The Moonshine office is located in an old house on Riverside Drive in Truckee. Over the years the kitchen space has grown to include a fridge, coffee pot (duh), toaster oven, microwave, and electric kettle. With these five very important appliances we have learned to cook just about everything under the sun to combat mid-day hanger attacks and/or late night deadline crashes.
Below, I asked some of my culinary co-workers to each explain their go-to office cooking hack.
Mayumi’s Toaster Egg:
When you’re rushing out of the house in the morning one of the last things you probably think to grab for your make-shift office lunch is a raw egg. How the heck would you cook an egg at the office you may think? Well, Moonshine publisher Mayumi Elegado has mastered the art of the toaster oven egg, and it is damn good.
HOW IT’S DONE: She starts with a metal cookie cutter (pick a fun shape to add some excitement to your work day) and a small baking sheet. Heat the cookie cutter and baking sheet in a 375-degree toaster oven with a tablespoon-or-so of butter dropped in cookie cutter. After warming for 3 minutes crack the egg inside the cookie cutter and place in the toaster oven for 7 minutes. This will yield an over-medium cooked egg — adjust cooking time to get your yolk of choice.
Le’a’s Morning Oats:
Le‘a proudly claims that she has mastered the art of having minimal amounts of lead time for any activity. We all know how it works — a 45-minute get-ready time suddenly turns into 5 when your bed is warm and cozy and your room is an icebox. Plus, if you can eat breakfast at the office, wouldn’t you rather sleep an extra 15 minutes? Enter the practicality of keeping oats at work.
HOW IT’S DONE: Keeping a container of oats in the office can yield two types of breakfasts depending on your mood and the season. Hot oats can be cooked in the microwave with water, milk, or your favorite milk substitute. Overnight oats are the same idea but can be prepped and placed in the fridge before you leave work the night before. Fill a jar with oats and enough liquid to cover them. In the morning they will be fully soaked, tender, and ready to top with goodies. With both oat varieties you can add whatever your heart desires for added flavor. We suggest raisins, dried fruit, nuts, or brown sugar.
Sage’s Three-Part Plan:
Mr. Sage swears by not one, but three office eating hacks. He arrives at the office and reaches for the office freezer where he has a nice stack of homemade breakfast burritos and pops one in the microwave. While the burrito is warming he throws a hot chocolate packet in his coffee for a makeshift mocha. And of course, Sage always has a beer in the fridge in case he is need of an afternoon pick-me-up.
HOW IT’S DONE: The mocha and the beer are obvious, but the pre-made burritos, maybe not so much. Sage scrambles a bunch of eggs, fries bacon and sausage, sautés peppers and onion, and boils cubed potatoes (he is from Idaho after all) for his burrito fillings. He then becomes a lean, mean, burrito rolling machine — his trick to wrapping the burritos, first wrap them in a paper towel and then with foil. He claims this keeps them from getting soggy during the re-heat phase.
Jamie’s Mason Jar Salad:
Mason jars are no longer just used by your grandma when she is making blueberry jam for the neighborhood block party. They are Tupperware, they are glassware, they are storage. What we like most about mason jars as Tupperware is that the glass is much better for the environment, they are reusable, and they seal much tighter than your average Tupperware, which helps avoid spills. One of Jamie’s favorite lunch time work hacks is bringing a pre-made salad, dressing and all, in a single container.
HOW IT’S DONE: Making a mason jar salad is all about the layering. Always put the dressing on the bottom. I repeat: if you pour the dressing over the top your salad will be soggy and gross. From there the order from the bottom up is harder ingredients, then softer ingredients, then your protein, then greens, and finally nuts or seeds on the top.
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