Perfect Hard Boiled Egg

The perfect hard-boiled egg.  For me, having a cooked egg in the fridge is the start of a good day.  It's a healthy and quick way to get some protein punch, and with only 70 calories, it really is a dieter's friend.  If overcooked the egg can get a greenish yolk with a dry powdery texture - and that, my friends, is not good eats.  Follow my lead and your yolks will be just cooked - golden and creamy, and well, perfect!

Devilish Eggs

I hard cook my eggs by covering them with cold water, bringing them up to a boil and then covering them and taking them off the heat. I let them sit like that for 12 minutes and then rinse with cold water.

After they are cool, slice them lengthwise and scoop out the yolks. Mash them with a splash of rice wine vinegar, a splash of w'shire, and a 2:1 ratio of mayo to dijon. Season with salt and pepper. Place the yolk mixture into a plastic baggie and cut the bottom corner to use it like a pastry bag to fill the eggs that are waiting to be deviled! Top them off with a sprinkle of smoked Spanish paprika and you have a classic appetizer that will be gone before the Superbowl even begins! Tastes better chilled in the fridge for a coupla hours!

Kiss my Quiche

We're trying to ramp up our food blogging once again after our year-long absence, due to our now 20-month old BostonTwins.

Juggling childcare between both parents and a part-time nanny proved to be detrimental to our foodie blog - but since our move the Mom is now staying at home. This does not mean that I have more time for food-blogging - caring for these 2 buggers is hard work...most times harder than going to work believe it or not. But, here and there, I'll find some time in between naps and diaper changes to post some new recipes!

Pickles x 2

This post is a 2-fer - I was saving up the first recipe until I tried another bright idea. Last year I made pickled pink beets & eggs and not only were they pretty, but also extremely delicious. Again this year for Easter I whipped up a batch of these beauties and they did not disappoint!

To revisit... fill your pot with half water, half cider vinegar and bring to a simmer with 1 can whole beets and their juices, 1/2 to 1 cup brown sugar (taste it and add to your liking!), and a dash of cinnamon. After simmering for ~10 minutes, turn off the heat and add your already peeled and hard cooked eggs. Let that sit out at room temp until cool. Transfer to your fridge liquid and all where they will keep for at least a week.



Bright idea #2 came to me the day I made the picked eggs, but it took about a month to implement. We love giardinera in our house... if you are unfamiliar with this super yummy jar of goodness, it is a mix of spicy and pickled veggies like carrots, peppers and cauliflower. So I thought, what if I culd recreate this at home and add EGGS? Genius? Probably not, but I felt like one at that moment! I kind of came up with this on the fly, so bear with me.

Same as above - pot with half water, but this time I used half white vinegar instead of the cider vinegar. I used white sugar instead of brown and added some Kosher salt as well. At this point, I tasted as it's important to have the sour salty and sweet nicely balanced. I'd say about 1/2 cup white sugar and 2 tsps of salt, but it depends of how big a a pot you use (mine holds 8 cups).

Then I added at least 1 tbsp of crushed red pepper flakes, about 15 whole black peppercorns, 1 tsp mustard seed, and a couple of jalapeno rings for garnish. Most of the spicy flavor will come from the flakes. Follow the recipe from above, simmer 10 minutes, turn off heat then add your eggs and veggies. For veggies, I used frozen crinkle cut carrots and cauliflower. If you want to use fresh veggies, steam or parboil them first.

These were superbly tangy with a kick of hot in the aftertaste...perfect little pickles for your next soon-to-be-summer BBQ!

Puffy Oven Pancake

We couldn't believe that we hadn't posted our Puffy, Fluffy, Oven-Baked German Pancake before! This recipe is a favorite of ours going back a few years - a great brunch item, easy to make and VERY tasty. We usually make this oven pancake in a glass baking dish but decided to try the cast iron skillet this time - it didn't really work out (stuck to the bottom, didn't fully "puff") so we'll be using the glass dish going foward. Same exact recipe, but we'd recommend using the glass dish or pie pan.

First, oven goes to 400 degrees. When getting close to being preheated, throw 2 tbls of butter into that glass pie dish and let it preheat in the oven - to get it the butter all melted and everything heated up.

Lightly beat 2 eggs in a bowl, then add 1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup of milk, and a little pinch of salt. Combine until just smooth. Also, cut up a good baking apple (Golden Delicious, for example) into thin wedges or rounds.



Take the hot pan out - with potholders! - and brush the butter around so it fully coats the dish. Then sprinkle about 2 tbls of brown sugar and some shakes of cinnamon onto the bottom of the dish and lay down your apples in one layer.



Finally, pour the batter over the apples.



Into the oven for 25 minutes and your puffy and golden brown and delicious! Carefully flip it out and over onto your plate so the brown apple bottom is facing up - a little sweet with the flavor of baked apple... like a pastry! We like ours with an egg over easy and a cup of coffee.

Pickled Pink Eggs & Beets

My Mom used to grow beets in the garden and then pickle and can them. Our basement was full of pickle jars, and I used to pretend that I was the shop owner and purveyor of the cellar pickles - such good memories! (what a strange kid! - ed) And this post on A Chicken in Every Granny Cart brought all of those memories back to me! In honor of Easter, I decided to follow her cue and pickle some eggs with beets to give the eggs a pinkish, purplish Spring-time hue and pickled flavor.



I simmered one can of whole small beets (I threw in some of their juice too) in equal parts water and cider vinegar. I threw in at least a half cup brown sugar, a couple shakes of cinnamon and a couple shakes of allspice. Cinnamon sticks and cloves would have been a better choice, but I was without. After simmering, I removed from the heat and added the already hard-boiled and deshelled eggs to the pan. I let them sit at room temp all day before putting them in the fridge. After 24hrs, the pink color hadn't penetrated to the yolk yet, but after a few days, it certainly did. The beets were lovely too, but beware of the beet juice -- it likes to leave stains everywhere!

For breakfast yesterday, I put some mayo on some whole wheat toast, 1 sliced pickled pink egg with some S&P, and a bit of baby romaine. Tasty... and pink!

Herb-Sour Cream Stuffed Eggs

Stacey here, interrupting Michael's Sunday Football Live Food Blog thingie! I've been watching my carbs this month trying to melt away the holiday cheer that took up residence in my thighs, so this past week it has been no cereal - even though what I generally eat is Barbara's Multigrain Shredded Spoonfuls. So my breakfasts have been eggs, eggs and more eggs, and if I don't cook them just so, they make me feel icky. So today I thought I'd try a new approach. I was reading through our Southern Living Cookbook (a wedding present from Michael's southern-ish cousin Emily.) Now deviled eggs are one thing, but WHOA, herbed stuffed eggs??? Let me get my apron on and start cooking!

I hard-boiled 6 eggs and let them cool. After de-shelling them, I sliced 'em lengthwise and scooped out the yolks. I mashed them with a little over 1/3 cup of low-fat sour cream, 2 tsps white vinegar, 1 tsp dried dill, 1 tsp Fox Point Seasoning, 3 tbsp freshly chopped parsley (or chives as the recipe says), some salt and black pepper. Although the recipe called for 3 slices cooked and crumbled bacon, I was forlorn b/c I had none! However I did have some "real" bacon bits in a jar some I tossed a tbsp in as well.



Well, mmm, mmm, mmm, I stuffed those eggs with my herby mixture and refrigerated them for an hour, et voila mes oeufs sont bons? Okay my French has really deteriorated, but whatever. These are great, and great for a party! Oh la la!!!

Eggs Benedict

We needed a hearty breakfast to get us going because today is a great day!! It is Sunday in January and that means we get to do one of our absolute favorite things - sit in the kitchen and watch football all day while cooking and drinking our way through the games! Not only that, but our beloved PATS are playing at the San Diego Chargers in the later game (4:30) - in the most anticipated matchup of the weekend... It is rainy and miserable out and we're still in our pajamas in the kitchen, and we'll be BLOGGING ALL DAY! A few cups of coffee and this Eggs Benedict has us ready for the full day ahead.


Let's get it started!

It's almost 1:00 and the first game is coming on - Seattle at Chicago - so we are ready to eat. We started toast in the toaster oven and added some breakfast ham slices to a hot pan. Then we started poaching our eggs in a big saucepan of simmering water with a few splashes of white vinegar added (to keep the egg white from spreading out). We crack each egg into a small glass bowl and add them to the water one-at-a-time as gently as possible.

Those eggs will be ready in 6 minutes so we crack two more eggs for the hollendaise - for the yolks alone. Break up those two yolks and squeeze in a half a lemon's juice. Add that to the double boiler and start wisking and adding 1/2 stick of butter, a little at a time and constantly whisking to melt the butter.

Additionally, we sliced a big, red tomato into pretty thick rounds and sprinkled on some kosher salt and a little squeeze of that lemon.

Ok! Toast out, ham slice on the toast and tomato slices on top of the ham, the egg (that has been sitting temporarily on a paper towel to get rid of all that water!) goes on top of the tomato and on top of ALL that is a ladle-full of your hollandaise. DELICIOUS - love the lemony-buttery sauce mixed with the soft-cooked yolk of the egg! We ate these hungrily with a glass of OJ and we are ready to go.

WE'LL BE POSTING ALL DAY AND WE HAVE LOTS PLANNED, SO COME BACK AND SEE WHAT ELSE WE'RE UP TO!

Banana Pancakes

We all experience deep-seeded, all-encompassing cravings... sometimes we have to give in.

Which brings us to pancakes! Its breakfast! Its sweet! Its baking (kindof)! Its delicious! WE WERE CRAVING THEM LIKE THE WORLD WAS ENDING! Let's give in to temptation this time.

Of course, we try to avoid just eat a bunch of all-purpose flour with sugary syrup on top. Is there a way to add volume AND some sweet flavor to pancakes? Indeed, bananas can do what we need! We mashed up the very ripe bananas with a fork to add structure to the batter - filling in for some of the flour. The banana, once cooked, also provides some sweet flavor.

1/2 cup all purpose flour and 1/2 cup wheat flour, 1 tbls baking powder, 1 tbls sugar, and a pinch of kosher salt on the dry side. Two mashed bananas, a cup of milk (our house milk is 1% - yours?), 2 tbls canola oil, and 1 beaten egg on the wet side.



Stir these two together until just combined. Then, onto a heated and buttered pan and about 5 minutes on each side. This ended up making nine 3-4" pancakes. We like ours with a couple over easy!



A little maple syrup and some microwaved bacon (it works - one minute/slice on a plate covered with a paper towel, then taken out and patted dry by another paper towel).

Before and After: