Breakfast Hash Brown Casserole

This tastes a lot better than it deserves to for how quick it is to make. I usually mix it up the night before, then put it in the oven in the morning, set the timer, and then can go exercise/feed the babies/crawl back in bed depending on how the morning is going.

Layer in ungreased 9x13 baking pan:
8 hash brown patties
1 can mushrooms, drained (or peppers would be good if you're not a fungi person)

Mix and pour over the top
2 T dried onion flakes
1 t. garlic powder
6 eggs
1/3 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste
extra mushroom liquid if you want

Top with cheese, if you want.

Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until eggs are set in the middle.

Hot old recipes

So what do you do when it's too hot to turn on the oven, you don't have a microwave, it costs too much to go out to eat, and you don't have a grill, either?

What you do is snag a couple of broken chairs left by the former owner and set the crockpot on the patio. Make sure you're on good terms with your neighbors.

This week we've had:

Garlic chicken thighs. (Which turned out amazingly tasty for how plain they were. Maybe it was the thunderstorm that hit them.)

Huevos rancheros. (This worked really well, too. Put some canned tomatoes and green chiles out to get hot for an hour or so, then add as many eggs as you need and cook for another hour. Top with grated cheese.)

French fries with hamburgers on top. (This didn't work. Save the hamburgers for when you actually have a grill.)

Lentil-rice casserole, which then got chilled with a bunch of vegetables added for a salad for supper.

It's a little odd looking, but it's working well and my kitchen is staying cool.

Help needed! Birthday menu ideas

OK, so it's DOB's birthday on Sunday, and I'm trying to come up with a birthday menu. He said for me just to come up with a new menu and a new dessert--or at least a new combination.

So I'm looking for something:
1) A little different
2) EASY--the ducklings don't know what a birthday means yet. ;-)
3) Must involve meat. We have gotten in touch with our inner carnivores and decided our metabolisms need meat.
4) Goes well with blueberry muffins, because that's the one thing I've thought of thus far.

Oh, and I have to decide by Wednesday morning, before I go grocery shopping. (Although if an emergency arises, we do live across the street from the grocery store right now.)

Some Breadish Things

Argentine Cornbread

"Hey Dad, get a picture of me next to this cornbread in authentic Argentinian garb!"

This was tried for a missions potluck, but it was good enough to warrant repeating under more ordinary circumstances.

3 T. olive oil
3 onions, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
3/4 c. beef or chicken broth
1 t. salt
1/2 t. crushed dried chili pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add the onions and saute 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the tomatoes and saute 10 minutes more while stirring. Add the broth, salt and chili pepper. Cook over medium heat for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Sift together:
2 cups cornmeal
1 t. baking powder
Add:
1/2 lb. cottage cheese
3 T. butter
Mix well. Add 1 1/2 c. milk, and beat thoroughly. Combine with tomato mixture. Pour into a buttered 8-inch square pan. Bake for 1 hour.

Herb-Cheese Biscuits
I have finally perfected my reasonably-healthy biscuit technique. (The secret is to use a liquid fat and stir everything together at once.) This variation was particularly nummy.

Mix together 1/3 c. vinegar and 1 c. milk. Allow to stand for a minute, then stir in 2 c. whole wheat flour. Let stand for several hours.

Blend 2 c. white flour, 2 t. salt, and 1 1/2 t. baking soda. Add the flour-milk mixture, 2/3 c. olive oil, 1 t. basil, and 1/2 c. or so of finely shredded cheese. (I used monterey jack/cheddar mix, as that was what needed to be used up.) Mix together, then dump it out and knead it just until the flour is well mixed in. Pat out and cut into desired shapes.

Bake at 350 for about 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned. (I'm not too sure on the temperature and time. Keep an eye on them.)

DOB offers a recipe

DOB: Sometime you should make French Onion Soup.

QOC: I don't know how. But I will try to learn sometime.

DOB: It's easy. You just take some soup, and put in onions. And then you add the French seasoning.

QOC: Aah, I see.

Cheesy Broccoli Potatoes

It's been awhile, and anything I cook these days is in the easy-to-fix-in-a-few-minutes-with-the-assistance-of-a-toddler line. But this got such rave reviews I thought it was worth posting.

Scrub and bake 4-8 potatoes, depending on how big they are. (This is the toddler part. Dirt and water!)

When they're almost done, make a white sauce with:
2 T. butter
2 t. chopped garlic (Saute for a few minutes, then add):
2 T flour
2 c. of milk

Rinse the ice off a 1-lb package of frozen broccoli, and chop it a little smaller if needed. Toss into the skillet with the white sauce and 2-3 cups grated cheddar cheese. Cook just until the cheese melts. (The broccoli should still be bright green and crunchy.)

Serve sauce over the potatoes. Serves 4-6 or thereabouts.

When the cooking is over

And you have that big, nasty pan to scrub--especially if you've been frying or roasting meat--try this tip I just learned from my new stepmother. Soak the whole nasty thing overnight in dishwasher detergent (the powder that goes in the dishwasher) and water and it all will wipe right off in the morning. I tried it once on a hamburger frying pan and once on a roasting chicken pan, and it worked like a dream both times.

Funny, I didn't expect a retired career Army officer to be a great source for household tips, but I guess they get meat stuck on the pan even in the Army. :-)

Two Random Tips

Fresh Pineapple: I did not realize, until someone told me, that everybody else hurts their mouth eating fresh pineapple, too. I thought it was some peculiar biochemical reaction of my own, but worth the payoff in fresh pineapple. But, according to my informer, if you put salt on the pineapple, it won't burn. I haven't tested this yet, as there haven't been any sales on fresh pineapple around here lately. But I pass it on for what it's worth.

Whole wheat baked goods: I actually prefer whole wheat for flavor as well as nutrition, but I admit the frequently crumbly-sawdust texture of quick breads made with whole wheat doesn't do much for me. Then I heard that if you mix up the flour and the sour milk part of the recipe several hours in advance (the blender was recommended), the product will turn out much more tender and fluffy. I've tried it so far on waffles and banana bread (banana bread batter was too thick for a blender, I may have to use my Kitchenaid instead), and the results were outstanding. Except for the extra-hearty flavor, you could hardly tell it was whole wheat.

Next I'm going to try it on biscuits. I don't have much hope, since whole wheat biscuits are so very, very far from their white flour equivalents, but the results so far have been so good it's worth a shot.

Apparently it has to be a sour milk type of product (buttermilk, yogurt, milk with vinegar), so if your recipe calls for regular milk and baking powder you'll have to adapt it.

Chicken-Black Bean Salad

This is one of the few salads I've ever had in a restaurant that was tasty enough and cheap enough to make a regular staple at home. It's my favorite summer dinner and is easy enough to make even during the first trimester!

2 c. chopped cooked chicken. (If it was cooked with taco seasonings to begin with, all the better. If not, you might want to mix up extra dressing and marinate it for a few hours.)
1 head shredded leaf or Romaine lettuce
1 can black beans, drained
1-2 cups frozen corn, rinsed (you could used canned, but I like the frozen texture better.)
8 medium (Roma) tomatoes, chopped
1/4 c. fresh cilantro leaves
Any other veggies that sound good; cucumber and cauliflower would be tasty.

Dressing:
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T olive oil
1 t. granulated garlic
1/4 t. cayenne pepper
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. thyme
1 t. chili powder

I like to have an equal mix of salsa and plain yogurt to serve with it, either to go on the salad or for chips. It feeds the two of us with a little bit left over, so it would probably feed four people of normal appetite.

WDIDWT? Cooked Egg Whites

D1 has started on egg yolks this week, according to proper introduction-of-food procedures, whereby one delays introducing the egg whites for some time yet. And she loves egg yolks. So this leaves me with a hard-boiled egg white a day to consume. Plain with salt is rather uninspiring. Any ideas on what else one can do with hardboiled egg whites?

DOB suggests I could separate the eggs and then poach the yolks, but I am not positive this would work, and even if it did I don't think I'm quite inspired enough to fix enough meringues or macaroons to use up the raw whites. I guess I could throw them into scrambled eggs, but that seems too uninspired.

One a penny, Two a penny

There's still time to mix up a batch of Hot Cross Buns for Sunday morning. These were easy and (we sampled one each last night) very delicious.

1 pkg active dry yeast
4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. Salt
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter
2 eggs
1/2 cup currants (can't find them around here, so I used raisins. A bit largish, but workable.)
1/4 cup diced citron, optional (I didn't use it. I'm not even sure what it is.)

Combine yeast, 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a mixing bowl. Heat milk and butter to about 125 degrees (feels quite warm on your wrist), pour over dry ingredients and beat until smooth. Beat in eggs, one at a time. Gradually add remaining flour, beating well. Mix in currants and citron. Turn out on a floured board and knead until smooth and satiny. Place in a greased bowl and butter top lightly. Cover and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled.

Turn dough out on a floured board and knead lightly. Cut off pieces about the size of a golf ball. roll between the palms of your hands. Place on a lightly greased baking sheet, cover and let rise until almost doubled in size. With a razor blade or sharp knife, cut a cross in the surface of each bun. Bake in a preheated 375 degree oven 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on a wire rack. Drizzle lemon glaze over tops of buns in a cross design:

1 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. grated lemon peel
1 1/2 tbs. milk

The Best Caramel Corn

I tried this at a Christmas party and just now got the recipe. There was another batch of caramel corn there and this one beat it all hollow.

1 cup hot air popcorn kernels
2 cups butter
4 cups brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pop the corn. Mix butter, sugars, and salt. Boil for five minutes. Then stir in vanilla and soda. Drizzle over popcorn. Place in a large roasting pan and bake at 250 degrees for 45 minutes. Stir frequently. Cool before serving.

The natural follow-up

So, once you have made the delicious tomato soup, what are you going to serve with it? Grilled cheese, of course. A sandwich with many possibilities. The core secret to grilled cheese, I finally realized, is cooking it on a low enough setting that the outsides don't burn before the insides melt. Pretty obvious, but I'm very impatient.

Some ideas for variations:

Different bread: I like a multi-grain bread with nuts for the texture; sourdough is also good.

Different cheese: Munster is my favorite. Cream cheese can blend well with another cheese inside.

Things besides cheese to add: Mustard. I like dijon, but DOB likes yellow. Avocados, thinly sliced (by far my favorite addition). Tomatoes. Dill pickles (after the sandwich is cooked, so they stay cool and crispy).

Cooking lessons from my siblings

I discovered while visiting my family that my youngest two siblings (19 and 17) have taken over nearly all the cooking duties for the family. Some cooking tips I observed while there:

• It is impossible to have too much garlic. At my sister's direction, I peeled 6 heads of garlic for one meal's worth of garlic red potatoes. There were a few potatoes leftover--no garlic.
• It is impossible to put cayenne pepper in the wrong dish. Cayenne pepper in spaghetti? No problem.
• It's a whole lot more fun to make a big mess in the kitchen when Dad is going to do the dishes.

Anguish-free Lasagne

I love lasagne. DOB loves lasagne. I hate making lasagne, as no matter how laboriously I stack the ingredients, it makes a goopy mess. But I promised DOB lasagne this week, a promise I was regretting yesterday evening when I looked at the recipe and realized it expected me to have three hours waiting between me and dinner time, which even if I had had there were lots of other things to do with them than wrestle with lasagne noodles.

Then it occurred to me that DOB was neither a chef nor an artist, and had never been known to complain about presentation of food. It also struck me that I had read somewhere a concept for making an unlayered sort of lasagne. So I did, as follows:

Brown 1 lb. hamburger, 1/2 medium onion, chopped, 1 clove garlic. Toss in crockpot with a medium can of tomato sauce and a large can of chunky tomatoes, a teaspoon or so of oregano and all the basil that was left in the jar (maybe 1/2 teaspoon? I would have added more if I'd had it.) Add 8 oz. lasagne noodles, broken into 2 inch lengths. Cook on high for about two hours, stirring occasionally, until noodles are cooked.

Add 2 cups cottage cheese and one cup mozarella, stir well, and cook another 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is nice and stringy.

It was a goopy pile, but not much more so than when I generally try to make lasagne. I bet you could also do it even quicker in a pot on the stove by cooking the noodles separately, it would just require more attention and stirring. DOB actually liked it better, because he doesn't like the crunchy spots that form on regular lasagne, or cleaning a regular lasagne pan. I'll still stack the layers for company, but for family meals this one is a keeper.

Breakfast Idea: Peanut Butter Parfait

My former roommate used to fix yogurt parfaits for breakfast at least once a week, usually with frozen raspberries. They were good, but out here in Ohio I encountered two problems with the concept: a) berries are more expensive out here; b) a yogurt parfait does not have enough protein for me to make it through the morning even when I'm not feeding someone else, too. I switched to banana parfaits (with homemade granola) which were much cheaper, but they were still a tad low on protein. This morning I got an idea from my favorite sandwich and created:

Peanut Butter & Banana Parfaits
1/2 c. vanilla yogurt (I can't find one with fructose sweetner out here, so I add a spoonful of honey and a dash of vanilla to plain yogurt.)
1-2 T. peanut butter

Mix together; then if you want to be fancy you can layer the mixture in an elegant glass dish with 1 chopped banana and 1 cup of granola, or if you just want to eat breakfast you dump the banana and the granola in on top and mix it all up. If you do it that way, it's not much harder than a bowl of cereal for those who like bananas in their cereal. In slightly smaller quantities, it would be a great snack or maybe even dessert. Amounts are very approximate, except for the banana.

I survived until 11:45 before I was ready to kill for lunch, so I think it had adequate staying power. Now to convince DOB that he likes it, which might be hard because he thinks peanut-butter-and-banana sandwiches are gross.

A Cake for All Seasons

The following chocolate cake recipe has many virtues. 1) It's delicious: rich, moist, very chocolatey. 2) It's super easy and fast. It's as easy and fast as making a mix; easier if you factor in how hard it is to get those stupid plastic bags open. 3) It's cheap: it doesn't use butter or eggs or expensive chocolate. It's perfect for "oh, let's have something chocolate" or "we need to plan a cake for the party."

Mrs. C's Cake
3 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 t. salt
2 t. soda
6 T. cocoa

Mix dry ingredients. Add:
3/4 c. oil
2 t. vanilla
2 T. vinegar
2 cups water

Mix well; bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

It handles well and tastes good with buttercream icing, which is handy if you need to do fancy decorations for some purpose. (I'm making one for my brother-in-law's graduation tomorrow.) But for the ultimate chocolate cake experience, you leave the cake in the pan and make

Chocolate Skillet Icing
2 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. cocoa
1/2 c. milk

Mix in a skillet and bring to a boil. Boil for one minute; remove from heat. Add 2 t. vanilla. Stir until lukewarm, then pour on cake.

With Thanks to Martha

Just wanted to show how the Martha blog is improving my life. DOB wanted to cook my birthday dinner but he wanted a recipe, of all things! Then I remembered Amy's recipe for alfredo sauce that sounded good. Sure enough, it was quite elegant and delicious, and manageable for someone who hasn't cooked a meal in seven years.

Sweet Potatoes without marshmallows

I, personally, find sweet potatoes with marshmallows disgusting. Sweet potatoes themselves, however, have great potential as a tasty vegetable. After some hunting around I have found a way to fix them that satisfies all of my in-laws' various allergy and dietary restraints (egg, gluten, and lactose free!) , health standards, and still seems festive and suitable for a holiday meal. It's also easy enough and cheap enough to fix in quantities to satisfy half a dozen more-or-less adolescent boys along with their extended family.

So this is what I am taking for Thanksgiving (only about 3-4 times as much):

Mashed Sweet Potatoes and Apples
2 large sweet potatoes (I use the orangier kind, which are sometimes called yams, but which I understand technically are not, just a variety of sweet potato.)
2 T Butter
2 T Honey
1 t. Cinnamon
1/2 t. Allspice
1 cooking apple, peeled and chopped

Peel and chop sweet potatoes; cook until tender. Drain and pour into bowl for mashing. (Save liquid if you don't want to use milk.) Place the butter in the bottom of the pan and melt; add honey and spices. Saute apple in it until tender. Add to sweet potatoes and mash with either a little reserved cooking liquid or milk if everyone is lactose-tolerant.

Strange Things to Do with Biscuits

Besides being tasty, biscuits can be made in seasonal shapes! (Not that a flag is appropriate to the season, but I mostly have star cookie cutters.) Cutting biscuits in slabs or squares is a great way to simplify the process and not mess with re-rolling the dough.