Cooking for Me Class

The Perfect Light Lunch-Salad+ Deviled Eggs+ Muffins

Salad … What’s more refreshing than a fresh green salad? It’s easy if you use a salad kit from the store. Add more greens and you’ll have a crunchy, nutritious dish

1 bag of salad mix the flavor of your choice

½ head iceberg or romaine lettuce

Your own salad dressing-optional

1. Open the salad package. Take out the bag of dressing and set it aside. Dump the salad greens into a *large bowl of cold water. Swirl the salad greens around in the water to wash them. Put a colander in the sink and pour the greens and the water in to drain. Shake it over the sink. Dump it out onto large kitchen towel or paper towels. Put it in the refrigerator to stay cold until it’s time to eat.
2. Remove the core of the iceberg lettuce/ stem end of the romaine. Wash the lettuce and wrap it in clean dish towels or paper towels and put that in the refrigerator to crisp up until it’s time to eat. Tear or chop the lettuce and mix all the greens in a bowl.
3. Open the little bag of craisins/raisins/croutons and pour on top of the greens.
4. For salad dressing use what comes in the salad kit, or any other dressing you like. To make Sweet ‘n Sour dressing mix equal parts of oil, vinegar & sugar. Shake it in a jar until the sugar dissolves. Yummy!

Deviled Eggs

6 Eggs. 1 teaspoon yellow mustard, 1 tablespoon mayonnaise, 1/8 teaspoon each salt, pepper & garlic salt.

1. Put raw eggs into a pan in a single layer. Cover the eggs with 1” of water. Bring to a boil. When the boiling starts, remove the pan from the stove, cover and let the eggs finish cooking in the hot water. For hard cooked eggs, allow them to sit for 12 minutes.
2. Make an ice bath in a bowl-ice cubes + cold water. After the 12 minutes cooking time, use a spoon to lift the eggs into the ice bath. Let them stay there until they are cold.
3. Peel the eggs. Using a sharp knife cut them in half and put the egg yolks in a small deep bowl. Put the egg whites on a dish ready to be filled.
4. Mash the yolks with a fork or better still use an electric hand mixer to mash until they are creamy. Add the other ingredients and mix until the yolks are nice and creamy. Do a taste test and add more seasoning or mayonnaise/mustard if needed.
5. Using two small spoons, fill the egg whites with the yolk mixture piling it nice and high. Refrigerate.

Muffins

Muffins can be made from scratch, of course, but let’s make it easy. We will use a muffin mix, something like Martha White’s. You can buy them in a dollar type store for about $1.08. They make 6 muffins. Follow package directions. Add water and hand mix in a small bowl. Don’t mix too much! Stirring 12 times should be enough. Make sure to mix in all the dry ingredients. Use paper cupcake liners OR grease muffin pans with cooking spray or rub with shortening. Divide the batter into six cupcakes. This brand comes in many flavors like cinnamon sugar, wildberry and chocolate chip. Preheat the oven and use oven mitts to protect your hands. Put the muffin tray right in the middle of the rack. Use a timer too. They are done baking when the top is good brown. Let cool before removing them from the muffin pan.

Words to Know …

Optional– this means you can use it, add it or change it or leave it out. It’s up to you.

Quick bread – A muffin is a quick bread. It’s made quickly. Regular loaves of bread that rise because of yeast must be kneaded, pulled and folded over many times to develop the gluten to make the bread strong. They need to rest for long periods of time to let the yeast rise. Quick breads don’t use yeast. They rise because of baking powder and baking soda. Quick breads are fun and easy to make. Muffins, biscuits, scones, cornbread and banana bread are all quick breads. Quick bread mixes make baking so easy.

Hints

*If you have a salad spinner, use it to wash the lettuce. It’s fun to use and you can also add some ice cubes to help the salad green crisp up nicely. Washing greens in cold water or ice water helps them to be crisp and fresh. Soak them for 5 minutes then spin or pat dry with towels.

Green eggs — Why do hard cooked eggs sometimes have a green/gray ring around the yolk? It’s a chemical reaction and they have been cooked too long. They have not cooled down quickly. Use an ice bath every time! The cold ice bath will stop the cooking.

Safety hint — make sure to put the oven door all the way down when you put the muffins in and take them out. Many people have burned their arms with the hot oven door. Remember— all the way down.

Safety hint — When using a cooking spray, use it over the sink so any overspray goes in the sink and not on the floor. If cooking spray goes on the floor, you will have a skating rink and may slip and fall. Not Good!