Welcome to Sunday All Day Brunch. This is an open topic thread so help yourself to the goodies and let us know what is new with you. It is no secret I love to cook. The cookbook is currently creeping up rapidly to 500 recipes. My goal is to get it finished this year and try to find a publisher. I love my little apartment but whoever designed the kitchen obviously ate out all the time. It is tiny and poorly designed. It is difficult to get things in and out of the cabinets. Cabinets also stretch into corners making it even more awkward. I have three sets of dishes my regular dinnerware, a set of china given me by my parents, and a set of china given me by my late Aunt. That takes up one side of cabinets. The ones on the stove side have cooking utensils and ingredients. The side by the refrigerator is the main pantry. I have had to be innovative in order to fit in everything I need to cook.
This my tiny little kitchen. I am standing by the window and next to the washer and dryer in front of my small dining room table. As you can see it is a challenging situation.
Having no space for a majority of my cooking appliances I bought a shelf unit and put it next to the refrigerator. I am running out of room there too but at this point I think I have everything I need to cook.
I brought my Mom's spice rack with me from Indiana. I use a lot of spices. The only wall space available is on the wall over the washer and dryer next to the window. It works.
I bought the wooden canisters for my Mom right out of High School. I brought them with me and added them to my canisters. This is literally the only counter space I have to cook on.
Yes there is a coffeepot it just happened to be in the dishwasher when I took this picture. I have a Mrs. Tea for Two that my Mom had stuck away in a closet and never took out of the box. I have some of my cups on two trees. Behind the coffee and tea makers is another spice rack. It is round and revolves. I moved one of my crocks that has spoons etc. in it over here.
This is my newest innovation. I had more spices than the two holders could handle. I also had extras that I use when I fill the other spice jars. This corner is virtually useless for cooking. I put my microwave and toaster oven here. The two wooden crates hold dish towels and my silverware as the drawers are too small to hold the silverware holder. This place comes with four minuscule drawers. I am now storing some of the larger box item like crackers and extra cereal in the awkward corner space. I have two more crocks with cooking utensils and two blocks of knives next to the toaster oven where I can reach them now. Before I had the extra spices and all three crocks which meant pulling things out to get to the crock in the corner.
This now leaves me room on the top of the refrigerator for cookie jars and picnic baskets now that I don't have to store extra boxes of food there.
So this is my kitchen. And here is the Huevos Rancheros recipe I've mentioned including home made refried beans.
Huevos Rancheros
Serving Size : 4
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
Refried Beans
15 ounces pinto beans -- cooked and drained
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon chili powder
1 small onion -- minced
1 small jalapeno -- seeded and minced
½ teaspoon salt
Salsa
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion -- minced
2 cloves garlic -- minced fine
1 tablespoon chipotle chili canned in adobo -- minced
½ teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon Tabasco sauce
14½ ounces tomatoes, fire roasted diced -- drained
⅛ cup cilantro leaves, whole -- chopped
8 ounces no salt added tomato sauce
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
4 whole eggs
4 small corn tortillas
4 ounces low sodium cheddar cheese -- shredded
To make refried beans cook beans until soft and drain.
Add oil to frying pan and add onion and jalapeno and cook until soft. Add cumin, chili powder, and salt. Mix thoroughly. Add beans and mash with a potato masher until fairly smooth. Set aside and keep warm.
To make sauce heat vegetable oil in large skillet. and add onion and garlic and cook until soft.
Add remaining ingredients except cilantro and heat until boiling. Reduce heat and let simmer for about five minutes or until salsa thickens. Add cilantro and mix.
Make four wells in the salsa. Add one egg to each well. Cover and let cook until whites firm up and yellows are still soft.
Wrap tortillas in paper towels and heat in microwave for one minute.
To serve lay one tortilla on plate and spread with bean mixture.
Ladle an egg with salsa over beans.
Sprinkle with cheese.
NOTES : You can use canned pinto beans but rinse well to remove extra salt and reduce salt to 1/4 teaspoon.
Per Serving: 799 Calories; 30g Fat (33.4% calories from fat); 39g Protein; 96g Carbohydrate; 31g Dietary Fiber; 240mg Cholesterol; 930mg Sodium. Exchanges: 5½ Grain(Starch); 3 Lean Meat; 2 Vegetable; 0 Fruit; 4½ Fat.