Put the tomatoes, onion, garlic and pepper into a blender, and puree. Put the salsa in a skillet with a tablespoon of oil, add the spices, and thicken over low heat. Thinly coat the bottom of another skillet with olive oil and fry the tortillas for one minute on each side. The air pockets should puff up. Fry the eggs in the same skillet, adding more oil as necessary, to the desired runniness. If using the beans, heat them in a skillet with one tablespoon of olive oil. Plating order: tortilla, egg, salsa, beans, cheese, green onions, sour cream. Serve while hot and deeeeeelicious!
*I play pretty fast and loose with spices, so you can put in whatever you want and as much of them that you want.
I tend to play pretty fast and loose with
My cousin Nicole, who is staying with us, made these little appetizers for us. I don't usually like cucumber, but with the sun-dried tomato paste, feta cheese, and parsley on top, they were a wonderful, light starter to our huge meal. Sort of like the leg stretches you do before a marathon. She didn't have a name for them, so Mama and I decided to call them Italian flags because they were red, green and white, plus all the ingredients are Italian (I'm not sure that cucumbers and parsley are particularly Italian, but I guess they have them there, soooooo shut it.)
I was waiting to post this until I could the picture loaded onto my computer, but that may never happen. I can't find my digital camera, so I had to use my camera phone for the lasagna, but I can't e-mail on my phone, so I sent it to my mom's Crackberry, but her phone isn't working, so y'all are just going to have to use your imaginations.
I got the recipe out of Food Network Magazine, and I'm sure it would have been great if I hadn't totally screwed it up. First of all, I didn't buy enough cans of tomatoes. Second, I was in the middle of cooking when I read that I needed a food processor. So, I ended up with too little of a sauce that wouldn't spread properly. I tried to add some milk and flour to it to thicken the liquid a little, and it worked okay, but it ended up really bland.
Things I learned:
1) Read the whole recipe before you even do your shopping.
2) You should cook the lasagna sheets before you bake the whole thing.
I bought a Paula Deen cookbook (she's my patron saint of the kitchen), and a lot of her recipes call for food processors, too. I called Mama and asked her what I could use instead (because food processors are expensive), and she said to just get a blender. I went down to Super Target (It's so awesome!), and found a little red Oster blender that has twelve speeds, including puree, and I think I'll make some huevos rancheros for my company next weekend.
Today I'm going to make cashew chicken, but I don't like cashews, so I'm making ... chicken.
I made cinnamon rolls! I saw a recipe in Food Network magazine and thought, "Hey, how hard can that be?" Very. That is the answer. I had to use yeast to make it, so it was more like baking bread than I thought it would be. The recipe had these weirdly specific instructions that I wasn't used to, like "Heat the milk to 100 degrees. Pour the yeast and sugar into the milk, don't stir. Let it sit until foamy." Did it get foamy? No, it did not. I don't see why it would. Does yeast make milk foamy? Whatever, I used it anyway.
Working with the dough was different. The texture was sticky, which I guess is what bread dough is like. When I flattened it out, the edges were rounded, so when it was time to roll it up, the ends didn't have the right layers. I decided to just use the middle of it since there was no way I was going to eat it all anyway. I couldn't seem to roll them very tightly, so I knew they were going to look weird. I hoped for the best though. When I got them out, they were all wonky in the pan, but they smelled great. I threw the glaze together (just powdered sugar, butter, and whipping cream), slapped it over a couple of them, and they tasted awesome! I might put a little less butter in the filling next time, but other than that I was very happy with them. To ward off the structure problems, I might flatten the dough a little more and cut an even rectangle out. And I'll definitely make sure that there are more people to eat them.
Next time: Lasagna! I've already got the ingredients. On a related note, groceries are really expensive.
I have actually been cooking; it just hasn't been anything that really required any effort. I made chocolate chip muffins from a mix to bring to one of my classes. I had to buy a muffin pan, but I figure I'll have to make muffins again one day, so it's an investment really. I was a little worried about making them because my mom told me that dark pans are more likely to burn the food, but I couldn't find any light pans at Target (Don't give me crap about Target. I've only been in T-Town for two months and don't know anyplace better to get my cooking supplies). I covered the little cups in butter, though, so everything came out just fine. I'm not personally very big on muffins, but I may try to find a good recipe from scratch. With chocolate chips, of course. I don't abide by that fruit crap. My general rule for cooking is: Is this ingredient healthy? Then throw it in the trash.
Next, I made eggs. I saw Emeril the other day just throwing stuff into his scrambled eggs, so I just went to town one day. I put in green onions, bits of turkey slices, shredded cheese, and cayenne. The green onions were good because even when I didn't get a bite with onion, the onion essence was still there. They are definitely a keeper. I might try bacon next time instead of the turkey, because I can't really taste the turkey as much. Or the cheese. I definitely need to play around with it some more.
Next time: I bought the Paula Deen pots from Target, and the first thing I'm going to make in them is a Croque Madame recipe from Williams-Sonoma.
Success! Although I should add for the sake of full disclosure that my mother did most of the work, and I was just her little sous chef.
63 Egg Cake has a long history. The recipe was invented in 1857 by a girl at the local Episcopal Church. It won the Mississippi State Fair, and they've been making it for weddings and festivals ever since. The chapel has its own committee dedicated to the care and creation of the cake. It is the main event at their yearly festival, and if you don't get there by eleven a.m., you don't get any.
They call it 63 Egg Cake because the big version they use for weddings has 63 egg whites in it. The home version, however, only has eleven.
We thought the lack of egg yolks would make it less fattening, but there are 4 sticks and 4 Tb. of butter in it. If you ate four pieces of cake, you'd be eating a whole stick of butter. So, now I kind of get why they only make it once a year.
My mom, the expert baker that she is, was completely out of her element while making it. I was beating the egg whites while she creamed the butter with the flour, and she just kept shaking her head.
"I have never made a cake like this before," she said.
"Well, maybe that's why you haven't won the state fair," I said.
She cut her eyes at me. "If this doesn't work, we're making it my way next time."
When all was said and done, though, it was just like the cake we wait for all year. We were worried that it wouldn't taste the same unfrozen (the cake they sell at the church is just out of the fridge), but I dare say that it tasted even better. We definitely won't be making it every day, a) because it's so fattening, and b) because it took about four hours to make. This is Special Event cake only.
Things I Learned:It's time for a a more sober recap of last night's experiment. I picked a wonton soup recipe at random, and that was probably a mistake. Now, I've found an Emeril recipe for wonton soup, and it looks a lot better, like, it uses broth instead of stock. I'll try the soup again (one day) and be more judicious with my ingredients. I ad-libbed the crab meat, and it was definitely a mistake. Pork all the way next time. And I think I need to let the wontons sit for a while after I seal them before I boil them to try to keep them from falling apart.
Now, on to the next one! My mother and I have acqired the super top secret recipe of the 63 Egg Cake they make at the Episcopal church up the road. They only make it when they have a craft festival once a year, and I missed it this year. My dad knows someone who goes to the church, and he snagged the recipe for us. Lord only knows what he had to do to get it, but I did see him sneaking out of the house one night in a trench coat and shades.
Let me just start by saying that I use the term "chef" in the loosest possible sense. I cook, but certainly not professionally and not always even very well. The only people I cook for are my family and every once in a while a friend or two. Mostly, I cook for myself, so I have a lot of leftovers. I wish there were more recipes for single people. Some food just cannot be eaten reheated, and I feel wasteful.
Dishes I have cooked successfully:
Grilled Chicken
Vodka Rustica Penne
Poulet au Porto
Chicken Enchiladas
Things I just cannot seem to cook:
Chocolate Freaking Chip Cookies
That's right. I can cook French food, but not cookies. Hell if I know what that's all about. The day I finally figure it out, there will be a party they'll feel in Auckland.
