Deviled Egg Pasta Salad

I like deviled eggs, and I like pasta salad.  The other day I was thinking about making a pasta salad to eat for lunch the rest of the week.  I also was thinking about deviled eggs.  I decided to see if I could make a pasta salad with the flavor of deviled eggs.  So Deviled Egg Pasta Salad was born.

I finally got brave and turned my camera so it would take a more vertical picture.  These are better for Pinterest so they say.  I also tried putting text on my  photos for the first time.  There is hope that this old grandma can get in the groove yet.  Now if I can just get brave enough to actually use my DSLR.

When I am making a salad just for me, I always use ingredients that I like.  Change or sub ingredients to fit your tastes.  I had green onions that needed to be used up, other wise I would have used another variety of finely chopped onion.

Since pasta seems to absorb dressing, it may be necessary to add a little more mayonnaise or some sour cream after the salad has set for awhile.

Deviled Egg Pasta Salad
2 c. small shell pasta or other small pasta
6 eggs, hard cooked
1/2 c. thinly sliced green onion or 1/3 c. finely diced yellow, white or red onion
1/3 c. finely diced red pepper
2 ribs celery, cut in half vertically and thinly sliced on the diagonal
10 black olives, cut into eighths
1 medium dill pickle, finely chopped
2/3 c. mayonnaise
1 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. white wine vinegar
1/4 t. coarse ground pepper

Cook pasta in boiling water according to package directions.  Drain.  Cool with cold water and thoroughly drain again.  Pour into large mixing bowl.  Peel eggs and cut in half.  Remove yolks and put in a small mixing bowl.  Chop the egg whites and add to the pasta.  Add onion, red pepper, celery, black olives and dill pickle.  Stir to combine ingredients.  Using a fork, mash the yolks until very smooth.  Add mayonnaise, Dijon mustard, vinegar and pepper to the egg yolks.  Beat until well combined.  Spoon dressing over the pasta and mix until pasta and vegetables are thoroughly coated.  Cover and chill until ready to serve.  Makes 4 generous servings.

Linking to these great parties:
Full Plate Thursday
Thursday's Treasures
Fantastic Thursday
Tasty Thursday
Showcase Your Talent
Catch a Glimpse Party

Oriental Fried Ramen-Starving Student’s Survival

My granddaughter calls Oriental Fried Ramen Starving Student’s Survival.  That is because this recipe can feed four people for less than $2.00, and she is a starving student in California.  It is a "go-to" recipe for her.

I like to have fried rice as a side dish when I make something Oriental.   Since hubby doesn’t really care for rice, I often make this dish instead.  Use your favorite ramen noodle flavor in this.

Like all recipes for fried rice, you can use whatever veggies that you want in this dish or whatever you happen to have in the fridge.  I rarely make this exactly the same way twice in a row.  I do almost always use onion and red pepper.  This particular time I used carrots and snow peas.  I also sometimes add chopped nuts.

Although I include eggs when I make this, they can be left out, and almost any kind of cooked meat (even bacon) can be used to make it more of a main dish.

The recipe is loosely based on a recipe I found at  - http://busycooks.About.com a number of years ago.

Oriental Fried Ramen
2 pkgs. Ramen noodles, flavor of choice
3 c. boiling water
1 T. vegetable oil
1 t. sesame oil (optional)
1/2 c. chopped onion (regular or green)
1/2 c. chopped red pepper
1/2 c. carrots, peeled and cut into 1-inch matchsticks
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 c. frozen peas (or chopped snow peas or sugar snap peas)
2 T. soy sauce
2 eggs, beaten
1 to 2 c. chopped cooked meat or poultry

Break ramen noodles into six or eight pieces and place in a medium mixing bowl.  Sprinkle with the contents of the seasoning packets.  Pour boiling water over noodles and let set while preparing rest of ingredients.  Heat vegetable oil and sesame oil in a medium skillet.  Add onion, red pepper, carrots and garlic.  Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until tender-crisp, about 7 minutes.  Drain noodles well and add to skillet.  Add soy sauce and mix until well blended.  Cook and stir noodles 1 or 2 minutes.  Push noodles to the side of the skillet and pour eggs into the center.  Cook eggs, scrambling and cutting into small pieces as the eggs cook.  Mix eggs with noodles.  Add meat or poultry if using and heat through.  Serve as a side or main dish as desired.  Makes 4 servings.

Linking to these great parties:
Tuesday Trivia
Tasteful Tuesday
Totally Tasteful Tuesday
Show Me What You Got
Two Cup Tuesday
Show Me What Ya Got
Tasty Tuesday
Time to Sparkle

5-Spice Stuffed French Toast with Buttermilk Syrup-Secret Recipe Club

My assignment for this month’s Secret Recipe Club was Bad-Girls-Kitchen.  This is both a one-person and a collaborative blog that was started in 2008.  That means there is a wealth of wonderful recipes, and my “to make” file grew by leaps and bounds when I searched through this blog.

There are so many wonderful recipes I want to make, especially Carrot Salad, Spiced Quinoa with Cherries, Instant Chai Mix, Carrot Hummus, Garlic Naan and on and on.

I knew that I would be home alone on Mother’s Day, wanted to make myself a treat, and chose to make Stuffed French Toast with Buttermilk Syrup so I actually made two recipes from the blog.

Min is right about the Buttermilk Syrup, it just may make me give up maple syrup completely.  This syrup is  ridiculously quick and easy to make, but I do have a couple of hints.  Use at least a medium saucepan to make this, as the sauce foams quite a bit when the soda is added.  I used a small saucepan, and the syrup almost foamed over.  I cut the butter into thick slices when I put it in the saucepan so that the butter will melt a little faster.  I think a nice variation for the syrup would be to add some spices to it.  5-Spice, Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Apple Pie Spice or Pumpkin Pie Spice would all be good.

I love it so much, I chose to use 5-Spice instead of cinnamon in the Stuffed French Toast.  Although I was making French Toast just for me, I made a full recipe of the filling which I plan to use as a spread on English muffins, bagels, or toast.  I am thinking of adding  a quarter of a cup of mashed berries to the filling sometime.

Because I was cooking for one, I used one egg and a quarter of the rest of the coating ingredients.  I had planned to use Texas Toast, but  my local bakery outlet store was out.  I bought a loaf of bread that was very much like homemade, but it may have been a bit soft for French Toast.  I let the sandwich sit in the egg mixture until almost all the egg was soaked up, turning the sandwich a couple of times.

Trying to be fancy, I chose to bake this in my waffle iron for waffled French Toast.  This worked OK, but the sandwich separated, and I had to use a fork to remove the bread slices from the grids.  I didn’t spray my grids with non-stick spray so that would probably have helped.  Not totally sure that it was worth the effort, though.

I served the French toast with the Buttermilk Syrup, a couple sausage patties, mini orange slices and a couple of strawberries.  This is a delicious breakfast for Mother’s Day or any day for that matter.

Thanks for two delicious dishes.  I have subscribed to this blog and expect to find more great recipes.

Buttermilk Syrup
from The Bed Girl's Kitchen

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. (1 cube) butter
1/2 c. buttermilk
1 t. baking soda
1 t. vanilla

Combine sugar and buttermilk in a medium saucepan.  Slice butter cube and add to saucepan.  Stir and bring to a boil over medium heat, continuing to stir often as butter melts.  When the mixture has reached a full boil, remove from heat.  Cool 1 minute and add vanilla and soda.  Serve warm or cool.  Store in the refrigerator.  Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

5-Spiced Stuffed French Toast
From The Bad Girl's Kitchen

8 sliced thick, sturdy bread
4 oz.s. soft cream cheese ( I used whipped)
1 t. 5-Spice or cinnamon
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
4 eggs, well beaten
1 t. 5-Spice or cinnamon
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. milk
1 T. butter

Combine cream cheese, 5-Spice or cinnamon, brown sugar and vanilla in a small bowl and mix well.  Spread 1/4 of the mixture on each of 4 slices of bread.  Top with remaining bread slices to make sandwiches.  Beat eggs well with a whisk in a small bowl.  Add 5-Spice or cinnamon, vanilla and milk.  Pour egg mixture into a 9x13-inch baking dish.  Add sandwiches to egg mixture.  Soak until almost all of the egg has been absorbed by the sandwiches, turning to soak evenly.  Slowly heat butter in a large skillet.  Add sandwiches and cook about two minutes on each side or until heated through and a golden brown.  Remove to plates, top with Buttermilk Syrup and enjoy.  Serves 4.

 If you are not familiar with it, Secret Recipe Club matches you up with another blogger each month and you secretly visit their blog, select a recipe, prepare and blog about it on a specific date each month.  All the details are on their blog.

Linking to these great parties:
Mop It Up Monday
Marvelous Monday
Make the Scene Monday
Melt in Your Mouth Monday
Mealtime Monday
Manic Monday
What'd You Do This Weekend?

Ingredient Spotlight-Herbed Potato Frittata

 

The theme for today’s Ingredient Spotlight over at Eat at Home is Eggs 2012.  Now eggs go into lots of things, but this is for recipes that highlight eggs.  I am sharing one of my favorite egg dishes.

This is one of those dishes that Rachael Ray calls a B, L, D.  It can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  It is a good, basic recipe with which much can be done.  Just use your imagination.  Other cheeses, other seasonings, the addition of chopped cooked veggies, whatever.

This frittata can be a meatless main dish, served as a side dish with meat, or cooked meat can be added to make it a one-dish meal.   Bacon, sausage, ham, ground beef, chicken, and even cooked chopped steak could be added if desired.

If the potatoes are cooked ahead of time, this can be on the table in less than 15 minutes.   If I have cooked the potatoes ahead, I cook the red pepper in the butter for about 5 minutes, before adding the other ingredients.

Any leftovers warm nicely in the microwave.  Since hubby does not eat breakfast, I sometimes make this up and use it for a quick and easy breakfast dish that I just have to warm up.

Herbed Potato Frittata
2 cups diced red potato
1/4 c. finely chopped red pepper
1 T butter
1/3 cup sliced green onions
1 garlic clove, minced
1/2 t. paprika, smoked if you have it
1 teaspoon dried basil
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
6 eggs, well beaten
3/4 cup (3 ounces) shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

If potatoes are not already cooked, cube them and cover with water.  Salt lightly.  Bring to a boil and cook until tender, about 10 minutes.  Add red pepper to water after 5 minutes.  Remove from heat, drain, and set aside.  Melt butter in a 10-inch non-stick skillet.  Add green onions and garlic and cook 2 minutes, stirring often.  Add seasonings and cook an additional 2 minutes, stirring.  Add potatoes and stir until they are well coated with seasonings.  Spread potatoes out into an even layer.  Pour the eggs over the potatoes.  Cook, uncovered, over med-low heat until almost set, about 8 to 10 minutes.  If the handle of the skillet is not ovenproof, wrap it in foil.  Place skillet under broiler and broil until egg is completely set, about 3 minutes.  Sprinkle with cheese, and broil until cheese melts, about 1 minutes.  Remove from oven.  Cut into 4 to 6 wedges, depending on whether it will be a main dish or a side dish.  Serves 4 as a main dish and 6 as a side dish.  (Or me all by myself for a few days!)

Linking to:  Ingredient Spotlight
Cast Party Wednesday
Wow Me Wednesday-Ginger Snap Crafts
Wow Me Wednesday-Polkadots on Parade
What I Whipped Up Wednesday
Whatever Goes Wednesday
Whole Foods Wednesday
Full Plate Thursday
Tastetastic Thursday
Tasty Thursday
Sweet Treats and Swanky Stuff

The Convenience of Ready Cooked Potatoes

One of the most convenient things to have in your kitchen is some refrigerated, all-ready-cooked potatoes.  Of course, frozen potatoes have been available at the grocery stores for a long time, and refrigerated potatoes have shown up in recent years.  It doesn’t take much effort, however, to make a supply of all-ready-cooked potatoes yourself.  Russets, reds, and Yukon gold potatoes are all varieties that can be cooked up and kept on hand for a few days.

I like to select whole potatoes of a similar size and steam them until they are just tender, but the potatoes can also be boiled, and Russets can be baked in the oven or the microwave.  There is no need to peel that potatoes before cooking.  Reds and Yukon golds can be served with the skins on.  My hubby doesn’t like the skin on any type of potato, so I do peel them after cooking.  The potatoes can be grated for hash browns and cubed for soup and other dishes.

So with all-ready cooked potatoes, you can make country hash browns.  We all probably have our favorite recipe for these.

You can make potato soup.  I posted one of my two favorite potato soup recipes here.

You can use the potatoes to make sauced potatoes.  Just cube the potatoes and add them to white sauce, cheese sauce, curry flavored sauce or other flavors.  Make the amount of sauce necessary for the amount of potatoes you are using.

One of my favorite things to do with all-ready cooked potatoes is to make a Meat, Potato, Egg Scramble.  As Rachael Ray says this can be served for breakfast, lunch or dinner.  The meat can be almost whatever you have on hand:  sausage, bacon, ham cubes, Italian sausage, ground beef, link sausage-just whatever you have on hand.  If you cook the meat ahead of time, this is very quick to put together.  It may be changed up by using different seasonings.  I use chili powder and cumin for southwest, Greek seasoning for Greek, Italian seasoning or oregano and fennel seeds for Italian.  I use other seasoning blends, mainly whatever I am in the mood for.

Meat, Potato, Egg Scramble
1/2 to1 lb. meat or bacon, cooked
or 6 slices bacon, cooked
3 T. bacon grease, butter, margarine, olive or salad oil
1/3 c. chopped onion
1/4 c. chopped red or green pepper (opt.)
6 potatoes, cooked and cubed
1 t. salt
1/2 t. freshly ground pepper
4 to 6 eggs, depending on how many people are eating
2 T. milk for 4 eggs and 3 T. milk for 6 eggs
Shredded cheese of your choice (opt.)

Heat bacon grease or other fat in a large skillet.  Add onion and pepper and cook about 5 minutes.  Add potatoes, salt and pepper and other seasonings of choice.  Cook until potatoes are golden brown, turning occasionally.  Add meat of choice and continue cooking until it is heated through.   In a bowl, mix eggs with milk until well blended.  Pour over potatoes and cook, stirring occasionally until the eggs have set.  Sprinkle cheese over the top and let melt or serve cheese on the side to sprinkle over individual servings.  Serves 6.  Reheat leftovers in the microwave or a skillet.

Linked to:  It's a Keeper Thursday
Tastetastic Thursday
What's Cooking Thursdays
Creative Juices
Low-Cost Food Challenge Link Up
Full Plate Thursday
Twisted Thursday

Ingredient Spotlight-Southwest Bacon and Egg Cups

Since I didn't post on Monday, I would like to take a moment to welcome my new followers and to thank everyone who reads this blog.  I appreciate that you take the time out of your busy lives to do so.  I hope that you find the information you find here useful.

Bacon, Oh how I love bacon.  If I can’t have a sweet, then bacon is the next best thing.  Now the best of both worlds would be Chocolate Covered Bacon.  Well someone has done that, and I will be trying that one day.

For now I am offering a recipe for something a little more conventional.  While leafing through the latest issue of Cooking Light, I ran across a recipe called Mini Bacon and Egg Tarts.  It looked interesting so I decided to make my own take on it.

The recipe made eight tarts, and I wanted to make 12 since that is how many places I have in my muffin pan.  I also wanted to use 12-grain bread instead of the whole wheat white bread that was suggested.  Since my slices of bread were large, I cut them in half.  Because of this, some of the egg spilled out over the edges of the cups.  Next time I will  cut the bread slices so they are square.  The crusts are cut off the bread anyway so a little extra bread cut off is OK.  That just makes more bread to make bread crumbs from.

I  wanted to give the recipe a Southwestern spin so added minced red pepper, chili powder, and cumin.  Jalapeno pepper could be added for a little more heat if one wished.  Next time I make these I want to do an Italian version with some browned Italian sausage (maybe 1/4 lb.), oregano, fennel and mozzarella cheese.

Since it’s January, and many of use are thinking both about budget and diet, this recipe fits in well.  It is relatively low fat and inexpensive.  These warm up nicely heated in a microwave for 30 seconds, so are nice to make up and keep on hand.  The bread cups can be made ahead, and the egg mixture mixed up and stored in the fridge to save time putting these together in the morning.

Southwest Bacon and Egg Cups

Loosely adapted from Mini Bacon and Egg Tarts, pg. 169,  Cooking Light, Jan./Feb. 2012

12 slices 12-grain bread, crusts removed and cut so they are square  (any bread of choice may be used)
1/4 c. melted butter
4 slices bacon
1/3 c. finely chopped onion or green onion
1/3 c. finely chopped red pepper
1 clove garlic, minced
5 eggs, well beaten
1/4 c. 1% milk (skim, 2%, or whole milk can be used)
1 t. chili powder
1/2 t. cumin
1/2 t. salt
1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. (2 oz.) shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Flatten bread squares with rolling pin or the palm of your hand.  Lightly brush both sides of bread with melted butter.  Press each bread slice into a cup of a greased muffin tin.  Bake at 400 degrees 5 min.  Cool slightly if filling right way.   Reduce oven to 350 degrees.   Meanwhile cook and crumble bacon.  Discard grease from skillet bacon was cooked in and wipe out with a paper towel.  Add onion, red pepper and garlic.  Cook for about 5 minutes.  Cool slightly.  Combine eggs, milk, and seasonings.  Mix well.  Add bacon and onion, red pepper and garlic mixture.   Spoon egg mixture evenly into toast cups.  (I use a gravy ladle.).  Sprinkle each cup with about 2 teaspoons cheese.  Bake about 15 minutes or until eggs are set.  Cool slightly.  Remove from muffin cups, using a knife to loosen if necessary.  Makes 12

Linking to:  Ingredient Spotlight

These Chicks Cooked

Cast Party Wednesday
Wow Me Wednesday-Ginger Snap Crafts
Wow Me Wednesday-Polka Dots on Parade
Whatever Goes Wednesday