Are you superstitious?
Author: Elizabeth
Breakfast Muffins
The other day, my refrigerator was basically empty, save for some veggie sausage, cheese, eggs, and a few bottles of condiments.
Being the enterprising young lass that I am, I said “Well, gosh darn it, I can make some breakfast muffins.”
Breakfast muffins? Yeah, they’re like mini quiches except less snooty. They taste like the sausage biscuit at McD’s. Just go with it. They are delicious. My husband pawed at me until I made a second batch, calling them his ‘precious’ like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.
Breakfast Muffins
Half a cup chopped veggie sausage (or non-veggie) – I like a mix of these two: Tofurky Italian and Morningstar Maple
2 tbsps minced red onion
2 tbsps butter, diced
1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
3 eggs
2 tbsps milk or half and half
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used Mexican mix from TJ’s)
Instructions:
Preheat oven to 350′
Using your fingers, blend the butter, baking powder and flour together with a pinch of salt until it’s crumbly. Then add about a quarter cup of water, and mix it together until it forms a blobby mess. There will still be some flour that is dry around the rim of the bowl. Evenly distribute the ‘blobs’ and the dry flour into 9 greased muffin cups. Use your fingers to flatten the biscuit dough into the bottom.
Then take the sausage and onion and evenly distribute them into the 9 cups. Do the same with the cheese.
Whisk the egg and milk together, and season with salt and pepper. Then evenly distribute the egg mix into the muffin tin. THE EGG MIX WILL NOT FILL UP THE TIN. That is okay! The eggs will puff up during baking.
Pop in the oven for 20-25 mins, until the eggs start to brown just slightly. Remove from oven and let cool for five minutes before serving.
Adobo
A few years ago, I learned that my part-Filipino husband had fond memories of his mom making him chicken adobo.
Being an eager newly-wed, I promptly educated myself on what is the national dish of the Philippines. It’s a tangy treat that is sure to please a wide variety of palates.
If you enjoy Latin-cuisine, you may be saying ‘Hey, isn’t adobo one of our things?’ and you wouldn’t be entirely wrong. In fact, when the Spanish came to the Philippines and found a dish comprised of soy sauce, vinegar, and garlic, they named it adobo- which basically means marinated. Although technically it’s more about the technique than the ingredients.
Chicken Adobo can be made a variety of ways and with a variety of meats. Many recipes will insist on browning and on using only dark meat (like thighs).
My recipe is not this. It’s slow-cooker adobo. It’s easy, and it tastes good. Here’s the recipe:
Slow-Cooker Chicken Adobo
4 chicken breasts
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine vinegar
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 large yellow onion, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp ginger powder
Put the liquids and dry ingredients in the slow cooker, and layer the onions on top, and then the chicken.
Turn the cooker on high, and cook for a few hours. Then stir, so that the chicken is coated. Cook for a few more hours, until the chicken is falling apart. Serve with steamed rice and broccoli.
Po’Boys
Our trip to New Orleans continues! Up next: Verti Marte!
Verti Marte, at first glance, is your typical neighborhood bodega. Overpriced laundry detergent, wine and hostess cupcakes line the shelves.
However, in the back of Verti Marte, lies something special. Something very special.
Their deli counter.
The menu is extensive. There are probably 20-something sandwiches, and even more sides and plates.
There is a delightfully old-school case filled with trays of goodies and an equally delightful grumpy counter person.
When I went, it was the end of the day and they were out of the oyster-shrimp po’boy, so I ‘settled’ for the shrimp.
It was not settling.
This sandwich beat all my expectations for a po’boy. The spread on the sandwich was so flavorful, so well seasoned! The shrimp- crispy and tender. It all came together beautifully. Be warned: the sandwiches are large- a foot long; for us that meant it fed two.
Please note the street in the background of the photo below; VM has no tables. You can sit on the curb outside like we did, or walk over to the park.
And to balance things out, we got a small container of the spinach and artichoke casserole. Wholly chunks of cheese was that good stuff! It looks like kind of a mess here, but trust me, if you like creamy, cheesy spinach, you’d love it. It even had a ‘crust’ to make it a proper casserole. And it was like $3.
Recommended: Verti Marte 1201 Royal St
New Orleans, LA 70195
Crawfish.
I’m in New Orleans this week, so get excited for a lot (I mean a lot) of food-centric blog posts.
We’re kicking off the week with my adventure to Big Fisherman Seafood, on Magazine Street.
Our hotel is downtown, but it was a beautiful 65 degree morning, so we decided to walk there. The straight shot down Magazine Street was lovely. It took us through the lower edge of the Garden District, a really sweet neighborhood with great NO architecture, upscale stores and quirky restaurants. It kind of reminded me of Santa Cruz, back in California.
Anyways, eventually we got to our destination: Big Fisherman. You will notice I don’t have a shot of the storefront or the interior. It’s nothing to write home about. A gray concrete building outside. Inside, a surprisingly spacious room, with only a few trays of seafood (today: cold shrimp, dover sole, boiled crawfish, boiled corn and potatoes). Maybe it was just because it was a Tuesday afternoon, but I was kind of expecting more. In any case, it made our decision making easy. One pound of cold cooked shrimp, and two pounds of boiled crawfish, please. With a bottle of remoulade, it came to about $24, so it wasn’t cheap.
We pulled up to the curb (no tables, natch) and went to town.
Dang, no one told me crawfish are so much work for such a little reward! But the little guys were pretty tasty, sweet and savory all at once. They were boiled with a cajun (creole?) spice mix that made me want to suck on the shells. The shrimp were awesome too. Huge. Meaty. I could eat those for days. I feel a shrimp-kick coming on.
Overall score: recommended if you are in the neighborhood. BYO newspapers, sauce, beverages.
Cheap Trick
I love cheapies.
Who doesn’t?
But a cheapie that doesn’t actually work is not a cheapie. It’s a waste.
However, I’ll tell you what’s not a waste: E.L.Fs Eyeliner and Shadow Stick. It’s eyeliner. It’s a shadow crayon. It gives you easy rockstar eyes in a flash. All for the low-low-pop-one-in-every-purse-price of $3.00.
I think the color is technically called ‘smoke’- the shadow-y end is gunmetal gray, and the liner end is black.
Is it Chanel quality? No.
But is it handy to have around? Yes.
Charlie Hunnam Chicken
Alternate title: Charlie Hunan Chicken.
What’s with the name of that dish? Well, let’s explore:
Charlie Hunnam: Hot and delicious. Left alone, I would devour him.
Hunan Chicken: Hot and delicious. Left alone, I would devour it.
Enter: Charlie Hunnam (Hunan) Chicken
***THE INTERNET NEEDS THIS.****
Hunan cuisine is generally know for it’s liberal use of chili peppers, shallots and garlic. Too often, it turns into a sweet mess when you get it at a non-Hunan Chinese restaurant. Here’s a recipe you can try at home. Feel free to modify the amounts to suit your preferred level of heat. Because I’m sure Charlie is an accommodating guy.
Charlie Hunnam Chicken
1 pound boneless skinless chicken, cut into strips* (breasts, tenders, thighs…)
1 tablespoon honey
2 tbsps reduced sodium soy sauce
2 tbsps rice wine vinegar
2 tbsps sherry
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 teaspoon dried chili pepper
3 tbsps cooking oil
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp flour
Half a red onion, julienne
Pinch of fresh cracked pepper
4 green onions, cut lengthwise into 1-inch sections
Set a frying pan or wok to heat on medium with the cooking oil.
Combine flour, cornstarch, and pepper. Toss the chicken to coat with the flour mixture.
Fry chicken in the cooking oil until cooked through then remove chicken and drain on paper towels.
Using the same pan, add the red onion and green onion, and cook until the red onion starts to become translucent.
In a separate pan, bring the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, honey, sherry, bean sauce, chilis, garlic and ginger to a boil for five minutes.
In the original pan, toss the cooked chicken, sauce, and onions together to combine.
* If you want to be an overachiever, you can double the sauce, and marinate the chicken in half of it before dredging it with the flour mixture. Just be sure to pat it dry. Discard the used marinade.
Image source: Pinterest (Original?)
Easy Does It.
From left: Greased Lightening, Cinna-snap, Mauve It, Sonic Bloom
I stopped painting my nails a long time ago. Who has the time? All the waiting and then the inevitable feeling of failure when you think you can open that bottle of sparkling water without disturbing your polish- only to be proven, yet again, that you can’t. And instant dry polishes were horribly unreliable. They didn’t cover in one coat. Limited colors. And the ‘instant’ results were, in reality, mixed.
Who wants that?
Not me.
But alas! Impatient ladies of the world, DRI your tears. (See what I did there?) Sally Hansen Insta-Dri polish. Good colors (Except I want a DARK red. Almost black. Can you make that happen, Sally?)
Fast drying. Good opacity and a nice, wide brush.
I’m on my fourth bottle.
Clogs.
Image Credit: http://www.lottafromstockholm.co.uk/
Meet my new obsession.
Don’t even try to tell me that this Swedish throwback is not the perfect mix of nostalgia and utility.
Wear with socks for now for a cute winter-y look, pair with cropped jeans come spring.
PS: it’s comfy. You can buy your own pair here
Chard.
It’s January. It’s cold (yes, even here in California). And that means you want some warm, comforting food, to eat as you binge watch Battlestar Galactica.
But it’s also the New Year. And if you are like most Americans, you probably made a resolution that involves your health.
But it’s just not the right time of year for salad. Oh, how much easier it would be to keep said resolutions if the New Year came during the time of year when a perfectly ripe tomato with just a sprinkle of salt is a totally viable meal option.
Enter: Swiss Chard Gratin.
It’s greens. It’s a whole onion.
(It’s also a little bit of butter, milk and breadcrumbs, but I won’t tell if you don’t tell.)
I modified this recipe from here
Swiss Chard Gratin
Serves 2 (can be easily multiplied!)
- 1 bunch Swiss Chard, cleaned and chopped (red, rainbow, whatever you got. The dish in the photo used red)
- 1 medium sized yellow onion, chopped.
- 1 cup milk
- 3 tbsps of butter
- Dash of cream, optional
- Dash of nutmeg
- Salt to taste
- 1 tbsp flour
- 3 tbsps breadcrumbs, optional
- 1 tbsp olive oil, optional
Preheat the oven to 350.
Place the chard in a pot and add half a cup of water. Place the pot on the stove and cover, boil for five minutes, until the stems of the chard start to soften and the leaves wilt. Remove.
While the chard is steaming, put the chopped onion, butter together in a pan over medium heat. Cook onions until almost translucent. Add the nutmeg and flour and cook a minute more, stirring constantly. The main goal here is to cook out the taste of raw flour and to open up the flavor of the nutmeg.
Then, add the milk to the onion mixture and stir, stir, stir. It will probably come together into a thick cream rather quickly, and as it does, take it off the stove. You don’t want it to get too thick. Add a pinch of salt and stir.
Take the chard, and drain off the excess water. Toss the chard in the pan with the cream sauce, adding more salt, to taste.
Flop (yes, that’s a technical cooking term) the whole deal into a glass dish (I used a small-ish pie plate) and spread it so it’s even.
Mix the breadcrumbs and olive oil together and sprinkle on the top of the gratin. You can always use more breadcrumbs, if you are into that kind of thing, but I’m trying to make this dish pass as a healthy option, so I’m leaving just a bit, for presentation.
Bake everything in the oven for about twenty minutes, or until it starts to bubble and get all golden-y. Remove and let cool for five minutes before eating.
Enjoy!
An Exercise In... 