Jacki’s Review of Migas

YUM!!  We had this for dinner tonight and it was very delish.  I made half the recipe since there are only two of us (6 eggs) and we ate it all – I know, piggish.   I didn’t make any changes to the recipe and followed the directions as written except I omitted the cilantro because I didn’t have any and I used Monterey Jack cheese.    I liked the fried tortilla in it and the flavors all blended together really well. 

Dinner is served - (my husband’s plate, not mine:)

Egg in the Hole, Marmalade Muffins, and Betsy's Penne Pasta

I have been out of town for a few weeks and got a little behind on the recipes, but I'm almost all caught up now!

The Egg in the Hole breakfast is an oldie but a goodie. I used to make it growing up, but kind of forgot about it. I was glad for the reminder on this blog. I don't have any pictures of it, but I have always just taken the cutout of bread and buttered it and grilled it. Like a little extra piece of toast.

I just made the marmalade muffins this morning and thought they were so yummy. I loved the smell of the orange zest. It made my whole kitchen smell good! I don't have mini muffin tins so I just made regular sized muffins. I was wondering about the muffins being dense because the batter was thick, but they baked up light and super moist. I would definitely make these again. They would be perfect for hosting a brunch. I got 17 regular sized muffins out of this recipe, and that was filling the muffin tins pretty full.

I made Betsy's Penne Pasta last week for dinner. We loved it! I made a meatless version and it was still very good. I just added a little bit of freshly grated parmesan cheese in the sauce and then more sprinkled on top. I used the full amount of cream...still trying not to feel guilty about that! But this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Recipe for Week of June 26th

I think we will fix breakfast for dinner one night this week and cook Migas on pg 61.

Announcement of the new cookbook choice coming soon!

Leslee's Sangria

We called this one the fruit drink over here. I mixed it up last night and we enjoyed it this morning. I put in some oranges, pineapple, and raspberries and added a little apple and orange juice. I had planned to use some cranberry juice as well, but somebody drank it. I am not a big juice drinker at all but my mixture tasted like a mild orange juice and wan't too bad. The kids loved it!



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Jacki’s Sangria

I made the Sangria today and  wasn’t sure what to expect but it turned out delicious!  I mixed it up this morning so it could meld in the fridge all day.  I am not much of a juice drinker (prefer the whole fruit) but I usually have orange juice and cranberry juice in the house so that is what I used.  I didn’t really measure but probably used about equal parts of each.  For fruit I put in some lemon slices, a few raspberries, blueberries, strawberries and grapes.  My favorite fruit turned out to be the lemon slices.   They really picked up the juice and had an excellent flavor.  I think orange and lime slices would have been good as well.  It is a very flexible recipe and there are plenty of juice/fruit combinations you could try.  My photos turned out pretty bad but they give you a bit of idea of what it looked like.  If you want the liquid to be clear then best not to use orange juice but it sure gave it a good flavor.

Beans and Cornbread the Brazilian way =;)

Well I had some Carioca beans from Brazil that I needed to use so I cooked them with some amazing ham hock! That thing was huge, I got it a t a German Deli, they make their own sausages, ham and all kinds of stuff so, so good! Anyway I cooked the beans in the crock pot and seasoned with sautéed onions and garlic, I didn’t have any cayenne pepper so I used smoked Hungarian paprika (it has a nice kick but not too spicy) and it was delish. I also had some of the Brazilian corn “cake” mix that I needed to use so our meal was very, very tasty and we had some rice with the leftover beans the next day . The corn bread was gone. I don’t like American corn bread it’s a bit to dry, I think I have to give this recipe a try. Overall a good easy meal but not something I would serve to my family on the regular basis since I always go for the rice anytime we have beans.

Time for an experiment =;)

Ok......I think that we are pretty much done with this book! no much left to pick from, so we can experiment with what's left.......I just got some delicious red and white grape juices, fresh grapes and apples at Trader Joes, I guess I'm going to pick Sangria on page 194 and see what I can come up with!!!!!! Have fun with this one =;)

Egg-in-the-hole

The boys had a fun time making these!!! So easy and a great change from the norm. I added a bit of parmesan cheese on mine and it was very tasty. I also toasted the "holes" and served them on the side with butter and jam =;)

Our Mini Muffins

We made these the other day for dinner along with some eggs and fruit.  I added a gluten free baking mix instead of the regular flour so I could try them and they turned out delicious. I did replace half the butter with applesauce to make them a little lighter and again didn’t think it made a big difference in the texture or flavor.  I was skeptical about the orange flavoring in it but they turned out really good! Everybody enjoyed them, even the kids!

Jacki’s Review of Marmalade Muffins

I made the muffins tonight for dinner to go along with a Quiche I prepared.  They were easy to make and quite tasty.  I even managed to not over mix them so they were not tough!  I cut the recipe in half but otherwise did everything as directed.   I thought the sauce at the end would just run off but the muffins absorbed it all.  They are definitely a nice change from the standard “from a box mix” muffins. 

Here are the muffins after they had soaked up the sauce I poured on after baking.

Rutter Mocha Brownies

Well, I completely forgot to take pics for this recipe. Audrey and I were not able to cook this together. I did however go ahead and make them. I'm not sure what happened to mine, but my pan was WAY to small (8x8). It took them forever to cook and due to long cooking time they turned out dry. I would say my brownies were about 2 inches think, icing not included. I really like the icing though. It was good.I really like the brownie and mocha icing together. The flavors together are a whole lot different then when separated. I think I'm gonna try making them again soon. I definitely will use a bigger pan next time and possibly a little less icing. Overall, I think it was the cook not the recipe so I will be making these again.

Nika's Marmalade Muffins

This morning before church we made the marmalade muffins. I made a half a batch and it turned out quite well. It still made more than 12 mini's though. The texture was nice and the flavor was great. We added some poppy seeds to ours because I had some handy.

Week of 6-12 Recipe

Our choice for this week, after some family discussion is Marmalade Muffins, page 58.

Leslee’s Penne and Brownies

I made both of these dishes last night.  The Penne was pretty easy to make and is a great meal for summer since you don’t have to turn on your oven.  I substituted canned chicken and that made it really easy. I didn’t use quite as much of the heavy cream, probably only 1/2 a cup and just added fresh parsley.  This was really good and definitely a recipe I will add to my rotation!

On to the brownies!  When I first glanced at the ingredient list I assumed it was for a big pan and was surprised it was just for a smaller square pan.  I followed the directions for the brownies and while they were cooking I mixed up the frosting.  I only made half the amount since I didn’t have enough powdered sugar.  I was planning to try some maple extract in there in place of the coffee but the stuff I had was pretty much dried up so I had to skip that part.  Since there wasn’t any extra liquid I just cut back on the powdered sugar a little and the constancy turned out great and the flavor was just chocolate.  Very delicious though! My half batch of frosting thickley covered the brownies.  I thought they were very good and rich! I think they would be great with some mocha flavoring too! I made some substitutions to make them gluten free so they turned out a little crumbly but not too bad.  I do prefer the box taste to these cakey kind but they were really good…I might have to go back for some more right now:)

Jacki’s Review of Pasta and Mocha Brownies

I made both of these recipes on Monday for dinner and we really liked both of them.  The pasta dish was quite easy to prepare especially since I splurged and bought the already peeled and deveined shrimp.  I halved the recipe but I wish I would have made a full batch for more leftovers!  I omitted the wine and used half and half instead of heavy cream.  I omitted the fresh parsley but I did add the fresh basil and loved it.  We liked the shrimp in it but you could easily substitute chicken or sausage or add a generous sprinkling of parmesan for a little protein.   A very tasty and easy recipe.  The Mocha Brownies were also delicious but I felt pretty guilty making them with all the butter, sugar and eggs. Confession time – I love mocha flavored desserts – cupcakes, ice cream, candy etc but I don’t drink coffee.  The mocha frosting just sounded so good so I went through the McDonalds drive through and bought a small cup of coffee to use in the recipe.  I made the full batch of brownies because it said to use an 8’’ square pan and I didn’t want to have to experiment with the cook time if I halved it.  It made a full 8” pan – rose all the way to the top.  I halved the icing because my husband doesn’t like his brownies frosted.  The mocha flavored icing was wonderful but you could easily substitute milk for liquid instead of the coffee.  I thought it was a good “from scratch” recipe although it doesn’t get much better than the Ghirardelli Double Chocolate Brownies from the mix.  Both good recipes for future use.

The icing needed just a bit more time chilling in the fridge before I frosted the brownie with it but I just couldn’t wait!

Rutter Pasta Dish

On this dish, we decided to use chicken as well. We really liked the it and would make it again. So easy and it took little time to prep and cook.

YUmmmmmmmy!!!!!

Rutter Prune Cake

So, I'm a little late on posting. I keep forgetting. NOT today though. LOL

We really liked the prune, well most of us. Doug wouldn't touch it. LOL!!! It reminded me a lot of a ginger bread cake, but with icing. I would def make this again.

Kim's pasta and prune cake review

Last night I made the penne alla Batsy (minus shrimp) and the prune cake for dessert. I also made the cheesy olive bread. Most of it was really good.

The pasta was yummy and super easy to make. I just did chicken instead of shrimp. I was worried that it might be a little flavorless, but it wasn't at all. The olive bread (I know we weren't supposed to make it, I just did, so I thought I would review) wasn't my favorite. Everyone else liked it but I've never been a huge fan of olives, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that I didn't love it.


The prune cake was delicious!! I took someones suggestion and used baby food instead of boiling the prunes etc. I am a big texture person and I think if I would have found a prune chunk in the cake I would have lost it. So, the baby food idea was great! It was smooth and yummy. Nobody knew the "prune" secret. My boys all gobbled it up and we ate some more for breakfast. You should all make it with baby food... SO EASY!!! Thanks for the idea!

Another new recipe

It doesn't look like too many of us have gotten around to trying the pasta dish from last week yet. It looks delicious and I am hoping to make it in the next few days. I decided to choose a dessert this week to go with it... The Mocha Brownies on page 221. Not sure what you can substitute if you don't drink coffee but I am sure we can come up with something. They look delicious!!