Healthy and cheap meal.

I was watching Giada at Home tonight and for dinner she was making breakfast foods, which I don't usually like, but tonight I really fancied it. She made the most delicious looking omelette I've ever seen, so I decided that's what we were going to have for dinner tonight with a simple in a little bit of regular olive oil for about 3 minutes until they were soft, then I added about 2 teaspoons of crushed fennel seed, and a bit of salt and pepper. When the onions were I soft, I added 1/2 a pound of regular sausage meat and broke that up and cooked it until it was all brown and well cooked, abut 5-8 minutes; set the pan aside and let it cool. I then preheated the oven to 425, greased an 8x8 baking dish with butter, and whisked together 8 eggs with 1/2 a cup of whole milk or half and half (I used half and half because we don't buy whole milk) and a little bit of salt and pepper. I then chopped up one bell pepper and stirred that through, but I HATE bell peppers so I think next time I would try something else that I do like, like asparagus. Giada used gruyere cheese, but we had a lot of english cheddar so I used that instead, you want to grate 1 1/2 cups, but only stir 1 cup into the egg mixture. Add a bit of salt and pepper, maybe some tabasco if you like spice, and then stir in the cooled sausage and onion mixture. Pour that into the baking dish, sprinkle with the 1/2 cup of left over cheese, and bake in the oven until the top is golden brown and the eggs are cooked, about 20-25 minutes. We had ours with a side salad, but Giada had hers with cinnamon and pancetta waffles (not too sure about those?), but I think it would also be nice with hashbrowns, toast, fries, crusty bread...

Bad Recipe!

So last week-end was Easter and my family came over for dinner so of course we had a big dinner and for dessert I decided to make this cake because I thought it looked amazing.

http://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/408615/chocolate-orange-and-almond-simnel-cake

I decided to use some cocoa powder that my sister bought me back from Bali when she went there on her honeymoon so it added a different twist then regular cocoa powder. It was a really nice cake batter, and next time I would use deeper cake tins so that when I sliced each layer in half, they were thicker. But what I really want to talk about is the AWFUL frosting recipe. First off I knew this already, but some people may not, the mascarpone needs, NEEDS, to be at room temperature and no where does it say that for people who don't know. Second there is way too much orange juice needed, orange extract would give you a very orange-y flavor and you would only need about 1-2 teaspoons, not 100 mL of orange juice. It also doesn't say that you should add the icing sugar, a cup at a time, and beat after each addition, and slowly add the orange juice. It splits even before you add the orange juice, and when you do add the orange juice it just gets worse and worse, and there really is no way to save it. So it's a very bad frosting recipe, every comment I read on this cake, afterwards, said their frosting split as well, so I decided to do an orange cream cheese frosting instead which was really nice. Give the cake part a try, but forget the frosting and make your own. Mascarpone isn't cheap and it's somewhat an expensive frosting for it just be ruined. I mean you can try it, but I can guarantee that it will split, just like everyone else's. So here is the frosting recipe I used instead.

Orange Cream Cheese Frosting:

3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) soft butter

3 bars (8 oz each) soft cream cheese

3 cups sifted icing sugar

1 tablespoon freshly grated orange zest

2 tablespoons freshly grated ginger

(if you prefer less ginger and more orange reverse the amounts)

and a pinch of salt

1) Cream the butter until its soft, pale, and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the cream cheese, and beat into the butter until it's fluffy, about another 2 minutes. Add the sugar, 1 cup at a time, beating in after each cup. Then add the zest, ginger, and salt and beat for about 5 minutes.