The Incredible Edible Egg

Growing up; the only egg dishes I knew were hard boiled, scrambled, over easy, and sunny-side up. Mom started by heating bacon grease in a cast iron skillet. She then cracked the eggs into the hot grease. If more than one yolk broke, she just scrambled them all together. Since I didn’t like scrambled eggs, you can taste the nasty white, she would fix me a sunny-side up. I would pull the white off and give it to anyone who wanted it. Then dip my toast into the runny yolk.
Yes, I was a picky eater. Mom and Dad put up with it because until I was 11, I was underweight. I had spent most of my youth as a sickly child. At 11 I discovered food tasted good. And that was the beginning of my life long weight problem.

Just before Scott and I got married, I started collecting cookbooks. Cheese omelets became an obsession with me. I wouldn’t eat one but I was bound and determined to make the best cheese omelet ever. I read over the techniques and practiced on poor Scott. I imagine I sent his cholesterol sky high during that time.

Our favorite restaurant, way back when, was at the Myrtle Point Hotel. It was a little Chinese place. The owners were very nice and could cook up a storm. On their suggestion, one night I tried Char Shu Chow Dun. It was a Chinese omelet and I loved it! Barbeque pork, onions, and lots of vegetables cooked with eggs. I was eating eggs.
I began to make quiche. Again, yum, I was eating eggs.
Now I know why, by adding other ingredients you don’t really taste the yucky white. No, I still don’t like egg white.

A few years ago I was watching ‘The Barefoot Contessa’ when Ina fixed a frittata. Oh, a quiche without the crust. I tried it. Easy peasy. The taste and texture were far superior to quiche. We alternate between quiche, omelet, and frittata. We eat sunny-side up with pancakes and waffles. Scott likes ‘poached’ (in little cups coated with butter and steamed) with toast. We eat hard cooked in salads and Scott likes them for snacks.

By the way, if you want to know how to make the perfect hard cooked egg; just check out Julia Child and Company

Mac 'n Cheeses

I know what you are thinking, just what the  world needs, another recipe for macaroni and cheese.  Please bear with me.
Growing up I loved the school's mac 'n cheese.  The process american cheese melted over, under and through the elbow macaroni.  If only Mom could do that.  Nope.  Dad liked his with Tillamook cheddar.  Enough said.
Oh, I did try a couple of times.  I snuck in some Velveeta.  Dad noticed.  "Why don't you eat the macaroni and cheese at school and let Mom make the mac 'n cheese at home."  Oh, I never thought Mom added enough cheese.  There was always too much macaroni for my taste.

Mom's Crappy Homemade Pizza

Okay, that is Selene's name for the pizza recipe I have been using since 1966. My young self had no idea what pizza really was. You see, the pizza we got in school lunches back then, was nothing like pizza. The school cooks used pre-made square pizza crusts, (similar to the round ones you can buy at the market) tomato sauce, process american cheese, and either leftover sloppy joe mix or spaghetti sauce. Baked and served on the plastic trays.
In 1966 I had my first American style pizza, Hawaiian, cold. A group of friends met at Shakey's Pizza Parlor for my cousin Nancy's 16th birthday. My sister, Peggy Ann, and I had never been to a pizza parlor before. The party organizer ordered the pizza when she arrived. Everyone else was late due to 'cruisin' the gut'. It was a townie thing. Anyway, we ate one piece of 'pizza' and were hooked. Another night we tried pepperoni, it was all good.
So, one night I tried to make pizza for the family. It was a disaster. Mom's green cooking encyclopedia, the only cookbook she ever owned, had limited information on pizza. I remember there was a recipe for risen dough that I did not have time to prepare. So, I made biscuit dough from the box, rolled it out, put it on a cookie sheet. I used canned tomato sauce, Tillamook cheddar cheese, raw hamburger, and pepperoni sticks for topping. Well, the dough was not cooked through. The hamburger grease filled the cookie sheet. And the pepperoni sticks were as hard as rocks. We ran to the burger joint and brought dinner home.
Selene calls it MCHP because the crust is too thin,the toppings include ground beef and pineapple, and there is no pepperoni. I make other pizzas, but this was my first and Scott still likes it.