Another breakfast casserole. This is an oldie that Tyra and I made when we had our Tea Room. We served it with a hot curried fruit and a spinach salad on the side.
It's easy, simple and one of those dishes you can pretty much prepare the night before serving.
White bread is called for and over the years I have used different breads for this recipe and I keep going back to the grocery store white sandwich bread. It's cheap and soft, and there are certain things that cheap, white sandwich bread is best for; peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese and this casserole, oh, and fried Bologna sandwiches.
Shredded Cheddar cheese is layered on next. Of course you can use any cheese you like but I prefer a sharp Wisconsin Cheddar
Sliced Kielbasa-style smoked sausage that you cook then slice. I used Eckrich. The original recipe called for a pound of smoked sausage but just like a can of coffee is no longer a pound of coffee, this sausage is now packaged at 14 ounces; so just get the 14 ounce package and don't sweat over the other 2. Can you even buy coffee in the can anymore? Hmmm...
Mix the eggs, 1/2 cup of the milk, mustard, marjoram and basil together.
Pour this mixture over your bread, cheese and sausage.
Cover the casserole with foil or a lid if you pan has one. I would normally use a glass casserole dish but I was taking this to work and this metal pan was easier to transport it. Slip it in the refrigerator overnight.
The next day prior to serving, pre-heat the oven to 350°F. Dilute the soup with 1/2 cup milk and pour over the casserole. Bake for 1 hour.
Egg Brunch Casserole
Serves 10 to 12
Ingredients:
Night before:
8 slices white bread
2 cups grated cheese
1 pound Kielbasa
4 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2-1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. dry marjoram
1/2 tsp. dry basil
Day of Serving:
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 cup milk
1/2 tsp. salt
Mise en Place:
- cube bread
- grate cheese
- brown sausage whole, then cut in 1/2" pieces
- crack eggs in medium mixing bowl
- measure out 1/2 cup of the milk
- measure out herbs
Method:
The night prior to serving:
Prepare an 8" x 12" baking dish by spraying with vegetable spray. Place bread cubes in the bottom of the baking dish. Sprinkle cheese evenly over bread. Layer sausage pieces on top of cheese.
Whisk the eggs, 1/2 cup of milk and herbs in the mixing bowl. Pour mixture over the ingredients in the baking dish. Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight.
Day of serving:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Remove baking dish from the refrigerator. In a mixing bowl dilute the soup with the other 1/2 cup milk and add the salt. Pour over top of baking dish. Bake for 1 hour or until the top is golden brown.
I was flipping through my recipe files looking for something easy to prepare for this past Super Bowl Sunday. I made Beef Stew for dinner, but wanted to have some snacks to munch on between church and the game.
Lovey is pretty hard to cook for because he's such a picky eater. This one seemed to be a good choice because it has several elements that he likes; flour tortillas, roasted turkey, lettuce, tomatoes, well....they had the right stuff.
There's not a lot of prep work. Turkey is from the Deli (I had it sliced very thin), veggies are diced, and the Parmesan grated.
The base of the rollups is Ranch dressing. I prefer Hidden Valley made from scratch rather than purchased pre-made in the bottle; and I'm partial to the mix that calls for buttermilk. Use whichever floats your boat.
Use 6" to 7" flour tortillas. I laid all mine out on the counter and prepared them assembly-line style. Spread each tortilla with the dressing.
Sprinkle each with the cheese, green onions, and tomato
Lastly, add the turkey then the lettuce. Roll them up cigar-style and secure with toothpicks. I suppose you could slice these into individual bites, each secured with its own toothpick. I knew Lovey would just pick up a whole one and eat it so I didn't bother.
I also set out a small bowl of extra ranch dressing for dipping. I thought they benefited from a little extra dressing
They were easy and Lovey approved; that in itself was satisfaction.
Parmesan-Turkey-Ranch Rollups
Yield: 8 rollups
Ingredients:
3/4 cup ranch dressing + extra for dipping
8 (6" - 7") flour tortillas
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 green onions
1 medium tomato
2 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
12 ounces thinly sliced deli turkey
Mise en Place:
- if making from scratch whist together the ranch dressing
- grate cheese
- dice the green onions (white and green parts)
- seed and dice the tomato
- chop the lettuce
Method:
Lay out all of the tortillas on the counter (I placed mine on wax paper). Spread the dressing evenly on 1 side of each tortilla. Sprinkle evenly with Parmesan, green onions, and the tomato.
Divide the turkey among the tortillas and top with the lettuce. Roll up the tortillas and secure with toothpicks.
'Choû-Fleur' has an elegant ring to it doesn't it? Well, it's simply French for cauliflower. I love cauliflower in any form I can get it; raw on a crudité platter, soup, tempura, steamed. Mostly, at my house, it gets steamed, mashed and seasoned with butter, salt and pepper. That is my dinner many nights when I get home from work and am not super hungry.
I've been reading this book for quite some time now. It was published by Gourmet Magazine in the 1950's and 1960's. It's like a travel guide to the food in the different Provinces of France. During those decades we in the United States were not as familiar with French cooking as we are now; thank goodness for Julia Child, so this served as an introduction to many basic French foods that are common place to us now. It's been a super interesting read and I have been having fun with basic French cooking through this book. It was in this book that I found the recipe that I use as the base for any quiche I make.
Back to the cauliflower.... This evening I wasn't particularly hungry so I decided to do something with a head of cauliflower, oh, pardon me, choû-fleur, that I had in the fridge. I decided to go very French basic.
Using this book I made Cauliflower Au Gratin.
Start with a nice, head of cauliflower. Select one that is very white and void of a lot of brown spots.
Remove the green leaves and core the head. Coring will help the separation into florets easy.
Separate the head into florets. This is a pretty good size.
Rinse in a colander.
Place the cauliflower in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring the water to a boil and cook the cauliflower until tender yet a little crunchy; about 3 to 4 minutes. Pierce one of the larger pieces of cauliflower to test. You don't want to cook it completely.
Normally I would steam the cauliflower but I want to boil the cauliflower this time so I will have some cooking liquid to add to the sauce. Drain the cauliflower and save 1/2 cup of the liquid. Set the cauliflower aside.
Since this is a gratin, there is going to be a sauce that the cauliflower bakes in. To be a proper gratin this sauce will form a crust on the surface of the cauliflower when baked.
So now we make the sauce. The base of most French cream sauces is a Béchamel sauce. In the U.S. we all learned to make this in Home Economics class as a white sauce.
The sauce we'll make for our gratin is a Mornay sauce which is a Béchamel glorified with cheese and cooking liquid from whatever you are cooking with.
Let's make a basic Béchamel which is equal parts butter, flour and milk seasoned with a little grated nutmeg. For this recipe we are going to make 2 cups of white sauce.
Melt 2 Tbsp. butter in the same saucepan that you cooked the cauliflower. Once the butter has finished bubbling, whisk in 2 Tbsp. flour and blend until you make a paste, or a roux. Whisk off fire and allow to cook for a minute or two to rid the mixture of a floury taste.
Add 2 cups of very hot milk and whisk until smooth. Return to fire and whisk until the sauce begins to thicken.
Now, here is where the Béchamel sauce becomes Mornay Sauce. Add the 1/2 cup of reserved liquid that you cooked the cauliflower in. Boil until you have reduced the sauce by a good quarter. This is an important step. If you don't do this your gratin might be a little watery (which in itself will not ruin this dish. But not much can ruin this dish).
Stir in the Parmesan and Gruyère cheeses. Return to a low heat and stir in make sure the cheeses melt.
Add the nutmeg. Remove from the heat and finish the sauce with 2 Tbsp. butter. (hey, remember this is a French dish. There will be a lot of butter).
Coat the bottom of the dish with some of the Mornay sauce.
Fold the cauliflower into the remainder of the sauce and coat thoroughly.
Pour the cauliflower into the gratin dish and top with the reserved Gruyère cheese and bake in a 375°F. oven for 40 minutes or until the top is nicely browned.
This is so fabulous and will make the perfect side dish for any entreé.
Choû-Fleur Au Gratin - Cauliflower Au Gratin
Serves 4 to 6
Ingredients:
1 head cauliflower
1/2 tsp. salt
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, divided
2 Tbsp. flour
2 cups milk
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg, preferably fresh ground
1/2 cup reserved cauliflower cooking liquid
3 ounces Gruyere cheese, divided
2 ounces Parmesan cheese
Mise en Place:
- remove green leaves from cauliflower, core and break into florets. Rinse and set aside
- measure out salt
- divide butter in 2 Tbsp. portions
- measure out flower and milk
- measure out nutmeg
- shred cheeses and set aside 1 ounce of the Gruyère from rest
- equipment: saucepan, colander and gratin dish
Method:
Preheat oven to 375°F. Place cauliflower in saucepan and cover with water. Add 1/2 tsp. salt to the water. Bring to a boil and cook for 4 to 5 minutes until cauliflower is tender yet still crunch. Reserve 1/2 cup of the cooking liquid and drain cauliflower in a colander. Set aside.
Prepare the sauce. In the same saucepan you cooked the cauliflower, melt 2 Tbsp. of the butter. When the butter has stopped bubbling, pull saucepan off the heat and whisk in the flour until you have a roux. Allow to cook off heat for a minute or two. Heat the milk in the microwave for 3 minutes or until very hot. Return pan to heat and add the milk to the roux and whisk until smooth and sauce begins to thicken. Add the reserved cooking liquid and blend. Cook sauce until it is reduced to by one quarter. Pull pan off heat and whisk in the 2 ounces each of Gruyère and Parmesan. Return to low heat and stir until the cheese is melted. Add the nutmeg. Pull pan off heat and finish off with the remaining two Tbsp. butter.
Cover the bottom of the gratin pan with some of the sauce. Fold the cooked cauliflower into the sauce and stir to coat. Pour into the gratin dish and bake for 40 minutes, or until top is golden brown.
Oh-la-la and merci beaucoup Cook's Illustrated for this recipe. Saturday nights are usually when Lovey and I try new recipes for dinner. It's not a work night and I have time during the day to actually prepare something a little more exciting and in depth than creamed tuna on toast.
This juicy recipe is from the January-February 2015 issue of Cook's Illustrated. I have to admit that the primary reason Lovey and I picked this recipe was that it called for Calvados. Lovey recently saw some program on TV that focused on Calvados and it gave us an excuse to buy some apple brandy.
The TV program Lovey watched centered on this brand; so that is what we bought.
The key to this recipe is to buy a good, quality chop. These are center-cut bone-in rib chops; a chop that is all loin.
I Frenched these chops by stripping the end of the rib bone. Most people, who are classier than I am, appreciate the way Frenching makes the chop look so refined and they can even be adorned with these little paper crowns. I like it because you can pick it up like a lolly-pop and eat the last bits of meat off the bone like a cave man. Whether you choose to French them or not, salt the chops on both sides, cover with plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator for an hour. This will help them retain their juices.
Assemble the rest of your ingredients. Most of these ingredients are used to make the sauce. You have apples, bacon, shallots, butter, chicken broth, Calvados, apple cider, nutmeg, rosemary, pepper, & apple cider vinegar.
Cook bacon in a medium saucepan over medium heat until crisp. While the bacon is cooking peel and core the apples and slice the shallots. Chop 2 of the apples into 1/2 inch pieces.
Once the bacon is crisp, add the shallots, nutmeg, and 1/2 tsp. salt. After the shallots are softened, remove saucepan from the heat. Pour 1/4 cup of the Calvados into the saucepan. You'll flambé the mixture then add the rest of the Calvados and flambé again. Since I only have two hands and flambéing needs to be done sensibly, I did not try to get a photo of this.
But I guarantee it was awfully fun lighting it on fire. Once the fire show is over you will add the cider, 1 cup of the broth, thyme sprigs, butter, and chopped apples. Bring all of this to a rapid simmer until the apples are like applesauce, about 25 to 35 minutes.
The pork chops get seared over high heat about 4 minutes on each side.
Remove the chops form the skillet and set aside.
Add the apple rings to the skillet and brown (please don't pay attention to the rings I halved; they were lucky they didn't get chopped into 1/2" pieces). Add the remaining 1/4 cup chicken broth and scrape up fond until broth is evaporated.
Remove skillet from heat and flip the apple rings over
Place the chops on top of the apples and place in a 300°F oven
When the chops register a temperature of 135 to 140°, place the apples and chops on a serving platter. Cover with foil and allow to rest while you finish off the sauce.
Strain the sauce through a strainer and press the solids. Discard the solids. Season the sauce with the vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste.
Strain the sauce a second time into a serving dish or individual dipping bowls.
We served these up with Lovey's favorite potato dish, Gratin Dauphinois. He likes saying the name as much as he likes eating them; and a west Texas boy saying "gratin dauphinois" puts a smile on my face every time.
And, here's what you have to look forward to once you push yourself away from the table (please don't judge that the Christmas decorations are still up).
Now, a few thoughts on this recipe....
- the best pork chops I have ever tasted; they were juicy and flavorful
- the apple rings were surprisingly a fabulous, tasty side dish. Where the apples provided a slight sweetness to the chops, the chops gave a subtle saltiness to the apples
- sauce was good, however......the sauce was 3/4 of the prep work and the chops stood on their own without the sauce
- if I made the sauce again, I would use regular brandy. Lovey and I were not fans of this apple brandy; at all. It had a cross between a petroliate and licorice after taste; never picked up any apple taste. It was not worth its cost and I don't think it added to the recipe.
Bottom line, the success of the pork chops does not depend on the sauce. I would suggest you make the complete recipe with the sauce the first time around and decide for yourself.
French-Style Pork Chops and Apples
Serves 4
Adapted from the January-February 2015 issue of Cook's Illustrated
Ingredients:
4 (12 to 14 ounce) bone-in pork rib chops, 1 inch thick
Kosher salt and pepper
4 Gala or Golden Delicious apples
2 slices bacon
3 shallots
Pinch ground nutmeg
1/2 cup Calvados or other brandy
1-3/4 cups apple cider
1-1/4 cups chicken broth
4 sprigs fresh thyme, plus 1/4 tsp. minced
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tsp. vegetable oil
1/2 - 1 tsp. apple cider vinegar
Method:
Evenly sprinkle both sides of each chop with salt. Place chops on large plate, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1 hour.
Peel and core the apples. Cut 2 of the apples into 1/2-inch pieces. Cut bacon into 1/2-inch pieces. Peel and thinly slice the shallots.
Cook the bacon in a medium saucepan over medium heat until crisp, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the shallots, nutmeg, and 1/4 tsp. salt; cook, stirring frequently, until shallots are softened and beginning to brown, 3 to 4 minutes. Off heat, add 1/4 cup Calvados and let warm through, about 5 seconds. Wave lit match over pan until Calvados ignites, then shake pan gently to distribute flames. When flames subside, 30 to 60 seconds, cover pan to ensure flame is extinguished, 15 seconds. Add remaining 1/4 cup Calvados and repeat flambéing (flames will subside after 1-1/2 to 2 minutes). (If you have trouble igniting second addition, return pan to medium heat, bring to bare simmer, and remove from heat and try again.) Once flames have extinguished, increase heat to medium-high; add cider, 1 cup broth, thyme sprigs, butter, and chopped apples; bring to rapid simmer. Cook, stirring occasionally, until apples are very tender and mixture has reduced to 2-1/3 cups, 25 to 35 minutes. Cover and set aside.
Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 300°F. Slice remaining 2 apples into 1/2-inch-thick rings. Pat chops dry with paper towels and evenly sprinkle each chop with pepper to taste. Heat oil in 12-inch skillet over medium heat until beginning to smoke. Increase heat to high and brown chops on both sides, 6 to 8 minutes total. Transfer chops to large plate and reduce heat to medium. Add apple rings and cook until lightly browned, 1 to 2 minutes. Add remaining 1/4 cup broth and cook, scraping up any browned bits with rubber spatula, until liquid has evaporated, about 30 seconds. Remove pan from heat, flip apple rings, and place shops on top of apple rings. Place skillet in oven and cook until chops register 135 to 140 degrees, 11 to 15 minutes.
Transfer chops and apple rings to serving platter, tent loosely with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes. While chops rest, strain apple/brandy mixture through a fine-mesh strainer into large bowl, pressing on solids with a rubber spatula to extract as much liquid as you can. Discard the solids. Stir in the minced thyme and season sauce with vinegar, salt, and pepper to taste. Transfer sauce to a serving bowl or individual dipping bowls.
Serve shops and apple rings with the sauce on the side.
A blog that I regularly read and enjoy is The Bitten Word.
This month Zach and Clay invited readers to participate in their Holiday Cookie Cover to Cover Project. Participants are assigned a cookie recipe from the food magazines that they cook from every month. I've participated in their cover to cover projects in the past and it's always fun to see all of the results from their readers. I was assigned these Chewy Salted Oatmeal Cookies from the December issue of Food and Wine.
With all of my other holiday baking I've been doing I was grateful to have been assigned a easy recipe. This is your basic dry ingredients combined with your creamed butter/sugar/egg mixture. What makes these really special is the little dibby dabby garnish of fine crystal sea salt.
The recipe called for a 2 tablespoon ball of dough that you slightly flattened then sprinkled with the sea salt.
They really spread to make a 4" cookie. Since they are a chewy cookie instead of crisp they tended limp when you would hold the cookie.
I decided to use my 1 tablespoon cookie scoop to make 2-1/2" to 3" cookies. I liked this result much better. It didn't change the taste at all, they still spread enough to keep them thin, they kept their shape when you picked them up and the bottoms of the cookie actually caramelized a little bit without making the cookie crispy.
And the taste? One of the best tasting oatmeal cookies I've had. The sea salt put these over the top with a soft saltiness that made all of the other flavors pop.
Chewy Salted Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from the December 2014 issue of Food and Wine
Yields approx. 6 dozen 3" cookies
Ingredients:
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole-wheat pastry flour
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg
2 sticks unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
3 large eggs
Flaky sea salt
Mise en Place
- place butter in bowl of stand mixer
- in a large mixing bowl, whisk the oats with the flours, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
- crack eggs in small bowl
Method:
Preheat the oven to 350°. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle, beat the butter with both sugars and the vanilla at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the eggs 1 at a time and beat until incorporated. Add the dry ingredients and beat at low speed until just combined. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the cookie dough until chilled, at least 1 hour.
Line 4 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Working in 2 batches, using a 1 Tbsp. ice cream scoop, scoop the dough onto the prepared sheets, spaced at least 2 inches apart. Flatten the cookies slightly and sprinkle each with a pinch of sea salt. Bake for 10 minutes, until golden brown at the edges; rotate the baking sheets from top to bottom and front to back halfway through baking. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.
The cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I would suggest placing a piece of wax paper between layers.
