Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Fried Egg

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Fried Egg

This sandwich makes my husband lose his senses. I only make it for him once a year, on Father’s Day, which I’m sure you’ll understand once you look at the recipe. It’s not exactly the most healthy of breakfasts, but it is delicious!

The recipe comes from Sara Foster’s Casual Cooking, but the recipe is so simple that you’ll probably memorize it after making it once. There are a lot of steps, though, so make as much ahead as you can, and then assemble and grill the sandwiches right before serving.

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon and Fried Egg

Time to make: ~30 minutes
Yields: 1 sandwich

• 2 slices bacon
• 1 egg
• 2 slices any kind of bread
• butter
• cheddar cheese, sliced

Fry the bacon until crispy. Drain on paper towels and set aside. Wipe out the pan.

Fry the egg in the same pan as the bacon to desired doneness. It is best to leave the yolk a little runny, as it makes the sandwich that much more delicious.

Heat a flat griddle over medium-high. Butter one side of each piece of bread. Assemble the sandwich with the cheese, egg and bacon, buttered sides out. Place the sandwich on the hot griddle and cook until well browned. Flip carefully and cook the other side. Serve right away.

Notes: If you are making several sandwiches, you will have to lower the heat between sandwiches or they will start to burn before the cheese gets melty.

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What’s Cooking in July

I didn’t post as much as I wanted to in June, but I think that was because I was working too much. But I have some good recipes to share with you on the back burner, just as soon as I get around to them. In the meantime, my husband–who is the food photographer around here–started a blog just to post photos of his favorite dishes that I have made: What Shannon’s Cooking. If he posts a photo of something, I’ll try to get the recipe up not too long after.

I am looking forward to having more time to cook and visit the farmers market in July. This really is the best time of the year for produce, and the garden is just starting to crank as well. Look for lots of recipes featuring tomatoes, zucchini and basil–or all three together!

In the meantime, here are some tasty recipes I found on the web that I definitely would like to make:

• Soupe au Pistou (Bitten)
• Tomatillo Salsa (Bitten)
• Homemade Ricotta (Seattle Times)

How to Make Fresh Fruit Popsicles

Baby with homemade strawberry popsicle.

Popsicles are a great hot-weather treat, but the ones from the grocery store have a lot of sugar, artificial flavors and artificial colors. It’s just as easy to make your own from whatever seasonal fresh fruit you have on hand, and you control the sugar content. The whole family loves these.

I’ve found that pretty much any sorbet or granita recipe also makes good popsicles. However, you don’t really need a recipe if you follow this method.

Fresh Fruit Popsicles

Time to make: 10 minutes + time to freeze
Yields: 8 popsicles

• 2 lbs. fresh fruit, such as berries, melon or peaches
• 1/3 cup sugar, or to taste
• 1 tsp. lemon or lime juice
• pinch of salt
• water to thin (up to 1 cup)
• popsicle molds

In a blender or food processor, puree the fruit with the lemon or lime juice, salt and enough water to thin the mixture to pouring consistency, between ¼ and 1 cup. More watery fruits, like watermelon, will require less water, naturally. Mix in the sugar to taste. Riper, sweeter fruit will probably need less sugar. Pour into popsicle molds and freeze.

Garden Notes: The first vegetables are here

Garden box with huge zucchini.

The garden is really starting to take on a life of its own — and resemble a jungle. We have been having odd weather this year, but the plants seem to love it. We’ve been getting a lot of rain, many more cool days than usual, but now are in a heat wave with temps hoving around 100 degrees.

All of the plants are doing really well. They are vibrantly green, bushy and standing tall. The zucchini in particular is going strong, but as I have read, it is not that hard to grow zucchini. I picked the first one today and I am looking forward to a summer of Italian meals. My husband also wants to pickle it. I also picked the first two sweet peppers, and both my husband and I have been eating the first cherry tomatoes straight off the vine.

The herbs are also doing very well. We planted arugula, dill, flat-leaf parsley, tarragon, several varieties of basil, thyme and sage. We already had mint, rosemary, chives and oregano overwintering. This is the first summer I’ve tried cooking a meal organized around an abundance of one or more herbs. For instance, the other night I made poached chicken breasts with a tarragon-lime pan sauce, accompanied by sugar snap peas in a tarragon compound butter. It is fun to start with the herb and see where that takes the meal.

The only disappointment are a few of the tomato plants are quite wilted, notably the heirloom varieties. Perhaps they don’t like the rain or the lack of sunny days. The hybrids from the local garden shop are doing very well, though. As my husband has noted, perhaps we are better off planting tomatoes that don’t need quite so much care, as we are strong believers in benign neglect around here.

I am really enjoying the garden this year. I can’t wait for cantaloupe, hot peppers and tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes!

Italian-Inspired Tuna Melt

Ah, the tuna melt. Nostalgia on a plate. It brings back vacation lunches and those carefree days of childhood when I could eat all the cheese and mayonnaise I wanted.

I have been having this more “grown-up” version of a tuna melt, inspired by Italian flavors, for lunch this week. While it’s still comfort food, it’s also a little more sophisticated than the tuna melts of our childhoods. And for anyone who thinks that you have to mix tuna fish with mayonnaise, this is a revelation. I prefer to use the more flavorful Italian canned tuna that’s packed in olive oil for this sandwich, but if you don’t have any on hand, mixing a good quality olive oil with the tuna fish should achieve the same result.

Italian-Inspired Tuna Melt

Time to make: ~15 minutes
Yields: 2 sandwiches

• 1 can tuna packed in olive oil or 1 can tuna packed in water + 2-3 tbsp. good-quality olive oil
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 2-3 tbsp. flat-leaf parsley, minced
• Salt and pepper to taste

• 4 slices bread, such as Italian bread, whole-wheat bread, focaccia or English muffins
• 8 oz. mozzarella cheese, sliced thinly

Drain the tuna well. Mix the tuna, olive oil (if needed), lemon juice, parsley, salt and pepper. Mound the tuna on the bread slices. Cover with the slices of cheese. Place under the broiler for a few minutes, until the cheese is melted and starting to brown. Serve open-faced.

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Quick Bites from the Web

Here are some interesting food- and cooking-related tidbits I’ve dug up on the Web recently.

• A Salsa Garden with Everything but Nachos (New York Times gardening section)
• Summer Reading: Cookbooks (New York Times book review)
• Five Best Recipe Managers (Lifehacker)
• Store Brand vs. Name Brand — When to Go Cheap (Lifehacker)
• Is it OK to use the garlic and ginger that come in jars? (Everyday Good Eating)
• What are we buying at the farmers market? (The Onion)

How to Cook Dried Beans in the Slow Cooker

I have been wanting to cook more of my own beans lately. Mark Bittman’s book Food Matters inspired me, with his descriptions of how nutritious and tasty beans can be when you cook them yourself. Dried beans are supposed to have a better flavor and texture than canned beans, and you can control the salt content. They’re much more economical, too. In his book, Bittman describes how to freeze cooked beans, and with the little freezer out in the garage, I have no excuses.

Well, I have one. It just seemed so time-consuming to cook dried beans, between soaking them and then boiling them for several hours. I never seemed to get around to it.

So I started researching how to use my slow cooker to cook the beans. With the slow cooker, I figured I could either let them cook overnight or during the day even if I had to leave the house. It turns out that it is not at all difficult to cook dried beans in the slow cooker. In fact, it’s not that much different than cooking them on the stovetop, except you don’t have to monitor them as much.

Here’s the method:

1. Rinse the beans and pick over them for stones.
2. Soak the beans in a good amount of cold water in the refrigerator for several hours. I let them soak all day, with the intention of cooking them overnight.
3. Drain the beans and rinse again. The water was fairly dirty, so I do think the soaking step is necessary.
4. Put the beans in the slow cooker with plenty of fresh, cold water to cover by at least an inch.
5. Cook on low for 8 hours. I let mine cook while I slept. I didn’t add any seasoning because I figured I would season them when I used them in the final dish. The beans turned out tender but not mushy, and even without seasoning, they were very tasty, so I think it is true that dried beans taste better than canned.

Some notes: 1 cup of dried beans results in approximately 2-3 cups of cooked beans, depending on the type of bean.

I used cannellini beans, which are my favorite type of bean and very versatile. They are often used in Italian cooking, and they go well in soups, salads, dips, pasta dishes and with sausage, so I figured I would get a lot of mileage out of a batch. Different kinds of beans may require different cooking times, and you also have to take into consideration the dish that the beans are destined for. For instance, you may want to stop the cooking after about 5-6 hours if the beans are then going into a long-cooking soup or chili, where they will get the chance to cook more. Tougher beans may need up to 12 hours to cook. I found that 8 hours resulted in a very tender bean, so I may shorten the cooking time to 7 hours for a firmer result. Ideally, I should start tasting the beans every half-hour or so after 5-6 hours and keep notes on the best cooking times for different kinds of beans. Of course, this strategy doesn’t work when cooking the beans overnight, but 8 hours seems like a safe cooking time in most cases.

Store the beans in their own liquid in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. I found that the cooked beans actually kept longer than leftover canned beans in the fridge. To freeze, divide into portions, such as 1 or 2 cups. Freeze in freezer bags with their cooking liquid, pressing out as much air as possible.

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Just in Time for the Farmers Market: Mixed Summer Salad

This bistro-inspired salad is designed to take advantage of all the lovely greens and herbs that are in season right now, at your local farmers market or possibly even in your garden, if the deer haven’t gotten to it first. I used a mixture of greens I bought and herbs and arugula from the garden. Any combination of salad greens will work, but look for the tender baby greens to get the full wow factor.

The rest of the salad is fairly straightforward, but with salads, simplest is best. This was delicious alongside smoked turkey and a potato salad for an early summer evening meal on the patio.

Mixed Summer Salad

Time to make: ~30 minutes, including time to boil the eggs and make the croutons
Yields: 8-10 servings

• Selection of mixed baby greens and herbs, washed and dried — I didn’t measure this out, just filled up my large salad bowl with greens. Be creative in the selection, and include lots of fresh herbs, such as basil, flat-leaf parsley and arugula.
• 3 carrots, peeled

• 1 generous tsp. Dijon mustard
• 4 tbsp. good-quality red wine vinegar
• 6 tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

• 2 eggs, hard-boiled
• 2-3 cups day-old French bread, cubed
• olive oil and coarse salt for the croutons

Julienne or shred the carrot using a mandoline or food processor — you’re aiming for fine shreds. Toss with the greens and herbs in a large salad bowl.

Whisk together the mustard, vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss the dressing with the mixed greens until the leaves are just glistening. (You may not need all of the dressing. Reserve the remainder for passing at the table.)

Peel the hard-boiled eggs and chop small. Toss with the greens.

Heat a generous amount of olive oil over medium-high in a large skillet. Add the bread cubes and sprinkle with coarse salt. Brown the cubes on all sides, stirring frequently, until crisp. Add to the salad and serve immediately.

Note: All of the salad components can be prepared ahead of time. However, do not dress the salad or add the egg and croutons until just before serving.

Fresh-from-the-Garden Minestrone

This minestrone recipe is designed to take advantage of whatever is growing fresh in your garden right now. While you may want to stick to the combination of root vegetable, squash, beans and greens, substitutions can and should be made depending on what’s available. What makes this soup really tasty is the “garnish” of bacon, shallot and garlic that is swirled in right at the end.

This recipe is very adaptable. It can made ahead of time and then reheated before serving. Extras can be frozen, so make a big batch.

Garden Minestrone

Time to make: ~45 minutes
Serves: 6-8

• 1 quart chicken stock
• 2 carrots, diced
• 2 sm. summer squash, diced
• 1 tbsp. olive oil
• 3 oz. bacon or prosciutto, diced
• 1 shallot, sliced thinly
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1 can any beans, drained and rinsed, or the equivalent of cooked beans
• 1 bunch arugula, chopped
• 1 handful parsley, minced

Add the stock, carrots and squash to a large soup pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat the olive oil over medium. Add the bacon, onion and garlic. Cook slowly until the bacon is crisp and the onion is translucent, about 15 minutes. Remove from the heat.

Add the beans to the soup and let heat through, about 5 minutes. Add the arugula and parsley. Stir in the bacon mixture. Warm through about 5 minutes to wilt the greens and blend the flavors. Serve with crusty Italian bread.

What’s Cooking in June

I have to admit that I haven’t been too inspired in the kitchen lately, which is why the number of recipes I’ve been posting has decreased. I feel too tired and like I don’t have enough time to get creative with my cooking. I guess trying to chase after a toddler and work and take care of all the life-related things will do that.

One thing that has really been bothering me is waste, especially food waste. I just can’t stand to throw anything away, which means I’m trying to use up all the leftovers, even if the end results are uninspired. I think this is another side effect of having a toddler. I am surprised at all the waste that goes into feeding a toddler. I never know from one day to the next what he is eating at the time. He will boycott one thing for a month, and then it will be like he can’t get enough of it. Or he will be at ravenous at lunch for three days in a row, and then suddenly, he’s not eating lunch anymore. I still feel like I have to prepare a variety of things for him at each meal, so he gets some balance and there’s a better chance that he will actually eat one or two things. The remainder ends up going into me or the dog or the trash, none of which is a very good outcome. I’d appreciate any tips from parents in the know.

I’ll have to try these “monster noodles” from Bread & Honey; I think she knows where I’m coming from on the whole toddler eating issue. I also found some other recipes I like to fantasize about making, even if I never actually do it:

• An all-purpose whole wheat dough from Heights Eats
• Soft pretzels (my fave!) from Strollerderby
• Frozen strawberry margarita pie from Confections of a Foodie Bride