Scrambled Eggs

Mixing different ingredients with scrambled eggs is one of my favorite things to do because it's easy, tasty, and even I don't need a recipe to do it.  I'm often surprised because when I post pics of my scrambled eggs creations on facebook they are often my food pics that get the most "likes" and comments.

Here are 5 scrambled eggs creations I have done:

The Spicy Scramble:

Scramble eggs and add pepper and tomatoes.  Once cooked turn off burner and mix in shredded habenero cheese and cilantro while dish is still hot.  Serve with salsa.

Veggies, Herbs, & Feta Scramble:

Depending on the veggies I'm using I sometimes sautee some of them alone first then add the eggs to scramble.  Sometimes I just first add the veggies right in with the eggs as I scramble them.  For this specific picture I sauteed broccoli, mushrooms, and onions in a skillet.  I then added the mixed up eggs to the pan along with tomatoes, spinach, garlic chives, thyme, rosemary, and oregano.  Once cooked I turned off the burner and mixed in feta cheese.

Veggies, Herbs, & Feta Scramble In A Wrap:

Basically the same as the one above it but this time I used some different veggies.  This one consisted of onions, asparagus, snow peas, broccoli, shitake mushrooms, green peppers, rosemary, thyme, oregano, and feta cheese added after the burner is off.  The main difference here is that I then served it in a spinach wrap.  Yummy!

Colby Scramble



Scramble egges with onions, spinach, tomatoes, and add colby jack cheese

Naked Quiche:

This was inspired by the book Simple Food for Busy Families.

There are a variety of combinations you could use to make a naked quiche so get creative.  The main thing is to preheat oven to 375 degrees, spray (butter, grease, oil, whatever you do) a pie pan.  Whisk eggs, milk, and the spices you want to use together.  Put whatever other ingredients (veggies, meats, cheeses) you are using in the pie pan and pour the egg mixture over them.  Feel free to add extra spices to the top if you so desire.  Cook until it is set and lightly browned on the top (approx 30-50 minutes).

For mine I used mushrooms, peppers, onions, rosemary, oregano, and feta cheese.  It was a simple way to use the veggies I had.  I'm looking forward to making other variations of this in the future!

Beef Tenderloin with Brandied Mushrooms

The Earth Bound Cook has been a great cookbook to me.  I have made multiple things from it and all have been absolutely amazing!

For the past 2 Easters my mom has come to my house and I have cooked the Easter meal.  Our family tradition was to have leg of lamb on Easter, but that's a lot for just two people and lamb leftovers aren't very good so I went to my cookbooks to find something else.  I made a menu of options for my mom and for the main course she chose Tenderloin of Beef with Brandied Mushrooms from this cookbook.  For exact recipe click the title or the pic of the cookbook and buy it!  Cheap price for great recipes!

If you are going to make this, you have to remember to plan ahead.  One or two days before having the meal you must get the meat ready which includes rubbing it in olive oil and pepper, covering it in tarragon leaves, and wrapping in tightly in plastic wrap.  Leave it in the fridge until a couple hours before cooking it.

I also make the brandied mushrooms one day ahead of time.  I have a hard time cooking multiple things at once and timing everything to be ready at the same time so doing as much ahead of time when I have multiple dishes helps a lot.

To make the brandied mushrooms you soften dried mushrooms.  I used a combo of shitake and porcini.

Save the soaking liquid! and chop up the mushrooms.  Then you heat chicken stock & the soaking liquid.

In a skillet soften shallots and fresh cremini mushrooms in butter.  Add the rest of the mushrooms and some garlic.  Finally you get to add the brandy and also some red wine :)





Once you have cooked that to the point that liquid has mostly evaporated you add the mixture of the soaking liquid and stock and some balsamic vinegar.  The first time I made this I did everything and tasted it and thought "oh, that's good" and then realized I'd forgotten the balsamic vinegar.  It is only 1 teaspoon, but that made all the difference, it went from "oh, that's good" to "oh my gosh!  that's amazing!"

After adding those things add creme fraiche.  True confession, I'd never heard of that until making this.  The cookbook provides a recipe for making your own and the first year I made it that's what I did, this past Easter I just bought some from the store.  Also add some chopped up tarragon and your brandied mushrooms are complete!

The day of remove the wrapping from the beef and the tarragon leaves and cook to your taste preference (Mom and I like rare).  Reheat the brandied mushrooms (if you made them the day before) and serve over the meat.

The first time I made this my mom said it was the best meal she'd ever had, and her mom was a GREAT cook so that is a compliment!



Sangria

Sangria is delicious and great for a hot day.  Luckily it is also easy to make and is flexible with ingredients/can be made to your tastes.  My old roomies and I had the best front porch ever.  We loved to sit on it and swing on our porch swing and watch the neighborhood happen on warm days.  One Spring day last year when it had been hot a couple days in a row and was feeling more like summer we decided on a whim we wanted to make it.  The only ingredient we didn't have was ginger ale.  These are the times that living right beside your friend comes in handy.  He happened to have some and agreed to let us use it if we shared our sangria with him.

We looked up multiple sangria recipes online to get the main idea and then went to work.

We used red wine, brandy, ginger ale, lemon, oranges, strawberries, and apples. 

You can use any red wine or a mixture of red wines.  You only put one shot of brandy in, I think you could change up the liquor you use too if you wanted.  Instead of ginger ale you can use club soda.  And any fruits in it would be good.

The flavor will be best if you mix it up and allow it to chill overnight in the fridge, but we didn't plan ahead to make it and wanted instant gratification and it wasn't dissapointing at all.  Just serve it over ice and it's tasty and refreshing!

Spring Celebration Soup

Just a little less than a month of spring left so figured I needed to get this Spring Celebration Soup posted ASAP! 

I bought my brother and sis-in-law the cookbook Simply in Season for Christmas a couple years ago. 

I just visted them last November and they showed me the book.  It had stains, pages falling out, etc. because they love it and use it so much!  My old roommate had this book also and when I moved out I had to buy myself a copy because I missed it so much!  It tells you what foods are in season and gives great recipes for those foods.

The Spring Celebration Soup is so good!  Light and refreshing.  I could eat a ton of it.  For the full details of the recipe you'll have to get the book (click on the title for a link to purchase it on Amazon) and I promise you won't regret it!

The soup includes sauteeing garlic, green onions, and carrots.
Then add asparagus, broth, lemon juice, and salt.
Once asparagus is cooked add spinach and parsley.
When you serve it add basil and parmesan cheese to each bowl.

This is one of my most favorite soups!

Apricot Chicken

In my last post I mentioned working at a camp in Maryland. Two of the wonderful friends I made there, Jenna and Liz, and I met up in Michigan one weekend a couple summers later.  We decided to make dinner together and Jenna said she had a great chicken recipe for us to try.  When she told me the ingredients- apricot jam, french dressing, and onion soup mix- I wasn't convinced, but she assured us that we wouldn't be dissapointed.  As you can tell by this picture- we weren't!  We forgot to take a picture of our meal before we completely cleaned our plates!

I know it sounds strange, but this recipe is simple and really good.  I've made it for others since making it with Jenna and Liz and everyone who's tried it has loved it.

Chicken breasts
A small jar of apricot jam
1/2 a bottle of french dressing
1 package of dry onion soup mix

Preheat oven to 350
Mix jam, dressing, and soup mix together.  Pour over chicken breasts in a baking pan.
Bake for about an hour

You'll love it!

Coffee Tin French Toast

For 2 summers I worked at a camp on the Chesepeake Bay in Maryland.  While working there one of the classes I taught was outdoor living skills.  My best friend from the camp and I taught the class together sometimes and one day we decided to make french toast over a fire on the beach with coffee tins.  How fun!

Simply mix up your french toast mixture- eggs, vanilla, cinnamon, and milk.
Build a fire.
You don't want the fire flaming so let it burn down to mostly coals.
Put coffee tins on top of fire and let them heat up.
Put butter on coffee tins.
Dip bread slices in french toast mixture and place on coffee tin, cook on both sides and you are done!  Add your syrup and eat up!

Our campers loved doing this and so did we! 

Veggie Soup

This is actually the soup from the "GM diet."  I saw it on Pinterest, I'm pretty sure GM didn't actually create it, but from what I could find it didn't seem to be harmful so I tried the diet.  I had a friend who lost 7 lbs on it, I lost nothing, BUT I actually liked the soup for it and so did a friend of mine who tried it so while I don't think I'll repeat the diet ever, I probably will make the soup from it again.

It's simple-
Cabbage, onions, green pepper, celery & any other veggies you wish (I used asparagus, zucchini, and yellow squash).  Put all of those in a pot of water, bring to a boil, stir in dry onion soup mix, and slow cook until veggies are done.