Purist Egg Salad

I am a purist when it comes to egg salad. I love it dearly - egg salad on wheat toast is one of my very favorite breakfasts and snacks. But I only love it when it is minimalist.

I'm the same with bread, I suppose. The only brand of sandwich bread I really like is Koepplinger's. It has a very fresh taste and you can actually read the ingredients label.

Below is my recipe. Not sure if you can even call it a recipe since its so simple, but this is how I do it, either way.

Purist Egg Salad
4 hard-boiled eggs*
2 tbs. mayo (Hellman's is my favorite)
Two-finger pinch if salt

Peel eggs and place in a small bowl (I use a cereal bowl at home). Use a fork to mash them up. Stir in mayo and salt. Taste it before you eat it - everyone likes a different amount of salt.

This makes two servings, so I pile 1/2 the egg salad in a piece of toast and save the rest for the next day. It keeps very well in the fridge.

*to hard boil the eggs, put them in a pan, cover them with cold water and bring to a boil over high heat. Boil for 1 minute. Cover with a lid, remove from heat, and allow to cool to almost room temperature. Drain water, cover with cold water and allow to cool completely. Remove from water and store in the fridge.

Homemade Pizza Night

There's not a lot we like to do more than come home from work on Friday, get showered and into fresh pajamas, and chill out on the couch with a pizza and Netflix.

Homemade pizza is such a treat. It's fresh, delicious and faster to make than you would think. And if you make it at home, you get to control everything! Great for control freaks like me. ;o)

Below is our recipe. We like thin crust. If you like it thicker, make a double batch of crust.

Enjoy!!


Jen's Homemade Pizza

Crust
1.5 cups flour*
1/2 pack of "rapid rise" active dry yeast
2-finger pinch of salt
1/2 cup very warm tap water
1-1.5 tbs (generous splash) extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)

Preheat oven to 450. Stir together dry ingredients. Add water and oil and stir together with a wooden spoon. If it gets too dry to stir, knead it with your hands. Form into a ball, cover with a towel and set aside for 10-15 minutes.

After it has rested, roll out the dough and place on pizza pan. If any holes form, squish them shut. Bake for 10 minutes or until firm but not browned. Remove from the oven and add toppings.

We both like chunky marinera sauce; I like pepperoni and veggies with no cheese. Hubby likes pepperoni and sausage with lots of freshly grated mozzarella. So, we each get 1/2 with our favorite toppings.

After your toppings are on, put the pizza back in the oven until the cheese is melted and the crust is nicely browned.

*we always have self-rising flour at the house. But this dough is raised with yeast, so you can use all purpose flour. Whatever you have in the cabinet is fine.

Spring Cuppy Cakes

Cupcakes are kind of my thing. If there is one thing in life I *know* I'm good at, it's making cupcakes!

I make them for family and friends, for work and church events, and I even sell them on occasion (read: when I have time). But I almost never make cupcakes for home.

Hubby and I are both the kind of people who will eat one or two pieces of a sweet treat, then we are done. So making an entire batch of cupcakes for the two of us is usually just a lot of waste.

However, hubby requested an actual dessert today and I really wanted one too. I had some of my homemade buttercream leftover from my last cupcake venture (cake ladies always seem to have icing lying around), so I picked up a box of Jiffy yellow cake mix for us.

If you don't know about Jiffy, look for it in your grocery by the cake and muffin mixes. It comes in a small box and is basically half a cake mix - it makes 1 layer of cake or 12 cupcakes. If you can't find it, you can just use half a regular cake mix, or half a recipe of a scratch yellow cake.

The sun is shining and the first 60 degree days we have seen in a while are forecasted for this weekend. The springy weather put me in mind of springy tropical things, so I jazzed up the cake mix to match my mood.

I have two icings listed; this is because hubby and I prefer different toppings on our cupcakes. Hubby likes mounds of rich, meltingly creamy homemade all-butter buttercream; and that is the frosting I'm known for. But my personal preference is a thin layer of strongly-flavored glaze. You can certainly make both types, but if you prefer one over the other, just double the icing recipe you like best and make them all the same.

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did!

Tropical Cupcakes
1 box Jiffy yellow cake mix
1 egg
1/4 cup crushed pineapple, with juice
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup flaked/shredded coconut

Combine everything except coconut in a bowl and mix for 2 minutes with a hand mixer. Stir in coconut until combined.

Line a muffin tin with cupcake liners. Divide the batter equally among the twelve liners. Bake 15-20 minutes - a toothpick inserted in the center should come out dry. Cool completely.

Lemon Glaze (my favorite)
Juice and zest of half a lemon
1-1.5 cups Of powdered sugar

Zest lemon into a bowl and squeeze in the juice. Add a cup of powdered sugar and stir until smooth. You want a glaze that is slightly thick, but easily pourable; the texture is nearly identical to that of milk/white gravy. Add more sugar if needed to thicken it (some lemons are juicier than others, so the amount of sugar needed will vary from lemon to lemon).

Spoon over cooled cupcakes and let dry. It will get a smooth glossy layer on top.

Lemon Buttercream (Hubby's favorite)
1.5 cups buttercream frosting*
Juice and zest of half a lemon
Powdered sugar

Stir together the frosting, lemon juice and lemon zest. This will thin out the frosting, so stir in powdered sugar a little at a time until it is back to its normal thickness.

Spread it on with a butter knife or pile it into a gallon zippy bag, snip off the corner, and pipe it on.

*you can use whatever vanilla frosting you have on hand. If you want to make your own buttercream, check out the basic recipe at www.wilton.com It has never failed me.

Rustic (and fast) Dinner

Tonight's rustic dinner is the result of strong cravings on my behalf, no doubt inspired by the cold rainy/snowy weather we're having tonight. And I did the grocery shopping after work, so a delicious filling dinner really hit the spot after a long day.

What you see on the plate is the breast and wing of a roasted chicken (check the labels - some stores really do cook then like you would, with no weird ingredients), roasted broccoli and cauliflower, cheesy garlic toast and marinara for dipping. Oh my yum this was good! And I have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

The chicken was store bought, so I just cut it up. I dug the frozen veggies out of the trunk as soon as I got home, tossed them with some EVOO and house seasoning and let them roast at 450 oven while we carried in the rest of the groceries and put them away. As soon as they brown around the edges, they are done.

And yes, you read it right, the veggies were frozen. You CAN roast frozen veggies. They aren't quite as tasty as fresh, but they are still soooo yummy and if prep stands between you and roasted veggies...buy frozen!

A few minutes before the veggies were done, I popped in the bread (garlic oil and shredded cheese - whatever is in the fridge is fine) and let the cheese get toasty.

That's it!! Here's to grocery night dinners!

House seasoning

I refer to house seasoning a lot in my recipes and posts, probably because I use it a lot! It has pretty much replaced plain salt/pepper in most all of my cooking and its good on everything. Meat, fish, veggies, you name it. If salt and pepper is good on it, house seasoning is better on it.

I cannot take credit for this one. I discovered it a few years ago in a Paula Deen cookbook. It's just 4 parts salt, one part ground black pepper, and one part garlic powder. Mix it up, put it in a container in the cabinet, and use it wherever you would use salt and pepper. It will keep for as long as the garlic keeps - but we've never had one get stale.

You can use any salt you want, I suppose. We've tried it with several types, and table salt is my favorite, mostly because it stays mixed up better and tends not to settle. If you make it with a larger salt like Kosher or flake, remember to shake it up before each use.

Green Scrambles

Green smoothies have been popular for ages now. But do you know what I'm into? Green scrambles! They are fast, filling, high in protein and most importantly: absolutely delicious!!

I used to make these with fresh spinach all the time. But last week my grocery store was out of fresh spinach - I think they actually pulled it off the shelves due to the recall - but either way, I got a bag of frozen chopped spinach instead.

Wow! Frozen chopped spinach is every bit as delicious as fresh, but it is super-easy to work with and won't go bad. So I have a new favorite!!

Below is the recipe I've been using for my morning scramble. Hubby does not share my love of greens, so this is a recipe for one. And it's fast! I let it cook while I'm packing the rest of my lunch, then I pop it in a to-go bowl and leave for the day. It reheats well, too.

Mushroom & Spinach Scramble

2 large button mushrooms, or 3-4 small ones
1 pat of butter
1tsp EVOO
2-3 cup frozen chopped spinach
House seasoning
2 eggs
Cheese (optional)

Rinse and finely dice the mushrooms. Cook mushrooms over medium-high heat in the butter and oil until they just start to change color, stirring occasionally. Add in the spinach and house seasoning (to taste) and cook until it is heated through and any liquid is cooked off. Crack the eggs into the pan and stir constantly until cooked through (this won't take long since the pan is hot). Top with cheese, if desired.

Long time...

Yesterday was the worst day I've had in as long as I can remember.  Hubby and I chat on the phone on our drives home and I mentioned to him how much I wanted a chocolate croissant...and how unfortunate it was that all the bakeries are closed in the evenings.

Guess what?!  He went to the grocery on the way home and picked up a box of croissants and a ginormous Hershey's bar so we could "improvise".

Gotta say, the improvisation was *amazing* and exactly what I wanted!  I cut a slit in the fat side of the croissants, stuffed two squares of chocolate inside and baked at 400 until they were crisp on the outside and the chocolate was melted on the inside. 

PERFECTION!!!