Tomatoes and eggs may seem like an odd breakfast combination, but this is a delicious and healthful morning meal that you will be coming back to over and over again.  It happens to be a favorite of Amber’s of mine.  Because of the simplicity of the dish and the prominence of the tomato, garden fresh are almost essential.  If you can get good quality, ripe tomatoes from the store, then definitely go for it.  You won’t be disappointed.

A little warning, though.  This is a simple recipe, but it’s not necessarily an easy recipe.  Getting the egg cooked properly (firm whites, runny yolk) is a real trick and may take you a few times to perfect.  Even slightly overcooked, though, this is delicious.  I’ve prepared it with all different kinds of cheeses, with fresh basil or basil oil in the bottom of the cup, or even other fresh herbs.  It is really easy to change this up with whatever ingredients you have on hand.  And don’t forget the “soldiers!”

Click here for the recipe.

Say What?!  Yep, you read that right and, no, this is not the product of an Iron Chef challenge.  Basil ice cream has been around for a while and is surprisingly refreshing and tasty.  If you’ve got an ice cream machine then this will be a breeze for you.  Click here for the recipe.

I put more than the recommended basil in my batch and it came out really, really flavorful.  I’d probably like a little subtler flavor the next time around.  The directions call for you to blend the basil and milk, which I was sure would not be possible to do well without some sort of fantastic blender, but my boring old machine ground it up perfectly. When you’re done, you end up with a really lovely colored ice cream.  Pair it with some fresh berries, an almond cookie basket, and perhaps some dark chocolate shavings and you have a fabulous and unique dessert.

Anyone who’s been to a Brazilian restaurant knows what this is.  It’s beautiful, it’s creamy, and it’s most certainly not made of lemons.  It is, in fact a limeade with a twist.  As it turns out, it is ridiculously easy to make, and extremely cheap (so take that restauranteurs).  I love the froth you get from the blending, and the pale lime color is simply beautiful.  Here’s how you can make this delicious and refreshing summer beverage at home.

3 C cold water

2 limes (cut into 6 wedges each)

1/3 C sugar

3 T sweetened condensed milk

Put all ingredients in a blender, pulse a few times, and strain through a fine mesh strainer and voila!  There’s no need to sit and squeeze a million limes like you would for a lemonade.  It’s very sweet as is, so if you’re sensitive to that you may want to consider cutting down the sugar a tad.  Also, make sure you consume it fairly quickly, since the limes can turn bitter.

Admittedly, this doesn’t make a ton of beverage, but it’s probably to your blender’s capacity so just make a couple of batches and you’re good to go.  Now hurry and make some before the cooling weather causes you to run out of an excuse!

In the last few months I’ve developed a fondness for muffins, as they make a convenient breakfast or snack on the go.  However, the muffins at most grocery stores are just oozing with empty calories and little nutrition so  I’ve been exploring the world of ‘healthy’ muffins, and have a new winner to recommend.

The combination of wheat and white flour works well – I’ve been using a random wheat flour I bought on sale that doesn’t work well in other baked goods, but it blends right in with these muffins.  When I’ve (a little begrudgingly) shared my muffins with others, no one seems to notice the wheat flour, which makes me feel sneaky.

The pumpkin seeds as a topping add a satisfying crunch, although you certainly don’t need to make an extra trip the grocery store if you don’t have them on hand.   I’ve made the muffins with and without, and I believe the seeds on top are there to add extra nutrition more than anything.  My mother-in-law also tested this recipe, and changed the pumpkin seeds for chopped pecans, which she reported were a welcome addition.

Each time I’ve made these muffins, I’ve ended up with more than the recipe promised, which always makes me happy.  Also, I have to confess that I’ve added chocolate chips to the batter, and it only take a few bits of chocolate to take the muffins from “breakfast” to “treat.”

Starved for variety with strawberry jam?  Disgruntled with grape jelly?  This bold marmalade is easy to make and has incredible flavor.   Like so many jams, it is easy to imagine multiple uses beyond toast: topping ice cream or yogurt, glazing cakes, devising a marinade for meat, or assembling a sauce.  Another application that came to mind for this marmalade is to stir a dollop into a cup of tea instead of sweetener.

Here are a few pointers on getting started:

Unless you are much faster at breaking down lemons than I am, it will take at least 20-30 minutes to peel, trim, quarter, and slice eight lemons.  Because I like to be as efficient as possible when cooking, I peeled two lemons first, then added the zest to 1 cup of water and began simmering right away, adding the remaining lemon zest and slices as I went along.  Since the pith is so bitter, I was very obsessive about removing it carefully, which was the most time consuming task.  I added another 1/2 cup of water to my lemons before moving on to the ginger.  I realize the recipe instructs to put everything in the pot first before simmering, but I’m just too impatient.  Also, I tend to hold back on adding all the water in preserves recipes at once because I’ve often found the results too runny for my taste with the amount called for in the instructions.

As the lemon zest and bits stewed away on the stove, I grated the ginger.  One skill I’m still working to master is determining how much of a produce item to buy when the recipe simply refers to a measured amount.  Unless the recipe is specific (6 - 8 lemons), I’m sometimes at a loss.  For this recipe, I used a ginger root about the size of my hand, and had no leftovers in generating the half cup of ginger.  Again, I know the recipe says finely chopped, but I’ve finely chopped ginger before, and without better knife skills, this is a momentous task.  Besides, the person who invented the ginger grater is a genius.  The ginger is reduced to a gentle mush, and those pesky threads which make chopping such a bear are left behind in a sort of culinary dust bunny.

My instinct to hold back on the last half cup of water did prove useful in this case, because the ginger grater collected quite a bit of juice.  I added the juice instead of the remaining water, which brought up the zing from the ginger quite a bit!

The final tip is to watch for any rogue seeds as you reduce the mixture.  Although I was very fastidious about removing any seeds before the lemons went into the pot, it was inevitable that a few sneaked in.  This recipe did end up making closer to eight cups of marmalade, and who can complain when a recipe makes more than it promised upfront?  The lemon and ginger work naturally together, making quite a wake up call for your taste buds!

Every man loves a good steak, right? This is one my husband absolutely adores eating and he insists that it is better than any restaurant steak he has had. I don’t know if that’s wicked flattery or not, but what wife doesn’t like the compliment? This recipe has a good kick to it and is a really quick preparation. Just throw it together with some crusty bread and a salad and you’re good to go. I’m crediting Joy of Cooking with this recipe, but I sort of make up my own amounts and ingredients and you can certainly play around with it and do the same. I’m going to list the ingredients in order of quantity – largest to smallest. I don’t find it necessary to deal with the exact amounts because you never know how much you are going to need and you can store any leftover spice rub in an airtight container.

What really makes this dish sing is the combination of the spicy steak and the creamy butter. They pair together really well. I’ve made the dish without the butter and it’s still good, but do your taste buds a favor and make the whole thing. You’ll want to start with preparing the butter so it has a chance to firm back up before mealtime.

Lemon-Parsley Butter:

Soften, but do not melt, as much butter as you think you need for the number of steaks you are preparing. For a single New York strip steak, you don’t need more than 1/3 of a stick, unless you are on a mission to clog some arteries. Add some lemon juice, chopped parsley, and minced garlic (I do 1 clove per ½ cube of butter) and mix it well. Form the butter into a nice shape if you want and then refrigerate it until it is time to eat.

Spice Rub:

ground pepper – This is the main ingredient and you need a lot, so don’t skimp. Your finished rub should look mostly like pepper.

brown sugar

salt – You need a fair amount of salt as well.

ground coriander

red pepper flakes – I don’t like a lot of spice in my food and I think the large quantity of ground pepper adds plenty of kick, but if you like spicy go ahead and ramp this up.

I also like to add a bit of cumin, but I don’t recall that as being in the original recipe. I just think it tends to go well with the coriander.

Mix all the above ingredients together and rub it generously all over your steak. I use a T-bone or New York strip steak. Broil your steak for the appropriate time according to thickness and preferred doneness, flipping once.  When your steak is done cooking, cut it into small strips and melt the butter over the top.

What in the world is this szekely gulyas, you ask?  Well, it’s the snooty way of spelling what we know as goulash, a traditional Hungarian dish.  Truth be told, I probably don’t have the right to use the snooty spelling, since I am offering up what is likely an Americanized version of a traditional Hungarian dish.  It’s a family recipe and it is so delicious that I honestly don’t really care to find out how authentic it is.  Like any good comfort food, this is a make-ahead meal that you get to have simmering on your stove for hours causing people inside to salivate and constantly bother you with, “Is it time for dinner yet?” Those are always proud moments for us home chefs, are they not?

On a health note, you can cut down on the fat in this recipe by using leaner pork cuts and reduced fat sour cream. Also, if you can get fresh dill, please do. It makes a lovely difference.

This goulash is a fantastic winter food and I offer it to those of you who, like me, are feeling stuck in a perpetual snowy time-warp. If spring never gets here, at least I have yummy comfort food to keep me warm.

2 1/2 lb. boneless pork, cubed

2 tablespoons oil

3 medium onions sliced thinly

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cloves garlic, diced

1 tablespoon paprika

1 lb. sauerkraut well-drained

4 teaspoons caraway seeds

2 tablespoons fresh dill or 2 teaspoons dried dill

1 cup tomato sauce

1 can chicken broth

1 cup sour cream, divided in half

Brown the meat in 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the rest of the ingredients except sour cream and combine. Now add 1/2 cup sour cream, combine and simmer the mixture for 3 hours. Add the final 1/2 cup of sour cream just before serving. Serve over egg noodles. May add additional sauerkraut on noodles as well or on the side.

Although I’m up for a tea anytime, there is something about Spring that inspires me to consider tea parties.   Thinking of tea parties leads me inevitably to baked goods, which is how we now arrive at the ginger scone.

These light, flaky scones have the right balance of sweetness without being sugary, and are surprisingly easy to make, especially if you have a food processor.   The only tedious part is cutting crystallized ginger into tiny, tiny pieces, and fortunately, these ginger chips eliminate this time consuming step.  However, if you have regular crystallized ginger, I have perfected a method of cutting the chunks into bits.  First, a 1/2 cup or larger measuring cup with about a teaspoon of flour in it will be the temporary receptacle for the bits of ginger once they are cut.  I flour a small cutting board just little and spray just a touch of cooking oil onto the knife (I use a paring knife) I’ll be using to cut the ginger with.   Once my little cutting station is assembled, I begin breaking down the ginger with my oiled knife, and the flour on the board keeps the sticky ginger from being itself.   As little piles of ginger bits materialize, I transfer them into the measuring cup with the extra flour to continue keeping the bits separated.  Once I have roughly 1/3 cup of ginger bits, I gently sift out the flour from the measuring cup and continue with the recipe.

Also, a scone pan is lovely, but not mandatory.   A baking sheet with parchment paper or foil is perfectly fine also, and it lends itself to more homemade looking scones.  Although not included in this recipe, eggwashing the tops of the scones and then sprinkling the tops with granulated sugar before baking also adds an elegant touch.

What was just an innocent test run for a new recipe is now a budding addiction: puff pastry is my new culinary thrill. So far three new uses for puff pastry have been tested, and all three turned out beautifully. The jam turnovers (jam and puff pastry, how easy it that?) were just as perfect as those in a bakery, but even better since we enjoyed them freshly baked. My one caution is to not be overly enthusiastic with the jam. I have a delicious wild blueberry conserve that seemed perfect for the turnovers, and flagrantly disregarded the 1 tablespoon recommended per turnover. Not only was this a poor idea since the turnovers started weeping the delectable jam in the oven, but also changed one or two of the turnovers into a fork and knife course instead of a hand-held treat.

My mom and I tested puff pastry for homemade cheese danishes (Barefoot Contessa at Home, 2006), and another fantastic appetizer, ham and gruyere in puff pastry. Both were so simple - easier than baking a batch of homemade cookies (in my experience - but am also not a fantastic baker), that I am seriously considering puff pastry as an alternative when certain baking occasions arise.  The danishes would make a unique alternative to a plate of brownies or cookies, and how awesome would it be to show up with a plate of ham and cheese puff pastry squares at an office potluck.  I suspect this appetizer could be gently warmed in a toaster oven (many offices seem to have a worn but functional one) before serving.  In my mind, this is certainly much easier than lugging a crock pot to work.

For both the danishes and the ham/gruyere tart, we rolled out the puff pastry on a chilled baking sheet, skipping the floured countertop altogether.   Parchment paper is always ideal as a layer between the pastry and the baking sheet, but aluminum foil coated with a shot of baking spray has always done the trick for me.  I highly recommend using a cooling rack for all puff pastry treats - allowing the air to circulate underneath the baking sheet combats the slight sogginess that butter can inflict on the bottom laters of the pastry.

Another sampling of nutritious updates on classic favorites has struck gold again. I have completely bought into the idea that better nutrition in cooking begins with even one baby step, so I’ve been looking for recipes that don’t sacrifice flavor while boosting nutritional content. I have been especially vigilant in looking for recipes with the appeal of being both familiar and not overtly austere in a health conscious way. Honestly - you can’t cook tofu in beef broth and call it a steak.

These “better” sloppy joes are given a nutrition boost by the pinto beans, and although initially the list of ingredients made the recipe look a little more complex, I was able to quickly assemble the sauce in a separate bowl while the beef was browning on the stove. The separate sauce assembly turned out to be a good choice, since I do suggest adjusting an ingredient here and there to suit your own taste.

Knowing how much heat and flavor my husband enjoys, I added about a teaspoon of hot paprika, and am planning to add even more the next time I make these sandwiches, which will be soon. The pinto beans did exactly what I had hoped - adding to the allover heartiness of the dish without taking away the spotlight of the ground beef. If you are looking for a way to sneak more fiber and less sodium into a meal that is universally enjoyed, this is one recipe to add to your weekly menu.