Winter Hash

This morning, I decided I needed to use up some squash we had cooked a couple nights ago. I took that, some potato and Jack's Homemade Smoked Sausage (Midland friends, if you haven't tried this, you should) and made hash. Ultimately, I then used the hash in scrambled eggs, but I was hungry so I didn't get a picture of that finished dish (John was hungry too).

 Winter Hash

•  1 medium russet potato*
•  1/4 turban squash*, roasted
•  2oz Jack's "homemade" smoked sausage

 Wash and prick potato. Place in microwave on a paper towel and cook on HIGH for 2 minutes. Wrap in foil and sit for 5 minutes.

 Dice squash, potato, and sausage to 1/4-inch dice. Heat skillet, prepared with cooking spray, over medium heat. Cook all ingredients over medium heat until vegetables are slightly browned. Season with salt and pepper as desired.

*CSA ingredients

My exciting news on the bariatric front, I tried on a pain of size 18W jeans I purchased last night and not only could put them on, but was able to zip them as well. So much closer to normal sizes!

Hash, Microwave Style

I am in the middle of moving and up to yesterday didn't have a working stove. I turned out that the gas was shut off. It was turned back on while I was teaching yesterday. So, yesterday morning, I decided to get creative in cooking eggs. I searched the web for creative ways to cook hard-boiled eggs. I didn't have an oven either, so I thought maybe I could use my rice cooker. Believe it or not, it worked!

 Rice Cooker Hard Boiled Eggs

• 4 farm-fresh eggs*

 Line rice cooker bowl with 3-4 moist paper towels. Place eggs on towels. Cook on white rice setting. Depending how you like your yolks, allow to sit up to 2 minutes when cooking is done. Put eggs in cold water for 5 minutes to stop cooking.

 Note: My husband prefers medium-cooked eggs. I don't think that's exactly possible, but next time I will cool the eggs as soon as the timer goes off.

 For carbohydrates, I decided to cook potatoes in the microwave. We had gotten a bag of small potatoes in the last CSA bag. Here's how I cooked them.

 Microwave Potatoes

• 4 small potatoes*
•  salt and pepper, to taste

Large dice the potatoes and place in a microwave-safe cooker. Cover and cook on high 3 minutes. Stir potatoes and cook on high 3 to 5 minutes longer (depending on microwave power). Allow potatoes to sit in closed cooker 2-3 minutes to finish cooking. Check to see if potatoes are fluffy. If not done, cook in intervals of 1 minute until cooked. Be careful to not overcook as potatoes tendto get mushy when overcooked in the microwave.

My husband reminded me late last night that I had a leftover bratwurst in the refrigerator. Since we haven't brought the pan over that I normally use for hard-cooking eggs, I decided to try making hash in the microwave starting with the above microwave potato recipe.

 Microwave Potato Hash

•  5 small farm-fresh potatoes*
•  1 green onion bratwurst*, cooked
• 3 farm-fresh eggs*
•  salt and pepper, to taste

 Large dice potatoes and place in microwave cooker. Cook on high for 3 minutes. Stir eggs and cook an additional 3-5 minutes. In the meantime, slice cooked bratwurst.  Add the bratwurst to the potatoes and stir to combine.  Careful break eggs on top of mixture. Cook an additional 1 minute per egg. Allow to stand in closed cooker 1-3 minutes to finish cooking.

*CSA ingredients