Will Run for (Turkey) Bacon and (Kale) Chips

Today was my immediate family's Christmas. Will all our scheduling conflicts, my parents, my brothers and me and our significant others could not find a few hours around the holidays to gather and exchange gifts at the same time. Today was the earliest day we could all get together.

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.

reason #whatever why I'm a lucky lady:

My husband knows how to bake a cake from scratch. Including making the whip cream filling and chocolate icing from scratch. And the kicker is, it's his Dad's recipe. (Who by the way is a Vietnam War veteran and former cop of two different towns. He just happens to also love cooking and baking.)





While he was doing that, I was enjoying this:



What a surprise, it's a dry red whine.

Anyway, he made the cake on Friday night for a Saturday evening birthday party because we had plans to spend Saturday afternoon seeing Les Miserables, one of the few musicals my husband has ever expressed an interest in seeing. And it was pretty great.

On Saturday night, I did something for the first time.



No, not enjoy a delicious beer. I've done that many times before.

I played the Wii. Yes, I'm 28 years old and I've made it this long without ever playing a Wii. (Unless .... is Rock Band or Guitar Hero part of the Wii? Can you tell I'm not into video games?)

Oh yeah, like I said, it was a birthday cake he made. Here is the birthday girl.

Adventures in my kitchen: Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana Recipe

I think I've mentioned on here that I used to work at the Olive Garden. During my time there, I learned to loooove their Zuppa Toscana. Well, thanks to Google and the kindness of strangers, now I can enjoy it at home! (You can too by the way.)



How did it go? Here's the recipe with my notes/pictures...

Sweet Potatoes

In the never-ended quest to attempt to eat better, I'm trying to introduce sweet potatoes into my diet. Now, I'm not a very picky eater. The list of things I do not like is relatively short:

1. Black olives
2. Clams*

* For the record, I've only had canned clam chowder and I hate the "clammy" taste, but for all I know clams are very good, I'm just not eating them prepared in a yummy way. So someone make me some yummy clams and convince me otherwise.

The list of crazy foods I have tried is much longer ... off the top of my head:

1. Pigs blood (I had a Filipino roommate in college and tried this at a birthday party hosted by her mom)
2. Fried alligator (this past weekend)
3. Bison burger
4. Pheasant
5. Venison
6. Frog legs
7. Octopus

And I would willingly eat that all again, except for the pigs blood. (Sorry, R.)

Anyway, that's not the point of this post. The point is that my husband is a pickier eater than I am. (Really the only person I have met in my life that is less picky than me is my oldest brother.) So, if I'm going to introduce sweet potatoes into our diet, and have it stick, it has to taste good. So I've taken to the internets (and friends) to find yummy ways to prepare sweet potatoes.

Sweet Potato Quesedillas
My vegetarian friend would bring this to pot-luck 4th of July parties and holy crap were they yummy. She says the recipe comes from the Student's Vegetarian Cookbook.

1 medium sweet potato, shredded
1 can black beans, drained
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons cumin (you can do less. I think the original recipe called for 1. I just like more.)
Salt & pepper to taste
Monterey or cheese of your choice
Whole wheat or other tortilla of your choice

Saute the onions in oil for 4 to 5 minutes or until transparent. Add the shredded sweet potato and cook for another three to four minutes. Add the garlic and cumin and stir for a minute. Add the black beans and stir for a few minutes. Salt and pepper to taste and remove from heat. 

Veggie Friend Also Recommends: Another thing I do with sweet potatoes is slice them into (roughly) 1/4 to 1/2 inch slices, lay them on a baking sheet (no oil or spray) and cook them at 375 for about 15 minutes or until they're soft. I then eat them as is or dip them in peanut sauce (a recipe for another day) or some other dip I have around. You can also mix this up by coating the potatoes in a little oil, lime juice, chili powder, and salt before roasting them. Delicious.

@ashemischief suggested this, which is very similar to how I like to cook asparagus: I like to chop them & roast them with a mix of other potatoes in olive oil, parsley, salt & pepper. Also the Outback way is delish.

Well, I've never been to Outback, however, Google holds all the answers:


Outback's Sweet Potato Recipe

1 large sweet potato
2 tablespoons shortening
2 tablespoons kosher salt
3 tablespoons softened butter
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Rub outside of potato with shortening and sprinkle with kosher salt. Bake the potatoes at 350F for 45 to 60 minutes (until soft). Split the potato.Whip together butter and honey and put inside. Sprinkle with cinnamon and serve.

In other news, you can also turn carrots into "bacon." But I'm from the Midwest. That fact that "everything tastes better deep fried" is not news to me. 

Recipe: Mama's Rice Pudding

My mom made rice pudding a lot when I was growing up ... usually whenever we had leftover rice. Well, she's rubbed off on me, because now whenever we order Chinese, we never touch the white rice, and the payoff is rice pudding.

Here is her recipe:

1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups cooked rice
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 t cinnamon and nutmug (I assume this meant each ...)
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup raisins (I substitued choc chips ...)
Optional: chopped nuts (I omit bc Rob doesn't like)

Combine. Bake 1 hr at 250; then 1/2 hour at 300 (or until there is no liquid left when you tip a little).