eggs

Bacon and Egg Spaghetti

~ nancyruth ~ 3 Comments

bacon and egg spaghetti 012

Sometimes it is difficult to know what to cook for dinner. I am trying to cook what is in the house to avoid a grocery shopping trip until another week goes by. I like having food in the house so when I go to the store I tend to buy lots! Everyone chooses how to spend their money; some spend it on dining out, entertainment, cars, travel. Me, I tend to spend it on food! And of course reading my fellow bloggers recipes and seeing the photographs of delicious food always inspires me to have enough variety of food in the house so I can cook up an experimental dish on a whim!

The inspiration for this dish is threefold. First and foremost is this blog that I just recently was reading: https://mioshotfood.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/original-italian-carbonara/. This sounded fabulous and I wanted to make this. While thinking about this I remember my brother-in-law talking about making a bacon and egg spaghetti and also in one of the many food magazines I have read over the years there was a page on a quick weeknight dinner featuring a bacon and egg spaghetti. I describe this to hubby and he says it sounds appealing so up from the sofa we get and go into the kitchen.

Here’s what I used:

  • 1/2 pound spaghetti noodles
  • a little bit of olive oil for the skillet
  • 1/4 pound bacon cut into small dice (I use uncured bacon that I keep frozen and just chop from the end what is needed)
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 1 garlic clove, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
  • 3 eggs
  • 1/4 cup grated Romano cheese
  • 1/2 cup cottage cheese
  • freshly ground pepper
  • dried parsley for garnish

Boil the water for the spaghetti. This is what takes the longest time for this dish. While waiting for the water to boil and/or the spaghetti to cook, dice up the bacon, onion, and garlic. Hubby kindly took care of the bacon while I did the other. Saute these together in the skillet with a little bit of oil. Add the oregano and basil when the bacon is starting to brown and the onion is caramelizing. I read somewhere that fat distributes the flavors so I am thinking this is the time to add the seasonings. This concoction will have your kitchen smelling wonderful!

In a bowl beat the three eggs with a fork and add the Romano cheese. Drain the spaghetti and add it to the skillet with the bacon and onion. Pour on the egg mixture. Cook this over medium heat stirring with tongs to coat the spaghetti. It will start to look like scrambled egg on the spaghetti. We added the cottage cheese here for extra creaminess. Season with pepper. Put in serving bowls and sprinkle with the dried parsley and more pepper to taste.

It served the two of us. This would be nice served with a green salad and crusty bread neither of which I had in the house at the time. I figure the onion is our vegetable, the eggs and bacon are our protein, the cheese is the dairy, and the pasta is the grain. That covers the major food groups and makes this a square meal!

 

 

Miscellaneous Food Stuffs

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

The frost is coming so I must harvest the mint leaves. What am I going to do with all of these? I made a pot of mint tea but now what? What about putting some in vodka and making mint extract? I read somewhere about making one’s own vanilla extract by putting a vanilla bean into vodka…

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What to do with broken eggs? Went to the grocery store for a few items mostly for baking and when bringing the bags back to the car one dropped. The egg carton popped open and a few eggs rolled onto the parking lot. Oh no! Not the eggs! Well, one was lost completely as it had spilled its guts all over the ground. Three others had cracked their shells but the membrane was intact. Still I felt these needed to be used this same day. Scrambled eggs for supper maybe?

Made a frittata instead. Shredded four small potatoes in my Cuisinart food processor. I only remembered this summer that it has a shredder attachment. Finely diced one onion. Sautéed the onion for five minutes in oil then added the potatoes. I should have squeezed the potatoes drier and coated them with a little oil prior to putting them in the frying pan. I have to stir them and scrape them off the bottom of the pan frequently. I also dice up ½ green bell pepper a small chunk of ham and about 2 ounces of cheese. Crack four eggs into a bowl, pour in ¼ cup milk and whisk. Add a little salt, if you use salt, and some black pepper. When you think the potatoes look brown enough pour all the ingredients together in the fry pan and mix well. I use a cast iron skillet so I can put this directly into the oven, 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Turns out to be tasty and filling.

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I did not look at a recipe for the above but was trying to put together something from memory from cookbooks. I think I had the notion that the potatoes would be crispier like a hash brown. Perhaps if I had lined the cast iron skillet with the potato mixture, baked until crisp, and then added the egg and ham mixture? Sort of like a quiche with a potato crust? I think I saw something like that on a Facebook post from a food/cooking site using muffin tins. So not an original idea of mine.

Speaking of Facebook I find it is a fabulous place to get recipes that one wants to try. Then one can monkey around with the idea and personalize it. I bet women have been doing that in their kitchens since the dawn of time.

Dinners for the rest of the week have not been “recipe” dinners.

blogfoodpics 001Burgeblogfoodpics 002rs: add your own toppings. Hubby added Roquefort or Camembert or other smelly cheese; I added avocado, tomato, and salsa. One night we cut up a kielbasa, smashed potatoes and cooked frozen peas. And tonight is baked fish fillets sprinkled with lemon juice and dill weed, leftover smashed potatoes, and frozen veg.

Here’s dessert! This is from  http://www.dessertfortwo.com/2015/10/caramel-banana-pudding-2/

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Planning breakfast

~ nancyruth ~ Leave a comment

I wake up on Sunday morning. Hubby is coming down with a cold so he sleeps in. We miss church. I am sure we can be forgiven. This is so unlike what I used to be like but that’s a whole other story. I still have faith; I find I am not as compulsive about church attendance.

So I am spending time blogging instead of writing my memoirs. I am spending too much time cooking/baking instead of sewing. And I am spending too much time watching TV instead of reading. And the housework is barely getting done! We did winterize the trailer yesterday after looking at new ones. So now I am dreaming of a new trailer with a few more amenities. But this is not a priority for our finances.

It is cold now. Well there is frost outside on the cars and the outside thermometer says it is 30 degrees. My weather App says it was 27 degrees. Brrrr!

Here’s Squeaky staring intently out of the dining room window. There must be a bird in the tree out there. breakfast 011

We spent too much money on groceries the day before since we did not go to the discount grocery store. We went to Stew Leonard’s. We went because we wanted to make fully loaded nachos for a meal and they have the best tortilla chips. Well, they have wonderful cheeses and a wonderful bakery and really good New England clam chowder and good meat even though it runs a bit higher in price than we are accustomed. So we bought too much. Now there is too much food in my fridge and pantry. What to cook first?

I put the coffee on to drip. I was going to write “to perk” but it is an automatic drip coffee maker. I have bought minimally processed breakfast sausages and thought this would be a nice Sunday morning breakfast treat. Then I remember the other day making baked eggs in a muffin tin and think I could make some more of these for weekday breakfasts. Lots of protein which supposedly is good for mornings and good for weight loss.

breakfast 007Cook up the sausages in the cast iron skillet. Four of these are for our breakfast this morning. I slice up the other four to put in the baked eggs.breakfast 005

Break an egg into each muffin cup. First spray with cooking spray.

breakfast 006Grate the cheese and assemble. I used about two ounces of sharp cheddar for 10 eggs. Oh, and be sure to poke each egg yolk. I am not sure why I think that is a necessary step. I know it would be essential if cooking the eggs in the microwave.

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Bake these for 20-25 minutes. Let cool only slightly before removing from the pan and placing on a plate to cool.

breakfast 010Here they are cooling in my fridge. (I forgot to take a picture of them right out of the oven.)

They don’t really look appetizing but toast a piece of bread, “nuke” an egg in the micro for 20 seconds, wrap it in the toast, and you’ve got breakfast in a jiff.

And breakfast is the most important meal of the day!