Chorizo and Egg Hash plus- Cast Iron Love!

Y'all, I've had the most circuitous relationship with cast iron, it's bananas.  We did not use cast iron cookware in my home growing up.  My only experience with it was when I was cooking over an open fire at girls camp.  Honestly, I pictured it as the old-timey stuff people hung on a stick between two posts as some sort of mutton stew brewed above an open flame.

Then I married Wes. And, not only gained a handy-dandy husband, but gained a stockpile of cast iron cookware that he had acquired as a single man(?).

He had:

1 6 inch skillet
2 8 inch skillets
1 small dutch oven with no legs
1 small dutch oven with legs
1 large dutch oven
1 huge wok

No joke.  I was like, what the heck?  What do I do with all of this?  It seemed complicated (can't throw it in the dishwasher?  Can't even clean them with dish soap????).  So, I dealt with it by nicely stacking them in our cupboards and ignoring them.  Sorry babe. :(

I was young.  I was in my last year of college.  I could barely cook.  It makes sense.

Now, fast forward 20+ years, and I'm like, whoa baby, thanks for contributing all of this amazing cast iron to our family!  He's like, yeah, sure.  It's been here all along.  Glad you finally warmed up to it.  And, warm up, I have.

I have added a bit to our collection:

1 10 inch skillet
1 12 inch skillet- family size!
1 reversible griddle/grill
1 large enamel coated dutch oven

Except for the griddle/grill, and the enamel coated dutch oven, all of our cast iron is the Lodge brand.  Its great.  I love it.  As long as I do the simple (and frankly, easy) steps of keeping it clean, well-seasoned and used, it works super well and is quickly becoming my go-to cookware.  I get the most use out of the 10 and 12 inch skillets, with the large dutch oven (not enamel coated) coming in a close third.

So, with my newish passion for all things cast iron, it is easy to see why I've been giving a lot of cast iron skillet recipes a try at home.

This Chorizo and Egg Hash recipe is so easy.  So quick (30 minutes, start to finish) and tastes great.  My two kids gave it huge thumbs up last night, and frankly I was a bit surprised by their reactions.  Both of them are fairly adventurous eaters (Spencer told me last night he had caviar at a friends house after school and loved it?! European friend- fancy eaters.  At my house its popcorn after school, c'mon), but chorizo was new for them, so my expectations were on the lower end.  But, they both dug in and told me they loved it.  Awesome.

Ingredients:

1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic (I used a spoonful of minced garlic from the fridge)
1/2 package of chorizo (120 g)
2 potatoes cooked and chopped into bite sized pieces (I used russets and left the skin on- fiber!)
1/2 cup of fresh flat-leaf parsley
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 large eggs

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a cast iron skillet (I used a 12 inch, could probably get away using a 10 inch) add olive oil and saute the onion and garlic for a few minutes.  Add chorizo and cook for 2-3 more minutes.

Add pre-cooked chopped potatoes (and a bit more oil if you think its needed) and cook for 5 more minutes.  Let the potatoes fry, so don't stir often.

Crack eggs on top and transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for an additional 8-10 minutes until the egg white is set but the yolk is still runny.

Sprinkle with sea salt, black pepper and parsley.  Serve (we added a bit of ketchup too).

You guys, this is so good.  And, so easy.  Get yourself a cast iron skillet, season it up and get cooking.  You'll love it!!!

Oh, and thanks again Wes for bringing so much amazing cast iron to our marriage.  I'm endlessly grateful.

Dinner Rolls

There is nothing as delicious as a fresh out of the oven homemade roll slathered with butter.  It is one of life's great pleasures, and you cannot buy it.  It must be made.  The following is my mom's homemade dinner rolls recipe.  I've been eating these rolls my entire life- every Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter for sure.  Other times as well.  This recipe makes around four dozen rolls, so if that is more than you need, it is perfectly fine to half it if you're making rolls for a smaller gathering.


Dinner Rolls

2 1/4 tsp yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 eggs, plus enough scalded and cooled milk to make 2 cups of liquid
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup of sugar
6 cups all purpose flour

Dissolve yeast in 1/4 cup warm water in a mixing bowl.  Let sit for about 5 minutes until yeast starts bubbling and is activated.  Add eggs, milk, butter, salt and sugar and stir until blended (I just stir this with my dough hook).  Stir in 3 cups of flour and combine until smooth.  Continue adding the rest of the flour until a smooth soft dough results.  Knead dough for about 5 minutes by hand.  Place into a buttered bowl and cover until dough has doubled (around 2 hours).  Punch down.

To make rolls, divide dough into smaller sections (4-5) and roll out each section into a circle.  Use a pizza cutter to cut circle into 8 triangle shapes and roll them into crescents.  Place on baking sheets and cover with dish towels.  Let rolls rise again (45 min or so) and then bake them at 375 degrees for 15 or so minutes.  I usually set my timer for 13 minutes and then watch the rolls carefully until the tops begin to brown some and they look done.

Enjoy!

P.S. this dough can also be used as a base for cinnamon rolls if you'd like.

Loaded Baked Potato Soup

In our corner of the world, it rained over two inches yesterday.  Weather like this stirs something inside me and I start cranking out soups and stews like there's no tomorrow.  A warm soup on a soggy day makes for the best of dinners, and perfect leftovers for tomorrows lunch.

The following recipe is a family favorite that is on a regular rotation in our home.  It's easy, relatively quick- for soup, and makes enough to feed all four of us while leaving a good portion that can be dedicated to leftovers for the next day or two.



Loaded Baked Potato Soup (recipe comes from here)

6 medium sized Russet potatoes, scrubbed and washed
4 tbsp unsalted butter
6 green onions (if I don't have these on hand, I use yellow onions, diced)
5 cups of chicken broth
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 heads of broccoli, chopped (I use one bag of frozen broccoli from Costco. It is one pound, I think.  I microwave it before putting into the soup.)
cooked bacon for topping (I used 4 strips and I cook them ahead of time.)

Heat oven to 400 degrees.  Once preheated, place potatoes in oven, and cook until done (1 hour?)  After the potatoes bake, take them out of the oven and place them on a plate and let them cool a bit before you start chopping them up.  Once cool enough to handle, slice open and scoop out the meat of the potato and chop it into bite sized pieces.

In a large heavy duty dutch oven, melt butter on medium heat.  Add green onions and cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add potatoes and season with salt and pepper.  Cook for 4-5 minutes.

Add chicken broth and turn heat to high and bring it to a boil.  Then turn heat down to medium and allow to simmer for 5-6 minutes.

Add cream and sour cream.  Make sure to temper the cream!  You can find out how to do that here.  Add cheese and broccoli to soup.  At this point I take an immersion blender and I blend the heck out of the soup.  Not everyone will want to do that (if you are more partial to chunky style soups), but my kids do much better with soups if they are smoother.  The broccoli will become fine and blend throughout all of the soup and become less noticeable to a picky eater.  Keep soups simmering for another 20-30 minutes before serving.

Top with crumbled bacon.

Enjoy!


(BTW, this soup keeps in the fridge for a few days following, but does not freeze well)

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

I grew up in a home where my mom always made our spaghetti sauce.  Not once did the likes of Prego or Ragu touch my lips during my youth.  Now, of course you might think it is simply too great a hassle to make your own spaghetti sauce, but trust me, once you have a delicious batch of the good stuff, you'll never go back.  Interestingly enough, Spaghetti is Alice's favorite dinner, but Wes' least favorite.  Wes doesn't like pasta much, so I solved this dilemma by buying a small spaghetti squash that I prepare and make available to him and he is quite satisfied.  I thought I'd throw out that option in case you have a family member who isn't a fan of pasta, or are trying to prepare meals in with a low carb option.  Also, I make a batch large enough that it makes a full five quarts and it can be used in the months to come.

Ingredients include:

4 large cans tomato sauce (ignore the tomato paste- I didn't use it.  You can use it though if you are running low on tomato sauce.  Just make sure you have enough tomato goodness to fill up your pot!)

2 reg. cans of diced tomatoes

4 packets of spaghetti sauce seasoning (I like Lawry's or McCormick's)

1 package of mild Italian sausage

1 pound of ground beef

1 small onion

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

oregano

basil

salt 

pepper

Dice up your onion and brown the ground beef and the Italian sausage in a large skillet.  Add garlic and let it all cook until the meat is completely done.

In a large pot, or dutch oven (I use a 7 quart Le Creuset and that is as small as I would go), pour all of the tomato sauce, diced tomatoes and spaghetti seasoning into it.  Stir it all together.  At this point you can turn the burner on low/medium.  

Add 1 tablespoon of basil and 1 tablespoon of oregano to the tomato sauce.

Once the meat/onion/garlic mixture is finished cooking drain any excess fat from the meat mixture and add it to the dutch oven,  Stir.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Let your sauce simmer on the stove for an hour or so, stirring every so often. 

**tip**  If your children are opposed to "chunks" in their sauce (i.e. tomato chunks, meat chunks, etc...) grab an immersion blender and give the pot of sauce a good blend.

When you are all done you'll have 5 quarts of sauce that you can freeze for later use.