Why I Started This Blog and Intro to Quick and Easy

Hi, this is Chaya from Comfy Cook and My Sweet and Savory.  You may ask, what am I doing here as Bizzy.  Good question with a good answer.

Allow me to introduce the purpose of this blog.  We all lead busy or bizzy lives and if you are like me, squeezing everything important into it, is not the easiest challenge, we have met, along our paths.  As a grandmother, I can tell you that time really goes faster as you age (seems to anyway).

To prove this, my first grandson plans to marry in April.  Yep, my precious grandson, son of my oldest daughter, the one I saw born and held right after birth - yep that one.  This guy is a fantastic human being.  He knows what he wants and is strong in what he does.  He is marrying the most lovely young lady and we are every so happy.  We welcome S into the family with open arms.

How did I get here?  It was yesterday that my eldest son was born.  It was a freezing and icy night and walking a long block to the car was a trial for a woman in labor. I think my husband wanted to be macho, going through red lights.   (I didn't give birth for hours.)  As we whizzed through the deserted streets, I thought about black ice and even that another car might show up, at this unearthly hour.  We did it.  We got to the hospital.  I will skip the rest since there is no need to turn this into a natural childbirth discussion.  I will also skip discussing my other children and I won't share who was the oldest to toilet train.

I simply wanted to share that time does go by quickly and we should not miss all the beautiful experiences, life brings to us, along with the challenges that may be difficult to navigate.

Back to this particular blog and its purpose.  With this busy (bizzy) life, I must find ways to shorten prep times and find recipes, easy enough, yet delicious enough, to make.  I thought, I would make this blog, Bizzy B. Bakes, my playground to accomplish this.

I am looking into:

• Recipes that do not have excessive work demands.

• Recipes with less ingredients.

• Ways to balance my cooking with other acts.

• How to get through my cookbooks and magazines to find those recipes that will work under these circumstances.

•  Ways to cut time from cooking time such as partial use of the microwave.

• I don't like prepared  ingredients but I do use canned tomatoes and sometimes canned beans (low-salt).  I do not use canned soups but will use boxed vegetable broth since I tend to need that daily. I have no problem making cake and bread from scratch and rarely use a boxed mix.  I think, it has been years since I have anything other than a brownie mix, in the house, and that is for my youngest child.  I would like to see if there are any other prepared foods, I can use without compromising taste or my own "standards."

*I have nothing against cake mixes particularly since nowadays, we can build on them to make some scrumptious baked goods.  There is something about baking from scratch that is super rewarding.

It is getting late and I have to get to work so I will seek more goals to share with you, at another time.

I want to start a series called, Quick and Easy, where I will make "shorty" recipes that you can throw together in a few minutes or in less than 30 minutes for a more inclusive recipe.  My first recipe is a "shorty" and took me less that five minutes and yet was filling and really enjoyed.

It is a Lox, Onions and Egg Dish or for those who do not know what LOX is, a Smoked Salmon, Onions and Egg Dish.  Doesn't the latter sound more sophisticated?  This has four ingredients, counting the spray oil.  I did not use salt or pepper.  You can do so and make it a five or six ingredient recipe.  Do they really count salt and pepper in all these five ingredient recipes, I read about?


Ingredients:
2 Egg Beater (no beating eggs)
1 tablespoon milk (optional)
1 small onion sliced (not chopped to save time.)
1 slice of smoked salmon (lox)

Directions:
Spray small skillet with cooking oil.  I used olive oil.  Heat while you are cutting the food but keep an eye on it so you don't burn it.
Slice onion into thin strips but don't obsess.
Tear salmon into one inch pieces. (Don't measure and you can use a knife, if you are neater than me.)

Place in skillet, onions and cook until you see it softening or browning, whichever comes first.  It should take no more than two minutes.  I cook it a little higher than usual when cooking onions.  Add smoked salmon and cook for another minute.  Pour eggs mixed with milk, if you use it,  over salmon and onions and scramble.  If you have additional time, make an omelet but that is for another time.

Place scrambled eggs on plate and eat hearty.

How fast was that?

I am planning a giveaway to start this blog off.  Appropriately, it is "5 Ingredient Fix" by Claire Robinson from Food Network.  I have to see if she is on You Tube or Food Network or Bing or Hulu.  Did I cover them all?  More about this in a separate post.