Author: nk330

Daily living

Sick of Being Sick

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I’ve been slacking off on posting anything on my blog again… I’m sorry. At least I have a decent excuse for it: I’ve been sick. What I thought was just a post-birthday hangover developed into a sinus cold. No, I’m not going to post any photos of my week of being sick… but this sums it up nicely:

Image

Yep, I annihilated a box of tissues. I don’t even know why I kept blowing my nose… nothing was coming out. Stupid sinuses. Luckily, I found an opened box of Sinex that had made its way over the ocean with the rest of our household goods. It’s been doing its job, but what I really want is some good ol’ NyQuil. I couldn’t find any at the BX (although I found some DayQuil), and Andrew couldn’t find any at the commissary. Sigh.

I can’t really think of an up side of being sick. I was less productive than usual at home. I did go for a run on Wednesday. In the rain. In retrospect, maybe running in the rain with a sinus cold was a bad idea. Darn it. I still managed to cook dinner every night, but now we have a lot of leftovers since my appetite has been low.

I’m hoping this gets out of my system really quick, because we have a visitor coming! Yep, our first American visitor is flying in Sunday morning. My friend Emily has been saving money from her first post-college job to come visit. I was so impressed that she did it so quickly! Guess who has been sick last week as well? Yep, Emily. We might be quite the pair during her visit if we’re not feeling better! We are two tough girls though… we’ll just have to medicate and bring a box of tissues on all of our outings. 🙂

Recipes

Ham, Cheddar & Red Onion Bread Pudding

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I was pretty sure this recipe was going to be good after reading through the ingredients, and I was right! I had planned ahead and made a loaf of French bread earlier in the week (the recipe I used for the Spiral Stromboli made 2 loaves of bread). I knew I had to make this recipe soon, because if I didn’t, Andrew was going to eat that loaf of bread!

This recipe goes together pretty quickly, which is nice when you don’t want to spend a ton of time in the kitchen…like on a Friday evening. 🙂

Prep time: 15 minutes
Total time: 1 hour, 5 minutes
Serves: 6

oil for dish
4 large eggs
1-1/2 c. whole milk
1 T. Dijon mustard
1/8 t. freshly grated or ground nutmeg
Kosher salt & pepper
1 12-oz loaf French or Italian bread, cut into 1″ pieces
1 small red onion, cut into 1/4″ thick wedges
1 crisp red apple (such as Gala or Braeburn), cut into 1/4″ thick wedges
4 oz sliced ham, torn into 2″ pieces (I had a 7-oz container, so I just threw it all in there)
4 oz sharp cheddar cheese, shredded (about 1 cup)
green salad, for serving

1. Heat oven to 350F/180C. Oil a 2-1/2 to 3-quart baking dish (I just used a 9×13″ pan). In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, mustard, nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp each salt and pepper.
2. Add the bread and let sit, tossing occasionally, for 5 minutes.
I cut up the rest of my ingredients while the bread was soaking, so I thought I’d take the opportunity to show the quickest way I know to cut an onion:
First cut off the non-root end (the part without the hair-like things). Peel off the skin. Cut the onion in half through the root (this will keep the onion held together). Now make slices through the onion (like the picture above), making sure not to cut through the root. Then just slice off the root end, and there you go! Okay, back to the recipe…

3. Fold the onion, apple, ham, and cheese into the bread mixture.
4. Transfer to the prepared baking dish. Bake until set and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean (cover the bread pudding with foil if it browns too quickly), 45-50 minutes.
Serve with salad, if desired. Which we did:
What a great dinner! I love starting a meal off with a nice salad, and this bread pudding was both filling and flavorful. I can’t wait to make this one again!

**Each serving has about 367 calories, 13 g fat, 155 mg cholesterol, 830 mg sodium, 20 g protein, 42 g carbohydrates, and 2 g fiber. If you use more ham like I did, these numbers obviously won’t be right. 🙂

Recipes

Baileys Irish Cream Cupcakes

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Here is the recipe for the delicious cupcakes I made on St. Patrick’s Day this year. The recipe comes from this website. The only difference here is that I cut the cupcake part of the recipe in half to have extra frosting! And the ones on the website are much cuter than mine. 🙂

For the cupcakes:

1-1/4 c. all-purpose flour
1-1/2 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1/4 t. cinnamon
3/4 c. sugar
6 T. butter, softened
1 egg + 1 egg white, at room temperature
1 t. vanilla extract
1/4 c. Baileys Irish Creme

For the buttercream:

1 c. butter (2 sticks)
4 c. powdered sugar
3 T. Baileys Irish Creme

1. Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon.
3. In a separate bowl, cream together the sugar and butter until light and fluffy with an electric mixer, about 2-3 minutes. Add egg and egg white one at a time, beating on low between each addition. Add vanilla.
4. Add flour mixture slowly in 3 additions, alternating with Baileys, starting and ending with flour. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full and bake 15-17 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
5. For the frosting, beat butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add powdered sugar 1/2 cup at a time, until completely mixed. Add the Baileys and beat until well combined.
6. Poke holes in the tops of the cupcakes (I used a chopstick) and brush some Baileys on each before frosting.
7. Load frosting into a piping bag fit with a large tip and decorate as desired.

Makes 12 well-frosted cupcakes!

Enjoy!