May 31, 2010
Ingredients:
Peel Eggs and Place in Bowl. Add as small a squirt of mustard as possible and a few shakes of seasonings. Top with a few scoops of Mayonnaise and mash together with a fork. Add additional Mayonnaise until desired consistancy is reached. After placing mixture on sandwich bread, I always like to top it off with Sour Cream and Onion Potato Chips to give it a little crunch, but that is up to you!
May 31, 2010
Ingredients:
Put eggs on a slow boil for 15 minutes and let sit covered 5 minutes. Cool eggs in cold water. Peel eggs and slice in half longways. Put yolks in a bowl and add a dash of each of the remaining ingredients. Blend with a hand blender and add Mayonnaise until mixture reaches desired consistancy. Return mixture to whites and sprinkle with Paprika.
May 30, 2010
Here is my mayonnaise recipe. Unlike the many other proponents of homemade mayonnaise, I found it to be rather like regular, commercial mayonnaise. Matt did not find it any more appetizing either. I am still posting it, though, because I believe everyone should try making their own mayonnaise at least once…and maybe someday, you will run out of mayonnaise at a juncture when you can’t just run to the store!
Ingridients:
Combine the yolks, salt, and lemon juice/vinegar. Whisk until smooth and light. Add oil a little at a time (no more than a tablespoon) and whisk until fully blended. I noticed that many recipes called for special oil adding tools so that you could add a continuous small stream and people warned that if you didn’t do it their special way, you would end up with an oily, lumpy mess, but it didn’t happen. Just add the oil a little at a time and whisk thoroughly. If it is too thick, add a little water. If it is too thin, whisk more and add a little more oil.
May 30, 2010
I have never had another kind of potato salad that I liked, probably because most had ‘crunchies,’ which I don’t like. My husband does not like pickles. Growing up, he also believed he did not like potato salad, although his mother assured him there were no pickles in it. He only discovered after we had been married for two years that, not only did he like my potato salad, but his mother had been putting pickle juice in hers all those years! I have brought this potato salad to every pot luck and BBQ I have ever attended and it has never failed that at least one person has asked for the recipe. I tried to find the origins of potato salad and reports vary wildly; however, it appears that my recipe is a cross-breed between German and American versions.
Ingredients:
Hard boil eggs (slowly bring to a boil, turn down and simmer 15 minutes, remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes, drain and fill pan with cool water, let sit until eggs are cooled). Peel and quarter potatoes. Boil until soft enough to spear with a fork (about 15 minutes). Blend liquids and spices in large bowl. Drain potatoes and add to liquid/spice mixture. Peels eggs. Slice 4 eggs in three directions and add to mixture. Stir well. Even out surface with a spoon. Slice the last egg in only one direction and arrange slices along the top. Shake a small amount of paprika over the top. Can be served still warm (YUM) but keep refrigerated.
May 30, 2010
There is so much more you can do with eggs that fry them or hide them in baked goods. This week, in addition to some egg-stra special egg recipes, I have a few facts for you. It all started with my husband (don’t these things always? j/k). He doesn’t like mayonnaise and I found that many people who don’t like commercial mayo enjoy homemade mayo (my perfected homemade mayonnaise recipe soon to follow). Several hours later, you find me surfing the net looking up the official name of the whites (albumen). Here is some other interesting information about eggs (Bakers will be especially interested in the last three):
Egg Recipes:
May 29, 2010
Doesn’t take much more work than regular nachos. Less mess to serve. Also fun as a party appetizer. A family favorite!
Ingredients:
In frying pan, combine ground beef and taco seasoning (an arbitrary amount according to your taste buds) and brown beef. Set out individual chips in rows on a cookie sheet (we fit about 30). Add a small amount of beef to each chip. Next add a small amount of beans and top generously with cheddar cheese. Turn oven on broil and put in the oven until cheese is melted. Remove from oven and top with sour cream, chunks of avocado and salsa. Use your own favorite nacho toppings!
May 28, 2010
Ingredients:
Put noodles on to boil. Put scallops in a Ziploc bag with flour, salt, pepper, and basil. Shake until coated. Heat olive oil in small frying pan and fry scallops until cooked through (cut in half with spatula to verify complete change in opacity), turning regularly. In another pan, sautee mushrooms in garlic salt and margarine. Meanwhile, heat margarine in saucepan with thyme, salt, pepper, bay leaf, garlic, basil, diced tomato, and Parmesan. Stir until blended. Drain noodles. Combine noodles, mushrooms, scallops, mushrooms, and sauce.
May 27, 2010
Ingredients:
This recipe can be made on the stove or in the crock pot. Watch for distinction in directions. Sautee onion and bell pepper in tomato paste in fry pan for crock pot or large stew pot for stove. Move to crock pot if cooking that way. Add chicken, diced tomato, bouillon, salt and pepper to taste, a dash of thyme, and water (less than one cup for crock pot, 1-2 cups on stove). Don’t add too much water–remember, the diced tomato were canned in water and you don’t want it to taste too watery. Simmer (1.5-2 hrs on the stove or >6 hrs in the crock pot), stirring occasionally and watching viscosity. During the last 30-60 minutes, peel plantains by chopping off the ends, slicing down the side (just through the skin), and removing the skin. Slice at an angle to make elongated pieces about a thumb joint thick. Heat vegetable oil in frying pan. Place plantain pieces in oil not touching. Turn when the bottoms are light to golden brown. Remove after the other side has reached a similar color and place on a napkin-lined plate to absorb excess oil. Add plantains to stew and cook for a minimum of 10 additional minutes. Cook rice according to instructions. Serve with stew over rice.
May 27, 2010
Cake Ingredients:
processor but if, like me, you don’t have one you can use the really poky part of the cheese grater–not the shredding part…I actually used my special potato grater that I use for potato pancakes and that gave it a great texture but my hands were orange and raw by the time I was done…oh, and use the fattest carrots you can find to speed up the process)Frosting Ingredients:
Preheat oven to 350*F. Grease and flour two 8 in round pans. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and vanilla. Mix in baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Slowly add flour. Stir in carrots and pecans. Distribute batter equally between the two pans. Bake 40-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool. Meanwhile blend margarine, cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla for frosting. Put aside two small bowlfuls for orange and green frosting and chill the remainder in the refrigerator. Use food dye to dye one bowlful green and the other bowlful orange. Place these bowls of frosting in the refrigerator as well. When cakes have cooled, remove from pans and frost cake generously. Press remaining 
pecans into the frosting on the sides of the cake and use orange and green frosting to make carrots (I watched this video from allrecipes.com to learn how). Keep refrigerated and enjoy!
May 26, 2010
Ingredients:
Chicken Parmageane pictured with squash and steamed broccoli
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Put flour in one bowl; egg, milk, salt & pepper, and paprika in another (blend well); and bread crumbs and Parmesan in another (1:1 ratio). Coat each chicken tender first in flour, than in egg mixture, and finally in bread crumb mixture. Lay coated tenders on a greased cookie sheet or in a greased casserole dish. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour (cut into the largest piece of chicken to see if it is thoroughly cooked). Spoon spaghetti sauce over each piece of chicken and sprinkle over mozzarella. Return to cooling oven until cheese is melted.
