Accidental Dinner: Spaghetti with Eggs

I’ve been in a not-cooking mood this week. I cooked a flank steak (from the freezer), a frozen veggie, and some mashed potatoes one night and Bryan cooked dinner for me another night. Last night I was convinced it was either left over night or breakfast-for-diner night.

Thursday nights Bryan doesn’t get home until late due to a group run, so I caught up on some reading. This is the last week of the Minimalist on NYT and there were a bunch of links to recipes, favorites, and videos posted the other day. One of the recipes which Mark Bittman cooked on the Today Show and was also listed as a favorite was Spaghetti and Eggs.

The concept is pretty simple. Cook pasta. In a separate skillet/pan fry some eggs. Mix together, maybe top with cheese and fresh cracked pepper.

I have a serious pasta addiction, so after viewing the video I knew I needed to make it. Right away. So I put down the laptop and started cooking. We only had two eggs (Mark Bitman used four in the video.), but I had a few other things lying around that I thought might be a good addition.  Below is my accidental dinner recipe:

Spaghetti with eggs and other stuff:

2 eggs

3 pieces of bacon, chopped

a bunch of asparagus, snapped into bite size

a cup of cheese (parmesan)

cooked noodles (a long variety)

Start cooking your noodles. Drain and set aside.

Cook your bacon until crispy. Remove to cool on a paper towel. Sautee asparagus spears for 5-8 minutes until your desired tenderness (Bryan likes his with some crunch). Remove. Throw in the eggs to the warm pan. Cook until the whites are set. They don’t have to be all the way set, but mostly. Add the bacon (I crumbled mine), asparagus, cheese, and noodles and toss to combine.

Serve garnished with more cheese.

It was a pretty terrific dinner for a whim.

Cinnamon Toast p. 794

I’m not really a get up and eat breakfast right away type of person. Normally I don’t want to eat until around 10 am. But the other morning I was hungry and wanted something to eat. But not wanting to make a big breakfast I decided a simple cinnamon toast was the ticket to my hunger.

I’ve watched my mom make cinnamon toast for years growing up and I’ve made my own a couple of times as an adult. What I liked about this version in How to Cook Everything is he suggests to toast one side of bread first, then butter it, turn it over butter and season and toast again. The toast was crispy and sweet without being soggy. Best of all it only took a few minutes, which is about as much as I want to spend on food first thing in the morning.

Muffins, the plain way p. 832

The official title in How to Cook Everything is “Muffin’s, Infinite Ways”. Bran, banana nut, and spice was not appealing to me the morning I decided to bake, so I decided to just go plain. Then I could eat them like bread with lunch or dinner. But my husband wanted chocolate chips in them, so I went crazy and added mini chocolate chips.

One of the things I like about this recipe is how simple it is. Its almost as easy opening the Martha White packages and stirring in milk. Almost. Its nice to know that, if I wanted to, I could whip up a batch of muffins any time I wanted. The key being if I wanted to.

The ingredients are not complicated and baring a crazy pantry crisis, you should have everything on hand at all times. The key to this recipe is how versatile it is, like the title suggests. What is the craziest thing you’ve ever put in a muffin?

I followed the main recipe here and tossed in the chocolate chips. I should have followed the “sweet and rich” variation adding in more sugar and butter. But it turned out okay, just could have used a little bit more sweetness.

I cooked my muffins for 20 minutes, but looks like they could have only gone for about 18. Oh well, next time I’ll know to check it sooner.

Apple Crisp p. 884

I’ve never been a big fan of cooked apples… either as a side dish or in a dessert. But around Thanksgiving the Pioneer Woman posted a really scrumptious apple pie and I made it for the holidays. It was amazing and totally changed my life… in only the way that cooked apples can… which isn’t too much, but I’m now open to the idea of cooked apples. Anyways, shortly after Thanksgiving I was hosting a family birthday gathering and was tasked with making a dessert. On the heels of my love of apple pie, I decided to try Mark Bittman’s Apple Crisp in How to Cook Everything.

Yes, this is the first actual post from the book in a long, long time. What can I say? I needed a break. Obviously. But I am back on the cooking-from-a-book horse and have a few more recipes up my sleeve.

So this apple crisp was very similar to the Pioneer Woman recipe, only without the pie crust. Which I should like because I hate pie crust. I hate making it and I hate eating it. At least I’m consistent.

The other difference was the use of oats. I also do not like oats. If I could substitute this topping with the Pioneer Woman topping I would have been very happy. But other than the oat-y topping, it was a delicious dessert and everyone seemed to like it.