Polenta, Bacon, & A Poached Egg

This is amazing.

First**, Polenta:

2c water
1c cornmeal

1. Boil the water adding a little bit of salt.
2. Whisk in the cornmeal CONSTANTLY. Lumpy polenta SUCKS.
3. Cook for 5 minutes on a really really low heat. I had mine on medium for a few seconds and it was SPITTING and it burns you easily if it lands on you. Whisk the whole time.
4. Remove from heat, season with more salt, pepper, & 1-2T butter.
5. Put in a microwave safe bowl, cover it, and put it in the fridge until you need it.

**I made this in the morning so I wouldn't have to juggle so many pots/pans at supper time, you could also make this the night ahead.

Bacon. I make this when it's supper time if that's when you want to eat this, I made 2lbs because my husband wanted bacon sandwiches for supper.

Fry some up. However much you will want. I crumbled bacon on mine.


Toppings:

1 plum tomato, small dice, pulp removed.
1/4 small diced onion
2 cloves of garlic, minced

1.  I cut up the whole tomato, half will be cooked, half raw.
2. Dice the onion & mince the garlic.
3. I used a little bit bacon grease to caramelize the onion, garlic, & half the tomato.
4. Add a little sprinky dink of salt & pepper.
5. Cook until a nice brown color and set aside until we're ready for it.


Poached Egg:

Firstly, if you've never made a poached egg here is a great video by Alton Brown.

2 eggs.
3c water
1T vinegar

1. Bring the water to a simmer.**
2. Crack one egg into a small container
3. Add the vinegar to the water.
4. Use a spoon to get rid of the bubbles on the bottom. I have a flat surface stove and I had it at a 3, low and it was perfect.
5. Ok, you ready? I'm ready. Slowly place the first egg in the water. Crack the next egg and put it in the pan.
6. Set your timer for 5 minutes for a runny egg yolk.
7. Scoop the egg out and put it on your food. Since I was eating it right away I didn't see the need to dirty a towel or paper towel or make the edges clean, they did that by themselves.

**While the water was starting to simmer, I put the polenta in a bowl, added some butter and reheated it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. Don't be freaked out about the polenta being hard, it does that, it'll smooth out after you reheat it and stir it for a little bit. Now start the eggs so while the eggs cook you can assemble your dish.

I add my toppings to the polenta after it's heated, so the bacon, onion, garlic, and all the tomatoes. Add the eggs on top and walla!

Polenta, Bacon, & A Poached Egg.

I'm sorry for the crappy photos. I broke up everything and stirred it all together, the egg yolk acted like a sauce and it was perfect.

Banana Bars

I got this recipe from work, shh don't tell!

The original recipe is for a half sheet pan. I only have a 9x13 cake pan so I halved the recipe. I will give you my changed recipe and to get the half sheet double it. To get 2 half sheet pans, double that. lol. It's all scientific here, I promise.

Preheat oven to 350F, in the time it takes you to whip these up, your oven will be preheated.

1c sugar
1/2c softened butter
2 eggs (the original recipe had 3 eggs and you can't exactly do 1 1/2 eggs so I did 2)
1/2t vanilla

Cream above together.
Add your b-a-n-a-n-a-s & 1c sour cream. I had 2 in my kitchen so that's what I used. Original says 3.

1/2t baking soda
1 1/2c flour

Add to creamed mixture.
I added a little milk, maybe 3/4c because I didn't have the 1c of sour cream on hand, you could use milk like I did or yogurt or even applesauce!

Grease a 9x13 pan and pour in batter. May have to spread it out and tap the pan to get out the bubbles.
Bake in the 350F oven until it's golden brown, usually when you start to smell them, they're done. Mine were in for around 25min.

My husband doesn't like cream cheese so I just make a simple frosting of powdered sugar, butter, and a little milk. By all means make a cream cheese frosting tho! :D