Eggs Benedict with Homemade Hollandaise Sauce

What feeling is better than waking up to the smell of fresh coffee and a good breakfast?

Today I decided to show you guys a recipe that is both very easy and highly versatile, as long as you have eggs, you are good to go!

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-3 Eggs

-2 slices of ham

-1/2cup Vinegar

-Olive Oil

-1/2cup Melted Butter

-Fresh herbs

-1 English Muffin

-Salt&Pepper

————–

-Fill a large sauce pan with fresh water and bring to a boil, then add the Vinegar and lower to a simmer

-Poach the eggs to desired consistency.

-In a frying pan, warm olive oil and and cook the slices the ham

-Put the english muffin in the toaster

-Make the Hollandaise sauce (recipe at the bottom)

-Put the ham on the english muffin, the eggs on the ham and the hollandaise sauce on the Eggs!

-Enjoy!

————–HOLLANDAISE SAUCE————–

-Put egg yolk in a bowl, add Salt&pepper, Olive Oil and stir over stove

-Whip the mixture until it expands approximately twice it’s original size

-Keep stirring while slowly adding melted butter to the mixture

-Stir until right consistency and taste

————–

As you can see this is a really fun recipe to make and can be made at any time.

No english muffins? use a regular loaf of bread !

No Ham? use another kind of meat!

Caribbean Jerk Tofu -

Jerk seasoning is a traditional Jamaican and Caribbean way of cooking chicken, you can buy it on the street there like you would with a Hot-Dog in New York City. It has gained popularity in the last ten years and you can now find it in plenty of restaurants in North America.

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-1Pack of hard/medium Tofu

-3tsp. Olive Oil

————–JERK SEASONING————–

-2 tbsp dried minced onion

-2 1/2 tsps dried thyme

-2 tsp ground allspice

-2 tsp ground black pepper

-1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

-1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

-1/2 tsp salt

————–

-In a bowl, mix all the ingredients for the jerk seasoning and 2tsp Olive Oil -

-Slice the tofu and heat frying pan with the rest of the Olive Oil

-Add Jerk Seasoning to the tofu and cook until Tofu golden and cripsy on the outside.

Serve on rice

Salmon Tartare-

I always love finding new ways of using meats and other proteins that I use all the time. I was put off by making Tartare for a long time because to me it was a snobby meal of sort, if you agree with this then  this 5minute recipe of great tasting Tartare will change your mind forever.

—–

- Fresh Salmon fillet

-3tsp. Capers, chopped

-1/2 a small onion, chopped

-Extra Virgin Olive Oil (Depending on Salmon, approox 1/3 Cup)

-Salt to taste

-1Apple

-lemon Zest (1lemon)

-Fresh Thyme, chopped

———————

-Dice the onion, salmon and caper and mix in bowl.

-Add the salt, thyme and lemon zest to the mix.

-Add a small portion of the Olive Oil and stir, repeat until you have the desired consistency.

-Cut a s lice of the apple and serve tartare on top

Perfect for Appetizers.

Traditional Peanut butter cookies -

Everyone that knows me personally know that I LOVE Peanut Butter, it’s my Chocolate.

So here is, in my opinion, one of the best cookie recipe!

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-1cup light peanut butter

-1cup margarine or soft butter

-1/2cup white sugar

-1/2cup brown sugar

-1tsp. Vanilla extract

-1Egg

-1.5cups all purpose flour

-1tsp. Baking Soda

-1 pinch Salt

————–

-Pre heat oven at 350 Degrees C

-Mix Peanut Butter, Margarine, Vanilla Extract, Sugar and Egg until light and fluffy

-Combine in Flour, salt and Baking Soda and Stir into Peanut Butter mix

-Shape into 1-2inch balls and place on baking sheet, Flatten with fork

-Bake in Oven for 10-12 minutes,  cool on rack.

————–

Sweet Potatoes shepherds Pie

The problem with Classics is that they have been the same for so long and end up being simply boring. Here is my new and improved version of The Shepherds Pied.

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-2large sweet potatoes

-1medium can of cream corn

-2tsp. Melted Butter

-1bag of frozen vegetables (diced carrots, green peas)

-1lb Ground beef or Ham

-1/2 medium onion, chopped

-1/4cup Milk (give or take)

-1clove of garlic

-Paprika

-Salt&Pepper

————–

-Pre Heat oven at 350 Degrees C

-Peal, wash and dice potatoes

-Boil cold water, salt and add Potatoes for about 25minutes or until soft.

-Put 2cups of frozen vegetables in Microwave on “Defrost”

-Cook the meat in a large frying pan until it is no longer pink, add Onions/Garlic and cook for another 3-4minutes.

-Salt & Pepper the meat and put in a baking dish

-Mix the vegetables with the cream corn and put on top of the meat.

-Mash the potatoes, add milk, melted butter and salt & pepper

-Add the Mashed Potatoes on top of the vegetables with a plastic whip and put Paprika on top of everything.

-Put in the oven for approximately 25minutes or until top is golden.

Winter Style Vegetable soup

In Quebec where I live, the winters are long and they can sometimes be very depressing but a meal that always gets me back and running and makes me feel at home is a good Homemade Soup. It’s easy to make, it’s not fattening and you can pretty much use whatever it is that you have at home to make it.

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-1tbsp. Olive Oil

-4Large Carrots, diced

-2sticks of celery, diced

-1large Onion, chopped

- 1liter of cold water

-1liter of chicken stock (homemade or store bought)

-1clove of garlic

-1Can of whole tomatoes, diced (keep the juice)

-Fresh herbs (to taste)

-Salt & Pepper to taste

————–

-Cut and Dice all the vegetables.

-Sautee Onions and Garlic in Olive Oil until Onions are soft.

-Add the water, the carrots and celery and let simmer for about 20minutes.

-Add the tomatoes, the chicken stock and the juice from the tomatoes, bring to a boil and let simmer for 5minutes.

-Turn heat off, add the herbs, salt&pepper to taste and serve

Spinach stuffed Chicken with Grape And Honey Sauce

Welcome to you, whoever you are.

This is the first of many recipes I will post on this blog. I hope you will enjoy it!

—-

Ingredients (for the chicken and stuffing)

-4 Chicken breasts (bonesless / skinless)

-3 tbsp. Olive Oil

-1 tsp. Thyme (dried)

-1/4 tsp. Salt

-1 medium onion, chopped

-1 tbsp. Butter

-1 lb Spinach (washed with stems removed and chopped)

-Pinch Nutmeg

-2tsp. Parmesan cheese

-2tbsp. Basil (dried or chopped)

-Black pepper to taste

————–

Leave chicken in the fridge overnight to make sure it is thawed when you start preparing for the recipe.

-In a sauce pan, melt butter and 2/3 of the olive oil

-Sautee onion for about a minute (do not brown)

-Add Spinach and cook for another 2minutes, do not be worried about the amount of spinach you put in, Spinach shrink to about 1/10th of it’s size when cooked.

-Once the spinach is cooked, add Parmesan, nutmeg and the black pepper and set aside.

————–CHICKEN————–

-Preheat oven at 350 Degrees C

-With a knife, “Butterfly” Your chicken breasts so that you can stuff them.

-Add the Spinach mix in the middle of your breast, put enough so that it is filled but you can still roll them.

-Roll your chicken breasts and fold with Aluminum foil.

-Put in the oven for approximately 15minutes (will finish them in a frying pan so it’s OK if they are not fully cooked after 20minutes)

-One it is out of the oven, get the chicken out of the aluminum foil and finish/color in a frying pan.

————–SAUCE————–

-2tsp. Butter

-1tsp. Olive Oil

-1 Shallot, Chopped

-3tbsp. Flour (all purpose)

-1cup. Chicken stock

-1/2cup. White Wine (optionnal)

-1cup. Green Grapes

-2tsp. Honey

-2egg yolks

-1tsp Taragon (dried)

————–

-In a sauce pan, melt butter and Olive oil.

-Sautee Shallots on medium heat (do not brown)

-Add the Flour, and cook until it doesn’t smell raw (do not brown)

-Add the wine and Chicken stock, bring to a boil and then simmer for about 3minutes

-Add the grapes and cook until tender (approx 1minute)

-Beat Taragon in with the Egg Yolks and slowly put in the sauce while stirring

-Add Honey and cook until sauce sticks on the back of a spoon.

———————–

Serve in a plate with rice / vegetables or on it’s own.

Southern Style Macaroni And Cheese -

This is a fun recipe I learned when I was on tour in 2007 with Fearless Record’s BLESSTHEFALL and we stayed at the guitarplayer’s Aunt’s house in Atlanta.

She cooked us a typical Southern meal and the best part about it must’ve been the Macaroni And Cheese, three years later and a couple of changes to the recipe. Here is what I came up with.

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-1box of macaroni (or any kind of pasta that you have handy

-3 -4little ramquins

-2cloves of Garlic

-4tsp. Butter

-1/2cup gratted Old Cheddar

-1/2cup gratted mozzarella

-1/2cup gratted monterey jack

-5 cherry tomatoes (or chopped tomatoes)

-4tbsp. chopped fresh parsley (1 per ramquin)

————–

-Pre-heat oven at 350 Degrees C

-Cook the pasta in cold boiling water over medium/high heat until they are al-dente (about 6-7minutes)

-Take the ramekins and put butter at the bottom

-Put one layer of pasta, add some butter and a bit of the three cheeses, repeat until ramekin if full

-Add some more gratted cheese on top, some butter , repeat for all four ramekins.

-Cut the cherry tomatoes in half and put them on top of ramekins

-Put in the oven for 15-20minutes or until the cheese is grilled and bubbly.

-Sprinkle the fresh parsley on top of all the ramekins

————–