I love (and the NerdFamily does too!) mashed potatoes but I hate peeling them. I have a new secret weapon in easy and quick mashed potatoes, Food Mill
One more tip on great mashed potatoes? Salt the water you boil the potatoes in. That is right, just salt it heavily just like you do to pasta!
I needed to make an egg dish for my first MOPS of the year and I forgot to shop for the ingredients for my standards. So it was time to look around and cobble together a recipe. Well, it ended up getting rave reviews and I loved it too. I will definitely be making this again.
Ingredients:
1 pound cooked and crumbled sausage
1 thawed and drained package of chopped spinach (10 oz)
2 cans of cream of mushroom soup
9 eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 tsp pepper
1 1/2 cups Cheddar cheese
Process:
This is a 2 bowl process but it is super easy. In one bowl mix sausage, spinach and soup. In the other bowl beat the eggs and mix in milk and pepper. Then combine together and dump it into a 9 by 13 pan. Top evenly with shredded cheese.
Bake at 375 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.
Gordon Ramsay really feels comfortable in critiquing others, as is shown in Hell’s Kitchen. But is criticizing the food at Buckingham Palace going a bit far?
That is because one of his restaurants will be changing into the hands of another chef next month. The Berkley Hotel owns the Petrus restaurant and has decided to let Marcus Wareing take over the lease last month. Is it sad that I have watched enough of BBC America’s cooking shows to know and like Marcus Wareing?
(HT: The Observer)
The New York Times has an interesting article on current winner of The Next Food Network Star.
This is a modification of a Cooking Light white sauce. It doesn’t call for cream like a traditional beschemel or alfredo so I don’t know if this falls into any of the classical categories. The original sauce called for onions but those are not real popular in the Nerd Family so I compensate by punching up the spices. I use it in place of jarred alfredo sauce both for the calories, the money and the preservatives!
Ingredients:
2 cloves of minced garlic (it is about 2 big teaspoons of jarred garlic)
1 tsp canola oil
3 3/4 cups 1% or 2% milk (I have even used whole, it just isn’t as good for you;)
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup (about 4 ounces) shredded Fontina cheese
1/2 cup (about 2 ounces) grated Asiago (or Parmesan or Romano)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
Grating of fresh Nutmeg
1/2 tsp chili powder
pinch of Cayenne
**Only for the brave** pinch of red pepper flakes
Process:
Heat your pot to medium high heat. Add oil and garlic, remove from heat when you can just start to smell the garlic. Then stir in 3 cups of milk. Combine 3/4 cup of milk with the flour in a bowl and blend thoroughly with a whisk. Add the flour mixture into the pan and return it to medium heat. Stir constantly with a whisk and bring it to a boil Then cook it for 1 minute or until thick (stop if it thickens before 1 minute is up). Remove from the heat and add spices and cheeses. Stir until smooth.
That is it. Use at will!
As I look at my stats I see that I am getting a lot of BlogHer love on my Pancake Cake how-to. I just wanted to say welcome! So I am always looking for ideas for blog posts so do you guys have anything you would like to see?
I had posted this picture of the NerdBug’s 7th birthday cake a while ago and promised instructions so here they are! It is super easy with all store bought ingredients.
Ingredients:
Lemon or yellow cake mix with ingredients to make it
A Can of white icing
Strawberries, sliced
Butterscotch or Caramel Ice Cream Topping
Process:
Prepare cake as instructed on the package in 2 round cake pans. Cool thoroughly then slice the cakes in half. You will use all the cake slices cut side down so the browner part is up. Put your icing into a piping apparatus and put a small dollop in the center of the cake plate to prevent slippage. Place your first piece of cake on the plate. Intermix strawberry slices and circles of icing (like butter) around the edges of you base layer so they peek out. Place next layer of cake and repeat until your last layer of cake. Then take the lid off your ice cream topping and heat it in the microwave until it moves when you swirl the jar. Then looking at the naked top lightly pour the ice cream topping until it starts dripping off the sides like syrup. Then on the top center place a ring of strawberry slices and in the center of the strawberry slices place a generous swirling of icing just like butter. That is it!
The Nerd Family gathered around the tv last night to watched the new Food Network show Food Detectives. The kids loved it, NerdDad and I though? Blah! Normally I love Ted Allen on Iron Chef America but what did they do to him for this show? He seems weird and oddly scripted. The facts, well while they are true they definitely are not all that shocking or sophisticated. Anyone who has watched Good Eats, Mr. Wizard or Myth Busters knew just about everything in that show. Also the “tests” were not complete nor logical in the data collected or in the analysis. I hope it gets better but this may be a show for my kids while I am doing other things. Then again my 7 year old knew about the Scoville scale so maybe this isn’t the fun science resource I and other homeschoolers were looking forward too.
Here is the fort birthday cake for the Nerdling’s 3rd birthday Tuesday! I will post instructions later (but it was really easy).