Sunday, April 29, 2012

Breakfast of champions

I love scrambled eggs.  I am the only person in the house who does so I typically make them when I am the only person in the house.  Such as this weekend.  :)

Eggs lightly beaten (as many as you wish)
White wine
Cherry tomatoes sliced to preference
Feta cheese (as much as you like)
Mickey & T's Greek seasoning

Scramble the eggs, adding the Greek seasoning and white wine as you go.  Do not overlook this step.  (Yum).

After heating the olive oil in the pan, I cook the cherry tomatoes until lightly browned.  Then I add the scrambled egg mix and let it sit for a bit.  As the outer rim of the eggs starts to form, I add the feta cheese. I cook until done. 

I cook a batch of this on Sunday and have great breakfast ready to go for the week.  And I can't recommend Mickey & T's seasonings enough.  They are wonderful!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Blue Cheese Meatloaf

We started with Blue Cheese hamburgers.  Then I decided that we could try it in Meatloaf.

We try anything.  From Food.com

1 cup breadcrumbs  ((I used 1/4 cup)
1/4 cup crumbled blue cheese (I used way more)
1 lb ground beef
1 egg (slightly beaten)
2 tablespoons chopped onions
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 dash pepper
blue cheese dressing

Directions:
Combine bread crumbs and cup crumbled blue cheese.
Add ground beef, egg, onion, salt and pepper.
Blend thoroughly.
Shape into a round loaf.
With a spoon, make a crater-like depression in top of loaf.
Fill depression with Blue Cheese Dressing.
If desired, sprinkle more crumbled blue cheese on top.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour. -  **I use a probe and cooked it until the internal temp hit 165 degrees.

Cook's notes.
We don't use salt and pepper.  We use Mickey & T's All American seasoning.
I used more blue cheese and less breadcrumbs.
I mixed it up (sans breadcrumbs and egg) the night before to let it get all happy.  Added the breadcrumbs and egg just before putting it in the oven.
I kept it covered in the oven but next time, I would pull off the foil for the last 10 minutes.

It was SO GOOD.  I would definitely make this again and again and again.  

Cheers! 

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Slow Cooker BBQ Pork Ribs

Things have been a little hectic at the Cafe recently.  We spent last weekend just East of the Equator, opening our cottage for the season.  Work at the General  has been  incredibly busy for me and Deirdre has been up to her eyes in work as well, so we have not posted a good recipe in a while  That is about to change.  






Ingredients:
- 2 slabs of pork spare ribs
- Mickey & T's Rib Rub
- BBQ sauce of your choice


Cut the ribs into pieces of 2-3 ribs.  Liberally apply Mickey & T's Rib Rub on the ribs.  Preheat an oven to 400F.  Place the ribs on broiling pans and cook the ribs for 20-25 minutes.  When done, remove the ribs from broiling pans and place into a slow cooker crockpot.  Cook the ribs on high for 2 hours.  After cooking the ribs on high for two hours, remove the ribs from the crockpot and pour out any liquid or fat that has accumulated at the bottom of the crockpot.  Place the ribs back into the crockpot and liberally add BBQ sauce of your choice.  Cook the ribs on low for 4-5 hours, and serve.  You also might want to move the ribs around in the crockpot after 2-3 hours to allow the BBQ sauce to evenly coat the ribs.  Serve with cole slaw and sliced fresh bread.


We decided to cook some pork spareribs for our dinner last night.  On Friday night. I took out the frozen slabs of ribs from the pig we bought last year and defrosted them.  






I sliced the ribs into 2-3 rib pieces, and applied Mickey & T's Rib rub on the piggies.  If you have never tried any of Mickey's rubs or spices, I urge you to give his stuff a try.  We just love his products.
This rub is amazing!

I placed the ribs into the oven and cooked them for ~20 minutes.  I then removed the ribs from the oven and placed them into our crockpot.
Into the oven.


Ribs after 20 minutes of cooking.


These are the ribs just after I placed them into the crockpot.


I cooked the ribs on high for two hours, and I poured off the liquid and fat that had accumulated in the crockpot.  I put the ribs back into the crockpot, then I added a liberal amount of BBQ sauce to the ribs.  I turned down the crockpot to low and I cooked the ribs for 5 hours.  After about 3 hours of cooking, I rearranged the ribs so that the sauce would coat all of the ribs evenly.


The finished goods.


I am happy to report that the ribs were an unqualified success.  We served cole slaw and sliced fresh bread with the ribs.  This is an easy way to cook a delicious meal.


Of course, throughout the cooking process Samson wanted to supervise things and keep an eye on the ribs.  He did get a few snitches, of course.




Our next recipe will be for Blue Cheese Meatloaf.  You never quite know what is going to be served at the Cafe.