Miso Dressing

So as I am testing recipes from My Father's Daughter, so far I have made 3 things and they have all been great! Including this dressing. It is so tasty, I can't stop eating it on things - my favorite is on top of a poached egg on an English muffin instead of a Hollandaise, I didn't put a piece of bacon under the egg like you normally would for an Egg's Benedict although I could have. I think I was mostly thinking of a breakfast vehicle for the sauce! Yes, it is that good! My husband is not as big of a fan, he doesn't like a lot of soy sauce or sesame oil - and this dressing has both so it wasn't a big surprise but those are two ingredients I love and in fact crave soy sauce every once in awhile. So I did make a few substitutions to the original recipe simply because I didn't have them on hand but I still think it turned out great.

Miso Dressing
1/3 cup roughly diced Vidalia onion (I used a sweet yellow onion from my CSA because that is what I had)
1 tsp garlic minced
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp white miso (if you get the little tubs that are quartered it is half of the miso in the container)
2 tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tbsp mirin (I didn't have mirin so I substituted Marsala- but it was a dry Marsala and generally you should substitute a sweet Marsala for mirin so I added a tsp of sugar)
2 tbsp water (now that I read the recipe I am not sure I added water... must thin it out a bit but I liked the consistency of mine so if you don't want the recipe to pack a too powerful punch and maybe be a little runnier than add the water but I obviously thoroughly enjoyed mine even if I did miss this step)
Large pinch of kosher salt
A few fresh grinds of black pepper
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp veggie oil
1. Put all but oil in food process and pulse until smooth. While blender is going slowly stream in oil.


I bought this dressing container at Crate & Barrel I love it, I have pretty much stopped buying dressing at the grocery store all together because I have this little baby. I have to say though that this dressing would be better in just a reused empty glass bottle, it is a little thick for this pour spout. But I used the last one I had available on another one of her recipes from the book (a good for you seed topping mixture for oatmeals, yogurt etc) so I just put it in my usual container. For other thinner dressing though this thing is a must own!

The perfectly poached egg on muffin, would have been even better with maybe a slice of Canadian bacon a la Egg's Benedict style, or maybe even with some sprouts or a slice of fresh from the garden tomato, so good. I am thinking I am becoming a more savory breakfast person versus the sweet...

What kind of breakfast person are you?


Summer Vacation is Here! Special Grilled Cheese

As I begin my first full week of summer vacation I am trying to get back into the swing of things and posting a lot more. I still have occasionally been taking photos of things that I have cooked when I think about it, so this first entry is a backlogged entry from the beginning of June, daddy was busy for First Thursday at his shop and Molly and I were on our own. Daddy had this when he came home but I think he didn't fully appreciate how good I personally thought it was. Molly, by the way, ate the entire egg first then dove into the grilled cheese. You never know what she will dive into, to be honest.

I am looking forward to our summer starting, we have camping, swimming, stories and crafts, lots of walks, and sports classes to help keep us busy and doing things. Not mention the up keep of our gardens, yes Molly has her own container garden going (fully of pumpkins and watermelon seeds, plant starts of parsley and cilantro we will see if she doesn't drown them before they start to produce - the girl really loves to water!) More on the gardens to come!

Now for the recipe of the day:
Gruyere Grilled Cheese with Egg, Spinach Salad and Hash browns

Serves 4
10-14 WW pts (depends on what butter you use and how much, as well as your servings of salad and hash browns!)
(4)Thick sliced sourdough bread
8 oz Gruyere Cheese, shredded
2 tbsp Butter
(4) Eggs
*Spinach Salad Kit
*Frozen Hash browns (this is a fast week night meal! you will have a few pans going at once though)
1. Cook hash browns according to packet instructions, slather one side of bread with butter and build with cheese in the pan on medium high heat (use cover to help melt the cheese but don't forget about them, which can lead to burning!). Flip when one side is golden brown.
2. In a nonstick skillet on medium heat with a little pad of butter crack the eggs, and salt and pepper to taste. Once the whites start to solidify toss in a few tablespoons of water and cover with lid. Cook eggs to desired doneness, I like my yolks a little runny! 1-3 minutes. Don't forget your sandwiches!
3. In a salad bowl put together salad kit, serve the sandwiches with the eggs on top and dinner is served!

Thanks to Relish for this dish!

Lunch Time, & Breakfast for Dinner

I had a mini-tub of whipped sun dried tomato cream cheese from Noah's Bagels and it was just sitting in my fridge and I wanted to use it before it went bad. I was thinking pasta sounded pretty good. So I boiled up some noodles added a little bit of sauce from a jar, and a couple tablespoons of this cream cheese. Has anyone tried this? So creamy and tasty, you must try it for an easy pasta dish for lunch or dinner. Some extra Parmesan cheese and ta-da!

I didn't really want to cook anything last night so I thought... hmmm... what can I whip up fairly fast? I made the decision to go with breakfast for dinner. This brings me back to nights from my childhood when my dad had a late credit union board meeting and Mom and I were on our lonesome, mom always made it seem like we were getting away with something by having breakfast for dinner. My dad always helped too by seeming so upset that he missed out because he had to be at a meeting.

Now is there anyone else out there that likes bacon but doesn't particularly like the smell that lingers in the house? Well I am not going to take credit for this one, my mom decided to do this one morning when we were at their house and I thought it was pure genius. You know how I am always talking about using my BBQ for most anything I can, but have you ever thought about cooking bacon on it? Yes, you read it right, bacon on the grill. I am sure you are saying, wait wouldn't that start a grease fire or something? Well this is how you avoid that: you line a cookie sheet (one with a lip) with tin foil for easy clean up. I like to put in a cooling rack so that the bacon isn't sitting in it's own grease, and then line up your bacon on the cooling rack and place in the BBQ. You don't even need to turn it, just watch it for your desired doneness (I like mine extra crispy but not burnt). And when you are finished, carefully bring the bacon inside, but the best part... that lingering bacon smell stays outside! Genius, pure, genius!

For the eggs I used fresh parsley, leeks (cooked in a touch of olive oil before I added the eggs to soften, and I used these because I have a bunch to use from my CSA bag) garlic powder, and salt & pepper to taste. They also had a sprinkling of mozzarella after they were fully cooked, delish! These pancakes were made with my pre-mixed pancake mix, see the recipe by clicking here.

**Side note yes those are those horrendous sausages that we all know and love, they were bought for a camp out and didn't get used... no excuses...but this is in super fine print so you get how I feel about it! HA HA HA!