Snacks..."amouse-bouche"

Who doesn't like a good snack? I think that snacks just make people smile. You can have a snack at any time of the day and it is acceptable. Tonight I had decided to make a little snack before dinner time to tide us over until our food was ready. Technically what I was making was a amuse-bouche. An amuse-bouche is something that is served to excite the taste buds before one sits down to eat their meal. The key is that it has to be only one or two bites and be an explosion of flavor in your mouth. Now I have received a fair amount of flack for this blog and the intimidation it places on other people when I visit their tables. (JIMMY!!!) Food is supposed to be fun and something that comes from the heart. Ham, apple, and cheese are three things that go wonderfully together and were the inspiration for tonight's snack.



I started by slicing an apple perpendicular to the core. I thought that this would give me the most slices with the least amount of void for any of the other goodness to fall through. I cut out the core of the apple after slicing the apple. These slices were placed on a hot cast iron pan to warm up and caramelize slightly. Meanwhile, I added a slice of Virginia ham to the pan to start heating. A slice of raclette cheese was added to the ham before I folded it up into a nice little pocket. On top of the ham I shaved some aged Gouda for more depth of flavor. All of this heated up and melted the cheese into a cheese into the ham and made a creamy gouy treat. The ham and cheese were then placed atop the apple so that the apple could act as a edible base.



This amuse-bouche was inspired by a kicked up grilled cheese that I like to make in the winter months. My encouragement to you would be to think of some of your favorite dishes and deconstruct them to make smaller, yet equally as flavorful, dishes. Snacks do not have to come from a box or consist of basic meat and cheese. Meat and cheese can be an incredible burst of flavor in your mouth if you take a few easy steps. Remember, heat can really help fruit to come to life. Cook outside the box, you will not be disappointed. Plus you can impress your friends with fun words like, "amuse-bouche!!"

Eggs and Patience

This morning I decided to switch up my normal over medium eggs and go for some scrambled. I have to confess that I never order scrambled eggs when I am out at a restaurant for breakfast because I think that they tend to over cook them and scramble them to death while they are in the pan. Also, I think that scrambled eggs are the perfect platform for mix-ins. You can take a basic egg and turn it into a fantastic scramble by simply adding a few simple items from your fridge that sound good to you at the time. This morning I was feeling like some leftover ham, bacon, mushrooms, green onions and a little cheese. You have to have cheese when you have scrambled eggs!



I sauteed up the bacon, mushrooms, and green onions in a pan with a little extra virgin olive oil. (This was simply to provide some fat in the pan before the bacon starting providing some of its own to the party.) I pulled out the mushrooms and onions and allowed the bacon to continue cooking. I added the diced ham to the pan to heat up with the bacon. Once the bacon was done I dumped the ham and bacon onto the plate with the mushrooms and onions.



The real key component of all of this is how you cook the eggs. I turned the heat down on the stove to medium to ensure the right cooking temp for the eggs. (Less heat is better with scrambled eggs.) I placed a small dollop of butter into the pan (maybe a teaspoon) and spread it around to coat the pan evenly. I added the eggs and stepped back. This is the key. Be patient and allow the eggs to cook for awhile before you start stirring them. This allows large chunks of egg to cook together so that once they get to your plate you have hearty pieces of delicate eggs and not tiny little hard bits of over cooked eggs. Use your spatula and stir ever so gently. You are not trying to dice your eggs, just agitate them slightly so that they can cook on all sides. Once you see that the eggs are 75% cooked, pull them off the oven and add back in the items on your plate with some cheese. The eggs will continue to cook and the cheese will melt nicely. Dash a bit of salt and pepper to the top and enjoy!



Scrambled eggs do not have to play second fiddle to the classic over easy egg, but they take some time and patience. Bring a few more goodies to the pan and you can take a traditionally bland dish to another level. The key though is to be delicate and patient with your eggs. You can do it!!