Egg-In-A-Hole

This is just eggs and toast kicked up a notch. Good for the day after the toaster breaks,  for special breakfasts or just to mix it up a bit. 

You will need: an egg, a piece of bread, a cup or cookie cutter, soft (or softened) margarine or butter, oil/spray oil for the pan/griddle, salt and pepper.

What I do: Punch a hole in the middle of the bread. I use either a glass/cup that fits nicely within the parameters of the bread's crust OR a cookie cutter: heart shape for Valentine's Day, Tree for Christmas, Shamrock for St. Patrick's Day etc.

Heat your frying pan or griddle as for pancakes. Not too hot.

Butter both sides of the bread and the cut out piece.

For a soft yolk egg, place buttered bread (with the hole) and the cut out piece in/on your pan. Cook the bread with the hole until it's lightly browned- just lightly. Turn the bread over & spray the pan where it shows through the hole in the bread (or drop a small piece of margarine/butter in the hole) so the egg doesn't stick. Break the egg into the hole. Season with salt and pepper if you like. Cook this second side (with the egg in the middle now) until it's well browned. Flip the bread & egg, and cook the first side for a short time to cook the top of the egg and finish browning the bread. MEANWHILE, keep an eye on the toast/cut out piece. Cook both sides until nicely browned.

For a harder yolk egg, place buttered bread (with the hole) and the cut out piece in/on your pan. Spray the pan through the hole in the bread (or drop a small piece of margarine/butter in the hole) so the egg doesn't stick. Break the egg into the hole. Season with salt and pepper if you like. Cook the bread and egg until bread is nicely browned. Flip the bread and egg over, and cook the second side until the bread is toasted and the egg is cooked. If the bread is getting brown but the yolk is still too soft, lower the heat and/or cover the bread & egg with a pot lid. Remember to keep an eye on the cut out piece! Just toast it on each side until it's nicely browned.

Fun Sandwich Ideas

Whether it's for a picnic, a fun lunch at home or something to make that school lunch a little more exciting, try mixing it up with the sandwiches. Just a little extra time is well worth the smiles. 

COOKIE CUTTER SANDWICHES

 A simple way to make special days more special. Look for holiday shaped cookie cutters in the baking pan aisle at most department stores or at specialty shops like Nutters- hearts for Valentine's Day and "just because", a shamrock for St. Patrick's Day, a tree for Christmas... Little shaped sandwiches are an easy way to make lunch more fun. 

Several ways to make cookie cutter sandwiches: 

-make soft filling sandwiches (jam, honey, processed cheese spread, peanut butter, egg salad, etc.,) and then punch out shapes with the cookie cutters. Either discard the edges, save them for your lunch, or cut them into little "mini-sandwich bites" for a snack for the kids. 

-use the cookie cutter to punch the bread and the harder fillings (luncheon meat, cheese, etc.,) into shapes and then assemble them after the shapes are cut out.

-use the cookie cutter to punch the bread into shapes, and then spread the filling of your choice on the cut out shapes. This way saves on filling wastage. The bread edges can be used to make a bread pudding or to dry out for bread crumbs or croutons.

You can also try cookie cutter toast shapes for breakfast with the porridge, or fun-shaped "egg in a hole" to start the holiday off first thing! Use your imagination to turn any day into a celebration.

ROLLED OUT SANDWICHES

This was a favourite at our house. The kids used to like making their own. I also found that the kids ate more lunch when the sandwiches were rolled ones- the child who had a hard time eating a whole, two slices of bread sandwich could eat four or five rolled ones.

Simply take a slice of bread and trim off the outer crusts. Using a rolling pin, roll the bread flat. Now just spread the bread with your child's favourite filling, and roll the flattened bread into a "jelly-roll" sandwich.

Try: jam, peanut butter, cheese spread, honey, luncheon meat and cheese slices,  banana spears with peanut butter or pickle spears with cheese spread. 

Anything goes, really, as long as you can roll it up with the bread, and the filling's not too thick so it doesn't ooze out the ends.

For lunch boxes, I'd wrap each one in a bit of plastic wrap or put them tightly in a sandwich bag with the air carefully pressed out.

RIBBON SANDWICHES

These were my favourite Tupperware party leftovers when I was a kid. It's just a stacked sandwich cut into strips. For the more adventurous types.

Use a combination of white and brown bread to make more contrasting "ribbons" if you like. Basically make a 3-5 decker sandwich with different fillings for each layer. I always like a layer of egg salad, a layer of cheese spread and one of "flakes of ham" spread. You could turn peanut butter and jam into a ribbon sandwich, or make it peanut butter, honey and banana. 

Make your triple or quadruple decker sandwich, different fillings between each layer of bread. Trim off the crusts if you like. Cut the sandwich into three or four strips. That's it. Not for children who like all their flavours separate.

I would suggest filling combinations of jam, peanut butter and jam; peanut butter, banana and chocolate chips or chocolate sprinkles; cheese spread, ham flakes (mixed with mayonnaise a bit of green relish and a squirt of mustard) or ham slices and bread and butter pickles; strawberry jam, strawberry cream cheese and strawberry jam; egg salad, cheese spread and bread and butter pickles.

Bacon And Cornmeal Muffins

One flop and three successful trials later, we have an acceptable Corn Muffin. If you leave out the bacon and make them plain, they're good with butter and jam. With bacon (and maybe 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese and some red pepper flakes, she said suggestively) they're a nice, savoury breakfast muffin.

6-8 slices of bacon
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal
1  1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 large eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 400*F.

Fry/cook bacon until crisp. Drain on paper towel, then chop into small pieces and set aside.

Mix cornmeal, flour, baking powder, sugar and salt together in large bowl. Make a well in the centre.

In a second bowl, measure milk and oil. Beat in eggs until well combined. Pour into centre of the well, and mix gently until just combined. Stir in the bacon, then spoon into greased or paper lined muffin tins.

Bake about 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Serve hot or warm with butter.

Makes 12 large muffins.

Hot Cheesy-Salsa Dip

This has become an Open House staple. It wouldn't be Christmas Open House at the Friesen's without the Hot Cheesy-Salsa dip. People have asked, and although they seem to believe me when I say, "Cheez Whiz plus enough salsa to make it just a little runny", I thought it might be time to do some measuring and make it official.


2 cups Cheez Whiz (or store brand jar of processed cheese spread)
1/2- 2/3 cup Salsa (home made or your favourite store brand)

I melt them together in a small slow cooker, on low heat. It takes about half an hour to an hour to have the dip melted together. You can also make the dip in the microwave; use microwave safe dish and microwave at 50% power for 1 minute at a time until ingredients are blended and hot.

Makes 2 1/2- almost 3 cups of hot dip.

If this is for a party or family event, you may need to turn the slow cooker off for short periods of time, because the slow cooker, even on low heat, will make the cheese quite hot. Over time, with evaporation, the cheese mixture will thicken; just add a little more salsa to thin it out as needed.

Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Cranberry Orange Buns

This was my first attempt at gluten-free bread, but it seems to have worked out alright. Comments and suggestions are welcome, especially if you have gluten-free bread making expertise and advice!

I made some Company's Coming Breads "Orange Rolls" for our local MOPS (Mothers of Pre-Schoolers) group, and some in the group have issues with gluten and dairy. Instead of making a rolled-up bun with margarine, sugar and orange rind as a filling, I made them like little buns, with orange rind mixed in. I thought dried cranberries might go well with the orange theme, and so they do. I used flours that were readily available at our local Nutter's store. The Xanthan Gum was also purchased at Nutter's.

Give them a try and let me know how they turned out!

NOTE: If your kitchen is not predominately a gluten-free place, be very thorough as you prepare to bake. Make sure all pans, cooling racks, measuring and cooking utensils are clean and free of any flour or flour dust. Wash off your standing mixer and counters. Make sure the surfaces your dough will come in contact with are free of any traces of flour. Also check the ingredients in your spray oil. Some brands contain wheat. Don't grease the pans with margarine or butter if the person you're baking for is lactose intolerant. If your spray oil is not free of wheat/gluten, you may need to oil the pans with Canola or vegetable oil. Always, when planning a gluten-free baking treat, always check the labels and read the ingredients of everything you consider using.

1 cup rice milk
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup Canola oil
1 1/2 cups brown rice flour (*on the advice of the Living Without Magazine, I ran the rice flour through a well cleaned coffee grinder to make the flour finer and less grainy)
1 cup sweet white sorghum flour (I used Bob's Red Mill's Sweet White Sorghum Flour)
3/4 cup tapioca starch flour
3/4 cup potato starch
4 teaspoons Xanthan Gum
1 Tablespoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt
grated rind of one orange
1 cup dried cranberries, chopped quite small
3 eggs

GLAZE:
2 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup prepared orange juice (sometimes I just squeeze the juice from the rind-less orange)

Heat milk to boiling point in small saucepan. Add oil. Let cool to lukewarm while you measure the flours, sugar, salt, Xanthan gum, yeast, orange rind and cranberries into large standing mixer bowl.* Add warm milk/oil, and eggs. Mix on lowest speed of stand mixer with dough hook, for about 10 minutes, until flour is incorporated. Add up to 1/4 cup more sorghum or fine rice flour, if dough seems too sticky.

(*I used my Kitchen Aid mixer. If you're going it alone, follow these directions mixing everything together with a wooden spoon until you have to start kneading with your hands.**)

Take dough off dough hook, and form into a ball with your hand. Remove from bowl, (either hold in one hand or rest on clean breadboard) and add oil to bottom of bowl. Put dough in bowl, swishing it around to cover the bottom with oil, then flip the dough to cover the other side. My dough was quite soft, but it didn't stick terribly to my fingers.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap, and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in bulk, 1 1/2- 2 hours.

When bread dough has risen, remove it from the bowl and divide into 24 pieces. Roll/ shape each portion into a ball, and place on lightly greased baking sheet. My dough was still very soft after rising. It had a different texture than I'm used to with yeast breads. Less "bread-y", more "batter-y". Set in warm place to rise again until the buns are about doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350*F, then bake the buns for 15-20 minutes until browned.

Drizzle with glaze when cooled.

**To knead: Gather the dough into a ball. With the heel of your hands, push the dough away from you. Now with your fingers pull the dough back towards you into the ball. Repeat with pushing away and pulling it back 4 or 5 times. The dough should start to get longer, side to side. Rotate the dough, (1/4 turn), so it is long-wise to you; gather the longer end up into a ball with your fingers, then push it back out in the kneading motion as before. Continue kneading and turning the dough for at least 10 minutes. The longer you knead, the better your bread will be.

Nutty Fruit Crisp Topping

Crisps are crisps- rhubarb, apple, peach, plum... basically whatever fruit you have on hand or in the freezer makes a nice crisp. (1/3-1/2 cup sugar or sweetener and 1/8 cup of flour or cornstarch per 2 cups of fruit) When I make fruit crisp I rarely look it up; I usually just "wing it". Tonight I made a rhubarb/apple crisp, and I caught myself remembering the ingredients that I used for the topping. Good thing, as I did something a little different and it was really good. I give you "Nutty Fruit Crisp Topping"


1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup lightly packed brown sugar
1/4 cashews, fairly finely chopped
1/4 cup hard margarine

Mix flour, oatmeal, salt, brown sugar and cashews together in a medium bowl. Using a pastry blender, two knives or your fingers, cut/blend the margarine into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbled together. Spoon/spread over fruit in greased casserole dish and bake at 350*F for 45-60 minutes, until fruit is bubbly and topping is crisp and toasted golden brown.

This made a substantial topping for a rhubarb-apple crisp in an 8 inch, round casserole pot. The chopped nuts added a nice texture and flavour.

Twisted Peanut Butter Muffins

The Fall '10 What's Cooking (Kraft Foods magazine) came the other day, and there was a recipe for peanut butter muffins that I thought looked good. As I lay in bed this morning I contemplated these muffins for breakfast, and decided that plain peanut butter muffins might be a bit boring. "What goes with peanut butter?" I asked myself. Bananas, chocolate, and jam sounded good to me, so I mixed up a batch of muffins and divided the batter three ways to try them all! I think my favourite is peanut butter and jam. They were quite delicious for breakfast, still warm, with coffee. Yum!


Twisted Peanut Butter Muffins

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (Kraft light) crunchy peanut butter
1/4 cup hard margarine
1 cup skim milk
2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 375*F and prepare a 12 cup muffin tin- grease, or line with paper liners.

Mix flours, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Cut in peanut butter and margarine with a pastry blender or 2 knives until mixture resembles coarse crumbs (as for making biscuits or scones). Add milk and eggs, stirring just until dry ingredients are moistened. (batter will be lumpy)

Peanut Butter & Banana Muffins: add a large, not over-ripe banana, cut into small chunks. Gently stir in banana pieces to distribute them evenly throughout the batter. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden brown on top. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before storing in airtight container.

Chocolate Peanut Butter Muffins: add 3/4 cup chocolate chips to batter, stirring gently to mix them in. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden brown on top. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before storing in airtight container.

PB & J:  Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups. Add a teaspoonful of strawberry jam* to the centre of each muffin-cup of batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until risen and golden brown on top. Cool in pan 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack and cool completely before storing in airtight container. *cut down calories/carbs and increase fibre by adding a cup of chopped fresh or frozen strawberries.


Nutrition Facts (as supplied by Kraft Canada, for plain muffin made with light peanut butter) 
per muffin: 200 calories, 9g fat, (1.5g saturated fat) 30 mg cholesterol, 270 mg sodium, 26g* carbohydrates, 2g fibre, 11g sugars, 6g protein.
*add 2.5g carbs (for 28.5g carb) to PB&Banana muffin
*add 7g carbs (for 33g carb) to Chocolate PB muffin
*add 2-5 carbs (for 28-31 carb, depending on the jam you use-check the label) to PB&J muffin. Strawberry pieces will add about 1g carb per muffin.
*you can lower the carb count further by using Splenda artificial sweetener instead of sugar. Try 1/3 cup instead of 1/2 cup sugar.