Iowa recipes: Egg salad

Just for fun over Easter weekend, I played around with food coloring and dyed Easter eggs.  I haven't done that since I was a kid, and it was just as much fun as I remembered!  Nothing fancy, just pretty pastel eggs.

I promptly refrigerated these hard-boiled eggs after I dyed them. Then, on Easter Sunday, I peeled the eggs and mixed up an egg salad recipe I found in an Iowa cookbook.  The recipe was a little different than the standard egg salad; it includes cream cheese in the mix, along with mayo.  The recipe also calls for smoky mustard, but I just used classic mustard and it turned out pretty darn tasty.  We ate the egg salad on leftover white rolls, and my husband kept coming back for more, so I'll take that as a good sign!

Sorry for the terrible photo.  I was too hungry to take a decent photo, but it gives you an idea of what it looks like.

Here's the recipe, if you want to give it a try.

----------------------------------------------

Egg salad

• 1 dozen hard-boiled eggs
• 4 oz. cream cheese, softened
• 1/2 C. mayo
• 1-1/2 tsp. smoky mustard
• 2 tsp. sugar
• 1/4 C. celery, finely chopped
• 2 T. chopped chives (I used chopped green onion)

Peel and chop hard-boiled eggs. Combine cream cheese, mayo, smokey mustard and sugar until smooth. Add the chives, celery and eggs. Toss together. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Salvation Army Breakfast Casserole

My workplace participates in a United Way fund-raising and volunteer drive every fall.  This year, volunteers baked breakfast casseroles for the Salvation Army's Mobile Canteen.  Everyone was asked to make the same standard recipe.  It isn't anything fancy -- just eggs, cheese and Bisquick.

I don't know about you, but I'm always looking for the latest food trends by visiting blogs and reading magazines. And folks are always looking coming up with ever fancier recipes -- using truffle oil, exotic cheeses, produce that comes from another country.  But there are many needy families who are just happy to get a hardy egg-and-sausage breakfast, especially if it's their only decent meal of the day.

Here's what the Salvation Army says in its recipe pamphlet for the breakfast casseroles:

" Each Tuesday and Friday morning, the Salvation Army's Mobile Canteen serves breakfast to more than 900 homeless and near homeless individuals in Des Moines. The menu features a hot egg casserole (recipe below) that provides a delicious high-protein meal.

The free breakfast also includes coffee or hot chocolate, milk and orange juice (when available), individual boxed cereal, donuts, hard-boiled eggs and more, depending on what is available at the time.

You and your friends and relevatives can help feed Des Moines' hungry homeless by preparing egg casseroles for the Salvation Army.

After preparing and baking the casserole, we ask that you freeze it and then deliver it to our eastside facility. 

Each casserole feeds 10 people, and we serve approximately 150 casseroles each week.

You can also volunteer to help the mobile canteen serve the breakfast. Weather and disaster permitting, we begin serving at 5 a.m. each Tuesday and Friday.

To learn more about the program and to volunteer to assist, call 515-282-3599.

You can help feed the homeless in Des Moines!"

----------------------------------------------

Egg Casserole

• 1 - 9x11 inch disposable aluminum pan greased or sprayed with cooking spray
• 2 C. grated cheddar cheese
• 1 lb. sausage, Italian sausage or hamburger, crumbled and browned, or 3/4 lb ham (or no meat for a vegetarian casserole
• 4 eggs
• 2 C. milk
• 1 C. Bisquick mix
• 1/4 tsp. pepper
• Salt to taste (use less salt if you use ham)
• 1 Tbls. taco seasoning (optional)
• Paprika

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place meat and cheese in a greased disposable pan. Combine eggs, milk, salt, pepper and biscuit mix in blender; blend one minute on high. Pour this mixture over meat and cheese. Sprinkle with paprika. Bake at 375 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes or until casserole is firm in the middle. After cooling, cover with aluminum foil and freeze. Note date and meat contents on cover with a permanent marker.