Breakfast is the New Dinner

Posted on April 6, 2011 by Kim

We’ve got nothing to eat you say? That means it’s breakfast for dinner tonight. It seems I’ve always got the fixings for breakfast lying around. It’s like survival food for me and one of my favorite dinners, simply because everything about breakfast food makes me happy. It’s comfort food. I also like that you can mix strange things with it, and it’s still appetizing, like putting salsa on your omelet, chocolate chips in your pancakes, and champagne in your orange juice. I can’t image chocolate chips in a steak…that’s just silly. If you ask me, breakfast is the new dinner.

So I whip open the fridge and I find eggs…cheese…bacon…bread (yeah, that’s where we keep it because it’s Florida people)…hash browns…scratch the hash browns– I remember we have waffle mix. And a waffler! That I’ve never used! We’ve had it for over a year, and I start to think about how I’ve actually never used a waffle iron before. I guess I’ve always been a pancake person ever since we got our electric griddle. But waffles seem like more fun, so I think how hard can it be?

With the instructions in hand, I begin to heat up the waffler and mix up my ingredients.

I pour in the batter and wait. Once the red light goes green, they’re done! I like fool-proof.

An almost perfect waffle develops. I had some time yet while my eggs scrambled, so I thought I’ll use up the rest of the batter and make two more waffles of equal beauty.

Batter on…
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Pesto Crostini Recipe, A Healthy Appetizer

Posted on February 20, 2011 by Kim

In my search for new recipes, I thought about something easy, and healthy, I could make involving an ingredient that I had never cooked with. I thought about the fresh pesto I’d seen in the local Publix grocery store (pesto is by the cheese so I see it every single time I’m there, of course), but I had never had a reason to cook with it. And then I came across a pesto crostini recipe that I have actually eaten before, but never made. After I finished eating my first batch, I ended up eating it three nights in a row it was so good! So now I’m sharing…

I got all my ingredients together, as follows:

1/2 loaf of baguette
2 Tbsp. olive oil
12 cherry or grape tomatoes, halved (about 1 cup)
12 bocconcini (small mozzarella balls), halved
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
4 grinds freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup pesto (try to find freshly made in the cheese section of the store)

First, heat your oven to 375. Then slice the baguette into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place them on a baking sheet and brush with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Bake until golden and crisp, 10 to 12 minutes.

Once the bread is toasted, smear evenly a bit of pesto onto each crostini. Top each piece with one half each of the tomato and bocconcini. Drizzle each with some of the remaining tablespoon of oil and season with the salt and pepper. Pop back in the oven for 1 minute until heated through.

Tasty and easy!

Lobsters At My Doorstep

Posted on January 2, 2011 by Kim

What seemed like an innocent package at our doorstep turned into a night full of surprises, brief sadness, barking, and full stomachs. Let me begin…

I was a bit over-cautious, I’ll admit that now, but when you hear scratching on the inside of a package that says PERISHABLE, you gotta be. Even B wouldn’t get too close, so we called in reinforcements.

By the time my husband walked in the door, I had deduced that this must be a seemingly wonderful holiday gift from a work vendor no doubt, because the previous year we received a couple of lobster tails (just the tails, frozen and non-living) in a similar package. But that package wasn’t filled with the sounds of scratching claws.

Once my husband got home I started thinking, “Silly me, I could have opened this package up myself like a big girl…it’s not like the lobsters are going to be sitting there, ready to jump out at me! They are probably securely wrapped up in….whatever you wrap a living sea creature in.” But sure enough, we popped the lid off and there they were, crawling all over our cob of corn! I was a bit freaked at this point.

They waived their claws at us, whether it was a greeting or out of protest, we’ll never know. At that point I couldn’t help but name them…Lobby and Lucy. Some of you are thinking that it’s just wrong to name something that’s going in your stomach, but I felt it was more cruel not to acknowledge their existence in my kitchen. Plus, I had to talk with Lobby about giving up our oyster crackers he had clenched in his tail, and I felt bad saying, “Hey you!” Anyways…

Do these things come with an instruction manual?

Yep.

There’s more! Continue reading this post…

A Tradition in the Making, So I Thought

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Kim

I made a Thanksgiving meal all on my own this year for the first time. And so I thought this would also be a good year to start a tradition for our young family of two for now. My husband had mentioned his favorite desert, Pistachio Torte, and I thought that would be a great way to start a tradition…with something sweet and tasty. Plus I’m a huge sucker for ice cream, so this seemed fitting. I dug out an old recipe I had found and used back in college to make the same torte for him, as one of those cutsey, coupley gestures you know. So I eagerly began to cook…(recipe at the bottom).

Continue reading this post…

Make Your Own Chipotle Rice

Posted on September 21, 2010 by Kim

I know there are others of you out there who adore Chipotle’s food, and especially that rice of there’s they got going on. And some of you are saying Chipotle who? Even better. When you make this recipe it will be a whole new rice experience to enjoy! A common pairing at this restaurant chain is their spicy chicken over rice, which I prefer, so when conjuring up tonight’s dinner I thought about making a spicy breaded chicken to go with it.

Full recipe below.

Chipotle Rice Recipe
(This is not the “official” recipe, but I find this version to be easy to make getting you the same outcome)

4 cups long grain white rice
4 cups water
2 tsp salt
4 tbsp oil (canola/vegetable)
6 tsp fresh cilantro
1 to 2 limes (Depending on your preference; I cut them into 4 pieces making them easier to squeeze)

Boil water and then throw in rice and salt, stir and remove from heat. Keep covered to allow rice to steam and soften. Then put in a large mixing bowl, add the oil, cilantro and lime juice. Toss until mixed. Serve immediately.

Chicken (if you’re curious)
I used Hot n Spicy Shake and Bake over boneless skinless chicken breasts. Cooked as instructed on the package.

That’s it!

Chipotle Franchise’s Spicy Secret (abcnews.go.com)

Kim Hopf Photography

Category Archives: Food Photography