Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Company Egg Bake

Grandma 4444 is a great cook, and she's always generous with her recipes. (For proof, check out Best Ever Pasties and her Cherry Torte!) Today's recipe is a big breakfast hit when company comes. You put it together the night before and just bake it in the morning. Perfect for tailgate breakfasts, Sunday brunch, or the morning after the Halloween party, when the house is full of bleary-eyed, nauseous drunkards with headaches. It's easy peasy, too...

Ingredients (mostly stuff people often have on-hand)6 slices of bread
6-8 slices of Kraft American Singles
ham or sausage or bacon (cooked)
1/2 of a green pepper, diced
1/4 onion, diced (or more, if you like onion breath)
mushrooms, if you are not a big baby and can handle them
1 dozen eggs
1 cup milk
salt and pepper to taste

First, butter your 9 x 13 pan.
And no, that's not "dirt" on the pan. It's stonewear; the "dirtier" it is, the more "seasoned" the pan is, and a seasoned pan is a wonderful thing :) Next, remove the crusts from the bread...
Tear it up into pieces and place them in the pan, like so...
Unwrap the cheese slices. For some reason, these gave me a hard time tonight; each little flap tore off, rather than working with me to get the cheese out neatly. On the bright side, that was the most difficult part of this recipe--(See, I told you it's easy-peasy.)
Place cheese slices across the bread.
Top with your ham or other meat. I used 1/2 of the package this time.
Next, clean your mushrooms. Remember, you clean mushrooms with a towel, not by running them under the sink until they are slimey!!
Dice your onion and green pepper, too, and then sprinkle them over the meat.
Pretty as a picture, huh? (Of course, if you are serving picky eaters, you may leave any of these ingredients out.)
Crack the dozen eggs and add salt and pepper "to taste." For you newbie cooks out there, that means you have to guess. This is how much pepper I used. I also added about 1/4 tsp of salt (you can always salt your portion again later.)Add the milk to the eggs and whisk them til they're nice and frothy.
Pour the egg mixture over the yum in the pan.
Cover and place in the fridge overnight. In the morning, remove the cover and place in the oven set at 250 degrees for 45 minutes. Raise the heat to 350 degrees and bake another 15 minutes.

Serve with salsa, if you like (and a side of Ibuprofen, if necessary).

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Festive Tossed Salad

Got so many requests for the recipe for this salad I made Mom's 80th birthday party that I thought I should put it up here. It's always a big hit. I didn't have time to take the blow-by-blow shots, but I've got the recipe and a few pics here for you....

Ingredients:10 cups Romaine lettuce, torn
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
onion, finely chopped
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2-3 teaspoons poppy seeds
1 Braeburn apple, cored and cubed
1 pear, cored and cubed
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 to 1 cup cashews
1 cup shredded Swiss cheese

In a blender, blend sugar, vinegar, lemon juice, onion, and salt until well-blended. Gradually add oil while continuing to blend on low. Then, add the poppy seeds and blend a little more. Pour into dressing container.

Prepare lettuce. Just before serving the salad, mix lettuce with dressing and place in a BIG bowl. Top with apples, pears, cranberries, cheese, and cashews (I like to leave it all on top and let people dig in from there (because it is so pretty!)

Enjoy!

Saturday, June 13, 2009

Taco Pie

Ever since she had Taco Pie at a friend's house, Kendall has been asking me to make if for supper. I'm very glad she kept badgering me, because it was delicious and easy. If you've ever made tacos, you can easily make Taco Pie. (Seriously, a monkey could do it.) Here's how....

Ingredients:1 lb. ground beef
1/2 cup water
1 pkg. taco seasoning (we like Ortega)
1 pkg. Pillsbury Crescent Rolls
1 1/2 cup Fritos Corn Chips, broken up
8 oz. cheddar cheese, grated
8 oz. sour cream
Lettuce and tomatoes for serving

First, prepare the meat per package directions (that's what the water is for).

While the meet is cooking, open the crescent rolls and arrange them like this in a pie pan...
Use your fingers to spread the pieces until you have formed a hole-free crust.
Next, take a tomato and place it in the middle of the crust.
Only kidding! (I was in a silly mood.) Take 3/4 of the Fritos and sprinkle them over the crust.
Top with the taco meat...
Then, the sour cream...
And the cheese....
Finally, top with the remaining Fritos...
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 minutes. (I baked mine an extra five because you have to add time when baking with stoneware.)

Meanwhile, prepare the sides (the sour cream turned out to be unnecessary, but it's in the pic, so you'll just have to suck it up, sorry.)
Forgot to take pics of the finished product until it was half gone!
Voila!
Sorry about some of the blurry photos; I don't know what I did wrong. Fortunately, I did everything else right; this was a big hit!