Breakfast for Supper

I am a BIG proponent of having breakfast at breakfast time.  I don't want pancakes for supper, or waffles, or cereal.  Sausage gravy should never be eaten after noon, and scrambled eggs,  blech!  However, the other day, I broke my no breakfast for supper rule.

For Christmas I got a great cookbook from my in-laws.  I love it!   It's called Dinner on a Dime, and you should check it out.  With an abundance of leftover ham, I went searching for recipes.  What should I find but a delicious looking ham gravy.

You too can have this great meal for breakfast or any other time of the day.

First throw some chopped onions, cubed ham, and a little bit of butter into the skillet.  Saute the dish until the onions are tender.

Next stir in 1/2 tsp of chicken bouillon granules, 1/2 tsp of Worcestershire sauce and some pepper.  While this continues to cook, add some flour and milk to make a gravy.

 

While the gravy cooks on low, chop three hard-boiled eggs.

Add these eggs to the gravy mixture, and continue to stir as the gravy cooks on low.

Add the gravy to some biscuits, eat and enjoy!

Enchilada

With all of the free food that we got lately, we had a can of enchilada sauce.  I had made enchiladas before, but not with the sauce (it's so expensive for such a little can.)  Well, with the free can, I decided to make some "real" enchiladas.  First I took some precooked, shredded pork and mixed it with half of the can of enchilada sauce and half a cup of shredded cheese.  I also added some frozen corn for more texture.

After everything was mixed together and warm I spread it on a tortilla shell and rolled it up, placing the rolled shell in a greased pan, seam side down.

When all of the tortilla shells are filled (I made six) I poured the rest of the enchilada sauce on top of the shells, and then sprinkled cheese on that.

I put my enchiladas in the freezer, but when it was time to cook, I just set the oven to 375 and cooked until the enchiladas were warmed through.  

There I had a quick and easy meal.

Bits a Pieces

While there is still cooking done in my home (Hey, we've got to eat) the interesting recipes and normal clamor of kitchen sounds is not as prevalent as it once was.  Until I am able to get back to those days (oh how I hope that comes soon), here are some bits and pieces from my Happily Ever After.

I may have mentioned my ham.  Yes, a beautiful spiral cut, bone in ham.  I can eat a good ham like candy.  Cook it up nice, and lay those delicious pieces of meat out, and I can just eat and eat on it.  Over Christmas, God provided us with our very own ham!  I was so excited.  I had never cooked a ham before.  Then I realized that it was pre-cooked, so no matter how I cooked it, it wouldn't make us sick to eat it.  Whew, that was a  relief. 

What we've eaten of it so far has been sooo delicious!  Growing up in a family of six, I never realized how big a ham was.  Sure it lasted through one meal, but it was usually gone after two or so.  For two people, a ham can feed you forever!  Well, maybe not that long, but rest assured, I have many plans for my mounds of ham.  Last night that included making a homemade pizza.

I was surprised the other day as I reached into my bottom cupboard for some shorting, when I saw this.

 

Obviously I'm going to become an onion farmer and grow them in my cupboards!  My poor onions were forgotten about when I switched to buying the frozen ones.  You may call it shameful, but my eyes appreciate the packages of chopped frozen onions a whole lot more than the fresh ones.  And really, I just chopped the real ones up and put them in the freezer for later use anyway.  Oh, in case you're wondering, I'm no longer growing onions in my cupboard.  

Improvisation

When it comes to cooking, I'm all about improv.  I rarely follow a recipe exactly.  Sometimes there's something in it that I don't like or I don't have.  At other times, I just don't remember what was supposed to go in the dish.  I was reminded of this as I prepared to make one of my favorite meals the other night, chicken and rice.

Unfortunately, I was out of chicken, but with an abundance of pork in the freezer (well it is the "other" white meat) I got to work on supper.  To my surprise, I found out that I was almost out of the chicken flavored rice that I had planned on using.  I had one package but I needed two.  This was a conundrum.  I rustled through my cabinets to see what I could find, knowing that one package of rice was not enough.  I found that I had a box of Spanish rice, where the flavoring was separate from the rice.  I used that (while saving the flavor, which I will add to some delicious chicken tacos sometime).

I added some chicken bouillon cubes for some more flavor, and the meal turned out pretty well.  Especially considering that I was missing several key ingredients.

To fix the same meal, cook the meat (I did it in my dutch oven).  My pork was already cooked and just had to thaw out.  I put it in the dutch oven with water until it was hot.  I then added the rise and corn, letting both cook until they were soft.  I added salt, pepper, and lots of parsley.  Keep stirring as the dish cooks so the rice doesn't stick.  In about twenty to thirty minutes you'll have a delicious rice meal.  Enjoy!