Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict

Truffle Shuffle invited me to review their Smoked Salmon Eggs Benedict. I seriously struggle with scrambling the hollandaise sauce, so I was super excited to give this a try and see if I can get it all to turn out.

Truffle Shuffle is available to order online. You can order individual items or sign up for a cooking class. I did the Eggs Benedict Cooking Class. They send you your box of supplies a couple of days before class – it’s awesome! They send you everything. No running out for a random ingredient (like white vinegar). Then, you show up for your zoom class at the scheduled time and they walk you through making the item.

It’s so much fun! You have the option to leave your camera on and show the chefs and other participants what you’re up to, or you can turn yourself off and just cook. It’s so much fun to learn something new like this!

The instructions are well written and easy to follow, and the chefs are awesome about sharing tips and tricks to making your food the best it can be.

I love that I can do this in my house. My kids can join me if they want, and we can all sit down and eat together after we finish cooking.

The salmon and caviar added a new element to eggs Benedict that I hadn’t had before. And while it’s probably not something I’ll make every day, it sure was an awesome treat!

I even have a little bit of truffle salt left over for using on other things. Their truffle salt is amazing. The truffles give it so much flavor.

I’m quite pleased with my results, and I’m happy to report that my hollandaise sauce turned out great!

And I learned something new, a little bit of vinegar in the water when I make poached eggs, and they turn out even better than usual!

They have some really awesome looking holiday themed classes coming up! Check them out and use my link to get 10% off your first order.

March 25, 2017March 25, 2017

Dinosaurs and Cookies

How do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague.

Our book topic for this month’s book craft was “How Do Dinosaurs…” I’d never read this series before but it sounded like fun.

I went a little overboard and check out maybe a dozen from the library – and there’s still more! The kids didn’t mind because these books are super cute, and fun to read. They all have a fun rhyme and my 3yr old loves dinosaurs so he was very excited to have all sorts of dinosaur books to read.

With the cold snap last week, baking cookies together was a great project. We made chocolate cookies with multi-colored dinosaur eggs (mini m&m’s). So much fun, and so tasty!

Along we way we got to talk about how dinosaurs help in the kitchen – they don’t throw the m&m’s btw. And how dinosaurs are very polite when they eat their cookies.

How do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies is a super cute board book with “scratch & sniff” cookies throughout. Lots of fun to read together over and over.

Dinosaur Egg Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 1/4 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 package mini m&ms – or other chocolate chips of your choice

Heat oven to 350
With an electric mixer, blend together butter, sugars, and vanilla until creamy. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add flour mixture to sugar mixture, until well blended.
Stir in mini m&ms
Drop by rounded teaspoons onto ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until set. Cool about 5 minutes then remove from cookie sheet to wire rack.

Makes 5 to 6 dozen cookies

This post does contain affiliate links.

Monthly Crafting Book Club

March 4, 2016March 4, 2016

Colored Eggs

Ingredients
1. Eggs
2. Water
3. White Vinegar
4. Food coloring
5. Lemon juice

First step is to hard boil your eggs. Place the desired number of eggs in a pan (I usually throw in a few extra because one or two usually crack), fill the pan with cold water just to cover the eggs. Bring to a boil on the stove and boil for 5 minutes. Turn off stove and let cool. If you’re in a hurry you can drain off the hot water, fill the pan with cold water, and repeat until the water is no longer pouring out hot – I always find that this method will crack an egg or two so I try to just wait if I can.

Fun with the Eggs

Egg coloring (per color)
2/3 cup hot water
2 Tbsp white vinegar
Food coloring

Combine the water and vinegar in a small bowl – make sure it’s big enough to put your egg in it – then add food coloring until you reach your desired shade. The vinegar helps set the color so you get a much more vibrant color.

After all your colors are mixed gently place the egg in a color and let it soak until your egg reaches the desired shade.

Be creative, there’s lots of ways to make speckled or designed eggs.

1. Wrap a rubberband around your egg before soak it for a crazy striped egg
2. Wrap a small piece of lace around your egg before soaking for a fancy design – this method also gives you a little “handle” for your egg so it’s a lot easier for kids to dip and soak the eggs
3. Dip half the egg in one color and half the egg in another color
4. Dye one color and then paint with another – the kids love this too! You can make special egg “paint” with less water and vinegar and more food coloring.

I like to dry my eggs on my cookie racks set over a stack of newspapers or paper towels. Remember, food coloring stains, so don’t get it on anything you don’t want colored.

Cleanup

Now, for the lemon juice. If your kids are like mine, their hands are now multi-colored. Lemon juice is great for removing color from little fingers! I just gave mine a small bowl and they pre-washed their hands with lemon juice before actually washing their hands with soap and water. Didn’t remove all the color but it got way more off than just soap and water.

August 7, 2015July 31, 2015

Food Friday – Spanish Eggs

I prefer to mix my veggies in with my eggs while cooking the eggs, but to accommodate picky eaters I just added the veggies on top of my eggs after cooking everything.

These are fast and easy meal option.

Spanish Eggs

1 Bell Pepper – I used red
1 Small red onion
1 cup of corn kernels (it’s about 2 or 3 cobs worth of corn or 1 can, drained)
1 handfull cherry tomatoes (I only used 4 because I’m the only one who will eat the tomatoes)
2 Tbsp butter
Salt and pepper to taste

Dice your pepper and onion. Heat a skillet on the stove and melt your butter. Add all the vegetables to the pan and cook, stirring often, until softened and onions are translucent. About 15 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste.

While your veggies are cooking scramble your eggs.

Top scrambled eggs with veggies and add cheese or salsa on top if wanted.

April 1, 2013

Easter Eggs

Made our own easter egg dye this year and tried out a new way of dipping them.

1/2 C hot water

1 T vinegar

several drops of food coloring

I WAY overdid it on the food coloring so our eggs (and fingers) colored in about 5 seconds. Next year I’m using less food coloring!

One new idea I had from a magazine this year was to wrap the eggs in lace and then after they dry they will have the lace pattern on them. Maybe it was my lace, or the extreme strength of my egg dye, but it didn’t exactly work like I expected. It did still give the eggs some textured color which was cool and with the lace bunched at the top (bind with a rubberband) it made a great handle for the kids to dip the eggs without getting their fingers too messy.

April 16, 2012April 9, 2012

Corn Pudding

Another of my Easter dinner favorites. I love a good corn pudding! This particular dish is more milk and cream than corn, and it’s delicious!

This recipe is so easy! It should bake until the center is set. Just wiggle the pan a little bit and you’ll be able to tell if it’s set or not. I usually have to add an extra 10 minutes to the cooking time to get the center set.

Corn Pudding
Cook time: 50 minutes Oven Temp: 350 Servings: 8-10

1/3 cup sugar

3 Tbsp. flour

2 tsp. baking powder

2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. cumin

2 cups whipping cream

½ cup butter, melted

6 extra large eggs, beaten

2 pkg. frozen golden sweet corn

Mix the sugar, flour, baking powder, salt and cumin together. Combine the cream and butter in a bowl and stir until blended. Stir in the eggs. Add the sugar mixture gradually, stirring constantly until combined. Stir in the corn. Pour into a buttered 9 X 13 inch or 2qt baking dish. Bake at 350 for 45 to 50 minutes or until the center is firm and the top is golden brown. Let stand for 15 minutes before serving.

September 22, 2011

Apple Pecan Cake

I tried out this cake recipe yesterday. Unfortunately, I sent it to work with my husband before I got a picture. However, it was delicious, easy to make, and contained all ingredients that I keep on hand so I’m going to post it without a picture.

I got this recipe out of this month’s Everyday Food magazine. This is my favorite cooking magazine. Most of the recipes contain ingredients that I can identify and the recipes are not too time-consuming to make. A must with little kids!

This recipe did use a large number of bowls, which my kids appreciated since they got to lick out every one of them 🙂

Apple-Pecan Cake

1/2 C unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 medium apple, peeled and diced
3/4 C pecans, chopped
2 1/2 C all purpose flour (I used 1 1/2 C all purpose flour, and 1 C wheat flour)
2 t baking powder
1 t nutmeg (I did not add this – I don’t usually like the aftertaste of nutmeg)
1/4 t salt
3/4 C unsweetened applesauce
1/2 C plain yogurt
1 1/3 C sugar
1 t orange zest
3 large eggs
confectioners’ sugar for dusting

1. Preheat oven to 350. Butter a 9in square pan. Line with parchment paper, butter parchment. In a med bowl, toss apple and pecans with 2 T flour to coat. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. In a small bowl, combine applesauce and yogurt.

2. In another large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat butter, granulated sugar, and orange zest on high until light and fluffy, 3 min, scraping down bowl as needed. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until combined. With mixer on low, add flour mixture in three additions, alternating with two additions applesauce mixture, and beat to combine. Fold in apple mixture. Transfer batter to pan and smooth top.

3. Bake until golden and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes. Let cool in pan on a wire rack 20 min. Using parchment, lift cake from pan. Dust with confectioners’ sugar before serving.

May 17, 2011

Coconut Cake

My coconut creme cake I made for Easter. It looks really pretty. I loved the cake and filling but I’m definitely making changes to the icing next time. The icing had THREE sticks of butter in it and only three Tablespoons of powdered sugar, and it definitely tasted buttery. I think next time I’ll do half the butter, make up the liquid difference with some whipping cream and add some more powdered sugar.

As far as looks go though, I was really happy with this cake.

I did Easter dinner for my in-town family this year and I made some of my favorite dishes, and some new dishes. Ham, sweet potato casserole, corn pudding, salad, rolls, and cake.

Next year I think I need a few more rolls and another side, just for more variety, but I was happy with this year’s success. Later I’ll post my sweet potato casserole, and corn pudding recipes, as these are my favorites and I’m definitely making them again next year!