Tag Archives: brunch

Cooking Food Popular

Beet Hash with Eggs

October 13, 2012 – 11:06 AM

It’s Saturday! My favorite day of the week. What I like to do on Saturdays is to stay in my pajamas as long as possible, not brush my hair, and basically aspire to be the definition of “unkempt” in the dictionary (remember those?).

But first, three things happened to me on Facebook this week:

  • I have relatives in Asia who post occasionally in Chinese. When I hit “Translate” on a post this week, this is what I got: “Baby Flash today to the waist, my home is caring said Filipino: his wife, I help you with your horse at night to kill the chickens! I think that is OK under the NIE just two, so was delighted to accept. Didn’t think she really be practiced! In my bed at night to enjoy professional massage essential oil. Joy you are my angel! muaaah!” Can this be right? Is my cousin okay, and where is this professional massage essential oil coming from? How did they know how to translate muaaaaah?
  • My sweet friend Danielle at Cozycakes Cottage posted about me to her zillions of followers not once but twice! Very kind of her.
  • A high school friend posted on my wall that she just read about me in this month’s issue of Redbook. I was hoping it was a surprise article wherein they unveiled a special subsidy for me to focus on nothing but eating delicious foods for the rest of my life, but when I went out a lunch to get a copy, it was just an article about jobs. I’m the second from the left. I guess my part of the planet is about 45 degrees offset from everyone else.

Anyway, on to the food. As some of you know, I generally try to make tasty foods that are also reasonably healthy — though I won’t compromise on flavor. One of my favorite magazines (uh, aside from Redbook of course) is Whole Living, which is filled with beautiful photography and prose that reduces your cortisol levels upon reading. I like to read about food before I go to bed, so it’s a standby on my nightstand.

I also really love beets. Check out my header.

So when I saw this Beet Hash with Eggs, I knew that it was a message from God. I shalt make thine Beet Hash, and I shalt make it on the day before the Sabbath.

So I did.

It was easy.

Boil peeled and diced beets and potatoes for 7 minutes, and then fry them up in a pan with some onions.

 Make four little wells in the hash, and fry up some eggs. That’s it! Well, mostly, read the recipe for details.

BEET HASH WITH EGGS (from Whole Living magazine, October 2012)

Ingredients

  • 1 pound beets, peeled and diced
  • 1/2 pound Yukon Gold potatoes, scrubbed and diced
  • Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
  • 4 large eggs
Preparation
  1. In a high-sided skillet, cover beets and potatoes with water and bring to a boil. Season with salt and cook until tender, about 7 minutes. Drain and wipe out skillet.
  2. Heat oil in skillet over medium-high heat. Add boiled beets and potatoes and cook until potatoes begin to turn golden, about 4 minutes. Reduce heat to medium, add onion, and cook, stirring, until tender, about 4 minutes. Adjust seasoning and stir in parsley.
  3. Make four wide wells in the hash. Crack one egg into each and season egg with salt. Cook until whites set but yolks are still runny, 5 to 6 minutes.

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Cooking Food Popular

Guest Post: Creamy Zucchini Soup

April 30, 2012 – 7:42 PM

My wedding anniversary’s coming up, so I just had a flashback to the first time I was going to cook for my mother-in-law, and my then-fiance just let it slip that his mother “used to run a cooking school in France.” Oh. Thanks for letting me know, because the last time I trained at the Cordon Bleu was never.

Needless to say, my mother-in-law is an amazing cook. I’ll be putting forks on the table or something and then turn around to her making a flambe of some sort that, had I tried, would have resulted in loss of eyebrows and hair. She’s also a well-known art journalist, whereas I am a famous…uh, let me get back to you on that one.

So when she said she’d share a recipe for my blog, I was excited. And she has shared one that even I, trained only by cookbooks and the seat of my pants, can execute.

*  * *

GUEST POST: MY MOTHER-IN-LAW GEORGINA

Here is an addition to the SOUP KITCHEN that is so darn easy that it seems unfair, if not outright EVIL. I mean, how can you possibly produce a delicious soup with just TWO ingredients? (Not counting water, salt and pepper). And one you can have hot or cold?

My family has forbidden me to say “this is soooo easy” so let me just say, this is not difficult. Not even a tiny bit difficult. In fact, a child could make it. And kids generally love it!

Ingredients for four:

Three average size zucchini (we in Britain call them courgettes, which must be French originally, showing how multicultural we are…)

three squares of Kiri, or Philadelphia cream cheese

water, salt, pepper

Er- that’s it.

 

Wash the zucchini, top and tail them, slice into one inch rounds, just cover with water, season, boil until soft.

Use a wand blender to liquidize until smooth with the cream cheese (I use low fat but of course it tastes better with full fat). Adjust seasoning.

That’s it! You can serve hot, sprinkled with chopped chives, basil or parsley; or cold in small glasses as a pre-starter.

* * *

Thanks Georgina! And before we close I just had to share one of the shots that I took. As you’ve probably guessed, I do my own photography and styling (with lighting courtesy of the sun). I was trying to unwrinkle the cloth under the soup but it was stubborn, so I tried sliding myself under the table stretching out the fabric, holding an ab-crunch position to stay out of camera view, while using the remote function on the camera. It didn’t work out so well.

CREAMY ZUCCHINI SOUP

Ingredients

  • 3 zucchini
  • 3 oz cream cheese
  • water (enough to cover zucchini in pot)
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Slice the tops and tails off the zucchini and cut into 1 inch rounds. Place in a pot and fill with water enough to just cover the zucchini. Season with a dash of salt and boil until soft, about 15 minutes.

Using a blender, blend the zucchini and water mixture until smooth. Add in the cream cheese and blend to combine. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serves 4.

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Cooking Food

Eggs Benedict California

April 24, 2012 – 12:00 AM

I’m ashamed to say that I missed National Eggs Benedict Day, but I am recovering from a malady for which I am taking Mucinex DM for cough and chest congestion. And though I know there is nothing hotter than hearing a woman talk about taking Mucinex DM, I will move along to the recipe at hand.

I was inspired by eggs benedict (can you say eggs benedict without saying Eggs Benedict Arnold? I wish Benedict Arnold were Patrick Henry though — you know, “Give me liberty or give me eggs”) but wanted something a little more lively. The sharp and creamy taste of the goat cheese is a nice complement to the carmelized tomatoes and lemony hollandaise — it just works.

First, make the hollandaise sauce — I like this easy version that you make in a blender.  This version is for 4-6 servings, so quarter it if you’re just cooking for yourself. Set it aside.

Toast both sides of an English muffin. While they’re hot, spoon some crumbled goat cheese on them like so:

Next, poach two eggs. Do not poach any giraffes in Africa. If you’re not sure how to poach eggs, click here for instructions.  When the eggs are done, lift them out of the water with a slotted spoon, let it drain (I wiped the bottom of my spoon with a dish towel to get rid of excess water) and place them on top of the goat cheese while hot, so the cheese begins to melt.

Hm, looks like I stopped taking pictures after that. I blame Mucinex DM.

Slice some sweet tomatoes (I used campari cocktail tomatoes, but some nice big cherry tomatoes would work nicely too), heat up a splash of oil in a pan, and put the tomatoes face down in the hot oil for about a  minute, til they start to caramelize a bit. Flip them over and let them cook on the other side for another minute. Remove the tomatoes from the pan and spoon them over the eggs and muffins.

Slice up half an avocado, and put it on top. Drizzle your lemony hollandaise sauce over everything. I had some fennel fronds so I snipped some leaves over it all for garnish. Enjoy!

EGGS BENEDICT CALIFORNIA

Begin with the hollandaise sauce; recipe found here. This recipe makes 4 servings, so adjust accordingly depending on your serving size. Set it aside.

Ingredients

  • 2 eggs
  • 1 English muffin, halves separated (for a gluten-free version, use gluten-free muffins)
  • 4 tsp crumbled goat cheese
  • 1/2 avocado
  • 3 campari cocktail tomatoes or cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 tsp oil
  • (optional) fennel leaves for garnish
  • salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

Toast the English muffin. While toasting, poach eggs (for instructions on poaching, click here).

Remove English muffin halves from the toaster and place cranny-side up. Sprinkle goat cheese across the faces, and top with poached eggs, one on each half.

Heat the oil for a minute and place the tomato halves cut-side down in the oil for a minute until it begins to caramelize. Flip the tomatoes and allow to cook for another minute on the other side.

Slice the avocado half into long slices lengthwise and place between the eggs. Garnish with fennel leaves if desired, drizzle hollandaise sauce on top and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Makes 1 serving.

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Cooking Food

Sunny Side Baconwich

April 14, 2012 – 5:03 PM

It’s a rainy weekend and one that requires knitwear with elastic waistbands. And a delicious breakfast that involves hardly any effort at all, so that I can focus on more important things like whether or not I should get bangs.

My younger daughter had the flu and passed it along to my husband, while her sister and I have been hand-washing with Macbeth-like intensity. This was not the spring break we had imagined, but on the plus side we’re getting our money’s worth on our mortgage with the time spent indoors.

Onto today’s meal. My husband made this today, so I feel kind of bad for being in my elastic waistband and not making him breakfast either. Well, I did make a breakfast that my daughter and I ate, so to be fair, this was second-breakfast, and I think, comfort food at its best. Here’s the recipe:

SUNNY SIDE BACONWICH

Ingredients

  • 1 whole wheat English muffin
  • 2 slices bacon, cut in half (I like uncured and nitrite-free)
  • 2 eggs
  • butter (optional)
  • salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preparation

Toast both halves of a whole wheat English muffin. If desired, butter the muffins after toasting.

Fry up two pieces of bacon over medium heat, turning occasionally until cooked and edges are curled; remove and drain on a paper towel and allow to cool to crisp further. Pour off all but about a tablespoon of the bacon fat.

Crack egg into pan and cook over medium heat until edges are crispy and begin to turn up. For details on how to prepare sunny-side up eggs, click here.

Place the bacon slices on the English muffin and slide cooked eggs on top. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.

1 serving.

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