March 2011

Brunch {Challah French Toast & Bourbon Bananas}

by Lisa on March 30, 2011

I made a lot of brunch dishes this weekend. Can you tell? I don’t remember the first time I had French toast using challah bread, but I know that I loved it. Months ago when my friends and family were in town for my bridal shower and bachelorette party, I made this for them the next morning. And trust me when I say, I was in no shape to be cooking, but I am nothing if not a good hostess and I wanted to give my guests a delicious meal before they went home.

Luckily, I was able to recreate this a few times and now have a recipe that I love. Plus who doesn’t love adding bananas with some bourbon to breakfast? Not drinking really hasn’t been that difficult for me, but I did enjoy the flavor of bourbon on Sunday morning.

Ingredients:

1 loaf of challah bread
6 eggs
1/2 cup milk {I use 1%}
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2-3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

Method:

Slice the challah into approximately 1 inch slices.

In a shallow bowl, whisk together the rest of the ingredients.

{I whisked the mixture a few times throughout the process to keep it well combined.}

Place 2 pieces of bread, or as many as can fit in your bowl, into the mixture to soak, turning once. Feel free to push down on the bread a little to make it absorb more of the egg mixture.

While the bread is soaking, heat a skillet or a griddle pan. Be sure to use some butter or cooking spray so the bread doesn’t stick. Shake off the excess egg mixture and place the soaked slices on the griddle.

Leave for 3-4 minutes, until one side is golden brown, then flip!

Continue this process with each piece of bread. Place a cookie sheet or an oven proof plate in a 200 degree oven and put the French toast in the oven after it cooks to keep it warm. This recipe was just enough to cover all of the bread, but I was wiping the bowl clean with the last piece! If I had used an additional egg there probably would have been too much.

While your toast is cooking, assemble the Breakfast Bananas “Foster”.

Ingredients:

2 bananas, sliced
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tablespoon bourbon

Method:

Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

Bring to a boil for 1-2 minutes, then remove from the heat. Cover and keep warm until all of the French toast is ready.

Start to finish, this might have taken 30 minutes total.

But I think it tastes as good as any French toast dish you can get in a restaurant. Maybe even better?

With a drizzle of real maple syrup, this plate is a winner.

Enjoy!

{ 2 comments }

Baked {Favorite Blueberry Muffins}

by Lisa on March 28, 2011

I love brunch. I wish I could eat brunch every day. Going out for brunch is one of my favorite things to do, but what comes in a close second is having friends over for brunch! This past weekend we did just that. To me, a good brunch has to have a few different elements. Something baked, meat, eggs and fruit. This weekend’s menu was blueberry muffins, bacon and sausage, home fries, fruit smoothies and a broccoli mushroom quiche. Delicious!

My mom used to make these muffins for us on Saturday mornings. The recipe could not be easier—it came from her Betty Crocker cookbook.

Ingredients:

1 egg
1/2 cup of milk {I used 1%}
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup blueberries

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Grease bottom of 12 muffin tins, or use paper liners.

By hand, beat the egg. Add the milk and vegetable oil. Stir well.

Add all of the dry ingredients.

Mix by hand until the flour is just moistened. The batter should be lumpy. Then fold in the blueberries.

Fill each muffin tin 2/3 full.

Sprinkle sugar over the tops of the muffins.

Then pop the muffins in the oven for 20-25 minutes, depending on your oven.

Remove immediately from the pan and let cool on a cooling rack.

I just love these muffins, probably because they remind me of home and Saturday mornings with my family.

Since muffin batter is prepared by hand it is really quick to prepare, guaranteeing that you can have warm muffins waiting on the table for your family almost any day of the week.

But for now, I’ll just stick with Saturdays.

Enjoy!

{ 10 comments }

This Week {In Groceries 3/27/11}

by Lisa on March 27, 2011

This week we were pretty good about sticking to the meal plan. We switched the leftovers night to be a “go out and celebrate the fact that we found out we’re having a baby girl by eating Chipotle and picking out paint samples” night. Worth every penny

After 3 weeks of deliveries from Washington’s Green Grocer, I decided to put it on hold and go back to regular grocery shopping. I’m worried that I may actually be wasting more food than before. And if there is one thing I hate, it’s wasting food. If we find that we miss having the WGG service, we’ll start it up again.

Today, I spent $70.28 at Trader Joe’s and bought:

Bacon, milk, orange juice, heavy cream, Monterey jack cheese, cilantro, a bag of frozen edamame, splendido tomatoes, a 3 lb. bag of cara cara oranges, butter, a bag baked cheese crunchies {TJ’s version of Cheetos}, organic boneless, skinless chicken thighs, super fruit preserve, organic raspberry preserves, 2 cans of tomato sauce, 1 can of tomato paste, whole wheat bagels, strawberry cream cheese, 4 Clif Z bars, 6 fruit leathers and all-purpose flour.

Honestly, when I read that list it sounds like a hungry pregnant girl went grocery shopping and didn’t stick to her list. Which is pretty much what happened

Meals for this week:

Sunday: Coffee braised arm roast with sweet potato and chard gratin and sugar snap peas {arm roast in the freezer, gratin ingredients and peas from WGG}

Monday: Out to dinner with friends

Tuesday: Leftovers {from Sunday and our meals out this weekend}

Wednesday: Chicken enchiladas {tortillas from the freezer}

Thursday: Finish off the leftovers or make a frittata {My parents are flying in that night so this could change}

Friday: Homemade pasta with my mom’s sauce {recipe to come!}

Saturday: Out to dinner with my parents

Lunches: mushroom soup, tomato sausage risotto, salad and broccoli mushroom quiche.

So as you can see, it won’t be a heavy cooking kind of week. But I still have some recipes to share with you!

Since this post has been all words, no pictures here’s something else I picked up today…my daughter’s first pink outfit!

Have a great week!

{ 5 comments }

How To {Make Something From Nothing}

by Lisa on March 23, 2011

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I open the fridge and there seems to be a ton of containers with food, but nothing looks like a coherent meal. Here’s some sautéed kale, there’s some cooked rice and a bunch of fresh vegetables.

This is exactly what was staring back at me last week when I got home from work and had to put something together for dinner.

I had sausage. I had kale. I had rice. I had parmesan cheese. I had some tomatoes, mini sweet peppers, Portobello mushrooms, red bell peppers and spinach. So what did I make?

Stuffed peppers and Portobello mushrooms!

This recipe requires careful measurement. Just kidding. Here’s what I did:

Preheat the oven to 350.

I removed the sausage from the casing and browned it and put it in a bowl. I dumped the container or rice over the sausage. Diced up tomatoes and some mini sweet peppers and added them to the bowl along with the sautéed spinach and kale. Seasoned with salt and pepper and added olive oil and balsamic vinegar, to taste. Then, I filled 2 bell peppers and 2 Portobello mushrooms and put them in a lightly oiled baker.

In the oven for about 30 minutes, until the contents are warmed through, the mushrooms have released their juices and the peppers are nice and soft. Depending on your preference, stick the peppers under the broiler for a minute or two for a nice crispy crust.

I wasn’t so sure how these were going to come out, but I ended up liking them a lot! They were even great as leftovers for lunch. I think of these as a kitchen sink leftover—you can pretty much use any combination of flavors that you like to stuff a pepper or mushroom—leftovers don’t have to be scary or go to waste! In fact, sometimes leftovers can make you really creative. Cooking with leftovers: a win-win situation.

What do you do with leftovers?

{ 2 comments }

Something Sweet {Simple Syrup}

by Lisa on March 22, 2011

The DC area experienced some fantastic weather this past weekend. It was sunny and warm and all I wanted to do was be outside. A few things happen in our house when spring comes around. 1) We move our lemon trees outside. 2) We start planning which herbs we need to replant and thinking about which flowers to put where this year 3) we brew A LOT of sun tea!

From spring until summer, we brew so much sun tea that one of our wedding gifts was a cold drink dispenser.

Anyways, if you’ve ever tried to sweeten a cold drink you know that granulated sugar does not do the trick. It doesn’t dissolve and the last few sips are always entirely too sweet. Years ago, Jeromy turned me on to making simple syrup to sweeten our tea. On Saturday, I brewed a batch of sun tea so naturally I had to whip up a batch of simple syrup too! We turned to our favorite culinary genius, Alton Brown, to lead the way with his recipe.

Ingredients:

5 cups granulated sugar
3 cups cold water
3 lemons, sliced
a few sprigs of fresh mint

Method:

In a non-reactive pot, combine the sugar and water and slowly bring to a boil.

Once the sugar is completely dissolved in the water, add the lemon and mint.

And remove the pot from the heat. Allow to cool for 10 minutes before removing the lemon and mint. I let the lemon and mint sit in there a bit longer just to infuse the flavors.

Finally, strain the mixture and store in the refrigerator. We try to use this sparingly because it is a lot of sugar, so one batch can last us quite some time.

{Dixie likes to sit on this shelf next to the sun tea dispenser and watch out the window. Poor thing doesn’t know that the shelf is not long for this world.}

The great thing is, you can make a batch of this and use it in all types of drinks–mojitos come to mind For me, there’s always next year!

Enjoy!

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