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This week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included two batches of blondies, more zucchini with tomato, bacon, and onion sauce, pickled eggs, and the subject of this post and Saturday morning’s breakfast, a yummy breakfast sandwich I like to call “If I make it, will you eat it?”, another family favourite.

Margarine was taken out and some taken up with a knife:

A frozen slice of bread — not two as called for in my recipe, because the bread I make in a bread machine is tall enough to justify cutting it in half when making sandwiches (see below) — was taken out, and the margarine was spread on it:

The slice of bread was cut into two halves:

Two slices of processed cheese (or “American cheese” slices) were taken out and unwrapped, and placed on the counter to warm up to room temperature (note that natural cheese sliced off the block may be used):

Every once in a while, I buy a large 2kg case of breakfast sausages, cook them all up at once, and then I keep them in the freezer for future eating. I do the same thing with bacon for my mom. If you don’t do so, at this point and according to your preference, cook up some breakfast sausage(s) and/or some bacon.

I then took out a frozen cooked breakfast sausage, and let it warm up a few minutes on the counter:

The sausage was then sliced into four strips along its length:

The sausage was put aside for a few moments.

A burner on my stove was turned on to a low to medium heat:

A cast iron skillet was placed on the stove, and a bit of olive oil was poured into the cast iron skillet:

The olive oil was then spread over a part of the cast iron skillet:

At this point, I placed the slices of breakfast sausage in the cast iron skillet:

An egg was taken out:

… and the egg was cracked into the cast iron skillet:

The egg was fried, and — I like eggs over — when it was ready to be turned over …

… the cast iron skillet was somewhat re-positioned, and I lifted the fried egg with a flipper …

… and the egg was turned over and fried on the other side:

When the fried egg was finished cooking, it was transferred to a plate:

… and the fried sausage slices were also transferred on top of the fried egg:

The free oil and grease in the cast iron skillet were wiped up with a paper towel (watch out, the cast iron skillet is hot!):

A slice of the bread with the margarine was placed in the hot cast iron skillet, margarine side down:

One of the slices of processed cheese was placed on the slice of bread, and “made to fit”:

The fried egg and sausage were placed on top of the slice of processed cheese:

The second slice of processed cheese was placed on the slice of bread, and “made to fit”:

… and finally, the second slice of bread with margarine on it was placed on top of the slice of processed cheese, margarine side up:

After a few moments, the sandwich was flipped over, and the bottom side, now the top, had been nicely browned:

After a few more moments, the sandwich was lifted out of the cast iron skillet and served on a plate:

Yummy!!!!

Back in the mid 1990’s, my church published a cookbook with recipes from the membership. I began making a zucchini with bacon and onion sauce dish submitted by a fellow parishioner in the mid- to late-2000’s, and, besides finding it tasty, I was pleasantly surprised both at how easy it was to make, and, even more surprisingly, how it immediately came across as a restaurant-quality dish. In fact, shortly after, I happened to be at a restaurant, and ordered a similar dish as an appetizer!

Note that the amounts of some of the ingredients shown below are sometimes greater than listed in the recipe, in order to have some of the sauce leftover.

First, bacon was taken out (in this case, half slices):

The bacon was sliced crosswise / diced:

The bacon was then placed in a cast iron skillet:

Onions were taken out:

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

The onions were quartered:

The onions were then chopped coarsely:

The onions were then placed in the cast iron skillet with the bacon:

The stove was turned on to a low to medium heat:

A pot was filled with water:

Salt was measured out:

The salt was added to the pot of water:

The stove under the pot was turned on high to boil the water in the pot:

The water was brought to a boil, and put aside.

Tomatoes were taken out:

The tomatoes were cleaned and trimmed:

The tomatoes were quartered …

… the tomatoes were further chopped:

… and the chopped tomatoes were placed in a mixing bowl:

Sugar was measured out:

The sugar was added to the mixing bowl with the tomatoes:

More salt was measured out:

The salt was added to the bowl with the tomatoes and the sugar:

Water was measured out:

The water was added to the bowl with the tomatoes, sugar, and salt:

… and the bowl with the tomatoes, sugar, salt, and water was put aside.

Three zucchinis (in this case, grey zucchinis) were taken out:

The zucchinis were cleaned and trimmed:

The zucchinis were cut in half along their length:

… and the zucchinis were put aside.

Soon, the bacon and onions were beginning to be cooked and caramelized:

… and the tomato mix was added to the bacon and onions in the cast iron skillet:

… and the ingredients in the cast iron skillet were mixed together:

The ingredients were brought to a simmer:

The ingredients were reduced, during which the tomatoes also disintegrated into the sauce

At this point, the salted water was brought back to a boil:

… and the zucchini halves were added to the boiling water …

… and the zucchini halves were boiled for ten minutes (obviously, the photo was taken about eight seconds after the timer was set):

At this point, the sauce had sufficiently reduced to my liking, and was ready for serving:

The zucchini were served onto two plates:

And finally, sauce was spooned onto the zucchini:

Supper was yummy, with a nice, tangey sauce!

I made chicken pot pies (a family favourite) this past weekend, along with crisped rice squares, two batches of bran muffins for mom, and some cooked ground beef and onions frozen in ice cube trays in the freezer. The chicken pot pies I make are more chicken cottage pies than what most people consider to be chicken pot pies, because there is a potato topping instead of a flaky crust; additionally, the sauce in the filling is somewhat less liquid than most people would expect from a chicken pot pie.

This recipe was added to my collection of recipes in the mid to late 2000’s as another making-a-lot-in-advance freezer food project, based on a recipe I’d found on the internet and adjusted for amounts to make freezer quantities, and using commercial chicken broth instead of making my own.

Note that below, while there may appear to be a distinct sequence of steps to be taken, presented as such for the sake of the narrative, many steps were actually performed simultaneously and / or overlapping with each other as given steps were finished and new steps begun. Also, note that I was again cooking at the cottage, using water from containers, because the water system is turned off during the winter.

First, water was put in a large pot:

Then, ten pounds of potatoes were taken out …

The potatoes were peeled …

… and the peeled potatoes were placed in the pot with the water:

Four peeled potatoes were put aside for later use in the filling:

The rest of the potatoes were quartered …

… and placed back in the pot of water:

The water was drained from the pot, and fresh water was added to the pot, covering the potatoes:

Salt was measured out:

… and the salt was poured into the pot with the quartered potatoes:

The stove was turned on for boiling the potatoes (rear burner), as well as frying the chicken breasts (front burner) (see next section):

… and the potatoes were brought to a boil …

… and kept boiling for twenty (20) minutes:

In the meantime, chicken breasts were taken out …

Olive oil was lightly poured into a cast iron skillet …

… salt was added to the cast iron skillet …

… and the chicken breasts were placed in the cast iron skillet and salted, to be slowly pan fried:

While the chicken breasts were cooking, occasionally being turned over several times in order to avoid burning on the outside while leaving the centres under-cooked, vegetables were prepared.

Carrots were taken out:

The carrots were cleaned and trimmed:

The carrots were then cut along their length twice, quartering them and creating spears:

The carrots were then chopped coarsely:

… and finally, the chopped carrots were placed in an electric skillet, and put aside:

Onions were taken out:

The onions were cleaned and trimmed:

The onions were roughly quartered:

… and then the onions were chopped coarsely:

… and finally, the chopped onions were placed in the electric skillet with the carrots, and put aside:

The peeled potatoes put aside earlier were taken out:

The potatoes were sliced along their length:

The potatoes were again sliced along their lengths, crosswise, in order to make spears:

The potatoes were sliced into small cubes, about half an inch:

… and finally, the cubed potatoes were placed in the electric skillet with the carrots and onions:

Olive oil was added to the carrots, onions, and potatoes in the electric skillet:

Salt was added to the vegetables and olive oil:

The vegetables, olive oil, and salt, were mixed together:

The vegetable mix and electric skillet were put aside until after the next step (mashing potatoes).

At this point, I turned my attention back to the potatoes, which were almost finished boiling.

Milk was taken out and measured:

The boiled potatoes were drained:

… and the milk was poured into the pot of still steaming boiled potatoes:

Margarine was taken out, and a couple of dollops of margarine were measured out:

… and the margarine was added to the potatoes and milk:

Salt was measured out again:

… and the salt was added to the pot of boiled potatoes, milk, and margarine:

The potatoes were mashed with a hand-held masher:

The mashed potatoes were covered and put aside for later.

Back to the mixed chopped vegetables, the electric skillet was turned on …

… and the mixed chopped vegetables were fried.

In the meantime, the chicken breasts had become nicely cooked and browned:

The chicken was removed from the cast iron skillet, and put aside on a plate for a few moments.

Water was poured into the cast iron skillet to deglaze the pan:

The cast iron skillet with the deglazing liquid were put aside for a few moments.

During this time, the vegetables began frying nicely:

A box of commercial chicken broth was taken out …

… and the chicken broth was poured over the frying vegetables:

The deglazing liquid from the cast iron skillet was poured into the electric skillet with the vegetables and chicken broth:

The liquid in the electric skillet was brought to a boil:

The vegetables and liquid were covered and simmered for about 20 minutes.

In the meantime, back to the cooked chicken breasts, the chicken breasts were cut into rough cubes and smaller:

The chopped cooked chicken was then placed in a bowl, and put aside for a few moments:

A cup of flour was measured out …

… and poured into a mixing bowl:

Two more cups of milk were measured out:

… and poured over the flour in the mixing bowl:

The flour and milk were thoroughly mixed with a fork:

At this point, the vegetables and broth had been simmering for 20 minutes, and the chopped chicken was transferred to the electric skillet with the chopped vegetables and broth:

The ingredients were mixed together with a large serving spoon:

At this point, timing becomes important in order to mix things properly, before heat thickens the milk and flour mixture too much, making proper mixing more difficult.

The flour and milk mixture was added to the rest of the ingredients in the electric skillet:

The electric skillet was unplugged, and quickly, the ingredients were all mixed together, fully mixing all the liquids as well as the rest of the ingredients:

Previously, a number of baking containers were laid out:

The filling was spooned into the baking pans, to about half the depth of the baking pans:

The still warm mashed potatoes were spread on top of the chicken / vegetable / sauce filling in the baking pans:

Sealable freezer bags were identified:

The chicken pot pies were placed in individual bags:

And finally, the chicken pot pies were placed in the freezer for freezing, and of course future eating!

Yummy!

This week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included more chocolate buttercrunch (mostly) for mom, shortbread cookies for my brother, chicken soup, and, the subject of this post, three (or five) ingredient cheese biscuits. (The ambiguity about the number of ingredients lies in the recipe calling for self-rising flour, which you may or may not have on hand. If you don’t have any self-rising flour, you can easily make some yourself by adding two ingredients to regular flour; see below.)

These cheese biscuits are quite easy to make, such as for a light Saturday morning breakfast, or for afternoon tea. They are so tasty that six of the eight cheese biscuits I made this morning were eaten, while the other two frozen for another day, long before I started organizing and putting together this blog post. 🙂

First, I took out some parchment paper and lined a baking tray with a couple of stray pieces of parchment paper I had:

Normally, the recipe calls for self-rising flour; I didn’t have any, so a cup of flour was measured out:

The measuring cup with the flour was kept at hand.

A teaspoon and a half of baking powder was measured out:

… and placed in the measuring cup with the flour:

The measuring cup with the flour and baking powder was again kept at hand.

A quarter teaspoon of salt was measured out:

… and the salt was added to the measuring cup with the flour and the baking powder:

The flour, baking powder, and salt were mixed in the measuring cup with a fork:

And, because the measuring cup I was using has a two cup capacity, the measuring cup with the flour, baking powder, and salt was again kept at hand (see the next part.)

Greek yoghurt was taken out:

… and the greek yoghurt was spooned out of the container …

… and greek yoghurt was transferred into the measuring cup with the flour mixture until there was a cup’s worth of greek yoghurt added:

The measured out flour mixture and greek yoghurt were transferred to a mixing bowl:

The mixing bowl was put aside for a moment.

Cheese was taken out, along with a grater and bowl:

Cheese was grated:

… and half a cup of the grated cheese was measured out:

The grated cheese was transferred to the mixing bowl with the flour mixture and the greek yoghurt:

At this point, I remembered that I needed to preheat my countertop convection oven to 425F:

I continued by mixing the flour mixture, greek yoghurt, and grated cheese in the bowl with a fork to make a stiff (and sticky!) dough:

Balls of dough about the size of golfballs, without any further handling (nor any flattening out) were scooped out of the mixing bowl and placed on the baking tray:

… and the rest of the dough was portioned out to make a total of eight rough balls about the size of golfballs:

The baking tray with the biscuit dough was placed in the preheated countertop convection oven:

… and a timer was set to 18 minutes (obviously, the photo was taken about 10 seconds later!)

At the 16 minute mark, a couple of the cheese biscuits were taken out for mom, who likes the biscuits slightly less well baked than I do:

… and the rest of the cheese biscuits were taken out at 18 minutes, and placed on a cooling rack:

Regarding how tasty they are … as mentioned at the beginning of this post: “They are so tasty that six of the eight cheese biscuits I made this morning were eaten, while the other two frozen for another day, long before I started organizing and putting together this blog post. :)”

This week’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included making bran muffins for my mom, more blondies, more chocolate buttercrunch, and the subject of this post, lemon squares. I started making them to have another dessert to add to my collection of recipes, and so I found a recipe on the Martha Stewart website, which I then converted to my format and whose measures I adjusted down by half. However, you may notice that in this recipe, the full amounts of the original recipe are also listed, since you may wish to make enough of these squares for a party; unfortunately, since the recipe does not freeze too well, I found that the full recipe was big enough that my mom and I started to get tired of them after eating them every day for a week!

UPDATE 20210608: This post is based on my “old” lemon squares recipe, which I have updated, replacing the base with appropriately adjusted amounts of my aunt’s shortbread cookie recipe.

There are two parts to these lemon squares: A shortbread base, and a lemon curd topping.

The base is made first:

First, in order to bring the margarine to room temperature, I took out margarine:

… then margarine was measured out:

… and the margarine was put aside for a bit to warm up to room temperature.

In the meantime, I took out some parchment paper and an 8″ x 8″ baking pan …

… and the baking pan was lined with parchment paper:

When the margarine had warmed up to room temperature, I placed it in a mixing bowl:

Flour was taken out …

… then the flour was measured out …

… and the flour was poured into the mixing bowl with the margarine:

Icing sugar was taken out …

… measured out …

… and poured into the mixing bowl

Salt was taken out and measured …

… and added to the mixing bowl with the icing sugar, flour, and margarine:

A fork was used …

… to break up the margarine into pieces about the size of peas, mixing the icing sugar, flour, and margarine together in the process:

The mixed ingredients were transferred to the lined baking pan:

The mixed ingredients were pressed down by hand:

A countertop convection oven was preheated to 350F:

… into which the baking pan was placed …

… and a timer was set to 16 minutes (obviously, the photo was taken about 20 seconds later!)

Making the topping:

Eggs were taken out …

… two eggs were chosen ..

… which were then cracked into a mixing bowl …

Ooops, I forgot to lightly beat the eggs.

Milk was taken out:

Milk was measured out:

The milk was poured into the mixing bowl with the eggs:

A bit of flour was measured out and added to the mixing bowl with the milk and eggs:

Sugar was taken out:

Sugar was measured out:

The sugar was poured into the mixing bowl with the flour, milk, and eggs:

Salt was measured out:

… and the salt was added to the mixing bowl with the sugar, flour, milk, and eggs:

A fork was taken out …

… to mix the salt, sugar, flour, milk, and eggs:

Lemon juice was taken out:

Lemon juice was measured out:

The lemon juice was poured into the mixing bowl:

… and the ingredients were mixed together with a fork:

By this time, the base had finished baking, and was taken out of the countertop convection oven:

The topping was poured over the still hot base:

The temperature of the countertop convection oven was reduced to 325F:

The baking pan was placed again in the countertop convection oven:

… and a timer was set to 20 minutes (obviously, the photo was taken about 11 seconds later!)

A cooling rack was taken out for when the cooking was done:

When the baking was completed, the baking pan was taken out of the oven, and placed on the cooling rack:

After a bit of cooling, the lemon squares were lifted out of the baking pan, and placed back on the cooling rack:

I started slicing the whole dessert in half:

… and I sliced the whole dessert into 16 pieces:

Icing sugar was sprinkled on the top:

… and of course served!

Mom liked them; she also suggested that I try using my aunt’s shortbread recipe for the base, which I will try the next time I make lemon squares.

This week’s cooking projects from my recipe collection was to make my mini meat loaves, the subject of this post, plus, earlier in the week, blondies and bran muffins. My recipe for meat loaf is another example of one of my easy recipes whose formal existence lies in simply documenting rough amounts of ingredients required to make the dish, as well as filling the freezer with convenient prepared-in-advance foods in portions convenient for one to two people; admittedly, the recipe hardly describes a particularly technical, involved, or challenging dish.

First, I checked my container in which I collect and save bread crumbs and bread pieces to see if I’d had enough dried bread crumbs and bread pieces:

Although I did have a sufficient supply, I decided to add to it, by taking out a bread heel …

… which was sliced into spears …

… and then sliced again into cubes:

The bread was placed into a countertop convection oven in order to dry the bread cubes:

When dried (and perhaps slightly over-browned), the bread cubes were taken out of the countertop oven, and allowed to cool:

The cooled bread cubes, and some of my existing supply, were placed in a measuring cup and put aside:

Two onions were taken out …

… trimmed …

… chopped somewhere between coarsely and finely …

… and placed in a bowl, to be put aside for later use:

A serving plate was placed on a kitchen scale, which was set to imperial units, and set to zero:

Four pounds of ground beef were measured out …

… and placed in a large mixing bowl (well in this case, a large salad bowl):

The dried bread cubes and bread crumbs were added to the mixing bowl:

The chopped onions were added to the mixing bowl:

A large egg was cracked and added to the mixing bowl:

A teaspoon of salt was added to the mixing bowl:

And pepper was added to the mixing bowl:

Here is the mixing bowl with all the ingredients in it:

All ingredients were thoroughly mixed by hand:

The meat mix was formed into six individual mini loaves, and three mini loaves were placed in each of two loaf pans:

The meat loaves were placed in a countertop oven preheated to 350F:

Partway through the cooking, the meat loaves were removed from the oven, and basted with the drippings from the bottom of the baking pans:

At the end of the cooking, the meat loaves were removed from the countertop oven:

The drippings were transferred to a bowl …

… and the grease was cooled solid in a refrigerator:

The solidified fat was separated from the other drippings, which were saved in a container and frozen for use in some future soup not yet otherwise planned; the solidified fat was wrapped in paper towelling, and placed in the curbside brown box for municipal composting.

In the meantime, the meat loaves were placed on a tray, to be placed in the freezer to quickly cool down:

Sealable sandwich bags were identified with the intended contents and the date:

The now partially frozen meat loaves were placed in the sandwich bags:

Finally, the meat loaves were placed in the freezer again, for when I will be eating them.

They are really convenient to take out for last minute supper plans for two, and / or to have leftovers for lunches.

This weekend’s cooking projects from my collection of recipes included a plain cake with lemon sauce, more pickled eggs (darn those sales on eggs! 🙂 ), and the subject of this post, chocolate buttercrunch. As with previous posts on making pickled eggs and making bran muffins, while I have already made a previous post with some pictures on the subject of chocolate buttercrunch, this post is all about the photos taken while making the chocolate buttercrunch.

First, a bowl was placed on a kitchen scale and the scale weight was set to zero:

Then semi-sweet chocolate chips and milk chocolate buttons (as well as a few rosettes) were taken out …

… and 150 grams of each were weighed out in the bowl, for a total of 300 grams:

The chocolates were then put aside for later.

Then, two 13″ x 9″ baking pans were lined with parchment paper, and put aside for later:

To begin making the buttercrunch part, margarine was scooped up in a paper towel …

… and a heavy pot was coated with the margarine:

A pound of butter was taken out …

… and half a pound of butter was cut off to be used in the recipe, while the remaining portion was put away:

The butter was placed in the greased, heavy pot, and the stove turned on low:

On a low heat, the butter was completely melted:

A cup and a quarter of granulated white sugar was added to the melted butter …

… along with roughly two tablespoons of maple syrup …

… and roughly two tablespoons of water:

The melted butter, sugar, maple syrup, and water were mixed together …

… and then stove burner was turned up from a low setting to a medium setting:

And the mixture was heated, while constantly being stirred, and the temperature being monitored with a candy thermometer:

Once the mixture reached 300F, it was transferred to the baking pans lined with the parchment paper …

… and immediately spread out using a stiff spatula:

As a cautionary mention, be careful not to overheat the buttercrunch mixture, since shortly after 300F, the pan will scorch (this picture is normal, but it is at the point at which the candy would scorch if the buttercrunch were left in the pot any longer):

The chocolate prepared earlier was placed in a microwave oven for two and a half minutes to melt, and partway through, I took it out to blend it so as to help with even melting and to avoid hot spots which would promote burning:

And then the fully melted chocolate was taken out of the microwave, and fully blended (Note that this photo is from a previous batch some months ago):

The fully melted and blended chocolate was poured onto the still-warm buttercrunch …

… and then the chocolate was promptly spread over the buttercrunch with a stiff spatula:

The chocolate was allowed to just about fully cool to room temperature, and hence once the chocolate was congealed, a table knife was use to break the buttercrunch into rough pieces:

The trays of chocolate buttercrunch were then placed in a fridge to completely cool and solidify the candy, and then the pieces were gingerly broken apart by hand (be careful, too much effort or enthusiasm in doing so will separate the chocolate from the buttercrunch):

And finally, the candy was separated into bags:

Of course, mom received the largest bag, while my brother will get one of the other two bags.

Yummy!!!