A Perfect Soft Boiled Egg

Every now and then I feel like having a soft boiled egg for breakfast.  To be honest I do not eat eggs very often any more but the odd time I feel like having one. They remind me of my childhood for some unknown reason.

 

 

For the longest time whenever I would go to make a soft boiled egg though, more often than not I always ended up with a hard boiled egg instead {insert extremely disappointed face} because I would time it wrong. I kept forgetting the required amount of time it needed because I just don't make them often enough. I finally wrote it down instead of constantly bugging my mom. The other day I was looking for my little slip of paper I wrote it on and of course I misplaced it. I figured it was time I do a post for future reference and thus this post came to exist.

The key to a perfect soft boiled egg is timing ... you take it out too soon, you end up with a super runny egg ... you leave it in too long, you end up with a hard boiled egg. Once you get the timing down, it is extremely easy soft boiling an egg.

To prepare the perfect soft boiled egg you first fill a pan 1/3 of the way up with water and get it boiling. Secondly, carefully place the egg in the boiling water. Thirdly set your timer immediately on for 5 MINUTE once the egg has been placed in the water (THIS IS KEY).

 

 

When the timer is up remove the pan off the heat immediately and move it to the sink. Run cold water over the egg(s) until there is no more hot water in the pan. That is it!!

 

 

Place the egg in an egg cup if you have one and give it a couple taps on the top with a butter knife to crack the top third of the egg and peel it off. If you don't have an egg cup no big deal. Cut off the top section of the egg to reveal the yolk and your egg is ready to be eaten.

 

I like cutting a piece of toast into strips as it makes it easier for dipping into the egg.

Enjoy!

 

 

Panzerotti Tuesday

We finally tried the Panzerottis from the local pizzeria here in town two weeks ago. The weather was just way to hot for cooking and we gave in and treated ourselves to these delicious Panzerottis. It worked out great because they have a Panzerotti deal on Tuesdays!!They were so good and loaded with cheese and our favourite toppings!

Hope everyone enjoys their week!

HAPPY MONDAY!!!

{9 of 10} Beef Tenderloin and Grilled Veggie Skewers & Herb Potatoes

The weather has been like a yo-yo lately and it is starting to drive us crazy. Last week the weather was so hot (reaching a high of 36^oC some days) and this week it feels like fall (at night it is dropping down to 6^oC). I'm keeping my fingers crossed we do not get a frost warning again. I am also hoping the Weather Man is wrong with today's forecast and it warms up a bit more for our annual ice cream trip that we always go on {it's a tradition}. If it does not warm up I think we will have to eat our ice cream in the car with the heat blasting like we did a couple years ago!

On the super hot days, it's so hot that we really do not feel like cooking inside, so we try to prepare most of our dinner on the BBQ. Another favourite at our place is grilled beef tenderloin and veggie skewers, which work great on the really hot days.  Whenever there is a good deal on beef tenderloin we usually grab it and cut it into steaks. When we are done we are usually left with chunks of beef which work out great to make a meal of beef skewers. This meal does take a bit of planning ahead because we marinate the meat in Italian Dressing the night before. It is also a bit time consuming chopping up the veggies and assembling the skewers, but the end product is very enjoyable!

For the veggies I use different coloured peppers (we prefer red, orange and yellow - we find they taste great when they are grilled), cherry tomatoes, red onion and if we are serving it to guests I add mushrooms.

 

 The finished product ...

 

 

We usually make herb potatoes wrapped in tinfoil on the BBQ also when we have these skewers (the entire meal is prepared on the BBQ -- BONUS).

 

For the potatoes we drizzle a bit of olive oil over top of the chopped potatoes and then sprinkle some chives, oregano, parsley, basil, garlic, cumin, red pepper and black pepper.  Then we throw them on the BBQ about half hour before the meat goes on and that's it!

 

 

 

Do you have a special marinate or seasoning you use on your meat? What do you add to your herb potatoes? 

 





Bacon & Tomato Sandwiches {8 of 10}

Bacon & Tomato Sandwiches for some is a lunch option, but at our house, we enjoy it for dinner. During the summer, when our tomato harvest is at it's peek, these are a top dinner pick for us! 

 

All you need for this quick easy dinner  are tomatoes, bacon, some bread, mayo and pepper.

 

During the winter months when we get a craving for these yummy sandwiches and obviously do not have fresh tomatoes from the garden, I grab vine-ripe tomatoes from the grocery story. Not the same as the ones from the garden (not much flavour), but they are not bad.

 

If you do not have one of these in your kitchen (a tomato knife) I highly recommend investing in one. It works like a charm when you have to slice tomatoes. I find myself using it all the time for a bunch of other stuff too ... so worth the $5.00 we spent on it!

 

During the summer months when I make these, I pan fry the bacon on the BBQ's side element.

 

 

 

During the cold winter months, however, I use the pan that came with our oven (I believe it's called a broiler pan). I add a bit of water at the bottom of the pan which the fat drips into. I find this way is nice to prepare bacon because it does not stink up the house so much. During the summer however, it is way to hot to have the oven going though!



 

 

 

The bacon turns out perfect. Just the right amount of crispiness.



 

 

 

We like Hellmann's.

 

 

All the items ready to be assembled into a delicious sandwich. 

 

 

The finished product ... yummy!!





 

 

 



 



Fajitas for dinner ... Yes Please!!! {2 of 10}

This is one of the top 10 favourite dishes in our house – fajitas made by Byron from scratch. Don’t ask me what he throws in the pan. I’m just in charge of doing the prep (chopping the peppers, onions, etc). I know there are herbs because I see him searching for them in the spice rack, but other than that, I don’t know because I’m not allowed near the pan. It always smells and tastes sooooo good when he makes these.

 

We always enjoy the fajitas with a nice bottle of red wine that Roxy must approve ...

 

 

 

 

Once it has been Roxy approved, she gets off her thrown and we can enjoy Byron's famous Chicken fajitas ... yum so delicious!

 

 

 

Potato Kielbasa Skillet

The weather has been nice and sunny lately (finally getting some much needed vitamin D). The days are getting longer, which is such a treat for this time of the year (when it is difficult not to get the winter blues).  Last night when we were eating dinner, it was bright enough in the house that we didn't even have to turn on the lights {so nice}. Daylight savings time happens this coming weekend already (have to remember to change the clocks 1 hour forward). We will be losing 1 hour of sleep which sucks, but it is a sign that spring and the warm weather are around the corner {yippee}.

The other week we tried a new recipe. Potato Kielbasa Skillet. I followed the recipe with one exception (I added 1/2 a red pepper). It was quick and easy to make (bonus) and delicious!!

Some of the ingredients ...

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end product ...

 

 

The recipe is from taste of home - Potato Kielbasa Skillet if you want to give it a try. We enjoyed it and I will definitely be making it again!

Potato Kielbasa Skillet

Ingredients:

1 pound red potatoes, cubed
3 tablespoons water
¾ pound smoked kielbasa or Polish sausage, cut into 1/4-inch slices
½ cup chopped onion
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
½ teaspoon dried thyme
¼ teaspoon pepper
4 cups fresh baby spinach
5 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Directions:

Place potatoes and water in a microwave-safe dish. Cover and microwave on high for 4 minutes or until tender; drain.

In a large skillet, sauté kielbasa and onion in oil until onion is tender. Add potatoes; sauté 3-5 minutes longer or until kielbasa and potatoes are lightly browned.

Combine the brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, thyme and pepper; stir into skillet. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, for 2-3 minutes or until heated through. Add spinach and bacon; cook and stir until spinach is wilted. Yield: 4 servings.

Hope you have a great weekend. Don't forget to change your clocks forward Saturday night before going to bed or you might get to where you're going an hour early on Sunday!

10/52 - Tiny Apple + Little Hands

We were out of McIntosh apples and these were the only ones I could purchase from the Superstore. They are really tiny, but oh so cute. The perfect size for a lil man! I'm just grateful that it's the middle of the winter and we are able to find them at the grocery store. It's a bonus that they are a product of Canada and tasty!

 

 

Valentine's Day Sweets

I know Valentine's day has come and gone, but I really wanted to document what we made this year - Pink Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

At Christmas each year, we always get chocolate letters from Byron's parents, it's a Dutch tradition. Usually we have a lot of sweets at this time of the year, so I freeze the letters for a later date. This year I used them to make these cookies and they turned out GREAT!

 

 

 

I used my go to chocolate chip recipe but substitute the chocolate chunks for the chips and I added a bit of food colouring to make them pink for Valentine's day and voila!

 

 

 

Almost looks like ice cream

 

 

 

 

Before getting packaged for dad

to take to work and share

I designed and printed onto paper bag.

 

 

 

 

Close up of bag, it's a bit hard to read due to the photo - but it says -- hope you have the sweetest day ... love Hugo!

 

I also made Reese's Peanut Butter Bars on Valentine's Day for dessert. I will post them soon!



DATE. DAY.

I can't believe the weekend has already came and gone. Time sure does fly when you are having a good time! Had a busy but productive weekend. Friday evening my cousins from the city came up for a visit and picked up my goddaughter on the way here. We had a lovely visit. We must try and do it more often! When I found out they were coming I quickly prepped a Kelsey's Four Cheese Spinach Dip (not very healthy, but oh so creamy and tasty to enjoy with others).

I used fresh spinach

All mixed up nicely.

It's so good that it disappeared before I could take a picture of the end product!


Saturday was another great day -- it was a date day. This year we are trying to either have a date day or date night once a month. On date days we usually go to Barrie and run a bunch of errands (i.e. go to Costco and anywhere else we need to grab stuff from), and then we go to a restaurant and have a sit down lunch. The day seems to be so productive because Grandma and Grandpa look after Hugo, so we are so much quicker running from one place to another. On a date night we will go out for a nice dinner. It's nice having a couple hours were it's just Hubby and me. It also gives Hugo an opportunity to spend some time away from me {you know how horrible it is to be around me 24/7}. So far this year we have been able to do it for both January and February. We'll see how long we will be able to keep it up.

We went to Kelsey's for Lunch. I had the Kelsey's Lunch Trio - 1/2 of their Smoked Turkey Club Sandwich, served with Broccoli Cheddar Soup, and a Caesar Salad ...

Byron had their Messy Chicken Parm Sandwich ...

Overall lunch wasn't bad. We did enjoy the lunch we had at Swiss Chalet {I had the Rotisserie Chicken Club Wrap and Byron had the Southwest Rotisserie Chicken Flatbread} at our last date day though more. I've been craving a St-Hubert white meat Club Sandwich since spring last year, but the only place we can get them is in Quebec {insert sad face}. They are sooooooo good.  I often  think about my in-laws driving through Quebec last summer and just driving past St-Hubert each time they saw one and not stopping in for a bit to eat because they thought it was like KFC {insert head shake}, if only we had informed them.

I guess for now the closest I will get to one of these is by looking at this picture {insert tear}, unless we head to Quebec this summer for Byron to attend the Mountain Bike event at Mont-Sainte-Anne. We shall see how the lil man is in the car.


While we were in Barrie, we also went to Bonnie Togs and found some great deals for the Lil Man on winter and some summer clothing. We were able to grab him a Columbia snowsuit for 70% off for next winter!! We aren't the type to buy brand name stuff at regular price, especially for kids clothing items because they outgrow it so fast {a snowsuit only lasts one season}, but when we find a deal, we snatch it!!!  MUST MARK MY CALENDAR FOR NEXT YEAR ... I went to Bonnie Togs around this time last year and they had good deals then too!!


Sunday was also a good day -- productive ... did laundry, cooking and finally got around to something we've been meaning to do for a while. I'm getting closer to launching my small business venture, finally {my initial goal was to get it up and running at the beginning of January this year, but it didn't happen}. Once things are up and running I will post info here.

And that was our weekend in a nutshell!

There's A Fire in Our Kitchen ...

... oh wait ... Byron is just making our Family Day dinner!

This past weekend was family day and we had a lovely weekend. Our weekend consisted of Chinese food for dinner Saturday with Byron's parents and sister. Sunday afternoon we had a visit with my parents and sister and on Monday afternoon my Goddaughter (Hugo's Godmother) came over for a visit. We spent lots of time with family and ended our weekend with a wonderful dinner prepared by our personal chef ... my wonderful husband. 


For our Family Day dinner Byron prepared Beef Bourguignon.

First Byron fried the bacon in the Dutch Oven.

I believe he then used the bacon fat to brown the meat and then sauteed the vegetables.

And then the fire occurred ... Byron added the cognac and lit it on fire. I must admit, it caught me a bit off guard. I wasn't expecting the flames to be so high, and as a result, I didn't snap a photo of the entire flame. I was too concerned with the fire that was going on directly under our microwave range.

 The flames were almost reaching the microwave {insert panic face}

 

 



 

Thickening up the Beef Bourguignon

 

 

 

The delicious end product served on toasted garlic bread



The recipe is from foodnetwork.com - Beef Bourguignon, if you want to give it a try. I know Byron made a couple changes -- he didn't use mushrooms, he used fresh onion instead of frozen onion. I am not sure what other changes he made. [If you would like to know what exactly he did, let me know and I will try to get him to reveal his secret method]. It turned out really good and was very tasty. Byron had it the next day for lunch and said it is not good as left overs.

I can't believe that two years ago (on family day weekend 2011), we found out we were expecting a little miracle who would change our life forever and make us a family of three ... our little man Hugo. Where have the last two years gone? We are so blessed to have such an amazing family!

Simply Traditional Lasagna

I must admit lasagna is a bit time consuming to make. First you have to make the meat sauce, then assemble the whole thing, then pop it in the oven ... but I find it is soooo much better than the store bought stuff. For this reason I am willing to have it less often, but make it from scratch.
 
I went on a search online and found the following new recipe for Simple Traditional Lasagna. I didn't follow the measurements exactly and I made a couple revisions but it tasted delicious. This one is definitely a keeper.
 

 
I completely blanked and forgot to snap a photo of a slice of lasagna. I mixed a package of de-thawed frozen spinach with the ricotta cheese.
 

 
 
 
The recipe is from allrecipes.com - Simple Traditional Lasagna, if you want to give it a try.
 
Simple Traditional Lasagna
 
Original Recipe Makes 8 servings

Ingredients:

** My revisions

1 pound ground beef

1 pound bulk Italian Sausage
1 ½ cup warm water **
1 cup sliced black olives **[I omitted these]
1 pinch basil
2 tsps garlic powder
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 ½ tsp dried sage
2 tsp dried black pepper
2 tbsp minced garlic
1 medium sized onion, chopped **
1 medium sized red or green pepper, chopped **
1 (300g) pkg of de-thawed frozen chopped spinach **
2 (14 ounce) jars Pasta Sauce
1 (16 ounce) pkg oven ready lasagna noodles **
8 Ounces Ricotta Cheese [** used a 300g tub]
454 g mozzarella cheese, shredded [** I used a bit more]
** I added a pinch of nutmeg to the meat sauce when cooking**

Directions

Brown the ground beef and Italian sausage in a large skillet with ½ cup of water over medium-high heat. Drain excess grease. Stir in the rest of the water and season with basil, garlic powder, oregano, sage, pepper, minced garlic, chopped onion, green or red pepper, and nutmeg. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. Stir in the pasta sauce, and remove from the heat.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).

Mix the de-thawed chopped spinach with the ricotta cheese in a bowl and set aside.

Place a layer of the meat and sauce in the bottom of a 9x13 inch baking dish. Cover with a layer of dry noodles. Spread a thin layer of ricotta cheese and spinach mixture over the noodles, and sprinkle with a little mozzarella cheese. Cover with another layer of sauce, and repeat layering ending with the meat and sauce on top. Reserve about 1/2 cup of mozzarella cheese for later.

Bake for 45 minutes in the preheated oven, but check after 30 minutes depending on how thick the lasagna is. Lasagna is cooked when you can easily stick a knife into it. Sprinkle the reserved cheese over the top, and return to the oven for about 10 minutes for a nice melted cheese topping.

 
I had some of the meat sauce left over so I threw it in the freezer to mix with a jar of pasta sauce for dinner another night. This week we had it with spaghetti. Dinner was delicious again.

6/52 - Putting Senses to Use

What do you get when you give Hugo the above blackberries for the first time ... a very funny little man to watch. One that uses 4 of his senses to investigate whether they are good to eat.

Here's how it went down ...

  

First he looked at them very closely (Smell) ...
 

Then he examined the feel of them (Touch) ...

 

Time to lick it ... [this makes me laugh every time I see it]

OK to take a bite (Taste)

 

Had to get some near his nose for a sniff (Smell)...

 

 

 

Better get the little bit on my finger ... yum ...

 

They are good ... finger linkin' good ... !



Hope you enjoyed -- Happy Monday!!!