THE Birthday Breakfast Sandwich

The only request for birthday food from my husband was a bacon butty. We don't have access to back bacon, only bacon strips (crispy) so I decided to recreate a delicious breakfast sandwich we had at a diner on our honeymoon.

Components for 1 sandwich:

1 Hamburger bun
2 Eggs
1 Slice of American Cheese
3 Slices of bacon

Game Plan:

• Fry bacon
  
• Place bun, cut side down, onto hot bacon grease and fry for about 15 seconds, maybe a little longer - make sure the oil is hot so you actually fry the bread and not let the bread absorb the grease.
  
• Lightly scramble the egg and then fry it in the pan so it all stays together.
  
• Place the egg on the bottom bun, top the egg with the bacon and cheese and then cover with the top bun.
  Serve with hot tea or coffee, orange juice, and slices of strawberries for your honey...happy birthday to THEM!

Dark Chocolate Cherry Birthday Brownie

As I have mentioned in the past, this project has forced me to take chances and try out new ideas combining a variety of ingredients that I have on hand to make new food.

My husband's birthday is today and he loves chocolate cherries. I knew that I had some leftover light cherry pie filling from a dessert I made a while back. I knew it would be a while before I used cherry pie filling again so I froze it in a zippy bag. I also knew that I had scored a good stockpile of cake mixes and brownie mixes. I thought, chocolate cherry brownie as a birthday "cake" would be great since we are pretty caked out from recent birthday festivities.

Also, because of recent birthday cakes, I have leftover frosting, not to mention a bowl of chocolate truffle mixture that was going to be an Easter treat but never came to pass. Without spending a great deal of time on the subject, we were going to make these with the boys on Easter but the day got away from us and it took longer than the prescribed 30 minutes for the chocolate to set up. We were well into bedtime before it was going to happen so it...well...it didn't happen. As a result, we have a bowl of 2 cups of melted chocolate chips mixed with 1 container of melted Betty Crocker Chocolate Frosting. There are worse things to have stocked in your fridge.

So, here I was with dark chocolate brownie mix along with the oil, water, and eggs required to make that happen, 1 Cup cherry pie filling, a tasty bowl of truffle mix (again, that is 2 cups of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1 container of Chocolate Frosting, melted), and some leftover confetti frosting (the white kind with the candy bits).

I followed the package directions and used a 13X9X2 inch pan for the brownies, adding some of the cherry pie filling juice to the batter. Once the batter was mixed and spread into the pan, I melted the chocolate truffle mixture in the microwave and stirred in the cherry pie filling. I very carefully drizzled the chocolate cherry mixture on top of the brownie batter until there was a smooth layer of melted chocolate cherry.

I baked it for 30 minutes at 325 degrees and started to worry because it was all still very liquid and the brownie should have been done. I covered it with tented aluminium foil to keep the edges from burning and let it cook for another 10 minutes. The brownie mixture started cooking away from the sides and I lifted the pan and saw that the bottom had set too. It dawned on me that there was melted chocolate and frosting on top and if that was even a little warm, it would be liquid. So, I took a leap of faith and pulled the pan out to cool.

It cooled completely and the whole thing set up beautifully. I do recommend making this several hours before and refrigerating it or making it a day ahead. I made it yesterday so this morning, I heated the confetti frosting and drizzled it over the top to make it more festive. I must say, these are worth the trouble beacuse they are absolutely delicious.

Guacamole

Homemade Guacamole

To serve 4 adults and some children a snack portion, I used 3 avocados but you can certainly expand this recipe as needed and add flavors that suit your taste.

3 Avocados
1 T Salsa
1 T Tomatillo Salsa Verde (it is green and you can buy it where you get jars of salsa)
1/2 t Salt - or more if you need it
1 t chopped garlic or dried garlic seasoning
1 T lime juice

Slice the avocados and remove the stone (I stick it with the blade of my knife and then ease it off the knife by pinching the side that is wedged into the knife), either peel away the outside or spoon the avocado into a bowl. Mash with a potato masher. Before you mash it all, add the rest of the ingredients. Continue to mash the guacamole until you have it at the consistency that you like. I like mine to be a little chunky.

Serve immediately - the avocado turns brown as quickly as an apple does and while the citrus juice slows this process down, you can't save it for later.
You might also like:

Cheese Sauce

I refer to this "base" recipe in a lot of postings so I decided to post it separately so it is easy to use as a reference tool. This can be made dairy free - as posted here with the chicken stock or you can use cows milk or soy milk instead and you can use cows milk cheese as well. It is very versitile and can be used within recipes or alone for chips and cheese dip!

2 T Oil
2 T AP Flour
1.5 C to 2 C Chicken Stock
3 Slices Cheddar Flavored Veggie Slices Soy Cheese. Rice Cheese also works well for this

Heat the oil over medium-high heat and add the flour, whisk the flour and oil together until it starts to smell nutty, just a couple of minutes. Slowly add the chicken stock whisking together until the lumps are all gone and it starts to thicken - you have just made gravy, by the way. Add the cheese and let it melt completely. DONE! Add this sauce to elbow macaroni or use it to top broccoli, potatoes, really anything you would use a cheese sauce on.

Nacho Heaven

One of the very best foods in the whole wide world is Nachos. I truly believe that it unites people and is so varied in its interpretation, it can satisfy all tastes. It is universal, honestly, I believe it! Making a large plate of nachos is one of the stay-in date-night rituals in our house. Served alongside some cold beers or cocktails in front of a flick with my main squeeze...heaven!

Friday night turned into Nacho night and I broke into the stockpile of leftovers and devised this beauty:

Nacho Components:

Store-bought Tortilla Chips
Shredded and chopped Grilled Salsa Chicken (Recipe Below)
Cheese Sauce (Recipe HERE)
Refried Beans (Recipe Below)
Guacamole (Recipe HERE)
Store-bought Sour Cream
Store-bought Salsa
2 T Fresh Cilantro from my garden - chopped and optional

Grilled Salsa Chicken:
Before I froze some chicken breasts, I sprinkled them with 2 T Simply Salsa from Tastefully Simple along with 1 t Olive Oil. I covered them completely with this mixture and froze them. When they thawed, they were ready to go onto the grill. Voila! Grilled Salsa Chicken. If you don't have any Simply Salsa, you can use any seasoning mix that you like or actually toss in some jarred salsa or salsa verde...your call! If you don't have any already marinated, just marinate the chicken for at least 30 minutes. If your mixture has vinegar or citrus, don't marinate overnight because that acid breaks down the chicken and makes it mushy.

Refried Beans
If I had known that nachos would be among the menus for this period, I probably would have bought a jar of fat free refried beans. Well, I didn't...so, I didn't. Necessity is the mother of invention and this project has born a lot of homemade things that otherwise would have been store bought. I either make it from scratch or we go without. I decided NOT to go without this time and really wanted refried beans. I also decided to "wing" it. It turned out really good. I guess I am lucky that I stock these things in my pantry. Here is how it went down.

1 Can Light Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
2 Chipotle Peppers in Adobo (they come in a small can with a flip top)
1 t Olive Oil
1/2 t Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic (you can use real garlic or garlic seasoning)

Mix all of these together and use an immersion blender to puree. It will be the consistency of hummus. Heat in a saucepan over medium heat until some of the moisture is evaporated. Serve warm.

Build a better Nacho Platter:

I always build in layers because I don't like getting to the bottom of a platter of chips to find naked chips with no topping. Spread a layer of chips, drizzle with cheese sauce and some dollops of beans. Make another layer of chips and continue with the cheese and beans but sprinkle some chicken as well. Keep going until you have all of the cheese, beans, and chicken covering many layers of nachos. Finish with rows of guacamole, salsa, and sour cream. If you have cilantro, sprinkle it on top. If not, you can skip it.

Jerk Pork Chops and planning ahead

My husband surprised me with a brand new grill last weekend and I was excited to christen it with pork. I bought a pork loin a while back, cut it into pork chops and froze them into meal servings. While I knew that I would be firing up the grill and spending some time waiting for meat to thaw, I decided to go ahead and pull out some chicken that I seasoned with some Tastefully Simple* Salsa seasoning.


Here is the recipe for the Jerk Pork Chops. Stay tuned for the recipe for the chicken!

6 pork chops, about 1/2 inch thick
1 T Jerk Seasoning (I use McCormick's)
1 T Olive Oil
1 T Soy Sauce
1 t Cider Vinegar

Combine the above and marinate the pork chops for 30 minutes.
Cook them over a preheated medium-high grill, grill pan, or under a broiler. Depending upon the thickness of the pork chop, you may need to go longer or shorter...just PLEASE don't overcook the chops, they dry out and become very tough. They should cook until the juices run clear and there is no longer any pink.


I served them with peas (for the kids), a green salad (for the adults), corn on the cob (which also hit the grill), grilled slices of pineapple, and some leftover orzo to which I added jarred Mango Chutney.


There was no hope in getting my boys to try anything "jerk" so I just grilled pork chops for them and served them with ketchup - you do what you have to.

* I have a friend who sells Tastefully Simple as a home-based business. I have added a link to her website on this blog so if you are interested in buying any of the items I mention, you certainly can. I don't make any money by recommending the items. I just like them and help to support her business by buying from another stay-at-home mom.

House Guests eating leftovers

I haven't posted because I haven't been cooking! Our house guests arrived on Monday afternoon and we ate leftover fried chicken from Saturday. You are probably thinking to yourself, "why is this woman feeding guests leftovers?!" Well these are really good friends and they don't need me to cook for them to know that I love them. So, we ate good, delicious food...I just didn't have to stand in front of the stove to make it happen.

Tuesday we had pizza while we went fishing at the wharf and that night, we went out to eat at Buddy's Crabs and Ribs in Annapolis.

Wednesday we took everyone into DC for a day of touring and ate at Hard Rock Cafe. When we got home, we reheated some breadsticks from the "fishing Pizza", boiled some spaghetti noodles and heated up the sauce from last week's Birthday Supper.

We also have been doing some world class snacking that includes homemade guacamole and chips (see recipe below) and a plate of late-night snacks including Easter Ham, Cheese, Sliced Bread-cut into quarters, Dijon mustard, pepperoni, apple slices, and clementines. Time went by quickly but not cooking truly made it feel like I was on vacation too!

Homemade Guacamole:

To serve 4 adults and some children a snack portion, I used 3 avocados but you can certainly expand this recipe as needed and add flavors that suit your taste.

3 Avocados
1 T Salsa
1 T Tomatillo Salsa Verde (it is green and you can buy it where you get jars of salsa)
1/2 t Salt - or more if you need it
1 t chopped garlic or dried garlic seasoning
1 T lime juice

Slice the avocados and remove the stone (I stick it with the blade of my knife and then ease it off the knife by pinching the side that is wedged into the knife), either peel away the outside or spoon the avocado into a bowl. Mash with a potato masher. Before you mash it all, add the rest of the ingredients. Continue to mash the guacamole until you have it at the consistency that you like. I like mine to be a little chunky.

Serve immediately - the avocado turns brown as quickly as an apple does and while the citrus juice slows this process down, you can't save it for later.