Pico De Gallo Eggs and Ham

My husband and I recently returned from a snowboarding trip to Breckenridge.  Without 4 kiddos tagging along, we felt like kids ourselves.  We enjoyed each others company, some laughs, good microbrews, and great food.  One of our best meals was had at our friends house.  Our last night in Colorado, we stayed in Denver at our friends new house.  They cooked a delicious breakfast and I want to share it with you!

Ingredients for 2 people:

4 eggs (or 2 eggs and 2 egg whites)
1 triangle of creamy swiss cheese, cut in pieces
2 Tbls pico de gallo
2 halves of a deli flat
small handful of cubed ham

Directions:

Scramble eggs and cook in a non-stick pan.  When almost done add pico de gallo, ham, and cheese.  Serve on top of toasted deli flat half.

This fills you up and is OH SO TASTY!

Some wonderful-ness of Colorado!

 Edamame

 Breckenridge Brewery :)

 What a view!...and the mountains are great too, hehe!

Blue...the sweetest cat I know!

Mint Grasshopper Brownies

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

Well, St. Patrick's Day is just around the bend and these brownies make the kiddos go 

ga-ga.  I usually like to cook from scratch, but as I perused the baking aisle, 

I thought "fu ghedda 'bout it"!  I need easy!  When 4 kids pull on me from all different 

directions, sometimes you just need fast and easy

You will need:

Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix (plus egg and butter)
Betty Crocker Fudge Brownie Mix 13 x 9 Family size (plus egg and vegetable oil)
1 pack of Cool Mint Oreos
3 tsp of peppermint or mint extract
A few drops of green food coloring

Preheat oven to 350º

1.  Mix sugar cookie mix as directed on back of package.  Add a few drops of green food coloring and 3 drops of peppermint extract.
2.  Press sugar cookie dough in bottom of a 9 x 13 greased pan.
3.  Layer Oreos on top of sugar cookie dough.
4.  Mix brownie mix as directed and pour over Oreos.
5.  Bake at 350º for about 40minutes.  Some of the brownie batter will be gooey between the Oreos...even better!

If you're enough lucky to be Irish, you're lucky enough!  

I'm A Bread-Maker!

I don't own a bread maker.  Nor do I have space to keep one if I would acquire one.  But now I don't need one.  Janet at Simply So Good has an amazingly simple recipe.  I reminds me of the bread I ate at breakfast while traveling in Germany.  Just a little homemade strawberry jam on the warm bread brings me back.  Thankfully no bread machine required.  No gloppy, sticky, gooey messes.  Just simple ingredients.  The only thing I needed was patience...waiting 12-18hrs to rise is HARD!  

 Dough covered in plastic wrap...me patiently waiting.

 My beautiful wet looking dough after 18hrs.  I used a spatula and dropped the blob on a well floured surface.  I only rolled it around a bit in the flour as it was very "blubbery" and didn't really want to hold its shape.  I was worried at this point...but alas, no worrying was needed.

 Look at this beauty!

 Excuse me, but I'm feeling like a bad-ass baker!

Ingredients:

3 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp yeast

1 1/2 cups luke-warm water

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, salt and yeast.  Add water and mix with spatula.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and set aside for 12 - 18 hours.  (I set aside for 18hrs) Heat oven to 450º and place your covered cast iron pot or corning ware pot in oven to warm for 30 minutes.  Add dough onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball as best as possible.  Cover with plastic wrap and let set while the pot is heating.  Remove pot from the oven and drop in the dough.  I sprayed the bottom of my corning ware pot, but Janet insists it is not necessary.  Cover and return to oven for 30 minutes.  After 30 minutes remove the lid and bake an additional 15 minutes.  Remove from oven and place on a cooling rack. 

I can't wait to make more bread with other flavors.  Janet has other flavor breads listed as well and I look forward to trying some of hers and some of my own!