Eggs, bacon, toast or an English muffin, salt and pepper make Easy Dorm Fare Omlettes. As most dorms allow microwaves and mini fridges, this recipe is a winner for your college student.
What to do:
Crack an egg into a saucer that’s been spritzed with vegetable spray. Season with salt and pepper and lightly whisk with a fork. Lay one piece of bacon on top of the egg. Place in microwave, cover and nuke for 2 1/2 minutes. Serve either on toast or an English muffin. A little jelly adds a touch of sweetness and is great with the savory flavors of egg and bacon.
Blessings to your college student from the Exile’s Kitchen.
Vegetable spray will make the microwave omlette slide from saucer to toast so easy.Yum! Easy Dorm Fare Omlettes
Happy New Year! Are you stirring yet from your late night, or should I say, early moring? I slept to nearly 10 o’clock this morning, something I haven’t done since I was a kid.
I immediately started in the kitchen; New Year’s lunch needed cooking, after all. In our part of the world of Southerness, the first day of the year is greeted with a full plate of black-eyed peas and cabbage. Why? They bring good luck, health and wealth for the new year.
It’s tradition in our family to eat the above mentioned on New Year’s day. And, considering how many heads of cabbage I saw in grocery buggies yesterday at the store, it’s everyone else’s too. I looked up a few explanations for this cooking phenomenon and came up with these: During the Civil War, invading Northern armies thought black-eyed peas were cattle feed and left them alone, thus also leaving the much needed food source for the Confederate forces. Which was good fortune for our gray clad boys. Good luck and health. Greens are served, because they are, well, green, the same color of folding money in our country. Why we do not deviate from serving black-eyed peas and cabbage, instead of other greens or other legumes? Because that’s what my mother did and her mother before her and her mother before her and way, way back.
Mama made her stuffed bell peppers. I added a pot of white rice and slightly sweet cornbread to the meal. Our plates were full, and now, so are we.
Here’s the cornbread recipe:
1 egg, beaten
1 1/3 cups milk
1/4 cup cooking oil, plus a little more for the cast iron skillet
2 1/4 cup self rising white cornmeal
1 tablespoon pickled sweet peppers
1/2 teaspoon Tony’s seasoning
The oil bubbles up, as the batter is poured into the skillet. Be careful, it’s hot!
What to do:
Preheat oven to 400°. Pour a little cooking oil in your iron skillet and swirl it around to coat. Place in the oven to get hot, while you mix the ingredients.
In a bowl mix the beaten egg, milk and oil. Add the cornmeal, pickled peppers and seasoning. Stir till well combined. Pour into hot cast iron skillet ( I just open the door, pull out the rack the skillet is on and pour the batter straight into the skillet, then close the oven and bake it). Be careful, of course. It’s hot!!!
Bake for about twenty minutes or until a knife inserted in the middle comes out clean. The top will be golden brown and the edges will pull away from the sides of the skillet. Let cool for a few minutes, before cutting. Serve with butter.
Enjoy and New Year blessings from the Exile’s Kitchen.
Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks for reading my blog in 2015. I hope that the new year ahead brings many blessings to you and yours.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 910 times in 2015. If it were a cable car, it would take about 15 trips to carry that many people.
My college student is home and he had a request nearly as soon as he walked through the door: cookies!
So, I got busy in the Exile’s Kitchen and made two kinds last night.
Coffee dunkers: Ginger Cookies rolled in red and green sugar and Butterfinger Cookie Bars
Ginger Cookies are perfect for the Christmas season and great to dunk in hot coffee or tea, if you prefer. Here’s the recipe-
In a bowl mix together
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
In another bowl, sift together
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Then slowly combine dry ingredients to wet ingredients, just so you don’t make a mess. Then cover with plastic wrap and chill in the frig for about an hour. When thoroughly chilled, form into one inch balls and roll in colored sugar. I used red and green, because after all, it’s Christmas.
Bake in a preheated 350° oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are slightly brown. Cool on a wire wrack and store in an air tight container. Makes about 3 1/2 dozen.
The second batch of cookies I made last night are super easy. Butterfinger Cookie Bars use the same recipe as my Perfect Peanut Butter cookies (see the recipe posted on August 1, 2015). Just add a bag of Butterfinger Pieces. They can be found at the store with the big W on it, in the baking section next to the pedestrian semi-sweet choco chips.
Instead of using a muffin top pan, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spread the dough out in the pan. Spraying a rubber spatula with vegetable spray makes this part easy. The dough will spread out, while baking so don’t worry about not getting it perfect.
Bake at 350° for 15 to 18 minutes, depending on your oven. Cool slightly before cutting into bars. I use a pizza wheel to make the task a sinch. When completely cooled, store in a pretty glass jar. But they probably won’t stay in that pretty jar for long!
Merry Christmas from the Exile’s Kitchen and happy coffee dunking.
Winter has finally arrived in this part of the South. I could never live above the Mason Dixon line because cold weather dries my skin so badly. Here’s a recipe for a head-to-toe, moisterizing body scrub. (I use the scrub as a facial once a week, but usually daily, slathering it on right before stepping into the shower.) This creamy concoction enhances your regular body wash or beauty bar, leaving your skin soft and smooth.
Four humble ingredients, probably already on hand in your kitchen, make a luxurious spa-like scrub.
Here ya go:
20 heaping tablespoons of coconut oil
9 tablespoons of sugar
20 tablespoons of baking soda
the zest of 3 lemons
What to do:
In a big bowl mix all the ingredients together. I use my stand mixer and the whisk attachment. Beat on high till it’s fluffy. Spoon into jars with stopper tops. Tap the jars lightly to settle the contents. Printed boxes and tissue paper make wrapping easy. This recipe makes six 8 ounce jars.
Lemon zest gives the scrub a light yellow color and lightens blemishes. The baking soda softens skin. The sugar exfoliates and of course the coconut oil moisterizes.
Merry Christmas from The Exile’s Kitchen.
Note: As the base of this scrub is coconut oil, it will be solid in cooler temperatures and more liquid in warmer temps. If you would like, store it in the frig during the summer months.
This Thanksgiving was very small compared to those of my childhood. Growing up, our house would be ‘chock-a-block’ full of relatives for nearly the whole week of Thanksgiving. I remember lots of great food, games of Rook, cribbage and backgammon. There would be a pool tournament and a dart competition. If you won, your name was added to the plaque that hung in the gameroom.
But time has a way of leaving childhood behind and my present is forever changing. This past year has seen many changes: Two marriages and a divorce. Sounds kinda like a romantic comedy for Hugh Grant to star in, doesn’t it? Only there has not been much to laugh or smile about, until recently.
My divorce was finalized last month and with it came a great sigh of -how can I put this?- resignation, relief, rediscovery. Yes, all of the above. Resignation, because life will never be as it was thirty years ago, and that’s not such a bad thing. Relief that, with the help of my family, friends and the Holy Spirit, the most trying time in my life is over and I have come out on the other side stronger than ever before. Rediscovery comes with reconnecting with my girlhood persuits. I’m writing again ( you’re reading it after all, right?). I’ve been to the symphony twice in two months; something I did as a girl growing up in Baton Rouge.
Star Wars Night at Thalia Mara Hall
It was just a small gathering last Thursday. One brother, one cousin and her son, my youngest son and my mother and I. My cousin is from the New Orleans area and she brought a surprise for me. It is a painting of a serene lady holding a basket full of apples. The painting was our Grandmother’s and used to hang near the front door of her tiny apartment. As a girl, I used to look at the painting and imagine what the serene lady’s life was like.
The colors are deep aqua and light blue, with touches of gold and terracotta. She looks a bit tired from working in her orchard all morning, but has a slight up turning to her lips. She still has work to do, you see? And she is happy to do it. The apples will be taken into the kitchen to be washed and peeled for an apple pie. The pie will be served after a simple supper, with a piece being sent to the elderly, bedridden lady who lives up the street. The last piece will be wrapped in a linen towel and left in the garage window for the hobo who will pass through later that evening. There’s the symbol of a cat carved into corner of the pump house; the cat is a sign hobos used to indicate that a kind lady lived in the house. The serene lady is teaching her children the virtues of hard work and kindness.
Such were my childhood imaginings. I look forward to the day when I have my own home and a place to hang the painting. Maybe even my own apple trees.
Blessings for a wonderful season of kindness from the Exile’s Kitchen.
Vegetable spray will make the microwave omlette slide from saucer to toast so easy.
Yum! Easy Dorm Fare Omlettes
theexileskitchen 