Gentle spirit, Good food!

 Philippians 4:4-5 "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near." My husband and I have recently gotten into the TV series "Mad Men" and began watching from the very first episode of season 1 on Netflix. We may or may not have finished the entire first season in one day..... Anyways, I made the remark that I would not have done well in the 1960's (the decade the show is set in, for any non-viewers), for some of those wives appear to be too submissive, their own ideas and free will too defeated by men, and their lives too focused on being the "perfect" housewife for my own feisty-ness to handle. However, sometimes I think I might confuse submission in that manner with the gentleness that God calls us to have. I believe the gentleness instilled in us by God and the Holy Spirit stems from a place of peace, "a peace that surpasses all understanding". It is this gentleness that allows us to better show God's love to others, to spread His word, and to offer His light to those still living in darkness. I think the ups and downs that often occur throughout each of our daily lives would be steadied by a God-given gentleness of spirit. Another prayer to add to this feisty girl's list!

This morning, I got in one of those "cooking" moods and wanted to make something for breakfast that was different than the scrambled eggs I often make (although I do love me some breakfast burritos!) I must be on an egg kick...see Thursday's post. Anyways, while browsing Giada's site on the Food Network, I saw this quick little video she posted on making mini frittatas. I remembered that the steps did not seem all that different than the prep work for scrambling eggs. I also remembered that my keyboard might have gotten slightly damp from drool after watching the video. So, determined, I quickly went to the Food Network website, put in my search, found the recipe AND....realized I would need to do some tweaking since I did not have the same ingredients as one of my fave cooking show stars. No problem, just did some tweaking and came up with these super easy and oh-so-delicious frittatas. They were just as good as hers if not better! Well, I doubt that haha! She used a mini muffin pan, I used a regular size one (more to love, right? And you don't have to put as many mini ones on your plate....it's all a big mind game...)

Fab Frittatas

*This recipe makes 12 regular-muffin-pan-sized frittatas. I halved it and the six little ones were perfect for James and I to scarf down in an embarrassing lack of time...I mean enjoy at a leisurely pace.

8 large eggs

1/2 cup milk (I used what I had on hand..1%)

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/4 tsp. salt

8 oz. ham, thinly sized (I used our lunch meat ham...so good!)

1/2 cup cheese 

(Giada called for Parmesan, which of course I was out of, so I used shredded cheddar) 

2 Tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped 

(I just had dried parsley so I used about 1 tsp. in my halved batch. It is safe to say you could eyeball this)

1. Preheat oven to 375.

2. Spray muffin cups with nonstick spray.

3. Whisk together eggs, milk, pepper, and salt. Stir in cheese, ham, and parsley.

4. Fill each muffin cup until it is almost full.

5. Bake until eggs puff up and the center is just set, about 15 minutes. 

(Funny story, I baked mine for 10 minutes and they seemed pretty done. When attempting to transfer them to a plate, one fell face down and liquid, runny egg ran all over the plate. Luckily, James was in the other room so I just popped them all back into their spots, scraped that liquid back in the center and baked them for an additional 5 minutes....then they were perfect!)

6. Serve while hot!

Luckily I found my camera that had gone missing (somehow it was under the couch...?) so I was able to take some pics like a pro-blogger haha!

I served mine with toasted beer bread (see previous post for recipe!) with strawberry and peach preserves, OJ, and coffee....what a great way to start your Saturday! 

I thought I'd share one more family recipe that is in store for us tonight! I made this for the first time when I still was not very accustomed to cooking and my husband (fiance then) flipped! It is one of his favorite meals and looks really impressive without being too difficult at all! Tonight I'm doing a tweaked version due to the fact that I only have chicken tenderloins left in the freezer, but I think it will work just the same! Here's the original recipe...enjoy being fancy shmancy yet easy-shmeasy :)

Chicken Cordon Bleu

8 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

6 green onions, chopped

1 Tbsp. butter

5 Tbsp. dry white wine

Garlic

Parsley

4 Tbsp. bread crumbs

8 ham slices

8 Swiss cheese slices

1 stick butter

Fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1. Saute onions in 1 Tbsp. butter.

2. Add wine, garlic, and parsley (these last two don't have a specific amount, just do it to taste).

3. Beat chicken breasts to flatten. Salt and pepper the chicken and spread each breast with onion and wine mixture combined with 4 Tbsp. bread crumbs.

4. Top each piece of chicken with a slice of ham and cheese.

5. Combine melted butter and lemon juice.

5. Roll up chicken (I secure mine with toothpicks) and dip into butter/lemon juice mixture, then roll into bread crumbs.

6. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes uncovered.

These may be frozen before baking if you like to work ahead. Seriously so good and look very impressive! Two kinds of meat plus gooey cheese....what could be better?