Holt Cuisine

A few weeks ago I wrote about sandwiches. The sandwich rules from that apply to anything that is supposed to be an easily eaten bread covered meal.  I know it is impossible to improve on a perfect food like the breakfast taco, but I decided to try using some of the sandwich rules to see what I came up with.  The bread was obviously a tortilla. The filling included eggs and soy chorizo (my preference) along with some veggies (a green onion, mushroom, and some leftover zucchini, I believe).  Instead of scrambling the eggs I made something between an omelet and a really thin frittata. Using my skillet that most closely matched the size of my tortillas, I sauted the veggies and “meat” in a little oil, then poured the beaten eggs over the top, spreading them around to an even layer. You can lift the edges and let any liquid egg run under the cooked eggs, or just open up a place in the middle. (If you are really brave here you could try a flip. I never do this because I have a ...

I was recently visiting my sister and she told me about a recipe she had seen online to make enchiladas out of frozen taquitos. It sounded like a great idea. Making rolled enchiladas is a chore. I usually just leave the tortillas flat and call it good.  But I liked the idea so much that I hunted through her cabinets for the ingredients and gave them a try. There were a couple of problems with the first ones. The cheese taquitos she had were made with flour tortillas. I am not a fan of any enchilada made with flour tortillas. Also, when I got her enchilada sauce, I picked the one that was a mole sauce. I like mole, but this one was a little sweet.  Anyway, the idea still held such promise that I did some hunting around and found vegetarian taquitos (hard to find!!) made with corn tortillas (also hard to find!!!). They were at Sprouts and they carry a line of them in various flavors.  I bought standard Hatch Green Chili Enchilada Sauce and decided to put the taquitos on a l...

It seems like wrapping bread around meats, cheeses and vegetables and calling it an easily eaten meal is pretty much universal. Sometimes the bread is cooked before the assembly, as in the sandwich, hamburger, hot dog or bao. Sometimes the bread is raw as in the empanada, calzone, runza, pasty and pot stickers or dumplings. Some of these are designed to be easily eaten out of hand. Some, like the pasty, are typically served on a plate with gravy, a knife and fork. Some have complex flavor and some have very simple flavors. Some are messy to eat and some are very neat.  Today I have been thinking about sandwiches and hamburgers. We’ll leave the dumplings and empanadas for another day. Recently I picked up sandwiches from Schlotzsky’s. Doug and I remarked on how they not only hit the points for flavor blend, but also for construction. Usually when you put lettuce and tomato on a sandwich, there is slippage and half the sandwich ends up on the plate. What is their secret?? Bon Appetit...

Yesterday I told you about the first 6 eggs I made into Deviled Eggs. I tried some different stuff with the others.  With the second group I wanted to use Worcestershire Sauce to substitute for some of the tart and salty.  The problem with liquid W. Sauce is that it turns everything brown. But, did you know you could get W. Sauce in powder form?  Here is what I have now. I got this on Amazon and they have other sizes and brands.  This second set of eggs used much the same ingredients as the first six, but instead of the salt and pepper, I added a teaspoon of the W. Powder. I checked the blend and it still needed a little extra salt. The flavor is very similar to the original, but it has an added depth. There are some onion/garlic notes.  Here is a picture and you can see that they are slightly different in color, but not brown.  With the third set of eggs I decided to use avocado as the creamy element. I knew that they would tend to brown overnight, so I al...

This weekend is Labor Day and we are having a family gathering. I am going to make several food offerings for this. Among them will be Deviled Eggs.  Deviled Eggs are less of a recipe and more of a method. They have been made for generations and there are as many recipes out there as there are cooks, using a wide variety of ingredients! As a child they were always present at church dinners and picnics. I remember the story I was told all my life of my grandmother, who wouldn’t say the word “deviled”. She saw that as a bad word! She always called them “tormented eggs”. Maybe she was right, because there is a certain magic to Deviled Eggs! I have always loved eating Deviled Eggs, but hated making them because - peeling. I would cook the eggs, but the peeling step was such a mess. It took forever and the ugly white thing that came out barely resembled an egg with all the damage.  Then came the Instant Pot and it changed the way I feel about making deviled eggs. If you cook your e...