Herbed Baked Eggs

While visiting my sister Lisa in Charlotte last summer, she made this delicious egg breakfast. Since then I have served them at brunches for friends. (I have been after her to post this recipe, so I decided to post it instead) These eggs are so good and elegant and I have to admit pretty impressive for an easy recipe. It is also easy to modify the recipe to make it lighter.



Ingredients:
4 thin round slices Honey Baked Ham
6 large eggs
2 teas. Dijon Mustard
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1 1/2 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
4 teas. fresh chopped chives
4 teas. fresh chopped parsley
2 teas. fresh thyme

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Grease 4 ramekins with olive oil spray. Line sprayed ramekins with ham slices. In med. bowl, beat eggs, mustard and yogurt. Stir 1/2 the cheese into mixture. In small bowl, mix chopped herbs and add half of mixture to eggs. Stir well, then spoon into ramekins over ham. Sprinkle with remaining cheese and herbs.

Bake 25 -30 minutes until golden brown, Turn out onto serving plates.

Summery Beef Soup

My sister and brother-in-law, Angela and David, joined the local CSA.  I have no idea what that actually stands for, but it is a produce club.  Every week we get a box filled with just-picked veggies and herb, a bouquet of flowers, and anything else the woman feels like throwing in there.  It is kind of funny when you open up our refrigerator and are literally attacked by the mountain of greenery that won't fit in the crisper.  (If you looked a little closer you would also notice that there is nothing else in their besides a mostly gone gallon of organic skim milk.)  I also must tell you that we have no idea how to cook these veggies (it's not quite cucumber, zucchini, and tomato season yet).  So I made this fun soup to cook some of the veggies.  It cooks super fast with these small, new veggies (store bought veggies are much bigger so you'll have to eyeball the amounts) and I left it without any thickener to keep it light.  We had it with some garlic bread and a tiny bit of grated parmesan cheese.

Summery Beef Soup

10 cups of beef broth

1 pound beef stew chunks

1 onion (I left these as rings for fun)

3 cloves garlic

5 bay leaves (okay, I love bay leaves)

a bunch of baby turnips (peeled and chunked)

a bunch of smallish carrots (peeled and sliced into rounds)

the greens of 2 leeks plus the bulb of 1 leek (sliced into rounds)

a couple of splashes of worchestershire sauce

1/2 tsp hoisin sauce (this is a yummy asian sauce used in Pho, a Thai soup)

salt and pepper

Heat the broth, add onion, garlic, and bay leaves, add beef, while they are cooking, cut up the other veggies, then add worchestershire, hoisin and seasoning, let cook until everything is soft and beef is cooked throughout.  Serve over egg noodles.  

Savory Breakfast Strata

Every Easter morning, we go to my brother and sister-in-law's home for brunch. It is a fun time of getting together and celebrating Easter. There can be anywhere between 25-35 people milling around talking and eating. If there ever was such a thing as a groaning table, this one is it. The food is amazing. We have the usual, sausage, bacon, eggs with cheese and herbs. There are biscuits and cinnamon rolls and cupcakes. Deviled eggs, coffee cakes, ham, fruit salads, cheese and crackers, candy and cookies. I was asked to bring the breakfast strata once again because it was such a hit last year. I think we all have had similar stratas, but this one is adapted from Pam Anderson's Perfect Recipes for Having People Over cookbook. It is so go and so rich with flavors. It is great for breakfast or brunch anytime of the year.

Ingredients:

1 quart half-and-half

12 large eggs

1 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper

12-14 slices fluffy white bread

1 pound of meat or seafood and 1 pound of vegetables (I use bulk sausage and red, orange and yellow bell peppers)

1/2 cup thinly sliced scallions (about 3)

12 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated (about three cups)

Brown or cook any meat. Saute` vegetables in a small amount of olive oil until soft, set aside.

Whisk half-and-half, eggs, salt and pepper to taste in a large bowl until smooth.

Spray a 13 x 9 baking dish with vegetable cooking spray. Line bottom of baking dish with 6 slices of bread. If necessary, cut strips and fit them into any gaps. If using meat and/and or vegetables, scatter half of each over bread, then sprinkle with half the scallions and half the cheese. Pour 1 cup of egg mixture over bread. Make another layer with remaining bread, cutting strips of bread to fill any spaces as necessary. Top with remaining meat and vegetables, scallions and cheese. Slowly pour remaining egg mixture over bread.

Cover strata with plastic wrap. Lightly weight strata and let stand for a least 15 minutes.

Adjust over rack to middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Bake strata until custard is just set, about 50 minutes. Leaving baking dish on oven rack, turn on broiler and broil until strata is spotty brown and puffy, about 5 minutes. Remove from oven and let stand for 8 to 10 minutes before cutting.

I make the strata the night before and refrigerate. You do not need to weigh it down if you do this. Also, if you make it the night before, be sure to bring it up to room temperature before baking.

Minty Roasted Potatoes

We had these at a friend's house years ago, and remembered them so fondly that we decided to have them be a part of our Easter Celebration.  (Can I say how much I love the Internet?  I googled the author's name (I remembered that since we have one of her books) and potatoes with mint, and found this recipe!).  It comes from Sheila Lukins' New Basics Cookbook.  We have one of her others, All Around the World, which is also fabulous

With the mint these take on a Spring quality, and we'll serve them without the heavy gravy which is so Thanksgiving!  I hope you'll like these as much as we do!

Ingredients
5 pounds red-skinned new potatoes
1 tablespoon finely minced garlic
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup coarsely chopped fresh mint leaves (from about 1 large bunch)
2 teaspoons coarse salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preperation
1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Scrub the potatoes and prick each 3 or 4 times with a fork. Place in a single layer on a shallow roasting pan and bake for 2 hours. Cut each potato in half.
3. Toss potatoes with remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Let rest for 15 minutes before serving.

Good Friday Vegetable Soup

I'll be breaking my fast tomorrow evening after the service.  This is the soup I'll be eating at that time, a classic from More with Less with some fresh bread.

Heat in soup pot:

3 T. oil

Add:

3 medium carrots, sliced

2 medium onions, sliced

1-2 stalks of celery, sliced

1 c. shredded cabbage

1/4 c. chopped parsley

1/4 t. salt

Cook over medium heat about 15 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Add:

4 c. vegetable broth (or chicken)

2 c. fresh or frozen French-cut green beans

1/4-1/2 t. caraway seed

Heat to boiling.  Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until vegetables are tender.

Dice into soup bowls

1/4 lb. cheese

Ladle soup onto cheese to melt slightly.  Serve.

A Surprise Award

We haven't been posting for a while, everyone has been so busy. So you can amagine our surpise to find out that our friend Teresa at A Blog About Food gave us this wonderful little award. Thank you Teresa!!

Along with the award came this little quote:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."It also says : "Please give more attention to these writers. Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award."

So we would like to pass this on to the eight following food bloggers:

The girls over at Mennonite Girls Can Cook

The Sisters' Cafe

Annie at It's All About Food

Donna at Donna's Book Nook

Melanie at My Kitchen Cafe

Phil at The Rambling Priest

Cindy at Letters From Midlife

Thank you all and happy cooking!!

Homemade Pizza

I love pizza a lot.  I'm a carbs guy, I guess, and toss on some cheese and toppings and giddyup!  My favorite pizza comes from the More with Less cookbook.  Homemade dough and sauce.  Definitely tastes better than the store bought sauce.

Oven to 450.

Crust

Combine in a bowl

1 c. warm water

1 package (1 Tbs) yeast

When dissolved, add

1 T sugar

1 1/2 t salt

2 T olive oil (EVOO)

1 1/4 c flour

combine (or beat) until smooth. Add:

2 c additional flour or enough to make a stiff dough

Knead until elastic, about 5 minutes.  Let rest 10-15 minutes, or, if you have time, put in greased bowl and let rise until double about 45 minutes.  Form 2 balls (or 1 deep dish) and stretch into 2 greased pizza pans.  Let rise 10 minutes.

Sauce

1 small onion, chopped

2 1/2 c canned tomatoes, OR 2 c tom. sauce OR 3 cups fresh tomatoes chopped

1 bay leaf

1 t. salt

1 t oregano

1/2 t basil

1 clove garlic, minced

Combine in saucepan, bring to a boil.  Crush whole tomatoes, cover and cook slowly for 30 minutes until sauce slightly thickens.  Discard bay leaf. 

Toppings

Add your favorite toppings (green pepper, onion, pepperoni, sausage, mushroom) and add cheese (1/2-1 lb of moz. cheddar or swiss (or a mixture)), bake for 20-25 minutes.

Enjoy!