Poaching Eggs: An Ordeal?

We eat a lot of eggs. I make them all sorts of ways: boiled, fried, scrambled, omelet-ed. But one way I didn't know how to make them was poached. I know, how could I have this glaring lack of knowledge concerning egg-cookery?

So my education began. I googled it AND read the egg section of my cookbook. My first attempt yielded eggs with a white consistency closer to egg drop soup than to a poached egg. Fail. Second attemp was a little better, but my eggs still had tentacles.Unfortunate. After that I had better luck but my eggs still weren't turning out as attractive as I would have liked them.

Then: my fave cookware company came out with a new stone. Holy tomatoes! It's a microwave egg cooker. When I first heard of it I was like, "What? Why?" Then I learned I could poach eggs with it. I was interested.

So I got my new stone (for free because I'm awesome and I get free samples of new stuff as a consultant). Instructions: Crack an egg into each well of the stone then add 1/3 cup water, microwave, covered, for about 2 minutes. Easy enough.

So I followed the directions... and my eggs were BEAUTIFUL! Photographic evidence.

And as good as they were, I couldn't help wondering if they'd be better cooked in broth. So, of course, I tried that next. I was right, they were better.

Ricotta Gnocchi

Last Monday we decided to go meatless for dinner. So I looked through my cookbook, "29 Minutes to Dinner Volume 2", and found the meatless section. After flipping past recipes for soup and tofu which I just did not feel like making, I found a recipe for "Ricotta Gnocchi". At first glance I was sure this recipe was far too fancy and difficult to make.

But it sounded so good and the picture was so tantalizing, I read the ingredients and there wasn't anything too fancy... then I read the instructions and I was amazed at how easy it was going to be to make this beautiful, fancy dish in just 23 minutes. I'm not kidding, it really took less than 30 minutes to make dinner!

So we set out for the grocery store for the two ingredients we did not have on hand: ricotta cheese and Parmesan cheese (block). That's it. Everything else I had on hand: flour, butter, olive oil, red pepper flakes, garlic and 1 egg. I left a couple things out, because that's how I roll. And I hate lemon as you may know, so I feel I had good reason. I picked up spinach because spinach is delicious and it sounded good.

Then Monday dinner time arrived. I began by preparing the simple dough in my batter bowl. I grated the parmesan, measured the ricotta and mixed them with the egg and flour. I used my Small Scoop to make the cutest little dough balls. I heated butter and olive oil in my non-stick pan and scooped the dough directly into the pan. I cooked each for two minutes and flipped them with my chef's tongs (coated in silicone to keep the pan safe) and cooked them another two minutes. As they cooked they flattened just a bit and looked kind of like small scallops when they were finished.

I removed them from the pan, added garlic and red pepper, and then tossed in a couple handfuls of fresh spinach leaves, just to coat and wilt a bit. I made a wilted spinach salad with our cheese gnocchi. Truth to tell, I had this ulterior motive since I purchased the spinach when we went out for cheese.

It was ridiculously delicious! My husband tried to confiscate mine and has requested this dish again and soon. I was so impressed with how simple and elegant this dish was and how quickly it came together.

The Invention of my Famous Quick Chicken Goulash

I say famous in the title, because I know that I'm going to be asked to make this one again and again! I was looking at the cupboard and I wasn't sure what I felt like making for dinner so I started setting things on the counter, to visualize the possibilities.

I started with tri-color rotini, because pasta is quick and Shane (husband creature) had to go to work in less than an hour. Also, they are pretty. Next to that box I placed a can of dark red kidney beans and a can of chicken. Ideas began to form in my head so I added a can of diced tomatoes and started the water to boil. I measured my pasta and went to the refrigerator to forage for produce. I found onions, garlic, green bell pepper and tomatoes, but decided it was quicker to use the canned diced tomatoes, so the fresh tomatoes had to stay behind.

The pasta water came to a boil so in the pot with the pasta. Set the timer and give it a stir and it can take care of itself in my non-stick pot, an invention handed straight from the gods to mankind. Nothing sticks to non-stick, not even ignored pasta!

On to my veggies! The onions and peppers I treated the same, almost. Of course, they are different creatures, you don't peel your pepper and you don't de-seed an onion, but I did mince them both with my food chopper. I had decided this dish would be soup-ish so I wanted them really little, I don't like big chunks of pepper or onion in my soup (unless it's French onion, and then peppers aren't invited at all). The onion went into the frying pan with a little sea salt and butter - to start them caramelizing faster. The pepper needed to wait a minute, as it wouldn't be added to the pan until the end. After peeling the garlic I pressed it right into the frying pan with the onions, which were about half way done at that time (I was going for a more light burn than a true caramelization). I added a little more butter and gave it a healthy stir before remembering I hadn't stirred the pasta since I had started it to boil.

So I stirred the pasta and then drained it, reserving 2 cups of my boiling water. To the same non-stick pot I emptied the can of diced tomatoes. I put the kidney beans back in the cupboard because I decided I didn't need competing proteins and I had already decided chicken sounded better. To the diced tomatoes I added the two cups boiling water and I hate to admit it, but 2 chicken bullion cubes (I'm out of canned low sodium stock!) I also added paprika, black pepper, basil and cilantro (I love cilantro, it goes all sorts of places it was probably never meant to go).

Back at the frying pan the onions were starting to get a nice crispy sort of brown, so I added the peppers and stirred them. Then stirred the soup, and then I opened the canned chicken, because yes it is edible, and rinsed it REALLY well. The onions were added to the soup and the chicken went into the pan to cook off the extra water. At this point I felt my soup was too thin, so I added about 1/2 can of tomato paste. I then decided it didn't have enough vegetables and it wasn't yet colorful enough so I added a can of corn, I normally use frozen, I really don't care for canned vegetables, BUT canned corn that is going to become part of soup is my one exception. I didn't even drain it, as I had added a bit much tomato paste and it would add a little bit of sweet and salty flavor.

By this time I had almost forgotten about the pasta again, but it was still hot when I added it to my soup, which I promptly decided was more like goulash than soup, so now it was a goulash (you see how recipe naming works now, don't you?) I also added the chicken, and debated adding black beans, decided against and stirred vigorously. This broke the rotini a bit, but that was fine with me. I let it simmer maybe 6-8 minutes before serving, allowing to cool for about 2 minutes and eating.

It was super yum, and Shane only poked it once to find out what all was in it before eating the whole bowl!

Waffle Brownies

This has got to be the easiest and fastest dessert ever, and it is also delicious! I found the recipe for waffle brownies when my friend Tanya shared a link to waffle cookies (you know I'll make them eventually):
Waffle Brownies

Anyway, here's how it went. I used a box of Jiffy chocolate muffin mix with mini chocolate chips (who doesn't love Jiffy mixes?) and per package instructions mixed it with 1 egg and 1/4 cup milk, then for added moistness and special flavor 1 T olive oil.

Using my Small Scoop, which holds about 1 T, I scooped the batter into the center of the waffle-cups (Is that what they're called?) of my waffle maker, which is the simple press kind. I would love the waffle maker that you flip, but mine is still cool because the waffles it makes are shaped like hearts.

I cooked these for a mere 30-40 seconds (using the timer on my microwave) and they came out fluffy and amazing. The ones I cooked for an entire minute were crisp, and darker but didn't have a burned flavor. We preferred them fluffy so I cooked the rest for 30-40 seconds each.

It made a decent amount, maybe a 20? I forgot to count, and they were going fast! I shared a few with my sister and my mom, who also loved them. I plan on making them again on Friday.

Here's a photo of the last one!