Category Archives: What’s Cookin’

Bacon and Egg Bites

Posted in What's Cookin' by

20130224-094526.jpg

Back in August, Con Ed accidentally cut the gas line outside our building while doing construction on the street. Fast forward 6 months later and we still do not have cooking gas in our apartment. Yes, you read that correctly, 6 months without cooking gas! Therefore, my dreams of whipping up all the recipes I have pinned under ‘wine & dine’ have been put on slight hold. Without an oven or range, we have purchased several appliances to help us survive this horrid adventure. Sometimes, I feel like I’m on a camping trip inside my NYC kitchen as I cook on an electric hot plate and use the microwave for things that it probably wasn’t built for. Because there are only two of us, most things can be made in the toaster oven, which surprisingly does a fantastic job with most meals. If you’re a Real Housewives fan, I have no desire to be the next Sonja Morgan and would much rather have me full size oven back. However, when I was craving red velvet cupcakes a few weeks ago I had to head to Home Goods to improvise. All of the muffin tins were just a bit too wide for the toaster oven so I settled on this silicone muffin cups. They did the job, but after making the cupcakes in three rounds of 6, I gave up. They do work perfectly for an easy weekend breakfast that we have (I have) made the past two mornings.

Ingredients

6 silicone muffin cups (or of course, if you’re a person with a real oven, you can use a regular muffin tin)
6 slices of bacon
4 eggs
Salt
Pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. Line each muffin cup with a slice of bacon

2. Whip eggs and add salt and pepper to taste

3. Fill each muffin cup with eggs

4. Bake for 30-35 minutes (check status throughout as a real oven may cook them differently)

20130224-100822.jpg

20130224-100832.jpg

20130224-100846.jpg

The first time I used nonstick spray but then came out a bit too greasy. Today, I didn’t use it and they came out much better. Next time, I’m going to try and add some cheese and veggies but just didn’t have any on hand.

Must Have Meat Loaf

Posted in What's Cookin' by


My husband and I love this meat loaf! I’ve been making it for years and have never strayed because of the simplicity and deliciousness of it! There are two pages ‘bunny eared’ in my Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book; one is the Banana Bread, which I will make as soon as the bananas that are sitting on my counter are ready and two is this fantastic Meat Loaf! Don’t get me wrong, I have tried other recipes in the book and do go back to random ones from time to time, but I have to admit that I keep this gigantic book on my counter mainly for these two recipes and because it’s a pretty off white color!

I made this Meat Loaf for dinner the other night and paired it with mashed potatoes and roaster cauliflower. I’m only posting about the meat loaf, but wanted to let everyone know that I add sour cream to my mashed potatoes as I’m mashing them…such a fatty. And the roasted cauliflower recipe that I use can be found here: http://www.wegmans.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?langId=-1&storeId=10052&catalogId=10002&productId=347545 The cauliflower is super easy and is DELICIOUS!

Ingredients

2 eggs, beaten
3/4 cup milk
2/3 cup fine dry bread crumbs or 2 cups soft bread crumbs
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tablespoons snipped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried leaf sage, basil, or oregano, crushed
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef, lamb, or pork
1/4 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon dry mustard

The original recipe says that the Meat Loaf yields 8 servings. I beg to differ, unless you are planning to feed 8 small children. This recipe fed my husband and I for two dinners. Keep in mind that neither of us are big eaters, but my husband did have seconds at dinner number one. You can see the size of the serving in the final picture at the conclusion of the recipe.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

In a medium owl combine eggs, milk and bread crumbs. Stir in onion, parsley, salt, sage, and pepper.

Add ground meat; mix together. I find it easiest to mix the meat with a clean hand. (I’m sure my husband would cringe if he knew that)

Lightly pat mixture into an ungreased 8x4x2 inch loaf pan.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 to 1-1/4 hours or until internal temperature reads 160 degrees F.

Remove meat loaf from oven and spoon off fat.

In a small bowl combine ketchup. sugar, and dry mustard (whichI forgot to add into the ingredients pictured at the top).

Spread ketchup mixture over meat and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Let stand for 10 minutes before serving.

Reagan was uninterested in the meat loaf, the mashed potatoes or the cauliflower…UGH! However, she LOVED dipping her finger into the ketchup topping!

Zucchini Bites

Posted in What's Cookin' by


I totally BOMBED these Zucchini Bites (http://curiouscountrycook.blogspot.com/2012/03/zucchini-tots.html) the first time that I made them because I neglected to squeeze the excess water from the shredded zucchini, which resulted in super soggy bites. This recipe was so simple that I wanted to try again, remembering this time the important part of ridding the zucchini of it’s excess water. I figured if I was successful the second time around, this may be a recipe that Reagan will love and get her to eat a vegetable!

I found the recipe on the Curious Country Cook’s website: http://curiouscountrycook.blogspot.com/2012/03/zucchini-tots.html

I changed two parts of this recipe; what I baked the Bites in and how long I baked them for. I don’t own a mini muffin tin, so I used a larger muffin tin. The mini muffin tin would be perfect to bake things for Reagan, because they would be just her size…that is if I can ever remember to buy one when I’m at Marshall’s, Home Good’s, or even at the local grocery.
The original recipe calls for you to bake the Bites for 15-18 minutes. This would be the perfect abount of time if you were using a mini muffin tin. Since I had a larger amount of the bite mixture within each tin hole I had to up the baking time to 23 minutes.

The recipe yields 12 mini Bites (mini muffin tin) or 7 larger Bites (larger muffin tin)

Ingredients

1 cups zucchini, grated
1 egg (1 large egg equals 3-4 tbsp when whisked together)
1/4 yellow onion, diced
1/4 cup cheese (cheddar or Parmesan work the best)
1/4 cup bread crumbs – I used Italian style
Salt and Pepper

Preheat oven to 400F. Spray muffin tin with non-stick spray, set aside.

Grate the zucchini and then place in a paper towel to squeeze out the excess water or place in a colander and push down on the shredded zucchini and allow for the water to drain through the holes– if you skip this part, the middle of the Bites will be really soggy (SOGGY IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT…THE WILL BE MUSH!!!)

In a bowl combine, the egg, onion, cheese, bread crumbs, zucchini, salt and pepper.

Using a spoon, fill the muffin holes to the top.

Bake for 15-18 minutes (mini muffin tin) or 23 minutes (larger muffin tin). Keep an eye on the tops of the Bites. When they are browning, remove them from the oven so they don’t burn.

I’m not going to lie and say that these were Reagan’s favorite, but she did eat half of one at two different sittings and that’s more vegetables than she’s consumed in awhile. My husband, mother and I really enjoyed them, so they are worth making again…but DON’T FORGET TO SQUEEZE!

Valentine’s Lunch for Two!

Posted in What's Cookin' by


I had the perfect date for Valentine’s Day lunch…Reagan! We made our boring pasta and turkey dog’s fun by adding a little Valentine’s love to them!

What we used for our Lunch for Two:

2 Applegate Organic Turkey Hot Dogs
2 Bendable Straws
Nugget Pasta
Red Food Coloring

Directions:

Add pasta to pot of boiling water. Let pasta boil for 5 minutes or so and then add as many drops of red food coloring as you like. The more drops you add the darker red the pasta will be. The fewer drops added, the pinker your pasta will be. Continue to boil pasta till desired tenderness. (the steam from the pot blurred the first picture a bit)

Boil hot dogs in separate pot of boiling water. I boil our dogs for about 10 minutes.

Cut middle of hot dog out at an angle so that you have two end pieces that are about an inch and a half long each. You can make the heart as big as you like by cutting away less of the middle of the hot dog or none at all. Reagan never eats the entire hot dog, so I figured a little hot dog heart would be perfect for her.

Cut the bendable straw so that neither end is longer than the length of the cut hot dog pieces. You want the bendable piece to be in the center.

Insert each straw end into a piece of the hot dog so that the bendable part is towards the bottom point of your hot dog heart. Push rounded tops of the hot dogs to secure the straw into place.

Ta Da! A Valentine’s Day lunch that Reagan will LOVE! We of course needed our fruit and veggie, so we also had a side of green peas and apple sauce! Now that I think of it, I could have dyed some cauliflower pink and added some red food coloring to Reagan’s apple sauce. She was happy with what she had and that’s all that I was aiming for!

Banana Bread’s Secret

Posted in What's Cookin' by


I’m not a banana fan in the least. Don’t like the taste, the texture and certainty not what they do to my kids! However, mix them up in a delicious bread and my mind completely changes. The sour cream in this recipe makes the bread super moist and I am always caught sneaking a second piece!

Ingredients
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 cup sour cream
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp salt
1-2 cups chocolate chips, optional

banana3

In a medium sized bowl mix together bananas and sour cream. Set aside.

In large bowl cream butter and sugars until smooth.

Beat in eggs and vanilla.

Stir in banana/sour cream mixture.

In a separate bowl combine all dry ingredients then add to banana mixture.

Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour into two greased 7×3 inch loaf pans or one 9×13 pan.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and bake for 5 minutes. Then turn oven down to 350 degrees and bake an additional 45 minutes. * this will help to prevent the top from getting too dark*

Bread is done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.