Comfort Food and Snow Days

The Washington, DC area is in the grip of a huge snowstorm...or at least huge for us. Our town got about 3 feet over two days. This area is not used to getting large amounts of snow, especially in just one snow event, so things are pretty much shut down. Even the snow plows gave up at one point. Some of the private contractors, who plow many of the neighborhoods' private streets, reportedly ran out of gas and gas stations were either not open or out of gas. Things have come to a standstill.

So here we are, stuck inside (not really, since we've gone out to shovel and we have lots of neighbors to visit if we wanted), but during really cold weather, people turn to comfort food.  This time, I kind of made up my own thing with grits, cheese, eggs and bacon. It might be a thing somewhere, but I haven't heard of it, so I'm going with it.  :-) The boys were outside playing, and I wanted to give them something that would warm their insides physically and emotionally.

It was super simple to make. I baked the bacon, cooked instant grits (I'm sure Southerners are rolling their eyes, but I'm not a Southerner so I have no real reference for grits, so these are fine with me), stirred some cheese into them, topped with a fried egg and put a little hot sauce on for good measure. Easy, peasy!  We all liked it, and we don't have to worry so much about the calories, since we have a boatload of snow to move. :-)

Give it a try and let me know what you think!


Cheesy Grits with Eggs


4 slices of bacon
1 cup instant grits
approximately 3/4 cups shredded cheddar cheese, divided
4 eggs
salt and pepper (to taste)
hot sauce (optional)

Fry up the bacon (I baked mine: 375 degree oven, put bacon on parchment-lined pan and bake for about 30 minutes, until cooked). Make grits according to package directions. After the grits have cooked, stir in 1/2 cup of the cheese and stir until melted. Set aside.
























Heat non-stick frying pan and add a little oil or butter. Crack 4 eggs into pan and fry, keeping the yolk soft, but the white cooked through and opaque. Crack some pepper and sprinkle salt over them if you like.

To serve: spoon grits into 4 shallow bowls. Sprinkle the rest of the grated cheese on top of the grits, then add one egg to each serving bowl. Top with crumbled bacon and hot sauce, if desired. We didn't have any (our fresh veggies are starting to dwindle), but a handful of baby spinach or kale would be good on top of the grits as well.

Serves 4

Savory Dutch Baby

This one's another entry in the "I'm not sure what to make, so I have to punt" dinner.  I had a bunch of egg yolks left over from the meringue experiments (see previous post), but I didn't feel like scrambled eggs, so I thought about a savory dutch baby.  A dutch baby (or oven pancake, pfannekuchen, etc.) is a simple mixture of egg, milk, flour, and salt (sometimes you add sugar for a sweet version) that's poured in a hot, buttered pan.  It's baked at a high temperature and gets all beautiful and puffy.

I've made these before, but only the sweeter version, served with either sauteed apples or maple syrup, and usually for Sunday breakfast.  This time, however, I had some cheese and bacon (what a surprise!), so I thought, "Maybe I should just add some of those and make it a savory dinner."

Let me tell you what.  It was GOOD!  A little side salad, and you've got a light dinner or lunch.  Plus, it's really easy.  Try it.  You'll like it!

Savory Dutch Baby with Bacon and Gruyere

2 Tbsp. butter

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup flour

3 Tbsp bacon bits

handful of shredded gruyere cheese

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees (F). Put butter in a 9-inch cast iron skillet (you can use a pie plate or other oven-safe 9-inch skillet) and put in the oven to melt.  Meanwhile, whisk together eggs, milk and flour until smooth.  When the butter is melted and the oven is pre-heated, pour the egg mixture into the skillet.  Return to oven and bake for 18 minutes.  Pull out the skillet and sprinkle the bacon and cheese on the pancake.  Put the skillet back in the over for 10 more minutes, or until the pancake is golden brown and the cheese is melted.

Remove the skillet from the oven, cut pancake into four pieces.  Serve with a simple side salad.

The Fresh Market Opens at One Loudoun in Ashburn

Open for business!



Gorgeous produce!



I seriously wanted to try a little of everything in that case!

(above photos copied from The Fresh Market's Facebook page)


Some of my friends have been buzzing about The Fresh Market ever since they announced earlier this year that they would be opening a new location at One Loudoun in Ashburn.  I was lucky enough to get there on opening day and it was a lot of fun!  Lots of specialty items that I haven't been able to find in other stores (high quality tuna in oil or different varieties of capers, for example) and just a beautifully laid-out market.  Because the store is on the smaller side, by necessity the items they carry are well-edited, even if some are on the pricey side.  I've signed up for their weekly specials newsletter, because the specials they were running were really good (BOGO on quick bread loaves -- I bought the banana chocolate chip and the pumpkin), but generally the prices do run a little higher on a lot of things, but seems comparable on others.  Go take a look and see what you think!

Check out all the fun things I bought!

It will be really fun to go back when I need to put together any foodie gift baskets for friends or other winter events coming up!  I could also see popping in there to pick up fun items for a picnic lunch (go out and enjoy this beautiful fall weather) or when you need some quick appetizer ideas.  I stocked up on some Stonewall Kitchen jellies and jams (also a BOGO special) to have on hand.  Their red pepper jelly spread over a block of cream cheese makes a delicious and easy appetizer if you need one at the last minute.

Now, it would take a lot to tear me away from Wegmans as my main grocery store, but here is what I will go back for regularly at The Fresh Market:  Nueske bacon (if you've never had it, you are so missing out), their peanut butter power chews (bulk food bins), chili lemon rounds (rice crackers - also found in the bulk food section), their cucumber salad (at the olive bar) and their coconut shrimp with mango dipping sauce.  Nom, nom, nom.

Because I am a baker, and have lived in France, I do have a quibble with what they call "napoleons." The Fresh Market version looks like cake layers with cream and fruit layered between.  A true napoleon (or mille-feuille in French), in my opinion, has to have the puff pastry layers.  I am a traditionalist like that, and I want to make sure we Americans know the real thing.  :-) They do, however, have lovely baked goods that would be a hit at any dinner party, or just a sweet treat (they have many single-serve options)!  I tried their apple pie (very tasty, although I like mine with lots of cinnamon), banana chocolate chip bread (yum!) and pumpkin nut bread (good, but needs more nuts) and two types of cupcakes -- a chocolate and vanilla (with swirled frosting) and their cannoli cupcake.  Both were really good!  They had a lot more varieties that I will want to try...

I also wasn't a big fan of their sushi. I got their spicy tuna roll, but thought the rice on their version was too soft and "glue-y" and the tuna wasn't all that flavorful.  My husband and son, on the other hand, liked the tuna, even though they agreed with me on the rice issue. Just a matter of opinion, of course.

I bought some of their name brand items to see how they compared to what I would make, and we really enjoyed their cornbread stuffing mix and their "Anything Goes" spice rub.  I used the spice rub on their chicken breasts (a good deal at $2.99/lb) and baked them in a 350 degree oven for 45 minutes (until the thermometer registered 170 degrees).  Supper tasty and moist. I think the spice rub would taste even better on pork, so that's up next.  I highly recommend getting a tin of it, and this is coming from a Penzey's girl.  :-)





















Below is my take on their cornbread stuffing:


The Fresh Market Cornbread Stuffing, Marna's Way

Adapted from The Fresh Market Basic Stuffing Recipe

3 slices of Nueske bacon
One medium onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
3 stalks celery, chopped (about 1 cup)
2 2/3 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 Box of The Fresh Market Cornbread Stuffing Mix
Pepper to taste

Cut bacon cross ways (across the short side) into 1/4 inch strips.  Heat a large skillet and sauté bacon until the fat starts to render, but before it is crispy.  Add celery and onion and cook together until the bacon is crispy and the onions are soft and translucent.  Add butter and chicken stock and cook until butter is melted.  Take off heat and set aside. Open stuffing mix box and pour onto a large, heat-proof bowl.  Add the onion/celery mixture to the dry stuffing mix and stir until all the stuffing has been moistened (you might have to let it sit a few minutes to soak up all the broth). Put the stuffing in a buttered baking dish (the one I used was 10x12 inches) and bake, covered with foil, for 40 minutes at 350 degrees. If you like your stuffing with a little crispity crunchiness on top, remove the aluminum foil for the last ten minutes of baking. 

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

Monster cookies with dark chocolate chips, smoked peanuts, bacon bits, and bacon meringue crumbles.  Crazy?  Not until you taste them!  So, you know from my earlier post that I had some left over bacon meringue crumbles (crumbs, whatever).  I put a lot of sweat and tears into those babies, so I wasn't about to just throw them out!  It just so happened that I had a jar of peanut butter that my kids didn't like so much (the texture wasn't smooth enough), so I was thinking monster cookies.  Also, I didn't have enough peanut butter, so I added a little bit of this chocolate almond spread I picked up at Trader Joe's.  Don't be fooled: it's not Nutella.  I don't prefer the flavor as much, so I'll be using it up in some baked goods or maybe a frosting in the coming months....but I digress.  Because the peanut butter I was using was natural, which tends to be oilier and looser than more processed peanut butters, I did add a little bit of flour, so you may quibble that this is not a true monster cookie.  But you can get over all of that, especially when you take a bite of these bad boys.

Now, if you don't have bacon meringue crumbles, by all means, just use bacon bits and call it a day. I happened to have both, so I put both in.  No sense in doing things half-assed, am I right?  Also, you can leave the nuts out if you want, or just use regular peanuts or almonds.  I happened to have some smoked peanuts (which I mixed with plain roasted almonds) that I wanted to use up as well (are you sensing a theme??), so in the dough they went!  But really and truly, these were tasty!  Chewy, with a sweet/savory/salty thing going on that was heaven!

If you've never made monster cookies before, the real key is to not overbake them.  They will look a little under done when you pull them out, and it's essential to let them sit on the baking sheet about 5 minutes before you take them off.  Honest. Then you take them off the cookie sheet and let them cool all the way on a cooling rack.

This is what it looks like when you combine the eggs and sugars.  It's very loose, but just wait, things will tighten up when you add the peanut butter:

And after you add all of the dry ingredients, the cookie dough becomes really stiff.  I had to sort of knead in the chips, nuts, and bacon bits.  This is what the finished dough looks like:

Here's a shot of the finished product while they are still cooling on the sheet pans.  You will definitely need to line the pans with a silicone mat or parchment paper.

Frankenstein's Monster Cookies

4 eggs
1 1/4 granulated sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
12 oz natural peanut butter
3 oz. Trader Joe's cocoa almond spread
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3.5 cups oats, not instant
2/3 cup flour
2.5 tsp baking soda
1 cup chopped smoked almonds and/or peanuts
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup bacon bits (or 1/2 cup bacon meringue crumbs)

Beat sugars and eggs together thoroughly.  Add butter, salt, vanilla, peanut butter and cocoa spread.  Cream all together. Add flour and baking soda. Mix until combined, then stir in nuts, chocolate chips and bacon.  Dough will be stiff.

Drop by rounded tablespoons onto parchment-lined large baking sheets. Flatten each cooking down slightly. Leave 2 inches of space, because they will spread a bit. I could only fit about 10 on a large sheet pan.

Bake 10-12 minutes at 350.  The cookies should still look a little puffy and only lightly browned when you take them out. Let them cool on the pan for at least 5 minutes before taking them off the baking sheet and finishing cooling on a cooling rack. You do not want to overbake these cookies so that they'll stay chewy and delicious.

Makes a lot -- 4 dozen or so.

Meat Day

Yes, you read that right. Some people celebrate the Super Bowl, but in my neighborhood we celebrate meat in all its forms (and in some forms you never would have thought existed) on the day of the Super Bowl.  It all started a few years back when our neighbors hosted a tail gate party in the alley.  For a couple of years, it was kind of normal, with chili, ribs, burgers and such.  But then, someone (I won't name names) brought a bacon log, then all bets were off.  After that, the meat-inspired creations took off, with more variations of the bacon log, bacon rose bouquets (I'm not kidding -- Slim Jim stems and basil leaves), buffalo chicken dip, hog wings (da bomb!!), maple bacon cupcakes, buffalo chicken cupcakes (both of those were my contributions).  This year, a good friend asked me to collaborate with him.  He wanted to do some sort of bacon ice cream.  His first thought was to do a pineapple-bacon combo, but he couldn't find pineapple ice cream, so he had do settle for salted caramel.  He asked me to figure out a bacon cone to go with it.

This is where it started to get real, people.  I tried tuiles and florentines, with bacon added. Neither of those attempts worked out quite right.  So I thought, "What about meringue cups?" I was worried about the greasiness of the bacon not working with the meringues, but it actually did work.  The main thing is to cook the bacon until it's really crispy and blot out as much of the grease as possible before chopping it up.


From this photo, you can see how well-cooked the bacon was. After I cooked it, I drained it on paper towels, chopped it, then put it on paper towels again and pushed out as much of the grease as I could.

Anyway, I first tried it using maple sugar.  It tasted great, but when Matt said he was going to use salted caramel ice cream, I had to switch course, because the maple sugar gave it a toasted brown color and beige + beige = unappealing visuals. Remember, we eat with our eyes first.  So, I went back to a traditional meringue recipe using regular, granulated sugar.  These turned out great, except for them sticking to the pan I used.  Trying to make a nicer cup shape, I turned my mini-cupcake pan over and used that as a form.  Unfortunately, the bottom side of the pan isn't non-stick like the inside (it was Pampered Chef, so I thought it was coated all around).  So, version number two turned into bacon meringue crumbles.

The third try, I wasn't taking any chances.  Piped circles on parchment paper it is! I made them small, about 2 inches in diameter, to be eaten in a bite or two.  When you're tailgating, you do not want to mess with a lot of eating utensils.  To scoop the froyo into the cups, I used my smallest cookie scoop (1.5 inch diameter), which was perfect.

Here's the final result:

Why yes, that IS crumbled bacon on top.  Crazy, you say?  Crazy Delicious!  They were a big hit, but unfortunately I only had about 2 dozen of the little meringue cups.  I had actually made three batches of the dang things (as noted above), but by the time I got everything right, I was so tired of making meringues (and has so many egg yolks to figure out what to do with), I was just done.  I try to do something different each year, but these bad boys might have to make another appearance, just so more people can have a taste.

 

Bacon Meringue Cups Filled with Salted Caramel Frozen Yogurt

3 egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup granulated sugar (if you happen to have super-fine granulated sugar, use that, but the regular stuff will work, too)
1/2 cup bacon, cooked crispy, drained well of grease, cooled, and chopped very fine
2 pints salted caramel frozen yogurt or ice cream
extra bacon bits (optional)

Pre-heat oven to 175 degrees (F). Line 2 large baking sheets (11x17 inches) with parchment.  On the parchment, draw 2-inch diameter circles. Turn parchment over so the pencil marks are face down (you should still be able to see them through the paper).

Beat the egg whites until soft peaks form (about 2 minutes on high speed).  Gradually start adding the sugar, about 2 teaspoons at a time, letting the sugar mix in before you add more.  This should take about 2 more minutes.  Beat whites about another minute until the meringue is glossy and holds stiff peaks.

Gently fold in the bacon bits.













Put the meringue into a piping bag.  Tip: I stand my bag up in a tall glass and fold the top part over (see photo). It makes it a lot easier to fill the bag.  You can use an actual tip, but I just used a disposable bag and snipped off the end about an inch up from the bottom.

Starting in the middle of a circle, pipe a spiral out to the edge of the circle, then build up the sides (piping about 2 other circles on top) to form a bowl.  Repeat for the other circles.

Place baking sheets in the preheated oven and bake meringues for 2 hours.  They should be dry to the touch on the outside, but not browned.  Turn off oven and leave the meringues in the oven for another hour.

Remove the sheets from the oven.  The meringues should feel dry and hard, and they should peel easily off of the parchment.  If they aren't dry, then turn the oven on again to the lowest setting (on my oven that was 170 degrees F), return the meringues to the oven and let them sit in there for another 30 minutes, then turn the oven off.  Keep them in the oven with the door closed for another thirty minutes. They can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for one day, but you should really finish them off after that, because of the bacon.  :-)

To serve, fill each meringue cup with one scoop of frozen yogurt, then top with more bacon crumbles, if you like.  You can make the cups ahead of time, and you can scoop out the ice cream ahead of time, but you can only put this together just before serving, otherwise the meringues will get soggy.

Makes 2 dozen.

P.S. As a variation, you could just drop these by teaspoons and bake them as meringue cookies, maybe even sandwiching them in between with some melted dark chocolate.  With the failed meringues (the ones that got stuck on the muffin pan), I stirred them into brownies (with chocolate chips and marshmallows), crumbled them on top of an ice cream sundae, and made Frankenstein's Monster Cookies (peanut butter oatmeal cookies with smoked peanuts and almonds, dark chocolate chips and bacon meringue crumbles).  More about those later.  :-)