Egg salad

I was majorly craving egg salad for some reason. I hadn't had it in years and am still not really sure what made me crave it, but boy am I glad I did. I experimented with a few different combinations, but felt this had the most flavor. I actually liked adding white wine vinegar, but couldn't get the perfect combination, but I'll keep trying. So to get perfectly cooked eggs, all you have to do is put the 6 eggs in water and heat it on medium high. Once the water starts boiling, put the timer on for 9 minutes and you will have a perfectly cooked egg.

I also learned something about toasted bread that I'm pretty sure everyone already knows. Fresh bread toasted is way better than stale bread toasted. I love fresh bread so much that I thought toasting it would just ruin it, so I never did. I only toasted bread if it was stale until recently. FRESH BREAD TOASTED IS SO GOOD! The outside edges are crispy while the inside is fluffy and it's just amazing. Ok, there is my epiphany of the day.

Did you know that eggs are my favorite food? I love them boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, poached, over easy...the list goes on. If it wasn't so high in cholesterol, I'd have it a lot more. Anywhere, here's the recipe; it's actually not that fattening because I used minimal mayo. Enjoy! Oh, and I know I said I was going to make a dessert and I am! I just had to find the perfect recipe and I have! It is a raspberry mocha dobos tortelette from dessertsforbreakfast.com...it's probably the most complex dessert I've ever made with the exception of the raspberry souffle I attempted to make; unfortunately it never rose.

Mushrooms and potatoes in a red wine sauce

I debated calling this post "Mushrooms and potatoes in a red wine reduction" but thought that it sounded too pretentious for how easy it is. This side dish was delicious. I adapted it from herbivoracious.com, one of my favorite sites; however he used chanterelles and I can't afford chanterelles, but I did pair this with filet mignon because I had a deal from Living Social at whole foods. Gosh, I forgot how amazing whole foods is. Everything there just looked and smelled amazing, especially the produce.

Regarding this dish, the only thing I might do different is cut up the potatoes next time, mostly because it would photograph better. I didn't like how disproportionate the potatoes were to the mushrooms or to the steak. Anyway, I highly recommend this whole meal because steak, potatoes, and mushrooms just go well together. I made the steak a little differently this time because a friend suggested baking the steak first, then searing it, which made it super juicy...but the key to a good steak is to heavily salt and pepper the sucker; it makes a world of a difference. I'm not going to include the recipe for the steak mostly because I just kept an eye on everything and didn't time it; plus it varies for every size steak, but below is the recipe for the side dish.

I've decided I want to make a dessert next. I'm not really sure what yet, but something that looks really pretty...I am NOT a baker though so wish me luck!

Taco Seasoning!

This is my first attempt at taco seasoning and it turned out pretty good! I altered a recipe from thewaytohisheart.wordpress.com and saw that she had a good point in homemade taco seasoning...NO MSG and you get to control the amount of salt that goes into your meal. I actually bought Kroger taco seasoning the other night fully expecting to use it, but I'm glad I didn't because this one was just as good and tasty.

Now, there's no secret to making tacos...tortillas, ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, cilanto, and avocado. BAM! I typically add black beans cooked with some garlic too, but I forgot to this time which was ok because the taco tasted very fresh. The recipe is down below. Just add 1 tbsp for every 1 lb of ground beef. I want to make sauteed mushrooms with a red wine sauce, but I need to think of a proper entree to go with it. Stay tuned! ;)

Albondigas Meatballs with Salsa Espanola

So I am continuing my way through The Cuisines of Spain cookbook and I love these meatballs. It has the simplest ingredients, but creates something so amazing. It's a little time consuming but well worth the time. Now, if you haven't noticed, I got new plates and the pictures above are my attempt at food styling. However, don't be fooled because when I actually ate the meatballs, I ladled about 2 more cups of sauce onto that plate. I attempted to make french fries but I don't think they turned out exactly the way I wanted them too so I will keep trying.

I've decided that I love cooking with wine. I don't actually like the taste of wine to drink, but cooking with it adds such depth of flavor that you can't get from herbs or spices. I'm really going to try to find more recipes that involve wine. Below is the albondigas meatball recipe shown with my newfound Photoshop skills! ;)

GAZPACHO

Gazpacho! So, my boyfriend's sister in law made this amazing gazpacho a few weeks ago and I had to make it myself. I actually bought the cookbook because they have made a few things from there that I just love. I'm sure other recipes (like albondigas meatballs) will make it to this blog. ;) Anyway, this gazpacho recipe is tough! It sounds easy, but I decided to take the difficult route which I probably won't do next time. I actually peeled each tomato even though the recipe didn't call for it. The soup is normally a reddish orangish pretty hue instead of this pink ugly color but it still tastes good! It's refreshing, flavorful, and very addicting.

On another note, I got photoshop! I have Jason to thank for installing it and Faye to thank for teaching me few basics. So watch out for a few improvements in the blog!