Posted by terrepruitt on September 24, 2021
Ahhhh today’s Friday Photo was last night’s dinner. Just a simple frittata with leeks, potatoes, green bell peppers, and cheese. I basically use the recipe in my Eggcellent Dinner post for all my fritattas changing the add-ins and number of eggs. We have leftovers now. YAY! Ha, turns out I have posted a frittata for a Friday Photo before, but now I have a pan that can go in the oven, so it is more frittata-y.
Posted in Food, Friday Photo | Tagged: anything goes, easy dinner, Eggs, Friday Photo, frittata | 5 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on June 14, 2021
You may have seen this recipe as it was in the Costco magazine. I was telling my friend that I made potato pie and when I said the actual name she said she had seen it. It was good. I will do it again. When I first saw the recipe I hadn’t read the amount of oil. When I went to make it I decided I was not going to use that much. I used less, but still it was too much, in my opinion. I don’t need the potatoes soaking in oil. It says to use a slotted spoon to remove them from the pan . . . I did that plus I set them on a paper towel to drain a bit before I put them in the eggs. I also used garlic salt, of course.
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Potato Omelette
6 medium gold potatoes
1 large onion
1 1/2 cups olive oil
Garlic salt
10 eggs
Peel the potatoes then slice them into 1/8 inch rounds, then quarter the rounds. (After peeling the onion) cut the onion into 1/8 inch rounds, then cut the slices in half.
In a large skillet heat the oil, then cook the potatoes until tender, turning them as necessary, then add the onions. As they are cooking sprinkle with garlic salt.
In a large bowl (large enough to hold all ten eggs AND the potatoes) beat the eggs adding salt as desired. Then using a slotted spoon add the potatoes. If you want, you can do as I did and let the potatoes drain a bit on a paper towel. Mix the potatoes in with the eggs and let sit 3 to 4 minutes.
In an 8 inch nonstick skillet heat about 1 tbsp. oil (I used the potato oil) over medium heat. Coat the pan with the oil then pour half of the potato mixture in the pan and cook until the edges are done. Then place a plate – bigger than the pan if you have it – over the pan and flip the egg-potatoes onto the plate then slide it back into the pan to cook the uncooked side. Do the same with the remaining egg potato mixture.
Serve in slices.
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The recipe said it serves 10. Personally when I eat eggs . . . especially if it is my meal, I eat more than one egg. This was two meals for us.
Next time I make it I will use WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY less oil to cook the potatoes (WAY LESS!!) and I will use half the ingredients making one “Tortilla Espanola” instead of two. It was really good though. I do think the oil soaked potatoes helped make it really rich and filling.
And I was so intent on making the darn thing I didn’t take pictures along the way . . . so what else it knew.
I think this can be served with anything you eat eggs with. You could top it with salsa and/or sour cream and/or guacamole and/or cheese. You could throw some greens on top of it or even meat. It is eggs and potatoes so it is VERY versatile.
Looking forward to making it again.
What do you think?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: Costco, Eggs, omelette, Potato Omelette, Tortilla Espanola | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on February 10, 2020
Twice in the past few days I have had the conversation about how coming up with dinner ideas is a challenge. I understand this is one reason why people have dinner services deliver. Unless you have a box meal delivered every single day that still doesn’t completely alleviate the having-to-come-up-with-ideas-for-dinner. As you know if you have looked at any of my “recipes” I sometimes just throw stuff together. It doesn’t even always have to “make sense”. After making Taco Pie and Enchilada Chicken, I used the leftover sauce as sauce for our tortellini . . . . yup, that works. Sometimes you might feel like something particular but you might have to cobble it together using the ingredients on hand. There are a few things that make for easy make-up meals, in my opinion, one is ground turkey – throw anything in with it and you have an entree. Pasta is another easy meal, it can be topped with anything or nothing. And eggs are another thing you can throw anything into to make a meal. Here is an easy breakfast-for-dinner-scramble in case you don’t want to think about what to make for dinner.
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Chicken, Potato, And Bell Pepper Scramble
two or three potatoes (depending on size)*
olive oil (3 tablespoons +/-)
season salt
can of chicken
1/2 of an onion
salt
garlic powder
5 or 6 eggs
milk (1/4 c +/-)
butter (2 tablespoons +/-)
one bell pepper
Preheat oven to 450°. Wash the potatoes, if you like your potatoes peeled you can do that. Cut the potatoes into small chunks. Place them on a baking sheet. Sprinkle potatoes with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and season salt (or whatever seasoning you prefer). Place in the oven to roast. After about 10 minutes take them out and toss them around. Then place back in the oven. Roast the potatoes until done to your liking . . . tossing them around occasionally for even roasting.
You can pan fry/roast the potatoes if you like. Heat the oil in a pan, then add potatoes and seasoning and cooking until done.
I like to use the oven because while the potatoes are roasting, I can be preparing the chicken and eggs.
Chop the onion. Chop the bell pepper. Heat up 1 tablespoon (+/-) olive oil. Add the onion and cook it.
While the onion is cooking crack the eggs into a bowl, add a little milk, salt, and garlic powder (and, of course, any seasoning you want). Scramble the eggs, mixing until frothy.
When the onion is cooked add the chicken to the pan sprinkle with garlic powder. Warm the chicken up, it doesn’t take long because it is already cooked so you don’t want to let it cook too long because it dries out.
Add butter to your pan – or use another pan, or remove the chicken for adding back later – once the butter is melted pour in your eggs, keeping them separate from the chicken. I like my scrambled eggs WELL COOKED so I let them cook a bit before I mix in the chicken. Once the eggs look almost cooked I add the potatoes. I DO NOT like my bell pepper cooked so I add it at the very last minute . . . cooking it long enough to just warm up.
Mix it all together and serve.
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*I have seen russet potatoes that seem like they are two or three, but then red potatoes are little so you might want to use three or four . . . you want to end up with about 2 cups cooked potato. You decide, if you are not a big potato fan use less, if you LOVE potatoes, use more.
I usually cook this for dinner, but some people might consider it strictly a breakfast item. I sometimes have left overs of it for lunch . . . so if you like it, eat it anytime you would like.
Oooooh, one might even add cheese . . . . .
Do you like scrambles?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: bell pepper, chicken, easy dinner, Eggs, garlic, potatoes, roasted potatoes, scramble, scrambled eggs | 2 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on April 10, 2019
I am not sure if I have said this before in other posts, but for 38 years of my life I did not really care for Greek Food. I was not a fan of tomatoes and it seemed like there was a lot of tomatoes in the Greek food here. When I went to Greece my mind was changed. There wasn’t tomatoes in everything and I liked the way they cooked their food. Although I still believed I didn’t like Greek Lemon Soup. I am not a fan of the lemon flavor for the most part so I never tried it. When there was opportunities to try it there was always either rice, celery, or carrots in the soup in some combination. I do not like rice in soup and I am not a fan of water-laden carrots. I do not like celery. One day we were at a local restaurant and my husband ordered the Greek Lemon Soup. Even though he “doesn’t share food” he let me have a spoonful – it was delicious. It was simple, just chicken and pasta! Ahhhh . . . . I found some Avgolemono I liked! So I decided to make some. I found a lot of recipes online with celery and carrots and rice in some combination, so I didn’t look past the ingredients. I wasn’t finding one to use. I knew I wanted to use pasta. I had purchased some orzo online with the sole purpose of making Avgolemono, but I hadn’t planned on making it the night I ended up making it. I did not make a special trip to the store for ingredients. So I made the soup with what I had on hand, which was a limited number of eggs and canned chicken. Just to put it out there, there is NO CELERY, NO CARROTS, and NO RICE in this soup.
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Avgolemono – My Way
–1 tablespoon olive oil
–1/4 onion
–two cans of chicken (a little over 3 cups)
–garlic salt
–2 tablespoons butter
–3/4 cup orzo (going forward 1 cup)
–8 cups chicken broth
–7 eggs
–4 lemons / 3/4 cups lemon juice (more if you like it really lemony)
Juice the lemons. Set aside. (Zest one if you want some zest for garnish.)
Chop the onion. Heat the olive oil in a pan. Cook the onion then add the chicken to the pan to heat it up a bit*. Sprinkle some garlic salt on chicken while stirring.
In a large pot, melt the butter, then add the orzo to toast it. Add the chicken broth to the orzo. Bring to a boil. Then let simmer.
While the orzo is cooking in the broth mix the eggs together with a hand mixer. Mix the eggs at least 3 minutes on low allowing a lot of air to get into them making them frothy. After the “at least 3 minutes,” add the lemon juice slowly while mixing the eggs.
Once the orzo is cooked (about 15 minutes – test to verify) add the egg mixture to the broth BUT not all at once. Put a little bit of broth into the eggs while mixing. Keep adding broth a little at a time to slowly bring the eggs up to the temperature of the broth. Once the eggs are tempered add the mixture to the broth. Stir the egg mixture and broth together. Once it is all incorporated add in the chicken. Mix it all together. Then taste. Is it lemony enough for you? If not add more lemon juice. Or add some lemon zest as garish to each bowl – this gives it an extra zing!
*if using raw chicken cook it thoroughly
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I had typed this up to use as my recipe to make the soup. I figured I would need to play with it a lot in order to get it to what I was looking for, but nope. THIS. IS. IT. Oh, except I will use more orzo . . . perhaps a cup maybe more. But I really think that the orzo is all that I will adjust.
Originally I wrote the recipe with salt and pepper as ingredients, but I did not add any additional salt besides the garlic salt. And my husband added pepper to his bowl, but said it did not really add anything to the soup so he would not be using it, so I didn’t even try.
I am going to check in with my uncle who, I am told, makes Avgolemono all the time. I want to know what he does. Although, my husband and I really loved this and so for the most part I will probably just stick to this. But sometimes it is nice to try things a little differently so that is ALWAYS an option.
How about you? Do you like Avgolemono? Have you found a place that serves one you like? Do you make it? How do you make it?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: Avgolemono, canned chicken, carrots, celery, chicken and pasta, chicken broth, Eggs, Greece, Greek food, Greek Lemon Soup, lemon flavor, lemon juice, orzo, rice, tempered eggs, Tomatoes | 10 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on August 15, 2016
I love eggs. But I only like scrambled eggs. I don’t like them any other way. NO OTHER WAY. Not fried, not hard boiled, not soft boiled, not poached, nothing! My hubby likes them different ways. He even likes hard boiled eggs. He is famous for his deviled eggs. One reason he is famous for his deviled eggs is that he has been working to perfect them. Ya know . . . he has worked to find a way to make them come out really well. A while back I had heard about people baking the eggs INSTEAD of boiling them. For years I kept saying, “I’m gonna try that.” I had a friend, my chef friend I often mention on my blog, who did an experiment on hard “boiled” eggs. I forgot exactly all that she did, but baking them was included in the test. She concluded that baking them didn’t make them easier to peel. This encouraged me to put off trying the baking method. Then one day my husband came home with a new idea, he was going to bake his eggs. <sigh> Then, HE never did. But he, like me, kept saying he was going to. One day I just threw some eggs in the oven. I used a muffin tin . . . but you might know from Muffin Tin Eggs post that I don’t have a TIN, I have the silicone kind. It worked. My husband liked them. And that is all it took. Sometimes it just takes someone . . . even if it is not you . . . to take the first step. After I made them in the oven and they came out well and my husband liked them, he decided to try it. But his method is a little different. I asked him to take pictures for me so that I could post about it on my blog for you. So here is my husband’s method for making hard “boiled” eggs.
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Hard “Boiled” Baked Eggs:
As many eggs as you want (that is the beauty of this method, you can do as many as will fit on a towel in your oven)
a dish towel
a bowl big enough to hold ice, water, and ALL the eggs
ice
water
timer
If you are making hard boiled eggs for deviled eggs you might want to turn the eggs on their sides for at least 24 hours. This helps center the yolk so you will have a nicely centered cavity to fill.
Preheat the oven to 325°. Wet the dish towel, ring it out. Then spread the towel out over the oven rack. Place your eggs on the oven rack. Allow for space between the eggs. Then bake them for 30 minutes. When the timer goes off, open the oven door and leave the eggs in there for 5 minutes.
Fill the bowl with ice and water.
You will notice the egg shells have spots on them. I have not researched this and I don’t know why that happens, but don’t fear my husband said that you can’t really see them on the outside of the egg. He said you have to actually look for the spots to even notice them. He calls them “heat freckles”.
After the five minutes with the door open, VERY CAREFULLY gather up the corners and edges of the towel (using oven mitts if necessary) holding the eggs. Then wet the towel and eggs. Then rinse each egg and put it in the bowl filled with ice and water. Let the eggs sit for 30 minutes.
Then dry off the eggs and store them. Or eat them. Or make them into deviled eggs.
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My husband took pictures of every step. He wanted to show you how nicely these eggs peel. He has had better results, as in easy to peel and quick to peel, with this method than his boiling method. The results are better as are the number of easy to peel eggs. Sometimes there is a difficult one or two, but for the most part they peel easy.
I believe he originally saw the wet towel method from Alton Brown. But, as I said, my husband has been working to perfect the deviled egg and he has found that this method of making hard boiled eggs is the easiest because you can easily cook more than a dozen at a time. And they peel really well.
Do you have preferred method to make hard boiled eggs? Any tricks or tips?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: Alton Brown, baked eggs, boiling eggs, deviled eggs, easy to peel, Eggs, eggtainer, fried eggs, hard boiled eggs, muffin tine, poached eggs, scrambled eggs | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on March 25, 2016
So yummy. My friend posted on Facebook that she had to explain to her child that the Cauliflower Cake she made for dinner was a savory CAKE, not like a birthday cake. She said it was a recipe from Ottolenghi. Of course I Googled it and I was intrigued. Then I noticed that a head of cauliflower was to be delivered in our produce box so I thought, ok. 
The challenge according to the posted recipe was finding the nigella seeds, but I think Amazon meets each and every challenge with a “pppprrrruuuuuf”. I ordered both the white sesame seeds and nigella seeds online and had them before my scheduled produce delivery. The recipe noted you can use black sesame, black cumin, or onion seeds instead of the nigella/black caraway seeds.
I altered this recipe because I used the head of cauliflower I had and did not specifically shop for a small one as the recipe called for. I also could not bring myself to use the 5 (FIVE) tablespoons of olive oil that the recipe called for. I put two in the pan and almost stopped there, but decided to go with three . . . which I think was PLENTY!
I don’t like biting into rosemary stems so I had my husband grind them. He used a mortar and pestle and he does an excellent job making them fine and powdery! I also used SHAVED cheese instead of shredded Parmesan, and it was actually a Parmesan/Romano blend. I like how there is more cheese in a bite that way . . . but I am sure either is fine. The recipe called for unsalted butter, which I bought once for a recipe a long time ago and will not be doing that again. So I used regular butter.
Since I use my blog as my recipe book I put my ideas for next time I make this in the recipe below in asterisked italics. That way I don’t have to continue to scroll down to check what I want to do different and I won’t forget because it will be right there.)
This is what I did, which is an adaptation of Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe I found on thekitchn.com
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Savory Cauliflower Cake
(Serves 4 to 6)
1 cauliflower head, cut into pieces (not small pieces, about an inch big)
1 medium red onion
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon rosemary leaves (which I had my hubby grind up for me)
7 large eggs
1/2 cup basil leaves, chopped **use more**
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 teaspoon (heaping) ground turmeric **1/2 to 1 teaspoon**
1 1/2 cups shaved Parmesan or Parmesan/Romano
Melted butter, for brushing the sides of the pan
1 tablespoon white sesame seeds
1 teaspoon nigella seeds (also known as black caraway)
1 1/2 teaspoon salt **to 2 teaspoon**
black pepper (to taste)
9 1/2 springform pan (or a 9-inch cake pan or even an 8-inch square pan)
Preheat the oven to 450°F. (The original recipe called for 400° F, I mistakenly did it at 450° which requires less time . . . .so I think I will stick to 450° F and bake it for less time.)
Place the cauliflower florets in a saucepan and add 1 teaspoon salt. Cover with water and cook until the florets are quite soft. They should break when pressed with a fork. (But don’t break them up.) Drain and set aside while preparing the rest of the ingredients (whatever you didn’t get done while the cauliflower was cooking).
Peel the onion, then cut 3 slices, almost 1/4-inch/5-mm thick, off one end. Set the onion rings aside.
Heat up the 3 tablespoons of oil in a small pan.
Coarsely chop the remaining onion and cook it in the oil with the rosemary, stirring as necessary. Cook it until the onion is soft. When done remove from heat and set aside.
While the onion is cooking you can line the bottom and sides of the springform pan or your chosen baking dish with parchment paper. Then use the melted butter to butter the paper in the pan, the sides and the bottom. In the 9 1/2 inch springform the mixture does not go all the way up to the top so you only need to butter about halfway up. Mix the white sesame seeds and the nigella seeds together. Then sprinkle the seed mixture on the sides of the pan. **USE ALL THE SEEDS! Perhaps even putting them on the bottom of the pan.**
While your onions are cooling, break the 7 eggs into a large bowl and whisk well. Add the basil and whisk. Add the cooked onion and rosemary mixture to the eggs. Whisking and stirring. Then stir in the flour, baking powder, turmeric, 1 1/2 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Stir until all ingredients are mixed well. Then mix in the Parmesan. Then add the cooked cauliflower. Don’t stir too much that you break up all the flowerets into little pieces, but mix it enough so that it is all mixed together.
Pour the egg and cauliflower mixture into the pan. Spreading it evenly, then put the onion rings on top. **Sprinkle some seeds on top** Place in the center of the oven and bake for 30 to 40 minutes. Bake it until golden brown. Check complete doneness by inserting a knife into the center. It is done when the knife comes out clean. Remove from the oven and serve to your liking, hot, warm, or cold.
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I ate on this for a few days. I can’t wait to make it again with my extra **tweaks. I really like it. I thought it was super yummy. You can use it as the main dish or a side and serve it with a salad and something meaty. It could be breakfast, lunch, or dinner. It is yummy!
Well, what do you think?
Posted in "Recipes", Food | Tagged: altered recipe, Amazon shopping, black caraway seeds, black cumin, black sesame, breakfast cake, cake, cauliflower, dinner cake, Eggs, Facebook post, lunch cake, nigella seeds, onion seeds, Parmesan cheese, rosemary, savory cake, white sesame seeds | 6 Comments »
Posted by terrepruitt on May 31, 2012
When I was looking up information for my post about the RoundUp Ready seeds I came across an article that states that the RoundUp Ready crops are also destroying the flora in our guts. I don’t know if that is really scientifically sound, but it makes sense at first glance right? Or it makes sense that all of the crops that we consume that have been sprayed with RoundUp might start killing off the flora in our bodies. I mean let’s talk about how much RoundUp Ready crops that have been sprayed with RoundUp actually end up in our body. I am not talking exact numbers because I can’t do that, but let’s just look at some things here.
First let me remind you about the crops that are genetically engineered: soy, alfalfa, corn, rapeseed (AKA the “canola”), and the sugar beets have all been engineered to withstand an herbicide. With that in mind let’s go through the diet for a day in a hypothetical person;
Eggs, toast with butter, and milk for breakfast. Eggs that were hatched from a corn fed chicken, bread that probably has some sort of soy product in it, butter (for the toast) and milk from a cow that was fed corn. So even though breakfast did not contain any of the actual things on the list of RoundUp ready crops, they were consumed via the food eaten.
Popcorn for a snack. Corn is a genetically engineered crop.
Sandwich and tortilla chips for lunch. Bread again, with some sort of soy product in it, mayonnaise with corn fed eggs and probably soy oil, cheese from corn fed or alfalfa fed cows. Tortilla chips made with corn probably fried in soybean oil or the highly touted “healthy” Canola oil.
Dinner might consist of chicken or beef — both corn fed. A salad probably topped with a dressing containing Canola oil.
It seems as if we might be consuming a lot of 1) genetically engineered food and 2) a lot of residual herbicide. I just thought that the article was interesting because as I read the title it occurred to me how many different probiotic products I have seen within the past few years. I have always been taught to eat the yogurt with the live cultures because it was good for you. It was especially emphasized when taking an antibiotic, but now-a-days you can’t open a magazine or watch TV without seeing at least one advertisement for a probiotic. There are a lot out there. I have some probiotic supplements myself. (I forget to take them, but I have them.) I am just wondering if the sudden need for probiotics has to do with the genetically engineered food supply.
I had always thought it had more to do with the idea that a huge portion of the population does not get enough dietary fiber. I think that has a link to highly processed foods. Which when you think about it most of the highly processed foods are made from the corn, the soy, and the canola (FKA genetically engineered rapeseed). So there could be a link. I think our food and the nation’s health is connected. Not sure if genetically engineered crops are killing off our gut flora, but it is something to think about.
What do you think? Do you think that we could be destroying our gut flora? Do you think there is a link between that and all the probiotic products?
Posted in Food | Tagged: alfalfa, antibiotic, canola, Canola Oil, Corn, corn fed chicken, dietary fiber, Eggs, genetically engineered, gut flora, herbicide, highly processed foods, live cultures, probiotic products, rapeseed, RoundUp Ready seeds, soy, sugarbeets, yogurt | Leave a Comment »
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