I love deviled eggs. Growing up, my parents weren’t fans of the “deviled” moniker, so we called them “Angel Eggs.”  I could go either way, but I totally understand that for most people to even have the faintest idea of what I’m talking about, I have to refer to them as “deviled.”

In any case, I had a company potluck yesterday, and Charlene had the inspired idea to do Bacon Lover’s Deviled Eggs with bacon, cheddar cheese, and scallions.  Mmm…

Enjoy!

Ingredients
1 dozen hardboiled eggs, peeled, cut in half lengthwise, yolks removed
1/2 C mayonnaise
2 Tbsp course ground dijon mustard
4 Tbsp cheddar cheese
2 Tbsp turkey bacon bits
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a bowl, combine all ingredients except the whites. Mix well.
2. Fill the whites with the mixture. Feel free to garnish with extra bacon, cheese, and scallions.

It’s been about two years since I posted my original recipe for my chocolate chip cookies.  Since then, I’ve begun the move to preferring metric and mass measurements over imperial and volumetric measurements.

So with that change, along with further refinements I’ve made over the past two years, I’ve decided to update the recipe. Enjoy!

Ingredients
200 g white sugar
200 g packed brown sugar
2 sticks unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
300 g all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
300 g rolled oats
600 g semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. In a stand mixer, cream the butter, brown sugar and white sugar until smooth.
3. Add the eggs , milk, and vanilla.
4. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, stir into the creamed mixture.
5. Stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips.
6. Make golf ball sized portions, and place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a Silpat silicone baking mat. Bake for 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies on wire racks.

I’ve decided to start moving from Imperial and Volumetric measurements to Metric and Mass measurements in my cooking. (Though technically inaccurate, some people refer to measuring mass and weight interchangeably. I’ll try to be as accurate as possible by referring to measuring mass, but please forgive me when I slip up.) Why? Because it’s much more accurate, it’s far simpler, it’s easy, and it’s different.

It’s more accurate because as this article on measuring indicates, things like a cup of flour can vary in mass from 4 to 6 ounces.  That’s bound to make a difference when you’re measuring out several cups of flour for bread or pizza dough.  Weighing your flour is much more accurate.  200g of flour is always going to weigh 200g.

It’s simpler because, as anyone who has taken Chemistry is aware, the metric system is all based on multiples of 10.  1 milliliter is one tenth of a centiliter. 1 centiliter is one tenth of a deciliter. 1 deciliter is one tenth of a liter.  Thus 1 milliliter is one thousandth of a liter.  Same thing with milligrams, centigrams, decigrams, and grams.  See Wikipedia for a much more comprehensive list.  On the other hand, who has time to remember that 1 teaspoon is one third of a tablespoon; one tablespoon is one sixteenth of a cup; a half cup is 8 tablespoons, one cup is half a pint; one pint is half a quart, and one quart is one quarter of a gallon?  Can you keep all the thirds, halves, quarters, and sixteenths in your head?  I can’t.

It’s easy because if you ever need to double or halve your recipe, it’s all a matter of multiplying or dividing nice round numbers by two.  If the original recipe wants 500mL of water, and you double it, you’ll end up with 1000mL, or one liter, of water. But what happens if a recipe wants 2 cups of water, and you double it? Sure, you could measure out 4 cups of water, but you could also measure out 1 quart of water as well. But it gets worse. What if the original recipe asks for 1 tablespoon of water, but you halve it, you’d end up with either half a tablespoon, or 1.5 teaspoons of water. Who has time to remember all these dumb conversions??? How about we move to metric, and make every unit only a simple move of the decimal place away from any other?

It’s different because almost every (American) recipe out there is done by volume and imperial measures. I did a quick search on a few recipe sites, grabbed the first recipe I saw, and all of them were by volume and imperial measures:

• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/green-bean-casserole-slimmed-recipe/index.html
• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/low-fat-eggnog-recipe/index.html
• http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/lighter-chocolate-chip-cookies-recipe/index.html
• http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Peppermint-Fudge-2/Detail.aspx
• http://allrecipes.com/recipe/baked-slow-cooker-chicken/detail.aspx
• http://allrecipes.com/recipe/southwestern-style-twice-baked-potatoes/detail.aspx
• http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Prosciutto-Stuffed-Chicken-with-Mushroom-Sauce-51122430
• http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Apple-Upside-Down-Biscuit-Cake-103822
• http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Fig-and-Blue-Cheese-Savouries-51140000

The one caveat I’ll give is that there are some things that just don’t make sense to measure by metric or mass measurements.  Here’s a few examples:

• Eggs: They come in a natural, naturally variable package.  It’s not exactly feasible to measure out 100mL of eggs.  If you crack two and they come to 120mL, what are you going to do with the other 20mL? Dump it? Not likely. So if you ever see me use eggs in a recipe, they’ll always be by count, rather than mass or volume.
• Fresh herbs: one sprig of rosemary is going to be pretty variable, but I’m not going to bother counting out the individual leaves for you.
• Very small volumetric measurements: unless you have an incredibly accurate scale–down to the tenths or hundredths of a gram–it doesn’t make much sense to convert one teaspoon of water to it’s corresponding mass (it’s about 0.167 ounces or 4.9 grams by the way).

4C boiling water
2 Tazo Passion Teabags
3/4C lemon juice
1/2C Splenda
1/2C Sugar
2C Water
5C Ice Cubes

1. Pour the boiling water into a 2 quart Pyrex measuring bowl.  Add the teabags and steep for about 5 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, mix the lemon juice, Splenda, sugar, and water in a blender.
3. Add the ice cubes to a pitcher.
4. Pour the tea and the lemon mixture into the pitcher.

Notes:

• I exchanged some of the sugar for Splenda in order to decrease the calorie count.  If you’re averse to artificial sweeteners, feel free to use all sugar, or if you’re counting calories, feel free to use all Splenda.  I felt that half and half was just about right.
• Feel free to add more ice if needed.  A significant amount of the ice will melt almost instantly because of the heat from the tea.
• I make the lemon mixture in a blender because it makes it easy to dissolve. Feel free to stir/blend by hand.
• I’ve added other fruits like frozen raspberries and strawberries for a fruity touch.
• The strength of your lemon juice matters.  I’ve used both fresh squeezed and bottled from Costco.  Use more or less depending on how lemony you want it.

Ever see those people at Farmer’s Markets or Carnivals cooking up huge batches of Kettle Corn in those large iron cauldrons?  Those guys are more than happy to charge you some ridiculous amount of money for what essentially amounts to pennies’ worth of ingredients.

Here’s how to make your own:

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup popcorn kernels
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 pinches of salt (more if you like your kettle corn more salty)

Directions:

1. In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat.
2. Add three kernels of popcorn.  Cover with a splatter guard.
3. When they pop, add the rest of the popcorn.
4. When the first kernels pop, add the sugar and salt.
5. Shake vigorously until popping stops.

I found this fantastic recipe for Pepperoni Pizza Monkey Bread, and decided to make it my own.  Charlene has really been craving pizza lately, so I figured this might be a decent answer to her hunger pangs.  The biggest difference between the recipe above and mine is that I didn’t use pepperoni–Charlene prefers mushrooms, and I got my dough from Trader Joe’s.  To make preparation easier, I also used string cheese, and cut it into small pieces, rather than getting a big block of mozzarella.

Here’s what they looked like up close:

If you’ve ever had real Chinese food, like at a Chinese wedding banquet, you’ve probably seen the Cantonese Green Onion/Scallion and Ginger sauce served with a boiled or roasted chicken.

I set out on a quest to duplicate it.

I started out with the general knowledge that it was scallions, oil, and salt.  Honestly, I didn’t realize there was any ginger in there at first, but my sister-in-law confirmed it to be so.  Additionally, my mother-in-law mentioned that everything was raw, no cooking involved here, so that does make it slightly tenuous to eat, especially for people with weakened immune systems because of the possibility of getting E. Coli.

After a fair amount of trial and error, here’s what I came up with:

Ingredients:
2 bunches of scallions
1 Tbsp minced ginger (you can get the pre-minced stuff in the jar, or mince your own fresh)
1.5-2 tsp salt
1/2 C Grapeseed oil

1. Rough chop the scallions into 1/2″ pieces or so.  This doesn’t have to be perfect.
2. Throw everything into a chopper or blender.  (I use the chopper accessory on my Cuisinart Stick Blender)
3. Ta-da!  You’re done.

The most common application I’ve seen is with boiled chicken.  But it seems to go with chicken in general–fried, boiled, broiled, grilled, etc.  I have yet to try it with beef, but I’m guessing it has to be good.

Sorry, no photo of the mixture.  Next time I make it, I’ll add one.