Loaded Egg Muffins

These muffins were a revelation to me when they were first introduced. About 10 years ago, a trainer I was working with suggested I make them to help satisfy my need for bread in the mornings. She recognized my inner Carbie early on! Anyway, she described the concept of making these, telling me to add what I liked, and it felt simple enough for me, a high schooler at the time, to try and they have been a staple in my breakfast line up ever since. The base of the recipe is so simple that you can use any fixings you want and because of that, I never get sick of them. Bonus points because they can be stored in the fridge for 5 days and make a perfect breakfast or can be added as protein to a salad! Just a quick trip to the microwave to rewarm them and you have the perfect, protein-packed, “muffin” start your day!

Ingredients:

• 12 large eggs

• 3/4 cup finely chopped spinach (You don’t want to feel like a giraffe and pull out a whole leaf when you take a bite)

• 3/4 cup cooked, chopped, and cooled bacon (No egg scrambling!)

• 1/2 cup shredded cheese (I used Mexican blend)

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

• Optional adds: 2 tablespoons milk (to thin it out a bit), 1/4 cup chopped cilantro, 1-2 seeded and chopped jalapeños

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a large bowl crack in your eggs, pricking the yolks, and whisking in order to create a homogenous mixture.

3. Add in bacon, spinach, cheese, milk, jalapeños, cilantro, salt, and pepper. Stir to combine and evenly distribute.

4. Line your muffin tins and then grease the pan! In order to make sure the egg muffins come out cleanly and that you’re not going to spend the next hour scrubbing your pan, I strongly suggest using liners or baking cups. I got these adorable and reusable ones off Amazon and they have given my hands and my scrub brush a much needed break!

5. Distribute egg batter into muffin tins. I used the 1/3 of a cup measuring cup to help ensure an even distribution!

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a knife when inserted into the center muffin comes out clean. They will be really souffle-like when they first come out of the oven; however, when you take them out, they will lose a bit of their height as the hot air escapes. Don’t let that deflate your enthusiasm, honey!

7. Sprinkle with a little extra cilantro for color and enjoy! They keep for 5 days in the refrigerator in an airtight container—congratulations breakfast is done for the week!

Cowboy Cheddar Biscuits

Fact: I have always had a soft spot for the cowboy life. I often joke with my husband and that it is just a matter of time before I decide I want to move to a ranch and say enough with the city’s hustle and bustle. His response is always a sarcastic, “Well I will come visit you and your second husband and your new steers…”

The handsome hats, the horseback riding, and getting to spend all day with animals in the great outdoors… I will concede that I probably have a very romanticized view of “home on the range”. And while my grandfather would probably classify me as a city slicker, as I have seen cattle be branded, but have never done it myself, I still would like to (naively) believe that I could live and love that cowboy (ahem… cowgirl) life. Hey, my family operates a large cattle feedyard, I’d like to think I could make it more than a day “working” the cattle, with the real cowboys, as the farming and ranching life is in my blood. As opposed to my normal raiding of candy closet in my grandfather’s office and checking the water troughs in the old FJ Cruiser. Although I do not get to spend as much time as I would like exploring this side of my personality, I love reading and researching the old cowboy ways: from the old cattle drives to Kansas, what they used to eat while making camp, and what the various cowboy hat brims mean. I prefer the cattleman’s crease, how about you?

While researching traditional cowboy food when I was preparing for the non-traditional portion of the biscuit competition last year, I came up with this recipe while standing in the spice aisle. I wanted to pay homage to the foods that cowboys used to eat on cattle drives and work them into a biscuit. Here is what I came up with and affectionally named, “Cowboy Cheddar Biscuits.” Ironically, my husband loves them.

P.S. My favorite movie is Giant. Figures, right?

Ingredients:

Ranch Dressing Seasoning:                                                 

• 1 tablespoon chives

• 1 teaspoon onion powder

• 2 teaspoons dried parsley

• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

• 1 teaspoon dill

• 1/2 teaspoon celery seed

Biscuit Ingredients:

• 4 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup of butter flavored Crisco (1/2 a stick)

  • Plus additional 1 tablespoon for greasing baking surface

• 1 1/2 cups of buttermilk

• 3 tablespoons European butter melted, for brushing at the end

• 2 cups grated Habanero cheddar cheese (this recipe used Cabot)

• 1 cup chopped bacon

• ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Yields:

 12 Biscuits

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475 degrees

2. Mix together ranch dressing seasoning and set to the side.

3. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, salt, cayenne, and ranch seasoning mixture. Once mixed together, take Crisco and break into smaller pieces and add to flour mixture. Using a pastry blender or your hands, cut Crisco into dough. Breaking up into pea size pieces and a crumbling texture. Add cheese and bacon to mixture and combine.

4. Make a well in the center for the flour mixture and pour in 1 cup of buttermilk. Add in the rest of the buttermilk, a tablespoon at a time, until a shaggy dough has formed. Once brought together, turn out onto a floured surface.

5. Knead gently, about 5-7 times, until dough has a smooth consistency.

6. Then begin the folding portion: flour your rolling pin, and then begin rolling our your dough into a rectangle about 6 in. wide and 9 in. long and about half an inch thick, take bottom side of dough, and fold the dough in half. The bottom edge and the top meet. Turn the dough, to the right once, then roll out again (to about half an inch), and then fold in half and turn back to the left. Complete this folding process 5 times—you are building layers into your biscuits.Then flour the top of dough and rolling pin, and roll out to ½ inch thick. Cut out 7-8 biscuits with 2¾ inch biscuit cutter (second to largest in set). Combine and roll out scraps and cut out remaining biscuits.

7. Place on a baking sheet or cast iron skillet, pre-greased with Crisco or butter, with sides almost touching.

8. Bake for 15-17 minutes or until golden brown. Brush tops with melted butter.

Mimi's Biscuits

I’ve probably started and stopped this post five times. To be writing about and referencing my grandmother in the past tense is something that I always knew would be hard. My grandmother didn’t pass away young, so to speak, she had turned 81 just three days before she died, but her passing away was not something my family was expecting. Though she passed in February of 2018, the grief still stays just below the surface, ready to pop up when you least expect it. As a therapist when I work with clients experiencing grief, I have always explained using the image of the beach. Some days the waters are calm and you can enjoy the surf and the sand. Other days, find high ground because the waves might swallow you whole.

To make a long story short, my grandmother arrived in Houston on her birthday, which was a Thursday, and her bypass surgery was scheduled for bright and early Monday morning.

A hard-headed and feisty woman, my family has always remarked that, “Mimi always gets her way.” Her venture to Houston and last days proved to be no exception. In the middle of the night on Sunday, she went into cardiac arrest, the hospital’s chaplin appeared, and next thing we knew she was gone. Our family now listless without our anchor.

She kept remarking that she did not want to have the surgery and that she would be so appreciative if one of her grandchildren would sneak her out of the hospital for some iced tea and envueltos. To the air ambulance crew that flew her from McAllen to Houston, when they flew over her country club, she offered them to take a pit stop for some margaritas. She did not want to have the surgery, and true to form, she got her way.

Losing someone is always hard, but it’s initial shock that accompanies the unexpected grief that feels like the toughest hurdle. Each of member of my family has grieved differently; for some it’s a quiet, internal battle, others find comfort externalizing and talking it out, but it seems two things that has brought comfort to all: her stories and her food.

My grandmother loved life and lived (and dressed!) out loud, something that she has passed on to her daughter (my mother), her granddaughters, and great-granddaughters. While we are all trying to reconcile what it means for her to be gone, as a family and individually, she was far too big of a piece to not figure out how to carry her with us.

Enter: her stories and her recipes. Recently, my mom, sister and I have been cataloging and curating a cookbook with all of her recipes, which has ranged from “Jezebel Dip” to biscuits to the Waldorf’s Red Velvet Cake. When I found her biscuit recipe, I was amazed at the simplicity, and of course, they were delicious—as all simple recipes seem to be. I really should start another page on here with her sayings/expressions/quips of wisdom because these biscuits personified, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

I shall call it “Mimi was right about everything…”

Recipe:

-2 cups of self rising flour

-2 sticks of cold butter

-8 oz sour cream

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.

2. In a large bowl, add in two cups of flour.

3. Cut each stick of butter in half, length-ways, and then each half into 1/2 in. pieces.

4. Add those sticks of butter to the flour, and cut in using a pastry blender, or your hands. Breaking butter into pea-size pieces. The flour will start to feel and look like wet sand.

5. Add in 8 oz of sour cream (remember you need an acid to activate the self rising part of the flour) and mix in with a spatula until flour as pulled away from the sides of the bowl and a shaggy dough has formed.

6. Turn out on to a lightly floured surface, and knead softly (about 3-4 times) until you have a smooth consistency.

7. Press out dough into rectangular shape (about 6-7 inches long and 4 inches wide), about an inch thick, and then fold the dough on to itself—folding it in half length-wise, and turn it a quarter to the right. Press it back out to the rectangular shape, folding left side to the right again, and turn a quarter again. Repeat this process 2-3 times, you are building layers into your biscuit dough.

8. Flour a two inch biscuit cutter and cut out as many biscuits as you can. Re-roll scraps and repeat until you get 12.

9. Place in greased muffin tins and bake for 25-30 minutes.

GF Blueberry-Banana-Oat Muffins

Perhaps I should start calling these the law firm muffins? While I love the fictional law firms of Cooper-Banks-Mackenzie and Crane, Poole and Schmidt (shout out to you if you got the Father of the Bride 2 and Boston Legal references, respectively), these are my Gluten-Free-Blueberry-Banana-Oat Muffins, LLP. Yes, their title is a mouthful, but so is their flavor and heavenly texture. As the saying goes—if the shoes fits?

I digress.

While I am not 100% gluten-free, recently, I have parked it over to my weekend food consumption list. When I did my MRT testing earlier this summer, wheat came back as a yellow food for me. Meaning it could cause a reaction, so I took it out of my diet for 30 days, and I did notice a difference when I added it back in—sadly, noticed a difference I should say. Your girl still loves her some banana bread though, and I was not about to park banana bread on my weekend only food list. So I went back to my food science/nutrition knowledge from college, determined to give one of my favorite baked goods a makeover. As Galinda says to Elphie in Wicked, “We’re gonna make you pop-u-lar!” For this exercise, me being Galinda and the banana bread being Elphie. If you don’t know what song I’m referring you, please bless your day with this gem.

I’ve been testing out these muffins and recipe on both the gluten-free and gluten-full people in my life. Happily I can report that both populations have asked for second and in some cases a third.

The prosecution rests, your Honor. These muffins are in fact delicious. Recipe is below and can be amended to suit your dietary needs. Want to use coconut oil and sugar instead? Please do! Cut the milk, butter, and egg and make them vegan? Why not! Want to go full freight and use AP flour and white sugar, honey, you have my blessing!

Ingredients:

-2 cups of oat flour (remember you can make your own in a blender!)

-2 1/2 tsp of baking powder

-1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

-1 tsp salt (I use Diamond Kosher)

-3/4 cup of oats

-3 over-ripe bananas, mashed to your liking

-3/4 cup of brown sugar (or get coco-nutty and make it with coconut sugar)

-1 stick of room temp. butter

-1 large egg

-1/4 cup of milk with 1 tbs. of oil (oat flour and oats are thirsty girls—the oil helps keep everything hydrated)

-1 cup of blueberries, dusted in a flour

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a muffin pan or put in muffin liners

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together oat flour, oats, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.

3. In a separate bowl, cream together sugar, and butter. Add in milk, the egg, and then bananas last. Stir dry ingredients into wet ingredients then add in blueberries (Tip** dust your blueberries in a few teaspoons of oat flour before adding them in. This keeps them from sinking to the bottom.

4. Divide batter evenly between prepared cups, a full Tovolo scoop or about 1/3 cup to each. Bake until tops spring back when lightly touched, about 20-25 minutes. Cool in pans 5 minutes, then remove to wire rack to cool completely.

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits Part Two

Now that we have the story out of the way, let’s get down to business of biscuit making. Biscuits are the perfect test for any person who loves being covered in flour. Like a toddler, they cannot be rushed and like a teen, they can have a mind of their own. My friends, I give you my version of the perfect Buttermilk Biscuit:

Ingredients:

 - 4 cups White Lily Self-Rising Flour

- 1 teaspoon salt (I use Diamond Kosher)

-1 teaspoon of sugar

-1 teaspoon baking powder

-1/2 teaspoon baking soda (yes you’re using self rising but these give a little extra lift!)

-1/2 cup of butter flavored Crisco (1/2 a stick)

• Plus additional 1/8 of a cup for greasing baking surface

-1 1/2 cups of buttermilk (Don’t have buttermilk, don’t be sour ;) … you can make it as fast as you can say “I’m out of buttermilk”… measure out as much milk as you need and then add in one tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice per cup. Let sit for 10 minutes and you are good to go!)

-3 tablespoons European Butter melted, for brushing at the end

Yields:

 12 Biscuits

Method

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, and salt. Once mixed together, take Crisco and break into smaller pieces and add to flour mixture.

2. Using a pastry blender or your hands, cut Crisco into dough. Breaking up into pea size pieces and a crumbling texture.

3.  Make a well in the center for the flour mixture and pour in buttermilk. I always add in my cup measurement first and then add in my last 1/4 as I need it. If mixture seems dry and does not pull away from sides of bowl, add a touch more of buttermilk, a tablespoon at a time.

4. Use a spatula to wipe down sides of bowl while working to combine. Once brought together, turn out onto a floured surface.

5. Knead gently, about 5-7 times, until dough has a smooth consistency.

6. Then begin the folding portion: flour your rolling pin, and then begin rolling our your dough into a rectangle about 6 in. wide and 9 in. long and about half an inch thick, take bottom side of dough, and fold the dough in half. The bottom edge and the top meet. Turn the dough, to the right once, then roll out again (to about half an inch), and then fold in half and turn back to the left. Complete this folding process 5 times—you are building layers into your biscuits.

7. Cut out 7-8 biscuits with 2¾ inch biscuit cutter (second to largest in set). Combine and roll scraps and cut out remaining biscuits. **Do not twist the cutter when you push down, this will pinch the seams shut that you just worked so hard to create. Keep the motion up and down, and flour your cutter between each.

8. Place on a baking sheet or cast iron skillet, pre-greased with Crisco or butter, with sides touching. **Remember, biscuits are friendly and LOVE neighbors!

9. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Brush tops with melted butter immediately out of the oven.

Click through the pictures below for a step by step of how to make a biscuit

Southern Buttermilk Biscuits Part One

I really feel like these do not need an introduction, but perhaps my fascination with these little dough pucks does. When I set out to write this post I realized how, as good Southern recipe goes, this begins with a story. So I broke this post into two parts. The first is the story, the second will be the recipe and the method.

When in graduate school and still living with my parents (shout out to that back home baller life), my father kept remarking how making the perfect biscuit eluded him. Given his more than proficient cooking skills, especially for Southern staples he grew up on, I decided to try my hand at making a batch one day on a whim. I wondered how hard it could truly be. Truth be told, I was probably avoiding writing a paper for my psychopathology class. After doing some quick recipe research, preheating my oven, and about 30 minutes after remarking that he always underworked his dough, I presented him with a pan of freshly made biscuits. Between me, my mom and dad, all 12 biscuits were devoured in the span of 2 hours. My dad and I continued to pursue the perfect biscuit: recipe and technique. Both of us have a bit of competitive edge; therefore, it was only a matter of time before this became a ride on the trash talk express, and that, my friends, is where this story takes a departure into interesting.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, LET’S GET READY TO RUMBLEEEEEEEEE…

In this corner: standing at 5 foot, 4 inches tall, the butter-enthusiast herself, Savannah “like the city” Eidson (this was pre-marriage, I’ll use my maiden name)…

In this corner: standing at 6 foot, 4 inches tall, the Crisco crusher himself, purveyor of the 5 P’s, former offensive guard for America’s team, Jim “better get two of those” Eidson…

So now that you have a sense of the height difference between me and my dad, you can probably guess that there is a slight difference between our hand sizes and when I say slight I mean significant. Base of my palm to the tip of my third finger is just under six inches. I cannot throw a regulation size football properly. Read: my hands are tiny. My father’s hand measurement is closer to 8 inches. His hands are GIANT, which was wonderful for the many pass-protection drills, but not so much for biscuit making. Why you ask? Because there is a significant difference between the amount of force my dad and I create when we work a dough. But we have the opposite problem, he is worried that his large hands are going to overwork the dough and he underworks it. I’m worried my delicate digits are going to underwork the dough, so I overwork it (#psychology).

In addition to our size differences, we were also on different teams of fat. My dad believed Crisco was the finer choice, as it is what he grew up with in Alabama, and thought it resulted in a crisper biscuit top.

I was team butter all the way. I thought it made a more flavorful, hydrated dough, as it imparted more steam into the dough when baked.

Like all good rivalries, we decided to have a biscuit-off around Thanksgiving and it was a draw (can you say fixed?). I was feeling a bit unsatisfied with the results and then stumbled upon the best news ever. The great State Fair of Texas held a biscuit-off every year called the “Red River Biscuit Showdown” that is held during the Red River Shootout football game. This was my chance. I would tell my dad that we were taking this to the field (errr…actually the Fair) but you catch my drift. It would be a showdown of sorts, and instead of it being between OU and Texas, it would be between me and my dad. Or so I thought.

It turns out that participants for the biscuit competition are drawn randomly, which you have to first apply for, and only 14 are chosen. As it is a live cooking demonstration, they can only accommodate based on the number of ovens they have. Dreams. Dashed. We decided it was unlikely that both of us would be chosen. So I applied for the competition, we called a truce between the fats, and I happened to be selected (can you say beginner’s luck?). My dad and I spent July (when you are notified of your selection) through October perfecting my biscuits. My former opponent was now my biggest ally and taste taster. Things I figured out during my biscuit practice drills:

1. Biscuits cannot be rushed. If you are nervous or anxious, two things happen: your body temperature rises and your muscles tense. Anytime I’ve made biscuits in a pinch for time, they have always turned out tough and have not browned properly.

2. You need to keep things cold. In addition to keeping your psyche on ice, your utensils, bowls, and any other biscuit paraphernalia need to be chilled too.

3. Crisco is more forgiving than butter. Crisco is shelf stable, meaning it does not need to be refrigerated, and in a competition that is very helpful.

4. If you want to use butter, freeze the sticks whole first. Shout out to Southern Living for this tip. You can get a grater and literally grate frozen butter over your flour to cut it in. Genius.

5. Flour makes a difference. Yes, your standard all-purpose flour is great for a Saturday morning biscuit at home. But want to take it to the next level? Use a self rising flour. Before the competition, I ordered 20 pounds of White Lily Self Rising Flour. Why so specific? Because White Lily is made from a softer type of wheat that results in a more tender flour, ergo a more tender biscuit.

6. If you are going to use butter, make it European—oui oui. It has a higher milk fat content, and will make the inside more fluffy. You’re already eating a biscuit, this is not the time to try and make them a diet food.

7. Oven temperature is crucial. At the Fair, my oven panel went out because the circuit was shorted (thank you to ESPN College Game Day) and I had to be moved to another oven. My oven never quite got hot enough and my biscuits did not brown properly.

8. Unlike the saying “good fences make good neighbors” biscuits LOVE neighbors. The closer, the better. It helps them rise up.

9. If you use self rising flour, or any baking soda on its own, you must use an acid to cause a reaction. Most of time this is buttermilk.

10. Use your cooking utensils instead of your hands as much as possible. Cut in your fat with a pastry cutter, mix your milk in with a wooden spoon or spatula.

P.S. If you made it to the very end of this post. BRAVO! Thank you for sharing my love and pursuit of the perfect biscuit. 

Got my game face on at the Red River Biscuit Showdown at the State Fair of Texas! As you can see there are stands in the back and family members and fellow biscuit enthusiasts can sit and enjoy the competition. I had over 20 people show up in support, but all of them are standing on the barriers. Hence all the empty seats!

A few of the 20! Shout out to the Crain family for stopping by to cheer me on!