I was gonna use a pic of cooked squash, but when I found this, I couldn't resist.

I finally got around to cooking the butternut squash we bought a while back. I’m kinda disturbed by the fact that it was still good. I’m hoping that means it wasn’t ripe when we bought it, and not that the local farmers have begun putting preservatives into their veggies somehow.

What? It could happen!

I didn’t want to bake it, because that takes so long, and I’m pretty sure it was after six when I started dinner. So I went looking for other preparation ideas. When I saw a recipe for it fried, I just had to try it, and I figured since M loves fried zucchini, and He loves baked butternut squash, He’d definitely like fried butternut squash. But all the recipes I found were so boring.

So I made up my own. And He only sort of likes it, and wouldn’t want it all the time. Naturally, I would gladly eat it all day, every day. Bummer. Read more…

Yep.  You gotta read this to get the recipe.  I know.  I suck.  You’ll live.  <3

I hear no self-respecting Italian person starts homemade spaghetti sauce with canned tomatoes.

Good thing M and I aren’t Italian.  I’m Swedish and Native American.  He’s German and English.  And we start our spaghetti sauce with canned tomatoes.  Sometimes whole peeled, and sometimes diced.  I think once we even used crushed because that’s what we had.  Read more…

Someone I met recently on Twitter asked me for my scrambled omelet recipe.  That’s what I’m calling it, anyway.  A scrambled omelet.

I sort of stole the idea from this breakfast product we found on the freezer aisle once.  A sort of “Skillet Sensations” for breakfast, if you will.  It had all the makings of an awesome breakfast.  Potatoes, peppers, onions, sausage… All you had to add was eggs.  And of course we added cheese.

Since the first time we bought it, I’ve been making various impostors.  They always come out really delicious.

This is the version I made this morning.  I used leftover home  fries, but I’ll include my home fries recipe.  And the amounts are all estimated.  I start small and work up to the flavor I’m looking for.

2 tablespoons [[EVOO]]
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
5 medium potatoes
1 medium onion
4 cloves garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/4 teaspoon paprika
dash of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste
6-8 large eggs, beaten
1/4 – 1/2 cup pepper jack cheese, grated or thinly diced
4-6 fresh Roma tomatoes, diced

Heat the [[EVOO]] in a deep skillet that has a cover, then cut it with the butter.  While the [[EVOO]] is heating, clean the potatoes and slice them into rounds.  I never peel them, but you can if you like.

You can cut the onion and garlic however you like.  I half the onion, top to bottom, then cut it into thin half-circles, side to side, and I slice the garlic into long, thin strips.

If you’re using dried rosemary, be sure to grind it some first.  I just do it between the palms of my hands.  If you’re using fresh, chop it some.  You may need more.  You may need less.  I don’t pay the slightest bit of attention when I’m adding it, I’m afraid.  It’s one of those things… You know how much you like, but not really how much other people like, ya know?

Once the oil’s heated and the butter’s melted, layer your potatoes, onion and seasoning.  Start with the potatoes and put as many as you feel necessary. I usually do about 1 1/2 layers of potatoes, so the whole bottom’s covered, then onion, garlic and seasoning, then more potatoes, then more onion garlic and seasoning, until I run out of potatoes.  Then I top it off with onion, garlic and seasoning and cover the pan.

How long it takes depends on how thick you cut your potatoes.

If you want them crispy and pretty, you’re going to want to cut them pretty thin and flip them in sections.  They’ll take 10-15 minutes.

If you’re like me, and like it when they’re just stiff enough to not fall completely apart, but mushy enough that they break apart easily, slice your taters about 1/4 inch thick and don’t just flip them.  Sort of stir them in chunks every 5 minutes or so.  These will take 20-30 minutes.

Now comes the fun part.  Toss in your beaten eggs and stir till they’re cooked all the way.  Shouldn’t be too long.  Five minutes tops.  You can melt your cheese into the eggs while they’re still wet and cooking, or you can wait till they’ve finished scrambling.

Toss in anything your heart desires.  Ham, bacon, sausage, peppers, tomatoes… This morning it was tomatoes.  And I waited until everything was done cooking, then let it cook a little more.  Just until the tomatoes were tender.

It was delicious.

I don’t make these often, but I should.  We both love them.

They’re extremely versatile.  You can add pretty much anything you’d like.  I haven’t changed it up at all for two reasons.

1. He likes them the way I make them.
2. We never think to make them until we’ve already done our grocery shopping for the week and/or are broke till he gets paid again.  This means I have to use what’s already in the house.  The things in this recipe are pretty much always in our house.  Until I make twice baked potatoes, that is.

I have used many different types of potatoes and cheeses but, other than that, I haven’t played with the ingredients much.  Among the cheeses I’ve used are cheddar, WalMart’s Fiesta Blend, Colby and Monterey and I like them all about equally.  My favorite potatoes to do this with, though, are white potatoes.  But those and Yukon Gold are my favorite, anyway.

But play with it.  Add as much or as little as you like.  Take out the cheese.  Go wild.  You can do damn near anything to a potato with little to no fear of screwing it up.  For serious.

Speaking of “for serious”, yesterday Master and I were on our lunch/dinner date and there was a group of loud-ass kids sitting near us talking about some thug or another that runs the streets where they live.  And one of the kids goes, “But for serious, on the real, no playin’?  He shoulda blahzehblah…” Master and I both busted up laughing and, at almost the same time, said, “He’s really, REALLY serious.”

Potato recipe?  What potato recipe?

I do NOT have ADD.  Shut up! Read more…