Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Perfect Poach!

October 31, 2014 by Mary 8 Comments

I love poached eggs! Poached eggs and corned beef hash – my all time favorite diner breakfast! I know, lots of calories, but every once in a while…a bit of heaven. Did I ever make poached eggs at home? No. Never. Too scared they’d just be a mess. And then I kinda remembered from my mom that you were supposed to put in a little vinegar or something…too complicated, especially when you’re really hungry in the morning and just want to eat quickly.

Well Perfect Poach is here to the rescue! This is our seventh and last item in our fall MARY’s secret ingredients box. This is from the Tovolo company and they believe that time spent cooking should be fun. They believe in creating kitchen tools that out-perform your expectations, but also put a smile on your face. Isn’t that nice?

So here are these little babies. They’re open-ended little bags, made of coffee filter-like material and shaped like the toe of a shoe. You put these in cups and open up the top. Bring a pot of water to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.

Crack your eggs into each cute little bag and immediately pick up the bag with tongs and lower it into the simmering water – four minutes for a soft yolk poached egg, six to seven minutes for a harder poached egg, like my husband prefers. Lift those little bags out with tongs when ready and place on a side plate. Tilt out any water that got into the bag on that side plate, because you don’t want water on your toast. Then slide the little bugger onto your toast. Voila! A perfect poached egg – courtesy of Perfect Poach. You can check out their website for other little handy tools that will also brighten your day. I LOVE people who want to make my life easier and put a smile on my face!

Spinach Dip Mix Omelette

October 28, 2014 by Mary 9 Comments

The Spinach Dip mix is our 6^th item in our fall MARY’s secret ingredients box. This dip mix is made by a sweet company in Florida, called The Pantry Club. The company was founded by husband and wife team, Alicia and Matt Webb, and while typically I’m not a dry mix user kinda gal, this dip is totally all natural and when rehydrated, tastes just like a fresh spinach mixture. Alicia and Matt have changed my mind about dry mixes. Just smell the fresh goodness coming out of it. And, it’s gluten free!

Of course you can make a dip out of it for crudités, crackers or pita chips. They say to make it with sour cream and mayonnaise. I used zero fat unflavored Greek yogurt and added the 2 tablespoons of mayonnaise or you might try adding 2 tablespoons of olive oil as my friend Daina did. It is important to make it ahead of time and refrigerate it for at least 2 hours, as they recommend. You need that time to let the flavors meld and bloom from their dried state.

Alicia and Matt also say you can use the dried dip as a flavoring agent. Perhaps adding it to a vegetable broth with some juices from sautéing skinless boneless chicken breasts would be great. But what I found to be super terrific is to add it to eggs to make the most delicious spinach omelette. Try this with your mix!

THE PANTRY CLUB SPINACH DIP MIX OMELETTE WITH SUNNY GOLD TOMATOES, PARSLEY AND ROMANO CHEESE – serves 2

4 eggs
2 Tbs. whole milk
½ package of The Pantry Club Spinach Dip Mix
1 Tbs. unsalted butter
½ cup sunny gold tomatoes, quartered
2 Tbs. roughly chopped parsley leaves
¼ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese
Additional parsley sprigs for garnish

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat eggs and milk with a whisk. Slowly add in the ½ package of Spinach Dip Mix and mix thoroughly to combine.

Melt butter in a large skillet over medium high heat. Swirl to completely cover bottom and sides of the pan. Pour in egg mixture. Let sit until the bottom has just cooked. Then transfer the skillet to the oven to let the eggs cook on top for about 5 minutes.

Bring skillet back up to the stovetop (make sure you’ve got a hot pad on the skillet handle) and scatter the tomatoes, parsley and cheese over one-half of the omelette. Fold over the remaining egg side on top and let cook until eggs are done to your liking. Or put back in the oven for a minute or two.

When done, slide out of the pan and onto a platter. Garnish with parsley and serve with LOVE!

Enjoy!!

Waffles for a Sunday Brunch

April 6, 2014 by Mary 38 Comments

To have a real brunch party is great fun – a different time of day to entertain! Last Sunday was our last day with Bianca and Cesare visiting from Italy by way of South Carolina, as Cesare is learning the American way in South Carolina for the Italian company he is working for. Bianca is the daughter of the family our eldest son lived with in Arezzo, when he was doing his semester abroad in college some 8 years ago. Our two families became instant friends with visits going back and forth from the day of our meeting. This stay Bianca was with us for 10 days, Cesare came on Thursday for the weekend. They both love food and fortunately are fans of my cooking so they are a joy to cook for. For her goodbye meal, Bianca wanted pancakes or waffles. I opted for waffles for Sunday brunch,

A variety of chicken and lamb sausages.

along with some sausages and a big beautiful fruit salad. Of course, since this was a party, some of us started with mimosas (made with Prosecco) or Bloody Marys.

Luscious fruit salad garnished with torn mint leaves.

I have not made waffles in a very long time, since the boys have grown up and we are not together on Sunday mornings very often. And I am not the type to be whipping egg whites to fold into the batter, if you know what I mean. I wanted something simple and quick, knowing I’d have to make a double batch for the eight of us. I found this wonderful recipe online from In Jennie’s Kitchen blog, similar to the one in the recipe book that came with the waffle iron eons ago that I could no longer find. It was great – perfect – easy – delicious! Bianca says she wants to get married, only so she can get a waffle iron as a shower or wedding present! (I think I’ll get her one soon!)

Now the thing I was fretting about late into Saturday night, was how was I going to keep the first cooked waffles warm while continuing to make them and have the full batch ready for everyone. A little research online came up with a very low temperature in your oven and put them straight on the racks, not on a plate or cookie sheet as that would cause moisture to form and sogginess to beset them. So I did this, but the lowest my oven would go was 175 degrees and they were recommending 150. So I turned the oven off and on, afraid they would dry out. In hindsight, I should have just left it on at 175 the whole time, as they could have been a bit hotter.

Here’s the recipe with thanks to In Jennie’s Kitchen:

QUICK & EASY HOMEMADE WAFFLES – makes 5 to 6 Belgian-style waffles

1 3/4 cups flour
1 tbs.baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 3/4 cups milk
2 large eggs
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, melted butter and vanilla extract. Pour the milk mixture over the dry mixture and whisk until just combined. Let sit five minutes to “develop” (just a fancy word for letting the baking powder activate).

Meanwhile, heat your waffle iron. Pour, or ladle, enough batter to cover about 2/3 of the surface (the rest will spread once you close the top). Most waffle irons have a handy light that goes on or off, signaling the waffles are ready. A sure sign of doneness is once you see all the steam has stopped shooting out.

Have a LOVEly brunch wherever you are!

Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Perfect Poach!

Spinach Dip Mix Omelette

Waffles for a Sunday Brunch

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