Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label recipes. Show all posts

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy birthday, Freyja!

It's hard to believe that this cute little puppy...


...turned into this beautiful dog.


But it's true. 

And we got to celebrate her first birthday yesterday!


First, we opened presents...


Which she's really starting to get the hang of...


And even a dog friendly birthday card. Made of rawhide, of course. 


All in all, three presents and a birthday card... could the day have gotten any better?

Of course... there had to be cake.

The bf took the photo, so I apologize for the blurriness

If I don't get a post out tomorrow, have a happy Easter, everyone!





Sunday, April 17, 2011

Frittata 101

Every Sunday, we try to make a real breakfast. 

Sometimes, the bf cooks, some times I do.

But last weekend, I wanted to do something different than eggs over easy with bacon and toast, which is pretty typical around here.

So I did a little searching for something new... And decided to make a frittata.

I love eggs, but I'm always nervous about under cooking them and doing something like a frittata or a quiche seemed beyond my abilities, but I gave it a go anyway.

And it's super easy. And reheatable. And versatile.

And just to show you, here's my recipe:

Ingredients:

- 8 large eggs
-1/2 cup milk
-salt & pepper
- whatever you want to put in it: meat, veggies, cheese etc.
-1 tbsp olive oil

Method:


1) Scramble your eggs with a whisk


2) Add milk. I used skim this time, but I used left over half & half last week. Turned out great both times.


3) Add cheese if you want to. I usually use about 1/2 cup, but the bf shredded it right into the bowl for me and I'd estimate this is closer to 3/4 cup.


4) Add whatever seasonings you want. I used about 1/2 tsp pepper, 1/4 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp garlic power (not  garlic salt!)

Note: You want to mix the eggs VERY well. Use a whisk to incorporate as much air as you can so your frittata will be very light a fluffy.


5) Heat (on medium) 1 tbsp olive oil in a 12" pan. MAKE SURE it can go in the oven, because you're going to put the whole pan under the broiler at the end.


6) Chop up everything that needs to cook for awhile. I used misc breakfast meats we had on hand and onions. 


7) Toss in pan and cook.



8) Next, chop up any thing that's pre-cooked or doesn't have to cook for very long. I used spinach and mushrooms.


I added the mushrooms when the meat was almost done, just so they'd cook a little bit.


If  you're using spinach, toss it in once everything is done.


It will wilt really, really fast. It only took about 30 seconds.

You're also going to want to turn the broiler on here, so it'll be hot when you put the pan in the oven.


9) Once all the meats/veggies are cooked, toss in the egg/milk/cheese mixture


10) Scramble the mixture. When it's scrambled but still wet (still too raw to eat), even it out and let cook for about two minutes.

The whole point of doing this is to let the bottom set up.


11) Pull the top of the eggs aside with a spatula to check the bottom. It will look more like done scrambled eggs, while the top will still be very wet.

12) Even everything back out and stick the pan under the broiler. You want it about 6 inches away from the broiler. 

Another note: You can top it with more cheese before putting it in the oven if you want to.

13) Broil until top is browned and a knife inserted in the center comes out ALMOST clean. Leaving in the oven until done will result in dry eggs.


14) Let rest for 5 minutes. This will allow the eggs to finish cooking without drying out.


15) Cut into 6-8 slices, serve and enjoy!

Freyja's a little jealous when we make breakfast...


But she's having breakfast with Rocky the Raccoon instead.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Friday, March 25, 2011

Doughnut Muffins and a Sick Day


We've still got snow. Boo.


On Fridays, the bf's office brings brings breakfast to work. Once a month, it's the bf's turn to bring something. Usually, he forgets until the last minute, but luckily, he reminded me yesterday.

With no ideas of what to bring, it was left up to me.

Awhile ago, I saw a blog post for doughnut muffins. But of course, I couldn't remember where I'd seen it.

So I googled. 

And I found this recipe

And they came out amazing and are so delicious:


There were some weird things about the recipe (like weird measurements), so I re-wrote some of it so it makes more sense:

For Muffin

3 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar, plus 1/8 cup of sugar
2 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup heavy cream (whipping cream works too)

For Topping 

1/4 cup butter, more if needed
1 cups sugar
1 tbsp. ground cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a standard muffin pan with muffin cups.

2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and the sugar. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until just mixed in. In another bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Combine the vanilla, milk and heavy cream.

3. With a spoon, mix a quarter of the dry ingredients into the butter mixture. Then mix in a third of the milk mixture. Continue mixing in the remaining dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until well combined and smooth, but don't overmix. 

4. Scoop enough batter into each tin so that the top of the batter is even with the rim of the cup, a little less than  a 1/2 cup. Bake the muffins until firm to the touch, about 25-30 minutes. 

5. To finish, Melt the butter for the dipping mixture in a small bowl. Combine the sugar and cinnamon in another bowl. When the muffins are just cool enough to handle, remove them from the tin, dip them into or brush them all over with the melted butter, and then roll them in the cinnamon sugar.

Some tips:

1. Make sure you alternate wet and dry. The bf made the second batch and didn't know that this meant put in 1/4 dry ingredients, mix, put in 1/3 wet ingredients etc... I had to spend A LOT of time mixing to get the lumps out.

2. The batter is more like a dough than say a traditional muffin or cupcake batter. The recipe didn't note that and I was surprised and thought I might have added too much flour.

3. The recipe only makes 12 muffins. Shocking, but true. I wouldn't double the batch if you're making them by hand (like I did), but you could do this if you have a hand or stand mixer.

4. When you're putting the batter  into the muffin cups, you're going have to use your fingers. And it gets messy. You really do want the muffin cups FULL (I was skeptical too) and to get a smooth muffin top, you'll want to make sure the batter is completely flat. So on the second batch I floured my hands/fingers.

5. You could probably use the toothpick method to test done-ness, but I just touched them to test 
done-ness. 


They may not be great for you, but I'd bet they're better for you than a doughnut.


And also today the bf is home sick, so I took the muffins in myself. I can't have 24 of these bad boys sitting on my counter (I've already had two this morning alone). 

And I had to make a store run anyway for sick supplies...



Miss Freyja's elated to have someone who will lay and cuddle with her all day :)



Also, Fishtail Cottage is hosting a great Spring/Easter giveaway...




Hope you all have a happy (and healthy!) Friday :)


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