Baked Corn Casserole

I absolutely love corn, and I've always thought cornbread is better with actual corn in it. I'd never heard of corn casserole before, but it sounds like heaven.

1 can cream-style corn, 1 can whole kernel corn

So much corn! It took at lot of will power to keep from eating it all.

1/3 cup vegetable oil, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 eggs, 8 oz sour cream

I was planning to substitute plain yogurt for the sour cream, but I just happened to pass by a grocery store on my way home to make this. I don't normally like sour cream, though, so I'll probably use yogurt next time. A lot of people add a little baking soda to the yogurt in baking recipes.

Add 1 box corn muffin mix

It kinda looks like oatmeal now. I wonder if I could put corn in oatmeal? No, that's probably not a good idea. Let's skip that one.

Bake at 350 for 35 minutes

I used an 11x7 pan instead of a 9x9, but I still had to bake it for the full 35 minutes. Actually, I think I should have left it in a little longer. The middle was a little mushy.

I originally planned to make other stuff to go with this, like some sort of protein maybe, but then I just kept eating and eating. I think I ate more than a third of the pan today. I feel like such a fatty. I've seen similar recipes including pork, so I'll probably do that next time just to balance it out a little.

Pumpkin Pie Oatmeal!

It's November, so that means everyone is making everything with pumpkin. I love pumpkin pie and I love oatmeal, so when I found out the two could be combined, I was extremely excited. I used this recipe, but I had to leave out the cardamom. The stuff was just too expensive at the store I was in. I hear it's cheaper in Indian stores, so I'll have to check that out.

1/2 cup uncooked oatmeal, 1/2 cup canned pumpkin, 1 cup nonfat milk, pinch of ground cardamom, 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1 tbsp sugar

Yeah, I've got quite a bit of heavy cream sitting around in my fridge. It needs to go away, so I substituted this magic weight gain serum for nonfat milk. Who uses nonfat milk, anyway?

Combine ingredients and cook for 20 minutes or until thick

I usually make oatmeal in the microwave instead of on the stove, but I didn't want to mess with the instructions too much.

This recipe supposedly makes two servings. I could have eaten it all, but I started to get nauseous near the end of the first serving. Note to self: heavy cream requires a lactase pill. Or maybe two. I'll try to remember for next time so I'm not sick for the whole day. The 1/2 cup of pumpkin was only about 1/4 of the can, so I'll be making this a few more times to use it all up.
I keep hearing about flax seed and flax meal and how it's good and oatmeal and good for you. I don't know anything about that, but once I find out, maybe I'll start using it. We'll see.

Easiest Dinner Ever

I spent quite a bit of time looking through some recipes today. At first, I was just a little hungry and wanted a snack. Then I looked at the clock and realized it was dinner time. Since my hands were shaky and I was getting dizzy, I knew I didn't have a lot of time to find some food. In one of the kitchen cabinets, I found a whole lot of rice. I mean A LOT. So I looked for recipes with Minute Rice and Uncle Ben's rice. I found a recipe for chicken and rice casserole that only requires 4 ingredients.

1 can peas, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 28 oz chicken in water, 1 pouch original long grain rice

Yeah, this is all I need. Pretty awesome, right? I mean, except for the Milano cookies, Ritz crackers, Rice Krispies and Mrs. Field's truffles....

Combine all ingredients and microwave 4 minutes

The recipe didn't say if I should cook the rice first. I didn't even think about that until I put the rice in the bowl. I couldn't break up all the clumps, but I've seen how this rice works. It should be ok after it cooks.
I didn't know whether or not to drain the peas and chicken, so I just did it. I don't like when things are too watery. I figured the creamy soup would make the mixture wet enough.
It doesn't look too appetizing, but that could change in 4 minutes.

Yeah, it looks a little better now. It's tasty, too. A little salty, but I really don't like salt. I think it would probably be better with more vegetables, so I'll try that next time.

Baked Eggs with Bacon and Spinach

Another recipe with an egg in a ramekin. I think I'm becoming obsessed with ramekins. I went to the store to find some more, but they only had expensive ones. I'll keep trying.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat until crisp; transfer to paper towels. Pour off drippings from skillet; reserve drippings.

I cooked the bacon in the microwave. Once when I was little, my mom was cooking bacon on the stove. I got too close and the popping grease got me in the eye. Now I never cook it on the stove.

Add spinach to pan, sprinkle with pepper, and toss over medium heat, 1 minute. Transfer to strainer set over bowl to drain.

I actually used a 5-oz bag of spinach, so I know this is the right amount. Since I didn't have any bacon grease, I used cooking spray for the pan and the ramekins.

Brush four 1-cup ramekins with drippings. Crumble bacon.

Scrunch up the paper towel and now it's bacon bits. That part was kinda fun.

Place 1 toasted English muffin half, split side up, in each ramekin.

Toasted English muffin. Check.

Divide spinach among ramekins, then sprinkle bacon over, dividing equally.

Spinach on top of English muffin.

With back of spoon, shape well in center of each ramekin. Gently crack 1 egg into well in each ramekin, keeping yolk intact.

Bacon bits and egg. I guess I didn't do a good enough job with the well in the center. The bottom of the yolk is kind of in the well, and the rest of the egg is just sitting on top of the spinach and bacon. Whatever.

Drizzle 1 tablespoon cream over each egg. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Drizzle heavy cream on top? More like cover the top with heavy cream.

Bake eggs until whites are just set but yolks are still runny, 14 to 16 minutes.

I baked it for an extra 5 minutes because I'm really not into runny yolks. Call it an abnormal fear of salmonella if you want, but I just can't eat it.

I like being able to see all the layers. The English muffin ended up a little soggy. I really really hate soggy bread. Other than that, it was pretty tasty. The yolk ended up being just a little runny. I felt nauseous after I ate it, but that's probably just a psychological thing. I'm still alive, right?

Spinach-Egg Ramekins

Have you ever walked into Target and seen that section of seasonal stuff where almost everything costs $1? I check out that stuff every time I go to Target. It's been full of fall and Halloween stuff for the past few weeks. I found a set of four ramekins for about $2.50. I bought them partly because they were cheap, and partly because I knew I'd be able to try more recipes with them. Right after I bought them, I started looking up ramekins recipes; the simplest ones I found were for eggs. I decided to wake up early and surprise my mom with some baked eggs. I chose this recipe because all the ingredients are things I usually have in the house.

1 tbsp + 1.5 tsp margarine or butter, 1tbsp + 1.5 tsp flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/8 tsp pepper. Melt butter in a heavy saucepan over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth. Cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Gradually add milk; cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until thickened and bubbly. Stir in salt and pepper.

I made the cream sauce first so it would be out of the way. It kinda looked like mashed potatoes or cream of wheat. I think I made it a little too thick. Also, I forgot to add salt and pepper. That doesn't matter much for me since I don't like salt, but my mom loves salt.

Melt butter in a 10-inch skillet over low heat; add flour, stirring until smooth. Add spinach; cook 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring frequently.

I don't know how much spinach is in two pounds, so I just grabbed a random amount from the fridge. My mom has this thing about taking produce out of bags before putting it in the fridge, so I never know how much anything is. The next time I make this, I'll have to buy it myself so I know it's two pounds.
I was way too lazy to soak the spinach for an hour, and I'm pretty sure I don't have a Dutch oven. I just washed it, drained it, and then added it to the flour mixture in the pan.

Divide spinach mixture between 4 ramekins

Yeah, I definitely need more spinach next time, but this is ok for now. I'll just mix it all up with the egg, anyway.

Fill a saucepan or skillet with 1 1/2 inches salted water, and heat to boiling. When water boils, lower heat to simmer. Break eggs, one at a time, into a clean custard cup. Hold the lip of the cup close to water, and gently slip egg into the water. Simmer until eggs reach desired degree of doneness. (Do not allow water to boil.) Remove eggs with a slotted spoon, and drain well. Place a poached egg on top of spinach in each custard cup.

I've never poached an egg before. I just kept poking it to see if it was firm enough. I'm pretty sure I overcooked all of them, but that's better than undercooked. I know my mom would never eat a runny yolk.

Cover each with cream sauce; top with cheese, and bake at 400° just until cheese melts. Serve hot.

Two tablespoons of cream sauce on top and grated cheese. I left them in the oven a little longer than I should have because I wanted the cream sauce to be warm. I really liked this recipe. It wasn't even as time consuming as I thought it would be. I would make this every day if I could, but then I wouldn't be able to try new things.