I offered to make breakfast for the occasion. I wanted something quick and easy that didn't require a ton of prep and wouldn't leave me trying to scramble 16 eggs and fry two packages of bacon all at once. I ended up making bacon-wrapped eggs in a cup, which I think I originally found on this blog but have also seen variations on Pinterest. I also made homemade kale chips and homemade tortilla chips. There was other food, but it wasn't quite as blog-exciting, so who cares.
If you've never made kale chips, they are super easy. I try to buy kale that's already cut into pieces to save time. Just dry off the kale (pat down with paper towels), put in a big bowl, drizzle a little olive oil and some salt, shake to coat all the pieces, then spread on a cookie sheet covered in wax or parchment paper (I used wax because that's all we had). Bake in the oven until the "chips" are crispy. I did 350 for 5-7 minutes I think. I still have a ton of kale leftover so I'll be making this a few more times this week. Or maybe I'll get really inspired and make my favorite soup again. We do have some sausage leftover from today, and I know we have potatoes ...
Homemade tortilla chips are also really easy. Cut corn tortillas into wedges (I did sixths), lay out on a cookie sheet, spray with non-stick cooking spray, turn them over, spray the other side and sprinkle with salt. Bake in the oven at 350. I think I did 6 minutes on one side, pulled out the sheet, flipped each chip, sprinkled that side with salt, then baked for 4 minutes more and that worked pretty well. (I wonder what else you can bake into "chips"? Besides potatoes of course.)
Moving on to the main course, the bacon-egg cups. I did half with turkey bacon (the good stuff shown above), the other half were mostly regular bacon, but I ran out and did a few with lunchmeat ham. I pre-cooked the bacon for about 5 minutes - the turkey in the oven at 350, the regular bacon on the stove so I could drain the fat. Make sure to spray the muffin tin with non-stick spray first.
After the bacon is partially cooked, assemble. I did one egg in each, topped with green onion, a mix of chopped fresh basil and fresh sage, a little piece of mozzarella (I don't think it was low-moisture but it wasn't high-moisture ... maybe medium moisture? I found it in the fridge, I think my husband bought it), and fresh grated Parmesan. This is one of those recipes where you can get creative. As we were cleaning up, my husband asked me why I didn't put kale in the egg cups. (Which surprised me, he normally has an aversion to "weird healthy food.")
The recipe I was following called for 12 minutes at 400. About halfway through I realized the oven was still at 350, so I bumped it up to 400 and added a few extra minutes. Basically, cook it until the eggs are done to you. Some of the eggs were a little bit overcooked for my preference (I like them cooked so they aren't super runny but aren't hard) but they were still delicious! You can stick a toothpick in to see if they are cooked to your liking. (The toothpicks in the photo below are to indicate which ones have no onion and were for one of my sisters-in-law.)
Meanwhile ... my "lil chef" was preoccupied with her own dinner hopes.
It was a family gathering, so time for pictures of my niece!
Big news: she has enough hair for pigtails!! She was born bald like her dad (and also like me) so even though she is 22 months old, she just now has enough hair for pigtails.
My mom wanted to see the cat in her Christmas costume. Oh boy did she hate that.
Also, this is the closet thing to dolls in the house.
I have running-related stuff to post, but I'll put that in a separate post.
No comments:
Post a Comment