarian, you must use bones. Trust me.)
• Beets. 2 large or 3 small.
• Potatoes. 3 medium.
• Cabbage. 1/4 to 1/3 head, depending on size.
• Onion. 1 whole.
• Carrots. 2-3.
• Meat (optional) (stew beef or chuck) 1/2 lb - cut into stew-pieces.
• Olive oil for cooking.
• Peppercorns.
• Bay leaves. (3)
  
• Salt/peppers.

Toppings/serving suggestion.

• Sour cream.
• Clove of garlic.
• Really heavy and dark rye bread.

Bring a large pot of water with the bones in it to a boil (here you may notice I'm using my lovely Christmas LeCreuset, affectionately dubbed as LePot, 5 qt). Peel and halve the beets.

When the pot comes to a boil, you will see white foam come to the surface. Scoop it off. It is bad. It will make your soup taste bitter. Commit the look/consistency to memory, for the next time you decide to call someone a scumbag. After a few minutes (10-15) the scum production will slow down, add the beets. Chop up carrots and onions (I also like to leave the skins on on the carrots, not the onions though). Arrange in clever shape on your plate (optional).
When the beets are soft, take them out, add the potatoes that have been quartered (with skin on), meat, peppercorns and bay leaf. Sautee the onions and carrots in a bit of olive oil. You may season it with salt/pepper. Process the beets (basically shred them by hand or in food processor). Slice the cabbage really thin (think cole slaw/sauerkraut). Put all of above mentioned ingredients back into the pot. Turn to medium low, cover, do as you please for about a half hour.

This is important so pay attention. To serve - get out your fur hat (optional, but recommended). Pour hot soup into the bowl (add salt/pepper to taste), top with a dollop of sour cream. Eat with a clove of garlic, and a slice of dense, dark rye, taking alternating bites. Feel Russki.

Winter Stew

While I was on holiday in the Northeast, I had my two and a half weeks of winter. Then I returned to Southern California where I walked around in my shirt sleeves after dark and thought about how happy I was to be back. But while I was East, I made a very wintery meal, which I will now share with you, to help you get through all those long, dark, cold days that you may or may not have ahead.

YOU WILL NEED:

4 white or yellow onions

6 or so fair sized red-skin potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

1 parsnip

1 turnip

1 yam

1 pound of carrots

1 large steak

Oregano, thyme, black pepper, tarragon and bay leaf to season.

Olive oil, to cook in.

Begin by chopping your onions and pressing your garlic. In this case, I chose to use a garlic

press instead of just chopping it, because I wanted it to infuse into the broth that I was making.

Chop two of your onions into into small pieces. Set the other two aside. Press both cloves of

garlic. Fry these two things in olive oil in the bottom of a large soup pot.

Next, you will need to cut up your meat.

Once you have done this, add it, and more oil, to your pot.

Fry it until all the meat appears cooked.

Then add six to eight cups of water and a teaspoon of salt. You have magically created beef broth, free of all the extra crap and packaging usually associated with beef broth!

Let it come to a boil as you chop your vegetables.

You will need to peel and cut the turnip, parsnip and yam. All vegetables should be cut to about the size of a quartered, small potato. You should leave the skins on the potatoes and carrots.

The skins add flavor and nutrients to your food. You might want to cut up your carrots into smaller, coin sized rings. That's what I do.

Add the veggies to the pot, and then season it well with Oregano, black pepper, two bay leaves, thyme and tarragon. Don't over do it, but don't under do it.

Then get it simmering and leave it there for a while, uncovered. With soups and stews, I have the following rule of thumb: if you want it to thicken, uncover it. If you want it to keep its moisture, cover it. Stews should thicken out.

Then go do something else for about an hour. I recommend Mario Kart Double Dash.

Once you've totally won against your siblings and become the queen of your household once again, or if you did something else, about an hour later, the soup will be ready. You should check it in between every couple of races... I mean, every fifteen minutes or so, to make sure

nothing is sticking or burning. If it is, reduce the heat.

When the soup is finished, the yam will have cooked into the broth and all the rest of the vegetables will be mushy and tender. The meat, in my case, was tender enough to cut with a

spoon.

Now, I like to eat garlic bread with stew, personally. Garlic bread is easy to make. Its very similar to the recipe for garlic bread stuffing, but here it is again, just in case:

You will need:

About a half a stick of butter

4 cloves of garlic

Oregano and basil, to season

Thick bread, sliced.

Arrange the bread slices on a cookie sheet. Preheat the oven to about 375. Then melt the butter in the microwave so it is a liquid. Use a garlic press, or cut the garlic by hand into small pieces, and add all of it to the liquified butter. Season it. Stir it up.

If you have a little brush, you can brush it on the bread. If not, you can sort of pour it on with a spoon.

Bake for about five to ten minutes, keeping a weather eye, to make sure the bread gets to be your desired amount of crunchy without burning.

Dip the garlic bread in the soup. Mmmmmmm.

A simple dessert

This is my half-assed attempt at Sunday night dessert. Sweet, tart, lovely blackberries were on sale at our local grocery store this week, and while I know I shouldn't indulge in off-season produce, I couldn't resist. Let's begin!

Ingredients:

Some sort of plain dessert (un-iced cake, some ice cream, anything you feel like. Vanilla or lemon flavors are a plus. I went for angel food.)

4 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp brandy
Juice from half a lemon
1/2 tsp vanilla extract.
1 pint blackberries or other aggregate fruit-type berries. Raspberries or whatever. If you use a sweeter berry, you may want to cut back the sugar by half.

Give your berries a gentle rinse, place in a bowl, throw in the other ingredients, gently mix, and leave to macerate for an hour or two.


Come back and squish them up with a fork. If you don't care for the pulp or seeds, run the sauce through a sieve.
Spoon liberally onto your chosen dessert, and if it's cake, I recommend a little half-and-half for extra deliciousness.

Berry Tasty Muffins!

I love a good muffin for breakfast and my favorites are filled with berries! In the summer I use fresh berries but in the winter frozen will do. This time I made them with frozen strawberries and this I do not recommend! The strawberries never quite get dry enough so you end up with soggy muffins. Try using frozen raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries as they work much better! Just make sure they are fully defrosted and let them sit for a while to dry out as much as possible. The less water on them the better! The recipe I use for muffins comes from my McCall's cookbook from 1963. I highly recommend finding some of these old cookbooks at book sales as they have lots of useful information and they come from a time before pre-made everything. So what you find in here is simple ingredients and good recipes.

Perfect Muffins
2c all purpose flour
1/4 sugar
3tsp baking powder
1/2tsp salt
1c milk
1/3c salad oil or melted shortening
1 egg (slightly beaten)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Take your muffin pan and either grease the cups or place paper liners in them. You will get about a dozen muffins from this recipe.
Mix your flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl.

Add your well drained berries to your dry ingredients and mix together. In another bowl put your milk, oil, and egg and mix together well. Make a well in the center of your dry ingredients and pour in your milk mixture.

Stir quickly with a fork until just mixed (your batter will be lumpy). Fill your muffin cups until just more the half full. Now bake for 20-25 minutes and you're done! These are great to take to breakfast with you or if you just want a quick snack.

Good Noms bakes chicken

Today the Maryland chapter of Good Noms decided to fix a favorite for dinner.
Chicken Cordon Bleu (for 4)

• 2 chicken breasts
• 1 thick slice of ham
• 4 oz swiss cheese
• 1 cup bread crumbs
• 2 eggs
• flour (1/2 cup)
  
  
• 3-4 medium potatoes
• 1/2 butternut squash
• 1 cup cream
• 4 oz cheddar or other cheese that you prefer
• 1/4 cup milk
• butter

Slice each of your chicken in half completely into two equal portions. It helps if it's still partially frozen as you do this, lay it flat on the cutting board and pretend you are filleting a fish. Cut a piece of ham that's a bit smaller than each chicken half. Cut a piece of cheese that's about the same size of the ham, 1/8 to 1/4 inch thick. With a thin sharp knife, cut a pocket into the chicken breast halves, being careful not to cut through either of the sides, the back, or your hand. Go slow.

Stuff it with the ham and cheese. Don't force it in, or you might rip your chicken pita.

Put some flour in a dish and roll the stuffed chicken in it. Wash/dry your hands. Arrange the following things in order: floured chicken; a bowl with two eggs, beaten; a bowl of bread crumbs; pan in which you will bake your chicken (we used a cookie sheet, but a pyrex dish or even a bread pan will work.)
Your right hand is now the wet hand, the left hand is the dry hand. Dip your chicken into the egg and coat it, with your wet hand. Place it in the bowl of crumbs. With your dry hand, help coat it with the crumbs, then place it in the baking dish. You will not accumulate an excess of egg/crumb conglomerate on your fingers, and you should start feeling pretty clever about now (I did.)

If you have some leftover crumbs, sprinkle some into your baking pan to prevent sticking/grossness. Bake at 350 40min to an hour, or until you start seeing melted cheese seep out. You can also use your meat thermometer here. If, by the time the chicken is done, the top is not golden brown enough to your liking, turn on your broiler for a couple minutes.

Peel the potatoes. Slice them horizontally into 8th inch thick "chips". Pop them into a pot of water set to boil.

While that's happening prepare (peel, de-seed, etc.) the squash. Chop into 1/2 inch cubes. Put into another pot of water. When the potatoes become translucent, drain and set aside. Using the same pot, melt 1/3 stick of butter and the cream. Once the butter melts, add the cheese in small chunks. When the cheese melts, add the potatoes and cook on med-low heat, stirring occasionally (and carefully, you want your potatoes to look good instead of crumbly) until potatoes are cooked all the way.
If, by this point in time, the squash is fork tender, drain it. Take out your potato masher and go to town. Add the 1/4 milk (little by little, you might need less) and 1/2 tbsp butter, salt and pepper to taste.


Serve. Bring to work if you want to impress your lunch-mates with your skill and make them salivate at your creations.

P.S. Consider yourself lucky if you have some old bread (not the mushy white kind you get for 99 cents, but the firm kind you get at the bakery or bake yourself). Get out your largest cheese grater and grate your hardened bread on it (or put it into the food processor, but I found this doesn't work as well as the other method). Spread the crumbs out on a cookie sheet, sprinkle with seasonings (parsley, oregano, garlic powder, I stay away from salt because don't want the chance that my dishes will end up super salty). Bake at 350 for literally a couple minutes, until crispy. Put into an airtight container. Pat self on back.