Baked/Shirred Egg.

I love this recipe because it's super simple, quick, and can be infinitely increased to feed however many people you need to feed, limited only by the number of ramekins or small baking dishes you have on hand. It also is easily varied, since you can throw in leftover veggies or meat, or fresh or dried herbs with the cream.

These are the basic ingredients. Like I said, add anything extra you want, though it is good simple too.

Butter the ramekin.

Add the cream. (A couple of teaspoons is plenty, though by all means add more if you wish.) Now is the time to add any extras you want.

Crack the egg in. I recommend separating the egg for this, so the yolk and white mix easier with the cream when baking. I didn't do that this time though, and it still turned out great, so again, you decide. (Don't you feel powerful? YOU control the recipe!)

Place on a baking sheet and bake in a 375°F oven for 10-15 minutes. (If your oven is normal, it should take about 12.) Don't overcook! When you pull it out, it will look a little runny, though the white should be cooked and the yolk set. It will continue to cook a bit, as the ramekin retains some heat.

Salt and Pepper to taste, then enjoy!

Thank you to Mark Bittman and his cookbook, How To Cook Everything, for the recipe.

My Favorite Chicken Salad.

I love chicken salad for lunch.  I always set out to only have one sandwich, but I usually end up finishing however much I make.  Consequently, I make smaller batches now. :)  I don't follow a recipe for this, because I've found that I know my own taste best, and I like to adjust it each time I make it to what I want at the time. (Many thanks to Hubby for taking most of these pictures!)

Ingredients:

Mayonnaise

Chicken (I've made this with fresh cooked chicken, but I generally use canned, and don't mind the minor difference.)

1/2 Apple

Grapes (I prefer red grapes, but any kind will do)

Celery

Green Onions (Usually I use chopped white or red onion, but I had some green I needed to use, and it works just as well, though I put a bit more than I would of the chopped onion.)

Marjoram

Savory

Dill Weed (This is the only one of the spices that remains constant...I love dill weed in chicken salad!)

Curry Powder

Black Pepper (not pictured...last minute impulse add)

Instructions:

First, dump your chicken into a medium sized mixing bowl. (Drain it first, if you're using canned.)

Canned chicken doesn't always look so pretty coming out of the can, but unless stated otherwise, it is cooked and quite edible. :)

Slice the grapes into the bowl.  I like to simply halve them, but if you want, you can cut them as small as you like.  You're never supposed to cut towards yourself, though that's exactly what I'm doing in the picture below.  Whenever you do, be sure to cut slowly so the knife doesn't slip.

As grapes aren't exactly in season now, raisins do make an excellent substitute, if you don't mind the change in texture.

Next slice your onions and sprinkle them into the bowl, sparingly.  Onion is one flavor that will get stronger in this salad if you plan to store any of it overnight.  Much stronger.

(We tried to capture the onions actually falling, but despite getting a great series of photos of my hand emptying, no onions were caught mid-air.)

Dice your celery to preferred size. I like mine fairly small, so I slice in strips first, then cut crosswise.

Same goes for slicing the apples.  I usually use a sweeter apple, such as a Gala, or a Pink Lady (my favorite!) but I had Granny Smiths on hand for baking, so they were subbed in.

Next, add your spices.  I usually go by scent on this one.  You want your food to smell good, or you'll have a hard time believing it tastes good; nothing should smell overpowering, but it should smell like more than just your onion.  Have fun with this.  Open random spice jars, ones you don't usually use, and just see what they smell like.  If it smells good, dump a little bit in.  A bit of advice though...decide on all your spices before dumping in.  Some spices don't mix well.  (Think mint, cayenne, and fennel. Blech.  Then again, if you like it...)

After all your other ingredients are mixed together, add your mayo.  I like to add it last because I think it coats more evenly that way.  Start with a little bit, and increase the amount to desired consistency.  Its easy to get too much, so be careful!

Once all your ingredients are together, mix it up, and you're ready to eat!  If you want more potent flavors, let the chicken salad marry in the fridge for a bit first (a few hours at least) and everything will be a bit more flavorful.I couldn't wait, though.  

MMMM, Delicious!

Spicy Black Beans and Rice.

My apologies to my readers, as I've put off posting for a bit.  I'm still cooking, just haven't stopped to photograph often.  I do have some photographs on reserve though, recipes I made awhile back and haven't gotten around to posting yet.  Here's one of my favorites.

I had been seeking a great black beans and rice recipe for awhile now, ever since a trip to mexico in high school.  For dinner one night we were served from a big bowl of rice, and a large bowl of beans.  That was all. I thought I was doomed.  Then I tasted it.  Delicious!  From that point on, I wanted to learn how to make the dish.  The ladies who cooked the meal tried to explain it to me, but the language barrier proved to be too difficult.  

Now, years later, I found a recipe in a newly purchased cookbook by chance, tried it, and here we are.  It's not quite like that delicious meal I had in Mexico, but it's delicious in its own way.  Even my Hubby, who is hesitant about such things, enjoyed this meal.  I hope you do too!

Spicy Black Beans and Rice

Ingredients:

1 med. onion, chopped (approx. 1/2 cup)

4 cloves garlic, minced

2 T. olive oil or cooking oil

1 15 oz. can black beans, rinsed and drained

1 14 1/2 oz. can mexican style stewed tomatoes

1/8 to 1/4 t. ground red pepper

2 c. hot cooked brown or long-grain rice

1/4 c. chopped onion (optional)

Directions:

Prep all ingredients before beginning to cook.

Begin cooking rice, if using slow-cooking rice.  If using minute rice, prepare when needed.

In a medium saucepan cook 1/2 cup onion and garlic in hot oil until onion is tender.

Carefully stir in the drained beans, undrained tomatoes, and red pepper.  

Bring to boiling; reduce heat.  Simmer, uncovered, for 15 minutes.

To serve, mound rice on dinner plates; make a well in the centers.  Spoon black bean mixture into centers. If desired, sprinkle with 1/4 cup onion. Makes 4 servings.

Pierogis.

One of the foods my husband introduced me to, back when we first started dating, was the pierogi.  (My mom probably had made them at some point, but I just don't recall.)  My first memory of them was being over at a mutual friend's home, and his dad making them for all of us.  I was so disappointed to only get three!  They were large, and very filling, but so good I just wanted more.  Since then, we've bought the frozen variety at wal-mart, and have been satisfied, but when I came across this recipe for Quick Potato Pierogis, I knew we had to try it.  We varied it slightly, and will change it more in the future, but as for now, here's how it goes together.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks (we used about 2 pounds)
4 to 5 tablespoons unsalted butter + a little extra to melt and drizzle over the dumplings
3 onions, finely chopped (food processors are great for this, or else it takes forever)
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 to 2 packages of gyoza (pot sticker) wrappers (we didn't even use a full package, but it had 60 wrappers in it)
3 to 5 green onions, thinly sliced or 1/4 cup chopped chives or 2 tablespoons chopped parsley or additional fried onions, to serve (we did butter and parsley)

Put a pot of salt water on to boil, and prepare your potatoes while it heats.

When the potatoes are tender, (stick a fork in one, and if it goes in very easily, it's ready), strain the water out and set aside.

Chop your onions while the potatoes are boiling.  You can either mince them by hand, or employ the use of a food processor.

The food processor is completely worth it.

When the onions are all minced, melt the butter in a large saucepan.  Once it is completely melted, add the onions and sauté until they are tender and begin to turn brown.

Don't forget to grab a bit of refreshment for yourself during cooking.  The kitchen gets hot enough without crabby hungry cooks! (You're looking at sweet tea...I can't stand lipton, as a rule, and sugar makes it ok.)

Once the onions are sautéed to your liking, pour them, butter and all, into a mixing bowl with the potatoes.  Mash them all together, and season with salt and pepper.  Hubby and I decided to add a bit of cheese in as well. (The last of what we had in the fridge, a bit of shredded Co-Jack, and a bit of shredded Mozzerella.)

You are now ready to start filling your wrappers.

Give yourself a generous supply of water to help with this process.  Normally at this point you'd take a cookie cutter or something along those lines to cut the wrappers into nice circular shapes.  Unfortunately, my cookie cutters are still lost with the mysterious missing kitchen box, the only box we lost in our move at the beginning of summer.  Suffice it to say, Hubby and I made geometrically-shaped pierogis.

Dip your finger in the water and run it along the outer edge of the wrapper.

Spoon some of your filling onto the center of the wrapper.  Be careful not to put too much!

You'll figure out the perfect amount, but it is best to err on the side of too little filling, as too much keeps the pierogi from sealing completely.

Fold the corners, (or edges, if you cut yours into a circle) together.

Press your finger firmly along the edges, to seal it.  Try to expel any air that you can from the inside as you do this.

Your pierogi is complete!  Rinse, repeat, until all filling is used up.

See? Pretty shapes! 

Once the pierogis are complete, you can either freeze them for later use, refridgerate them for later that day, or you can cook them immediately.  If you're going to freeze them, do so in a single layer, as if you do not, they will form a giant frozen ball of pierogi.  

If you want to cook them, you can either boil them in a single layer in a pot of boiling salt water for 2-3 minutes per batch, or you can sauté them in butter (still single layer batches,) until they begin to brown, then add 1/4-1/2 in. of water in the pan, cover, and cook for 3-4 minutes. When the water evaporates, the pierogis are tender and not mushy, they are done.

When they are cooked, you can garnish with what you will. (See above ingredient list.)  We chose to garnish ours with melted butter and parsley. MMMMM!

Pseudo-Bento Lunch, and Step-by-Step Tetrazzini.

For lunch today, I was inspired by a website I recently came across, adventuresinbentomaking.com.  Bentos are packed lunches, and mine was clearly not, but the goal of making a beautiful meal is the same.  This is my first attempt, but it was fun to do, and fairly easy, so expect to see more.

Dinner tonight was chicken tetrazzini.  It was a favorite from my childhood, published in a cookbook from my grandma's hometown the year that I was born.  It's even better when you take the time to cook the chicken, but I generally use a large can of chicken instead.  I know, it's sad to see some of the flavor go, but it's neglible when compared to the time gained, at least for me. Here's how you put it together.

CHICKEN TETRAZZINI

Preheat your oven to 375°, and pull out a 1 1/2 qt. casserole dish.

Ingredients:

4 oz. spaghetti, broken (approx. 1 cup broken up)

1 can cream of celery soup

1/2 c. milk

1 c. diced, cooked chicken (or one large can chicken, drained)

1/4 c. chopped pimientos

1/4 c. green pepper

1 T. minced onion

1 c. shredded cheese

1/4 t. black pepper

Chop all vegetables, and drain the pimientos (and chicken, if needed) before beginning assembly.

I prefer to mix the soup and spaghetti first, with the chopped vegetables.  This way the spaghetti is nicely broken up by the time everything else is mixed in.

Add the milk next.

When you add the chicken and pimientos, be sure that you break up any large pieces of chicken so that it blends well with the rest of the dish.

Finally, add the shredded cheese and pepper, reserving some of the cheese for sprinkling on top.

Mix everything well and place in the oven.  Cook for 30 minutes.If you care to make cleanup easier on yourself, be sure to wipe the casserole dish around the top with a paper towel before cooking.  Enjoy!