E is for Eggs (Scrambled)

Somehow I have become the maker of scrambled eggs in the house. Dan says I have the magic touch. I'm not sure what I do, but they are definitely fluffy and delicious when I make them.

Scrambled Eggs

6 eggs
1/4 milk (can use heavy cream or 1/2 and 1/2)
salt and pepper to taste

Beat eggs with milk. Add salt and pepper. Heat non-stick frying pan with about 1/2 tablespoon of butter over medium heat. When butter is melted, add eggs. Use a spatula to scrape the sides when the curds start to form. Gently and slowly stir to the eggs to break up the curds in larger chunks. Remove from heat before the eggs are done. There is carryover temperature to those eggs and if you don't do that you will overcook them.

These eggs are super fluffy and delicious.

Eggs with Sweet Potato/Apple Pancakes

As many of you have gathered, I'm obsessed with The Chew on ABC. I've had the cookbook since November and hadn't made anything. Partly because I'm afraid to bend the pages too much since Michael Symon autographed it. But he said use it to cook, so cook I did.

The first recipe I made was actually from Daphne Oz. Normally I wouldn't have made something of hers but she used sweet potatoes and I'm trying to expand what I use them for. Plus I thought this would be easy to make and Dan would eat it.

Eggs with Sweet Potato and Apple Pancakes
Recipe courtesy of The Chew

Ingredients

5 fresh eggs
1/3 cup olive oil
1 sweet potato peeled and grated
1/2 onion grated
1/2 apple grated
1 carrot grated
2 egg whites lightly beaten
1/4 Cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

In a pan lightly poach eggs.

In a medium-sized skillet heat 1/3 cup olive oil to medium-high heat.

Grate the sweet potatoes, onion, apple and carrot. Ring out the shavings in a cheese cloth or paper towel (this is to ensure the pancakes won't be soggy). Then in a large bowl, place shredded sweet potatoes, grated onion, grated apple, grated carrot, 2 egg whites and 1/4 cup flour. Then add 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Mix well.

In a medium-sized skillet, Combine and drop: enough batter into hot oil to make 2 1/2-3 inch pancakes. Add more oil, as needed, and fry cakes in batches until golden on each side.

I wasn't sure what size of any of the vegetables to use. I used half of a Fuji apple since I like those. I also used a smallish onion and my sweet potato was medium large. I made three pancakes the first night and then the second day I cooked up the rest for lunch.

This was really nice. I decided that I didn't even need the egg to complete the dish.

Now it is time for me to tackle some more recipes from this cookbook.

Ham and Swiss Quiche

I was trying to clean out the freezer and had all of these ingredients. So I decided quiche it was.

Ham and Swiss Quiche
Recipe courtesy of about.com

Ingredients:
1 9" pie pastry
1 cup half and half
4 eggs, beaten
3 Tbsp. honey mustard (I used Dijon)
2 Tbsp. flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves
1/8 tsp. white pepper
1-1/2 cups cubed, cooked ham
1-1/2 cups shredded Swiss or Havarti cheese
1 cup frozen chopped spinach, thawed, well drained (I only used about half of this)
2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan cheese
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. To make Ham and Swiss Quiche, prepare pie crust and set aside. In medium bowl, mix half and half, eggs, mustard, flour, salt, thyme, and pepper and beat until combined.

Layer ham, Swiss cheese, and spinach in prepared pie crust. Pour egg mixture into pie crust and sprinkle with Parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 degrees F. for 40-50 minutes until crust is golden and filling is set.

The key to making this work was layering the ham/cheese/spinach in the pie crust before pouring in the eggs. I've never done that before and it made for much more evenly distributed tastiness.

Pumpkin Bread

I've been making this particular recipe for years (and I mean years). It came from an old church cookbook I got shortly after we got married. I no longer have the cookbook but I cut this recipe out and taped it to a recipe card so I could keep it.

Pumpkin Bread

2/3 cup oil
2 2/3 cup sugar
4 eggs
1 can pumpkin
2/3 cup water
1 cup raisins
3 1/3 cup flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Beat oil, sugar, eggs, water and pumpkin. Add spices, baking soda and baking powder; beat well. Add flour gradually, mixing well. Stir in raisins. Pour batter in 2 loaf pans that have been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-70 minutes.

The original recipe says you can add 1 cup of walnuts or pecans but we don't like nuts. It also says you can use 4 (1 pound) coffee cans half full. That tells you how old this recipe is. Do people even get coffee cans anymore?

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

For thanksgiving morning I wanted to try something different so I found a recipe for pumpkin cranberry bread. This was a nice change to our normal pumpkin bread. The texture was moist and not too dense.




Pumpkin Cranberry Bread
Recipe adapted from epicurious.com

1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 cup picked-over fresh or frozen cranberries

Preheat oven to 350° F. and butter a loaf pan, 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 by 2 3/4 inches.

In a large bowl with an electric mixer beat together pumpkin, sugar, water, eggs, and oil. Sift in flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and spices and stir just until batter is smooth. Stir in cranberries and spoon batter into loaf pan, spreading evenly.

Bake bread in middle of oven 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean, and cool in pan on a rack 10 minutes. Turn bread out onto rack and cool completely. Bread may be made 4 days ahead and chilled, covered.

Crazy Cooking Challenge - Blueberry Crumb Muffin

Month two for my participation in the challenge. When I saw the topic I wasn't sure I would do it. We don't eat muffins. Anytime I have tried to make them, they never come out. Of course I've always used the mix and they seem to stick to the papers or the tin. But I figured Whitney would be home for spring break and this would be a good treat. I printed out about 10 recipes. So many looked similar but I diligently went through them all. I gave them to Whitney to pick out and she narrowed it down to two. I was surprised she didn't pick the chocolate/blueberry one but she said it sounded strange. So we had two with crumb toppings. I chose the one that used a little less butter (since of course muffins are healthy). HAHA.

The recipe I chose was Blueberry Crumb Muffins from Dishing the Divine. Paula said that this recipe was just as good as her favorite muffin recipe. I figure that had to be a good sign.


Ingredients

crumb topping

1 cup all purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

6 tbsp unsalted butter

1/3 cup light brown sugar

muffin batter

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

8 tbsp unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 pint blueberries, rinsed, drained, and picked over (I used frozen blueberries)

Instructions

1. Set a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375F. Line a standard muffin pan with paper liners.
2. For the crumb topping, combine the flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a medium mixing bowl and stir well to mix. Melt the butter in a small pan. Remove from the heat and add the brown sugar to the pan of melted butter and use a small heatproof spatula to stir them together. Scrape the butter and sugar mixture into the flour mixture, stirring it until the flour is evenly moistened. Set aside while preparing the batter.
3. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg in a mixing bowl and stir well to mix.
4. Combine the butter and sugars in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed for about 1 minute, or until well mixed and a little lightened in color. Beat in the eggs one at a time, beating smooth after each addition.
5. Decrease the mixer speed to low and beat in 1/2 the flour mixture. Stop the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to scrape down the bowl and beater.
6. On low speed, beat in the milk. After the batter has absorbed the milk, beat in the remaining flour mixture. Stop and scrape down the bowl and beater again.
7. Add the blueberries to the bowl and beat them into the batter on lowest speed for no more than 2-3 seconds, to crush some of the berries slightly.
8. Remove the bowl from the mixer and use a large rubber spatula to give a final mixing to the batter.
9. Divide the batter evenly among the cavities in the muffin pan. Break the crumb topping into small crumbs with your fingertips and scatter over the top of each muffin. Bake the muffins until they are well risen, feel firm to the touch, and the topping is golden, about 30 minutes. Cool the muffins in the pan on a rack

Ready for the oven

Comments: I couldn't believe how thick the batter was. My experience with muffins usually is just the ones you get at hotel breakfasts. I think of them as somewhat light. These were very dense. I kept thinking I had the wrong size muffin tin. I filled up 12 cups to the top and overflowing. Then when I added the crumb topping I had so much extra. And they were pretty covered. I think I overcooked them by a minute (eventhough I pulled them out before the time on the recipe). The nutmeg was pretty strong (I like nutmeg) but I think a little less would let you taste the blueberries. The crumb topping was pretty crunchy (which is why I think I cooked them a minute too long). The next day I warmed one up and then put some butter on it and that seemed to help the denseness. Someone had mentioned that theirs were dry on the original blog and everyone else wondered why. Mine seemed dry too but butter helped.

Out of the oven

The blueberries kept their shape nicely

Would I make these again? No. Not because the recipe was bad its just that we don't eat muffins (in fact I've got most of them in the freezer). And actually with them being in the freezer, they have regained some moisture when we defrost them. Still wouldn't make them again but better this way for us.

Check out all the other versions of blueberry muffins out there.

Raisin Bread French Toast

We decided to have homemade raisin bread french toast for our Christmas morning breakfast. We have a great recipe for the bread machine so we made that the night before.

Raisin Bread - For the Bread Machine
   (Electric Bread)

This makes a small loaf which yields about 8 good size slices for french toast. One slice was enough for each of us.

3/4 cup water
2 cups bread flour
1 T dry milk
1 T sugar
1 tsp salt
1 T butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp fastrise yeast

Add 1/2 cups raisins when the bread machine is starting its second knead cycle. I soaked my raisins in boiling water for a few minutes to get them to plump up.

French Toast
  (Better Homes and Garden)
1 cup milk
4 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix together and soak bread 30 seconds on each side. Cook 2-3 minutes per side.

Always good to have your milk in a snowman mug

New Quiche Recipe

So I had a lot of eggs I needed to use up so I thought I'll make a quiche. But I wanted something different than what we normally do. So I went to allrecipes.com where I find one called Yummy Quiche. How could I go wrong with lots of cheese and bacon? Last night we started to make this and immediately recognized problem number one...it was never going to fit in the 9inch deep dish pie crust I had. In fact I have no idea how anyone though three cups of cheese, five eggs and 1 1/2 cups of 1/2&1/2 would fit in anything. So smart me got out the second pie crusts (see I was smart and bought two) and mixed up the rest of my eggs and filled both pies to the top. We had no idea how it would turn out. Boy did it rise in the oven. It was like a soufle. I don't think I got the cheese distributed very well because the one we ate wasn't cheesy at all. And I didn't taste the bacon either. It was like an omelette with a little seasoning. We froze one (maybe that's the tasty one). But here's the recipe (with my additions) and maybe someone can tell me what I did wrong.

Quiche

8 oz bacon (cooked, drained and crumbled)
9 inch unbaked pie crust (we used 2 deep dish premade ones)
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
1 cup shredded monterray jack cheese (we used a monteray jack/colby blend)
3 tablespoons of flour
5 eggs lightly beaten (I used 10 eggs)
1 1/2 cups half and half (I used 2 cups)
1/2 cup diced onion
1 can diced green chiles drained

Put bacon on the bottom of pie crust. Mix cheeses with flour. Set aside. Beat eggs and add 1/2 and 1/2, onion and green chiles. Mix cheese into the wet ingredients. Pour over bacon.

Cook at 350 degrees for 60-70 minutes (ours took only 55 minutes).