Meatloaf

Meatloaf.  A staple of cafeterias, TV dinners, and moms everywhere.  I always keep some ground beef in the freezer for impromptu burgers, burritos, and the like, so I decided to switch it up and go for this old classic.  Now in an ideal world, you would have lots of nice ground meats (beef and pork) to incorporate into your loaf (or get adventurous with lamb and turkey).

The fillings for your meatloaf fall under some basic categories: (day old) crusty bread soaked in milk, ground meat, diced veggies, egg, spices.  

Soak your bread that you rip or dice into cubes.  This adds some texture and airiness in the loaf so it isn't completely dense with meat.  

Next saute your veggies.  This time I had onions, carrots, and garlic to work with.  You don't need to get them completely soft because you will be baking them in the loaf for an hour and the juices from the meat will soften them.  

Now combine your ground meat, 3/4 of the sauteed veggies, soaked bread, one egg, and sauces/spices in a bowl.  It looks pretty gross.  For my seasoning this time I went with some soy sauce, salt/pepper, and thyme.    

With the remaining sauteed veggies, I mixed them with some soy sauce and some ketchup in the skillet.  I then filled a loaf pan with the meaty mixture and spread the ketchup on top.  Add as much or as little of this as you'd like.  

I popped this bad boy in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees.  You can serve with additional ketchup if your diners so desire, or perhaps ditch the ketchup alltogether and go for a gravy instead.  I served with mashed potatoes for a nice hearty meat and potato comfort food dinner.  

Baked Eggs

 

I've been wanting to attempt baked eggs for awhile now, but haven't had the proper ramekins, so this holiday season provided the perfect opportunity to try my hand at this dish.  Basically you crack eggs into ramekins, surround with a little milk or cream (to avoid burning), and bake for 15 minutes or so.  I of course wanted more than just eggs so I layered potatoes, cheese, bacon, onions, and mushrooms.  

Begin by cooking your bacon and once rendered remove to paper towels to drain.  Slice your potatoes (I used peeled fingerlings) and add them with some minced garlic to the bacon grease to cook.  

Once your potatoes are cooked to your liking, start assembling them in your ramekins.

Next up is cheese.

Followed by the bacon.

Meanwhile, saute some onions and mushrooms in the leftover bacon grease (add more butter if needed) and once softened add those to the dishes.  

Make room for your cracked eggs in the center of your mount of food.

Finally add a tablespoon of milk or cream atop the eggs.  Place on a cookie sheet and bake for about 15 minutes at 325 F. 

These ramekins were a little shallow for all the ingredients I tried to cram in them, otherwise the eggs might not have looked so separated from everything else, but it didn't diminish from the deliciousness.  Everyone had an individual serving of breakfast goodness all in one place and the baked eggs were an interesting consistency different than what you'd get from frying or poaching.  

Teriyaki Shrimp Fried Rice

What do I do when I have leftover rice? Stir-fry!  It's a very simple and quick dinner.  Take the meat and veggies you have, choose your sauce/spices, heat it all together, and you're done.

I started with a little garlic and chopped red onion in some butter.  Then I added the asparagus.  After about 5 minutes I added corn and spinach and the raw shrimp.  After everything was sauteed to my liking, I pushed the veggies/shrimp to the side of the pan and added the already cooked rice to the skillet.  I let it cook a little in the butter and then added teriyaki sauce.  After another minute or two I mixed everything together and cooked over medium-high heat to give the rice a nice little crunch.

Finally, I pushed the rice/veggies/shrimp to the edges of the skillet and in the middle I cracked an egg.  I scrambled it by itself and when it was fully cooked I mixed it all together.  I added a little more teriyaki sauce to my liking, and in about 10 minutes I had a fully seasoned, fresh cooked stir fry dinner.

Mashed Potato Benedict

Yet another variation on my favorite brunch item: benedict.  This version utilizes some leftover cheesy mashed potatoes I had in the fridge, because why should such a delicious form of the potato be reserved solely for dinner?  Upon eating this yesterday, I have discovered my current favorite easy breakfast. 

Step 1: make sure you have leftover mashed potatoes in your fridge and scoop some into a ball/patty.

Step 2: cook the bacon in a skillet. remove to paper towels when cooked through.

Step 3: cook potato patty in bacon grease to brown the outside (~2 min per side)

Step 4: plate potato patty, cover in bacon, and now crack the egg into the skillet.

Step 5: slide your fried egg atop the bacon covered potatoes

Step 6: devour

The Art of the Omelet

with a dollop of herbed goat cheese on top

Omelets are my go-to weekend brunch item.  Having people over? Made to order omelets.  It's kind of my thing.  So being a self-proclaimed omelet aficionado I have found there tend to be 2 schools of omeleteers - the insiders and the mix-ins.  I myself am a mix-in.  

The insiders prepare the eggs to doneness, add the fillings at the very end and fold over.  Perhaps this is what you traditionally envision an omelet to be.  I, however, have found the taste to be much more appealing when the flavors get a chance to infuse with the egg.  Ingredients that I want to have cooked, such as mushrooms, onions, meat, etc., cook in the pan and the eggs are added to the ingredients.  That way the mix-ins are combined with the egg, ensuring that each bite has a little something different.  I'll put cheese strictly in the middle, and certainly am not averse to throwing more mix-ins/toppings into the center of the omelet, but I like my eggs to also have some surprises lurking within.  You may think of this as more of a scramble, but since the omelet ends up folded over and the egg is a single entity, I call it an omelet.  

I digress.  A very important first step to any good omelet is the preparation of the eggs.  I typically make 2-egg omelets.  Crack your eggs into a small mixing bowl and add milk.  About 1-2 tbsps should do for 2 eggs.  I eyeball it.  Add some salt and pepper and stir.

You want to make sure you have a nice homogenous mixture of yolk, white, and milk, but don't go overbeating.  If you want to add any dried or fresh herbs to your eggs, this is the stage I like to add them as well.  

Next, cook whatever fillings you will be using in a nice omelet-sized skillet.  Nonstick is great for a nicer looking omelet.  My pan is old and not very omelet friendly, but it's the perfect size!  As should be expected by now, I typically start by cooking the bacon.  Once done, I remove to paper towels, but then I use the bacon grease to saute my veggies.  If you are averse to bacon, or perhaps want something feigning healthiness, use butter.  

Once your veggies are sauteed to your likeness, add your scrambled egg/milk mixture.  You'll get a nice even coating of the pan and hopefully there will be a nice distribution of your veggies.  

this omelet appears to contain onions and tomatoes

I used to think a good omelet was one whose integrity was never disturbed following the addition of the eggs to the pan.  It would often take awhile to cook through entirely, but I didn't want to disturb the beautiful flat egg pancake I had created.  I often covered the pan with a lid to help cook, but this was getting tedious.  I then learned that omelets actually taste exactly the same even if they're roughed up a little around the edges.  Using a nonstick, heatproof spatula, it's ok to push the cooked egg at the edges into the center and allow the still uncooked egg to ooze into this previously occupied space.  Sure you get a lumpy omelet in some places, but your egg cooks evenly and quickly.  

this omelet has onions, mushrooms, bacon, and cheese

Once the omelet is about 90% done, add your center toppings.  For me this will include the bacon and most definitely the cheese.  I can't have an omelet without cheese.  Scallions or chives are good at this point.  Avocados and tomatoes are also crowd favorites.

Finally, it's time to slide the omelet out of the skillet and fold it over on the plate.  You can fold it in the skillet if you'd like, but i've always been one to slide it off the pan half way and with a flip of the wrist let the top half fold over.  The lower your heat, slicker your pan, and shorter your cooking time, the less brown the finished outside of the omelet is.  And worst case scenario, if you mess up an omelet, you have a delicious scramble, still a meal that will certainly impress your guests when they've just woken up. 

Swiss Chard, Mushroom, and Feta Fritata

  

I was in charge of bringing breakfast to our weekly Tuesday morning meeting at work a few weeks ago.  Typically people pick up a box of bagels.  If we're lucky they pick up breakfast pastries from somewhere more exotic.  And on the very rare occasion we get a homemade version of  a breakfast crumble.  Not being one to settle for store bought breakfast, and wanting to abandon the carb heavy trend that has been set, I decided to make something more suited to my tastes.  I'm an eggs and bacon kind of girl, so a fritata seemed perfect.  Though, I also made banana bread so people could have the familiar starch option to fall back on. 

The fritata was the best way to serve eggs aside from bringing in a plug in skillet and making made to order omelets in the conference room.  I baked it about 90% the night before, put it in the fridge, and finished it in the oven the next morning before work.  This is ideal for parties or early mornings when you want as little to worry about the day of the meal.  

I decided to prepare a vegetarian fritata, seeing as that would be safest.  I figured feta cheese was less polarizing than goat, but the swiss chard would give it a fun kick slightly stronger than spinach.  

a pile of stalks compared to a still intact leaf of swiss chard

My favorite part of preparing chard is removing the stalks.  You basically grab a hold of the thick end with one hand, and with your other hand, lightly cup over the same end of the stalk and slide up.  The leaves will be almost entirely removed.  Since the stalk is so thick, you don't want to just cut off the bottom, you want to get rid of all of it.  Be sure to rinse and dry your chard, and you can either tear or chop into large pieces.  

Meanwhile, slice your onion and mushrooms.  I used 1/2 a yellow onion and 12 oz mushrooms.  Saute in butter to soften.

 

I would use bacon fat had I included meat in this dish, and if you have a stronger morning palate, feel free to throw in some garlic.

Once softened, throw in the chard to wilt it.  Some people may add water to wilt their greens, I found this unnecessary and didn't want to have to drain too much of the chard after cooking.  

Once wilted, there will be some residual liquid from the leaves.  Typically people tell you to wilt greens alone, then wring them dry, but I wanted all the flavors to infuse together, so instead I strained the entire mixture to remove excess water/butter.  

Meanwhile in a large bowl I whisked 12 eggs.  I added some salt and pepper, the chard/mushroom/onion mixture, and finally about 6 oz feta cheese.  I combined everything well, then poured into a greased glass baking dish and baked in a 325 degree oven for 50 minutes.

Make sure the eggs aren't overcooked, remove, cover, refrigerate, and the next morning reheat in the 325 degree oven for 10 minutes. 

Bibimbap, a Variation

I was inspired by Bibimbap the other night, but lacking the traditional ingredients, so I made this, my variation on the Korean dish.  I didn't have any beef, so I opted for chicken, and used the veggies I had in my fridge.

Ingredients: Rice, Chicken, Asparagus, Mushrooms, 1 Leek, Garlic
Sauce: Soy sauce, sesame oil, chili powder, salt/pepper

Chop your veggies and chicken and place the chicken in soy sauce and garlic to marinate for anywhere from thirty minutes to a few hours.  Add chili oil/any other relevant spices or sauces you may have. 

Prepare the rice.  I used white jasmine rice.  While the rice is cooking, heat some sesame oil in a skillet and add your veggies. 

Once they are well sauteed, add the chicken and it's sauce to the skillet.  Cook through and add more soy sauce/seasonings as you see fit.  When everything is cooked completely, put some rice in a bowl, add the chicken/veggies on top.  Finally crack an egg in the skillet you cooked the veggies in to fry it to your desired doneness.  Put the egg on top of the rice/veggie mixture.  To eat, mix everything together in classic bibimbap fashion or eat in portions, whatever you'd prefer.

LND: Wake Up and Smell the Bacon

My favorite brunch item is most definitely Eggs Benedict.  It's because of the Hollandaise sauce. but I could do without the Canadian bacon.  So when I have time for making my own weekend brunch, I'm a fan of Benedict variations, with or without the sauce. 

Thanksgiving weekend we had leftover mini english muffins from the shrimp melts, but no hollandaise sauce so I came up with this version: Toasted English Muffin, Bacon, Avocado, Pesto sauce, Garlic/herb cheese spread, Poached Egg.  The runny yolks provided all the "sauce" we needed for what a restaurant might deem a "California" benedict.  (apparently California is all about avocados and bacon, at least that's what I've learned from ordering the "California" version of many restaurant menu items).

To prepare, toast the English muffin halves, crisp the bacon, slice the avocado.

To get perfectly poached eggs, bring a pot of salted water to a boil.  Using a slotted spoon, spin the water in a circular motion to create movement in the pot.  Crack an egg into a small prep bowl and quickly remove the spinning spoon and add the egg to the center of the spinning water in the pot.  This causes the white to wrap around the yolk and avoid all the extra stringiness that can come from plopping a raw egg into a regular pot of boiling water.  

Assemble.  Spread a light layer of pesto on the toasted english muffins.  Add a dallop of cheese (I used Alouette brand spreadable garlic/herbs cheese).  Top with bacon, two avocado slices, then nestle the poached eggs on top, using the slotted spoon to remove them from the boiling water.  Sprinkle with pepper and serve.

Three Cheese Mac and Cheese

I discovered this recipe in food and wine magazine a few months ago and made a mental note that I needed to try it.  Well, this week I finally bought the ingredients, and several pots/pans/messy stoves later we had more three cheese mac than we knew what to do with.  aka an entire casserole dish of this stuff is currently sitting in the fridge at work.

The best part about this dish is the sauce.  It seems like a lot of sauce when you first make it, but it reduces when you bake the pasta.  Basically you cook some chopped garlic and onions in 3 cups of cream or half and half (we did 2 cups cream 1 cup milk).  Take some cream out to mix with flour then add the mixture back to thicken the suace.  Next comes the cheese.  Goat, white cheddar, and parmesan.  Sour cream, herbs, salt and pepper to season.  Then remove some of the sauce and mix with egg yolks and return that to the pan.  Then take some of your cooked pasta and sample it in the sauce if you can't wait for it to bake (that wasn't in the recipe).  45 minutes in the oven later and you've got dinner.

Well, I loved this sauce so much when it was on the stove that I was kind of sad to see it reduced so much in the oven, so next time I think i'll only bake the pasta for about 10 minutes, rather than 45, so the parmesan cheese on top can melt, but I don't lose the cheesy goodness coating the noodles.  I scanned the original recipe for all y'alls if you want to try it for yourselves.  Cooking the amount listed fills up a good 2 casserole dishes.  I'm thinking this will make an appearance at my next dinner party. 

LND: Wake Up and Smell the Bacon

I'm definitely more of an eggs and bacon girl than a milk and cereal girl when it comes to my breakfasts.  So in this blog edition we recount a common brunch fare I make for myself and friends on the weekends.  Breakfast potatoes with a fried egg on top.  Just remember, the key to this meal is bacon grease! Mmmmm.

So first, choose your ingredients for the potatoes wisely.  We opted for garlic, mushrooms, onions (more than were shown), and bacon (obviously).  Now you may want to cook bacon strips to eat on the side, but I'm a fan of chopping the bacon and having it mixed with the potatoes.  My suggestion for you: try both.  The more bacon, the better.

Once the chopping is done, you're ready to start cooking.  Take your skillet and add the bacon, no additional butter/oil/grease required.  Once rendered (fancy term for cooked), remove the bacon to a paper towel, but leave all that delicious and fatty grease behind.

With the bacon set aside ever so gracefully, you can start cooking your other ingredients.  Begin with the garlic and onions.  Once the onions are soft you can add the mushrooms.  It's important to space out your veggies based upon what will take the longest to cook.  Also, with mushrooms, they're full of moisture, but initially they will suck up the cooking liquid and once they're sauteed, they will release it again, so don't worry if your pan suddenly appears too dry.  After a couple minutes of cooking your veggies, you can add the potatoes.  The bacon grease will ensure they get nice and crispy on the outside, but we're concerned about cooking through to the center as well.  So a trick I use is that after about 10-15 minutes of sauteing and crisping I'll add a liquid.  I usually go for white wine or chicken broth.  The liquid will after a few minutes evaporate completely, but not without first helping to poach the potato and promote a softer interior.  I'll add about a quarter cup of liquid at a time.

When the potatoes are cooked to your desired level of doneness, add cheese, herbs, scallions, etc.  Anything you don't want to cook, but want in the potatoes.  This is also the time to add back the bacon.  (We opted for shredded cheddar at this point in the game).  If you want to keep the potatoes heated until you're ready to serve them, the oven is another option for finishing these babies off.  All in all I'd say you're looking at about 15-30 minutes of potato cooking time to achieve your desired level of softness or crunch as the case may be.
Now for the final touch, I add a fried egg on top.  Of course, the egg must be cooked in bacon grease.  Cook it to your liking, but I highly suggest leaving the yolk runny to seep down over your potatoes.  To serve, plate the potatoes, put the egg on top and add whatever else you'd like on the side.  Delicious, full service breakfast on a plate or in a bowl.

Ingredients: Potatoes, Onions, Garlic, Mushrooms, Bacon, Chicken Broth, Cheddar Cheese, Eggs

And to prove we aren't giant grease-eating carnivores, we even sliced some peaches and strawberries to balance out the meal.  (Though I won't comment on how much of this fruit we actually managed to eat).