Good morning All!  I am writing this from the lovely Northern Virginia area in the hotel prior to some meetings today.  Lately I have been eating a lot of eggs and one thing I find with eggs is that they are very versatile.  Which is a good thing… but you have to keep it fresh and real!  Make eggs fun.

I wanted to walk through the way I cook an omelet.  This is something I talked about three years ago but I wanted to freshen it up and share a few things I have learned along the way.

Omelets: They’re easy to cook, right? We’ll see.

The first thing to remember is that you need the right size of frying pan. This is more important than you may think. Too large, and the omelet will dry out; too small, and it will not cook through.

As a basic guide, you need a 15 centimeter pan for a two-egg omelet and a 25 centimeter pan for a four to six egg omelet. That is, 6 in. and 10 in. respectively. Which, handily enough, is pretty much the size of pans you should have in your kitchen anyway.
The second most important thing is not to beat the eggs. I’ll repeat… do NOT beat the eggs like they stole your iPad from you.

Instead, abandon the habits of a lifetime and stir the yolks into the whites using a knife blade. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.  Warm your empty pan through on a moderate heat, add a good knob of butter, turn up the heat and swirl it round to coat the bottom and sides of the pan.  When the butter is foaming pour some into the egg mixture, stir it in and then immediately pour the eggs into the pan.

Shake the pan to spread the mixture evenly. Now, using a fork or thin spatula, draw the cooked egg away from the edge of the pan and let the uncooked liquid run into the space created.

When the omelet is almost cooked, but the surface is still soft and liquid, flip one edge of the omelet towards the center of the pan so that it folds over. Then slide the unfolded edge onto a warmed plate, rolling the folded edge over the top of it as you do so.  An omelet cooked in this way requires no filling, except perhaps some fresh, chopped, herbs added to the egg mixture about 15 minutes before cooking.

So just to recap, by all means you can add extra ingredients to your omelet, whether it be cheese, vegetables or meat.  It will not really change the cooking time just be careful not too add to much extra “stuff” as it will dry out the mixture.  For the one above I added some baby spinach and a little cheese.  It was excellent and sometimes I have been even getting in the habit or serving a little salsa with it.

I have a question for you!  How many people eat beans with their eggs?

Can’t wait to hear from you.  I will check the comments and I will be back Wednesday for another post.  I am working on getting the brussel sprout recipe from last week to post for everyone to enjoy.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Monday!  Life seems to be back to normal, holiday season is behind us, regular work days are back in order.  How is everyone doing?  Hopefully everyone’s new years resolutions are still on track – I feel I am having a pretty good start to the new year so all is positive.

Remember last week when it was all about pork?  With the pork chop pot roast and the old fashion baked beans?  Well, it is hard to have homemade beans without some sort of homemade bread to dip into them.  With that said, I whipped up a batch of whole wheat biscuits with butter that worked just fine.

Pretty simple recipe and the flavor of the whole wheat flour was very nice.  Usually for biscuits  – I am a white flour kind of guy but I will be honest, these biscuits were really tasty.

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Whole Wheat flour
• 1 Tbsp. Baking powder
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 Tbsp. White sugar
• 1/3 Cup Butter
• 1 Cup Milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used.
4. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Warm the milk in the microwave before adding to the dry ingredients ( Momma zesty told me that). I always like to rub the tops with some left over milk as well prior to cooking to help the tops become golden brown.  If you have buttermilk… even better.

Another biscuit story…  Have you ever heard of frozen butter biscuits?  Apparently Michael Smith does a recipe with frozen butter where he shaves it into the batter and they turn out amazing.  These are next on my biscuit list!  Did I ever tell you I love biscuits?  Have a manic monday and I will see you all for the hump of the week.

Take care

zesty

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Middle of the week…. Middle of Christmas vacation…. Middle of a cookie with snicker bar….. Oh My! Hey How are you? Time is flying by but I am having a relaxing and fun time home for the holidays. I have to say I am not even on the computer nearly as much as normal despite having a lot of work to do for clients. But this time of the year is time to recharge and get the battery pack full for 2011.

So I wanted to try a new cookie for a holiday event last week and I did a combination of a snicker ball surprise and a cookie. Were they the best cookie ever made…. No not at all. Were they good? Yes they were!

Below is the lowdown on how I came up with this cookies.

Ingredients

• 1/2 Cup Butter
• 3/4 Cup Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1 1/3 Cup Flour
• 1/2 Tsp. Baking Soda
• 1/2 Tsp. Salt
• 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla
• 2 SNICKERS® (cut in sm. pieces)
• 1/3 Cup Dark Chocolate (Chopped)

Method

1. Cream butter and sugar until smooth.



2. Beat in egg.





3. Stir in other ingredients.









4. Chill and drop by teaspoon on greased cookie sheet.



5. Bake in 375 degree oven about 10 minutes.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: This cookies need to be soft!  Do Not Overcook.  Add a slice of bread to the storage container as well to keep these cookies soft.  It really works!

OK, there you have a quick simple cookie for everyone to enjoy.  The one negative fact about this cookie besides the fact that it is not great for your hips is that by cutting up the cookie I find that you spread out the taste of the SNICKERS bar and my taste buds were lost.  The cookies were good and I think you should try them but I think a better option would be to wrap the cookie dough around bite size pieces of snicker bars…. similar to the snicker ball recipe.

Have a super Wednesday.

Take care

zesty

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Happy Monday from a snowy PEI.  As I sit at the dining room table the snow is falling, the trees are white, the ground is covered in snow and oh yes…. the snow plow just rolled down the road and plugged our driveway.  Welcome to the first significant snowfall of the winter.  Am I excited?  I would be lying if I said yes.  Are the kids over the moon that they get to go out and shovel? you better believe it!

I am going to share with you a fun, quick recipe that you can whip up anytime to give you the nice comfort feeling of… HOMEMADE BREAD.  I had some of the family over last night for dinner ( ham, sweet potato casserole and some seared broccoli) but I also made a loaf of this soda bread.  I was browsing the Joy of Baking yesterday afternoon when I stumbled across this Irish Soda Bread recipe.  I happen to have all the ingredients on hand and about an hour before the ham was ready – so I said… What the heck.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 Cups All-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 Cups Whole wheat flour
• 2 Tbsp. Granulated white sugar (optional)
• 2 Tbsp. Old fashioned rolled oats (optional)
• 1 Tsp. Baking soda
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 1/2 Cups Buttermilk (soured milk)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) and place the rack in the center of the oven. Line a baking sheet or cast iron skillet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, oats, baking soda, and salt. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and add most of the buttermilk.
3. Using yours hands, or a wooden spoon, mix (adding more buttermilk if necessary) until you have a soft moist dough.
4. Transfer to a lightly floured surface and gently knead the dough into a 7 inch (18 cm) round that is about 1 inch (2.54 cm) thick.
5. Place the round on your prepared baking sheet and then, with a sharp knife, cut a 1/4 inch deep “X” across the top of the bread.
6. Bake for about 40 – 50 minutes or until nicely browned and a toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.
7. ENJOY!

I may just love bread and Jam -  had to test it out after the guests left…..

Zesty Tip: Craving raisin bread?  If so, throw in a cup of raisins into this mixture and keep smiling.  If you do go the raisin route, you may want to add a 1/2 cup of cold butter cut into the dough mixture.

Well I think my name is being called to get my snow gear on and go help shovel, build snowmen, fall down on the ground and make a zesty angel.  Have a super Monday and I will see you on Wednesday.  Oh I forgot to ask you…. How was your Christmas? Mine was absolutely fabulous…. amazing food, surrounded by family and friends and time to relax.  No better time than this.

Take care

zesty

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It is the middle of the week already!  I cannot believe it.  On Monday night I was feeling an urge to bake.  Zesty Junior is all about helping me bake and I love it.  We tackled a new biscuit version.  We opted to switch out the normal inclusion of shortening for the biscuit and opted to go with butter.  I was searching around for a different biscuit recipe and I came across J.P’s Big Daddy Biscuits.  Can you really go wrong with a name like that?  The intro before the recipe goes a little like this:

“This recipe will produce the biggest biscuits in the history of the world! Serve these gems with butter, preserves, honey, gravy or they can also be used as dinner rolls…you get the picture. The dough can also be prepared several hours, and up to a day ahead of time. If so, turn dough out onto aluminum foil that has been either floured, lightly buttered or lightly sprayed with cooking spray. Roll up foil until it is sealed, and refrigerate. Don’t be surprised if your biscuits rise even higher because the baking powder has had more time to act in the dough. You may have to make a few batches before you get desired results: desired results equals huge mongo biscuits.”

The results were amazing! I made a double batch and at the end of the night there were all but 4 biscuits remaining. I made them medium size but they would be fun to make jumbo!

Ingredients

• 2 Cups all-purpose flour
• 1 Tbsp. Baking powder
• 1 Tsp. Salt
• 1 Tbsp. White sugar
• 1/3 Cup Butter
• 1 Cup Milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C).
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Cut in the shortening until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually stir in milk until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured surface, and knead 15 to 20 times. Pat or roll dough out to 1 inch thick. Cut biscuits with a large cutter or juice glass dipped in flour. Repeat until all dough is used.
4. Brush off the excess flour, and place biscuits onto an ungreased baking sheet.
5. Bake for 13 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, or until edges begin to brown.
6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: You can brush the tops with milk before and after baking I touch them up with some melted butter for added softness and flavor.

Some of the comments were:

1. “Dad, these are definitely double thumbs up!”
2. “Umm Dad can I have a third biscuit”
3. “Oh Wow these are very good.  I don’ t think I will need to have any supper as I already had 3 biscuits”

I hope you have a great Wednesday.  Let me know your favorite biscuit recipe.  Do you think we should have a biscuit bake off competition?  Would that be fun?  Talk to you on Friday.

Take care

zesty

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The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the water is as blue as blue can be.  Oh What a place!  Regis and Kelly are here and they have been since Saturday doing this week of shows from beautiful Prince Edward Island and they have been raving about it.  Really you cannot disagree.

Last night at the camp site I made a delicious appetizer that was a HUGE hit.  I saw it a couple of weeks ago on the food network.  It was on the show “Best things I ever ate” and it was Giada’s favorite snack.  Basically it is roasted nuts tossed with brown sugar, butter and fresh rosemary.

Simply put….. DELICIOUS!

Ingredients

• Variety of Nuts
• Butter
• Brown sugar
• Rosemary

Method

1. Roast nuts in oven or on BBQ until golden brown and warmed all the way through
2. In a large bowl, add some butter, brown sugar and fresh rosemary.
3. Once the nuts are complete, remove from the heat and add to the bowl.  The hot nuts will melt the butter and brown sugar.
4. Mix to coat evenly
5. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: Use a nice mixture of nuts, cashews, brazil nuts, pecans, walnuts, peanuts etc for that extra flavor and texture.  These even got a taste from the trailer next door.  I heard rumblings of a great party treat.

Alright I am back to the campground and ready for another fun filled day.  Last night’s dinner was pretty tasty and I will be featuring it likely on Friday.  Not sure what to cook tonight – but that is all I can think about.  I love to EAT!  Have an awesome Wednesday and check out Regis and Kelly if you have time.

Take care

zesty

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I think I am heading downtown to attend the Remembrance Day Ceremony later on this morning and then heading to the house to do some work.  The trim is all on upstairs and the doors are hung.  I am ready to start cleaning the floors and start prepping for the hardwood.  I guess I never told you that we changed our mind on the upstairs flooring and switched from a laminate floor to “real” hardwood.  We chose a cappuccino color for the upper level and we are pleased to have that decision behind us.

On to the Ginger Snaps – I always seem to have these every year at this time of the year and right through until the new year.  Have you ever had an icebox ginger snap?  They are certainly a great little snack with a glass of milk or if you are like me… I smear a bit of butter on the back side.  These are really simple to make and take no time to prep or to cook.  They are a great cookie to eat right out of the fridge or the freezer.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Butter
• 1/3 Cup Brown sugar
• 2/3 Cup Molasses
• 3 Cups All Purpose Flour
• 2 Tsp. Baking soda
• 2 Tsp. Ginger
• Pinch of salt
• 1/2 Tsp. Cloves
• 1/2 Tsp. Cinnamon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350 Degrees
2. In a large bowl mix as listed above and place it on a large piece of wax paper.
3. using your hands shape into a large rectangle about 1 1/2- 2 inches thick.  It will be smooth on the top.
4. Wrap it up in wax paper and chill in fridge for an hour or two. ( You can chill overnight if you want)
5. Remove from fridge and unwrap.  Cut into slices and place on cookie sheet  lined with parchment paper
6. Bake for 8-10 minutes.
7. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: These little cookies make a great outer shell for a quick ice cream sandwich.  Just be sure to pop them back in the freezer for a few minutes once you build them to prevent the ice cream from oozing out.

A Gentle Reminder

Check out Megan’s Pumpkins For Pink E-Book, which raises money for the fight against breast cancer. I contributed my Double Ginger Gingerbread Cookies recipe to it.

Have a great Wednesday and I will see you all back here tomorrow. Oh before I forget. I am on the road all next week in Virginia and I am looking for guest posters. If you are interested and would like to be featured shoot me an email.

Take care
zesty

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First off, I’d like to thank Zesty for asking me to do a guest post while he is away.  I was completely honored when asked and agreed immediately.  Thanks again Zesty!

My favorite part of Zesty’s posts are always his Zesty Tip at the end.  The tips are so simple, yet so helpful.  So, today I present you with my favorite Heather Tip as well as a recipe.

I know many cooks often find substitutions for the fat component in recipes.

Like when the recipe calls for oil, they will opt for applesauce or pumpkin puree instead. Well, this girl needs her fat, and I say bring it on.  My favorite oil replacement in recipes?  Nut and seed butters! Nut butters will add good fats to your baked goods, as well as protein, vitamins, and minerals. Besides, who doesn’t love a little almond butter in their cookie?

Using my own tip, I came up with the following muffin recipe:

Almond Butter Banana Muffins

Ingredients

• 3 ripe mashed bananas
• ¼ cup almond butter or your favorite nut/seed butter of choice
• ½ Turbinado sugar
• 1 egg white
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 ½ cups oat flour (I pulsed 2 cups rolled oats in my food processor)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp salt (omit if using salted nut butter)
• ½ cup dark chocolate chips
• ½ cup chopped pecans

Method

1. Mix first 5 ingredients until creamy.
2. Stir together oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
3. Slowly add dry ingredients to banana mixture stirring to combine.
4. Stir in chocolate chips and pecans.
5. Bake at 350 degrees 18 – 20 minutes in paper lined or greased muffin pan.
6. ENJOY!
7. Yield: 15 muffins.

Enjoy, and remember…don’t fear the fat my friends.  Our bodies need it!  If you want to see more great posts check out my blog at heathereatsalmondbutter.com

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Middle of the week is here, can you believe it? It feels like I have been living at warp speed as of late but I am still loving it. I was wondering all day about what to post and then I realized that I had made some killer garlic bread for my simple pasta dish that I have yet to share with you.  This bread has a bit of love involved for simple garlic bread – but it is so worth it.

I used the bread maker to prepare the dough which makes it less fun but also allows you to do other things around the house while still achieving the great smell. Do you love the smell of fresh bread in your house? I am a huge sucker for the fresh bread smell.

To keep things simple I just shape the bread in a long loaf pan, let it double in size and then bake it off. Once baked, I let it cool slightly, cut it in two and then prepare the toppings before a simple broil to finish it off.

Melted butter, freshly roasted garlic, a sprinkle of parsley and a dash of paprika.  Line up the supplies you will need to make this happen.

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup Lukewarm Water
• 1/2 Cup Creamed Cottage Cheese
• 1/2 Cup Shredded Old Cheddar Cheese
• 3 Tbsp. Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Salt
• 3 Cups White Flour
• 2 Tsp. Yeast

Toppings

• 3 Tbsp. Butter
• 3 Cloves Garlic ( Roasted )
• Parsley
• Paprika

Method

1. Measure ingredients in order listed into baking pan.
2. Insert baking pan securely into bread maker; close lid.
3. Select dough setting and let it go.
4. Place dough in long loaf pan and let rise until doubled in size.
5. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees and cook until golden brown.
6. Once complete let cool, slice in half lengthwise and top with toppings.
7. Preheat Oven to 375 degrees and cook until golden brown.
8. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: For a enhanced garlic flavor, buy a whole cluster of garlic, cut the top of it drizzle some olive oil over it, season with salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven for 60 minutes.

I am really thankful I have this recipe/idea that I could share with you today.  I really enjoyed preparing this bread as a nice accompaniment for some pasta or even on those nights when you just want to have finger food such as chicken wings.  Have a great Wednesday and I will see you tomorrow.

Note: I did promise a new dessert treat in yesterday’s post and I didn’t pull through – sorry for that but hang in there and I will deliver.

Take care

zesty

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Ever crave homemade bread but you don’t have the energy to do it from scratch?  I had this issue on Tuesday – so I decided to haul out the bread maker and let it do the work for me.  I am a little lazy at times or perhaps it’s better to call it efficient.  Neither here nor there, I want to share with you a very nice bread recipe for your bread maker.

Cheesy Cheese Bread sounded delicious when I read it and I had all the ingredients on hand.  What the heck, lets drop the ingredients into the bread maker and let it spin.

Remember with bread maker recipes you have to follow the measurements exactly or you could have a flop.

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup Lukewarm Water
• 1/2 Cup Creamed Cottage Cheese
• 1/2 Cup Shredded Old Cheddar Cheese
• 3 Tbsp. Grated Parmesan Cheese
• 2 Tbsp. Sugar
• 1 Tbsp. Butter
• 1 1/2 Tsp. Salt
• 3 Cups White Flour
• 2 Tsp. Yeast

Method

1. Measure ingredients in order listed into baking pan.
2. Insert baking pan securely into bread maker; close lid.
3. Select sweet setting and 1.5 lb Loaf.  Choose light or dark (I chose dark).
4. Push the start button and let it go.  Time will be 3:50 hours.
5. Once complete, remove baking pan and allow to cool before slicing.



6. ENJOY!

Zesty Tip: When using bread maker recipes, be sure to measure exact and ensure that your ingredients are fresh.  Especially flour and yeast.  The slightest adjustment when measuring can throw the process off.

Question of the Day: Do you have a breadmaker and if so – Do you use it frequently?

Have a great Thursday!  We are preparing for a winter storm here yet again.  Talk to you tomorrow.

Take care

zesty

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