Egg Salad

It’s Wednesday Casserole day. So why am I telling you about egg salad. Let’s use our imagination and pretend this is a cold casserole. Could be, couldn’t it? I mean, who wants to eat a casserole in this hot weather? Okay, I would. What won’t I eat is more the question.

Boil those eggs. Depending on how many you are going to feed will depend on the amount. It’s just my husband and me, but he LOVES egg salad. He tells the story of how he grew up on egg salad, that they were poor and ate egg salad all the time. I would think you’d hate egg salad if that’s all you ate growing up.

I usually boil at least 6 eggs. I found a trick peeling eggs. After you’ve boiled them, run cold water over them. Take the egg and roll it so that the shell cracks and keep it in the water for at least an hour. Then peel your eggs.

Chop them up. Add enough mayonnaise (I use Miracle Whip) to moisten the eggs, along with some pickle relish and salt and pepper, according to your taste.

Pile it on the bread and dig in. Something that would be good on it is a sliced home grown tomato. Mmmmm.

Ingredients:
Eggs
Mayonnaise
Pickle relish

Rating & Type: EE/V

Chicken Mushroom Spaghetti

For my Tempting Tuesday dish I wasn’t sure how tempting it was going to be, but it turned out pretty good.

I had some left over portabella mushrooms and wondered what I could do with them. Since we hadn’t had a pasta dish lately, I figured I could sauté the mushrooms and add them to the noodles and we’d be good to go. However, the only kind of noodles I had was spaghetti noodles.

I decided I needed to make more of a sauce and if I was going to do that, then I need to add some chicken to the mix.

I cooked up the chicken in some butter, added the mushrooms. I made a basic white sauce that is in a lot of recipes on this blog – shrimpy noodles or beef potato casserole or cod in cream sauce to name a few.

I added about ½ cup or so of parmesan cheese, then combined it with the chicken and mushrooms. After the noodles cooked, I added those and called it chicken mushroom spaghetti. I need to be more creative with my made up recipes, but hey you at least know what you’re getting, yes?

Ingredients:
Chicken
Mushrooms
Noodles

Rating & Type: EE/C

Fontina Cheese

It’s Monday’s Comfort Food. Nothing says comfort like cheese and bread, but this dish will knock your socks off.

It comes from the same cookbook where I got those Fleur de Sel caramels that will put you into a coma because you want to eat too many. I’m pretty sure you might want to pick up Barefoot Contessa, how easy is that? by Ina Garten.

My daughter Jessica had been wanting to learn a few cooking tips from her momma, but she’s always busy. However, she was home when I decided to make this dish and since she’s a vegetarian, it was right up her alley.

It’s so simple… easy, just like the book title says, that she could even do it, and she did, mostly. She bought the cheese, cut it up in cubes, put it in the pan. I drizzled the olive oil over it and sprinkled the rosemary, thyme, kosher salt and pepper. Jessica could have. Oh, I made the bread too. And I put the pan under the broiler until the cheese melted and started to brown. I also dropped the pan on the floor, screamed and Jessica came running thinking I hurt myself. Guess I should have let her do it all.

Just a tip, you might want to wear oven mitts on both of your hands in the event your one hand isn’t quite capable of holding the heavy pan and it starts to turn. If your other hand had a mitt on, it could just grab it. I at least had enough sense not to grab the just-out-of-the-oven pan with hot sizzling cheese with my bare hand. In slow motion the cheese slid out of the pan and plopped onto the floor. I grabbed a spatula and scooped it back into the pan. I had just swept the floor, so I didn’t think it would hurt.

Here’s the end result.

It would’ve looked prettier had I not dumped half of it onto the floor. It didn’t seem to have any affect on the taste as Jessica and I gobbled up as much as we could, which was about half. When my husband got home, he ate the other half. And yeah, I told him I had dropped it on the floor. And it was so good that I wouldn’t have cared if I had pulled out a cat hair from my mouth.

Ingredients:
Italian Fontina Cheese
Bread
Spices

Rating & Type: EE/V

Popcorn Sunday and Renee

Renee (pronounced REE-NEE), an elderly neighbor that lived near me when I was a single parent renting my best friend’s house, who lucky for me was moving and getting remarried as I was moving and divorcing. Renee seemed like she could have been a Southern lady. She had a bit of a drawl to her voice—okay maybe she was from the hills. I’m not sure. She also reminded me of Gladys—or whatever character that was in some sitcom who was always peeking out her window to see what was going on—maybe that was Bewitched. I always felt safe with Renee around—sometimes a little too safe. But Renee was nothing but good to me and my children. A true sweetheart.

Renee told me that every Sunday she took a break from cooking dinner. She and her husband would eat popcorn, sliced apples and cheese. I always thought that was an interesting combination.

So Renee, this one’s for you!
Pop some popcorn.
Slice up an apple.
Pull out your favorite cheese.
You can’t get much easier than that!

Ingredients:
Popcorn
Apples
Cheese

Rating & Type: EE/V

Sweet Potato Casserole

It's Saturday Side Dish.

I made this dish for Easter one year at my sister’s. I probably won’t ever make it again as the memory behind it shatters my heart. You can read the article I wrote that was published online by Hot Metal Bridge, Pittsburgh University’s literary journal called Sweet Potato Casserole (how clever, eh?)

There are many sweet potato casserole recipes out there and I can’t tell you which are the best. Someone will have to fill me in on that. But you can try the one by my cousin in the Bunco Cookbook. Head on over to Lynn, What’s For Dessert? (Hot Fudge Cake) for info on the Bunco Cookbook.

Ingredients:
Sweet potatoes

Rating & Type: Who knows

Feature Friday—RitaBook Hunt

Rita is my daughter. The baby of my three children. While carrying her in my belly, it was one of the most difficult times in my life, and I’m pretty sure I cried every day. I was sure this baby was going to be depressed and fussy. But surprise, Rita was a bundle of smiles. She’s always been a bright spot in my most gloomy of days. There’s an experience I had with her when she was about three months old where our eyes locked and we spoke soul to soul. It changed my life.

My Rita is one of the sweetest, most loved people. I can’t tell you how many times adults who have worked with her or who have gotten to know her, who meet me for the first time, and the first words that come out of their mouth is, “Oh I just LOVE Rita!” And then it’s followed either by “I wish she were my daughter.” or “We’ve adopted her as part of our family.” or “You’re so lucky.” In deed I am.

This isn’t to say Rita’s perfect as there are folks who don’t care for her or who don’t get along with her—usually those her own age. Or slackers. I’m guessing because deep inside they’re jealous. And if you’ve rubbed Rita the wrong way, you’ll know it. (Just wanted to add that so you don’t think this mother is disillusioned about her children… I love all three and wouldn’t trade them for anything, but I also know their not-so-swell traits—that of which we all have, myself included.

But another one of Rita’s good traits is she’s creative. Out of the box creative. Beats to her own inner creative drum and beats well. She can turn anything into something. That has started her working on her own business called EGABRAG Crafts… I turn your garbage around. Even the name is creative. EGA-BRAG (that’s how you say it), but it is garbage spelled backwards by the way.

Okay so this is about food. Rita isn’t what I call a patient cook. She likes to get it done in a hurry. She’d never stir anything for hours on end. Her slogan would be BING-BAM it’s done MA’AM. Or something to that affect.

Rita brought over Strawberry Shortcake for Father’s Day.

She brought it in canning jars—a little one with cut up strawberries.

A bigger one with the strawberry sauce (recipe to follow) and then a package of shortcakes and whip cream of course.

Here’s some shots of the sauce in the making.


Recipe for Strawberry Sauce in Rita’s own words:
Cut strawberries, at least a cup, about a tablespoon or so of lemon juice, and 3-4 tablespoons agave nectar.
(Can use corn syrup, honey, sugar... depending on health and taste preferences)
Adjust by adding more of the following ingredients until desired taste.
I usually do not measure... ever.
Puree!
Bing Boom Bam! haha ;)
Take the rest of your strawberries and cut them up.
You then take you shortcakes, throw some strawberries on top, pour on the strawberry puree, add a dollop of Cool Whip and enjoy!

You could use this sauce over ice cream. I used the leftovers in a smoothie that I blended with blueberries, ½ banana, OJ, ice and a tad bit of water. It was yum.

Rita also makes a mean macaroon cookie—gluten free and it is delicious. You can check out that recipe in the book, BabyCakes: Vegan, (mostly) Gluten-free, and (mostly) Sugar-free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery by Erin McKenna. Now that has to be one of the longest titles of a cookbook!

Rita works at Café Nura. I went in there one day and ordered the homemade poppyseed scone. Rita asked if I’d like lemon icing to go with it.

“No, I don’t think so.”

“I made it. It’s really good.”

“I don’t’ think I want icing on my scone.”

“Really, you should try it.”

“Okay, fine.” How does a mother refuse her child especially when it comes to food?

This wasn’t what I’d call icing. It was more of a sauce. I spooned some onto the scone and oh my. I was like a dog with a steak dinner. Or a cat with fresh tuna. I dunked the scone in the lemon sauce until it got nice and soggy. I was afraid I’d run out of the sauce before I finished the scone, so I planned to make sure. With a little bit of sauce left, I took the spoon and lapped it up. Had I been home, I’m sure I would’ve licked out the dish! I’m surprised I didn’t ask for more so that I could drink the stuff. I made sure I thanked Rita for talking me into it. That scone wouldn’t have been near as good without the sauce.

Here is her recipe, again in her words:
Lemon Glaze (How about glaze ?)
2 individual butter servings, sugar, and lemon juice
You can use powdered sugar in substitution for sugar.
This too is an adjust to taste, you want a sweet lemon taste. The more sugar you add the thicker it gets. This recipe only makes enough to cover 1 - 2 scones.

My note: It’s one of those sauces that you could probably pour over anything and it’d make whatever you’re eating taste better.

Well, check out Rita’s EGABRAG site, and if you’re in Webster Groves, stop in Café Nura and say hi. She makes a mean latte too. Or check out the Café Nura site, which Rita is helping put together.

And no, I’m not trading her for your child, but I’m willing to share. Oh and one more thing, her clever nickname is RitaBook. Sometimes people don’t get it. Read-A-Book. Did I mention Rita can write too? She’s my little stinker.

BBQ'd Ribs

On Mother’s Day I barbequed ribs. I had bought this package of ribs not realizing there were three slabs in it. Oh well, I froze the leftovers for another meal.

I put these on low on the grill—turned off the middle burners (of 4) so that I wouldn’t have to watch these 24/7—after all it was Mother’s Day and I had other things I wanted to do, like nothing.

The ribs looked like they were getting a little dried out after being on the grill for three hours, so I heated up a stick of butter and some red wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar. I thought I remembered my dad making this mixture when he barbequed chicken. Seems like you could use it for beef too. Only I think I should’ve basted it from the get go. I don’t know if you can revamp already dried up meat. My dad probably sprinkled his bbq with Stagg or Falstaff too!

I had rubbed the ribs with Penzey’s Spices—Galena Street (Rib and Chicken Rub-Traditional Southern style bbq rub).

About an hour before they were ready, I doused them with bbq sauce (Sweet Baby Ray’s is one of my favorites) so that the sauce will cook on. When you eat the ribs, the sauce and the meat will stick to your teeth. It’ll be chewy. Mmmm, nothing better than chewy bbq.

The ends of my ribs were a little dried out—so I’d suggest basting from the get go!

Rating & Type: E/P