Bacon Wrapped Eggs

“Yes, I’ll have a non-fat, decaf latte, please. Oh, what the hell? Look, make it a full-fat mocha with extra whipped cream. What the hell, put a slice of bacon on it!”
~Dr. Frasier Crane, Frasier

 
There is something about the smell of bacon and eggs in the morning, whether you are at home, on vacation at a hotel or even camping, that rings the hunger-bell in most people like no other breakfast fare.

Adding a little flair to your bacon and eggs is easy and makes for a wondrous presentation of an old favourite.

This isn't so much a recipe as a general guide. Aside from the bacon and the eggs, the other ingredients are up to you. I used cheddar cheese, green onions, chives and basil from the garden for this iteration, but you can use goat cheese or Feta or provolone, garlic or marjoram or thyme. Use whatever herbs you have growing in your garden or sitting in your cupboard. Use your favourite cheese.

Bacon Wrapped Eggs
Eggs
Bacon
Cheddar cheese
Green Onion
Basil
Chives
Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat your oven to 400°.

Cook the bacon on medium heat.

You'll want it to be browned but not crispy. Set it aside on paper towels to drain.

If you are using fresh herbs, chop them finely.

Grease a muffin pan - I used half of a 12-muffin pan for the six Bacon Wrapped Eggs I made.

Break some of the bacon into pieces to line the bottom of each muffin cup. Take a whole strip of bacon and curl it, making a circle, to line the inside edge of the muffin cup.

When the cups are all lined with bacon, break an egg into each.

Season with the salt and pepper.

Spinkle with the cheese.

And top with the chopped green onion, chives and basil (or herbs of your choice).

Bake in the oven for about 10 - 15 minutes until the eggs are set.

Serve with pan-fried potatoes and ENJOY!

Halloumi & Mint Bread

“All sorrows are less with bread.”
— Miguel de Cervantes

As I have stated before, I love bread. Not just the consumption of bread, but the making of bread. There is something therapeutic and calming and nurturing about making bread. The creation of bread, the kneading of the dough, seems to exorcize angst and temper my cloudiest moods. And the smell of bread baking in the oven is one of my very favourite aromas.

Making loaves of whole wheat or white bread is simple and satisfying, but every so often I enjoy making a less common type of bread. Halloumi and mint bread add a perfect exotic twist.

Halloumi (sometimes spelled haloumi) is a traditional Cypriot cheese. It is made from a mixture of goat and sheep milk and dates back to the Medieval Byzantine period. It is white with a texture similar to mozzarella and has a salty flavour. It is traditionally paired with mint, mint leaves being used as a preservative, and you often find packages of Halloumi with bits of mint leaf on the surface of the cheese.

Halloumi is not exactly a common cheese and although some regular grocers may carry it, you are more likely to find it at a Mediterranean grocery store or deli or at a store with a large cheese department, like Sunflower Market.

This bread is straightforward and simple to make.

Halloumi & Mint Bread
4 cups white flour
1 tsp salt
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 1/2 tsp (2 packages) dry yeast
1 to 1 1/4 cups warm water
8 oz halloumi cheese, ripped into small pieces
1 Tbsp of dried mint

Mix the flour, salt, olive oil and yeast in a large bowl, adding the water gradually to form a smooth dough. On a lightly floured surface, knead until the dough is elastic and springs back if you poke it with your finger (about 10 minutes). Return the dough to the bowl, cover with a towel and let rise for one hour in a warm, draft-free place.

Line a tray with baking paper.

Remove the dough from the bowl and add the cheese and dried mint, kneading it enough to evenly distribute the cheese and mint. Shape the dough into a loaf and place it on the baking tray. Let it rise for another hour.

Lightly dust the top of the loaf with some flour and score it diagonally with a very sharp knife. Bake the loaf at 425˚F for 25-30 minutes. The bread should be golden brown and crisp on the top.

 Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

 

And most of all, enjoy!

Crêpes Sucrées (sweet crepes)

The humble crêpe.

Like a pancake.

But better.

I seem to be on a breakfast kick lately. Not that crêpes are strictly a breakfast food. In France, where crêpes are especially popular, they are an ubiquitous food and can serve as main course, snack or as dessert. In fact, the French have a dessert called Mille crêpe which is a cake made of many crêpe layers.

Usually made from common ingredients like flour, eggs, milk, butter, and salt, crêpes can be either sweet (crêpes sucrées) or savoury (crêpes salées).

The crêpes I make are the sweet kind and are very simple and make a wonderful alternative to pancakes.

Crêpes Sucrées
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 1/3 cups milk
2 Tbs butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt

In a large mixing bowl, whisk the eggs until well mixed and slightly frothy.

Add the milk, melted butter, sugar and salt and whisk until smooth.

Using a sifter, slowly add the flour and whisk until smooth.

 

You should have a very thin batter.

Heat a medium-sized skillet or crêpe pan over medium heat. Grease the pan with a small amount of butter or oil. I use a pastry brush to apply the butter, but it can also be applied with a paper towel.

Here comes the tricky part.

Using a serving spoon or small ladle, spoon about 3 tablespoons of the crêpe batter onto the hot pan. While you are adding the batter, you need to tilt the pan, rotating it so that the bottom becomes evenly coated with the batter.

 

Again, this is tricky and if you have never done it before it'll take a bit of practice to get the batter to evenly coat the pan. Also, if the pan is too hot, it will cook the batter too fast and not allow you to get a good coating.

The crêpe should almost immediately begin to bubble as it cooks, giving it very lacy-looking edges.

 

Cook just one to two minutes on a side, or until golden brown.

 

You can serve them with any toppings you wish. They are good with maple syrup, jams and jellies, custard, whipped cream, fresh fruits, etc.

I like serving them with fresh-made whipped cream and fresh fruits dusted with powdered sugar.

This recipe serves 4.

An Obelios By Any Other Name

Frozen waffles. <shudder>

How about this instead?

I mean, really? Making waffles is not that hard. People have been doing it for thousands of years.

The ubiquitous waffle can be traced back to ancient Greece. The Athenians made tasty (one presumes), flat cakes they called obelios which were cooked between two metal plates over burning embers.

The humble obelios made its way to Europe and in the Middle Ages became the wafer, a very light thin crisp cake baked between wafer irons. The irons were used to produce a variety of different flat, unleavened cakes and were wildly popular. An entire guild was established in 1270 in France to train the vendors who sold them on the street.

Acording to Wikipedia, wafer and waffle share common etymological roots. Wafre is Middle English, adopted from Middle Low German wâfel, with the l changed to r. The Dutch, wafel, was adopted into modern American English as waffle in the 18th century.

The short from the long is that the modern waffle, which we know and love today, is simply a leavened form of wafer.

This recipe is leavened with baking powder.

About 10 minutes before you start, chill the mixing bowl and beaters you will use for the whipped cream in the freezer.

Topping
1 cup heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 to 2 Tbs sugar (or other sweetener), to taste
Fresh berries
Powdered sugar

Before you begin making the waffle batter, make the whipped cream. It can be chilled for up to four hours.

Put the cold heavy cream and the vanilla in the chilled mixing bowl.

With a wire whisk or hand beater (or an electric mixer) whip the cream. Start off slowly.

As the cream thickens, you can speed up the whipping. As it gets foamier, start checking the consistency. You want to whip the cream just until it holds a loose peak. You can check this by lifting the beater from the cream and looking at the shape of the peak at the end of the whisk. It should hold a lazy curve.

At this point, add the sugar, sifting it over the cream. Continue to whip just until it holds a soft peak.

Make sure not to over-whip the cream as it will become lumpy and butter-like.
Put the whipped cream in the refrigerator and get to work on the waffles.

Waffles

2 large eggs
2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups milk
1/2 cup melted butter
1 Tbs sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
Heat the waffle iron.

In large bowl, beat eggs with a wire whisk or hand beater until fluffy.

Beat in remaining ingredients just until smooth.

Pour slightly less than 3/4 cup batter onto center of hot waffle iron. (Make sure you check your waffle iron's manufacturer's directions for recommended amount of batter as this can vary wildly.)

Close the iron and bake about 5 minutes or until steaming stops. I like to bake the waffles just past the 'golden brown' stage so that they are very crisp on the outside. Carefully remove waffle.

Sprinkle the waffles with the powdered sugar and top with fresh berries and whipped cream.

Most of all, ENJOY!

Waffle irons use different amounts of batter, so you may end up with more or less than six waffles from this recipe.

Hapanleipä - Finnish Sour Rye Bread

"Here is bread, which strengthens man's heart, and therefore is called the staff of Life."
--Matthew Henry

I like baking bread. Of all the cooking and baking I do, the making of bread is the most joyous and gives me the most satisfaction.

Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods, going back at least 30,000 years. The making of bread involves community and society and family. In many cultures bread has a significance beyond simple nutrition, and often denotes something necessary and valuable. It is an interesting fact that the word companion comes from the Latin com- "with" + panis "bread".

In Finland, bread is very important and is served at almost every meal. And Finnish bread is a treat. So much more falvourful and full of texture than what Americans commonly think of as bread, the abundance and variety of bread found there can be overwhelming. As I noted previously, it is on my Top Ten Finland List. The most popular (ubiquitous) bread in Finland is ruisleipä (rye bread). It is very different from what most Americans think of rye breads (like German style rye bread) as it lacks the greasy/moist texture.

When I was on exchange in Finland, one of my host mothers made a type of ruisleipä traditional in western Finland, hapanleipä (sour bread). It is one of my most vivid memories of Finland, watching Aira take the sticky rye dough and forming it into round, flat loaves with a hole in the center.

Ruisleipä, or even a close approximation, is hard to come by in the desert southwest. And Finding traditional hapanleipä is impossible. Happily, I love making it and over the years have become pretty good at it.

When you make this bread you need to plan ahead. It takes two days for the dough to sour.

Hapanleipä
3 packages active dry yeast
4 cups warm water, 105°F to 115°F
7 to 9 cups dark rye flour
2 teaspoons salt (optional)
additional rye flour for shaping

In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Add two cups rye flour and beat to make a smooth mixture. Sprinkle the top of the dough with one cup rye flour.

Cover tightly and let stand in a warm place for 24 hours. It will ferment and sour.

On day two, add two cups of the rye flour, stir, and let stand another 24 hours. The dough will now have a sour aroma.


Stir in the salt and final amount of flour, but do not exceed nine cups. It is very important to not put in too much flour. This dough is unlike most bread doughs people are used to as it needs to remain very moist, almost drop cookie-dough moist.

Knead (in a heavy-duty mixer if you have one) for 30 minutes. The dough should be very sticky.

Using wet hands, shape dough into a ball and place in the bowl again. Sprinkle with enough additional flour to make the top of the dough dry. Let rise about one and 1/2 hours in a warm place.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured board and divide into two parts. Cover two baking sheets with baking parchment (or lightly grease them) and coat the sheets with dark rye flour.

Shape each half into a round loaf about eight inches in diameter. Make a hole in the center of each loaf and carefully pull the hole until it is about two inches in diameter. With hands dipped in water, smooth out the edges and top of each loaf.

Using a fork, poke holes in the tops of the loves, making the distribution of holes as even as you can.

Brush loaves generously with water and sprinkle with a generous coating of rye flour.

Place the loaves in a warm place until they have flattened out, spread apart, and the tops start to crackle a little.

Place a large, deep pan (like a casserole dish or a jelly roll pan) on the bottom rack of the oven. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Fill the pan with boiling water and bake the loaves for one hour or until firm.

This is the hardest step, especially if you have not baked with dark rye before. Without experience, it is easy to misjudge when the bread has baked as they already start out a dark brown colour. Baked not long enough and the center will be unbaked and gooey. Baked too long and the bottoms will burn.

Wrap baked loaves in towels to soften. As tempting as it is, it is best not to cut these loaves right away. They actually slice best the day after they are baked. I very rarely make it that long.

This makes two respectable sized loaves.

The loaves will keep refrigerated for several months. They also freeze well. This bread rarely goes bad and I have never seen it mildew, but it will dry out. Finns claim that this is good for your teeth.

This bread is good for you. It is higher in fiber than many common types of bread and has a remarkably strong flavor. It can be eaten plain with a meal, or topped with cheese, cold cuts, or smoked fish.

Enjoy!

Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese

There is something to be said for comfort food.

And there's a particular nostalgic element to macaroni and cheese - both within our American culture and on an individual level.

Macaroni and cheese has a long culinary history. According to James L. Matterer of Godecookery.com, a cheese and pasta casserole known as Makerouns was recorded in an English cookbook in the 14th century. It was an upper-class dish in Italy up until the 18th century. And Thomas Jefferson served it at the White House.

Much to our detriment, we have taken the noble macaroni and cheese and relegated it to packaged versions that are hollow echoes of the real cheesy goodness of homemade. But there is hope. Homemade macaroni and cheese is easy. Really. And oh so much better than the boxed stuff.

To completely misquote Anthelme Brillat-Savarin, "Macaroni without real cheese is like a beautiful woman with only one eye."


Deluxe Macaroni and Cheese

1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup unsifted flour
1 tsp powdered mustard
2 1/2 cups milk (room temperature)
3 cups coarsely grated sharp Cheddar cheese
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs finely grated yellow onion
1/2 lbs elbow macaroni, cooked and drained

Preheat your oven to 350° F.

The first step in making delicious homemade cheese sauce is to prepare a roux. This is the thickening agent and despite the fancy French name is very simple. Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Blend in the flour and mustard until you have a well-mixed paste-like consistency. It will have a light, golden colour. Now slowly add the milk, stirring constantly. You want the butter/flour mix to complete dissolve into the milk to get a smooth, homogeneous blend. Cook, stirring constantly until the roux has thickened and bubbles.

Now mix in 2 cups of the grated cheese, the salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and onion.

Taste for salt and add more if needed. Cook and stir until the cheese completely melts and you have a smooth sauce.

Remove from heat and mix in macaroni.

Turn this cheesy mixture into a buttered casserole dish. With the variety of shapes and sizes of baking dishes, there is really no perfect dish for this. My family really enjoys the crusty, golden top and so I usually use a large, shallow pan to get as much surface area as possible. But any dish 2-quart or above will work.

Sprinkle with the remaining cheese.

Bake, uncovered, about 1/2 hour until bubbly and lightly browned.

And...tada! You have deluxe macaroni and cheese! No box required!

This is a great dish to serve with steamed green vegetables. It is hearty and filling and, in the great tradition of comfort food, it will elevate your mood and make you feel happy.

This will comfortably serve six as part of a complete meal or four as a stand-alone dish.

Enjoy!