Lazy Deviled Eggs

Deviled Eggs are always a hit at parties and potlucks. My aunt's deviled eggs are famous in our family. But they're kind of a pain to make and transport, even if you have a fancy deviled egg tray. 

These lazy versions are much easier! You don't need a piping bag or any other special tools - although there are a couple of pieces of equipment that do make these especially easy, but you can make them without anything special. 

Instead of scooping out the yolks, you just slice up hard boiled eggs, season them and serve them on a cracker. It couldn't be simpler!  And you can transport the peeled eggs to your location and make them fresh on site quickly, instead of transporting piped egg halves that can get squashed.

One of the things that makes this particular recipe so easy is using an Instant Pot to cook the eggs. If you don't have one, you can just hard boil your eggs the normal way, but the Instant Pot makes wonderful hard boiled eggs that never get that green line around the yolk. 

To hard boil eggs in the Instant Pot, use the rack.  Put a cup of water in the bottom of the pot and place your eggs on the rack. This recipe calls for only 3 hard boiled eggs to make 18 bites, but why not cook more eggs to double the recipe or have for lunch during the week?

If you want to hard boil a dozen eggs, just pile them on top of each other!  Close the lid and set to low pressure for 7 minutes for a creamy hard yolk. For a firmer yolk, try 8 minutes. For a jammy yolk, 6 minutes (not for this recipe, but if that's what you like, go for it.)

Release the pressure manually, remove the lid, and use tongs to plunge the eggs into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. 

The nice thing about the Instant Pot is peeling the eggs. The peels come off beautifully! I do recommend peeling them just after cooling, because the peels are a little harder to get off cleanly if you refrigerate the eggs in their shells. 

Mix some mayonnaise and Dijon mustard together.

Spread a little on 18 plain rice crackers.

Peel the eggs and slice them into even rounds.  An egg slicer is really great to have for this step, and super cheap.  If you don't have one, carefully cut them with a knife as evenly as possible. 

Place an egg round on each rice cracker. Sprinkle with smoked paprika, kosher or sea salt, and a sprig of dill. 

I took these to a work potluck and it was so simple to mix up the dijon mayonnaise and cook the eggs the night before, then slice the eggs and assemble the bites right there in our work kitchen. People loved that it was just a taste of deviled egg, rather than half an egg.  And you really get a lot of bang for your buck, making 18 servings out of 3 eggs!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
3 hard-boiled eggs
1 tablespoon mayonaisse
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
18 plain rice crackers
smoked paprika
sea salt or kosher salt
fresh dill

Instructions:
Mix the mayonaisse and mustard together and spread on rice crackers
Slice the eggs. Place one egg slice on each cracker
Sprinkle with paprika and salt and a small sprig of dill

Enjoy! 

Potato & Cheese Frittata

I rarely make eggs for dinner but every time I do I wonder why I don't do it more often. 

A frittata is very simple to make. You just cook your fillings and add eggs, then bake in the oven until set.

This is a great vegetarian meal that's filling and tasty and works surprisingly well as leftovers the next day.

This recipe comes from The Kitchn, with a few changes to make it even faster. Here's what you need:

Fresh Pasta

On a snowy Saturday I decided to make fresh pasta for the first time. I received a KitchenAid Pasta Attachment set for my KitchenAid mixer as a Christmas gift and decided to give it a try.

First I needed to find a recipe for egg pasta. This recipe from Serious Eats worked beautifully. It includes extra yolks and made a wonderful, tender noodle.

Here's what you need to make the pasta: 

Tart of the Month: Spring Asparagus & Goat Cheese Tart

We have an asparagus patch in our garden and it is the greatest.  Every year it gives us more and more fresh asparagus in the spring.  But not quite yet this year.  The asparagus from this tart came from the store but maybe I'll make it again with garden asparagus when it's ready.  

This tart also uses spring onions if you can find them.  They are the ones with large white bulbs and green stems.  Once again, I didn't have any ready yet so I used regular green onions.  

Here's what you need for this spring tart:

Easter Cupcakes

These adorable cupcakes are fun and easy to make.  Vanilla cupcakes are frosted with cream cheese icing and dipped in toasted coconut to resemble a bird's nest. Then chocolate mini eggs are added to complete the Easter theme.  

Really, you can use any cupcake and frosting to make these, but I like the subtle vanilla flavour of this recipe.  

Here's what you need for 12 cupcakes:

Prime Rib Hash

This is a fantastic second life for leftover prime rib.  You can also use up some leftover mashed potatoes while you're at it.  

Here's what you need:

To Do: Make Caesar Salad from Scratch

Around here, stores sell a very popular bottled Caesar salad dressing called "Renee's" that many people use exclusively.  I think there's a creamy version and a vinaigrette version. It tastes ok: parmesan and pepper flavour, mostly.  But have you ever made Caesar dressing from scratch?  It is a whole new world!

Of course it is a little more labour intensive than opening one jar, but it is so worth it! You'll need to get over any reservations you may have about raw eggs and anchovies. Just make sure your eggs are fresh. Anchovies are amazing flavour enhancers.  

Look at those anchovies!

And the egg yolk!

My inspiration is this recipe from Martha Stewart.  Here's what you need:

• 4 slices bacon, cooked and chopped
• 2 garlic cloves 
• 12 slices baguette (1/4 inch thick)
• 1/4 cup olive oil, plus 1 tablespoon
• Coarse salt and freshly ground pepper
• 2 oil-packed anchovy fillets
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1/4 cup finely grated Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 dash Worcestershire sauce
• 1 head romaine lettuce, chopped 

For the croutons, rub a garlic clove over the baguette slices and brush them with olive oil. Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile throw the rest of the ingredients (except oil and romaine) into a food processor or blender.  

Turn on the blender or processor and drizzle in the oil while it's running.  

Meanwhile toss the bacon with the romaine.  Drizzle the dressing over and toss to combine.  

I like to serve it with just a couple of whole toasted baguette slices, but you can break them up like traditional croutons if you prefer.  Or add a lemon slice and parmesan shavings.  Go crazy!

Not too difficult and so worth the effort!

Food lessons learned:

• Watch those croutons! They will brown too much on the bottom if you're not careful
• Crispy bacon is best. Feel free to cook extra at breakfast and save some for this

Photography lessons learned:

• I wouldn't say I learned much here.  I know I want to have better lighting in these photos, but haven't figured out the trick yet