a recipe for delicious baked eggs

i mentioned in my last post that i was giving more energy to my photo blog.
however, when i want to post recipes i will post over here.
somehow, someday, i want to combine the 2 blogs in some way - i like the format over there much better, but i still want to write about food, but i don't want to be double posting all the time when i take pretty photos of the food i write about. that sounded complicated. it is. thereby my wanting simplicity in joining the 2 somehow...

but i digress.

i have for you a recipe of sorts for baked eggs.
a delicious way to eat eggs when you have some extra time on the weekend.

what you need:
(1 serving)
- 2 eggs, preferably room temperature (take them out night before)
- 2 tablespoons cream
- handful of fresh herbs - thyme, sage & rosemary (thyme is the most important)
- butter
- salt & pepper
- toast
- prosciutto (optional)
- ramekin
- baking tray deeper than your ramekin

what to do:
- turn kettle on to boil
- turn oven on to 375*
- chop herbs into tiny pieces
- grease ramekin with butter
- place 1 tablespoon cream into ramekin
- sprinkle with a few herbs, salt & pepper
- crack 2 eggs in
- sprinkle with more herbs, salt & pepper
- spoon 1 tablspoon cream on top
- (optional) add more butter to the top
- place ramekin into deeper baking tray, and fill halfway with boiling water
- place tray in oven
- bake for 10-15 minutes (i don't have the timing perfectly. its a bit tricky to keep the yolks runny while not having runny whites so i often overbake it) until cooked to your liking
- enjoy with a slice of toast and coffee


another variant on this dish is to line your ramekin with prosciutto first, and then proceed with the next steps.

other recipes you can look at:
- seasaltwithfood blog
- simple baked eggs recipe

my chicken fajitas

i'm (still) really horrible at intentional meal planning. this week, though, i decided i wanted to make chicken fajitas at some point. one accomplishment at a time here, lets not get TOO crazy.

so. i bought some chicken (free run, non-medicated, at wheelhouse seafoods), peppers, sour cream, and sprouted grain tortillas.

here they are.

i cut the 2 chicken breasts into strips and marinated them for about 1/2 an hour while i chopped everything else up. for the marinade i used: half a dried chili, salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, garlic, and some kind of mexican chipotle chili mix i got from a friend. you can probably use chili flakes or whatever spice you like. (i like to avoid the fajita seasoning packets in the stores, because i'm not a fan of colors, corn syrup solids, modified corn starch and 'natural flavor')

here's a recipe for making your own seasoning: http://busycooks.about.com/od/homemademixes/r/fajitaseasonmix.htm

wish i'd thought of looking up a recipe earlier. oops.

i sauted peppers & onion in olive oil, salt & pepper. until they were soft & caramelized.

then its easy! i grated some cheese, heated up my tortillas in the oven, chopped up some cilantro, & put out my sour cream & salsa. wrap it all up & enjoy.

two related photos HERE on my photo blog!

egg + mushroom breakfast sandwich

i cannot deny my love of breakfast. and if something horrible happened, like i suddenly became allergic to eggs, i would probably still eat them anyways, to the demise of my body.
i like them THAT much.

sometimes, though, i get a little bored with eggs + toast.
i even get bored with my omelets.
and so, sometimes...
i take a little too much time getting creative whilst making myself breakfast.

here's one of my happy little awesome sandwich discoveries.

egg + mushroom open-faced breakfast sandwich

what you will need:

• mushrooms (i used organic crimini mushrooms)
• handful of fresh sage (other fresh herbs like basil, thyme or parsley will do. dried herbs, though, will not do)
• couple cloves garlic, minced
• onion, chopped
• 1 large slice bread, or 2 small slices bread
• 2 eggs (only one is pictured, but trust me, you want 2)
• olive oil
• butter
• mayonaisse
• salt + pepper
  

directions:

• mince garlic, chop onions, chop herbs
• clean your mushrooms with a mushroom brush, or if you don't have one (i don't. i need to get one), use a slightly damp cloth to clean mushrooms. DO NOT soak mushrooms in water.
  
• chop mushrooms. i removed the stems, but i'm just weird that way. i don't care if you use the stems or not.
• heat skillet on medium-low heat. throw in some oil + butter. saute your onions + garlic for a few minutes.
• turn up the heat + throw in them mushrooms. saute for a while (10-20 minutes depending how soft & caramelisy you like your mushrooms), adding 1/2 your fresh herbs halfway through.
  
• when mushrooms look like they are about 5 minutes from done, heat up another frying pan for your eggs. start toasting your bread.
• fry eggs to your liking. while they are frying, butter your toast + spread with mayo if so desired. top with mushrooms, eggs, + a sprinkling of fresh herbs.
• get out your steak knife + a fork, and start devouring, along with a nice cup of fresh coffee.
  

mid-january minestrone

my my. i've been really bad at keeping up with my blog, among other things, this past month. it's already mid-january! where has the time gone?

what have i been up to?

i'll spare you a long, boring story about my life.
here's the point form:
- glamour shotz
- all things christmassy
- short holiday & new years eve with my boyfriend in sunny-but-not-so-warm california
- photoshoots
- photo-editing dates with lightroom


i have many food-things to blog about. we had some tasty food in california - mexican, lebanese, vietnamese... but i'll save those for another night.

i've been trying to grocery shop better (instead of buying whatever i feel like with absolutely no plans in mind), so i've been flipping through my cook-books and trying to pick (easy) meals to cook, then shopping for that. tonight i made minestrone soup from my donna hay cookbook: seasons - the best of donna hay magazine.


here's the recipe with a few of my own modifications:

2-4 T olive oil
1 medium yellow onion
2 cloves garlic, crushed & chopped
2 carrots, (peeled) & chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bulb baby fennel, chopped (or half a bulb regular fennel)
2 x 397 ml cans chopped tomatoes
4 cups chicken stock
2 cups water
100g or a couple handfuls of green beans, trimmed & chopped
1 x 397 ml can white cannellini beans, drained
sea salt & cracked black pepper

directions:

- heat a large saucepan/pot over medium to high heat. add oil, onion, garlic, celery, fennel & cook for 5 minutes or until tender.
- add the tomatoes, chicken stock & water. reduce heat, cover & simmer for 25 minutes.
- stir in the green beans and season with salt & pepper. simmer for another 10 minutes.
- stir in white beans & cook for another 5 minutes until beans are tender.
- taste & serve

i served the soup with bread & butter. whole wheat and honey bread from a bread affair (which my grocery store is finally selling! yay!). i warmed it up by wrapping a chunk of it in aluminum foil and tossing it in a 400F oven for about 8 minutes.

jamie's food revolution: broccoli and pesto pasta

i used my first recipe out of the jamie oliver book i got for my birthday: jamie's food revolution

the recipe: broccoli and pesto tagliatelle. except i used fresh fettucine from a local italian deli, not tagliatelle. i recommend fresh pasta: tastes better, cooks quicker.

the recipe calls for pesto. we had some in our freezer that we made up in the summer, but if you don't have any pesto on hand, you can follow jamie's pest recipe here.

what you need:
- 1 large potato or a few small ones
- 1 head of broccoli
- fresh basil
- 1 lb pasta (jamie calls for dried tagliatelle)
- 1/4 cup + pesto (i used a bit more than 1/3 cup)
- 3 ounces roughly of parmesan cheese - freshly grated


what to do:
- wash & peel potato(s); shave thinly using either a peeler or the back of your grater that has that one blade you never know what to use for (until now. potatoes)
- cut the broccoli florets off; peel the stalk, then slice up thinly
- pick off your basil leaves, rinse, chop up roughly
- bring to boil a large pot of salted water, add your pasta & broccoli stalks
- 2 minutes before pasta is cooked (see your pasta instructions), add potato slices and rest of the broccoli
- once pasta is cooked, drain everything, and keep some of the cooking water aside. return pasta etc to pot
- add to pot half of the basil leaves, pesto, and half the parmesan
- stir it up, adding some of the cooking water to thin it up if the sauce is thick
- taste it and add more seasoning (pesto or salt & pepper) to taste
- serve with fresh basil and parmesan on top

enjoy!

hot harira soup for my cold body & soul

i realise that there are colder places on this earth at the moment (i'm truly sorry for you, calgarians), but i am not liking the ghastly cold vancouver weather right now. AT ALL. i leave my house bundled up with all the warmest clothes i have, i look ridiculous, and i STILL freeze my butt off. well, my toes, mostly.

sooo... i've been staying inside a lot. and i made a huge pot of hot, comforting soup yesterday to warm my cold, bitter soul. moroccan harira soup. it seems that this soup is traditionally made with lamb, but i used chicken instead. i mostly followed this recipe, at epicurian.com but originally from gourmet magazine issue march 1994.


i tweaked a few things to make it even better:

ingredients:

• chicken (i used 1 thigh, because i am poor. you can use however much chicken you can afford)
• 4 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups water (i probably added a couple more cups onto that)
• 4 blanched tomatoes, de-peeled & chopped up (or a can or 2 of diced or pureed tomatoes)
• 1/4 or 1/2 cinnamon stick
• 4 garlic cloves, chopped
• 1/2 tsp mustard seeds (optional)
• 1/4 tsp coriander (optional)
• 1 large or 2 medium onions, chopped fine
• 14-oz. can chickpeas, rinsed
• 1/2 cup raw long-grain rice
• 1 & 1/2 cup lentils
• 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, chopped (optional. i didn't have any)
• salt & pepper to taste

directions:

• in a large pot, bring chicken, broth, water, 1/2 a cinnamon stick & 2 cloves of garlic to a boil. simmer for 20 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through. remove chicken & let cool. remove cinnamon stick & discard.
• while pot is simmering, saute chopped onions, garlic & spices (mustard & coriander) in a separate pan on low to moderate heat. about 5-10 minutes.
• add to large pot onion mixture, tomatoes, rice, lentils, & chickpeas
• close lid & simmer for 30 minutes, covered.
• remove bones & skin from chicken & shred/chop up chicken.
• stir chicken into soup; add salt & pepper to taste. simmer for another 10 minutes or so.
• add half of the chopped parsley (& cilantro if using).
• serve soup hot and garnish with the rest of the parsley.
• enjoy with toasted bread or fresh, warm biscuits (recipe to follow)
  

i made my mom's biscuit recipe. super quick & easy!


ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tbls baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter/shortening
• 3/4 cup milk/milk substitute

directions:

• heat oven to 450F (225C)
• whisk flour, salt & baking powder in a bowl.
• blend in butter with hands or pastry cutter until mixture looks like fine crumbs
• stir in milk, only until flour is all moistened. do not beat!
• transfer dough to floured surface & knead about 10 times.
• roll or pat dough until about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch thick.
• cut out shapes & put on baking sheet.
• bake 10-12 minutes.
• serve with honey-butter. (1 part honey to 1 part soft butter)

now that i'm done typing out the recipe, i remember that i've already posted the recipe here, back in 2008. oops!

flourless chocolate cake

this loveliness is a flourless chocolate cake. (although i did use flour to dust the pan before i poured the batter in) it gets its texture from the whipped egg whites. subtle and not too sweet, the chocolate in this cake is just right to be a dessert following a rich, heavy meal. which i did last weekend when i took this cake to a thanksgiving dinner. cut up into 16 tiny slices, the serving size was just enough to satisfy but not overload.



i got the recipe from bread & honey. i won't bore you with the recipe, i'll just let you follow it from the link.

for those of you who don't care to follow the recipe, here's some more pretty pictures! (i'm really happy with how these photos turned out)

apple cinnamon muffins

do something for me. take a quick peek at what katie ate and tell me you do not want to devour everything katie makes and photographs. i know i do.

in case you are too lazy to click on links, here are a few of her photos:

gorgeous!

i wanted to bake something with apples today. my sister and i ordered a large box of gala apples from the okanogan valley last week and we've already made 2 batches of apple sauce, one pan of apple crisp. we still have copious apples left. so, i wanted to bake something with apples today. and i did. i looked to katie for inspiration, and was debating between this apple tea cake and these apple cinnamon muffins. the tea cake looks amazing, but my relationship with my springform pan is a bit dubious and i would like to avoid using it until i find a better replacement. so i made the muffins. loved that the recipe didn't call for any butter or oil (don't get me wrong, i love butter. LOVE it. it's just that it costs so much money and i'm trying to be a bit more frugal than normal these days), but called for applesauce. hey, i just made some last week! anyway, they are pretty quick and easy. the result? not bad. a bit chewy, (maybe i over-stirred), but pleasantly moist and good-tasting. you can look at katie's lovely photos here, and compare them with mine. i like hers better, but i'm pretty happy with mine too.


here's the recipe:

1/3 cup sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 3/4 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup applesauce
1 cup peeled, cored, chopped apple

topping: sugar & cinnamon (just guess at the amounts, however sweet you want it, baby!)

preheat the oven to 390F

i always like to mix all the dry stuff before i mix in any wet stuff, no matter what the recipe tells me. so i mixed the sugar, cinnamon & ginger together, then sifted in flour, baking powder and salt in a big bowl. add the milk & applesauce and mix with a spoon until it comes together. don't overmix! add the apple pieces. spoon into muffin cups or a greased muffin tin. sprinkle the cinnamon/sugar on top and pop into the oven for 20-25 minutes. makes about 12 smallish muffins.


enjoy!

bringing cookies back into my life

when i wrote this post on thursday, i had a sudden urge for cookie-baking. guess what i did the very next day? that's right, i ate pizza. and i baked cookies. i like the end result of baking cookies, but i get really impatient when i'm in the middle of the whole cookie-baking process. i only have 2 cookie sheets, so i waste a lot of time waiting for the damn cookies to be baked so i can finish scooping out all the cookie dough. so its not just 10-12 minutes of baking, its more like 5 x 10-12 minutes of baking + 30 minutes of time wasting. that equation is just too complicated for my mind. maybe if i invest in another couple cookie sheets i will enjoy cookie baking more. because i sure as heck enjoy eating them. and sharing. i guess.

so i baked "oatmeal, chocolate chip pecan cookies," except i used walnuts. so i guess i technically baked "oatmeal, chocolate chip walnut cookies." but i think the name sounds too boring for what these cookies taste like when they are in my mouth having a party. they're more like "spicy, flavorful, chocolately goodness cookies with a hint of orange." try baking them yourself and then see if you can top my awesome name for them.


here's the recipe:
oatmeal chocolate chip pecan cookies
adapted from smitten kitchen, who adapted it from katy sparks and andrea strong

1/2 c. butter*, room temp
3/4 c. cane sugar
1 c. packed brown sugar
1 tsp. salt*
1 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs (largish)
1 1/2 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/8 tsp. clove
1 c. oats
2 c. chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans. i also threw in some sunflower seeds)
2 tsp. grated orange zest (optional. i'm still not sure what i think of the orange.)
12 oz. (1 bag) semisweet chocolate chips

*if you use salted butter, then don't use as much salt

beat the butter in a large mixing bowl until its light and creamy. add sugars, salt, vanilla and beat again. stir in the eggs, one at a time. in a separate bowl whisk/sift the dry ingredients (flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove). add half of it to the batter and beat on low speed. dump the other half in along with the oats, nuts, orange zest and chocolate. (you can be creative with what you dump in. i needed to get rid of some white chocolate so i used half white chocolate chips, half semi-sweet chocolate chips.) stir. take a spoon and drop similar sized clumps of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. space them out because these cookies flatten a bit in the oven. bake for 10 to 12 minutes. mine stayed in for about 15, but my oven is weird. you want the cookie to look 'golden' but you don't want them to burn. but really, if its slightly underbaked, its just chewier, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. :)


suggestions for how to use these cookies:
1. serve to guests with coffee
2. put a dozen on a plate, set plate right in front of you with a cup of coffee, and eat all in one sitting
3. bring to an event, like moving day, and share

(note: i used suggestion #3, but you don't know how much i wanted to do suggestion #2)

saturday: meringues and other healthy eating habits

its been a HEALTHY eating day for me today. breakfast consisted of toast with peanut butter, a chocolate croissant, and 2 americanos. lunch was decent enough, i had toast with eggs & other rich toppings, like mayo, avocados, cheese... but then i decided to use up the egg whites in my fridge that were leftover from the egg yolks i used in wednesday's eggs benedict. i didn't want them to go to waste, so i decided the best thing to do would be to beat those egg whites to death with about a pound of sugar. i made meringues for the first time ever.

back to my healthy food habits. after snacking on meringues, accompanied by decaf coffee to offset the sweetness, came dinner. which consisted of bean dip and a bag of rice chips. and guess what i had for dessert? yup. meringues. and now it is midnight and i am getting my usual late night pangs of hunger.


i used a recipe from donna hay's cookbook flavours - i think i am in love with donna hay's cookbooks, specifically the photography in her cookbooks. if you ever want to see me drool, the next best thing to putting a plate of delicious food in front of me is to put a donna hay cookbook in my hands. or a jamie oliver cookbook. they both have amazing photographers.

because this was my first time baking meringues, i can't really rate the recipe, or compare it with anything else i've ever tried. it seemed a bit more complicated than it could have been though. i had another recipe that just called for egg whites and castor sugar. simple.

however, this recipe called for:
egg whites (4)
castor sugar - i finely ground my cane sugar into a powder (1 & 1/4 cup)
sifted cornstarch - i used tapioca starch (1 Tablespoon)
vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
vinegar (1 teaspoon)
seeds from vanilla bean

pre-heat oven to somewhere between 200 F and 250 F. beat egg whites until 'soft peaks' form. you can tell that peaks are forming when you turn off your beater and lift it up, the egg whites will form a small mountain 'peak.' slowly incorporate the sugar (a little bit at a time) until the batter is smooth, and the peaks are no longer 'soft' but 'stiff.' now the recipe said to fold in the rest of the ingredients, but my batter was way too runny still so i beat the heck out of it until the batter became stiffer, and when i rubbed a bit of batter between my fingers, it was sticky and smooth (you shouldn't be able to feel the grains of sugar). dump the batter into a piping bag, pipe shapes onto a parchment lined pan (make sure they are all similar sizes). the baking time is quite long, because it requires low heat (you want them to dry out, but not to burn), so try to get as many on to your baking sheets as possible and stick 2 sheets in the oven at once. just make sure to rotate them a bit during baking. bake for somewhere between 30 minutes and 1 hour. i'm sorry i'm so vague on these instructions - like i said, its my first meringue experience. i kept changing the baking temperature and adding more time to the timer. they were too chewy when they first came out so i just stuck them in for more time. apparently its not a good idea to bake these on a rainy day. it was raining today. that's probably why it took so long. stupid moisture.

i just re-read that last paragraph, and i came to this conclusion: if you want to bake meringues, go find a recipe somewhere else and follow it and use your instincts. i can't give great advice after just making them once and failing to keep track of times and temperatures.

but what i can do.... is show you some more photos! yay photos! i think all that sugar is still coursing through my system.


i have to say, baking is not for the weak. it often requires persistence. i'm quite glad i decided to use my electric beater instead of using my old fashioned hand-held egg beater, because i beat that batter excessively and i still don't think the peaks were as stiff as they should have been.