Rainy Day Egg Drop Soup

One of Molly's favourite kinds of dishes is the warm noodle broth, but in college she would often just opt to cook noodles in a water and soy sauce mixture in between study sessions, which isn't very nourishing.

Since it's cold and rainy, I whipped up this much heartier version for our dinner. She asked me to make it another time, so I'm writing it down here for future reference. If you make it, let me know what you think!

Note that this recipe only makes enough for two as a main dish, but could easily feed more as a side to another Asian-fusion dish.

Ingredients:

• Water
• Chicken bouillon powder
• Soy sauce
• Powdered garlic
• Powdered ginger
• Sesame seeds
• Whole prickly ash pods
• Chili bean paste
• Sesame oil
• Black pepper
• Sugar
• Eggs
• Somen noodles

Directions:

1. Boil 3 cups of water. Add a heaping tablespoon of chicken bouillon powder, stir, and let boil for a couple minutes.
2. Add a splash of soy sauce, a generous dash of garlic, a few fingerfuls of the prickly ash, a good dusting of sesame seeds, a teaspoon of the chili bean paste, a generous dash of black pepper, a generous dash of sugar, a little bit of sesame oil, and as much ginger as you'd enjoy (I put in just a little less than the garlic).
3. Stir everything together, then let the mixture boil for a couple minutes until it becomes a nice broth.
4. In a separate bowl, mix two eggs with a quarter cup cold water. Pour the egg mixture into the broth, stirring the whole time with a fork. Boil for a good three or four minutes, until the eggs have cooked into lots of little visible chunks swirling in the broth.
5. Add a packet of somen noodles and boil for two minutes, stirring at intervals. (Our somen noodles come in a package with several individually bound sections of noodles. I used one of the individual sections, not the whole package.)
6. Let sit for a couple minutes, then serve up into two bowls and enjoy!

Nanny's Deviled Eggs

1) Hard-boil however many eggs you want to serve.

2) While still hot, carefully peel the eggs.

3) Cut the eggs in half and carefully remove the cooked yolks.

4) Melt a pat of butter into the hot yolks, then stir in just enough mayonnaise and homemade sweet pickle juice to make the right "stuffing" texture. Add salt to taste.

5) Sprinkle deviled eggs with paprika before serving.

Rise and Shine Baked Avocado

My husband sent me this recipe and asked me to post it here. I'm sure it was originally from a website, but I'm not sure which one. I found it posted here and here with a Google search, and who knows how many other places it's posted. Hope that's sufficient acknowledgement.

1 avocado, cut in half with pit removed

2 eggs
1/2 tsp Mexican seasoning (cumin, garlic, oregano, chili powder)
1/4 C. grated cheddar
crumbled bacon (optional)
diced green onion or chives (optional)
salsa
SPG, to taste

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

2. Place avocado halves into a baking dish and stabilize them with a little foil if needed.

3. Crack one egg into each empty pit of your avocado halves. You can scoop out a bit of the avocado if you need more room for the egg. (Pop the yolk if you don't desire to have it bake whole.)

4. Season with a bit of SPG. Sprinkle 1/4 tsp. of Mexican seasoning on each egg-filled avocado.

5. Top each seasoned half with shredded cheese (and optional crumbled bacon, if using) and bake for 10-15minutes.

6. Remove from the oven, top with salsa (and optional green onions or chives, if using), and enjoy.

Ham and Cheese Egg Cups with Hash Brown Crust

These were served at Evie's wedding on the table with the finger sandwiches and the hot hors d'oeuvres. They were cooked in those stand-alone silver muffin cups that allow you to cook muffins without a muffin pan. That enabled us to do the quantity we needed that day on large cookie sheets. 

We cooked them ahead of time, froze them, and reheated them the morning of the wedding. (They can be reheated from frozen or thawed. Reheat, covered, until thermometer inserted in center reads 160 degrees.) 

They're good if cooked, frozen, and reheated once. They are not good if frozen a second time and again reheated!

Ingredients

• 3 C. frozen shredded hash browns
• 1/4 C. butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1- 1 1/2 C. finely chopped ham
• 1/4 C. finely chopped onion
• 1/4 C. finely chopped red bell pepper
• 1 3/4 C. eggs
• 1/2 tsp. dried Italian seasoning
• 1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 400°F. Line regular muffin cup pan with foil muffin liners and spray with oil. In medium bowl combine potatoes, butter and salt; mix well. It works well to let them defrost 15 min or so.  Scoop ¼ cup hash browns into each muffin cup. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until edges are golden brown.

2. Sautee onion and pepper in a little olive oil.  Cook until tender. Mix with the ham and fill each cup equally with meat and veg mixture.

3. Stir eggs as if to scramble. Pour over meat mixture, filling each muffin cup equally. Sprinkle with cheese and a bit of Italian seasoning. Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.

Breakfast Muffin Eggs

1. Fry up sausage patties.

2. Place one in each (greased) muffin tin.

3. Crack one egg into each tin on top of sausage patty.

4. Gently rupture egg yolk and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

5. Bake at 350 degrees until egg is poached.

6. Delicious served with sliced avocado and fresh salsa, if desired.

NOTE: I've made this with sliced, cooked bacon in place of the sausage patties in a pinch. Just tear the pre-cooked bacon slice into thirds and line the bottom of the (greased) muffin tin with the pieces, overlapped to form a solid layer, almost like a cup in the bottom of the muffin tin.

Dot's Upside-Down Berry French Toast

We had this at a brunch at my friend Dot's house.  She had modified it significantly, and I've modified it further.  Here's the recipe as originally written.

5 eggs
3/4 C. milk
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 loaf French bread, sliced into thick slices
frozen berries
sliced bananas
1 C. sugar (I only use about 1/3-1/2 C.)
1 Tbsp. apple pie spice (opt.)
cinnamon sugar

Combine eggs, milk, baking powder, and vanilla.  Place bread in shallow dish and pour egg mixture over bread.  Cover and refrigerate overnight.

In the morning, preheat oven to 450 degrees.  Combine strawberries, bananas, sugar, and spice.  (Any fruit will do.  Dot used frozen mixed berries and less sugar.  I use a lot less sugar.)

Spoon fruit mixture in bottom of large, greased baking dish.  Place bread in a single layer over fruit.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar and bake 20-25 minutes.  Makes 8 servings.

NOTE: Dot spooned this out to serve it, but I like to dump it over and serve it like upside-down cake.  Yum!

"Strange-Boiled" Eggs

We discovered these quite by accident one day--see story here--but since they are a major hit with most kids who try them (including many who won't eat eggs any other way), I share them here.

You must follow the times listed exactly. [Trust me on this!]

Place eggs in a saucepan of enough cold water to cover them entirely.

Add 1 tsp. baking soda if you want them to be easy to peel in the end.

Bring to a rolling boil. Watch for it! (Not just the little bubbles of "I'm thinking about boiling soon," or the small blups of "I'm just starting to boil now," but the first good boil of, "Okay, now that's boiling." No sooner. No later.)

Boil exactly four minutes.

Remove from heat. Cover pot immediately with lid and let sit--covered--for exactly 30 sec.

Drain and place immediately in cool water.

Peel and enjoy!

*The yolk will be semi-solid but very soft, and the white will be solid, but not as hard as a hard-boiled egg.

A word of warning: these are delicious fresh and hot, but they are absolutely disgusting as leftovers in the fridge. If you need to make them ahead to eat on a hurried morning, stick with hard-boiled!

Brunch Casserole

Everyone in the world probably already has this recipe, but I'm making it this weekend at the Beach House and I didn't want to have to take my recipe card with me. So, here it is...

6 slices store-bought bread, crusts removed
6 eggs
2 C. milk
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. dry mustard (opt.)
1 lb. sausage, fried & drained
1 1/2 C. shredded cheddar cheese
3/4 C. onion, chopped

Mix eggs, milk, salt, and (opt.) mustard. Set aside. Butter one side of each slice of bread and make a bottom layer in a 9x13 casserole dish. Sprinkle with sausage and cheese. Pour egg mixture on top. Cover and let stand in refrigerator overnight. Bake at 325 degrees for 45 minutes or until center is set.