Scrambled eggs - Italian style

Okay, I don't really know if the Italians do this with their eggs, but we sure like to think they know how yummy it is.

Ingredients:
4 eggs
1/2 C shredded cheddar cheese
1/3 C chopped onions
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning
Salt & Pepper to taste

Heat frying pan and grease with butter, oil, or cooking spray (your choice, it's your heart). Break eggs into frying pan and mix in Italian seasoning, salt, and pepper.

When almost cooked to desired consistency, add cheese and mix in thoroughly. Serve with toast, breakfast meat of your choice, salsa, or whatever you like with your eggs.

Beef Stroganoff

We at One crazy girl's kitchen would like to thank Bonnie Osterstock for supplying this recipe, and Pati Osterstock for suggesting we try it in the first place

Beef stroganoff is a staple of many families. And it seems each has its own take on how it should be made. Some love the quick, ground beef/canned cream o' mushroom soup variety and others prefer it with high quality steak and from-scratch sauce. And both are fine and taste good.

This recipe is a bit of a mix of both worlds, except this time the canned soup is tomato, and you only use 1 cup.

Ingredients:
2-3 C flour
Salt & Pepper to taste
3-4 lbs round or tri-tip steak, cut into 1" squares
1-2 sticks of butter
2 lbs. fresh, sliced or button mushrooms
2 lbs. chopped onions
2 C sour cream
1 C tomato juice
1 C tomato soup (canned)
1 Tbl Worchestershire sauce
dash nutmeg
1-1/2 tsp dry basil

Cut up meat and onions.

In a large (1 gallon) baggie, combine flour, salt and pepper. In small batches, coat the meat in the flour mix. Set aside.

In a large skillet, brown onions in butter. Set aside in a bowl.

In the same skillet, brown meat.

Add onions back plus 1 C sour cream, juice, soup, nutmeg, Worchestershire sauce, and basil.

Bring to a simmer. DO NOT ALLOW TO BOIL! Simmer covered until tender (approximately 2 hours).

When there is about 30 minutes simmering time left, cook mushrooms in butter and add to the meat and sauce. Thicken with the flour mix, if necessary (we didn't need this step).

Add remaining 1 C sour cream just before serving.

Serve with rice or noodles.

Yields 10-12 servings.

Cheesy Garlic Toast

Yesterday when we ordered pizza, I decided that I didn't want to pay for cheesy garlic bread. It never tastes as good as it should for the price. I had made some Delicious Rosemary Bread, and thought it would make really good cheesy garlic toast.

Slices of bread
2 Tbl soft butter
1/4 tsp garlic salt
Shredded cheddar cheese

In a small bowl, mix together butter and garlic. Spread on up side of each bread slice and place bread on cookie sheet. Sprinkle liberally with cheese.

Place cookie sheet in the oven with the rack in the top slot. Broil on high until cheese is melted. It's really good if it develops a slight brown crusty texture.

Serve while warm.

Memphis-Style Rub

Last night, I grabbed some thick, boneless pork chops out of the freezer, thinking it would fun to grill. We love grilling no matter what the weather is like. My husband is more than happy to stand outside in a blizzard if he can fire up the grill and cook us up some meat.

I did a little internet trolling for a good, homemade rub for the chops and came across this on a forum. The person who submitted it only said that he found it in a Memphis BBQ cookbook. Hence the name.

Memphis-Style Rub

1/4 c paprika
2 Tbl garlic salt
1 Tbl fresh-ground black pepper
2 Tbl brown sugar
1 Tbl onion powder
1 Tbl dried oregano
1 Tbl dry mustard
1-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

Mix all ingredients together. If you choose to mix with your hands, I suggest that you make sure you don't have any cuts. Some of these spices can burn.

Coat each piece of meat with the rub on all sides. Put in a baggie or air-tight container and chill for at least two hours.

Fire up the barbie and grill until the meat is done to your liking. When cooking pork or chicken, be sure to cook the meat thoroughly.

We decided to top the chops off with some sauteed mushrooms.

You've probably noticed that we eat a lot of green beans at our home. They are my favorite food. I don't do a lot of fancy things with beans, just steam or open a can. Delicious.

We were more than happy with how these turned out.

If you have a rub that you love to use, please let me know.

One Crazy Girl's notes: You can store the extra rub in an air-tight container for up to six months.

Printable version

Fun and easy grilled cheese

We love grilled cheese sandwiches, but we couldn't just leave them at plain grilled cheese. So, introducing:

Russell and Nancy's Fun and Easy Grilled Cheesy Sandwiches

Two slices of bread per sandwich (we use homemade)
Slices of cheese (we use Tillamook medium cheddar)
Slices of pastrami
Butter

Assemble your sandwich and butter the outside of both slices of bread. Heat your grilling pan. We use a waffle pan that came with sandwich plates. When cheese is melted and bread is toasted, remove from pan.

Viola! Grilled cheese with a twist. We like them with tomato soup and a healthy veggie on the side. Great for movie night.